Motorbike – Throttle
Motorbike releases June 16th via Feel It Records.
Abandoncy – Glass Labyrinth
Verspannungskassette #56 (C-60)
Germ House Topping The Heap
Stephen J. Denning What’s Up
Scooter Jay Columbus In Space
Reckless & The Menace F.S 88
Billiam The Last Great American Synth Punk Haul
Power Pants Crush
Moar Burning Face Bush Hole
Nov LT Music School
Channel 83 Wheel of Time
Bone Stimulator Keep Your Eye On The Ball
The Hell What a Laugh
The Cut-Ups No Control
Excited To Die Blackout
Grawlixes Thickly Settled
Delco MF’s Washed Up
Enfants Sauvages Venin Ostie
The Wirms Spade Cooley
Lafff Box Restart The Program
Dez Dare Uncanny Velocity
Exwhite Workless Shit
Jug & the Bugs Body Degrade
Rotten Mind Pointless Love
Girls In Synthesis I Know No Other Way
Pyrex Cool Television
Softswitch Jupiter Machine
Fantasma Futuro Em Suas Costas
Brick Head Bad Egg
Dragnet Maths Test
The Out-Sect No More Lies
The Wind-Ups Le Beau Tetard Sur Son Cigare
Neutrals Substitute Teacher
Glas Nost The Boot
Bad Crime Hang
Decent Criminal Time
Statues Dead of Summer
Smirk – Smirk
Following their most ambitious record so far in last year’s Material LP, which expanded the sonic pallette out into the weirder fringes of somewhat Desperate Bicycles-leaning art punk and also featured some of the most infectious power pop songwriting of that year, the newest 7″ by Nick Vicario aka Smirk, who’s also known as a member of Public Eye, Crisis Man und Cemento among others, keeps things comparatively simple and straightforward this time while his heavily sample-backed songs and arrangements still unerringly hit their mark every single time.
Album-Stream →Exwhite – This Is Future
Last year’s steamroller of a (mini-)LP named Estray is a tough act to follow up for sure but the (probably) Leipzig/Berlin-based group manages to do so admiarably well on their newest album, retaining all of their previous qualities while expanding their garage punk sound with quite a bit of an abrasive noise rock edge which reminds me a lot of NY noise-/garage punk act Brandy and earlier Science Man. A good deal of melodic pop smashers á la Wouldn’t You, Fomo or Get Clean is still present here so fans of that catchy, somewhat Booji Boys-esque power pop won’t feel duped either.
Album-Stream →Spider Bite – Human Body Human Brain
The Rainbow And The Dove releases June 16th via You’ve Changed Records.
Hellco – Self Pity Party
Hellco releases June 9th via SRA Records.
Scooter Jay – Jaywalking
A delightful batch of laid-back, off-kilter psychedelic- and garage punk goodness by a Toronto group. These tunes do have some slight US proto punk vibe to them in addition to pretty unmistakable space-/acid rock leanings, kinda like a mix between recent LPs by Jean Mignon, Peace de Résistance or older stuff like Faux Ferocious, even some early White Fence – with plenty of eggpunk weirdness on top. What’s not to like?
Album-Stream →Fantasma – Demo
A smart and intricately constructed mixture of Post Punk, Noise Rock and Postcore is being set off by this New York group on this plainly phenomenal demo. There’s no way around addressing the elephant in the room though: This reminds me a lot of Straw Man Army – especially of their first LP – but you could do a lot worse than being compared to a band of such stature, right? Friends of Bloody Gears, Faraquet, Meat Wave and such will also get a kick out of this.
Lafff Box – Lafff Box
Following a thorougly fun demo and first EP in ’21/’22 respectively, this Leipzig, Halle and Berlin-based group’s debut LP packs some considerable punch which is no surprise really, given that we’ve got folks of Liiek, Ambulanz, Dee Bee Rich, Lassie, Exwhite at work here, of which the latter three groups would make for the most obvious reference points here. That is to say, playful but energetic garage punk you could further compare to a bunch of predominantly european bands including the likes of Dadar, The Dirtiest, Shitty Life, Mitraille, The Gobs, Finale… possibly even a bit of Booji Boys in their most melodic moments.
Album-Stream →