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.
This group from Newcastle, Australia delivers five first-rate new blows of electrically driven, vaguely egg-ish and noisy high-energy garage punk shit on their first EP, sure to evoke a nervous twitch or two in those already familiar with such phenomena like S.B.F., Kerozine, Factory City Children, Witch Piss, Cthtr, Feeding Tube, The Gobs or Liquid Face... 'cos this shit is every bit as good.
This Varese, Italy group follows up a fun demo from two years ago with an even stronger digital two-track single. Go Skate evokes the pounding electro punk aesthetics of, say, Spyroids, Freak Genes, O-D-EX or the most recent Shrudd EP. H82W8 then has more of a fluffy garage pop vibe much in the vein of groups such as Slimex, Daughter Bat and the Lip Stings, Ghoulies, Gee Tee and Busted Head Racket, among many others.
In recent years, i highly doubt there's ever been such a thing as a bad week for eggpunk but this one has been especially fruitful with three notable, way above average releases. Paulo Vicious of Tel Aviv you might already be familiar with from last winter's kickass debut EP and on this one, they seemlessly continue the depraved fun with strong echos of Prison Affair, Set-Top Box, Nubot555 and, at times, an added sheen of 8-bit chiptunes. Oslo, Norway act Dårskap then approach egg-related noises with a bit of a dungeon undertone and some ever-so-slight traces of oldschool death rock, begging the question if there's some overlap with another Oslo group, Molbo, who've also been featured on here just a week ago. To round things out with what is probably the most straightforward and classic (hah!) sounding example of the bunch, Stockholm, Sweden's very own Gurk deliver four new attacks of ultra-catchy egg-induced joy on their newest EP that might just be their strongest effort to date.
As thrilling and energizing as ever, this new digital two-track single by Schleswig, Germany viking synth punk wizard Klint. Lots of catchy treasure to be found in there if you can make it alive to the bottom of this filthy, rat-infested spike pit. And yeah, thats no exaggeration here as especially the title track takes his one-of-a-kind oddball aesthetics to a whole new level of noisy and abrasive depths while never failing to derive plenty of joyful delight out of the process!
Two notable, more or less dungeon punk-adjacent releases have landed this week. First off, there's the debut cassette of Oslo group Molbo who, on the surface, primarily seem to draw influences from that genre complex of eighties goth, death rock and post punk that's been so en vogue once again for the last decade or so. What sets them apart in that particular niche though is a certain whimsical eggpunk aesthetic, a sense of joy and fun not often found in an otherwise often overky self-serious genre, though admittedly this can at times have an unintentionally comical effect as well.
Ipswich, UK duo Kerozine then approach a vaguely dungeon-esque aesthetic from a more straightforward yet delightfully noisy synth-/electro punk angle that's every bit as driving and hard-hitting as it's catchy, the best reasonably recent comparisons i can come up with right now being the likes of Spyroids, O-D-EX, Drýsildjöfull, Channel 83, C57BL/6, Expose and Beef.
Following their perfectly appetizing (and as far as i can make out, completely vanished off the face of the internet by now) Black Box EP in 2022, we get this group's debut full-length courtesey of Dirtnap Records and this time around, there's actually some tangible background info available. No wonder these folks sounded familiar the first time around, since we're dealing with a duo consisting of US garage punk royalty Mark Ryan (most notably of Radioactivity, Mind Spiders and Marked Men) and Micah Why, whose previous bands i don't think i've ever come across. Their minimalist synth punk certainly has retained some of that Mind Spiders vibe although this shit is a lot darker, more stripped-down and abrasive, having a certain oldschool vibe to it wich echoes of Minimal Man, Nervous Gender, Screamers, Units or Visitors but you might just as well compare them to more recent phenomena like Powerplant, Pow!, Spyroids or a somewhat less spikey version of Lost Packages crossbred with the digital insanity of Nubot555, the more minimalist moments of Digital Leather.
Another mysterious eggpunk bomb has dropped from… well, where in the world actually? Released on a Tel Aviv label, the song titles, as google translate tells me, are apparently portuguese. Then again, sound-wise, the closest reference would probably be the blown-out mayhem of Barcelona genre overlords Prison Affair with further comparisons to be made to Cologne's Nuts, the early works of australian groups á la Set-Top Box, Eugh, Midgee, Research Reactor Corp and, to come full circle eventually, Tel Aviv's own crude eggpunk sensation Victor would fit nicely in there too. So, long story short, this is some premium grade globetrotting shit, regardless of where these folks might actually be located.
Yet another good reference point, then again, would be Charleston, South Carolina's Beer and, speaking of the devil, the world's most beerest beer band has just released their second extended play to which most of what i've just said is gonna apply verbatim so i'm not gonna repeat myself and instead just gonna crank up the good shit and advise you to do the same 'cos i know your neighbors are just gonna love it!
It's shaping up to be a pretty awesome week for eggpunk already, helped further along by another genre fixture of the last couple years, Melbourne's Metdog, having just released their full length debut after an impeccable string of EPs and singles. They promised shit about computers and oh boy do we get shit about computers here, leaving more questions than answers though, most of which begin with "What the fuck…?". Perfectly underscoring the subject matter we get to witness the group at their most electronically inclined so far, their overall vibe here being reminiscent of a bizarre 8-bit mashup of vintage Ausmuteants with the distinct added flourish of Windows 3.11 midi files.
