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.
After six years silence, out of the blue comes the second 7" of this Antwerp, Belgium group via the local garage punk powerhouse Belly Butten Records. And oh boy, this is some heavy duty shit channeling an aesthetic that seems just as influenced by smart artsy garage punk groups á la Uranium Club, Vintage Crop, Reality Group as by the sprechgesang and eleborate arrangements of US postcore phenomenon Straw Man Army, even if lyrically this shit is a lot more lighthearted here, in-tune with the overall musical vibe. To round things out, there's also a distinct touch of Tyvek or UV Race progressively creeping in over the course of these four tunes. I think this is just a perfect little 7". So ready for the next one in another in six years.
Top Secret Nichos are my favorite kind of nicho, i'll have fries with that thank you! Dining Nothing, is that so? Okay, maybe not then. Anyway, sin and muerte are pretty much on my agenda too along with beer, smut and Satan. Gotta love these dudes from Rosario, Argentina. Naturally their music kicks ass too! This is some excellent oldschool noise-infused post punk evoking bits and pieces of such groups as Nag, Impotentie, Labor and the early works of Institute, Low Life or Constant Mongrel, with the addtion of maybe a hint of combustive garage punk á la Jean Mignon especially in the aforementioned Dining Nothing.
Winky Frown have been kind of an oddity right from the start even in the - by definition - quite odd eggpunk genre in that their songs on one hand seem to perfectly fit in with a number of thoroughly established eggpunk formulas yet never fail to surprise and transcend the genre's limitations, putting a lot more effort, ideas and songwriting finesse into their tunes than you'd usually expect. Their new digital 2-track single has yet another surprise in store for us when we're greeted with a slow-jam tune kinda channelling a lost artifact of Chairs Missing-era Wire in turn channeling a lost artifact of Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd and the best thing is that shit fucking works! The second tune Upside Down Frown then is closer to the sonics we're used to from the group, which is to say: another marvellously crafted high-momentum electrically driven garage punk smasher that unrelentingly builds up towards a massive payoff.
With the recent Cruelster LP still quite hot out of the oven, here's the newest artifact of another Nathan Ward-fronted group already, the significantly more angular and methodical yet unmistakably related Knowso, whose recent Optimism / Foot Of Pride cassingle had also landed just mere weeks ago. As usual this shit is operating pretty much on the bleeding edge of repetitive post- and art punk weirdness, performed by a bunch of flawlessly rotating, well-greased man machines. Really i can't think of many other bands able to present such rigid and choppy compositions with such a frictionless drive and unbroken momentum. That's not to say their music weren't also catchy as fuck most of the time and especially in the second half here, tunes like Consumer Talk and Panopticon show them expanding on their melodic undercurrents for some of their most immediately striking and accessible tunes so far.
After an already thoroughly enjoyable debut EP in 2023, this Kansas City group's newest LP turns out to be even more up my freakin' alley with its surprisingly flexible, shapeshifting noise attacks in which some amount of oldschool US west coast style meets hints of early Minutemen and such (proto-) postcore and (proto-) noise rock acts like Flipper, Really Red and Saccharine Trust, whose unconventional styles get mutated here into some kind of KBD-drenched garage punk vibe that may be just as well described using a number of more contemporary references of the Launcher, Mystic Inane, Cutup, Fugitive Bubble, Rolex, Cucuy and Flea Collar type.
