Now this is what i call a bulky, filthy clump of abrasive noise that greets us on this Vienna based group’s second Tape and their first full length effort at that. At first glance, this shit appears to primarily channel the likes of Flipper, No Trend and a touch of early Swans, plus a decent chunk of old No Wave-ish excess. But listen a bit closer and you can also sense distinct echoes of eighties japanese psych-noise groups like The Rabbits or the the US art punk classics of Chrome and MX-80. Tunes like Entropy, then again, have a bit more of an early 2010s Copenhagen vibe á la Lower and Iceage to them and while i’m already namedropping shit from that era, there might aswell be a bit of Soupcans in there. Anyway, this is fourty excellent minutes of weapons-grade sonic assault to overwhelm your senses, blow your mental fuses, bypass all inhibitions and when it’s done with you, you just feel gross and wanna take a fucking shower ASAP so yeah, this record accomplishes everything it set out to do.
Last year’s full length debut of this Raleigh, North Carolina group already made a lasting impression and their latest EP via the local scene bulwark Sorry State Records continues in a similar vein, although there are also gradual changes to be gleaned here, with their overall aesthetic feeling more playful this time and not quite as grim as it still was on the LP, with those quirky toy keyboard vibes and a good deal of nutty ideas making for an excellent counterweight to their otherwise pretty much wrecking ball-like sound inbetween the worlds of Noise Rock, Post- and Synth Punk that once again reminds me a lot of groups á la Isotope Soap, Broken Prayer, Powerplant, Kerozine or Beef.
The past couple weeks had quite an abundance of incredible short-form 2-track releases and i’m even shorter on time than i anticipated as, on top of my infamously unreliable brain chemistry, this week also came up with a family emergency for me to help mitigate, so i’m gonna take the liberty of just dumping the four strongest of the batch in a single post.
The most surprising of thiose was certainly the debut (?) single of Atlanta, Georgia group Assembly, covering a pretty wide and eclectic stylistic spectrum in the postcore, noise- and math rock field ranging from classic ’90s and early ’00s Dischord-flavored sounds of the Faraquet, Bluetip and Q And Not U variety over other ’90s phenomena like Polvo, Braniac and Chavez to more recent noise rock and art punk acts like Wax Chattels, Solderer, Body House, Haunted Horses and, most of all, Spray Paint and assiciated later acts Rider/Horse and During.
Australia’s Tee Vee Repairman – yeah, of course it’s another group of Gee Tee’s Ishka Edmeades – follows up a bunch of previous EPs and a brilliant LP with a new 7″ whose two songs can easily be counted as among the finest in a discography that’s never been lacking in infectious power pop melodies to begin with.
In a similar vein, there’s a new Smirk (aka Nick Vicario, also of Public Eye, Crisis Man und Cemento) 7″ that also sees the dude considerably upping his songwriting game, going places we haven’t seen of him before with Domestic Dog kinda fusing oldschool anarcho and post punk flourishes with a pronounced 77-ish melodicity and an almost Television-like spaciousness that also permeates the other tune Manhunt in Paradise, the whole of which sounds a bit like the most recent Institute LP being taken a step further in its art punk elegance.
And finally, in contrast to the previous bands, we have an example of a group plainly serving up more of the same and what a brilliant kind of “same” that is, the new 7″ of Brooklyn power pop group Shop Talk who’ve so far always blown me away with every new release and the new one can do no wrong either, with Museum Of Sex being another flawless instance of catchy and straightforward ’77-ish punk with that distinct Dickies flavor while the more intricately constructed Gaslight slows things down a bit, adds a more melancholy vibe and equal parts of a Buzzcocks- and Replacements quality to the mix. A knockout tune to say the least.
Considering the rave reactions i’ve heard so far about this Melbourne group’s shows, their good-not-great 2024 debut EP so far had convinced me that their probably incredible live sound has been struggling a bit to translate into recorded form. Well, i can certainly say that this is less of an issue for much of their new mini LP which makes an overall much stronger impression for their sparkling sound that at times kinda reminds me of the psychedelic and variably surf-infused garage rock of Crsytal Stilts and Disappears mixed with a hint of early No Age and maybe White Fence, in addition to the eccentric monotonous fuzz escapades of City Yelps and the ethereal, abstract post punk melancholia of Kitchen’s Floor and Mother’s Milk… A quirky mixture that is for sure but it works quite admirably. Even when the band runs an acute risk of overstretching their most airy qualities in the record’s slow middle stretch, the bet pays off and shit just refuses to come apart, however precarious it might look at first glance..
