Can’t ever go wrong with a Sorry State / Drunken Sailor co-release. Cleveland’s The Hell create some insanely rippin’ hardcore that at first glance sounds like a fairly generically oldschool brand, combining the siginifiers of both the early ’80s east- and westcoast scenes. But at closer inspection, these tunes go way above and beyond your standard retro hardcore fare, being densely packed with catchy hooks and unexpected twists and turns culminating in the five minute closing track Dirt Nap which at first appears to abandon the propulsive energy for more of a sludge-y, Flipper-esque proto-noise rock crawl, but when it abruptly kicks into gear around the 2-mintue mak mark, the payoff is freakin’ epic.
This group from Bordeaux, France at first glance appears pretty much in line with that omnipresent background hiss of french groups playing rather basic, mildly Oi!- and Post Punk-infused catchy punk hymns but damn, do these folks just hit the bullseye with their debut EP, getting pretty much the optimum bang out of a subgenre as restricted und ubiquitous as this. Friends of such groups as Telecult, Litovsk, Bleakness or Nightwatchers absolutely shouldn’t miss this one!
Speaking of Pyrex… This record is pretty close to what i’d originally have expected their new album to sound like – moderately angular post punk pretty much in line with the genre’s last two decades’ traditions and groups like early Marbled Eye, Rank Xerox, Institute, Bruised, Negative Gears, Tube Alloys, Public Interest, Corker, Sarcasm or, most recently, NRG – so yeah, this sure ain’t breaking any new ground here yet this LP is perfectly succeeding as a rock-solid genre entry in its own right with super-robust, soundly constructed song foundations and a decent amount of variety – most notably the electronically inclined middle section and the comparatively raw and high-energy final stretch hammering home what you might describe as one of the most effortlessly functional albums of recent times.
In a musical niche where your typical expectation of a post punk group is to get ever more sophisticated with every new release, NYC group Pyrex mark a notable exception by taking the complete opposite route for their second LP, going all-in on the rawest, most primitive sounding tunes they’ve done so far – decent production values notwithstanding – and the best comparison i can think of right now would be the filthy noise attacks of early Nag. This LP’s winning formula is based on sheer overwhelming force and desperate energy, sustaining itself on a bare minimum of musical substance and what can i say, this shit just works!
Toronto group Cult Crime have already made an excellent impression with thier first Demo and 7″ in 2023/’24 respectively. Their full length debut now doesn’t attempt to fix what ain’t broken and delivers nine no-frills straightforward garage punk smashers strongly rooted equally in the sonic parameters of ’77-era groups and early Hardcore Punk which i’m pretty sure will, among others, please admirers of such acts like early Sick Thoughts, Bart and The Brats, Jean Mignon or Hood Rats.
Silicon Heartbeat have been a constant presence at the periphery of the 12XU-relevant sonic spectrum for years now, yet it appears i’ve never given them a blog post so far for some inexplicable reason (though you’ve surely stumbled upon them on a couple of my mixtapes). This has to be rectified immediately i’ll say and their newest EP is the perfect occasion for that, not only featuring some of their strongest tunes so far but also being further elevated by the production work of garage punk royalty Erik Nervous, whose magic touch adds plenty of oomph and contour to their somewhat Spits-indebted, catchy and psychedelic synth- and garage punk sound. I sure hope that, in spite of its title, this ain’t actually the last we’re gonna hear of them..
What a neat little oddity, this second EP by Chicago group Forklift Rodeo, on which they’re mixing some weird-ass unpredictable bursts of cowpunk with small traces of 90s AmRep/Tough&Go-esque noise rock, postcore and occasionally also some kind of contemporary eggpunk quality, though in that regard i’m thinking more of early Skull Cult rather than the somewhat more codified recent crop of Lo-Fi-recorded insanity. Speaking of Lo-Fi… this record certainly ain’t that, giving a well-produced sheen and transparency to their equally quirky, sprawling and intricate constructions that would indeed have absolutely no need for hiding behind an obscuring layer of noise and grime.
Incredible new Dungeon Punk-related material from a mysterious group operating out of some unspecified dark forest located somewhere in the US. These folks approach the whole blackened punk thing from a heavily post punk- and goth/death rock-leaning angle, shrouding their fully developed, well-rounded song architecture in a beautifully fucked-up, blown-out Lo-Fi aesthetic, altogether reminding me of a couple of fairly recent genre entries by the likes of Conifère, Unsheather and Bloody Keep.
This Philadelphia group’s most recent EP delights with five wonderfully leaned-back and slightly off-kilter gems of jangly indie rock and slacker punk located somewhere inbetween the worlds of indie rockers Treehouse, Kitchens Floor, Thigh Master or, quite recently, Hungary’s Dehidratált Fejek on one one side of the equation – and the more quirky, eccentric sonics of, say, Damak, Honey Bucket, Germ House and Far Corners on the other, while the standout track Artifact sounds a bit like a mix of the dusty acid/roots/garage rock fusion of Weak Signal with the fuzzy garage pop catchyness of The Wind Ups.
This second EP by Esmé Newman aka Glitter On The Mattress from Gateshead, England delivers four perfect little sugary treats of catchy oldschool noise-/indie-/fuzz pop goodness that would only need a bit of added tape hiss to successfully fool me into thinking this were some lost artifact of ’80s DIY cassette culture. At the same time, this shit also has undeniable similarities to some groups of the past two decades like Feature, UV-TV, Private Lives, Slowcoaches, Star Party, early Vivian Girls or, quite recently, Indonesia’s own Crayon Cats. No question, unpretentious fuzzy DIY pop is alive and well in this age!
