Oh hey, right on time to that other dog-themed group, here’s new shit from the only band in the world not called The Dogs and while Dog Lips of Portsmouth, New Hampshire may have had some similarity to that group around the time of their first EP in 2022, they’ve already evolved away from that with their previous Danger Forward LP at the very latest, on which they dabbled in more of a Post Punk sound, though not without some distinct hints and flashbacks towards their garage punk past. Their newest one then feels like a straight continuation of that stuff at first but also keeps morphing and evolving their style of quite catchy post punk that more often than not reminds me of such groups which started out in the past decade like Flat Worms, The Cowboy, early Protomartyr, Plax or Speed Week.
Portland death rockers Excess Blood’s 2024 self-titled EP on Impotent Fetus was pretty fucking good already and on their recent follow-up, they sorta stick even closer to a pretty oldschool goth/post punk/death rock formula, so much that in the first seconds of Turn To Stone you’d almost think they’re about to segue right into a cover Joy Division’s Transmission. Usually that kind of thing doesn’t sound like the most attractive proposition to me on paper, but i gotta admit even the most traditional sounding records of that ilk aren’t all created equal and the devil is in the details really. On this one, all those details add up admirably – the tunes, the vibes, the performance and attitude, it’s all perfectly on point here, making for a record that sounds kinda old-fashioned but, unlike so many similar bands, not the least bit dull or stale.
This record came pretty much out of the blue, to me at least, when it was announced in January, though it appears these tunes and the group behind them – featuring members of Total Control, Den and R.M.F.C. among others – have been brewing for a couple of years already, with some this shit apparently originating from a previous group named KX Aminal which, to my best knowledge, has never made it out of Australia or released any music so i guess i can be forgiven for not being in the loop. Anyway, expectations were high on this one and i’m glad to say it turned out every bit as good a record as anyone could have hoped for, their sound incorporating elements recognisable from all three of these better known bands, yet succeeding in taking that aesthetic to some fairly unexpected places in how they weave familiar post punk flavors with a great deal of new age ethereal spaciousness, kraut-y motorik repetition, further hints of ’70s art rock and even a slight folk-ish bent reminiscent to NZ Post Punkers Trust Punks or their Belin-based successors Dead Finks into an epic, deeply atmospheric, sprawling and otherwordly hallucinogenic trip that is clearly meant to be ingested in one go – yeah, this is a prime example of an increasingly rare thing these days – an honest to dog capital-a album rather than just ten songs pressed on an record and no doubt this will be among the classiest punk things you get to hear this year.
Holyoke, Massachusetts group Landowner, one of the most unique voices in contemporary post punk, now has their fifth long-playing record out via Exploding In Sound Records and a good ten years in, they still show no signs of wear in their mimimalist and abstract approach on post punk and postcore that, despite their influence on younger bands becoming increasingly obvious in recent years, is still unmistakably very much their own. If anything, both their compositions and lyrics only have gotten sharper and a good bit darker over time with anything resembling a sense of ironic detachment coming off as nothing more than a psychic self-defense measure, necessary to keep your own sanity when confronting these tunes’ existential subject matter while we all know that – in contrast to the way Linear Age frames human history as a succesion of unlocked and at times questionable achievements like in some bizarre sort of strategic simulation game – the actual universe won’t grant us a second shot at existence and we’re absolutely shitting the bed at every conceivable level right now.
Skelett are a new german group made up of peeps based in Leipzig, Kiel and Halle and right out of the gate i’m tempted to describe them as a variant of Berlin punks Benzin leaning heavier into the hardcore punk side of their equation, but just as well you could point to certain aspects of US groups like Vexx, Judy & The Jerks, Fugitive Bubble, Dregs, Warp or Skin Tags, although Skelett operate on a much rawer, purer spectrum of slightly thrashy mid-eighties hardcore with even a slight hint of NWOBHM-style riffing in tunes like Bloodstained, while peppering their all of it with a tireless succession of super catchy hooks all the same, keeping me on the lookout for whatever curveball they’re gonna throw me next. This is the sound of an (only on the surface-level) oldschool-ish hardcore band that knows exactly what it sets out to do and fulfills their clear-cut vision in a hyper-focused effort of unflinching confidence.
On their newest 7″, one of the most highly regarded contemporary post punk institut…ions at times backs away somewhat from the airy art punk/-rock vibes that permeated their previous LP – 2023’s brilliant Ragdoll Dance – rather feeling more aligned with the still slightly rawer sonics of their 2019 album Readjusting The Locks while nonetheless profiting off the matured songwriting capabilities and elaborate arrangements of that last record. Best of both worlds really!
That Aidmoozic EP too short for you? This Ackland, New Zeeland group has yet another batch of heavily british DIY punk-flavored strummery for us following a somewhat more basic yet perfectly effective formula that just can’t conceal the amount of Desperate Bicycles, Mekons and Television Personalities-worship at the core of it with maybe an occasional sprinkle of Buzzcocks for good measure or, if you wanna go like one or two levels deeper, Performing Ferrets, possibly? Anyway, concerning somewhat more recent acolytes, i’d say the UK’s own Suburban Homes are probably the closest match here.
Excellent and quirky shit sitting inbetween the worlds of oldschool british DIY punk, post punk, hard- and postcore on this Watford, UK dude’s third EP, of which the first couple tunes in particular remind me of a version of Landowner-style clean-ish guitar hardcore mixed with some distinctly Mission Of Burma-esque guitar work and even a hint of Television Personalities and Mekons which gets further expanded on over the course of the remaining songs, but also a touch of early Minutemen is tucked in there somewhere and echoes of a bunch of more recent bands like Zhoop (or whatever alias that dude is operating under right now), post punkers á la Big Bopper, Lamictal, Patti and further some of that contemporary breed of strummy part time punks as exemplified by the likes of Silicone Values, Famous Logs In History and the early works of Neutrals.
Here we have a marvellous debut LP from a Berlin-based group that – after a post punk-ish instrumental intro reminding me in equal parts of The Estranged and oldschool west coast punk of the Adolescents, Germs and Agent Orange variety – mostly settles into a heavily Spits-indebted, occasianally somewhat Ramones-ish garage punk sound enriched with a certain space punk ingredient reminiscent of such groups as Corpus Earthling, Silicon Heartbeat, Stalins of Sound, Zoids and Mateo Manic or, fairly recently, Shrudd, Zulo and Electric Prawns 2, although the aforementioned post punk vibes also return occasionally in tunes like Freiheit and Vittima. Seamlessly glued together by rock-solid songwriting qualities throughout, this makes for a flawless all-killer record getting the optimal bang for the buck out of a time-tested oldschool formula.
Once again a real knockout tape brought to us by the reliable New York purveyor of varyingly punk-related eccentricities, Fuzzy Warbles Cassettes. The opening track No Kill Means immediatelty radiates kind of an art punk vibe á la Television-meet-Ruts or more recently, Peace de Résistance or later Institute. Soft Change then takes a way more abstract, minimalist post punk route, quite cold and rigid but kinda funky at the same time. Cave One is a relatively straightforward, but by no means dumb, scrap of catchy garage punk and so is All Skill Levels with its equally post- and proto punk-ish vibes and an additional layer of dissonant noise. Great Pastures compresses some of these same traits into an unexpectedly catchy and compact little package of tangentially Sonic Youth-esque buzz. Anticev then surprises with a lot of a surf rock feel. And so it goes on… this is an eclectic grab bag of a record that pulls a new surprise out of its hat at every corner and quite woundrously doesn’t drop the ball even once but rather feels weirdly coherent and methodical in its shapeshifting approach.
