I didn’t ever think i’d need another instrumental surf rock record in my life, a genre that seemingly never expanded its stylistic vocabulary too much since its ’50s/60s gold rush or, even worse, often feels kinda like a dumbed-down, ultra-codified and risk-averse retread of its initial phase. This group from La Cisterna, Chile, however, pulls off that miracle of getting me invested in another surf-ish LP with a sound that makes me feel like goin’ surfin’ in… well, fuckin’ hell i’d say, tackling the genre from an angle of noisy, goth-infused post punk and death rock that infuses tons of energy and much needed fresh air into its ancient ways and in contrast to so much instrumental rock’n’roll (surf or otherwise) feeling in desperate need of a vocal line to bind together the moving parts, the arrangements on this record are perfectly capable to stand on their own – the dramaturgically dense compositions and guitar leads, brimming with energy, are masterfully telling their own stories, no words needed here.
An insanely fun debut EP by this St. Louis, Missouri group that sounds like… no one group in particular really, which in our heavily genre-codified times may be among the best compliments you can make. Rather, this is some freewheeling choose-your-own-adventure-style shit mixing-and-matching an abundance of synth-enhanced garage punk influences with varying degrees of egg-ishness into a super catchy, coherent whole that at different points may call to mind the likes of Skull Cult, Print Head, Warm Bodies, Rearranged Face, Snooper or Wax Minds.
Can’t ever go wrong with a Sorry State / Drunken Sailor co-release. Cleveland’s The Hell create some insanely rippin’ hardcore that at first glance sounds like a fairly generically oldschool brand, combining the siginifiers of both the early ’80s east- and westcoast scenes. But at closer inspection, these tunes go way above and beyond your standard retro hardcore fare, being densely packed with catchy hooks and unexpected twists and turns culminating in the five minute closing track Dirt Nap which at first appears to abandon the propulsive energy for more of a sludge-y, Flipper-esque proto-noise rock crawl, but when it abruptly kicks into gear around the 2-mintue mak mark, the payoff is freakin’ epic.
This group from Bordeaux, France at first glance appears pretty much in line with that omnipresent background hiss of french groups playing rather basic, mildly Oi!- and Post Punk-infused catchy punk hymns but damn, do these folks just hit the bullseye with their debut EP, getting pretty much the optimum bang out of a subgenre as restricted und ubiquitous as this. Friends of such groups as Telecult, Litovsk, Bleakness or Nightwatchers absolutely shouldn’t miss this one!
