Cucuy – People Talking

Hattiesburg label Earth Girl Tapes has yet another delicious treat for us, namely the debut tape of Chicago group Cucuy which delivers six blows of noisy and beautifully oddball hard- and postcore, balancing chaos and dissonance with way-above-average musicality, all of which calls to mind such offbeat classics as the early works of Minutemen, Really Red and Saccharine Trust, but just as much does this shit have in common with newer phenomena such as Rolex, Launcher or Mystic Inane.

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Wax Minds – Demo 2024

Excellent shit emanating out of some cellar in Bremen, Germany. This group's own make of propulsive garage punk plays out a bit like a mixture of more or less hardcore-infused acts like Vexx, Warm Bodies, Fugitive Bubble, Sniffany and the Nits, Warp, Skin Tags and Dots on one hand, heavier egg-leaning groups á la Cel Ray, Snooper, Prison Affair, Autobahns and Beer on the other.

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Silo Kids – Demo

Hattiesburg hardcore rarely ever disappoints and this tape by Silo Kids is yet another proof of that scene's potency, having both a rough and fuzzed-out oldschool quality to itself while also being catchy as hell and quite varied. Never content with simply copying the genre's established rules and conventions, there's a distinctly free creative spirit at play here which is kind of the defining attribute of so many other Hattiesburg groups anyway.

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Dadgad – New Year Demos

Having already released a whole ass full of nifty EPs and splits neatly fitting in with much of the the current eggpunk mold, their previous one recently marked a notable departure into a rougher, fuzzed-out aesthetic form. The newest release by this group based in Rome, Italy feels like a successful integration of both tendencies, sharing a similar quality to weirdo tunes by the likes of Die TV, Electric Prawns 2, Temporary Curse and recent Erik Nervous.

Feeding Tube – Unhealth

Just as on their three demos leading up to this new EP, New Jersey group Feeding Tube are bringing about yet another depraved orgy of pure sonic perversion in a quirky-as-fuck blend of angular egg- and post punk full of choppy rhythms, odd time signatures and blown-out sonics.

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Shooting Losers – Kill Me I’m Plain

What this dude from Chico, California pulls off on his debut EP i can best describe as a pleasantly antiquated sounding burst of late aughts / early 2010s fuzz punk and noise pop with plenty of a Wavves, Male Bonding and early Terry Malts kind of energy, but equally imbued with some of that certain surf-infused psychedelia of the same era á la Crystal Stilts and Fresh & Onlys.

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Macrophonics – Monophonics

A neat little bag of tricks and surprises, the debut EP by this Memphis group. The opening track seems hellbent on reanimating the late '80s / early '90s vibes of the AmRep and Touch&Go multiverse and, though not affiliated with those labels, i'm particularly reminded of the Lo-Fi noise rockers Drunks With Guns. Diesel Disco then kinda smells of early UK DIY á la early Mekons, Swell Maps and Desperate Bicycles while being transformed into a contemporary fuzz punk context. The Junt is just a perfect midtempo blast of a proto-grunge eighties garage rock throwback. Newspeak cranks up the weirdness with its distinct stop-and-go dynamics and structure. Finally, Control is more like your standard stooges-indebted fuzzy garage rocker and, quite honestly, overall the least thrilling thing on this otherwise thoroughly engaging EP.

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The Ashies – Demo 2024

As you might already have guessed from the title, this shit isn't exactly brand new, having been released in November already, but this Miami group totally is news to me right now. On their debut EP we're served four exquisite bursts of rough and primitive hardcore punk goodness whose tinny and blown-out LoFi aesthetics wouldn't feel too out of place next to anything released on Deluxe Bias or Impotent Fetus.

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Monda – Nearest Abode

Austria 2 releases January 31st.

Living Dream – Lift A Feather

Living Dream releases April 2nd via Inscrutable Records.