This week’s mandatory injection of Devo-ish garage- and synth-punk comes from some Perth based group whose quirky and catchy sounds surely won’t fail to more than adequately re-vitalize admirers of groups like Skull Cult, Research Reactor Corp., Alien Nosejob, Isotope Soap or Erik Nervous.
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Boom! What this canadian group has spit onto their debut tape is seven minutes of absolutely flawless and unrelenting, slightly garage- and KBD-soaked oldschool hardcore fury exposing not a single weak link in their breakneck performance.
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Oh my… it took a good two years (or rather, two somewhat below-the-usual-standard years) for this Los Angeles duo to come up with a follow-up to their fiendishly fun debut EP. Just as back then, this is nothing short of another glorious spectacle of sleazy, stinky, forbidden synth-/electro punk delight, the likes of which you’ll only ever encounter in the shadiest corners of Bandcamp’s adult entertainment section.
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I’ve been a bit late to the party when it comes to this Atlanta group which has been around for over a decade by now, with their 2018 No Face 7″ being my first exposure to them. Also, i didn’t know at that time they’re sharing members with post punk minimalists Nag. Now that certainly makes sense. Not only is this clearly the same singer here, but there are also abundant sonic similarities to note. Predator kinda sound like the slightly more sociable cousin to Nag, leaning heavier into garage territory with occasional hardcore moments. I mean like… at times they almost sound like they’re actually enjoying themselves!
This Melbourne group’s newest EP starts out quite good, then becomes even better with every song, first suggesting kind of a mix between synth-less (at first) Ausmuteants, Ex-Cult, Sauna Youth, early Teenanger… but also with a slight post punk edge á la Flat Worms, Constant Mongrel. The latter tendency (plus the formerly elusive synths) then kicks into overdrive in the record’s second half and that’s where things go from good to great, culminating in the epic anti-hymn Australia – an unmistakable fuck you to nationalism in their home country whose lyrics strike me as unapologetically frank and straightforward.
Album-Stream →Yes, this is an intervention a.k.a. another one of these obligatory reader bashing posts. Because most of you still suck so bad at this. I shouldn’t have to be telling you this anymore and you’re making me so very sad. And no, i won’t stop nagging about it anytime soon.
So here goes… Please, please, pretty please, for fucking fuck’s sake please stop using these things:
Join the fediverse instead. As a starting point for my fellow music lovers: How about getting an account at linernotes.club? And when you’ve done that, tell me about it.
If you’re using twitter or facebook to publish and/or curate stuff in a regular manner, how about starting your own blog instead? When you’ve done that, tell me about it.
If you totally can’t lay off your bad internet habits for now, at least make yourself familiar with the alternatives and start using them.
You have no fucking excuse. There are several equally good alternatives out there doing exactly the same thing. Some of them are basically just Chrome with all the evil parts removed. Firefox is way more sexy though.
Aaarght! Bloggers and webmasters, cut that shit out for crying out loud. If you need statistics, you might wanna take a look at Matomo. It’s free and easy to set up. Also looking at you, Bandcamp!!! I like you, but you’re helping Google track your users. And you’re doing it with your embedded player, on every fucking music blog in the world!!!
These are just another means of tracking users. If you can’t live without that sweet little dopamine boost every share or like provides… take a look at Shariff. WordPress users: There’s a plugin for that.
Everybody, please start doing this:
This protects you from the bulk of trackers, all of the ad-industry brainfuck and it helps starve out said industry. If your browser doesn’t allow it: Use a different browser! How hard can it be?
Bloggers and Webmasters take notice: Google wants to roll out its FLoC programme in the near future to enable tracking of Chrome users even in a world where cookie-based tracking becomes less and less effective. Please do this:
Please, folks, please start taking these things seriously. Please stop sucking so hard at every fucking thing involving computers and the internet. Please stop feeding the machine creating all these problems. Instead do the little things that help make the web more open, democratic and less reliant on major evil corporations. How many more crappy stunts and dirty tricks do Facebook, Google, etc. have to pull on you before you even consider pulling the plug? Are you a punk? Do a punk thing. Participate in some punk web shit. Thanx a lot in advance.
Homework:
Number of days since last Facebook Scandal (while i’m writing this: Four days.)
Google’s FLoC Is a Terrible Idea.
Clean Up The Web
I know you’ve all been waiting for this. The second dispatch from Copenhagen garage-/hardcore punk duo OK Satán has arrived, filling us in on seven epic new stories from their magical world limited only by an ever-expanding technicolor horizon, dealing with important and controversial topics such as their names, your very problematic face and them not giving a shit. Another brilliant, multi-layered masterpiece!
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Another worthy release by London group Italia 90. The A-Side Borderline presents their post punk sound in its most slick and accessible iteration so far, having a bit of a Gotobeds, Sleepies or B-Boys bent. If you ask me though, the main attraction here is the much darker, edgier b-side Declare, which comes across like a more sophisticated throwback to their very first EP, showing a similar minimalist, noisy Swell Maps- and Membranes-leaning vibe.
Mesh releases May 21st via Born Yesterday Records.
Good Thing They Ripped Up The Carpet releases June 4th via Lulu’s Sonic Disc Club.
