Feel It Records (along with Urticaria Records and Future Shock Recordings who are releasing this thing on cassette) brings us yet another strong post punk record with this Cincinnati group's debut LP which, while mostly treading on fairly familiar ground for longtime observers of this space, has also plenty of variety and the well-crafted songs to make it stick. An absolute no-brainer for fans of VHS, Criminal Code, Pyrex, Rank/Xerox, Schedule 1, Sievehead or Marbled Eye.
A good four years after an insanely enjoyable debut LP of this Berlin group, we finally get another taste of the same, fairly quirky yet expertly propelled synth-, garage- and post punk goodness sure to delight admirers of stuff in the vein of, say, Belly Jelly, Puff, Dummy, Ausmuteants, Quitter, Liquid Lunch, Ghoulies, Diode or Spotting.
Stunning shit as is usually the case with anything featuring Josh Feigert of Atlanta groups such as Uniform, Wymyns Prysyn and, most recently, Glittering Insects. Once again, this record is drenched in that same unmistakable trademark melancholia spread out onto an epic widescreen canvas, which is also at the core of the aforementioned groups. A familiar vibe for sure but there's plenty of room for surprises and unexpected flourishes here as well, like some uncharacteristic flashes of melodicism in songs such as Skyless Bells and Earthtone.
Five minutes of delightful noises and structured chaos crammed into dense little tunes by an israeli group. Equally punishing, quirky and eclectic shit right in the sweet spot overlapping post punk, noise rock and garage punk - a freewheeling anything-goes spirit reminding me of a bunch of groups such as Big Bopper, Brandy, Patti, Reality Group or Cutie.
A brilliant new release brought to us by Gimmie Records, the record label extension of the fabulous Gimme Gimmie Gimmie blog-/zine empire. Piss Shivers are a Brisbane duo whose debut LP kicks up a highly flammable fuss located vaguely inside the Garage-, Post Punk and Postcore coordinates, sometimes reminding me of a Crisis Man-meet-Hot Snakes hybrid while at other points you might be reminded of early Teenanger, the pitch-black postcore dystopias of Video, VHS or the furious anger of Wymyns Prysyn. Further i'm recalling the likes of Xetas, Gaffer, Ascot Stabber and Batpiss… maybe a bit of Zhoop/Djinn/Feed energy aswell in the more primitive, straightforward moments.
This Cincinnati group's second EP sets off a strong new set of highly flammable charges made up of ingredients found somewhere in the grey areas of Noise Rock, Post-, Garage- and Synth Punk… a bit like an unstable mixture of Busted Head Racket, Brandy, R.Clown, ISS, Spyroids and Knowso boiled down to an almost '70s/'80s The Fall-esqe simplicity and repetition.
Garage punk meets math rock meets psychedelia meets postcore on this breathless new tape by Minneapolis group Tricks, at different times bearing similarities to recent groups as diverse as Reality Group, Uranium Club, Yammerer, Big Bopper, Patti, Ex-Cult, Rolex, Shark Toys, Sauna Youth… at times you might even percieve a slight 90s Dischord vibe á la Jawbox, Faraquet and Medications.
I gotta say, following up on a promising but still somewhat undercooked and inconsistent debut tape from two years ago, i'm kinda blown away by the hypnotic pull of this second album by an Oakland (?) group having among their ranks members of a whole bunch of household numbers - The World, Andy Human and the Reptoids, Rays and Violent Change might just be the most familiar names among those for longtime watchers of this space, but these are just the tip of the iceberg really. While you can plausibly pick out some similarities to all these groups, i'm way more reminded of the relaxed post- and garage punk of australian groups UV Race and Wireheads, enhanced with some flavor of british psychedelia (Vital Idles come to mind as a contemporary reference), even a smidge of Wire and early Barrett-era Pink Floyd in Let The Light In. Just as well though, they might have drawn plenty of inspiration from '70s-'80s british DIY culture with groups á la Membranes, Swell Maps, Mekons and Desperate Bicycles being the closest comparisons i can pull out of my ass right now.
A beautifully overwhelming mud shower of noise-infested Postcore, the debut EP of this Minneapolis group clearly inheriting some of the DNA of the city's own Noise Rock-related history while feeling perfectly contemporary all the same, mainly reminding me of recent bands á la Dollhouse, Launcher, Mystic Inane, Wymyns Prysyn and Optic Nerve… with a touch of Hot Snakes thrown in for good measure.
At first glance i couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed by the lack of new material on the Nashville group's debut LP but then again, i can't say these new recordings of songs mostly known from previous EPs don't slap - they kick some serious ass, trading in some of the previous releases' shambolic quirkiness for a bit more of a hardcore edge and while i've really grown fond of the EPs' Lo-Fi aesthetics, there have also been some examples on these that never quite clicked with me in their earlier versions and its those songs that gain the most on this LP which is likely also a closer representation of the group's current live sound, their shows having gained kind of a legendary reputation at this point. Can't wait to see these folks tour Europe.
