This group and their bandcamp profile feel weirdly familiar to me, even though this appears to be their first EP... have they changed their name maybe or had a previous release which has disappeared since? Well, most likely i'm just imagining things. Anyway, this is a neat little EP with a pretty oldschool post punk sound that at times complements its early Nots or classic Siouxsie kind of energy with just a hint of revolution summer-style early postcore urgency, most notably so in the standout tune H-21.
The second EP of these Oslo metalhead punks is yet another rippin' affair of NWOBHM-inspired hardcore thrashin' that feels a bit too old-fashioned to fit into the dungeon punk category, a bit too thrash-heavy to fit the motörpunk mold. There's also a bit of a '90s postcore quality goin'on in the closing track Shallow Grave. Sitting comfortably in the middle between a good number of adjacent niches, this is a record that scratches many itches at once and i'm all here for it.
Damn, has this band from Alicante, Spain upped their game since their promising but still inconsistent 2024 EPs! This is a make of Garage- and Eggpunk that on one hand operates very much inside the templates set by predominantly spanish groups á la Prison Affair, Sprgrs, Finale, Pringue or US-based acolytes Beer, but does so with a raw and propulsive force missing from many lesser players in the subgenre and these dudes also got the catchy-ass tunes to match the breakneck energy of their performance.
Physicalist is a new group from Vancouver i presume, centering around Dave P of the local power pop sensation Night Court whose catchy qualities are also present on this record of otherwise pretty different sonics, an infectious blend of hard-, art- and postcore with a distinct garage punk edge and melodic overtones which overall reminds me of a bunch of groups like Mystic Inane, Rolex, Launcher on the more hard-/artcore side of things and The Dumpies, Sauna Youth and Eyeball on the catchier, pop- and garage leaning side.
I don't have that much insightful to say about this nice EP other than this Boise, Idaho group dabbles in a certain sub-niche carved out previously by groups like Prison Affair, Beer and maybe Set-Top Box, playing out kinda like an extra-crude version of that particular stretch of the eggpunk landscape and succeeding exactly because of that dissonant crudeness, even if it ain't adding anything new or novel to the mix here.
Rough-ass KBD-infused oldschool garage punk shit that sounds to me as if the early works of Strange Attractor got fused with the primitive-as-fuck aesthetics and raw energy of early The Dogs or American Muscle, albeit with an altogether more solid and reliable bunch of tunes to draw from than what the aforementioned two acts had to work with in their earliest days. This shit kicks some serious ass, plain and simple.
Today's Milk Good People The UTI’s 2079 Demolition Man Never Win Gleex Graboid Ritalin F.M. Like It's Something I Dont Know Aidmoozic Shamefully Out of Shape Cryogenic Division (Oh My) Quick Death PeeCeeTee Can't Tell Me Shit Raya Ya no está Super Destroyer Mutant Cop Personal Style Don’t Turn It Down Ø Shoot! Los Monstruos De Frankenstein ¡¡¡AAHHH!!! The Nervous Ready To Die Problem Addict Frog Guy Unregistered Falcon Import Cigarettes
Excess Blood Cathedral Park Early Grave Evil Terror Chemical Threat Fight It Out Neonatals Dry Brain Skelett Electric Sledgehammer U.A.V. T.T.S. Yankee Bastard 선군 Action Figure Get A Real Job Public Error Messed Up Cruciflys Rebel Crow Pure Intention Nocturnal Aggression The Dogs I Didn't Ask Bilge Horses D.Sablu Love What You Hate (And Love That You Hate It) Isotope Soap From the Trees Crystal Ball Lotus Eater
Tracklist
Skinny Peachfuzz & Tiffany Liar, Liar The Bright Ideas Bayonet Top Secret Nicho Lands Bowler The Messenger Wire Doll Active Directive Landowner Enemy Attack Ismatic Guru If You Don't Wanna Know Wax Head Bug Doctor Osees Synaptic Static The Dumpies Stunty Psychic Armour Ugly Planet Dog Lips Losing Ground
Saturday Morning Speed Dead to Rights Bea666 Why? Shop Talk Love Dart Powerband Don't Matter Power Pants Sarah Connor Friends of Cesar Romero Be My Little Maybe X-88 Heavensent (Feel It Again) Toys That Kill Into The Rumble Orsini Frío cemento Station Model Violence Leisure Institute The Shooter
The trajectory Brooklyn punks Shop Talk have taken over the years has certainly been among the less likely ones, having first come to my attention with their self-titled 2016 debut mini-LP, still featuring what i'd describe as a more leaned-back garage punk style very much of its time, somewhere inbetween equal parts Gun Club and contemporary acts of the time like Woolen Men and Eddy Current Suppression Ring. After that, it took them like seven years before their next release, 2023's incredible The Offering EP which saw both a thorough overhaul and significant maturation of their sound defined by catchy-ass '77-ish hooks rarely heard in such a rousing manner since the glory years of Dickies, Buzzcocks and Adverts, which would already be more than enough for them to perfectly stand out from the pack but it's actually only half of their appeal here and wouldn't be complete without the equally melodic, elaborate guitar work of front man Jon Garcia and his vicious yet soul- and tuneful singing. A winning formula to which they've stuck ever since and now their second or first longplayer, depending on how you count, feels like the logical culmination of all those years of infectious songcraft, half of it consisting of new material and the other half of kickass new recordings of some of their greatest hits so far, stretching back as far as their aforementioned debut record. The result sounds like a million bucks and as far as straightforward but elegant punk rock with a clear vision goes, i doubt you'll get to hear much better this year. An instant classic if i ever heard one.
