Los Angeles post-punk outfit Agender slashes through the static with Action Reaction, a track that bites and claws at the raw nerve of modern existence. It grips like a vice, tightening around the contradictions—desire and detachment, fury and submission.
Produced by David Scott Stone (LCD Soundsystem) and Australian frontwoman Romy Hoffman, the track strikes like a hammer, its rhythm jerking forward with urgency. The chorus loops like an incantation, hypnotic and insistent, seeping into the bloodstream, rattling the bones. It stirs something ancient, restless, clawing for release. Each beat hammers deeper, each lyric etches itself into the psyche—a call to break free, to act, to tear through the static.
The lyrics crash, a storm of fractured faith and strained ties, pulling between longing and detachment. They press against martyrdom, parental absence, and the ache of existing in a world teetering toward collapse. Love turns to revulsion, devotion warps into desperation, absolution lingers unclaimed. The sacred dissolves into the profane, a dance between surrender and control, reaching and retreating.
“(Action Reaction is) a slower, more spacious departure from previous singles, the track juxtaposes monotone verses with a sweeter, more melodic chorus, mirroring the push and pull of emotion and reason, of love and repulsion, hush and harsh, letting go versus holding on,” Hoffman explains.
The video, co-directed by Hoffman and Sara Rivas, plunges into depths both literal and symbolic. Shot in stark black and white, it drifts between crashing waves on Hermosa Beach, and submerged silence, a visual elegy to feminine turmoil – deeply tied to the sensation of drowning in one’s own emotions. The aesthetic echoes German Expressionism: high contrast, jagged cuts, surreal movement…where tarot cards dictate fate, and the High Priestess watches as the tide turns. Each frame grips with intensity, a vision carved from primal unrest.
“The video embraces a DIY ethos, made with no budget but plenty of heart,’ says Hoffman. “The video’s stark simplicity mirrors the song’s rawness, offering an intimate reflection of the struggle to escape a psychological trap, to rescue something—perhaps even oneself—from the depths of what feels like an abandonment abyss.”
Watch below:
Agender formed in 2011 as a solo punk project for lead singer and primary writer Romy Hoffman, later morphing into a quartet made up of Hoffman, Cristy Michel (bass), Christy Greenwood (drums) and Sara Rivas (synth). Hoffman moved from Melbourne to Los Angeles in 2014, built a life for herself in a new city, released a solo record of dark, driving electronic music, started running two of L.A’s biggest queer parties (Homoccult and Lez Croix), and situated herself as a respected DJ. Agender carves out a delicate balance of satire and earnest observations of life, and a piercing sound that energetically empowers and uplifts voices that are often stifled.
No matter what project she’s working on, Hoffman believes she’s a medium for a message: “I’m delivering something that needs to be said.”
Berserk, Agender’s third album, erupts like a fault line splitting open, a raw, relentless shockwave of punk energy. It thrashes through pop-punk, post-punk, disco-punk, and schizo-synth-punk, all while dragging the listener into the absurdity of modern life: a world spinning too fast, stretched thin by hyper-connectivity and relentless consumption.
At its core, Berserk is unapologetically queer; a chaotic mirror. The self wavers between sovereignty and collapse, pulled in every direction by forces beyond control. It’s a soundtrack for survival, a beat-driven rebellion against a world that demands constant reinvention yet offers no steady ground.
“Everyone’s trying to improve, to ‘do the work,’ but the conundrum is: there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism,” says Hoffman. “This album is a snapshot of that dilemma, wrapped in something catchy enough to make you want to dance—or scream—a solution.” Written before Trump’s second term and the wildfires that choked Los Angeles, Berserk remains both a warning to Planet Earth, and a love letter to the city that forged the band.
Agender has played Substance Festival alongside Ohsees, Chat Pile, and TR/ST, toured with CSS for their 2024 reunion tour, and opened for bands such as Pansy Division.
Agender will hold an official record release show at Zebulon in Los Angeles on March 28, with Muscle Beach a DJ set from Allison Wolfe. Listen to Action Reaction below and order Berserk here.
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