This Cincinnati group’s second EP sets off a strong new set of highly flammable charges made up of ingredients found somewhere in the grey areas of Noise Rock, Post-, Garage- and Synth Punk… a bit like an unstable mixture of Busted Head Racket, Brandy, R.Clown, ISS, Spyroids and Knowso boiled down to an almost ’70s/’80s The Fall-esqe simplicity and repetition.
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Garage punk meets math rock meets psychedelia meets postcore on this breathless new tape by Minneapolis group Tricks, at different times bearing similarities to recent groups as diverse as Reality Group, Uranium Club, Yammerer, Big Bopper, Patti, Ex-Cult, Rolex, Shark Toys, Sauna Youth… at times you might even percieve a slight 90s Dischord vibe á la Jawbox, Faraquet and Medications.
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I gotta say, following up on a promising but still somewhat undercooked and inconsistent debut tape from two years ago, i’m kinda blown away by the hypnotic pull of this second album by an Oakland (?) group having among their ranks members of a whole bunch of household numbers – The World, Andy Human and the Reptoids, Rays and Violent Change might just be the most familiar names among those for longtime watchers of this space, but these are just the tip of the iceberg really. While you can plausibly pick out some similarities to all these groups, i’m way more reminded of the relaxed post- and garage punk of australian groups UV Race and Wireheads, enhanced with some flavor of british psychedelia (Vital Idles come to mind as a contemporary reference), even a smidge of Wire and early Barrett-era Pink Floyd in Let The Light In. Just as well though, they might have drawn plenty of inspiration from ’70s-’80s british DIY culture with groups á la Membranes, Swell Maps, Mekons and Desperate Bicycles being the closest comparisons i can pull out of my ass right now.
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At first glance i couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed by the lack of new material on the Nashville group’s debut LP but then again, i can’t say these new recordings of songs mostly known from previous EPs don’t slap – they kick some serious ass, trading in some of the previous releases’ shambolic quirkiness for a bit more of a hardcore edge and while i’ve really grown fond of the EPs’ Lo-Fi aesthetics, there have also been some examples on these that never quite clicked with me in their earlier versions and its those songs that gain the most on this LP which is likely also a closer representation of the group’s current live sound, their shows having gained kind of a legendary reputation at this point. Can’t wait to see these folks tour Europe.
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Excellent shit, this recorded-live-on-tour debut album by a group from Metz, France. This stuff can be roughly classified as (neo-) no wave funk with, just maybe, a slight added touch of eggpunk and occasional moments of ’90s Dischord universe. Maybe think of a more energetic, direct, danceable and minimalist, less artsy variant of groups á la D.U.D.S., Pill or N0V3L.
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Hyperactive, quirky and chaotic yet equally smart and elaborate, slightly no wave-ish post punk from Bandung, Indonesia! This is essential new fodder for fans of shit in the vein of, say, Patti, Reality Group, Big Bopper and Exit Group.
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This thing isn’t exactly new at this point, having been self-released last fall on their bandcamp page. It took a cassette edition via Leipzig label U-Bac for me to actually realize its qualities though, which are really no surprise with hindsight as there are folks from polish post-/art-/math punk powerhouses Ukryte Zalety Systemu and Kurws at work here. This promises some smart and beautifully structured chaos and on this record, it comes in droves, calling to mind, along with the aforementioned groups, the occasional flash of Spray Paint or Lithics and even some Faraquet and Swell Maps to boot!
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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.
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Portland label Spared Flesh Records has established itself as a real treasure chest of quirky, unconventional garage- and post punk goodness over the course of just over two years and the newest cassette is no exception. Society is a solo project of Sims Hardin who you might have also heard as part of Philadelphia groups Mesh and Toe Ring. Having already made a great impression with last year’s All Flies Go To Hell EP, the second one seamlessly continues the scrappy charm of his sound hovering somewhere inbetween the strange worlds of ’80s cassette culture and other artifacts on the fringes of garage-, proto-, post- and art punk. Think of a fusion of Modern Lovers, early Mekons, The Fall and Desperate Bicycles and you’re roughly on the right track. Or you might compare them to more recent groups like the rustic jams of Honey Radar, Far Corners, Germ House and earlier Woolen Men, the proto-meets-post-punk experiments of Shark Toys and NY’s Peace de Résistance.
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It took a couple years to materialize but here it finally is, the first LP by some dude of unclear whereabouts who previously sparked our curiosity with a kickass 7″ also on Iron Lung Records in 2019. The full length debut is everything you could have hoped for in a new batch of kinda Devo-fied, whimsical, deliciously insane garage-/synth-/eggpunk malfunctions, spicing things up with a slight touch of Television guitar leads and solos added to an overall mixture whose rough parameters also kinda reflect a bunch of more recent phenomena vaguely in the Snooper, Useless Eaters, Alien Nosejob, Set-Top Box, Mononegatives or R.M.F.C. ballpark.
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