After attempting to raise some hackles with their offensive debut, which bounced, then exploded on an abandoned Brooklyn sidewalk, singer/axe-wielder Ev Gold and drummer Paul Claro are back with this-full-length. Raising hackles? Yeah, with a song called “Lady Abortion,” which appeared on Shoot the Freak, and which raises its head again on Manic Children and the Slow Aggression. Since it’s a wild track, that’s a good thing. And since my Shoot the Freak ravings never saw the light of day (a different, not very interesting story), here it is, with a couple of tweaks to fit the new album:

Like a blast of cold air upon emerging from an overheated room, there’s something bracing about punk rock. It’s even more bracing when the people emitting the racket have a pretty wide approach to the genre; an approach that’s more essentially “punk” than that of following the form like an audio paint-by-numbers assignment. Guts and chutzpah were at least part of the formula for original punkers from the Ramones to Bad Brains. Cinema Cinema lacks neither of those elements. When we're in luck, it sounds pretty crazy.

“Abortion” is in the deranged (in the very best way) category. “Pleased to Meet You, Anasthesia,” is more about the Velvet Underground by way of Sonic Youth. And “Day-Leash” is a mad dash around a metal-ish maypole. Derangement expert Don Zientara (Bad Brains, Fugazi, Bikini Kill) flipped the switches for both the debut and Manic Children. Cinema Cinema doesn’t call its output punk, preferring a “freak-out, fucked-up” description. Also, especially around its shows, it’s been called “experimental.”

“Freaked-out, fucked-up and experimental” are all fitting adjectives, although, in its way, the part spouted by the band is a bit humble. When the ground reacts to Cinema Cinema’s repeated bombs, the duo achieves greatness. Cinema Cinema is for fans of Fugazi, vintage hardcore junkies, and anyone who’s up for an impassioned roller coaster ride with enough twists and turns to keep even the hardened carnival guy -- who’s seen it hundreds of times -- awake: www.cinemacinema.com