Captured in February 2025 at Sound and Motion Studios in Cape Town with Simon Ratcliffe, No More Can Be Done is the debut full-length from P+A+G+E+S. Released eight months later, it was built from noise, industrial heft, dissonance, and an odd tranquility that appears at the periphery.
Some albums offer an escape. This one feels like remaining in place, staring directly at the object everyone attempts to scroll past. No More Can Be Done conveys existential anxiety, geopolitical hopelessness, environmental collapse, and raw sentiment, all while sustaining a secondary concept beneath the surface. Perseverance. Not the facile variety. The sort you are compelled into when the planet begins leaning toward something increasingly authoritarian and brazenly apathetic.
Their statement is unambiguous. They demand your focus on ecological decline. They insist you confront oppression. They delineate a clear boundary encompassing BIPOC communities, women, LGBTQI+ individuals, and human and animal rights. If that induces discomfort in someone, excellent. Complacency is the narcotic this album aims to break.
The audio adheres to the same principle. It commences with a shock of anarchic sound that continuously morphs, then settles into a mechanical cadence, akin to a device discovering its tempo. Just as you anticipate an endless grind forward, it attenuates and dissolves into a soft, orchestral finale. That initial transition is significant, as it signals the record possesses dynamics and understands their application.
Midway, the gloves return. The textures become more meticulously assembled, more dissonant and clashing, propelled by substantial percussion that renders the entire experience tangible. It is a mass that occupies the space alongside you, not the type that remains politely confined within your headphones.
The verses take the grand scheme and compress it into something mantra-esque. Concise expressions. Recurring notions. A detached vocal style that feels less like a rendition and more like a broadcast. It suits the theme. When existence grows too immense to grasp, you find yourself articulating in brief statements.
The artwork narrates the same tale in a hushed dialect. A dandelion progressing through its life, serene externally, engineered for stamina. A visual counterpoint to the recording’s aural ferocity, and it is logical. The dandelion is delicate, yet resilient. It propagates with the breeze. It persists in locales indifferent to its survival.
P+A+G+E+S are Caitlin Mkhasibe on drums, Frank Lunar on bass, and helo samo on guitar, voice, samples, and textural noise. Three individuals, one declaration. Recorded in Cape Town, for a planet that continually supplies motives to avert your gaze.
No More Can Be Done does not avert its gaze. It chronicles the strain, then bequeaths you the element that counts most. The determination not to yield.
