Excellent shit, the second EP by this Christchurch, New Zeeland group on which they combine quite a bit of oldschool aussie Rock'n'Roll á la Radio Birdman, Saints and New Christs with also a ton of oldschool "heavy" ur-metal and motörpunk into four sweaty puddles of filth, an unapologetically sleazy strain of garage punk that reminds me a lot last decade's mainstays Golden Pelicans and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Cement Shoes as well as the Split System/Stiff Richards/Cutters-adjacent sleazepunk act Polute.
Melbourne's Kitchen People as a band are about as old at this blog and although it took them a couple years to turn into the highly combustible garage punk force we know them as today, their 2020 EP Planet Earth sure saw the group in creative overdrive and their newest six-track cassette once again is nothing short of brilliant! No wonder, since these folks are partly responsible for other top-rated groups such as Ghoulies, Pleasants, Aborted Tortoise and Dr. Sure's Unusual Practice, all of whom are perfectly suitable references for describing these quirky and slightly egg-ish garage-, post- and synth punk tunes, in addition to such household names as Ausmuteants, Checkpoint and Research Reactor Corp..
Another kickass EP by this suspiciously Berlin-sounding Augsburg group delivers four perfectly balanced, elaborately constructed bursts of post punk that knows to spice up the genre-typical darkness and despair with plenty of an Estranged-esque sense of melody, exquisitely exploiting oldschool post punk's established tropes, conventions and possibilities while applying firm pressure towards the genre's boundaries and limitations all the same. As with their previous EP, there's really no way around comparing them to a number of Berlin-based groups á la Pigeon, Glaas, early Diät and Pretty Hurts, german-language acts such as Die Wärme, Hyäne, Maske, Die Verlierer and L'appel Du Vide as well as international genre powerhouses like Rank/Xerox, Criminal Code, Sievehead and, as i've already mentioned, The Estranged.
An incredible debut by some NYC group, oscillating somewhere around the rough parameters of hardcore, fuzz-, art- and post punk. Not least because of these psychedelic synth stylings i can't help but think of the hallucinogenic cowpunk nightmares of another awesome New York City act, Murderer, while in their mellower and catchier moments this surely has a similar quality to past-decade fuzz punk greats á la Feature or Slowcoaches.
Having already made a bit of a splash with last year's quite promising debut EP, this group based in Madrid, Spain follows up with an even stronger 4-track EP, starting out with a pair of simple and undiluted punk attacks in some kind of hardcore-meets-post-punk mode followed by the melodic punk rock of Quiero Ser Olvidado and the crowning closing track La Luz, a perfect example of propulsive post punk operating roughly in the oldschool Criminal Code and Sievehead mould. More of this shit, please!
Another neat little cassette of moderately egg-related insanity comes our way from this Madrid group, operating in a nebulous zone somewhere inbetween the worlds of garage punk and spaced-out melodic fuzz punk, spiced up with quite a bit of surf rock twang and some dense psychedelic haze. All in all i'd say this shit successfuly combines some of the best traits of acts like Beta Máximo, Beer, Pringue and Prison Affair into a cohesive whole.
