Alien Nosejob change direction yet again. Jake Robertson's project has jumped between synth punk, garage, power pop and straight-up punk over the years, but "How A Mosquito Operates" is a 17-song hardcore blast, with most tracks barely making it past the minute mark.

This isn't simply a retro hardcore exercise, though. There's plenty of early-'80s US punk in the DNA - Adrenalin O.D. and early MDC alongside the frantic speed of Canada's Neos - but Robertson keeps things loose, funny and unpredictable. Songs about conformity, consumerism, government, war and everyday irritation fly past in a wonderfully scrappy rush, summed up by Jake himself as basically whatever was pissing him off on the day he wrote them.

What began as a one-man bedroom project has meanwhile mutated into a six-piece band, but Alien Nosejob's refusal to settle into one particular sound remains intact. After seven albums of stylistic zig-zagging, album number eight might just be the fastest and most furious one yet.

Short, sharp, ridiculously energetic Australian hardcore - 17 songs and very little time wasted.