Finally, a full album of Montreal's Hood Rats who've been making noise for a while already, although their sound really snapped into gear on their two most recent EPs in the winter of '22 - '23. Now this one is comprised mostly of punchy new recordings of songs already known from said EPs and a 2022 demo, but that shouldn't distract you from the fact of what a joyous and complete assault of early '80s straight-ahead, no-frills US punk- and hardcore energy this is, enriched with bits of ancient KBD- and contemporary garage punk. Certainly the definitive incarnation for this lavish set of killer tunes!
In recent years, i highly doubt there's ever been such a thing as a bad week for eggpunk but this one has been especially fruitful with three notable, way above average releases. Paulo Vicious of Tel Aviv you might already be familiar with from last winter's kickass debut EP and on this one, they seemlessly continue the depraved fun with strong echos of Prison Affair, Set-Top Box, Nubot555 and, at times, an added sheen of 8-bit chiptunes. Oslo, Norway act Dårskap then approach egg-related noises with a bit of a dungeon undertone and some ever-so-slight traces of oldschool death rock, begging the question if there's some overlap with another Oslo group, Molbo, who've also been featured on here just a week ago. To round things out with what is probably the most straightforward and classic (hah!) sounding example of the bunch, Stockholm, Sweden's very own Gurk deliver four new attacks of ultra-catchy egg-induced joy on their newest EP that might just be their strongest effort to date.
Leaves are an english Trio boldly defying any recent trends of their domestic scene, instead dabbling in a sound inbetween the parameters of postcore, noise- and math rock, all of which smells more of Chicago, the wider Touch and Go universe and related artifacts of the '90s US Underground, doing a thoroughly convincing job at revitalizing an aesthetic that's become a bit rare these days. Slint are the most obvious comparison to be made here but you might just as well pinpoint some flourishes of Tar, Unwound, early Shellac and late Bitch Magnet, a hint of Chavez or Polvo and even traces of '90s Dischord propulsion can be found in Do Something. Of more recent groups, earlier incarnations of Pile and, even more so, Luggage suggest themselves as closely related examples.
As thrilling and energizing as ever, this new digital two-track single by Schleswig, Germany viking synth punk wizard Klint. Lots of catchy treasure to be found in there if you can make it alive to the bottom of this filthy, rat-infested spike pit. And yeah, thats no exaggeration here as especially the title track takes his one-of-a-kind oddball aesthetics to a whole new level of noisy and abrasive depths while never failing to derive plenty of joyful delight out of the process!
Two notable, more or less dungeon punk-adjacent releases have landed this week. First off, there's the debut cassette of Oslo group Molbo who, on the surface, primarily seem to draw influences from that genre complex of eighties goth, death rock and post punk that's been so en vogue once again for the last decade or so. What sets them apart in that particular niche though is a certain whimsical eggpunk aesthetic, a sense of joy and fun not often found in an otherwise often overky self-serious genre, though admittedly this can at times have an unintentionally comical effect as well.
Ipswich, UK duo Kerozine then approach a vaguely dungeon-esque aesthetic from a more straightforward yet delightfully noisy synth-/electro punk angle that's every bit as driving and hard-hitting as it's catchy, the best reasonably recent comparisons i can come up with right now being the likes of Spyroids, O-D-EX, Drýsildjöfull, Channel 83, C57BL/6, Expose and Beef.
Another marvel of covid lockdown-bred noise by a multi-generational british trio is arriving here with a roughly three-year delay. A breakneck-speed mixture of brass-enhanced garage punk, hard- and postcore, this stuff is combining the traits of more recent phenomena like, say, Cement Shoes, Crisis Man and Mystic Inane with some equally noisy gruff á la early-to-mid-eighties X, the australian group that is. Making the fun complete though is the infectious joy in the vocals of lead singer Eliza who, if my crummy math and the sparse bits of available information don't fail me, must've been around seven years old at the time of recording.
Raleigh, North Carolina hard-/postcore powerhouse Sorry State Records has two new treats in store for us. First there's the demo cassette by Atlanta group Chaos OK. Their name suggesting some connection to oldschool british punk already, i'd indeed say the EP starts out with a somewhat UK82-ish vibe in particular, which then later morphs into a shape vaguely similar to more recent, slightly garage-infused hardcore acts á la early Electric Chair and Kaleidoscope, only to end things in the guise of timeless proto noise, postcore and -punk somewhere inbetween the worlds of, say, Crass, Flipper and Drive Like Jehu. Exciting shit!
Another oldschool-ish, although a lot more simple and primitive force of nature is the newest 7" by Finland's Valtatyhjiö who convince by sheer force on this one, having both some traits of '80s continental european hardcore to them as well as - to come full circle as far as british influence is concerned - some flourishes of clearly NWOBHM-inspired (speed-)metal.
What i said about Uranium Club's effect on garage punk a couple weeks back, similar things i can attest to this Oakland group concerning their particular (sub-)genre. Here we have a new LP by another band who, despite far from being the most prolific of acts out there, has clearly sent plenty of ripples through the post- and art punk scene of recent years. It's been over five years since their last record and surely things have kept moving since then, as evidenced by a matured sound on display here that once again presents them on the cutting edge of their own niche, considerably advancing and developing their sound and craft while still retaining all the traits that made them so special in the first place. What's already been forshadowed with their 2022 digital single Dirty Water comes into full bloom here - their songs and arrangements, while still being every bit as eleborate and angular constructions, have gained a lot in terms of elegance and melodic sensibility, their compositions always being grounded in careful and intricate songwriting craftsmanship. Songs like the brilliant first single See It Too kinda channel the most melodic and catchy aspects of '70s Wire while enriching those smartypants aesthetics with tons of human warmth and sincere emotion.
Coming off their unwieldy two-hour Lo-Fi garage-/post-/eggpunk monolith Prawn Static For Porn Addicts from last year, the Moffat Beach, Australia based group returns with a couple of comparatively Mid-to-HiFi sounding singles and EPs. All three of them reinforce my assessment that was already evident on their predecessor, namely that these folks just write kickass tunes, plain and simple, which don't really need to hide behind a wall of low fidelity gunk and grime and can be made to work in pretty much any shape and form. I like my things sounding kinda scruffy and crummy though and thankfully, here they pretty much hit the sweet spot concerning that.
Speaking of Deluxe Bias… here's the newest cassette of miniscule runtime from that Wyoming label specializing in exactly that one kind of thing. Another completely blown-out assault on the senses walking a thin line between ultra-rough LoFi fuzz-, garage- and eggpunk resulting in some exquisite mayhem which may plausibly get described as a curious blend of the likes of Print Head, Warm Bodies, Snooper and Fugitive Bubble.
