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.
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.
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.
For some reason i had my doubts about this record beforehand (dunno… might have been down to the somewhat slick production? Intelligible lyrics, urgh!) but now listening to the whole thing, i gotta say it turns out to be pretty fucking awesome shit once again, even incrementally improving on the already impressive quality standard of the Chicago group's previous releases in a flawless batch of smart and elaborate postcore tunes, which at certain points might draw comparisons to groups like Batpiss, Meat Wave, Bench Press, Bloody Gears, earlier stuff by the likes of Tunic, Pile and USA Nails, angular post punk acts like Lithics, Pill or Marbled Eye as well as occasional flashes of, say… Jawbox, Smart Went Crazy, Q and not U and mid-'90s Fugazi. What more could i ask for, really?
A neat split release via Berlin's order05records. The opening track by Atlanta post punk institution Nag surprises with some synth-equipped psychedelic vibes á la Mononegatives or some later stuff by Useless Eaters, while detonating another charge of their rough and abrasive sound we've come to know and love in the other song. On the flipside then, Italy's Astio complement the sonic assault with a slightly more conventional but no less classy, mature make of moderately melodic oldschool post punk energy, the kind we've heard before from the likes of Criminal Code, Sievehead or, more recently, Pyrex, Body Maintenance or Schedule 1.
Following their most ambitious record so far in last year's Material LP, which expanded the sonic pallette out into the weirder fringes of somewhat Desperate Bicycles-leaning art punk and also featured some of the most infectious power pop songwriting of that year, the newest 7" by Nick Vicario aka Smirk, who's also known as a member of Public Eye, Crisis Man und Cemento among others, keeps things comparatively simple and straightforward this time while his heavily sample-backed songs and arrangements still unerringly hit their mark every single time.
As i understand, Brick Head is the solo project of Sarah Hardiman who's also playing in Deaf Wish, Moon Rituals and a bunch of other groups you might've heard of. Following a still somewhat shaky debut album, the overall vision comes into much sharper focus here as all the parts just click into place on this one, interweaving familiar styles and flourishes into an ultimately quite unique experience. Carriying the hallmarks of a number of australian groups, the first things to come to mind are various incarnations of Alien Nosejob, the straightforward garage punk of Eddy Current Suppression Ring, the minimalism of The UV Race while over the course of the record, a kinda hazy, melancholic melodicism á la Kitchen's Floor increasingly takes center stage.
Sadly overshadowed by the death of their their guitar player Darrell, the Sydney group's first LP via Erste Theke signifies a major leap in quality after their already quite enjoyable previous E.T.A. EP, showcasing the band as a much tighter unit delivering their simple but effective, always catchy and danceable blend of timeless post punk with impressive precision and confidence. As before, there's plenty of Pylon groove and energy contained in here while at different points you might also find similarities to contemporary acts such as Lithics, Pinch Points, Rank/Xerox, Slumb Party or Nots, with occasional flashes of Pixies-esque surf-ish guitar leads.
A whole barrage of digital singles in recent weeks already appeared to foreshadow a new record by the London, Ontario group and indeed here it is, their second LP in all its glory, carrying an excellent new batch of their quite distinct, catchy as hell, always slightly off-kilter and quirky genre mixture containing elements of garage-, post- and synth punk, space- and psychedelic rock. You might compare some bits and pieces here to such groups as Pow!, Useless Eaters and of course the recent collaboration Telegenic Pleasures which also features some of the band members at work here - at this point though, i'd say they're pretty much carved out their own, instantly recognizable little niche.
It took a good while for this group's debut LP to finally materialize after the the label Chunklet Industries already promised this longplayer around the release of the Birds Of Juneau 7" in the summer of 2021… I suspect you can once again blame the challenges of the current vinyl economy for that. It's another strong record though, on which the group featuring members of such powerhouses as Spray Paint, Wilful Boys, Brandy, Pampers and Pyrex admirably manages to keep things exciting with quite a bit of eclectic variety. For example, we get a kind of Swell Maps-go-Synthwave vibes in HoloLens, a strong dub feel in Mallman, kinda like a sped-up variant of Exek. That all said, you can't really deny their sound obviously having inherited the largest chunk of its DNA from Spray Paint, especially their later work (although, speaking of DNA, a certain no wave vibe is ever present on here aswell). Further i've also got a suspicion though that there'll be some quite familiar sounding echoes of this record to be heard on the upcoming Pyrex LP on Total Punk!
