While, for my own taste, releases by that canadian garage weirdo TJ Cabot have so far been a rather hit-or-miss affair, his newest 7" - a collaboration with synth wave artist Sonic Hz - falls squarely into the "hit" category. This high-sugar feast for your eardrums artfully combinines the best ingredients of both worlds and reminds me quite a bit of Sweden's synth punk powerhouse Isotope Soap.
On their second longplayer, New Orleans group Waste Man have gotten rid almost entirely of the hardcore elements that were still front and center on their incredible 2018 tape A New Type Of Worry, but that doesn't mean their newest LP is any less thrilling. Quite on the contraty, this has become both their most ambitious and well-rounded release so far, a captivating and unpredictable ride at different points reminding me of smartypants garage punk of the Vintage Crop, Dumb or Uranium Club variety, art punk akin to Lithhics or Patti as well as contemporary post punk in the vein of Public Eye, The Gotobeds and Bambara… at the same time emitting some distinctly oldschool vibes - faint echoes of Wire and Saccharine Trust being the most noticeable ones here.
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Okay… it looks like the current dungeon craze, which seemingly started out in the realm of synth-based soundscapes some time ago and has since then progressively been making its presence known on the fringes of garage punk, is now slowly but inevitably extending its grip into the musty cellars of hardcore punk. This fun new tape of medieval survival hymns about other people's heads meeting blunt, heavy objects sounds a bit as if Lumpy & The Dumpers, Cülo and Strange Attractor joined forces to record an alternate Jabberwocky soundtrack.
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Another way-too-short cassette bearing the gift of quality dumb oldschool punk crankiness of the heavily KBD-leaning kind, made by two members of L.A. weirdos Launcher. What's not to like?
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This is already the second awesome release for this week coming out of Mexico. To be fair, this record is already a few months old but still… there's clearly something brewing over there. The debut album by this group is a highly concentrated caffeine shot of drum machine-driven full-speed-straight-ahead garage punk with some slight similarity to groups like S.B.F., Kid Chrome or Arse. Sometimes noisy, sometimes melodic, always catchy and exhilarating.
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This is the second hardcore 7" of muteant Jake Robertson's Alien Nosejob for Iron Lung Records, his third harcore-centric release overall if i didn't miss anything. And of course it's yet another delightful batch of playful, inventive takes on the genre. What else did you expect?
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Now that thing's a treat! Some group from Ciudad López Mateos, Mexico delivers a truckload of pure joy on this tape, condensed into three straightforward-as-fuck bangers made out of fuzzed-out garage- and bubblegum punk with some synth-sweetness on top, transmitting an undiluted sugar rush straight into your bloodstream.
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Another tasty foursome of catchy, quirky garage- and synthpunk blasts sees this rather mysterious australian group/project continually creeping towards devofied DIY punk perfection, solidifying their ever-rising status among their genre pool's supreme present-day überdudes.
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This Melbourne group's first longplayer is a seamless continuation of what was already so lovable about their previous EPs. Sure, their style of oldschool garage punk with that undeniable Radio Birdman vibe has grown a quite long beard by now, but what a charming and glorious beard that is! To be fair, they're also trying out some new things here, at some points letting a touch of Wipers shine through, dabbling in dark post punk or trying their hands at AmRep-style sludgy noise rock. But let's not kid ourselves here; what this group does best at this moment is knocking out one straightforward yet sophisticated rocker after another with amazing confidence.
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For every purchase of this nice little cassette put out by our favorite incorporated purveyors of innovative discontinuity you also get a free fake origin story. 1982 my ass, this is of course still the same dude who did this other thing a while back. Though his newest output contains a bit less weird fuckery, it makes up for that with a lot more fuzz, more melodies and negative zero production values that sound just right to my ears.
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