Youth Regiment - Youth Regiment
Another Impotent Fetus release, another short and sweet burst of noisy, oldschool-ish hardcore punk approaching the genre from charmingly odd angles.
Album-Stream →Mystic Inane - Natural Beauty
Man, it's been at least half a decade since i last heard of this New Orleans group. However unexpected the release of their new 7" might come, their blend of garage- & post punk, hard- & postcore certainly sounds as fresh and energetic as ever on this one, fitting in nicely with more recent groups in the vein of Launcher, Liquid Assets or Fried E/M.
Album-Stream →Fugitive Bubble - Fugitive Bubble // C-Krit - C-Krit
Impotent Fetus, the marvellous new-ish cassette sublabel of the equally fantastic Stucco empire, has already brought quite a bit of joy to the world recently with that Septic Yanks tape. In the meantime, they've already released two new puddles of noise to bathe in, made by two groups of unknown whereabouts, easily upholding the high quality standards.
Fugitive Bubble create a delightful and inventive mess of fuzzed out hard-, noise- and weirdcore, at times reminding me of Das Drip, Warm Bodies, Vexx, the early output of NAG or Kaleidoscope.
C-Krit, on the other hand, sound a lot like a disfigured crossbreed between Soupcans, No Trend and Lumpy & The Dumpers. Also, their fucked up rendition of the Screaming Sneakers evergreen Violent Days is pure gold.
Septic Yanks - Septic Yanks
Another moldy wet lump of ultracontagious punk shit, equal parts garage punk, KBD-style mischief and hardcore punk of the very old school. Not too far off from stuff like Liquid Assets, Fried E/M or Launcher.
Album-Stream →Kaleidoscope - Decolonization // Straw Man Army - Age Of Exile
Two noisy new artifacts brought to us by New York's exquisite D4MT label. First, there's a new extended play by hard-/postcore powerhouse Kaleidoscope on which their sound comes across a tiny bit more more simplified and straightforward than on last year's killer debut LP, yet as inspired, playful and inventive as ever.
Similar things can be said about the debut album of Straw Man Army, a duo i can't find much information on, but at a quick glance they seem to consist of none other than Kaleidoscope's drummer boy and some other dude. Just as you'd expect, this is another quite adventurous ride through the realms of dark post punk both classic and contemporary, sometimes bordering on Crass-style minimalism, Wipers-esque melancholia while also reminding me of more recent eccentricities by the likes of Murderer or Wymyns Prysyn.
Alien Nosejob - Once Again The Present Becomes The Past
Another record by muteant Jake Robertson's shapeshifting project Alien Nosejob. After last year's 7" on Iron Lung Records, this is the second time he's venturing into hardcore punk. Taking advantage of the longer running time, we see him mixing things up and exploring the genre a bit deeper this time, resulting in a quite varied set of tunes. Everything Robertson tackles here, it just works admirably well.
Album-Stream →Chainshot - Chainshot
Hardcore Punk that starts out like a throwback to the early days both in terms of its uncompromising force as well as its inventiveness, unburdened by genre rules and conventions. Then things get… even more interesting with every passing minute. Often making use of uncharacteristically melodic guitar work and catchy garage-style riffing, the Nashville group's freestyle approach to plundering their way through punk's rich history fits in just as well with more recent developments in Hardcore and bands such as Cement Shoes, Rolex or Pink Guitars.
Album-Stream →Bootlicker - How To Love Life 7"
Another extended play by these Vancouver punks. You know what to expect, they know how to deliver. Six flawless eruptions of oldschool-ish, garage-doped no-frills hardcore punk.
Album-Stream →Cells - They Drew First Blood
A new EP by Maestro Voltaire's second most prolific project Cells. Need i say more? Seven more gems of gloriously fucked up, blown out hardcore punk joy.
Album-Stream →Kobra - Confusione
Whoa… gotta say i wasn't prepared for the kind of storm this group from Milan, Italy lets loose on their first longplayer. On a surface level this is some variety of vaguely oldschool hardcore punk with strong anarcho influences, some traces of crust - you know, the kind of stuff we've had no shortage of in recent years. But then again, this record is characterislzed by an endless string of colorful, unconventional decisions and flourishes, making what could have been a rather cookie-cutter, decent genre effort into an ambitious, thrilling beauty to behold. Also helped by a production which strikes the perfect balance between relentless propulsion and blown out Lo-Fi scuzz. As far as contemporary hardcore goes, this shit stands completely on its own and simply hits evey single nail on its head.
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