New hardcore shit from Athens, Georgia that owes its overwhelming what-the-fuckness and disorienting qualities in part to the completely blown-out fucked-uppery in the engineering department but also in no small part to some hints of noisy Big Black-ishness that still seeps through the cracks underneath a brittle surface of pure distortion and white noise. Strip all that muck away and you may be left with the greatest or the worst hardcore performance in the world and i don’t care either way ‘cos the way it is, this shit sounds like pure bliss to me.
This group from Perth, Australia featuring members of Semtex 87 easily outdoes that band’s already pretty fuckin’ brutal sound in terms of sheer overwhelming force in a maximally hazardous sonic assault obscured by a thick layer of noise, feedback and distortion, grime, oil and dust, though if you listen closely, you’ll also find surprising amounts of nuance and intricacy underneath the rough surface, making this thing an unexpectedly rewarding listen, more than just a couple notches above your average noisy hardcore artifact.
Hardcore punk from Los Angeles that has more than enough neat tricks up its sleeve and musical meat on its bones to keep listeners on their toes at all times, delivering a good deal of fresh and creative sonic stimuli while at the same time lovingly pummeling us into submission with an unrelenting and tight-as-fuck wrecking ball of a performance that doesn’t take any fucking prisoners. Ouch that hurt. More of that good shit please!
This Cleveland, Ohio group’s second EP strikes all the right chords with me after ther 2023 Debut already made a strong first impression, but this new one is another level of insanity altogether for their sonic assault of quirky & rowdy hardcore- and, occasionally, post punk wrapped in a thick layer of grimy Flipper-esque noise texture that calls to mind pretty much any modern-day genre classic by the likes of Stinkhole, Launcher, Mystic Inane, early Soupcans, Dollhouse, Lumpy and the Dumpers, Vulture Shit and Big Bopper, just to name a couple of the more obvlous ones.
An awesome debut cassette by this group out of Athens, Geoargia, delivering a salvo of fuzzed out tunes on the intersection of hardcore- and KBD-soaked garage punk. While at times resembling the noise-laden output of groups á la Lumpy and the Dumpers, Soupcans and Black Button i think this stuff would fit equally well within the catalogs of LoFi specialist cassette labels Impotent Fetus and Deluxe Bias, having a similar shambolic energy in common with acts like Septic Yanks, C-Krit, early Electric Chair, Exxxon and Motor Corp.
Another bomb has just dropped via Tetryon Tapes. The previous EP Better Homes & Gardens by the Rochester, NY group was a perfectly fun occasion already, albeit one still kinda struggling to seamlessly integrate their oldschool ’70s/’80s metal elements into their overall aesthetic. This new cassette rectifies this in part by way of a rough-as-fuck Lo-Fi sound that simply fits them a lot better while their powers of song construction have undoubtedly made plenty of progress as well, resulting in an unforgiving force that skillfully imbues some of the most furious instances oldschool hardcore grime and filth with a distinct dungeon punk note.
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.
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.
Like a smelly puddle of pure hard- and noisecore disgust, this neat little tape by New York group Opsec has kind of an extensive Flipper- and No Trend feel to it just as well as bits and pieces of more recent phenomena like Soupcans, C-Krit, Stinkhole, Crisis Man, Black Button or Mystic Inane.
Just another quick roundup of noises and disturbances out of the extended hardcore orbit. Starting off the batch with Sex Hater of Kansas City, who will surely please admirers of chaotic and downright filthy hardcore shit in a similar vein to groups á la Total Sham, Fried E/m or Launcher.
Speaking of filth, Clinic from Fresno, California dial that certain aspect even further – their latest EP feeling like one single murky puddle of primitive anger and deep despair, not entirely dissimilar in some places to the early Beast Fiend EPs.
pH People, a group of unknown origin, then slow the tempo down considerybly while by no means lacking energy – their tape on Urticaria Records is a potent mixture from the fringes of harcore punk and (proto-) noise rock with clear echoes of mostly older stuff á la Flipper, Spike In Vain, Noxious Fumes or Broken Talent.
And lastly, there’s one for the dungeon dwellers among us in the form of Philadelphia’s Alien Birth who deliver an oldschool metal-infested beast kinda like a mix between a more primitive Poison Ruïn and Golden Pelicans going all in on their sleaze rock leanings.
