Incredible full length debut by this St. Petersburg, Florida group that kinda plays out like a comprehensive roundup of pretty much anything that refused to fit into any of the neat categories of eighties to early nineties hard- and postcore. So much great shit echoed here, from the more left-field segment of the early ’80s scene… think like, Minutemen, Saccharine Trust, Crucifucks, Really Red, Dicks and Flipper, also spanning the classic eras of both ’80s (Gray Matter, Embrace, Rites Of Spring, One Last Wish) and ’90s Dischord-related sounds (Crownhate Ruin, most of all…), also taking some cues from the Touch & Go camp (say, Rapeman, Scratch Acid, early Shellac) and last but not least, freely plundering the legacy of Drive Like Jehu. And that’s just barely scratching the surface here. In the current landscape, i’d say groups like Deodorant, Optic Nerve, Big Bopper and Straw Man Army are of a similar spirit. All the while, Work Stress are considerably dialing up the unpredictability and apparent randomness even compared with most of the mentioned acts (though actually i think they’re acting quite deliberately here), a trait that pays off spectacularly in songs like Building From Abject Failure, in which dissonant, slow-crawl staccatto rhythms alternate with unexpectedly catchy punk hooks.
This Walsall, UK group comes at us with an intentionally overpowering, uncompromising and maximally nasty clump of dissonant, kinda monotonous noise bridging the gap between only the most confrontative fringes of post punk, noise rock and postcore. Interestingly, almost all of the comparisons i can come up with right now already date a few years back, reminding me of how much of an unexpectedly fertile decade the 2010s were for unwieldy noise rock fare, a genre i struggle to find much excitement in, looking at the current landscape. This record takes me right back there, to the genre’s second golden era of groups such as early Metz, USA Nails, Keepers, Overtime, Death Panels, Greys, Vangas, Tunic or John (timestwo). Well, at least a couple of these are still around. Then again, the thick veil of constant, dissonant blown-out noise texture these songs stay cloaked in at all times, somewhat reminds me of the short-lived US post punk sensation Dasher, while the cacophonous saxophone parts call to mind Nearly Dead and the kinda obscure australian 1980s post punk act Fungus Brains or, whenever they add some melodic overtones like in Crime, i can even sense a bit of australian post punk / proto-noise rock powerhouse X.
I was actually expecting that, at this point, i’d be through with these veterans of the current UK post punk scene as i thought their kinda sterile, synthetic (hah!) and overproduced sounding 2022 album and other bits and pieces released since then carried all the hallmarks of a group imminently to be swallowed whole by their own ambitions, like so many other UK groups who’ve at some point started biting off way more than they could chew. As it turns out though, Girls In Synthesis have plenty of chewing power to spare and their newest LP is a fucking excellent piece of dark, atmospheric, smart and epic post punk equilibrium. From the very first note of the Wire-esque album opener Lights Out to the monotone closing track A Damning Lesson, these songs are boiling down this group’s unique qualities to their very essence like never before while coming up with a good deal of variety and neat ideas along the way to keep things engaging and thrilling all the way through.
Following a quite stunning debut EP last year, this israeli group just keeps up the energy level of their very own brand of exquisite structured chaos on their first full length record. This is yet another unmitigated, noisy kick in the balls being performed somwhere inbetween the rough specs of noise rock, post punk, hard- and postcore, bearing some very slight similarity to groups such as Cutie, Big Bopper, Brandy, early Patti… add to that a generous helping of Big Black on top!
These New Yorkers’ latest LP is basically just an expanded version of their 2021 EP Triangulation by way of Strangulation, though i’m gonna say the addition of the four opening tracks elevates the whole thing to another level altogether, counterbalancing the kinda rigid, somewhat more late-eighties noise rock-leaning tracks of said EP with a fresh infusion of chaos that really seals the deal here, quite obviously taking cues from local no wave history – both the unstructured noisy kind and the funky James Chance-isms – as well as a bunch of other early eighties proto noise rock acts á la Flipper, Primitive Calculators and, most of all, No Trend.
This New York group is kind of a curious, zeitgeist-defying beast in this day and age, wearing their fondness of late eighties to early nineties punk, grunge and indie rock on their sleeves with the opening track even being titled Nirvana, although i’d rather liken them to early Mudhoney and the noisy, early incarnation of The Pixies, maybe a hint of U-Men, Scratch Acid and Drive Like Jehu aswell. So basically, they’re the kind of group that would’ve gotten various Pitchfork writers wet a decade-and-a-half ago, when the height of the first ’90s nostalgia wave hit. These days though, they’re kind of an obscure oddity and that makes this record all the more endearing to me.
This Sydney group brings a lot of local baggage to the table with its members having been, among other things, in groups such as Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys, Royal Headache, Tim and the Boys and Mundo Primitivo. But honestly, they don’t sound one bit like any of these groups. Rather, their rabid mixture of post- and hardcore reminds me a quite a bit of Atlanta wrecking crews Nag and Predator as well as other US groups like early Institute, Acrylics, Tube Alloys, Pyrex, Corker and Criminal Code or, alternately, Sydney’s very own Arse and Xilch. Add to that some ultra-raw proto-noise rock edge á la Flipper or No Trend and you’re roughly in the right ballpark. The unhinged bark of the singer, however, reminds me a lot of UK group Akne.
Leaves are an english Trio boldly defying any recent trends of their domestic scene, instead dabbling in a sound inbetween the parameters of postcore, noise- and math rock, all of which smells more of Chicago, the wider Touch and Go universe and related artifacts of the ’90s US Underground, doing a thoroughly convincing job at revitalizing an aesthetic that’s become a bit rare these days. Slint are the most obvious comparison to be made here but you might just as well pinpoint some flourishes of Tar, Unwound, early Shellac and late Bitch Magnet, a hint of Chavez or Polvo and even traces of ’90s Dischord propulsion can be found in Do Something. Of more recent groups, earlier incarnations of Pile and, even more so, Luggage suggest themselves as closely related examples.
Another marvel of covid lockdown-bred noise by a multi-generational british trio is arriving here with a roughly three-year delay. A breakneck-speed mixture of brass-enhanced garage punk, hard- and postcore, this stuff is combining the traits of more recent phenomena like, say, Cement Shoes, Crisis Man and Mystic Inane with some equally noisy gruff á la early-to-mid-eighties X, the australian group that is. Making the fun complete though is the infectious joy in the vocals of lead singer Eliza who, if my crummy math and the sparse bits of available information don’t fail me, must’ve been around seven years old at the time of recording.
Now here’s some brilliant shit i’ve been totally unprepared for, certainly having a mind of its own and being delightfully out of touch with the zeitgeist! Sure, the whole thing feels kinda old. I’m kinda old too, so i like that. Imagine the likes of Saccharine Trust, Minutemen, Swell Maps and The Pop Group partaking in an occult ritual to conjure up an ancient ’60s acid rock demon, an unholy crossbreed of psych- and math rock. This is quite terribly self-indulgent of course, but that aspect kinda comes with both of those genres, i guess. At this point i’m pretty sure you’ve already made up your mind about it and know if you’re gonna love or hate it. In my humble opinion, what the Philadelphia group hallucinates up here is pretty fucking swell and totally should be legalized!
