Jojo Orme's music as Heartworms depends on control: clipped guitar, mechanical rhythm, tightly rationed synthesizers and a voice that can sound detached even when the song around it is becoming violent. Glutton for Punishment turns that discipline into the central tension of the record.
"Just to Ask a Dance" and "Warplane" show how naturally the music can become physical without losing its austerity. Synthesizers and rigid beats provide movement while brittle guitars scratch at the edges, creating something closer to dark dance music than straightforward post-punk. "Jacked" strips the formula down further, its skeletal construction recalling the earliest Joy Division without merely reproducing the sound.
The moments of release are effective because Orme spends so much time refusing them. "Celebrate" develops an almost ritualistic gothic intensity before the vocal finally breaks through the restraint, whereas "Extraordinary Wings" stays colder and more measured. "Smuggler's Adventure" shifts between moods while Orme's delivery remains remarkably composed at the centre.
Dan Carey's production gives the record enough empty space for those contrasts to register. Drums can sound unnaturally precise, guitars appear in short strokes rather than continuous walls, and the voice is often isolated against the arrangement. Familiar post-punk ingredients become more interesting when treated as separate pieces that can be removed as quickly as they are introduced.
The title track makes the album's method clearest. It begins with acoustic guitar, an unexpectedly exposed sound after so much metallic rigidity, then gradually gathers weight before collapsing into silence. That movement from intimacy to pressure and sudden absence says more about Glutton for Punishment than any particular genre tag: Heartworms' most effective weapon is the space left after the machinery stops.
GENRE: Punk, Gothic
RELEASE DATE: February 7, 2025
PRODUCED BY: Dan Carey
LABEL: Speedy Wunderground
RATING: 7/10