This group's second cassette on Impotent Fetus or Down South Tapes or whatever it's called this week, considerably one-ups their previous one in terms of undiluted fury while carrying across all the traits we've come to expect from that label's output - rough and grimy as fuck yet unexpectedly catchy at the same time. A perfect storm of garage- and KBD-infested hardcore primitivism.
A brilliant new release brought to us by Gimmie Records, the record label extension of the fabulous Gimme Gimmie Gimmie blog-/zine empire. Piss Shivers are a Brisbane duo whose debut LP kicks up a highly flammable fuss located vaguely inside the Garage-, Post Punk and Postcore coordinates, sometimes reminding me of a Crisis Man-meet-Hot Snakes hybrid while at other points you might be reminded of early Teenanger, the pitch-black postcore dystopias of Video, VHS or the furious anger of Wymyns Prysyn. Further i'm recalling the likes of Xetas, Gaffer, Ascot Stabber and Batpiss… maybe a bit of Zhoop/Djinn/Feed energy aswell in the more primitive, straightforward moments.
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.
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!
At first glance i couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed by the lack of new material on the Nashville group's debut LP but then again, i can't say these new recordings of songs mostly known from previous EPs don't slap - they kick some serious ass, trading in some of the previous releases' shambolic quirkiness for a bit more of a hardcore edge and while i've really grown fond of the EPs' Lo-Fi aesthetics, there have also been some examples on these that never quite clicked with me in their earlier versions and its those songs that gain the most on this LP which is likely also a closer representation of the group's current live sound, their shows having gained kind of a legendary reputation at this point. Can't wait to see these folks tour Europe.
On their kickass debut LP, Hamburg group Night Punch present a tight-as-fuck melange of slightly goth-leaning, horror-themed garage-, synth- and post punk that sometimes cranks its tempo up into hardcore spheres, other times being reminiscent of a basic Spits formula spiked with plenty of surprises and unexpected flourishes for an overall equally quirky and dark aesthetic which is sure to please dark punk-, death rock- and dungeon aficinados all the same. Further possible references would be a number of garage- and synth punk acts like The Gobs, Liquid Face, Shrinkwrap Killers, Broken Prayer, Droids Blood, Isotope Soap, the unfiltered thrust of Exwhite, maybe even a hint of Acrylics in the rougher patches.
I'd almost forgotten about this San Francisco group yet here they are following up their impressive 2019 debut album with a new EP showcasing their quirky and inventive sound on the fringes of noise rock, hard- and postcore in a shape both rougher and more refined at the same time, echoing some of the greatest noise-/weirdcore releases of recent years including those by the likes of Warm Bodies, Sniffany & The Nits, Vexx, Dots, Judy & The Jerks or Mystic Inane.
An incredibly self-assured debut tape by a group from Victoria, Canada bursting onto the scene fully formed and mature, bringing to life inventive, haunting and elaborately constructed epics compacted into short, dense hardcore tracks in which they let only the murkiest tendencies of noisy hard-/postcore groups á la Acrylics, Vidro, early Bad Breeding collide with an overall aesthetic branching out deep into the suppressed subconscious, uncanny realms of death rock-/dungeon related or otherwise "blackened" or metal infused noise.
A simply delightful debut LP by this Philadelphia group, brought to us via local label SRA Records. I wanna describe this shit as a mixed bag in the best sense possible, an eccentric repository of slightly cowpunk-infused art punk hovering somewhere between garage- and noise-heavy hardcore shit with a certain KBD-extension somewhat reminiscent of early Electric Chair plus a touch of Soupcans on one hand, and then on the other, there are some ubiquitous echoes to be found of old acts on the intersection of '80s noise rock and proto-grunge like, say, U-Men, Scratch Acid, Volcano Suns, Butthole Surfers, Minutemen, Saccharine Trust, Feedtime and very early Meat Puppets, just to name a couple of the most obvious references.
Another beauty from italian powerhouse label Goodbye Boozy Records. You might remember Buenos Aires group repulsion switch from their 2019 demo and a bunch of EPs they put out since then. Here, we've got easily their strongest batch of tracks so far of their refreshingly simple yet equally explosive, garage-flavored oldschool hardcore sound. Another known quantity here at 12XU headquarters is synth punk guru Klint from Schleswig, Germany who takes charge of side b here with his usual workmanlike precision, curious experimantation and a new couple of tunes mostly on the rougher edge of the spectrum, perfectly complementing the RS tracks.