This Los Angeles group confidently kicks up an absolutely respectable fuzz utilizing rather modest means. These five rippers sound a bit like what i’d imagine it would be like if you infused a more dumbed-down variant of the earthy and noisy post-/garage punk hybrids of The Cowboy or Flat Worms with a good deal of Gun Club- and Feedtime-esque blues- and cowpunk. The result, as you might’ve figured already, doesn’t add anything new to the mix but still manages the hit the sweet spot every single time.
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It took them over five years to follow up on their excellent debut EP from 2019, but at long last here it is, the first LP by Sydney’s Negative Gears, on which they present an even more pitch-black, stone-cold vision than before, funneled into significantly matured and refined compositions and arrangements. Comparisons to US groups like early Institute, Rank/Xerox, Criminal Code and Nag still apply, kind of… but also i can sense some kinship with the widescreen drama of berlin-based duo Dead Finks and its sort-of precursor group, New Zeeland’s Trust Punks. Then again, songs like the opening track Negative Gear and Pills carry some of the hallmarks of british post punk powerhouses like Girls In Synthesis and Sievehead while in calmer moments like Ants and Zoned, a melancholia and elegance reminiscent of recent Marbled Eye or Tube Alloys shines through.
The follow-up to this Totowa, New Jersey group’s recent opus Stiff Jumbo, which consisted of no less than fourty below-one-minute punk smashers, comes across as a somewhat more conventional offering of catchy tunes located inbetween the sonic parameters of garage punk, noise pop and oldschool ’80s/’90s indie rock. What hasn’t changed at all though is the sheer strength and consistency of these songs, whose songwriting excellence never falters even once. This shit is easily on a level with highly regarded contemporaries of the Vaguess, Booji Boys, Datenight, Bad Sports, Vacation, Teen Line, The Wind-Ups and Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys caliber.
