More great fodder by synth-/electro viking punk maestro Klint on this nice compilation available either digitally or dubbed onto pre-loved cassette stock, if you’re so inclined – i do certainly approve of that, giving old cassettes a new home! So what we got here is a mix of old shit you might have heard already, old shit you probably haven’t heard yet and new shit you definitely haven’t. Oh and then apparently there’s also the matter a of a couple of recently unearthed ancient wax cylinders, gloriously rough around the edges and unplayed since approximately 1904-1912. Neat!
A new batch of lo-fi viking synth punk madness from that Schleswig dude who at this point doesn’t need an introduction i think, having crafted a very unique niche of his own with a string of EPs and singles over the short span of less than a year. His newest one is another strong beast oscillating between snappy garage punk smashers and throbbing dance floor rough-ups.
More insanity to make your brain hurt from that certain Leipzig garage-/synth punk outfit fucking around, as the name would suggest, only in the eggiest corners of eggdom. Full of hooks and catchy most of the time, weird as fuck all of the time. Friends of shit á la Nuts, Set-Top Box, Metdog, Nubot555 and Dee Bee Rich are gonna have another ball with this.
More incredibly bonkers shit out of the belgian Belly Button Records orbit. What we get on this dude’s debut EP under the Nubot555 moniker (previously the culprit has been doing shit as King Dick) is some garage- and electro punk mayhem of the overwhelmingly egg-ish variety. These lo-fi gems manage to counterbalance all their quirky weirdnes with plenty of smarts and creative energy, making for an impressive debut easily standing out even in its fairly crowded genre pool. I’d say Egg Idiot have found their match here.
You can’t go wrong with any new release by that UK garage-/synth punk duo teaming up Proto Idiot’s Andrew Anderson with Charly Murphy of groups such as The Red Cords, Internal Credit and Isolation. After exploring a more cold, minimal synth aesthetic sound on their previous LP, this one presents them in a somewhat fuller sound and probably at their catchiest so far, channeling primarily the spirit of first-wave synth punk acts á la Primitive Calculators, Nervous Gender, Screamers, Units, Minimal Man and of course Devo (duh!), while from the current landscape, comparisons to Isotope Soap or Alien Nosejob in full-on electro mode may be drawn as well.
Awesome synth-/ electro punk shit from Berlin that kinda plays out like a curious mix of Pisse, Puff! or the most recent, electro-heavy Schiach EP. Further you might draw comparisons to Spyroids, Heavy Metal as well as old synth punk staples á la Screamers, Nervous Gender. Klickfarm in particular might have taken some cues from the Visitors’ classic ripper Electric Heat as well.
New shit by the world’s only viking synth punk project… and we’ve got another winner! The title track just sucks you right in with a throbbing beat not unlike to the recent Dance single, spiked with a hint of ancient eurotrash cheesiness. With Go Ahead we then get an effective straight-up no-frills punk smasher, while the oddly placed/titled Instrumental Interlude feels like fun hommage to classic chiptunes that will also mesh well with the ongoing dungeon synth/-punk wave.
This dude from Schleswig, Germany already made an excellent first impression a couple weeks ago with his debut 7″ on Goodbye Boozy. The artwork sure suggests some dungeon synth/-punk affinity, although sound-wise – lacking the latter genre’s obvious black- and/or oldschool “heavy” metal elements – i’d rather compare this shit to recent developments on the intersection of garage-, synth- and electro punk and associated acts of the Mononegatives, Pow!, Liquid Face, Ghoulies or Slimex variety.
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.
Garage-/synth-/electro punk from Cleveland, Ohio that carves out its own little place in the current landscape of similar groups by way of a certain psychedelic haze, kinda like a mix between The Spits, Silicon Heartbeat and Smirk, observed through some dense Chrome- or Metal Urbain-esque fog. Or you might describe it as some kind of garage punk incarnation of Murderer’s hallucinogenic cowpunk nightmarescapes.
