Chaos as Planned, the second LP from Redshift, couldn’t be more timely. As you may know, Redshift is the latest venture of vaunted punk musician Vic Bondi (Articles of Faith) along with Mike Catts and Adam Gross. The trio kick out revved up surf rock with a hardcore punk backbone. Chaos, the band’s second LP, finds them really locking into their groove all while biting into Trumpism.

Surely, the record was written during the election, but before the results came in, so it really is astounding to hear how directly the band attacks the 2025 American mindset. Bondi likes to operate in the literal, so here he directly points out how corporations are rapidly expanding their massive reach. Check out “price of business” where, despite his barbed voice, Bondi actually gives a thoughtful economics lesson, mentioning the corporate reserve for instance. Complaining about corporate overreach and domination at the expense of humans might be a cliché in punk… but if you look at who standing next to the, uh, “president,” it’s as necessary a comment as ever. Check out “Above the crowd” for more evidence of that.

While Bondi does focus on the direct, there are a few points where he goes personal and lets metaphors do the talking. “Walter Benjamin at the Border,” based off the life the Jewish-German philosopher who fled Nazi Germany before committing suicide out of despair, finds Bondi reflecting on himself and then using Benajmin as a focal point to view 2025. It’s a powerful and moving moment, all underneath a stomping punk attack.

And, the band really does rip here. The spiraling riffage of Dick Dale and the Ventures snaps here, but it’s even spikier and harsher than before. Though, I especially like when the band alternates between full on blasting and reveling in the joy of the pure sonics of Surf Rock. “All the things left unsaid,” yet another personal moment in the record, finds the band holding back some and truly savoring the trademark of soaring, swimming, shimmering surf rock. It’s a lot of fun in a record built off angst.

Interestingly, despite the horrors and anguishes detailed in the record, rarely does the band sound in despair. Between Bondi’s growl-attack voice and the rush of the surf-age, it seems like the point of the record is to layout the modern battlefield and charge you up to go in for the conflict… or at least encourage how to surf away from this mess on a nice rip curl.