The follow-up LP to the unwieldy two hours, 69 tracks long 2023 opus Prawn Static For Porn Addicts by Moffat Beach, Australia group Electric Prawns 2 is yet again a quite generous affair in the context of the current garage-/eggpunk-adjacent wave, spanning 15 kinda eclectic, genre-hopping tunes that once again prove the impossible-to-contain, wildly creative drive of this group. The opening track Reaction sparkles with that vaguely familiar vibe of neon-glow psychedelia you might expect of a Mononegatives or Pow! record, plus a hint of Isotope Soap, maybe? What follows then is a nonstop fireworks of all-killer-no-filler tunes showcasing a great stylistic variety and, at one point or another, reminding me of a bunch of like-minded groups á la Ghoulies, Billiam, Nick Normal, Alien Nosejob, Erik Nervous or Busted Head Racket, to name just a few. The most incredible thing about this record comes right at the end though, in the form of the closing track Who I Am in which a sense of widescreen drama akin to The Wipers’ Youth Of America or God’s garage one hit wonderMy Pal gets condensed into an ultra-compact hook-fest á la Split System. Holy fuck, what just happened there?!
Here’s yet another little treat of fine egg-related fun by an Ottawa, Ontario act, sounding kinda simple and by-the-numbers at first glance but revealing a great deal of substance under the hood once you listen a little more closely. This shit strikes me a bit as if the smartass quirky post punk pieces of Landowner got crossbred with the no-frills punk attack of that Zhoop/Nightman/Brundle/RONi/etc. dude and subsequently genetically adapted to survive and thrive by the twisted rules of a badly eggpunk-infested environment.
Well, dungeon punk’s supreme overlords Poison Ruïn need no introduction at this point i guess. On their newest EP you can clearly sense an effort at expanding upon their sonic palette and pushing the boundaries of their very own subgenre, resulting in a somewhat more muted record, trading in some of the anthemic battle hymns for more of a melancholy post punk vibe in tracks such as Attrition and Sanctuary, making this a record less densely packed with obvious hits. Nonetheless, rippers like Execute and the title track Confrere are sure to turn into undeniable fan favorites and high-octane staples for the years to come and anyway, don’t get too concerned now ‘cos it’s all great and classy shit just as we’ve come to expect from this group and these new songs will grow on just the same.
The full-length follow-up to the their fine debut EP from earlier this year (which recently got reissued on tape via Goodbye Boozy) doesn’t fuck around, simply churning out ten more of these short-fused dumb and primitive no-bullshit garage punk blasts walking in the footsteps of such greats as Buck Biloxi, Bart and the Brats, Giorgio Murderer and earlier Sick Thoughts. Demented fun for the ill-adjusted. No more, no less… and it fucking rips!
A kickass new EP by this Sydney group delivers the goods of rough-ass rowdy punk rock weaving elements of Wipers-esque post punk, fuzzed-out garage punk, some Hot Snakes-infused rocket-powered postcore and just a little hint of first-gen aussie punk into an overall pattern that reminds me of a whole bunch of female fronted punk greats of the past decade-plus, among whom range such wild and deranged creative forces as Vexx, Fugitive Bubble, Warp, Dots, Gen Pop, Warm Bodies and Skin Tags.
The previous 2020 cassette by this Grand Rapids, Michigan group has been an extraordinary detonation already and their newest one – as usual being released via Detroit’s specialist label Painters Tapes – is just more of that same goodness in the form of twelve new propulsive, varyingly hardcore-infused garage punk attacks that don’t even try anything smart and instead fully succeed in something rather stupid and fun, having a similar primitive energy to the likes of Ex-Cult, Sauna Youth, early Teenanger, The Cowboy, Protruders or Shitty Life at one point or another.
Following a couple of releases which largely dabbled in mellower sounds, Spain’s prime eggpunk-/noise pop act Beta Máximo at long last is cranking up the speeds again while applying and consolidating all the lessons they’ve learned at previous excursions for the benefit of their newest EP, which easily marks their strongest release so far made up of nothing but hits and gelled into place by plenty of simple but rock-solid, top-notch songcraft at its core.
Excellent shit, the second EP by this Christchurch, New Zeeland group on which they combine quite a bit of oldschool aussie Rock’n’Roll á la Radio Birdman, Saints and New Christs with also a ton of oldschool “heavy” ur-metal and motörpunk into four sweaty puddles of filth, an unapologetically sleazy strain of garage punk that reminds me a lot last decade’s mainstays Golden Pelicans and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Cement Shoes as well as the Split System/Stiff Richards/Cutters-adjacent sleazepunk act Polute.
Melbourne’s Kitchen People as a band are about as old at this blog and although it took them a couple years to turn into the highly combustible garage punk force we know them as today, their 2020 EP Planet Earth sure saw the group in creative overdrive and their newest six-track cassette once again is nothing short of brilliant! No wonder, since these folks are partly responsible for other top-rated groups such as Ghoulies, Pleasants, Aborted Tortoise and Dr. Sure’s Unusual Practice, all of whom are perfectly suitable references for describing these quirky and slightly egg-ish garage-, post- and synth punk tunes, in addition to such household names as Ausmuteants, Checkpoint and Research Reactor Corp..
Another kickass EP by this suspiciously Berlin-sounding Augsburg group delivers four perfectly balanced, elaborately constructed bursts of post punk that knows to spice up the genre-typical darkness and despair with plenty of an Estranged-esque sense of melody, exquisitely exploiting oldschool post punk’s established tropes, conventions and possibilities while applying firm pressure towards the genre’s boundaries and limitations all the same. As with their previous EP, there’s really no way around comparing them to a number of Berlin-based groups á la Pigeon, Glaas, early Diät and Pretty Hurts, german-language acts such as Die Wärme, Hyäne, Maske, Die Verlierer and L’appel Du Vide as well as international genre powerhouses like Rank/Xerox, Criminal Code, Sievehead and, as i’ve already mentioned, The Estranged.
