It took the Portland, Oregon trio a few releases to get there, but their newest 7" is pushing all the right buttons for me with its no wave-infused as well as Gang Of Four-inspired danceable post punk, which in this particular case reminds me especially of Brighton group Austerity.
Whoa, what a beautifully crude piece of DIY lo-fi fuckery in the twilight zones of slightly no-wave-ish post punk and garage rock, this digital release by some unknown Hicksville, NY entity. Kinda like an incredibly weird incarnation of The Woolen Men intermingling with Half Japanese and The UV Race. This is just gorgeous!
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Now this one's a curious beast. Nashville group Donors already won my attention two years ago with their first EP and a somewhat more conventional mix of garage- and post punk, but this is a different level of weirdness altogether, as they infuse their sound with increasing amounts of dissonant no wave havoc and proto noise rock á la Flipper, No Trend. What in the world could i compare this stuff to? Tyvek or Constant Mongrel reimagined as a no wave act? Spray Paint as a garage band? I'm not entirely sure what they actually set out to do but there's no doubt they're succeeding with flying colors. Just when you thought you made sense of the whole thing, the closing track Fine Print manages to surprise once again by adding some Haunted Horses-style industrial flavor to the mix.
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At first listen, i can't help but think of the texan (neo) no wave/chaotic noise rock connection around bands like Flesh Narc, Gay Cum Daddies and a few other projects sharing much of the same personnel. However, this band is from Philadelphia, making any association with those rather unlikely. Also, on closer inspection, their sound and songs come across a lot more structured, compared with the kinda semi-improvised feel of the Denton scene's output. Soundwise, this is somewhat less in the no wave camp, leaning more into the noise rock side of things and now that i'm thinking of it… I also see quite some similarities to their geographically much closer New York contemporaries Spray Paint and Big Neck Police, as well as a hint of canadian noise punks Sopcans.
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