The Nashville, Tennessee eggpunk übergroup is back with a second LP that ain’t nearly as radical a departure from their previous work as the thumping electric beats of the preview track Worldwide would’ve had us believe at first. Rather, after the culture shock of their first LP which saw their first live band incarnation ripping through most of the early EPs’ material with unrelenting hardcore intensity, this new one is in parts a bit of a return to the playful and varied experimentation of their early days. Like with its predecessor, we’ve heard some of these tunes before in one form or another, most notably Subdivision, which has first been heard all the way back in 2022 on their Town Topic 7″ and the Beatles cover tune Come Together which goes even further back, first appearing on 2021’s G.T.R.R.C. III compilation, though both have been given a thorough makover here and so have most of the previously known tunes. What can is say, this album is yet another fun, glorious freakout of quirky, catchy noise on the fringes of garage- and post punk that never seems to run out of steam and ideas.
Two years after their super fun debut EP, Philadelphia’s cleanest finally present us with their first LP which doubles down on the chaotic energy of their disjointed art punk that sits comfortably between the chairs of dissonant, oldschool no wave-ish noise, artcore elements akin to early Minutemen and also plenty of more recent phenomena from artsy post punk groups like Patti, Reality Group and Brandy to more postcore-leaning acts like Big Bopper, Cutie, Mystic Inane and Rolex. And i gotta say, their math-y convoluted sound does a pretty decent job of approximating the mental overload and challenge the task of cleaning up the cave presents to my ADHD-cluttered, probably mildly autistic brain… but they sure make it sound like the most fun activity in the world.
As you may have noticed, i have an unhealthy habit of comparing lots of bands to Saccharine Trust, some of whom may have never listened to Saccharine Trust to begin with. Now here’s a group actually confessing to that specific influence for a change, refreshing! The music of these Hungarians doesn’t disappoint either, their debut LP having a bit of an oldschool anarcho bent to itself and plenty of a Drive Like Jehu energy to boot, a touch of Big Black in Általános Életkrízis Magyarországon and glittering Sonic Youth-Style guitar textures all throughout with further similarities to more recent post punk phenomena like Straw Man Army, Marbled Eye, Institute and Corker. Best of all, their sound is bolstered by plenty of substance, their compositions being held together by smart, rock-solid craftsmanship and wise sonic construction.
What an effortlessly ass-kicking affair that is, the new tape by Winston Hightower and his new-ish crew, expanding their 2023 debut EP with four new tracks. Equally out-there and propulsive, these tunes cover a decent spectrum of fuzz-laden noise spread out inbetween the cornerstones of eccentric garage punk á la UV Race, Tyvek or Shark Toys, 2010s (proto-) egg punk of acts like Hobocop, early Skull Cult, and more recent liabilities in the vein of Print Head, Erik Nervous and that newest Billiam 7″. That shit rips, in other words.
Excellent new shit, the debut EP of this Nottingham, UK group whose style feels kinda fluid, evading categorization as a whole even if the isolated components feel fairly familiar, the most immediately striking ones being the eggpunk-related eccentricities of Snooper, early Skull Cult, Busted Head Racket, Clarko on one hand and the considerably rougher weirdness of Warp, Beef, Scud on the other while at times even approaching the unpredictable off-the-rails eclecticism of Pressure Pin, Checkpoint or TY.
Is it the third Dragnet LP already? Time flies man. For some reason (time & energy, usually) i’ve never given them the full blog post treatment here but i’m also gonna say they’ve never before sounded quite as tight, well-rounded, caffeinated and to-the-point as the Melbourne group featuring members of Vintage Crop, Gonzo and Teen Line among others does on their newest record. There’s on one hand that slight Uranium Club-esque vibe to it that also pervades much of the Vintage Crop discography but there’s just as much of a distinct quirky synth-driven, eggpunk-ish action going on that sits somewhere inbetween oldschool Ausmuteants, US bands like Smirk, Cherry Cheeks and Australia’s own Ghoulies, Aborted Tortoise and Electric Prawns 2.
