I was intrigued when the Brisbane-based label Grog Records (re-)issued the Hello, Mr. Operator EP by New York electro punks Hand Helds on cassette, originally released late last year. A closer look at their bandcamp profile reveals not only that they’ve had a new EP out in January already but also that quite obviously they’ve been at it for a while already, churning out a ton of EPs in a varying spectrum of dark and noisy garage punk, minimalist and often quite harsh synth- and electro punk. I’m pretty sure i already came across them in the past but i’m also reminded why i passed over that stuff back then, as much of their earlier cataloque sounds like the equivalent of throwing lots of shit at the wall to see what’s gonna stick. Anyway, a couple of things have stuck apparetly and on their latest two EPs, things click into place way more tightly thanks to a more minimalist and deliberate less-is-more approach. Hello Mr. Operator is certainly the cruder of the two EPs with a heavily Primitive Calculators and occasionaly Suicide-indebted brand of Synth Punk minimalism. The Transatlantic Death Machine EP then trades in the bass guitar for live drums and things get even wilder and, dare i say, kinda sophisticated, despite the best efforts and dissonant patterns of synth cacophony in tunes like Glue Tongue to obscure the fact. There’s a weird kraut-ish, motorik quality to the whole thing and a successful approach of trimming the fat while giving attention to the details that matter, all of which positions these two records a couple notches above your average electro-kraut effort or no wave-ish ’80s synth punk throwback.
You could easily file these swiss dudes away as yet another artifact of kinda fashionable, Pisse-induced german-language post punk but this stuff is operating on a high level and standing very much on its own two feet with enough identity and ideas of their own to set them apart with a sound that strikes me as just a tad more international, with Rien Pour Moi reminding me a bit of the likes of Ismatic Guru or Landowner for example, while Animal Farm has a bit of an old Giorgio Murderer Vibe. Anyway, even if they won’t be able to shake off that Pisse comparisons just yet, this is a neat and excellent debut EP in its own right and i can’t wait to see where they’ll go from here.
Nourishment’s past two releases have been on kinda shaky ground in terms of song material in my opinion but anyway, on their newest one, they’re really hitting the nail on the head again with a batch of new tunes that deliver the familiar thrills way more consistently and artfully and for now, i’ll still say they’ve carved out a micro-niche very much of their own with both their compositions and atmosphere having way more in common with ancient death rock and contemporary post punk influences than anything currently happening in the wider blackened/dungeon punk landscape.
Mexico City group La RAF certainly have an unlikely knack for taking decades-old post punk formulas and tropes while always succeeding in putting their very own stamp on them with every tune here kinda weirdly sounding like something that may have been released at any point from the late seventies onward, yet never quite like a tune you thought you’ve actually heard before – there’s a fresh and lively energy to these tunes, imbued with plenty of personality and propelled forward in tight and punchy performances, even if the basic ingredients are as old as time.
The early teaser tracks for the debut longplayer of this Melbourne group featuring members of Piss Wizard and Stray Dogs To Good Homes had already signaled kind of a drastic departure from the simple Wipers-infused garage punk of their previous EP and indeed this record is a different beast altogether, taking on more of a dusty, americana-tinged post punk vibe with echoes of eighties Scientists but also plenty of more recent stuff like the noisy post punk of Copenhagen’s Lower and the early works of Iceage; Sklitakling and Pleaser from Sweden, americana- and cowpunk-influenced US groups like Weak Signal and Bambara, or Australia’s own Optic Nerve and Refedex. A rich tapestry of plausible, well-established influences to draw from for sure but these folks absolutely make it their own with tons of resilient song substance providing the foundation to expand upon for their noisy eruptions, determined performances, a fully matching vehicle of haunting sonics for the frank, urgent lyrics and vocals of frontwoman Freya Tanks.
Is this really the fourth Dead Finks LP already? Time sure flies by man! In contrast to that, the output of the Berlin-based duo consisting of Erin Violet and Joseph Thomas (formerly of New Zeeland post punkers Trust Punks) has been reassuringly constant and worthy at all times, surely carrying over some of that old Trust Punks DNA but matching it up with a great deal of folk-ish strumming and melancholia, woven into an epic and colorful mosaic of widescreen drama, a moody atmosphere of unresolved conflict that more than once reminds me of the kinda iconic, singular vision of Brisbane indie-/noise rockers Kitchen’s Floor.
Nightwatchers of Toulouse, France, one of the higher profile acts that sprung up in the probably Youth Avoiders-induced 2010s french wave of variably Oi-!influenced, melodic post punk/-core groups, has at times struck me as a somewhat spotty, shaky affair on some of their longplayers. On their newest EP they’re operating in the golden zone from start to finish though, churning out four certified bangers with workmanlike routine and while their sound has never deviatied too much from that established formula and won’t reinvent itself here either, they make up for that easily through the sheer strength of the underlying tunes and an unflinching, tight and vicious performance.
This group and their bandcamp profile feel weirdly familiar to me, even though this appears to be their first EP… have they changed their name maybe or had a previous release which has disappeared since? Well, most likely i’m just imagining things. Anyway, this is a neat little EP with a pretty oldschool post punk sound that at times complements its early Nots or classic Siouxsie kind of energy with just a hint of revolution summer-style early postcore urgency, most notably so in the standout tune H-21.
Not terribly hard to describe what this Atlanta group is doing on their debut LP as it’s basically yet another Crass Discharge of Rudimentary Peni unspooling right in front of us, yet for somthing this straight and specific, they pull this shit off in a thoroughly convincing fashion with plenty of intelligence and variation to their compositions, staying reasonybly close within the expected boundaries of their chosen early hardcore, 1st gen anarcho and death rock frameworks while never repeating themselves and drawing a good deal of fresh energy and surprising turns from the decades-old genre tropes in an effort that strikes me as leagues ahead of your average oldschool genre excercise.
One of the most esoteric tentacles of the current art punk world strikes again with yet another kickass six minutes of math-y, dub-infused, polyrhythm-obsesed and altogether unapoligetically self-indulgent post punk nuggets that would come across as way up their own arses from any lesser group. These Buffalo, NY folks though, who’ve constantly improved and fine-tuned their intricate formula over the course of five years and six releases so far, are among the very few exceptional bands able to meet their lofty ambitions with an overflowing abundance of musical substance and rock-solid craftsmanship.
