Strange beast, the debut EP of this group with members scattered across Australia and the USA (Sydney, Portland and Melbourne, more specifically), on which everything just feels a bit off… in a good way! Right frome the Intro there’s an unmistakable Mission Of Burma- and Moving Targets vibe goin’ on and echoes of further ’80s oddities of the Really Red, Angst and Saccharine Trust variety. Also, there’s some undercurrent of Sonic Youth-esque guitar harmonies and ’90s Postcore elements á la Unwound, Drive Like Jehu or later Gray Matter work in unison with their more melodic counterparts like Chavez and Polvo, two Bands whose work also echoes heavily through the even stronger second half of this Record from Closer oneward, where their whole sound veers a lot closer towards melodic Seam- and Superchunk-infused Indie Rock with some additional traces of No Age and Swervedriver maybe? Anyway, this is some thorougly enjoyable shit.
This Philadelphia group’s debut tape is kind of a rarity in this day and age as a post punk-adjacent record that stubbornly resists classification into any specific preexisting sub-niche, but you all know i’m gonna try anyway, right? The folk-ish americana feel of the opening track Full Speed Ahead (ironically one of the slower tunes here) evokes the widescreen drama of a Dead Finks record while the following three tunes retain much of that quality but also exhibit plenty of markedly different vibes not entirely dissimilar to the work of such present-day post punk staples like Tube Alloys, Corker, earlier Pyrex, Marbled Eye and, most of all, VR Sex, whose somber and dark energy may be the closest match of the bunch overall, but where that group’s output was always marked by a layer of artificiality and clinical detachment, these tunes feel a lot more rustic, grounded and thoroughly lived-in.
Marseille post punkers Catalogue have been around roughly as long as this blog and so far have been a constant and reliable presence that pops up every now and then with a new batch of tunes that, at this point in time, you may describe as pleasantly old-fashioned with their borderline motorik electric beats, fairly straightforward song progressions, vicious grooves and catchy hooks. And while it should be obvious they’re not gonna reinvent the wheel in 2025, i gotta say that newest EP of theirs once again presents them from their best side with a sound very much of their own that still doesn’t feel like they’re repeating themselves, still able to elicit new facets and quite a bit of variety from their well worn-in genre formula.
Australia’s garage punk whizz kids are at ist again with a new EP which presents them going all-in on the monotonous acid-rockin’, psyched-out side of their sonic spectrum, though you can make a clear distinction here between the first two tunes, having a more minimalist formula and darker tone reminiscent of groups such as Mononegatives, vintage Oh Sees and Pow!, and the following two tracks, which i’m gonna say are the real jewels on here (though the other two are perfectly accomplished pieces in their own right) and add a more melodic, albeit deeply melancholic vibe to the mix through which flows what you might describe as a classic dreamy synth wave quality. Good shit, as always.
This Vancouver group creates a delightful and eccentric blend of fuzzed-out, garage-infused oldschool indie rock, post- and art punk on their debut EP with the opening tune Running and Running having much of an early Woolen Men or Shark Toys vibe, while Dud reminds me a lot of Volcano Suns. In Roundabout, some ’80s Nomeansno appears to collide with a classic cowpunk vibe. The closing track Anyone Anywhere has certain Scratch Acid-meets-Jawbox feel goin’ on and there’s no denying the whole EP also has some faint Mission Of Burma background radiation detectable.
I’m having kind of a hard time warming up to the opener’s fluffy ’90s beats and alternative radio rock vibes but thankfully, it gets a lot better from there on with Tryna Do sounding like the seeds of a power pop tune reconfigured into a fuzz-laden Saints or Stooges context. Put it Back does similar things but adds a slight touch of a Flying Nun Records-esque quality to the mix before the EP concludes with its most accomplished tune Gracia, which is sounds like four decades of catchy college rock-adjacent guitar strummery perfectly boiled down to a compact two minutes.
This Berlin group plucks all the right strings in my neural sound processing circuits on their debut EP, on which they neatly combine a melodic, heavily song-based flavor of post punk á la The Estranged, Daylight Robbery or Sievehead with a decent dose of Wipers action, a bit of glammy eighties goth / death rock and a great deal of catchy, power pop-ish flourishes on top.
Their brilliant demo in 2023 and an equally rippin’ digital 2-track single in 2024 already had me hyped up good for this group revolving around two Brazilians in New York with further participation of, among others, Margaret Chardiet of Dollhouse and Pharmakon. So finally here’s their first longplayer out on UK powerhouse label Drunken Sailor Records and who would’ve guessed… it’s yet another freakin’ great record! I’ve previously compared their sound to Straw Man Army and partly that still holds true here but there’s also plenty of evidence of the group expanding their musical horizon way beyond that and most noticeably, leaning in on their more melodic tendencies and some kinda ethereal, meditative, almost psychedelic undercurrents most notably in tunes like Lugares Mais Altos. The bandcamp blurb also mentions both old UK anarcho punk and Wire as influences, a pair of shoes that i’m gonna say also fits them quite perfectly and concerning Wire in particular, y’all know i’m always gonna approve of that!
Now this is what i call a bulky, filthy clump of abrasive noise that greets us on this Vienna based group’s second Tape and their first full length effort at that. At first glance, this shit appears to primarily channel the likes of Flipper, No Trend and a touch of early Swans, plus a decent chunk of old No Wave-ish excess. But listen a bit closer and you can also sense distinct echoes of eighties japanese psych-noise groups like The Rabbits or the the US art punk classics of Chrome and MX-80. Tunes like Entropy, then again, have a bit more of an early 2010s Copenhagen vibe á la Lower and Iceage to them and while i’m already namedropping shit from that era, there might aswell be a bit of Soupcans in there. Anyway, this is fourty excellent minutes of weapons-grade sonic assault to overwhelm your senses, blow your mental fuses, bypass all inhibitions and when it’s done with you, you just feel gross and wanna take a fucking shower ASAP so yeah, this record accomplishes everything it set out to do.
Last year’s full length debut of this Raleigh, North Carolina group already made a lasting impression and their latest EP via the local scene bulwark Sorry State Records continues in a similar vein, although there are also gradual changes to be gleaned here, with their overall aesthetic feeling more playful this time and not quite as grim as it still was on the LP, with those quirky toy keyboard vibes and a good deal of nutty ideas making for an excellent counterweight to their otherwise pretty much wrecking ball-like sound inbetween the worlds of Noise Rock, Post- and Synth Punk that once again reminds me a lot of groups á la Isotope Soap, Broken Prayer, Powerplant, Kerozine or Beef.
