THE ANTIKAROSHI present their fourth album on Exile On Mainstream, making their own existence a topic and questioning their approaches in a much more self-referential attitude than ever before. On their previous recordings, the band established themselves as a band with longevity, a band who draw upon their roots in DC punk and hardcore but rework the ideas to create music that is at times unexpected and always unconventional. In fact, the three-piece hailing from Potsdam, Germany is the very antithesis of convention, and on their brand new album they take it one step further. Or a few steps back, as you will.: "work-life-balance seems to be thee catchphrase in today's society. But what about the things that are neither work nor life? What about the things that happen outside of our private world and closed work circles? What about the things we cannot influence or control but which keep affecting us, our thoughts, our existence nevertheless? With being a 9-to-5-human being understanding of the world, it's structures and social developments only can remain fragmentaric and mostly yields more questions than answers. If words fail or seem not adequate to cover other ways of expression come to the party: tones and sounds f.i. There might be conventions and limitations here as well. But music also creates a certain amount of freedom in expression, dealings and surprises for one's self and others with regards to attitude and approaches to current socio-cultural topics. That's what these Wednesday evenings mean for us." The result is once more an album presenting songs which travel through emotional landscapes, break out, reunite, collaborate, swim in melodies and crawl through disharmonics, bringing us knee-deep wallowing in the downward spiral that is categorisation. They rock hard but stay away from typical "Rock Codes", turning the song into a track and vice versa, yet avoiding mainstream stereotypes.