It's been a few years since i last heard of London group Sarcasm. On their latest and, apparently, last EP their ultra-minimalist post punk with strong hints of Crass and more recent bands like Marbled Eye, Rank/Xerox or Labor still sounds pretty much as if not a minute has gone by since then, which is totally fine with me. Quite possibly, these songs were recorded not long after their 2017 Malarial Bog EP.
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Brussels group Warm Exit has a new EP out and just as i suspected that thing fuckin' rules. Four new high voltage garage-/synth punk smashers somewhere in the neighborhood of Powerplant, Ausmuteants or whatever the Warttman empire is up to right now.
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More quality shit courtesey of Deluxe Bias. This absurdly short cassingle of noise in the realm of KBD-informed weirdcore, garage- and post punk will sure be a delight to folks who've already developed a huge boner for Mystic Inane, Rolex or Fried E/M.
On their second LP, noise rock/postcore trio Trigger Cut considerably raise the energy level without sacrificing much of the precision work, sophisticated structures and arrangements we've already witnessed on their debut album. Especially in the first half there are some serious Jawbox and Bastro vibes going on. In the past i'd have told you that Ralf Schaarschmidt's current and past bands are among the very best the german noise rock scene has to offer but honestly, at this point, even worldwide there aren't that many groups operating at their level.
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Here's a holdover from last week by a single Milwaukee dude (i guess) that i first planned to omit here but on closer listening turned out to be much stronger than i initially thought. A catchy, dreamy, melancholic blend of lo-fi noise pop, organ-and-synth punk unfolds on these tapes that also radiates a good deal of oldschool Flying Nun-type psychedelia.
Man, this has been a lame week as far as new music is concerned. I don't wanna withhold from you one standout release though, this little gem operating right in the middle between garage punk, hard- and postcore - kinda like a mix between Fried E/M, Modern Needs, Mystic Inane… with a spoonful of Drive Like Jehu thrown in at the right moments.
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Following last year's somewhat more refined full-length debut, the second LP by Atlanta dark-/post punk group Nag feels more like a throwback to their earlier EPs - and i mean that in all the best ways. These songs are raw as fuck, the arrangements almost as sparse as you can possibly stretch the genre before it's gonna collapse. Why write a goddamn novel when all you need to get across is a single but rather desperate sentence?
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Nice surprise indeed, this lathe cut 7" debut by some Austin duo making catchy noise somewhere in the realm of power- and garage pop. Especially the killer A-Side I'm Old will no doubt be a feast for fans of bands like Tommy & The Commies, Bad Sports, Radioactivity, Cheap Whine or Sonic Avenues.
This group of unclear provenance recently put out their second tape - once again via Wyoming cassette label Deluxe Bias - and just like the first one it's a massive lo-fi blast of noise that sounds a bit like The Stooges and MC5 reimagined as a hardcore band. A certein Bad Brains drive adds even more to the overall oldschool vibe and in the current scene, you might describe them as a slightly souped-up version of Vexx… yeah, makes perfect sense i guess. Their fuel's got 50% more X.
I already liked this Philadelphia group's first tape a lot but its successor raises the bar even higher for their own mixture of garage-, post- and dungeon punk that doesn't shy away from allowing quite a bit of very oldschool "heavy" metal into the mix - in regards to the movie just as much as the genre.
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