Having released an incredibly prolific eight albums in four years, God Is My Co-Pilot is arguably the premiere New York gender- bending gay/ sexually- confused leftist intellectual noise- punk band. Boasting a hip, tough- talking Androgyne for a lead singer, the band certainly updates the NYC No Wave deconstructive ethic, taking that movement's de-tuned, free- form principals a step further: guitar chords are scrambled and stripped bare, leaving metallic scraps of atonal noise careening around insistent (but slightly off) rhythms. The real artistry here is how they manage to mold these steely fragments of guitar shrapnel into some semblance of structure and coherence. The songs are also buoyed by the snaky twin- underpinning of both a "high-end" and "low-end" bass.

Lithe and lovable lead singer Sharon Topper deals explicitly with the idea of menstruation- as- aphrodisiac on "Menarche," and near- psychotic possessiveness on "Leave You Alone." Defiant, jaded, morbid, ironic, and at other times, simply oblique and abstract, Topper's lyrics shot through her off-key wails can keep you on edge, and can cause as much sublime discomfort as Craig Flanagan's wounded six- string assaults.

On Get Busy, coherence doesn't necessarily preclude contrast. Topper and Co. certainly manage their share of suprises. "Chase Scene" ("our theme for a TV Show when we get one," say the liner notes) is a funked-up soul/ dance instrumental, with kitschy Bar-Kays horn riffs playing off a twisted guitar grind. The neo-polka "I Can't Dance" is sung in Swedish, or some other similarly unintelligible Scandinavian tongue. "Lunch" is a slice- of- gay- life NYC street- vignette about routine lesbian antagonism. "Shift and Flicker" hearkens back to early Arto Lindsay- era Lounge Lizards cacophony. "Nya Skor" and its relentless herky- jerkiness gets so extreme that you may experience a mild nervous breakdown.

By most major label standards, Get Busy rips conventional pop-punk to shreds. Yet God Is My Co-Pilot succeeds in sneaking in some seriously deformed but catchy ideas on an album that, for all its obvious anti- establishment bent, seems more and more accessible with each listen.

-Michael Sandlin