by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

The disparate elements that Supersystem gather together for their sort-of debut disc Always Never Again (sort of, in that the quartet were previously called El Guapo) are quite remarkable. Sleek electro beats and synth squawks, punk-funk bass and charged-up, intertwining chants are present and accounted for, but it's Rafael Cohen's distinctive guitar work that grabs you.

The mournful minor tones and intricate, staccato melodies owe nothing to new-world indie rock, and everything to vivacious Afro-pop and the Saharan funk of the famed Ethiopiques album series. "A guitar is a tough thing to handle," says Cohen, "because it's kind of been played to death. People have probably done most everything with it. Those were the guitar players that I really like to listen to, so I ended up emulating them. I copied a lot of melodies from King Sunny Ade and other people too, North and West African alike."

What's just as remarkable is what's absent from Supersystem's equation - the power chords and punchy drums, strained vocals and shredded amps that most any other band would deploy to achieve the intensity and urgency of Always Never Again. "We may have done that in the past - big chords, drums and that kind of thing. But I don't know how well those would have fit in with what we're doing now. We certainly wanted to make it energetic, but not necessarily in a beat-you-over-the-head kind of way. We're not really big, crashy kinda guys."

Big, crashy stuff is a thematic feature, though. The album's urgency stems from its pre-apocalyptic preoccupations (no exaggeration - dig the disasteriffic "Defcon 5"). It's perhaps no surprise that a band that calls both New York City and Washington, D.C., home would take the subconscious pulse of post-9/11 USA so precisely. Always Never Again is a political album in the sense that it nails the anxieties not of a person but a people. "I think you're right to hear a sort of community feeling to it. With the lyrics, we're trying to be personal in an everyperson kind of way. I don't know how political that is - I think it's more trying to balance a personal approach without being overly didactic."

With the Shipping News, the Field Register and Fratelli d'Italia at la Sala Rossa on Monday, April 25, 9 p.m., $12

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