The early teaser tracks for the debut longplayer of this Melbourne group featuring members of Piss Wizard and Stray Dogs To Good Homes had already signaled kind of a drastic departure from the simple Wipers-infused garage punk of their previous EP and indeed this record is a different beast altogether, taking on more of a dusty, americana-tinged post punk vibe with echoes of eighties Scientists but also plenty of more recent stuff like the noisy post punk of Copenhagen’s Lower and the early works of Iceage; Sklitakling and Pleaser from Sweden, americana- and cowpunk-influenced US groups like Weak Signal and Bambara, or Australia’s own Optic Nerve and Refedex. A rich tapestry of plausible, well-established influences to draw from for sure but these folks absolutely make it their own with tons of resilient song substance providing the foundation to expand upon for their noisy eruptions, determined performances, a fully matching vehicle of haunting sonics for the frank, urgent lyrics and vocals of frontwoman Freya Tanks.
Is this really the fourth Dead Finks LP already? Time sure flies by man! In contrast to that, the output of the Berlin-based duo consisting of Erin Violet and Joseph Thomas (formerly of New Zeeland post punkers Trust Punks) has been reassuringly constant and worthy at all times, surely carrying over some of that old Trust Punks DNA but matching it up with a great deal of folk-ish strumming and melancholia, woven into an epic and colorful mosaic of widescreen drama, a moody atmosphere of unresolved conflict that more than once reminds me of the kinda iconic, singular vision of Brisbane indie-/noise rockers Kitchen’s Floor.
After going all-in on some darker acid rock vibes on their 2024 Buying Time EP, this Stockholm group’s newest one once again steers largely clear of their egg-ish beginnings while returning to a bit of a lighter touch all the same – as much as they be trippin’ here, it’s an altogether pleasurable and joyous trip this time and whatever there may be left of potantially hazardous ’60s psychedelic indulgences in their catchy garage punk is always counterbalanced and lightened up by playful synth accents and other quirky devo-isms that more than once strike me as a more lighthearted equivalent to the recent works of their city neighbors and local synth punk legends Isotope Soap.
The Pittsburgh, Pennsynvania punks follow up their raw and excellent debut with an even stronger, if maybe stylistically somewhat fragmented new 7″, with the straightforward proto-meets-post punk vibes á la The Cowboy, Flat Worms, Punter or Open Your Heart-era The Men in the opener Voice Of Change probably bearing the closest similarity to the predecessor here, before Burning In The City exhibits more of an australian-sounding, melodic slacker rock vibe somewhere inbetween Dumb Punts, Gee Tee and Pist Idiots. The closing tune Moon Landing then is a sprawling 7-minute instrumental jam of monotonous yet also weirdly uplifting, kraut-y space rock excess.
Nightwatchers of Toulouse, France, one of the higher profile acts that sprung up in the probably Youth Avoiders-induced 2010s french wave of variably Oi-!influenced, melodic post punk/-core groups, has at times struck me as a somewhat spotty, shaky affair on some of their longplayers. On their newest EP they’re operating in the golden zone from start to finish though, churning out four certified bangers with workmanlike routine and while their sound has never deviatied too much from that established formula and won’t reinvent itself here either, they make up for that easily through the sheer strength of the underlying tunes and an unflinching, tight and vicious performance.
New hardcore shit from Athens, Georgia that owes its overwhelming what-the-fuckness and disorienting qualities in part to the completely blown-out fucked-uppery in the engineering department but also in no small part to some hints of noisy Big Black-ishness that still seeps through the cracks underneath a brittle surface of pure distortion and white noise. Strip all that muck away and you may be left with the greatest or the worst hardcore performance in the world and i don’t care either way ‘cos the way it is, this shit sounds like pure bliss to me.
This group and their bandcamp profile feel weirdly familiar to me, even though this appears to be their first EP… have they changed their name maybe or had a previous release which has disappeared since? Well, most likely i’m just imagining things. Anyway, this is a neat little EP with a pretty oldschool post punk sound that at times complements its early Nots or classic Siouxsie kind of energy with just a hint of revolution summer-style early postcore urgency, most notably so in the standout tune H-21.
The second EP of these Oslo metalhead punks is yet another rippin’ affair of NWOBHM-inspired hardcore thrashin’ that feels a bit too old-fashioned to fit into the dungeon punk category, a bit too thrash-heavy to fit the motörpunk mold. There’s also a bit of a ’90s postcore quality goin’on in the closing track Shallow Grave. Sitting comfortably in the middle between a good number of adjacent niches, this is a record that scratches many itches at once and i’m all here for it.
Damn, has this band from Alicante, Spain upped their game since their promising but still inconsistent 2024 EPs! This is a make of Garage- and Eggpunk that on one hand operates very much inside the templates set by predominantly spanish groups á la Prison Affair, Sprgrs, Finale, Pringue or US-based acolytes Beer, but does so with a raw and propulsive force missing from many lesser players in the subgenre and these dudes also got the catchy-ass tunes to match the breakneck energy of their performance.
Physicalist is a new group from Vancouver i presume, centering around Dave P of the local power pop sensation Night Court whose catchy qualities are also present on this record of otherwise pretty different sonics, an infectious blend of hard-, art- and postcore with a distinct garage punk edge and melodic overtones which overall reminds me of a bunch of groups like Mystic Inane, Rolex, Launcher on the more hard-/artcore side of things and The Dumpies, Sauna Youth and Eyeball on the catchier, pop- and garage leaning side.
