These australians’ 2023 mini-LP was tons of weird-ass dungeon- and fantasy-themed fun already and their newest longplayer has an even stronger batch of headsplitting tunes made up of elements of garage-, synth- and post punk that right out of the gate delights with a distinct flavor of vintage Useless Eaters and Ausmuteants action in the opening track Pillager, complemented with a note of psych-/acid Punk á la Pow! in Moneyman while Big Hat – one of two holdovers first heard on their 2021 Mammon Machine EP – has a bit of a Strange Attractor vibe and Dopaminer may easily fool you into thinking it’s an exceptionally strong Why Bother? tune. Further, i can imagine friends of the likes of slightly more dungeon-flavored like Curta’n Wall or Oslo’s own eggpunks Molbo getting a kick outta this shit.
This is a great week to channel your inner basic punk bitch as at least three out of the four records i’m posting today aren’t exactly gonna win any awards for innovation and originality but make up for it by sheer competence in songwriting and determined sledgehammer performances. And so does this new Citric Dummies Record (which is exactly as much a split record as Zen and the Arcade of Beating Your Ass was a Hüsker Dü record and Die Nasty had any Rikk Agnew on it), which pretty much perfects the group’s formula combining lots of Dead Boys energy with some Rocket From The Tombs and Death-informed proto punk flourishes, some pre-Rollins Black Flag- and Bad Brains-ish early hardcore punk to a highly flammable concoction that, despite inspiring all that retro name dropping, manages to feel weirdly contemporary.
Fuck yeah it’s yet another Imploders record free of big surprises but also free of disappointments. As before they seem to lean entirely on oldschool hardcore bits and tropes, none of which wouldn’t have existed already by 1983 at the very latest. The shit just works ‘cos the Toronto group knows one or two things about robustly constructing a catchy tune and hammering it home in a powerful precision attack.
As with their previous two-and-a-half EPs, Denver, Colorado group Glueman ain’t fucking around here, sticking to their basics in the form of no-frills straightforward and noisy garage punk that never fails to hit the nail right on the head with this bunch of new tunes which are gonna have admirers of shit á la Buck Biloxi, Sick Thoughts, The Dirts or Bart and the Brats approvingly bobbing along once again.
Oh wow, everybody look at that shiny big number! Guess this one better not suck then. I very much do suck though, in particular when it comes to celebrations. Remember this blog’s 10 year anniversary? Of course you don’t ‘cos i totally slept through it in 2023. So now 12XU is one hundred mixtapes old and true to form i’ll mark that occasion in the smallest way possible (don’t expect anything extravagant ‘cos i’m still sleepy old me after all) by picking the neatest used blank tape i can find from my clutter boxes to finally find out what all the fuss was about with those fabled expensive superferrics. Turns out it was mainly about them packing quite the explosive punch and sounding pretty freakin’ great all around to an extent that makes me forget anything i thought i knew about the humble type 1. Worth paying extra for it back in the day? You decide!
Tracklist
Cool Guy Club Rocking (Undercover) Screen Star Cop City Sonic Youth Of Today Vacaciones Por El Adriático Thyroids King Of Rock And Roll Gnats Generator Sistema De Entretenimiento Basura Espacial Snarewaves Wretched Lil Mf Cluttered Grotto Flea Bites Scrawlers Slopworld (And I’m Livin’ In It) Jacket Burner Don’t Wanna Know Bart and the Brats Lab Rat Smashing Time Mental Oppression Daruk Patkánycsapda No Lines G.R.S.G
Luxury Apartments Troubling Time Sweet Fantasy Wife Material JJ and the A’s Fool’s Gold Silo Kids Silo Kids Lowballer Volvo 240 Wagon Total Con Kill The Rat Save Our Children Ragged Company Maced Fuck The World NOHZ DPDR Jailbird O.T.D. Stunted Youth New Sensations Stabber Repeat Offender Tape Prns G.A.Z.E Fighting Mind
Tracklist
eX-Tradition Adipocere / Obsidian Silence Favoured State I’ll Finish It Applejuice Lovestreamz Outside View Expectations Why Bother? Indoctrination Butter Swamp Poltergeist Bee Bee Sea Keep It Cool Technopolice People Power Pants Rockin’ In The Streets High Heels Help Me Find The Graves Choque Pensamientos Suicidas
Snooper Come Together Loitering Trash EZ8 Right Behind You Heather the Jerk Lie Detector Future Fix Important To Me Split System Pull The Trigger Night Talkers Out Into The Night Sex Mex Dragging Me Around Durs Cœurs L’épée De Damoclès Fuller The Nix
