The New York group's newest cassette clicks with me instantly, their quirky power pop tunes striking me as a somewhat new wave-ish melange of melodic, predominantly early british post punk somewhere in the extended neighborhood of groups such as Desperate Bicycles, Mekons, Television Personalities and Swell Maps.
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This Melbourne group's 2017 debut EP still resonates with me as one of the most unique experiences in the garage-/post-/art punk spere of its time. Almost five years having passed since then, it's no surprise their follow-up EP showcases a somewhat more streamlined yet still ambitious and surprising grab-bag of songs which continue to draw plenty of inspiration from both Chairs Missing-era Wire and early, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, this time leaning in heavier on the spaced-out post punk side of things, also sounding not quite unlike a more eleborate version of B-Boys or Gotobeds. Then at their most melodic and straightforward, Elsewhere is the kind of anthemic oldschool indie rock smasher rarely encountered these days.
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When this New York dude's enchanting and bewildering 2020 debut EP Hedgemakers hit, i didn't have the slightest clue who's the mastermind behind Peace De Résistance. Turns out it's none other than Institute vocalist Moses Brown - yeah, kinda makes sense in retrospect, i guess. Dunno how i missed that. His first longplayer now unfolds a somewhat more elaborate, yet still pretty minimalist soundscape that once again feels out of place in all the best ways - a time capsule of hazy false memories weaving early strains of proto-, art- and post punk into a vivid, semi-plausible case of the Mandela effect.
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Pretty fucking amazing shit, the second long player of this group from Tournai, Belgium. Right out of the gate i'm reminded of so much good stuff both ancient and contemporary on the intersection of art-, post- and garage punk, rounded out by a distinctly dissonant no wave-ish, noise rock-y edge. Sometimes they sound a bit like as if the americana-infused post punk of Angst were to collide with the simplistic beat of Man Sized Action and a good measure of early The Fall strumminess. Other moments, i imagine to hear echos of Membranes, Gordons or Swell Maps, while you might just as well draw comparisons to more recent acts such as Honey Radar, Toe Ring, Lithics, Germ House, Shark Toys and Subtle Turnhips.
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Four-and-a-half fun litte strumming excercises of the heavily proto punk inspired kind, done by a dude who also happens to be a member of Toe Ring. Sounds a bit like a mix of Peace De Resistance, Woolen Men and Honey Radar with a hint of Modern Lovers on top.
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Quality shit from Phantom Records once again. The culprits, this time, are yet another Berlin group playing a breed of post punk (really, who'd have guessed.…) which proudly wears its origins on its sleeves yet manages to put an inventive and playful spin on every single track. Funky but thankfully not too polished, there's also a prominent surf rock vibe at play here ricocheting through their arrangements like a steel rod willfully thrown into the spokes, always making for some delightful stunts and maneuvers. Sometimes we also get a touch of rockabilly as put through a Gun Club-meet-The Fall meatgrinder. My personal fave here is a little banger called Angerman which perfectly applies the carrot-and-stick approach in its juxtaposition of dissonant noise and melodicism.
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Somehow i must've overlooked this Ocean City, NJ dude so far. His long playing debut and third release altoghether hits my nerve dead-on though, with a variety of simple & stupid garage-/electro- and, occasionally, synth punk, often with a distinct 77-ish bent calling to mind old pioneers à la Screamers, MX-80, Metal Urbain/Dr. Mix & The Remix as well as a slight hint of Chrome. In Country Girls, quite fittingly, we even get a touch of Gun Club-esque americana-/cowpunk while of the more recent scene, you might draw comparisons to groups like S.B.F., Kid Chrome, Zoids or Mateo Manic.
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Having released a somewhat hit-and-miss debut tape last year, the Berlin group's newest LP shows off a considerably matured, heavily roots- and folk-influenced flavor of post punk whose overall vibe echoes the americana-/cowpunk of Angst while also evoking with a bit of post-Miami Gun Club and solo Rikk Agnew. Among their contemporaries, you might compare them to groups such as Jackson Reid Briggs & The Heaters and Low Life. Other times, like in Reanimation, Pissing and Look Of Disgust you can sense a certain british invasion-style melancholia with hints of The Resonars or The Bevis Frond. So in a nutshell, this ain't quite your average selection of ingredients for a punk album… which kinda makes this a perfect fit for Erste Theke Tonträger who, as i just learned, are gonna be handling the european vinyl release of this beauty.
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NJ/NY Label State Champion Records has yet another quite awesome tape for us and this time it's by a group from Helsinki, Finland who deliver a fully realized sound taking cues from so much of what's good in recent years, i don't really know where to start… The EP starts out with propulsive post punk that feels like a fusion of darker sounding groups in the Rank/Xerox or Pigeon vein with artsy post- and garage punk groups like Patti, Lithics, Reality Group, Vintage Crop or Yammerer. The middle two songs then introduce a more relaxed, slightly indie rock leaning vibe á la Gotobeds, Sleepies, Tape/Off or B-Boys, with the closing track Plastic Marine feeling like the perfect symbiosis of both tendencies.
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An awesome little debut mini-LP by a Buenos Aires group. Revolving around a more-or-less oldschool-ish, brass-enhanced style of garage- and art punk vaguely reminiscent of Downtown Boys, they certainly like to mix things up a bit here and there when they occasionally enter post punk territory or try on a '77-touched Buzzcocks-meet-Undertones powerpop vibe like in Sin tu amor, keeping this a fun and entertaining ride throughout. While not everything hits the bulls-eye quite yet (Ya no soy is simply too little of an actual song), most of it works out just beautifully.
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