Now this is some equally appealing and pleasantly out-there shit right here, coming from a group of unknown origin that might be a duo or just a single split-personality being, so yeah, everything is appropriately nebulous and undefined here. The first three tracks start out like something of an eggpunk version of that whole Feed/Zhoop/Brundle/etc. clusterfuck with further flourishes from the funked-up ends of ’80s post punk and no wave while also channeling a distinct vibe of eggpunk’s early proto-genre days. 1 + 6 + 2 + 9 + 8 Milligrams then takes an unexpected detour into quirky electro punk somewhat reminiscent of Freak Genes, whose earlier works are also reflected in Sallywagger for example, plus an additional touch of Skull Cult. To round things out, some of the more no-frills guitar-centric tunes such as Big Man have some distinctly old-fashioned Neo Neos- or very early Erik Nervous-like qualities seeping in.
Here’s an absolutely neato little debut EP of some Cleveland, Ohio Group who thrill and delight with a kinda shapeshifting approach to garage punk, which on one hand has a bit of a ’77-style flavor with the opening track appropriately being a pretty fucking rad Black Randy and the Metrosquad cover version and what follows is a quite diverse succession of first-rate punk projectiles with varying degrees of KBD- and Devo-fication that at different points may also bear some resemblance to a colorful bunch present-day acts of the Tyvek, Skull Cult, Jean Mignon, Parquet Curts, Sick Thoughts and D. Sablu variety.
The second EPs of danes Missvnaries Ov Charity is certainly a curious anomaly in this day and age – their post punk sound stuffed with heavily eighties-leaning drum machines plus period-appropriate production flourishes and an overall quite new wave-ish flavor reminds me of pretty much nothing contemporary and instead of a number of 80s Homestead Records and Touch and Go-affiliated acts such as Breaking Circus, Flour and Nice Strong Arm, all of which i consider more of the deep cut variety (though especially Nice Strong Arm should get a lot more respect if you ask me) which is to say: Yeah i think this is a beautiful deviation from your average post punk routine business. Love it.
I gotta admit, after very much enjoying their 2019 debut EP, i had some serious difficulty warming up in particular to the 2023 Big Mess LP by this Brighton group which complied a bit too rigidly for my taste to the hip, ultra-processed middle-of-the-road formula of current british post punk chic, complete with its just-a-bit-too-slick production style, overuse of polyrhythmic leads and appregios, annoying zoomer count-your-syllables sprechgesang – ya know, not the most original building blocks these days. Their newest longplayer is a whole different beast altogether though, having regained much the group’s previous edge and at times an almost postcore and noise rock-ish energy being poured into tunes that sound organically developed and whole this time – rather than forced, artificially cobbled together, processed and quantized within an inch of their life in a pro tools post production hell. No, this here is clearly the sound of a capable band being somehow shocked out of their complacency, a breathing, pulsing organism propelled forward with considerable momentum by real righteous anger while the tunes themselves are the most soundly and carefully composed and balanced we’ve heard of them so far, the synths being another subject of further refinement, sounding more properly anchored and seamlessly embedded than ever before on this record, which overall reminds me of a number of pretty diverse groups á la Beef, Dr. Sure’s Unusual Practice, Broken Prayer, Wristwatch and Patti, among many others.
Laxisme are a group from Leipzig, Germany yet there’s a lot more than just their french lyrics to evoke comparisons to a certain breed of frenchie groups playing that particular mix of straightforward, super catchy garage- and post punk with just a subtle hint of Oi! mixed in, as we’ve previously heard similarly from such groups as Telecult, Distance, Stalled Minds, Nightwatchers, Litovsk and early Bleakness, though you may also in part compare them to stronger garage-leaning euro acts like belgian groups Mitraille, Pedigree and Itches, the Netherlands’ Achterlicht or Dadar, Shitty Life from Italy. So yeah, nothing groundbreaking or novel about this record but the formula certainly still hits hard when executed well and the execution is top notch here – presented with excellent drive, energy and a bit of a ’77 edge to it and a couple of certified rippers like Grands Cerveaux and 7 Secondes absolutely seal the deal here.
Newcastle, Australia based garage punk goofball Robbie Thunder’s shit remains a thoroughly charming affair on his seventh LP in just over two years and holy cow, has this one reached a new level with its strikingly simple and minimalist, somewhat Ramones-ish fuzzed out punk smashers as the hits just keep coming here and where previous releases sometimes could feel a little samey, this one just strikes the perfect balance of familiarity, sufficient variety and brevity – with its barely 15 minutes long duration feeling like the perfect length for a crunchy little potato chip of a record like this.
Reactivated old-timey australian punk veterans The Vacant Lot have a new 7″ out on Iron Lung Records and it’s a special one in multiple ways – to begin with, these are a bunch of formerly lost classics written in ’78-’79, now pulled from their stash of unrecorded gems and given a proper new recording for the first time. The current incarnation of the band has Ausmutents and Alien Nosejob front magician Jake Robertson handling the guitar, who also appears to share production duties with another indespensable central piller of the australien garage punk scene, Mikey Young and oh boy does it show, resulting in a record whose sound kinda encapsulates the best of both worlds, the quirky energy of a vibrant contemporary scene just as much as the playful catchyness of first-wave DIY punk.
Not too long after their brilliant debut EP we already get to hear the first full LP of this Minneapolis group which still delights with a pleasantly old-fashioned genre mixture that primarily appears to take inspiration from the more left-field and melancholy edges of ’80s -’90s post punk, hard- and postcore history, although the influences are a lot more varied here with the opening song Hello World having a strong ’90s Dischord vibe somewhat reminiscent of the likes of Jawbox, Crownhate Ruin, Bluetip, Smart Went Crazy or Kerosene 454 while Tectonic Plates comes across like a curious mixture of Rapeman, Brainiac and Mule. Kick Geneva and Steve remind me a lot of Angst and Moving Targets, BDFI has some Butthole Surfers-esque doominess and it’s not before the second-to-last track, the instrumental What Happens Next and the subsequent Mantle, that those Mission Of Burma influences – which were more strongly present on the EP – kick into full gear once again. Anyway, through much of the record, there’s a slightly folk-ish undercurrent goin’ on aswell that further calls to mind such eighties US groups like The Proletariat, Volcano Suns, M.I.A. and My Dad Is Dead.
Three incredible tracks dumped on bandcamp over the course of the past one-and-a-half years made us hungry for more tunes of this Melbourne group and i’m pleased to say that this new probably-not-quite-an-LP’s worth material (including the aforementioned singles) fulfills all of the pretty high expectations. What Steröid do to eighties Metal, this group pulls off with regards to ’70s hard-, southern rock, a couple of other dad rock-ish vibes and transforms it into an only slightly egg-ish, maximally fuzzed-out aesthetic of ultra-catchy garage punk and power pop with an unusual knack for infectious guitar leads – a glorious non-stop barrage of captivating riffs, resilient hooks and stubborn earworms, in an unlikely way combining some of the traits of, say, Sheer Mag’s early EPs and more recent shit by Satanic Togas.
An insanely appealing cassette full of rough-as-fuck oldschool hardcore punk by this Richmond, Virginia group playing a reluctantly melodic variant of the genre with some distinct KBD- and garage punk additives while also being clearly influenced by early US west coast groups that hadn’t yet completely stripped themselves of their catchy ’77 vibes. On top of it all, there’s also a noisy vibe á la Flipper or Broken Talent goin’ on here, all of it being conserved in an absolutely perfect and appropriate Lo-Fi aesthetic that would also fit in neatly next to the Deluxe Bias or Impotent Fetus discographies so far. What a fucking blast!
