Listening to "Gender" is like going to a black-tie event with your beautiful actress-model girlfriend, being told by some friends and your manager that this band you absolutely have to hear if you haven't already is playing, having your coat taken for you before you remember to move your wallet from the front pocket where there's always the chance it might fall out like it does sometimes in cabs, especially since it doesn't even take much jostling to make anything fall out of that pocket, especially your wallet, but you can't do anything but worry about it now because your agent drags you thru room after room thru throngs of people, some of whom recognize you and try to get your attention but it's too late because now you're in the ballroom and here they are on this bandstand surrounded by really-well dressed people who you now notice are all wearing costumes even though no one told you this was a costume party and when you ask your manager about it you can't hear his answer, can't hear why he forgot to mention the costume thing or why for example it wasn't mentioned on the invitation about costumes, and your actress-model girlfriend is posing in a party mask for an impromptu picture taken by an inscrutable figure wearing what appears to be very expensive tatters whose sweat has mingled with make-up and the hor dourves you never saw being served and you immediately regret your decision to pull her mask when everyone near you reaches for your face and you're sure they know it's your face and try to focus on this great band whose drums sound like cannons and whose guitar sounds like desperate attempts to both heal multiple lacerations and to inflict deep cuts upon one's self and yet you nod and nod and nod and agree that yes this must be true, this is how that one tune goes, yes but now you're dizzy because it's too hot in the ballroom and you are not surrounded by anyone you know anymore, maybe they were taken off, maybe they were kidnapped, who knows, and the vocals you try to wrap your head around only remind you that you're on your own and that before you even got dressed for this shindig they were playing, that before you even woke up this morning, they were playing, that before you were born mon ami they were playing this most beautiful discord, this patient better noise. And you say to yourself, Christ this shit is good even though it may have been engineered to destroy you. "The work that was left behind all those parties ago came back with a vengeance in Entertainment" you'd write if you ever survived this thing, "they brought it back to relevance" you'd say, but your actress-model girlfriend whispers in your ear to just shut the fuck up and listen. So you do. And it's amazing.
-Jacob Kline.
The band melds post-punk, new wave, goth-rock and pop into something that sounds as if Bauhaus, Joy Division, (very early) U2, and Chrome were having an orgy.
-Charley Lee / Flagpole Magazine
" a slim, yet powerful treat that delivers the goods and exits with all fury intact. Each track is ruthless, crisp, and hard-hitting, exploring and updating the manic darkness of The Birthday Party and the catchiness of Bauhaus while adding a dash of minimal synth, German cabaret, and tarted-up glam rock for good measure."
-Frank Deserto, Post-Punk[dot]com
"Take one part post-punk, add a few tablespoons of synthesizers, a sprinkle of progressive goth, a pinch of glam, a hell of a lot of reverb, and you have Gender, the debut album of Athens-based Entertainment. The album is impossible to pigeonhole into one genre. It falls into a liminal space somewhere between indie dance rock and Morrissey on heroin."
- Carrie Dagenhard, Athens Exchange
"The magnificent ‘China Walls’ splutters into life as a record stretching back through the decades should, very Bauhaus with its drums and guitar building slowly, but in a volatile stew, vocals sliding down the wall, and because it’s vinyl it seems fitting they come on like younger brothers of early Christian Death."
- Mick Mercer
"... stalking, with a death and debauchery as prevalent as The Lost Boys had it been set in Nero’s Rome."
- Seth Styles
"These disks are absolute cool... "safe at one" is one of the most exciting pieces from the Postpunk/Goth, which came me in the last months"
- Tranmission Magazine
"Part of the up and coming post-punk/deathrock scene The music has a heavy sound that many mining the post-punk cave seem to pass over in favor of a more pop style. Don't miss out on this one."
- Swung By Seraphim
"... more of a man than youll ever be and more of a woman than youll ever get... on the edge of avant-garde rock n roll with the occasional wink to the Virgin Prunes... a sort of art school experiment gone wrong..."
- Luminal Records
Upcoming Releases Winter 08:
a Split 12" w/ Sixteens
