Orchid Club - Life Takes Time
D. Sablu - No True Silence
New Orleans garage punk dude D. Sablu did make a quite positive impression already with a string of demos and tapes in 2020-2022. On his full-length debut via Yes We Cannibal though, his artistic vision comes into much sharper focus, spanning a good deal of variety in his sound from the slightly noise rock / post punk-leaning opener Bomber Stomp to straightforward garage punk smashers like Too Much Of The News and the Dead Boys-infected tune Stuck In A Rut, altogether having a bit of a Kid Chrome, Sauna Youth or Teenanger vibe to them, sometimes veering into straight up harodcore punk territory while detonations á la Scandalous and World Peace go all-in on that tendency. Whatever shit D. Sablu touches turns into pure gold or at the very least copper on this album. In some ways this thing also positively reminds me of the most recent EP by Jean Mignon.
Album-Stream →Bootlicker - 1000 Yd. Stare
Bootlicker of Victoria, BC, Canada remain an unstoppable force on the forefront of fairly contemporary sounding, yet simultaneously kinda oldschool harodcore punk with a distinct garage edge and just a smidge of Oi!, rich in catchy hooks and penetrative riffs. Only the finest references for this shit, some of which being the likes of early Electric Chair, Chain Whip, Illiterates, Hood Rats, Crisis Man, Headcheese and Imploders.
Album-Stream →Goblin Daycare - Agitprop Hotline!
These Istanbul eggpunk warriors' debut EP of last year has certainly been among my favorite releases of 2023 and their first long-playing cassette delivers more of the same kind of fun by which i mean: irresistably catchy and quirky garage-/synth punk-smashers in a similar headspace to such genre greats as Prison Affair, Set-Top Box, Beer and Ghoulies. Tell me, what's not to like about that?
Album-Stream →Bermuda Squares - Outsider
Another nice catch took the bait and triggered the hyper-vigilant sensors at Cincinnati, Ohio garage punk stronghold Feel It Records. This Minneapolis group shares members with Green/Blue, Citric Dummies and a whole bunch more and emits some rock-sold, ultra-catchy '77 vibes on their debut LP, sorta bridging the gap between the US and UK scenes, combining all the best traits of, say, Dickies, Dead Boys and Adverts or, if you need more recent references, also bears some similarities to the likes of Shop Talk, The Celebrities, Tommy and the Commies, Sick Thoughts, Bad Sports and Tropicana.
Album-Stream →Silicone Values - Who Do You Hate? / Spirit Of The Age
Dunno if you already noticed, but the UK's most under-the-radar group of sheer awesomeness just recently released a compilation EP bringing together most of the previous singles plus three new tracks on french label SDZ Records, which is the perfect place to start if you haven't already fallen for this band hook like and sinker. Anyways, here is their newest in that endless string of two-track digital singles already and as anything the group has touched so far, this is yet another instant classic of endlessly charming Mekons-, Desperate Bicycles- and Television Personalities-informed oldschool british DIY punk goodness.
NTSC>PAL - Full Of Spots
Don't let this fake NTSC>PAL fool you 'cos it's actually just Billiam dressed up in a NTSC>PAL suit. Also, nice try namedropping Screamers which… well,I'm sure you could make a plausible case for that but at the end of the day, aside from the mere technicality of "no guitars" on this cassette, Billiam can't really help sounding like anything other than himself, which is to say: pretty damn fucking awesome!
Album-Stream →Plexi Stad - Siren Dance
Following a strong debut EP that still presented this Antwerp group from a more garage-leaning angle, the follow-up has them going all-in on a post punk vibe which on one hand takes plenty of cues from the James Chance-informed, funky end of the No Wave spectrum while also bearing a slight resemblance to the current Berlin scene and groups like Pigeon and Liiek in particular. I assume then it's more than just a lucky coincidence this thing got released on Berlin post punk label Mangel Records.
Album-Stream →O.R.F. - O.R.F.1
Fantabulous new garage-/synth-/electro punk shit from Graz, Austria, using minimal means to actually bring some fresh and as-of-yet unheard impulses to the whole eggpunk clusterfuck as, at certain points, i can't help but dub that shit Big Bl…Egg! Then again, there's also no shortage of fluffy pop melodies on here. I'm not quite sure what to make of the closing track Freibad Fürstenwald though, which… fuck me, research that shit for yourself. Or maybe don't, just… don't.
Album-Stream →