That Evinspragg record has garnered the most publicity of the newest Inscrutable Records batch for several reasons, some of them justifiable, others more annoyingly drama-related. But to be perfectly honest, that one is a bit too ambitious for its own good in my humble opinion and a bit of a mixed bag which starts out incredibly strong, then kinda fizzles out towards the end and i actually feel much more drawn towards the label’s other two releases among which is this full-length debut by Johnny Skin. On it, they create a dreamy, melancholy and super-catchy melange blending the yearning vibe of ’50s-’60s bubblegum pop ballads with rudimetary, minimalist lo-fi vintage electronic drum beats and synths in a fashion that’s gonna draw inevitable comparisons to Suicide and Métal Urbain, interspersed with a bunch of more noisy and dissonant no wave-ish tunes more in the vein of noisy synth punk pioneers á la Primitive Calculators or Nervous Gender and the experimental, psychedelic sounds of Theoretical Girls, Chrome or MX-80.
I can’t ever have enough snooper tunes in my life so this new tour EP is more than welcome even if it feels like a little bit of a cheat, consisting only like 60% of actual new songs while the other 40% are made up of two rather inessential instances of experimentation and fucking around. The two “actual” tunes are high-octane rippers though, driven by electric beats a bit like we’ve kinda already heard in the track Subdivision from their 2022 Town Topic EP, although the energy level here is almost brutal in direct comparison, catapulting their sound into some straight electro punk territory with the songs themselves striking me as pretty classic, first-rate Snooper material. Now if these folks just could make up their minds to actually play a show or two in the western parts of germany on their next tour, that would make me a very happy boy. There are egg punk afficinados living in places other than Berlin, you know…
Here’s a new short-playing dose of madness from that Lansing, Michigan one-man-band and who would have guessed – it’s yet another delightful attack of chaotic synth-/electro-/sample punk so blown-out within an inch of its life it leaves me wonderin’ whether i’m hearing a guitar or just a mutilated synth in the opening track. Thus, high quality new fodder for friends of other disconcerting noises á la Beef, ISS, Heavy Metal, Klint, Spyroids, R. Clown or Kerozine.
As usual of a high-caliber, this new Split 7″ coming our way from Italy’s Goodbye Boozy Records. Schleswig, Germany’s Viking Synth Punk Maestro Klint goes full hardcore mode on his side, churning out three massive bursts of his trademark abrasive force, spiked with plenty of melodic catchyness all the same. The dude can do no wrong and there still ain’t anything quite like his music out there. The other side is made up of four new tracks by Hamburg’s The Gents who, compared with their previous EP, are playing it decidedly fast and rough here as well, making for a perfectly substantial attack of straightforward garage punk bearing some similarity to the likes of Bart and the Brats or The Uglies.
Here’s a sensational debut EP by some band or project based in Lethbridge, Alberta containing six perfect blows of post punk whose ear-piercing walls of noise and pulsing electric beats at times sound a bit as if an eggpunk Big Black collided with the somewhat psychedelic qualities of garage greats like late Useless Eaters, Pow! and Mononegatives – or maybe the murky old experimental punk classics of Métal Urbain / Dr. Mix and the Remix – in a breathless succession of certified bangers. I also have a hunch that fans of spaced-out noisemakers á la Corpus Earthling or french magician Pablo X are gonna lap this shit up.
Now that’s some hot shit, this debut tape by some dude from Lansing, Michigan. The fuzzed-out garage punk inferno of Cracked lays out a bit of a false trail for us at first, as the overall vibe then immediately shifts toward more of a noisy synth punk direction for the remaining tracks covering a good variety of stylistic flavors and accordingly, reminding me of a full ecclectic grab bag of acts in the wider synth-/electro-/sample punk spectrum including the likes of Beef, ISS, Heavy Metal, Klint, The Garden, Victor, Spyroids, R. Clown, Paulo Vicious and Kerozine.
Video game themed punk is not exactly a predictor of great creativity and artistic merit but thankfully, this Fresno, California group’s second EP bucks the trend of toothless chiptune sounds and instead delivers some delicious treats of fuzzy lo-fi electro punk with plenty of bite which at different points you might find vaguely reminiscent of groups á la S.B.F., ISIS, Exit Mould, Penance Hall, Kerozine, Giorgio Murderer or that Zhoop/Djinn/etc.-dude’s more electronically leaning alter egos Nightman and Brundle.
This long-running, slow-moving dutch group, which i’ve previously been blissfully ignoring, catapults itself all the more impressively onto my radar with their third and hands down most accomplished LP so far which pours some top-notch songwriting abilities into a quite adaptable sonic pastiche oscillating between oldschool, sometimes psych-leaning garage- and fuzz punk, buzzsaw noise- and power pop as well as a couple of pulsing electro punk bursts. Exactly twice they stumble in my view though, by veering too heavily into kinda sugary oh-so-fucking-twee ASMR territory but hey, ten out of 12 Songs is still quite a good hit ratio and in some of the best moments, they strike me as an alternate reality garage-y version of eighties Fastbacks.
This neat new tape by a Los Angeles group has some deliciously noisy and hyperactive synth-/electro punk for us that transports some vague feel of the genre’s ’70s/’80s classics while exact matches with any of those seem kinda elusive, although i’d say Primitive Calculators and Nervous Gender are reasonably close comparisons. Above that, you may draw similarly diffuse connections to recent groups, with certain moments, bits and pieces evoking a bunch of acts as diverse as Lost Packages, ISS, Spyroids, Skull Cult and Freak Genes, plus just a bit of hybrid garage-/post punk á la Tyvek and Shark Toys in more guitar-centered tracks like Ford Branca.
Another awesome EP by that that completely off-the-rails Los Angeles hair punk / egg metal act cementing their status as the severely brain damaged evil cousins of electro punk greats ISS and Heavy Metal, combining an absurd stylistic premise with lyrical contents of only the most deranged quiet-part-out-loud / “Did he really just say that?” variety into a thoroughly ridiculous and fun bit of delightful chaos.
