The Beatnik Filmstars’ unflinchingly noisy presentation of unflinchingly poppy songs provides some of the more joyously buzzy moments in nineties rock, and Phase 3 is no different; if anything, the record packs in a few more hooks than the releases surrounding it. The Filmstars’ deconstructive breakdown seems a bit more pronounced, as well — the album bashes through recklessly melodic rock, laden with the same tape hiss and overloaded consoles of all Filmstars releases (save, perhaps, Boss Disque), then falls apart completely into unformed scratchiness, and the end result is an accessibly fractured exploration of the two extremes in the band’s work. – Nitsuh Abebe