The second EP by this San Francisco group, coming to us by way of the weirdo suits at the headquarters of Discontinuous Innovation Inc., marks a quite impressive step up in energy, sophistication, elegance and stylistic variety after their already perfectly enjoyable debut cassingle in 2020. In the year 2024, their quirky and chaotic mix of postcore, post- and art punk with just a smidge of garage punk thrown in for good measure is still gonna evoke universally favorable comparisons to quirky noisemakers in the vein of Rolex, Patti, Reality Group, Big Bopper, Warm Bodies, Uranium Club and Brandy.
Songs about motor vehicles aren’t quite as ubiquitous as they once were and i’m just gonna say say deservedly so because honestly, that ancient, most wasteful mode of personal transportation can’t be phased out soon enough and the future clearly belongs to all varieties of bikes and trains. But here we go, it’s an unlikely new EP made up of nothing but carpunk tunes. Musically the thing slaps though, their weird and whimsical mix of art- and garage punk being of similar character to household names such as Vexx, Cel Ray, Warm Bodies, Warp or Fugitive Bubble.
A dense and noisy post punk spectacle unfolds on this Richmond, Virginia group’s debut EP, its four elaborately constructed songs making a fully mature and confident impression already. At times this has a curious vibe of, say, Straw Man Army plus a subtle trace of Poison Ruïn while in other places this shit reminds me a lot of some of the past decade’s more melancholy and song-oriented post punk acts in the vein of early Estranged, Public Eye, Criminal Code, Bruised, VHS, Waste Man as well as Atlanta heavyweights Wymyns Prysyn and Institute/Mothers’s Milk.
Cleveland’s Knowso for sure have been among the most idiosyncratic and memorable groups of the past couple years. Their newest full length shows them at the height of their strength once again, their amalgamation of post punk, noise- and math rock still coming across just as quirky and whimsical as it is tight, rigid and angular all the same, combining a seemingly procedural and efficient, mathematical approach with an amount of fun and catchyness you wouldn’t really expect inside these rough parameters. At this point, their sound is pretty much their own thing but if you absoiutely must compare them to other groups, you might find some similarities to stuff such as Brandy, Landowner, Big Bopper or maybe Nag in their more approachable moments.
Following a thoroughly enticing debut EP last year, Bergen, Norway group Sklitakling present an even stronger first LP, retaining the strummy, quirky charm of the debut while expanding and branching out stylistically. Their songwriting has won a lot of contour since then, their idiosyncratic arrangements coming across much crisper now. Despite their norwegian origin, i can’t help but feel reminded of the danish scene of the past decade – the Copenhagen approach to post punk you might say – with the likes of Iceage, Melting Walkmen, Spines and, just recently, Pleaser coming to mind at various points as having a similar sense of melancholy and melody. In addition, there’s a distinct cowpunk vibe at play here, kinda like an LSD-soaked early Angst, Gun Club and, especially, the more recent hallucinogenic existential nightmare of Murderer.
Whatever there is to be found out about this Cincinnati, Ohio group is cloaked in a veil of uncertainty, not helped in the least by that kinda stereotypical “loser band” history given on this cassette’s bandcamp page. So, probably, there are folks known from groups like The Serfs, The Drin, Crime of Passing and Motorbike at work here and at least some of the songs on this can be traced back to the year 2019, when they first appeared on the Pedestrian Sentiments EP. Otherwise i’m really not too sure if any of the details given are to be believed. You can’t argue with the music though, which kicks ass from start to finish, in some way evoking the aesthetics, varying fidelity and stylistic variety of golden era Guided By Voices, otherwise roughly oscillating between jangly power pop in the vein of, say, Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys or Bad Sports in tracks like Coward Of The State, Wannabe (A Star) and Silver Queen; grimy psychedelic garage rock (Didn’t Win The Lottery, Obnoxious And A Neu) as well as a couple of catchy melodic garage punk smashers carrying the signature of groups á la Booji Boys, Tyvek and Parquet Courts. It’s Been A Bad Week kinda resembles the garage-drenched noise aesthetics of A Place To Bury Strangers, Peyton’s Kids has sort of a Woolen Men feel to it and throughout, the folk-infused post punk of earlier Chronophage comes to mind more than once.
Yet another kickass EP by Chicago’s Cel Ray, picking right up where they left off on their Cellular Raymond EP earlier this year. I might be repeating myself here but once again their inventive and playful sound kinda strikes me as a combination of some of the past decade’s greatest female fronted groups á la Vexx, BB and the Blips, Negative Scanner, Gen Pop or Amyl and the Sniffers on one hand, while also being somewhat reminiscent of that current breed of squiggly garage-meets-post punk groups like Uranium Club, Reality Group, Patti, Dumb or R.M.F.C..
Buffalo, NY group Ismatic Guru’s two previous EPs were a promising and enjoyable affair already but it’s on their newest cassette that their sound finally clicks into place, their vision matured and tightened-up significantly. I’d say their mix roughly located in the fuzzy realms of garage-, synth- and eggpunk has carved out their own little niche for them by enhancing their quirky aesthetics with plenty of funky action end even some slight touch of kraut-y and psychedelic vibes, most notably in the opening and closing tracks.
These folks have been around for a couple years already and i’m kinda surprised to realize this is actually their first real full length release to date. The intro falsely hints at a somewhat progressive-ish direction, though subsequently they settle into a more familiar aesthetic, a sound that’s absolutely of their time yet kinda singular among their peers in its angular, elaborate elegance – a mixture of post- and garage punk hitting the perfect mixture of smart and fun, kinda relaxed yet incredible propulsive all the same, remarkable for its layered textures and effortless execution, also presenting them at their catchiest so far. At times you might compare them to artsy post punk groups á la more recent Institute, Exit Group and Mononegatives, the slightly psyched-up variant of this as played by, say, Marbled Eye, Waste Man, Bruised or Public Eye as well as playful, clever garage punk acts like Erik Nervous, Clarko, Tee Vee Repairman, Mononegatives, Pinch Points, Dumb, Uranium Club, Reality Group… and i could still come up with many more awesome reference points. This shit rules, plain and simple!
This Portland Group’s third full length further refines their explosive formula of seriously noise- and slightly garage-infused postcore into their most realized and elaborate effort do date, their hyperactive vision of structured chaos constantly shapeshifting and throwing curveballs all the way, leading into all kinds of interesting maneuvers. Although no two songs are too much alike on here, the most frequently applicable comparisons i can come up with are groups such as the various incarnations of New York’s Kaleodoscope, early Bad Breeeding, Acrylics and, in some parts, Crisis Man, early Video and Ascot Stabber.
