Uh... these folks appear to have been at it for ages now, yet this is the first time i've ever stumbled upon their music. The Chicago group's latest EP is one hell of a treat made up of melodic punk rock with a certain rough 80's SST-era alt rock edge - the specific breed that became kind of a thing again for a short period in the early 2010s but has since then been an increasingly rare ocurrence once again. Think of a mix between early Milk Music, Needles//Pins, California X, Commander Keen or Happy Diving.
Wow, i didn't really expect that much enjoyment out of the most recent LP by this New York group... in fact, these folks have completely evaded my radar so far. What we get is a heavily Velvet Underground and Jesus and Mary Chain-inspired melange of fuzz-/power-/noise-/dream pop that convinces by sheer strength of the underlying song substance while in terms of sonics, they sure like to slow-cook their songs at low-to-moderate heat - the results are fucking delicious, just totally melting in your mouth as you relish every single hook, every speck of low-level texture in their rich sonic landscape.
I don't think i've ever given this dude from Hammond, Indiana the full spotlight he deserves here, although you might've encountered his shit on some Verspannungskassette mixtapes, where his various alter egos have been a regular occurrence in recent months. Now here are three of his latest batches of minimalist hardcore punk, each of his projects sounding pretty similar if you account for some slight variation in tempo and intensity... as well as some added bottom-of-the-barrel-end electronic reenforcement in the case of Feed, which should've rightfully earned him the title of greatest stylophone player in hardcore punk by now.
This Melbourne group delivers some of the most straight-the-fuck-ahead, no-frills ancient-school '77 style (garage-) punk imaginable on their debut EP, kinda like a way, way more traditional sounding incarnation of Amyl and the Sniffers. The fact they're able to pull this thing off without sounding the least bit stale and dusty speaks for their chops as a band as much as the raw strength of their songcraft.
Having already given an excellent first impression previously on a split tape with the great AJ Cortez, this West Palm Beach dude's follow-up EP maintains the high standard of his garage- and synth punk, radiating the quirky energy of groups such as Satanic Togas, Erik Nervous, Prison Affair, Mononegatives, RMFC... while also incorporating some '77-ish power pop sensibilities akin to Tommy and the Commies and towards the end, there's also an increasingly Alien Nosejob- / Ausmuteants-esque thing goin' on.
Wow, this group from Borée, France is juggling a shitload of different styles with striking confidence on their debut album. The thing starts out with a short, straightforward, simple blast of hardcore punk, then has them cycling through a wide array of styles including forceful postcore, hard rockin' upper-mid-tempo garage rock/-punk, groovy angular post punk and even some vaguely Pixies-esque, surf-infused oldschool 80s indie-/alternative rock. All of this they pull off with ease - there's not a single weak link on this record. Impressive shit all the way through!
A nice little battery of vaguely egg-ish garage punk and fuzz pop combining more recent weirdness à la Print Head or Freak Genes with a good measure of Desperate Bicycles, some early Flying Nun Records vibes - especially The Clean and The Stones - a touch of C86 pop (as in Cowboys Aren't Real) or also: loads of random 80s cassette culture artifacts that might or might not have cropped up on some Messthetics/Homework/Hyped To Death compilation over the years.
With members of Vexx, Gen Pop and Sweeping Promises among them, who’d expect anything short of sheer awesomeness from this Seattle group? Sheer awesomeness is exactly what we get, of course. These eight songs are noise pop candy of the highest caliber, taking some cues out of the playbook of vaguely surf-, more or less JMC-influenced acts such as early Primitives, Joanna Gruesome, early Wavves, Male Bonding or, most recently, UV-TV, the underlying songs being strong enough to still work if you strip away the ubiquitous layer of fuzz, as they do in the gorgeous title track, a melancholy dream pop ballad.
Curious mixture of hardcore-, anarcho- and post punk on this Kingston, NY group’s debut tape, assembling a distinct style out of gritty KBD-drenched vibes à la Launcher, a hint of UK82 energy, plenty of Rudimentary Peni and the occasional bit of Crass.
Heavily retro-leaning post punk, made in Berlin and sounding exactly like you'd come to expect by that fact. You might recognize a familiar voice grumbling about here, the dude having done a similar thing with his other band Maske, although the overall vibe here is even a notch more gritty, sometimes having a slightly Wipers-esque quality and, at other points, a touch of S.Y.P.H. as well as more recent phenomena like Aus, Hyäne, Die Wärme or Peter Muffin und die Heilsarmee. In other words: This might have come out sometime around '81 just as well. There's a couple of underwhelming filler tracks on here - forgivable and totally made up for by the undeniable highlights of this album. Just don’t try another attempt at funk next time, okay?
