After a few years'-worth of Television, Gang of Four and Stooges retreads have dutifully shone the next-thing light for moth-like music critics and hipsters alike, it's about time Devo got a similarly-hyped second chance. Call me skewed and inconsequential, but the injections of otherworldy fun Devo always brought along to their animatronic shtick made them less detached, morbid and/or tedious than all those other important bands from the same era combined.
Miracle Chosuke aren't Devo resurrected in automaton form, but they're true to the spirit of devolution: they deliver more with less fuss and in less time (just over thirteen minutes, to be exact), they hide cheeky observations about society, specifically the SoCal society around them, under densely robotic, ass-shaking grooves, they're vaguely impenetrable and catchy at the same time, and they won't wear out their welcome any time soon. Everything on The 7/8 Wonders of the World is a tightly-wound winner, but opener "Gonk" is just supreme, riffing like a fast-forward B-movie monster and covering intro, rising action and climax in just over a minute. "Clifton" is similarly compressed, with a sharper taste of melody, and "Vallejo" and "Nemesis" add red-light-district sleaze to their less-is-more approach.
Basically, The 7/8 Wonders of the World is on par with the best wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am releases from the likes of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Liars in pure post-punk distillation and whoop-ass, and the added Devo spirit takes Miracle Chosuke to another level entirely.
