Cleveland punks The Cowboy have yet to release a record that doesn't totally rip and their third LP won't dissapoint either with their sound feeling perfectly worn in and at this point, i'd say they've established their very own, instantly recognizable micro-niche on the intersection of propulsive garage punk and abrasive noise rock while still breaking things up enough to keep shit interesting.
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The debut EP of this group from Utrecht, Netherlands is pure concentrated joy from start to finish, channeled into five properly demented synth-/garage punk jams wondrously able to bypass the intellect entirely only to make an even bigger splash with your primal instincts. Neat!
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The London postcore/noise rock duo once again convinces by way of sheer force coupled with unerring precision, every single detonation on their second LP using a rather minimalistic recipe in the most focused way possible to achieve maximum damage. Don't miss this spectacle if groups like Tunic, Death Pedals, USA Nails or Metz are your thing.
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Not too long after the recent During 7" on Chunklet Industries (a full length of that group should be expected drop soon) we already get to hear another group featuring Spray Paint vocalist and guitar player Cory Plump. As Rider/Horse he's teaming up with a dude named Chris who has in some unspecified capacity worked with the likes of Les Savy Fav and Trans Am. Together they're creating a sound that's taking the more electrically driven vibe of the most recent Spray Paint releases into a dark and hazy, heavily industrial-leaning psychedelic nightmare kind of realm somewhat reminiscent of Exhaustion, Haunted Horses or Danyl Jesu, as well as the dub-infused soundscapes of Exek, with whom they also share that certain taste of Swell Maps.
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Guadalajara, Mexico group Mess recently put out yet another EP whose totally unashamed oi!-ness is, to be perfectly honest, a bit too much for me to bear. This more post punk-leaning two-track digital single they released just a week earlier is pure gold though.
In my bumbling quest to get some at least some shit done, here are three posts worth of recent hardcore punk standouts rolled into one. First there are five bursts of rather quirky, unconventional noisemaking courtesey of Chicago's Deodorant, who had already released a fun little album via Not Normal Tapes in 2018. On their newest EP, they cover a lot of ground ranging from oldschool hard-/postcore weirdos like Saccharine Trust, Beefeater, Really Red or early Minutemen, to more recent groups á la Optic Nerve and Mystic Inane, rounded out by a few subtle cowpunk vibes like in King Samo. If all of that shit's way to smartypants artsy for that tiny brain of yours to handle, you might prefer the way more straightforward ruckus of slightly garage-infused no-frills oldschool mayhem as presented by Dye of Kansas City. But then again, in case that sounds like way too much fun and you prefer a bit more death, despair and insanity in your punk rock, we've got you covered too in the form of Dallas group Urn's latest EP whose relentless attack comes off about as dark and muddy as a pot of stale burnt coffee… disgusting and vitalizing at the same same time.
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Having released a somewhat hit-and-miss debut tape last year, the Berlin group's newest LP shows off a considerably matured, heavily roots- and folk-influenced flavor of post punk whose overall vibe echoes the americana-/cowpunk of Angst while also evoking with a bit of post-Miami Gun Club and solo Rikk Agnew. Among their contemporaries, you might compare them to groups such as Jackson Reid Briggs & The Heaters and Low Life. Other times, like in Reanimation, Pissing and Look Of Disgust you can sense a certain british invasion-style melancholia with hints of The Resonars or The Bevis Frond. So in a nutshell, this ain't quite your average selection of ingredients for a punk album… which kinda makes this a perfect fit for Erste Theke Tonträger who, as i just learned, are gonna be handling the european vinyl release of this beauty.
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Barcelona group Algara initially burst onto the scene last year with a four track demo as an electro punk duo, which then quickly grew into a four-piece group and promptly released another tape consisting of a re-recording of the first EP's songs as well as some tracks meant for their first longplayer, which we finally get to witness in its full glory now. In the meantime their sound has evolved into a compact and effortlessly flowing fusion of post-, garage- and electro punk that might be described as a mix of ISS, Straw Man Army, Rank/Xerox and UZS, only broken up right in the middle by the strong synthwave flourishes of Hedonistas.
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A new Warttman Inc. release by a group made up of some of the usual suspects known from bands such as Research Reactor Corp., Satanic Togas and The Gobs, so you already kinda know what to expect. Needless to say, this is some gloriously dumb and rippin' shit.
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Orlando's Cherry Cheeks aka some dude by the name Kyle Harms has already made some waves last year with a string of four increasingly awesome EPs, yet his debut full length on Total Punk feels a bit unexpected as it, for the most part, departs from the heavily synth-based garage- and power pop sound of its predecessors for a somewhat more conventional, guitar-centric DIY garage punk aesthetic. That certainly doesn't mean these new songs were lacking any of the earlier releases' thrills - this shit's a rather inventive and unpredictable affair once again, quirky and catchy as fuck, bearing some similaritiy to acts like Freak Genes, Powerplant or Set-Top Box.
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