The follow-up LP to the unwieldy two hours, 69 tracks long 2023 opus Prawn Static For Porn Addicts by Moffat Beach, Australia group Electric Prawns 2 is yet again a quite generous affair in the context of the current garage-/eggpunk-adjacent wave, spanning 15 kinda eclectic, genre-hopping tunes that once again prove the impossible-to-contain, wildly creative drive of this group. The opening track Reaction sparkles with that vaguely familiar vibe of neon-glow psychedelia you might expect of a Mononegatives or Pow! record, plus a hint of Isotope Soap, maybe? What follows then is a nonstop fireworks of all-killer-no-filler tunes showcasing a great stylistic variety and, at one point or another, reminding me of a bunch of like-minded groups á la Ghoulies, Billiam, Nick Normal, Alien Nosejob, Erik Nervous or Busted Head Racket, to name just a few. The most incredible thing about this record comes right at the end though, in the form of the closing track Who I Am in which a sense of widescreen drama akin to The Wipers' Youth Of America or God's garage one hit wonderMy Pal gets condensed into an ultra-compact hook-fest á la Split System. Holy fuck, what just happened there?!
Here's yet another little treat of fine egg-related fun by an Ottawa, Ontario act, sounding kinda simple and by-the-numbers at first glance but revealing a great deal of substance under the hood once you listen a little more closely. This shit strikes me a bit as if the smartass quirky post punk pieces of Landowner got crossbred with the no-frills punk attack of that Zhoop/Nightman/Brundle/RONi/etc. dude and subsequently genetically adapted to survive and thrive by the twisted rules of a badly eggpunk-infested environment.
Following a couple of releases which largely dabbled in mellower sounds, Spain's prime eggpunk-/noise pop act Beta Máximo at long last is cranking up the speeds again while applying and consolidating all the lessons they've learned at previous excursions for the benefit of their newest EP, which easily marks their strongest release so far made up of nothing but hits and gelled into place by plenty of simple but rock-solid, top-notch songcraft at its core.
Melbourne's Kitchen People as a band are about as old at this blog and although it took them a couple years to turn into the highly combustible garage punk force we know them as today, their 2020 EP Planet Earth sure saw the group in creative overdrive and their newest six-track cassette once again is nothing short of brilliant! No wonder, since these folks are partly responsible for other top-rated groups such as Ghoulies, Pleasants, Aborted Tortoise and Dr. Sure's Unusual Practice, all of whom are perfectly suitable references for describing these quirky and slightly egg-ish garage-, post- and synth punk tunes, in addition to such household names as Ausmuteants, Checkpoint and Research Reactor Corp..
Another neat little cassette of moderately egg-related insanity comes our way from this Madrid group, operating in a nebulous zone somewhere inbetween the worlds of garage punk and spaced-out melodic fuzz punk, spiced up with quite a bit of surf rock twang and some dense psychedelic haze. All in all i'd say this shit successfuly combines some of the best traits of acts like Beta Máximo, Beer, Pringue and Prison Affair into a cohesive whole.
The newest LP of Brazil's prime purveyor of quirky, hyperactive garage-/synth-/eggpunk goodness certainly takes a gamble or two, being full of collaborations with other egg-minded acts all across the globe... or the cosmos, if you wanna roll with the concept and i'm sure the likes of Tombeau, Billiam and Goblin Daycare don't need any introduction, right? I mean, right? Not everything works here (especially the funky R'n'B stylings of She's Kinda Cute and OMG They Look So Bad just strike me as ill-considered speed bumps, interrupting the record's otherwise considerable momentum) but most things certainly do and where the record hits the mark, it hits hard, at times approaching the level of anything-goes chaos and eclecticism of Trashdog or Checkpoint. And after all, i very much prefer a record that tries boldly and fails in some places over one that's not even bothering.
Two of the - so far at least - minor players in the current eggpunk game join forces and make a convincing case for a re-evaluation of that status as both, while not exactly reinventing the wheel here, have cleary refined their formulas quite a bit on this neat little split cassette. SPRGRS of Granada, Spain make for a great start with their quirky, pulsating and melodic take on the genre much in line with what we've heard recently from groups like Prison Affair, Beer, Paulo Vicious and Goblin Daycare. Even better though are the three new tracks by Bristol's Möney, who show some great variety and top-notch songwriting chops here, overall saturating their sound with more of a surf-y and psychedelic post punk vibe, most notably in the closing track Emancipation which calls to mind the likes of Electric Prawns 2, Checkpoint, Gremlin and Powerplant. Then again, Plastic Trees is a surprising little gem made up of glistening noise-/power-/dreampop stylings and really given a special shine by a guest vocal performance credited to a mysterious Miss Clienty.
Here we've got yet another excellent burst of garage- and synth punk by yet another Melbourne group that, despite some shared sonic parameters, hits just a good bit harder than your average quirky eggpunk act. Rather, i'm reminded of the likes of Quitter, Beef, Busted Head Racket and Broken Prayer plus, at some points, that ever-present Djinn/Zhoop/Nightman/Brundle/RONi, etc dude.
An effortlessly ass-kicking debut EP from an Oslo, Norway group that runs the gamut from the buzzsaw hardcore punk of the opening track Ritalinbjørner to breakneck-speed fuzzed-out garage punk in Laserkrieg, having some similar energy to, say, The Gobs, Kid Chrome and S.B.F.. Stygg Bebi then has some distinct dungeon-esque eggpunk-meets-deathrock vibe reminiscent of stuff like Powerplant, Kerozine or fellow norwegians Molbo. The latter tendency then culminates in the closing track Shament, a catchy anthem built from pure goth-y post punk ear candy leading up to a somewhat black metal-ish conclusion. Fuck me this is some strong shit!
The Leipzig post-/garage punk scene never ceases to amaze, as Autobahns already did on occasion of their split EP with the also brilliant S.G.A.T.V.. Now here's their full-length debut co-released by three usual-suspect labels from around the globe and this one's a treat, folks! Right from the start there's some strong Billiam-esque energy to these songs, moderately egg-ish garage punk smashers that also call to mind stuff like Tommy Cossack, Set-Top Box and further eccentricities of the Snooper, Beer or Prison Affair kind or maybe Germany's very own Egg Idiot. Tellin' Ya transports some of the best traits of recent Vaguess records into a more distinct eggpunk context. All the while, Autobahns operate as a super-tight unit here, expertly kicking up a hell of a storm while never losing their ironclad grip on their melodic sensibilities... this is some catchy shit all the way through, reaching its peak in the undiluted noise pop ecstasy of Loss Of The Rights.
