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?
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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.
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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.
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!
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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.
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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 →Far Green Arcade releases June 4th via Tomothy Records.
Silver Dagger / Spliggity Splat (My Feet Are On Fire) 7" releases May 24th via Rad Girlfriend Records.
Psychic Injury releases May 30th via Drunken Sailor Records & Legless Records.
There's A Place In My Mind Where We All Burn Alive releases sometime this year via Poison City Records.
Società Mentale releases June 6th via La Vida Es Un Mus Discos
Too much cool new shit, that's my favorite luxury problem and it's what the past few weeks had in store, so a C-90 won't suffice this time. That, and also i totally had to add a ten-minute tune to the tracklist because why the fuck not? Dial A for fuzzed-out depravity and general mayhem. B for egg-ish dementia, quirky and forbidden fun and games for the whole family. C for darkness, death and despair. D for some beeps & bloops, followed by hits, hooks and melodies.
Favoured State That's Life
Homeless Cadaver Cadaviar
208 Tantrum
Fulmine Randagio
Fen Fen Dumb
Baghed LKWO
Grand Final Boomtown
Yobs Shitty Eye
Googon Electrodildonics
The Cut-Ups Chenango County Fair
Solvent No Recourse
Norms Struktúra Kultúra
Rouge Paint It Red
Total Sham Keep It Rollin'
Coyote Annoying Dickhead
Purgatorio Una Broma
Personal Damage Cull the Herd
Future of Despair Remnants
Jimsobbins Tv Society
Tiffany Junkfood
So Cow Summer Is Icumen In Again
Cindy7 Wall
The Dogs We Are The Dogs
Billiam I Was A Teenage RNG Freak
Shawnis and The Shimmers Queer Planet
Goblin Daycare Liar, Liar
D.I.M La conduite
Egg Idiot Barf Life
Kapow! KAPOW!
Music For Microwaves Piracy
Tommy Cossack & The Degenerators Bed Sores
Trashdog neUtron danS ShoT-gun wee
Nervous Tick and The Zipper Lips Realign my Mind
Videoflip Pas de mon monde
Elektrokohle I Wanna Cry
Nag Insert A Thought
Monda Hot Tag
Síntesis Vacaciones en Tel Aviv
Whiphouse Lie Cheat Steal Repeat
Girls In Synthesis Picking Things Out Of The Air
DBR Faulty
Dead Finks Baton
S:Bahn You Could Be Mine
Machiavellian Art Fear of The Outside World / Crisis
Paulo Vicious Eu Fico Eu Morro
Thyroids Fake Estate
Nick Normal Mixed Lettuces 1&2
Hyperdog Hole
Powerband Death Machine
Cherry Cheeks Cruel Bore
Vacation Psychic Gasoline
Silicone Values Stuck on Repeat
Ultra Lights Nostalgia
Bluff City Vice Big City Livin
Night Court 1000000th Song
The Dumpies Bisexual Hedgefund Manager
The Wesleys Make It My Way
This Walsall, UK group comes at us with an intentionally overpowering, uncompromising and maximally nasty clump of dissonant, kinda monotonous noise bridging the gap between only the most confrontative fringes of post punk, noise rock and postcore. Interestingly, almost all of the comparisons i can come up with right now already date a few years back, reminding me of how much of an unexpectedly fertile decade the 2010s were for unwieldy noise rock fare, a genre i struggle to find much excitement in, looking at the current landscape. This record takes me right back there, to the genre's second golden era of groups such as early Metz, USA Nails, Keepers, Overtime, Death Panels, Greys, Vangas, Tunic or John (timestwo). Well, at least a couple of these are still around. Then again, the thick veil of constant, dissonant blown-out noise texture these songs stay cloaked in at all times, somewhat reminds me of the short-lived US post punk sensation Dasher, while the cacophonous saxophone parts call to mind Nearly Dead and the kinda obscure australian 1980s post punk act Fungus Brains or, whenever they add some melodic overtones like in Crime, i can even sense a bit of australian post punk / proto-noise rock powerhouse X.
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The newest of a, to be perfectly honest, fucking inpenetrable amount of releases which have accumulated on this Totowa, New Jersey group's bandcamp page over the past few years, delivers a pure spectacle of short and catchy little tunes with a maximum length of exactly one minute, firing off fourty tracks inbetween the coordinates of garage punk, power pop, oldschool indie rock and fuzz punk in well under half an hour. The whole thing makes me think of a couple of 1980s DIY punk and indie rock landmarks like the early works of Guided By Voices, Fastbacks and M.O.T.O. just as much as a couple more recent bands like Booji Boys, Print Head, Vaguess and Datenight.
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Berlin post punk solo act DBR has already been sticking around for a bit and put out a whole bunch of EPs along the way, first under the name Dee Bee Rich, later shortened to the acronym DBR. His newest cassette via Turbo Discos is easily his most accomplished and versatile creation in a while, equipping the fairly minimalist, understated approach his more recent work has gradually morphed into with a whole new sense of melody, elegance and catchyness, while still coming across quirky, playful and odd as fuck.
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