The 2020 debut EP of this spanish-singing swedish group still fit in (maybe a bit too) well with what i’d probably have described as your typical hardcore- and death rock-adjacent “dark punk” fare in the prior decade, though the 2021 split tape with Iceland’s genre mainstay Dauðyflin showed some steady progress already. Now, with their newest mini-LP, i’m gonna say they’re finally reaching peak performance and beginning to transcend their kinda restrictive genre surroundings with a bunch of new tunes that – though not actually inventing anything new here – tweak the genre’s basic nuts and bolts to absolute perfection in a breathless succession of immaculately built bursts of death and despair that keep things thrilling and interesting from start to finish, a quality that sadly has become a bit of a rarity in that particular niche.
Hyperdog have already been on my radar thanks to a neat debut LP and two not at all lousy demos, though the austrian group’s formula has never clicked into place as nicely as on their newest extended play cassette via Goodbye Boozy Records. This is is fuzzy garage punk with at times uncharacteristically relaxed tempos and a glittering psychedelic surface that reminds me a lot of Beta Máximo’s sparkling noise pop color splashes.
This Portland group’s debut EP delights with an effortlessly cool make of fuzz punk alternating between melodic noise pop gems that kinda resemble rougher and simpler variants of early No Age, Terry Malts, Male Bonding, Why Bother?, The Wind Ups or Deletions, and a couple of even more primal bursts that call to mind the likes of Buck Biloxi, Lumpy and the Dumpers, Giorgio Murderer, Bart and the Brats and that Zhoop/Djinn/Feed/etc. dude. Closing out the bunch is a neat acoustic tune that doesn’t shit the bed either.
This group of uspecified origin has kept things short and sweet so far and they keep it that way on their third one in a series of digital 2-track singles aswell, once again pulling off two perfect little explosions of catchy-as-fuck melodic garage punk that fans of shit roughly in the manner of Marked Men, Radioactivity, Sonic Avenues, Cheap Whine and early Sweet Reaper should under no circumstances miss out on!
Cardiff’s Bad Shout already had a promising debut EP out in 2023 and an even stronger second one this summer, yet so far thay never managed to escape that dreaded “not quite there yet”-status in my humble opinion. Well guess what, Bad Shout are so fucking there now with their third extended play on which they alternate between well-worn bluesy oldschool garage punk smashers, hardcore outbursts and power pop-ish, ’77-infused earworms with that slight Dickies note to them, among other things.
It took them a couple years after their excellent 2019 Demo but at long last, here’s the debut LP of Berlin group Benzin and it’s every bit as good as you could possibly have hoped for, shifting the heavily garage-leaning sound of the demo towards more of a post punk feel while keeping the momentum going with speeds often veering into hardcore territory. This shit encapsulates some of the quirkier tendencies of previous Berlin groups like Rogue, DBR, Tanning Bats, Ponys auf Pump, Cold Leather, a synth-less Gym Tonic or the very first Puff! 7″. Equally, you may draw comparison to the Leipzig scene with Bands á la Ambulanz, Lassie, Onyon, Laugh Box and, speaking of saxons… i’d say a tiny bit of Pisse is hidden in there as well. There’s more to their sound than the obvious german influences though – among other things there’s an undeniable vibe of surfboard-wielding early west coast punk and hardcore of the Agent Orange, Germs and Adolescents ilk goin’ on here in addition to a more recent crop of hardcore-adjacent groups like Warm Bodies, Judy and the Jerks, Vexx, Itchy and the Nits.
More of that real belgian punk that’s totally not actually made by any dudes from Montreal or New York, pinky promise! Musically, this is their most mature, well-rounded effort to date, blending them undeniable eighties euro punk influences they like to wear on their sleeves with equal parts of Oi!, Post Punk, slight traces Death Rock of that same era. Of more recent phenomena, the best comparison i can come up with is a more primitive and melodic variant of US post punk cornerstone Institute of whom, i’ve heard, some dude is also totally not involved here.
This second EP by an Austin group consisting of, quite possibly, fully imaginary members save for some lone dude in his bedroom, hits all the right pain- and pleasure points of the nervous system with three burning dumpsters worth of primitive and raw-as-fuck three-chord garage- and fuzz punk behaving just about demented enough to please demanding connoisseurs of other stupid fucking shit á la Buck Biloxi, ISIS or Giorgio Murderer. Love it.
Don’t let the kinda standard surf rock intro fool you ‘cos what it leads into is actually a lot more exciting: Two effortlessly shredding garage punk tunes with a bit of a ’77 vibe to them, filled with catchy hooks on the inside and projecting sparkling melodic textures outward, all in all reminding me a bit of early Vaguess or that kickass Wild Rose demo from 2017.
I liked what i heard earlier this year on a neat split EP this Providence, Rhode Island duo (?) did with, well… themselves mostly, under the Cindy alias. This new two-track single has more of that same goodness, opening with a perfectly competent Nerves cover and concluding with an original tune carrying some catchy vibes not entirely dissimilar to the likes of R.M.F.C., Billiam, Gonk, Shrudd, Music for Microwaves or Liquid Lunch.
