Um… what meaningful thing is there left to say about a new Alien Nosejob record at this point? They kinda come in two shapes: The grab bag style ones where Mr. Robertson branches out in every direction possible and the hyperfocussed monoculture ones where he doubles down on a single genre - like his hardcore 7"s for example or that synth pop/eurotrash 12" maxi a while ago. Well, this one's another grab bag record and apart from that, it's just the plain old usual awesomeness we've all come to expect from this dude who seems utterly unable to write a dull tune.
I've been way late to the party when it comes to noticing this Perth group but since i first did, they just kept outdoing themselves with every new release, their latest LP easily quailfying as a top-tier bucket of fun for the discerning garage punk connoisseur and especially for admirers of Uranium Club, Pinch Points, Dumb or Vintage Crop.
Garage punk from Spain that hits all the right spots dead-on and conveys exactly that kind of explosive momentum of a band hungry to play - the kind of vibe that's been a bit scarce recently, owing to obvious circumstances. To me, their sound calls to mind bits and pieces of Dadar, Sauna Youth, Ex-Cult, Constant Mongrel, Jackson Reid Briggs or Pedigree while also revealing a strong post punk vibe at times, kinda like Berlin groups such as Pigeon, Diät, Pretty Hurts crossbred with the melancholic moods of Red Dons, Telecult or Nightwatchers.
Yay! New shit by that person or group who might or might not be based in Hicksville, NY and whose 2020 garage-/post-/eggpunk borderline-masterpiece Happyhappy made me exactly that. So now we get a new short playing Hi-Fi experience as well as some other, slightly less short and ever-so-slightly less Hi-Fi thing. Boring this certainly ain't and as for that other thing… i think i have some basic idea what they don't think they know the fuck they're doing and they're doing it just fine and it's fucking glorious and i love every fucking second of it!
Yet another EP by Bristol's leading powerpop/postpunk manufacture holds yet another pair of irresistibly melancholic earworms. Does it still make sense to namedrop Television Personalities here or might this shit already qualify as downright, dare i say it… beatlesque?
The debut EP by Brisbane's Refedex is a heavy steamroller of dark noise rock, sludge and post punk that's often rather slow and atmospheric without ever getting tedious or losing its irresistible groove. Although their overall vibe sounds ultra-classic to me, i'm having trouble pinpointing exactly where i've heard this kind of thing before as their sound kinda transcends the usual genre boundaries, among other things incorporating the kind of dark americana blues & country vibes you might expect from an 80's Scientists record or more recently from US post punk group Bambara, while on the more classic noise rock side of things, you might draw comparisons to contemporary Bands like Alpha Strategy, Luggage, Heads or Tropical Trash. You might also find a bit of Cows, U-men or Scratch Acid in there, each of them spun on half-speed. Whatever you wanna call it, this is first rate shit!
Power pop aficinados might already be familiar with Owen Williams as the singer of The Tubs, who stood out earlier this year with their excellent Names 7". Cotton Crown is the name of his solo recording project whose debut cassingle inhabits much of the same awesomeness but enriches its two oldschool pop tunes with more of a goth and new wave aesthetic adding just the right amount of low-level cheesyness to elevate, rather than water down the material.
I gotta admit i had some trouble warming up to the last few Jackson Reid Briggs releases, whose production seemed just a bit too-much-of-everything for my taste. On this newest EP however, recorded during a breather between Australia's covid lockdowns with a line-up which, i assume, is different from his usual "Heaters", is just bursting with fresh energy channeled into four of his strongest jams, presented in a much slimmed down, unexpectedly playful fashion.
Another Tunic record, another veritable kick in the teeth. After their recent compilation LP Exhaling, collecting their previous singles & EPs, their second "real" album pretty much continues where they left off with those, while only very cautiously expanding their sonic vocabulary. At times this can feel a bit repetitive to the point where you catch yourself wondering: "Haven't i already heard that song just a minute ago?" That's a minor nitpick though. As long as these dudes continue to wield their noisemaking powertools with such determination and raw, overwhelming force, that's more than enough for me.
This melbourne group's debut EP delivers five versatile high-energy blows, shapeshifting their way somewhere around the fringes of the extended hard-/post-/noisecore multiverse, their relentless yet sophisticated attack calling to mind the likes of Dollhouse, Cement Shoes or Vexx.
