- A-gender. . . AGENder . . . AgenDER . . . Whatever the emphasis, Melbourne via LA artist Romy Hoffman has crafted a record discussing exactly that – sexual agenda and gender constructs. Her debut full-length as a three piece, Fixations, is a collection of ten razor sharp new wave punk cuts, each one embodying the kind of biting observation and raw honesty Hoffman become known for under her hip hop moniker, Macromantics.

A self-professed lone wolf when it comes to making music, Hoffman’s solo project “self (en)titled”, which she squeezed out of her like cathartic toothpaste back in 2011, was a forebear of the current Agender. When it came to recording it was time for A-gender to a-ssemble (pause for laughter), and now consists of Yolanda DeRose on bass and Melissa Agate on drums, as well as Hoffman herself destroying guitar and vocals.

Her DIY punk philosophy has seen her stubbornly refuse to sign to any label, printing and distributing Fixations herself. This ethos is also echoed in Hoffman’s creative process – she’s gone on record detailing what she calls the immediacy of Agender, wherein if a song doesn’t flesh itself out or grow organically, it’s binned.

The album is an eloquent and assertive series of comments on body dysmorphism, feminism, sexuality, gender and sex – lots of it. Hoffman has channelled a lot of weird sexy energy through here, echoed in the relentless dischordant guitar stepping up and down in semitones. The punk elements are fiercely reminiscent of The Slits and subsequent Riot Grrrl pioneers Bikini Kill, both in sound and ideology. My favourite example of that brought into 2014 is definitely the track ‘Brunch’, where this chorus is simply “BRUNCH!” spat over and over again. Hilarious.

The record is also rife with cold slicing New Wave synths, verging on that proto-goth post-punk epitomised by acts such as Bauhaus, Joy Division and Siousxie & The Banshees. Agate's drum beats are evocative of that 4/4 motorik rhythm coined by Neu! And krautrock in general, propelling the record forward with relentless momentum.

While it's evident that Hoffman has relevant and incisive opinions on the topics covered in Fixations, the message often remains hidden. When you have important things to say, it's often best if people can actually understand you. Hoffman's savagely poetic lyrics could do with less obstruction by aesthetic choices such as distortion or layering in order to convey what she deems as a crucially important message around which the album revolves.

While Fixations is a triumph of modern paranoid synth-punk, one can't quite help but imagine what it might have been had it not been pruned viciously and been allowed to grow rampant. However, this record is a truly conscious rumination on ever-more-pressing gender issues today, set to the tune of a mod robot stomping Berlin.

- Hayley Elliott-Maclure