We're already two-and-a-half releases deep into Fog's discography here, though a quick glance over the New Zeeland group's previous LP/EP immediately reveals substantial improvements on their newest one. Although their basic ingredients of contemporary post punk and a hint of anarcho don't bring anything new to the table in 2025 and may rightfully be compared to such groups as early Institute, Pyrex, Corker, Nag, Criminal Code and such, there's also no denying that these songs are without exception expertly crafted blasts of grainy and underexposed noise with faint flashes of melody throughout, all the moving parts feeling a lot more deliberately arranged and refined than anything they've done previously.
Is it the third Dragnet LP already? Time flies man. For some reason (time & energy, usually) i've never given them the full blog post treatment here but i'm also gonna say they've never before sounded quite as tight, well-rounded, caffeinated and to-the-point as the Melbourne group featuring members of Vintage Crop, Gonzo and Teen Line among others does on their newest record. There's on one hand that slight Uranium Club-esque vibe to it that also pervades much of the Vintage Crop discography but there's just as much of a distinct quirky synth-driven, eggpunk-ish action going on that sits somewhere inbetween oldschool Ausmuteants, US bands like Smirk, Cherry Cheeks and Australia's own Ghoulies, Aborted Tortoise and Electric Prawns 2.
I didn't expect the latest LP of this Portsmouth, New Hampshire group to hit this hard - what an impressive qualitative leap from pretty much anything they've done before! Right out of the gate the opener Brain Feeder establishes a propulsive force in which weighty grooves and glittering melodic textures collide in a mix of post-, garage punk and a slight hint of postcore. For the remainder of the record, the formula gets further explored and expanded upon and their driving energy certainly gets plenty of reinforcement out of deliberate build-ups and carefully set-up dramaturgy in their sometimes rather simple but oftentimes quite intricate, always perfectly balanced song architectures.
Okay here's yet another of these francophone (though in this case seemingly not french) Oi!-infused garage punk groups and i have nothing new to add here but also no complaints whatsoever 'cos the quality is right up there with the genre's best and friends of shit á la Telecult, Stalled Minds, Distance, Nightwatchers, Litovsk or most recently Laxisme are gonna have a ball with this one as well.
After six years silence, out of the blue comes the second 7" of this Antwerp, Belgium group via the local garage punk powerhouse Belly Butten Records. And oh boy, this is some heavy duty shit channeling an aesthetic that seems just as influenced by smart artsy garage punk groups á la Uranium Club, Vintage Crop, Reality Group as by the sprechgesang and eleborate arrangements of US postcore phenomenon Straw Man Army, even if lyrically this shit is a lot more lighthearted here, in-tune with the overall musical vibe. To round things out, there's also a distinct touch of Tyvek or UV Race progressively creeping in over the course of these four tunes. I think this is just a perfect little 7". So ready for the next one in another in six years.
New shit from Mark Ryan (of Marked Men, Mind Spiders and Radioactivity fame) and his current electro-/synth punk outfit O-D-EX (or is it just Odex now?). After one short- and one long-playing release from last year - each of 'em sporting more of a minimalist and cold synth wave aesthetic - this new EP sees the duo of Ryan and Micah opening up their tunes towards a comparatively warm, melodic and overall more tangible direction that indeed sounds like a perfect middle ground between the group's aforementioned previous releases and the considerably more garage-leaning Mind Spiders records.
Top Secret Nichos are my favorite kind of nicho, i'll have fries with that thank you! Dining Nothing, is that so? Okay, maybe not then. Anyway, sin and muerte are pretty much on my agenda too along with beer, smut and Satan. Gotta love these dudes from Rosario, Argentina. Naturally their music kicks ass too! This is some excellent oldschool noise-infused post punk evoking bits and pieces of such groups as Nag, Impotentie, Labor and the early works of Institute, Low Life or Constant Mongrel, with the addtion of maybe a hint of combustive garage punk á la Jean Mignon especially in the aforementioned Dining Nothing.
Winky Frown have been kind of an oddity right from the start even in the - by definition - quite odd eggpunk genre in that their songs on one hand seem to perfectly fit in with a number of thoroughly established eggpunk formulas yet never fail to surprise and transcend the genre's limitations, putting a lot more effort, ideas and songwriting finesse into their tunes than you'd usually expect. Their new digital 2-track single has yet another surprise in store for us when we're greeted with a slow-jam tune kinda channelling a lost artifact of Chairs Missing-era Wire in turn channeling a lost artifact of Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd and the best thing is that shit fucking works! The second tune Upside Down Frown then is closer to the sonics we're used to from the group, which is to say: another marvellously crafted high-momentum electrically driven garage punk smasher that unrelentingly builds up towards a massive payoff.
Melbourne group Shepparton Airplane first caught my ear when they exploded right into my face with their 2018 sophomore LP Almurta, then quickly followed by a 2020 album that just didn't hit quite as hard for me - ambitious, sure, but also feeling kinda forced, like it's just been trying a bit too hard. After a radio silence of five years, just when the group had basically dropped off my radar, whe unexpectedly get to witness what is without doubt their most mature, accomplished record to date. Now their sound somewhere inbetween the realms of post punk, noise rock and postcore has always felt a bit old-fashioned, more comfortably fitting in the late 2000s to late-2010s, but that's also part of their charm, delightfully oldschool i'll say and certainly in the same league with some of the best groups said era had to offer like Sleepies, Bench Press, Diät, Batpiss, Rank/Xerox, the early works of USA Nails, Protomartyr and Gotobeds to name just a few... yeah even a slight vibe of Open Your Heart-era The Men may be hidden there in tunes like Stereo Youth. Anyway, each song on here is an elaborate, self-contained post punk drama taking its sweet time to unfold but never failing to lead straight into a rich and spectacular payoff.
With the recent Cruelster LP still quite hot out of the oven, here's the newest artifact of another Nathan Ward-fronted group already, the significantly more angular and methodical yet unmistakably related Knowso, whose recent Optimism / Foot Of Pride cassingle had also landed just mere weeks ago. As usual this shit is operating pretty much on the bleeding edge of repetitive post- and art punk weirdness, performed by a bunch of flawlessly rotating, well-greased man machines. Really i can't think of many other bands able to present such rigid and choppy compositions with such a frictionless drive and unbroken momentum. That's not to say their music weren't also catchy as fuck most of the time and especially in the second half here, tunes like Consumer Talk and Panopticon show them expanding on their melodic undercurrents for some of their most immediately striking and accessible tunes so far.
