A new mini LP by Atlanta's post punk force of nature Nag - i guess everybody knows what to expect at this point and i'm totally okay with that as there still ain't a whole lot of groups quite like them. Despite the raw ingredients of their sound being as old as post punk itself, there's a unique quality to their vision, about as simplistic as you can get away with in some places while amazingly elaborate where it counts in others, with the occasional touch of psychedelia and hammered home with a rough and unrelenting force.
More great fodder by synth-/electro viking punk maestro Klint on this nice compilation available either digitally or dubbed onto pre-loved cassette stock, if you're so inclined - i do certainly approve of that, giving old cassettes a new home! So what we got here is a mix of old shit you might have heard already, old shit you probably haven't heard yet and new shit you definitely haven't. Oh and then apparently there's also the matter a of a couple of recently unearthed ancient wax cylinders, gloriously rough around the edges and unplayed since approximately 1904-1912. Neat!
When it comes to contemporary noise rock, i'm notoriously hard to please but this L.A. group easily does the trick for me, playing a variant of the genre approaching Big Black levels of dissonant shredding while also reminding me a bit of oldschool acts like Distorted Pony, Bastro, Drunks With Guns as well as more recent stuff á la Spray Paint… or, maybe, an ultra-straightforward version of Multicult, driven along by vicious, at times almost Gang of Four-esque grooves.
A quick and painless attack of garage- and synth punk equally catchy and noisy by some group or person from Simi Valley, California. This is more than a little reminiscent to contemporary genre powerhouses such as S.B.F., The Gobs, Slimex, Ghoulies, Quitter or C.H.I.M.P., among many others and every bit as good.
The newest EP by this group from Antwerp, Belgium is a flawless butt-kicker made up of fairly traditional yet, thankfully, always soundly constructed garage punk stylings, thorougly based on an excellent underlying song substance with some added british invasion touches á la Resonars, otherwise to be located in a similar orbit as Dadar, Shitty Life, Mitraille, Big Baby or Sauna Youth.
This Schenectady, New York group kicks up a perfect storm of somewhat motörized noise somewhere between the corner points of garage punk, hardcore and sleaze rock on their demo tape. A highly combustible recipe that should mix well with other acts á la Cement Shoes, Polute, Hippyfuckers, Flea Collar, Dollhouse, Cülo… and maybe just a smidge of hardcore-era Hüsker Dü on top.
Side number four by Marmora, New Jersey garage troubador Die TV is yet another super-solid batch of garage-/synth-/electro punk miniature goodness. Not much more to add to that other than what i already said about his previous releases: Friends of weirdness in the same orbit as, say, Powerplant, Stalins of Sound, Erik Nervous, The Spits, Set-Top Box, Digital Leather… rejoice!
A new EP by brazilian eggpunk's prime mover Cool Sorcery aka Marcos Assis. His sound is becoming more ambitious with each new release and accordingly, the newest one is another delightful structured mess, seemingly drawing just as much unlikely inspiration from 70's hard- and progressive rock as it does from the current garage- and synthpunk scene.
My best effort to describe this work of the devil channeled by some St. Louis, Missouri dude is this: An overabundance of stupid demented shit condensed into fun little garage tunes in the vague neighbourhood of Buck Biloxi, Strange Attractor or, alternately, Dead Moon & The Dead Milkmen, maybe with some Wild Man Fisher thrown in for good measure. I think i'm just about dumb enough to appreciate that!
Just another quick roundup of noises and disturbances out of the extended hardcore orbit. Starting off the batch with Sex Hater of Kansas City, who will surely please admirers of chaotic and downright filthy hardcore shit in a similar vein to groups á la Total Sham, Fried E/m or Launcher.
Speaking of filth, Clinic from Fresno, California dial that certain aspect even further - their latest EP feeling like one single murky puddle of primitive anger and deep despair, not entirely dissimilar in some places to the early Beast Fiend EPs.
pH People, a group of unknown origin, then slow the tempo down considerybly while by no means lacking energy - their tape on Urticaria Records is a potent mixture from the fringes of harcore punk and (proto-) noise rock with clear echoes of mostly older stuff á la Flipper, Spike In Vain, Noxious Fumes or Broken Talent.
And lastly, there's one for the dungeon dwellers among us in the form of Philadelphia's Alien Birth who deliver an oldschool metal-infested beast kinda like a mix between a more primitive Poison Ruïn and Golden Pelicans going all in on their sleaze rock leanings.
