This Melbourne group's 2017 debut EP still resonates with me as one of the most unique experiences in the garage-/post-/art punk spere of its time. Almost five years having passed since then, it's no surprise their follow-up EP showcases a somewhat more streamlined yet still ambitious and surprising grab-bag of songs which continue to draw plenty of inspiration from both Chairs Missing-era Wire and early, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, this time leaning in heavier on the spaced-out post punk side of things, also sounding not quite unlike a more eleborate version of B-Boys or Gotobeds. Then at their most melodic and straightforward, Elsewhere is the kind of anthemic oldschool indie rock smasher rarely encountered these days.
Another powerful punch in the nuts from that California supergroup sharing members with the likes of Acrylics, Public Eye, Violent Change and Ceremony. Here, they deliver their most compact and vigorous set of new tunes so far, having fine-tuned their formula of equal parts hardcore- and garage punk for maximum impact, fusing the unrelenting force of Acrylics and Bad Breeding with the abrasive garage qualities of, say… early Teenanger or Video.
This dude from Schleswig, Germany already made an excellent first impression a couple weeks ago with his debut 7" on Goodbye Boozy. The artwork sure suggests some dungeon synth/-punk affinity, although sound-wise - lacking the latter genre's obvious black- and/or oldschool "heavy" metal elements - i'd rather compare this shit to recent developments on the intersection of garage-, synth- and electro punk and associated acts of the Mononegatives, Pow!, Liquid Face, Ghoulies or Slimex variety.
This Santa Ana group emits short and noisy KBD-soaked artifacts, equal parts oldschool garage- and hardcore punk with the occasional touch of Gun Club. The overall impression ain't too far off Neo Neos or any of maestro Voltaire's various hardcore projects, early Erik Nervous and maybe some hint of Launcher, meshed together with some beautiful accident of the kind that might've just as well occured on some random Deluxe Bias or Impotent Fetus release.
The busy Montreal scene has yet another head-scratcher in store for the discerning connoisseur of weird-ass garage-/post-/egg-/ADHD-punk and oh boy, is that a delightful and quirky, disjointed-as-fuck mess of an EP scavenging bits and pieces from all the right phenomena of contemporary punk eccentricity including acts such as Print Head, Reality Group, Patty, Slimex, Big Bopper or Skull Cult.
When this New York dude's enchanting and bewildering 2020 debut EP Hedgemakers hit, i didn't have the slightest clue who's the mastermind behind Peace De Résistance. Turns out it's none other than Institute vocalist Moses Brown - yeah, kinda makes sense in retrospect, i guess. Dunno how i missed that. His first longplayer now unfolds a somewhat more elaborate, yet still pretty minimalist soundscape that once again feels out of place in all the best ways - a time capsule of hazy false memories weaving early strains of proto-, art- and post punk into a vivid, semi-plausible case of the Mandela effect.
The second longplayer (ignoring last year's Her Majesty's Ship OST) by this Kaleidoscope-adjacent New York duo sees their sonics shifting into a comparatively downbeat, darker and more cumbersome, yet equally rewarding direction. There's simply no other group quite like them in the current post punk/-core landscape and these chaps clearly maintain their position on the cutting edge of contemporary (art-/post-)punk while simultaneously being perfectly aware of its rich history, culminating in what to me is the crowning achievement of this album - the slow-burning, sprawling Beware, which kinda sounds like classic landmark records of the Chairs Missing and The Argument caliber boiled down to their very essence.
Another excellent EP by that band from Graz, Austria with a sound more akin to some random Berlin group, members of whom are also playing in whatever other group you might also have heard of… i don't remember exactly and can't be bothered to look that shit up right now, okay? Post punk with an ever-so-slight death rock undercurrent. Yeah, Berlin-esque as i already mentioned, think like… Diät, Pigeon, Clock Of Time but also with some similarity to powerhouse US acts á la Rank Xerox or Institute.
I'm kinda blown away right now by the strength of that latest EP by a group probably based somewhere around the Leipzig/Berlin/Halle axis of garage- and post punk. What we get is simply first rate melodic garage shit recorded in appropriately rough fidelity, simple and stupid, stunningly effective and completely endearing. A feast for admirers of, say, Booji Boys, Sweet Reaper, Telecult... even some hint of Radioactivity / Marked Men is evident here.
Gear up for some completely unsanitized, garage-infested oldschool hardcore mayhem, just as rough as it's catchy and fun, on this EP by a Kansas City group that appears to consist of the same folks otherwise known as Dye. Fans of groups á la Fried E/m and Modern Needs are surely gonna approve of this, as will those of slightly more garage-leaning bands like Launcher, Liquid Assets or Mystic Inane.
