On their freakin’ brilliant debut EP, this San Diego group dabbles in a quite oldschool sounding approach of gruff and dark post punk with a slight hint of Oi! that doesn’t try anything new but does everything right and is sure gonna please discerning genre afficinados and admirers of groups like Impotentie, Pyrex, Rank/Xerox and Institute, while standing out among the pack thanks to a pronounced melodic sensibility adding frequent flashes of color to that well-trodden genre formula, reminding me a little of early Iceage or of more recent works by the likes of Corker and NRG.
Now this shit is so right up my alley! The debut EP of this Providence, Rhode Island group just has so much class to it, a fully developed postcore aesthetic that you could locate somewhere inbetween some oldschool Drive Like Jehu, Rites Of Spring, Dag Nasty vibes and more recent genre phenomena like Waste Man, Bloody Gears, Glittering Isects (f.k.a. Uniform) and Dollhouse, adding some vague semblance of ’90s emocore to the mix as well as uncharacteristically melodic, rock-solid song foundations perfectly anchoring their smart and elaborate sonic architecture.
Exquisite new spaced-out goodness on the fantastic second EP of this singaporean group whose acid-drenched haze of garage-, post- and synth punk feels a bit like a way more pissed-off variant of shit á la Useless Eaters, Ex-Cult, Pow! or Mononegatives, with just a smidge of rowdy primitive energy á la early Strange Attractor thrown in for good measure!
An excellent second EP from this San Leandro, California group blasting a surprisingly catchy and compact mixture of Post Punk and Postcore that on one hand appears to be looking back at noisy, left-field eighties punk acts like Flipper, Really Red and early Saccharine Trust, but also kinda fits in with contemporary stuff like The Unfit, Hood Rats and Lackey, while their vocalist channels his inner Jello Biafra, particularly in his sarcasm, choice of themes and approach at delivering subversive stories. Oh, and both of ’em have a deep appreciation of landlords!
Here’s a sensational debut EP by some band or project based in Lethbridge, Alberta containing six perfect blows of post punk whose ear-piercing walls of noise and pulsing electric beats at times sound a bit as if an eggpunk Big Black collided with the somewhat psychedelic qualities of garage greats like late Useless Eaters, Pow! and Mononegatives – or maybe the murky old experimental punk classics of Métal Urbain / Dr. Mix and the Remix – in a breathless succession of certified bangers. I also have a hunch that fans of spaced-out noisemakers á la Corpus Earthling or french magician Pablo X are gonna lap this shit up.
Another strong Ismatic Guru record containing their whole discography so far if i’m not mistaken but, having featured them before, the five new tunes are of primary interest here. Just consider the other twenty tracks as a neat bonus if you haven’t heard them already. I considered the early material of the Buffalo, NY group as a bit hit-and-miss but the quality control has certainly ramped up since then, with their third EP having been the most pronounced improvement. So now here is their fifth batch of tunes and once again they’re outdoing themselves, having never sounded this confident and effortless in their mutant-funk post punk sketches that you could describe as a weird egg-ified fusion between a funked-up Landowner, early Minutemen and The Pop Group, maybe? I also imagine that admirers of last spring’s Cartoon LP might get a new kick out of this.
The third EP of this Brooklyn, NY group is hands down their most ripe effort to date and strikes a delicate balance between more blunt and straightforward garage-infused hardcore punk smashers and more eleborate postcore tunes which call to mind such weirdo acts as Mystic Inane, Launcher or Rolex, keeping us on on the edge of our seats with a constant sense of unpredictability.
This Montreal group featuring Members of Puffer and Béton Armé unveils a fully evolved and classy vision on their second Tape following up on their admirable, if still a bit rough-around-the-edges 2023 Demo. The opener Insoutenable comes dashing right out of the gate with a pronounced Radio Birdman and early New Christs kind of energy which is joined by more contemporary sounding elements of melodic post punk á la The Estranged and Dead Finks, having much of a folk-ish, roots-y quality to it. Another standout is Rien ne t’empêchera, which strikes me as a perfect fusion of a catchy oldschool Oi! singalong with jangly power pop.
Cologne’s longstanding art punk bastion Tics are at it again and on their latest 7″ via local label Mörtel Sounds they come across the most well-defined and focused we’ve heard of them in quite a while. All the moving parts are interlocking admirably here, with the opening track Clad Faun being the closest thing here to the heavily Minutemen and Gang Of Four-indebted funky post punk of their earlier works. Simultaneously though, it also sees them opening up their sound to a variety of influences i might roughly locate in the ’90s Dischord universe and particularly the more melodic outliers of Fire Party and Autoclave in this case, while the remainder of this EP leans more into the somewhat rougher, slightly math-y flipside of that same coin with the likes of Jawbox, Hoover, Smart Went Crazy, Bluetip and Kerosene 454 sure having made their mark on these songs in addition to further ’90s mainstays such as Polvo, Unwound and Chavez. Just as well though, i can also smell the distinct odor of more recent australian and NZ acts á la Die! Die! Die!, Batpiss and Bench Press in there, or of US groups like Stuck and Rip Room.
Video game themed punk is not exactly a predictor of great creativity and artistic merit but thankfully, this Fresno, California group’s second EP bucks the trend of toothless chiptune sounds and instead delivers some delicious treats of fuzzy lo-fi electro punk with plenty of bite which at different points you might find vaguely reminiscent of groups á la S.B.F., ISIS, Exit Mould, Penance Hall, Kerozine, Giorgio Murderer or that Zhoop/Djinn/etc.-dude’s more electronically leaning alter egos Nightman and Brundle.
