This new collection of alleged b-grade material from one of Melbourne's prime instigators of noisy garage-/hardcore punk chaos is yet another solid proof that you can't ever go wrong with this group, as for much of this EP i absolutely can't see why these tunes wouldn't have made the cut for a "regular" release. Well, one man's trash is another man's treasure i guess and i'm just having a glorious time diving into in this neat little dumpster of leftover scraps.
Now these chaps are from Spain yet their sound rather makes me think a whole bunch of predominantly french bands, their sound sitting inbetween the coordinates of post punk and -core, melodic garage punk and Oi!, calling to mind the likes of Youth Avoiders, Telecult, Nightwatchers, Bleakness and, most recently, Distance or the french-singing Leipzig, Germany group Laxisme. It would thus be easy to dismiss this as yet another artifact of a recently quite ubiquitous subgenre but that would be kinda unfair and discounting what a massive fireworks of powerful hooks this way-above-average record is setting off from beginning to end.
I gotta admit i had severely subdued expectations for the successor to this Long Beach, California group's excellent 2022 debut LP, not because of anything actually related to them but rather simply 'cos sound-wise, they kinda struck me as the kind of group likely to either get too ambitious and bite of more then they can chew or, alternately, suddenly decide that it's about time to break through to the wider broccoli-haired indie crowd and water-down and gloss-up their sound accordingly. Thankfully, i was so fucking wrong and none of that has happened here. Although like on their debut, you may once again classify this shit as an, on the surface, quite fashionable make of jagged post punk with echoes both of first- and second-wave art punk groups á la early Siouxsie, Delta Five, Transmitters, Pylon and even a hint of Wire, as well as more recent phenomena like Marcel Wave, Spread Joy, Sweeping Promises and Marbled Eye, everything appears a lot more deliberate and refined on this one. While retaining that subtle undercurrent of no-wave mutant funk-ish dissonance, all of these new tunes distinguish themselves through perfectly balanced dramaturgy and dynamic, nuanced song progressions, often dialing down the pace and noise to a deliberately understated appeal, making perfect use of elaborate song architecture to achieve the maximum oomph not by way of sheer force but a mindful, punctual and laser-focused group effort.
This Montreal group's previous two EPs were already each a fat bucket chock-full of sleazy-ass rock'n'roll bliss and now they really hit it out of the ballpark with their first full-length effort, on which they considerably expand their stylistic color gamut and dial up the catchyness to eleven of their already dangerously combustive recipie made up of garage punk, hard- and postcore elements, a slight hint of Oi! and lots unapologetic dabbling in sweaty '70s hard & heavy dad rock territory while in tunes like Never Enough, there's an undeniable hint of roots-y folk- and cowpunk going on aswell. Immediately this shit strikes me a bit as a significantly dumbed down version of that recent Punter LP and further reminds me of a colorful bunch of sleazecore acts á la Cement Shoes, Golden Pelicans, Flea Collar, Cülo, Cutters, Polute and Chain Whip.
Melbourne's Metdog have absolutely cemented their status as one of the major players of the contemporary garage-/synth-/eggpunk scene with last year's pretty fucking gaga full length Questions and Answers Regarding Computers and Screens. For their newest LP though, they dial down the overall weirdness ever-so-slightly, which i'm gonna say is actually for the better as i think another iteration of that '90s PC- / early web-themed insanity and ultra-cheesy general MIDI-esque sonics certainly wouldn't hit quite as hard the second time around. Instead we get a somewhat more streamlined and straightforward bunch of alarmingly catchy garage tunes that still let their freak flag fly aplenty, just in case you were worried things might get even remotely too serious here. Anyway, it's certainly their most substantial release so far, supported by a matching growth in the songwriting department without giving up too much of the group's overall playfulness and unpredictability.
There's more going on under the hood than first meets the eye on this Budapest group's debut cassette whose eight tunes on one hand - especially in its first half - channel some vaguely oldschool-ish KBD- and garage punk vibes with alternating flourishes of Gun Club and Wipers, counterbalanced by a bunch of way more contemporary sounding elements on which groups of the current anarcho-/postcore-axis á la Straw Man Army and Fantasma have surely left their mark while at many other points, a certain breed of art punk melancholy akin to, say, Kitchen's Floor and Uniform (Atlanta, not NYC) also shines through.
For the follow-up to their excellent 2023 EP Feed The Clones Pt. 1 - which has been their first record to fully realize their potential IMO - the Oakland group can't be bothered to tweak their specific formula a whole lot, just as the "part 2" designation would already suggest. That's fine with me 'cos there wasn't anything broken with their sound to begin with and much of the song material collected on here is top notch shit once again - even though, admittedly, this thing sometimes feels more like an EP's worth of hits wedged inbetween a good deal of more sluggish, abstract, atmospheric tunes this time around, much of which i'm tempted to classify as glorified interlude material. Nonetheless, this is yet another essential listen for connoisseurs of demented, Spits-flavoured horror-/garage-/synth punk fodder.
This is the third release already in just a couple months by this blackened-/dungeon punk act frome wherever in the US and just like its predecessors it's yet another first-rate addition to the microgenre which approaches the stylistic signifiers of black metal from an uncommon post punk- and death rock angle to create a sound that's in equal measure atmospheric, dense and layered while blasting a respectable crater in their own little patch of spooky dark forest all the same.
This group from Santa Cruz, California delivers six neat little calorie bombs made of oldschool Power Pop excellence, flawlessly executing a simple old formula that could actually have occured at any time in the past five decades and wouldn't feel out of place in any of these multiple eras, while their way-above-average songwriting powers never falter even for a second. Even if at times i can't help but feel like i've heard these songs many times before, this is one of those instances where i'm perfectly content with coming off as a kinda basic bitch as far as quality rock'n'roll is concerned.
Right on the heels of the Billiam & Busted Head Racked collab EP more excellent shit keeps rolling in already of egg-ish australian garage punk's prime driving force and it's a neat little gimmick indeed to put a five-minute track on one side of a 7" and five one-minute tracks on the other. Naturally, this is yet another kickass bunch of six catchy-as-fuck hits including an explosive Ausmuteants cover tune, but the biggest surprise on here is actually how admirably that aforementioned five-minute song format is working out here. Dude should try that more often! Longpunk or shortpunk? The proper answer is yes, please!
