The early teaser tracks for the debut longplayer of this Melbourne group featuring members of Piss Wizard and Stray Dogs To Good Homes had already signaled kind of a drastic departure from the simple Wipers-infused garage punk of their previous EP and indeed this record is a different beast altogether, taking on more of a dusty, americana-tinged post punk vibe with echoes of eighties Scientists but also plenty of more recent stuff like the noisy post punk of Copenhagen’s Lower and the early works of Iceage; Sklitakling and Pleaser from Sweden, americana- and cowpunk-influenced US groups like Weak Signal and Bambara, or Australia’s own Optic Nerve and Refedex. A rich tapestry of plausible, well-established influences to draw from for sure but these folks absolutely make it their own with tons of resilient song substance providing the foundation to expand upon for their noisy eruptions, determined performances, a fully matching vehicle of haunting sonics for the frank, urgent lyrics and vocals of frontwoman Freya Tanks.
Reuben Sawyer has been active for quite a while already with various groups and projects in a wide variety of musical styles, though he only really entered the 12XU universe in 2023 with Demons Obey, his third LP under the Anytime Cowboy moniker, which has been a strange beast for sure in juxtaposing elements of blues-ish and jangly cowpunk- and garage pop with a somewhat surreal, otherworldly quality anchored by Sawyer’s uncannily calm vocal delivery. His newest LP now may as well be his strongest, most accomplished one yet, streamlining his previously somewhat cluttered disjointed sonic space into an unexpectedly cohesive whole, making his equally odd, catchy and melancholic compositions – enabled by some next-level songwriting chops – glow and sparkle like never before.
These folks based in Biel, Switzerland have created a true slow burn-type of a record here via the local imprint Chrüsimüsi Records that frequently takes its sweet time to get to the point but pays off handsomely when you stick with it. The sluggish crawl of an opening tune Different Times immediately reminds me of the dusty, desert-flavored americana rock of Weak Signal, which then gets transformed into very much of a post punk context in the following tune Bubbles while songs like Peace Of Mind have some obvious Velvet Underground energy flowing through them and a undercurrent of oldschool art- and glam rock that’s also ever-present in The Candidate. At other times, i’m frequently reminded of Berlin’s folk-ish Post Punkers Dead Finks, the earlier work of London’s Witching Waves, a decelerated variant of The Cowboy or Flatworms, the earthy garage rock of Honey Radar or the spiky art punk of Far Corners and Germ House… even the first Peace de Résistance LP may at times resonate with this.
This Philadelphia group’s debut tape is kind of a rarity in this day and age as a post punk-adjacent record that stubbornly resists classification into any specific preexisting sub-niche, but you all know i’m gonna try anyway, right? The folk-ish americana feel of the opening track Full Speed Ahead (ironically one of the slower tunes here) evokes the widescreen drama of a Dead Finks record while the following three tunes retain much of that quality but also exhibit plenty of markedly different vibes not entirely dissimilar to the work of such present-day post punk staples like Tube Alloys, Corker, earlier Pyrex, Marbled Eye and, most of all, VR Sex, whose somber and dark energy may be the closest match of the bunch overall, but where that group’s output was always marked by a layer of artificiality and clinical detachment, these tunes feel a lot more rustic, grounded and thoroughly lived-in.
A pretty fucking stunning debut LP from an Alamance, North Carolina duo excelling in a hazy and hypnotic mixture of noise rock, post punk, oldschool indie rock and the darkest alleys of the americana spectrum. The latter tendency often come across like a more vicious and propulsive take on the muddy southern gothic charm of (quite paradoxically) NYC based group Weak Signal but also, at certain points, you may find traces of the blues-y proto-noise rock of Feedtime and Scratch Acid, the swamp rock of eighties Scientists. The overarching melancholy of the whole affair then again reminds me of somewhat indie rock-leaning groups like Australia’s Kitchen’s Floor, Treehouse and earlier stuff of London’s Witching Waves on one hand, the moody, eccentric post punk of acts like Auckland/Berlin-based groups Trust Punks, Dead Finks on the other, with further similarities to the deep abysses of Atlanta’s Uniform, Glittering Insects, Mother’s Milk or the folk-ish Angst- and Meat Puppets-indebted neo-proto-grunge of Bellingham, Washington group Pig Earth and Madison, Wisconsin’s Dharma Dogs. All of that is being rolled expertly into ten all-killer-no-filler widescreen melodramas here with perfect sonic architectures marked by super effective buildups and payoffs.
Brilliant new shit from folks who’ve previously been playing, among others, in Melbourne’s infamously abrasive post punk act Sewers as well as the somewhat more accessible, indie rock-leaning outfit Love Of Diagrams. What we get here is once again pretty much off the beaten path, a heavily folk-infused melange in which the americana-drenched punk of, say, Angst collides with some 80s Scientists, a hint of british psychedelia and plenty of paisley underground jangleness – a deep melancholia, at times a little reminiscent of Brisbane’s Kitchen’s Floor finding its outlet in nonetheless catchy-as-fuck melodies, embedded into a kinda fuzzy, nebulous soundscape. Other times, the melodic post punk of The Estranged comes to mind or the relaxed psychedelic garage- and power pop of White Fence, The Cairo Gang. Other plausible references include more or less recent groups á la Damak, earlier Chronophage, Dead Finks, Refedex and The Molds.
it took them a while but finally this Austin, Texas group’s debut album has reached our shores and oh boy, is this a rare spectacle wildly surpassing any expactations i might’ve had for this one. Their sound is clearly and heavily inspired by certain parts of the SST Records era, prime among these being the folk-/americana-infused punk rock of Angst, early Meat Puppets and Minutemen while at the same time you might find bits and pieces of Saccharine Trust, early Dinosaur Jr. or Mission Of Burma in there and in more recent years, certain aspects of this lineage have been kept alive by a diverse cluster acts such as Milk Music, Chronophage, Dead Finks, Dharma Dogs and The Molds. Or Woolen Men, just maybe, if you stretch your imagination a bit.
