What a goddamn beauty! Paul Caporino of cult garage punk / power pop veteran project M.O.T.O. at long last has compiled a new set of beautifully fuzzy recordings in the well-worn 4-track solo fashion, kicking things off with a fuckin’ Motörhead cover of all things and subsequently pulling off what must be his most high-value, hook-laden set of tunes in a long time, nothing short of a new lo-fi pop masterpiece if you ask me. Many songs have already appeard on one occasion or another but honestly, who cares really as this thing kinda plays out like an all-killer-no-filler best of from his recent decade-plus of creative output, presented in uniqe, unheard recordings.
I hadn’t heard from these Nashville folks for a long time after their promising demo in 2019. Well, they’re back now and their sound’s more furious than ever, brewing up a perfect storm of garage-infused hardcore punk with hints of, say, Acrylics, early Electric Chair, Launcher, Liquid Assets, Mystic Inane, Cement Shoes and Crisis Man being just a few of the things that pop into my head at first glance.
Following up on a neat first EP from last year, this Providence, Rhode Island group’s second batch of tunes is a marked refinement in pretty much every aspect, their mix of garage punk and power pop having reached a whole new level of catchyness that also wouldn’t sound out of place next to shit like Sweet Reaper, Power Pants, Gee Tee, Alien Nosejob, Set-Top Box or Satanic Togas.
Excellent new rough and noisy shit from this Perth, Australia group operating on the intersections of garage- and hardcore punk with an added distinct oldschool KBD-Vibe not entirely dissimilar to the likes of the Liquid Assets, Freakees, Liposuction, Launcher or Mystic Inane. An EU edition of this beauty is promised to drop pretty soon via Goodbye Boozy Records!
Minimalist psychedelic hypnotism of a particularly repetitive and stubborn, timeless variety by frenchman Remy Pablo who, if i’m not mistaken, is also playing in groups such as The Anomalys and Weird Omen. You can hear clear echoes of ol late-’70s and ’80s underground groups á la MX-80, Chrome, early Telescopes and Metal Urbain while further comparisons might just as well be made to more recent acts like Peace de Résistance, A Place To Bury Strangers, Jean Mignon and Writhing Squares.
This Cincinnati group’s second EP sets off a strong new set of highly flammable charges made up of ingredients found somewhere in the grey areas of Noise Rock, Post-, Garage- and Synth Punk… a bit like an unstable mixture of Busted Head Racket, Brandy, R.Clown, ISS, Spyroids and Knowso boiled down to an almost ’70s/’80s The Fall-esqe simplicity and repetition.
Garage punk meets math rock meets psychedelia meets postcore on this breathless new tape by Minneapolis group Tricks, at different times bearing similarities to recent groups as diverse as Reality Group, Uranium Club, Yammerer, Big Bopper, Patti, Ex-Cult, Rolex, Shark Toys, Sauna Youth… at times you might even percieve a slight 90s Dischord vibe á la Jawbox, Faraquet and Medications.
Stupid dumb catchy safe no-frills garage- and synth punk fun clearly harvested from the depths of a heavily Reatard-damaged subconscious on this kickass tape by australian dude Riley McCloskey, who supposedly has also played in at least two bands i didn’t know shit about. Is that a styophone emitting these beeps and squeaks? We need more stylophone in everything!
If nothing else, it’s at least been a great few days for friends of oldschool synth punk action including not only a couple of essential The Steves reissues via Iron Lung records but also these two beauties from Oakland and Berlin respectively. Nasty World kinda go about their stuff like it’s 1981 or something, conjuring up a vibe kinda like a wild mixture between Screamers, Devo, Units, Visitors, Nervous Gender or Minimal Man but also not quite dissimilar to more recent shit of the Isotope Soap, Powerplant, Lost Packages or Freak Genes variety. All of that could equally fit the description of that Lohn der Angst record but in their case, i’d add a good deal of Primitive Calculators on top as well as a couple of german influences ranging from ancient DAF to more recent acts like Puff! and Pisse, as well as some distinct kraut-/motorik vibes in tracks such as Warteschleife and Grelles Gesicht.
I gotta say, following up on a promising but still somewhat undercooked and inconsistent debut tape from two years ago, i’m kinda blown away by the hypnotic pull of this second album by an Oakland (?) group having among their ranks members of a whole bunch of household numbers – The World, Andy Human and the Reptoids, Rays and Violent Change might just be the most familiar names among those for longtime watchers of this space, but these are just the tip of the iceberg really. While you can plausibly pick out some similarities to all these groups, i’m way more reminded of the relaxed post- and garage punk of australian groups UV Race and Wireheads, enhanced with some flavor of british psychedelia (Vital Idles come to mind as a contemporary reference), even a smidge of Wire and early Barrett-era Pink Floyd in Let The Light In. Just as well though, they might have drawn plenty of inspiration from ’70s-’80s british DIY culture with groups á la Membranes, Swell Maps, Mekons and Desperate Bicycles being the closest comparisons i can pull out of my ass right now.
