Folks that taut the French New Wave are either film professors or  uppity liberals, sometimes both at the same time, who found this niche in the film world to bolster their own self worth by being able to flaunt French titles and phrases while discussing the overwhelming importance of Rimbaud. Yeah, some of that work is worth the endless name checking it gets. Jules et Jim? Come on.

Anyway, easily the least pretentious of these films – and most entertaining as a result of its adherence to basic noir tendencies – is Godard’s Alphaville. In the film, a raspy throated Lemmy Caution sets out to topple an autocratic leader and gets to mess around with Anna Karina, which doesn’t sound like a bad reward for risking one’s life.

Anyway, the lead singer of Black Time has decided to take on the name of this secret agent. That doesn’t say anything at all about the music he makes, but at least he knows which films to boast about watching. But the fact that Double Negative marks the bands third long player on In the Red should hint at the musical direction of the release: healthful doses of garage and shambolic rock – almost to the point of the Piranhas, but not quite there. It seems as if the band is endlessly pushing towards complete disregard for genre tenets, but can’t wriggle free of a few.

A range in approach from almost straight garage rockers (“Six Feet Bellow”) to senseless, ambient noise (“A Boring Day for the Boredom Boys”) and even a bit of Mo Tucker fronting the Velvets (“I’m Gonna Haunt You When I’m Gone”) makes Double Negative a bit difficult to take in. It’s a similar to listening to a college radio show – one that plays music that you like, but not necessarily consistent in quality of content. So there’ll be a patch of stuff that works and then some that doesn’t.

There’s not really a common thread that holds the entire offering together. Maybe the predicable lack of recording quality that fans of the In the Red have come to expect as well as almost tuned instruments (“Problems”) can hold it together enough for some. But even after taking time to listen to the rage and contempt coming from Lemmy Caution and his Brit compatriots, one really must wonder though, what American bands are out there did ITR decided to pass on in-order to continue working with Black Time?