I gotta admit i had some trouble warming up to the last few Jackson Reid Briggs releases, whose production seemed just a bit too-much-of-everything for my taste. On this newest EP however, recorded during a breather between Australia's covid lockdowns with a line-up which, i assume, is different from his usual "Heaters", is just bursting with fresh energy channeled into four of his strongest jams, presented in a much slimmed down, unexpectedly playful fashion.
Cleveland punks The Cowboy have yet to release a record that doesn't totally rip and their third LP won't dissapoint either with their sound feeling perfectly worn in and at this point, i'd say they've established their very own, instantly recognizable micro-niche on the intersection of propulsive garage punk and abrasive noise rock while still breaking things up enough to keep shit interesting.
The debut EP of this group from Utrecht, Netherlands is pure concentrated joy from start to finish, channeled into five properly demented synth-/garage punk jams wondrously able to bypass the intellect entirely only to make an even bigger splash with your primal instincts. Neat!
Having released a somewhat hit-and-miss debut tape last year, the Berlin group's newest LP shows off a considerably matured, heavily roots- and folk-influenced flavor of post punk whose overall vibe echoes the americana-/cowpunk of Angst while also evoking with a bit of post-Miami Gun Club and solo Rikk Agnew. Among their contemporaries, you might compare them to groups such as Jackson Reid Briggs & The Heaters and Low Life. Other times, like in Reanimation, Pissing and Look Of Disgust you can sense a certain british invasion-style melancholia with hints of The Resonars or The Bevis Frond. So in a nutshell, this ain't quite your average selection of ingredients for a punk album… which kinda makes this a perfect fit for Erste Theke Tonträger who, as i just learned, are gonna be handling the european vinyl release of this beauty.
Barcelona group Algara initially burst onto the scene last year with a four track demo as an electro punk duo, which then quickly grew into a four-piece group and promptly released another tape consisting of a re-recording of the first EP's songs as well as some tracks meant for their first longplayer, which we finally get to witness in its full glory now. In the meantime their sound has evolved into a compact and effortlessly flowing fusion of post-, garage- and electro punk that might be described as a mix of ISS, Straw Man Army, Rank/Xerox and UZS, only broken up right in the middle by the strong synthwave flourishes of Hedonistas.
A new Warttman Inc. release by a group made up of some of the usual suspects known from bands such as Research Reactor Corp., Satanic Togas and The Gobs, so you already kinda know what to expect. Needless to say, this is some gloriously dumb and rippin' shit.
Orlando's Cherry Cheeks aka some dude by the name Kyle Harms has already made some waves last year with a string of four increasingly awesome EPs, yet his debut full length on Total Punk feels a bit unexpected as it, for the most part, departs from the heavily synth-based garage- and power pop sound of its predecessors for a somewhat more conventional, guitar-centric DIY garage punk aesthetic. That certainly doesn't mean these new songs were lacking any of the earlier releases' thrills - this shit's a rather inventive and unpredictable affair once again, quirky and catchy as fuck, bearing some similaritiy to acts like Freak Genes, Powerplant or Set-Top Box.
Doesn't look like these texans are gonna run out of tunes anytime soon, having just cranked out their second album over the course of just a few months. Thankfully the mix is a bit less tinnitus-inducing this time while the new songs seamlessly continue the wonderful chaos Big Bopper established earier this year, made up of post- and garage punk, noise- and math rock elements roughly in the vein of Patti, Rolex, Cutie, Mystic Inane or Brandy, plus some traces of early Minutemen.
In an act of criminal negligence i somehow failed to post any of the previous EPs by Smirk, the solo Project of Nick Vicario whose other groups Public Eye, Crisis Man and Cemento might ring a bell with regular visitors of this blog. After both EPs were compiled into an LP by Drunken Sailor Records earlier this year, we already get to enjoy his newest extended play via Total Punk / Iron Lung Records on which his ultra laid-back though never sleepy take on sample-backed garage punk sounds the most mature yet, more to the point and catchier than ever before.
Perfectly exhilerating shit, the first crumbs of noise we get from some group or project that might or might not be based in Los Angeles. The first two tracks deliver a flavor of electrically driven garage punk taking cues from acts like Mononegatives, Useless Eaters, Powerplant, RRC or Alien Nosejob while the closing track ups the weirdness considerably, going all-in on pure synth punk mayhem.
