Somewhat unexpectedly on this London band's new 7", their sound takes a strong turn towards early 2010's scandinavian post punk, pretty much in between the uncompromising early Copenhagen school (Lower, Iceage, Echo People…) and way more accessible Acts like Holograms, RA. Also, Australia's Low Life might be a viable comparison. Then, on the B-Side they inject Cure's Grinding Halt with a slight hint of New Order, which also works quite admirably.
After having churned out an excellent Demo and a no less amazing EP in '16/'17, it took a while for Melbourne's Reality Group to come up with their first full length, which makes up for the long wait with a noticeably matured - although, thankfully, in no way or form sanitized - set of tunes. This album is everything you might have have hoped for from this band; a deliciously quirky frankenstein brew made up of garage-, art- and post punk you simply shoudn't miss out on if you have any affinity for shit in the vein of Pinch Points, Uranium Club, Andy Human & The Reptoids, Erik Nervous, Lithics or even earlier Teenanger.
Already a handful of releases into their discography, we kinda know what to expect from a new Flat Worms record by now. However, that doesn't mean they're standing still exactly. Rather, with every new release they managed to focus on and expand upon a certain facet of their garage-, psychedelic- and fuzz punk sound, keeping things fresh and interesting at all times. This time, recording with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio, the result does not only show Albini's trademark sonic characteristics, but also their overall sound seems to embrace some of his legacy as a producer audio engineer, veering into a distinctly noise rock/postcore direction that, once again, was always subtly present on their previous records but never as much on display as here and might be compared to contemporary bands like Meat Wave, Metz or USA Nails. Other small but pleasant surprises come in the form of the title track - a garage jam you could almost describe as relaxed - as well as the 90s indie rock vibes in Market Forces.
While we're at it, speaking of Kitchen People and Warttman Inc., here's another blast of synth punk insanity by some Kitchen People-affiliated solo project, bearing obvious similarities to Warttman acts like Set-Top Box and Research Reactor Corp., with maybe a bit of Digital Leather or Trashdog sprinkled in from time to time.
Six years have passed now since Taulard of Grenoble, France put out their utterly enchanting, otherworldly debut album Les Abords Du Lycée. Even after such a long time, there's still no other Band quite like them and their guitar-less, organ-centric, deeply melancholy and eccentric (post-)punk sound that on paper looks like it could never work, but somehow it does.
Cleveland, Ohio's Knowso already had 7"s out on both Total Punk and Neck Chop Records in the past, which kind of amounts to the ultimate seal of quality in today's garage landscape. Their newest EP contiues all the goodness and carefully branches out from there. At times they remind of a mix between Nag, more recent Useless Eaters and Constant Mongrel. Other times i can draw parallels to the weirdo post punk of Patti or the unruly noise-/garage hybrids of Brandy and Hash Redactor - boiled down to their bare skeleton. Also, Turning Point has some Wire thing going on and you know that kind of shit will always be appreciated here.
Now this one's a curious beast. Nashville group Donors already won my attention two years ago with their first EP and a somewhat more conventional mix of garage- and post punk, but this is a different level of weirdness altogether, as they infuse their sound with increasing amounts of dissonant no wave havoc and proto noise rock á la Flipper, No Trend. What in the world could i compare this stuff to? Tyvek or Constant Mongrel reimagined as a no wave act? Spray Paint as a garage band? I'm not entirely sure what they actually set out to do but there's no doubt they're succeeding with flying colors. Just when you thought you made sense of the whole thing, the closing track Fine Print manages to surprise once again by adding some Haunted Horses-style industrial flavor to the mix.
Following two strong demo tapes and the flawless ripper that was last year's debut album via Emotional Response Records, Oakland's Neutrals already have another EP out on which they seemlessly resume their remarkable winning spree. No other band right now so effortlessly nails this specific subgenre of endlessly charming, qirky heart-on-its-sleeve style DIY post-/art punk surely inspired by the likes of Television Personalities, early Mekons or Desperate Bicycles, while still seeming firmly rooted in this day and age.
Their third LP - once again released via the tastefully named label 12XU Records (which i'm totally not involved with, i promise!) - presents Austin punks Xetas' sound in its most mature incarnation yet, most noticeable in terms of its more confident, varied and always rock solid songcraft. Still riding the fine line between straightforward punk rock and energetic post punk/-core, with the needle pointing a bit more in the latter direction this time, you might describe this shit as a curious mix between Red Dons, Video, Meat Wave and Daylight Robbery. In other words: Quality Stuff!
Not too long after their recent 7" suggested some amount of relaxation in the Cleveland trio's sound, they fall right back into their tense and gritty old ways on their second album - even double down on them compared to the already rough blast of their debut album three years ago - amounting to another perfect round of fuzzed out garage noise glory, this time reminding me of early Greenberg-era The Men in all their uncompromising force.
