Following last year's somewhat uneven debut LP of this Berlin group, their newest album is a huge step forward in every aspect - the hugely improved song substance being driven forth with unrelenting momentum and captured in a mid-fi aesthetic that fits them perfectly. Soundwise, they're clearly taking cues from a long lineage of proto- and oldschool garage punk - obviously Stooges, MC5 and Death to begin with, in addition to Dead Moon and some Wipers touches but, most of all, that austalian breed of groups like Saints, Radio Birdman, Scientists appear to have left their mark in their sound, not to mention the larger-than-life fuzz punk one-hit-wonders God - but while the latter seemed to flame up and burn out over the short duration of one glorious A-side never to reach such heights again, S.U.G.A.R. show no signs of wear yet, repeating that marvel eightfold for a certified all-killer-no-filler album.
A marked change of pace for La Vida Es Un Mus Discos - a label usually more concerned with the rougher ends of the hard- and postcore spectrum - the debut album of this basque group has a contemporary Lo-Fi appeal to its unique take on garage punk with a somewhat murky and bent (or dare i say: Warttman-esque?) sound aesthetic where either guitars sound like synths or vice versa, i wouldn't be able to tell either way. While their playfulness and melodicity call to mind recent stuff by the likes of Prison Affair, Alien Nosejob's hardcore 45s, Beta Maximo or Algara, there's also a raw and authentic 80s hardcore undercurrent going on here peppered with some gentle flashes of Oi! and 90s emocore.
Debut tape of a Perth duo featuring folks otherwise known from Ghoulies and Aborted Tortoise… just as you'd expect from that, this thing fucking rips! A Lo-Fi DIY garage punk vibe meets some oldschool melodious '77 simplicity, occasionally also crossing over into rather contemporary sounding post punk- and egg-related territories. This is out on Goodbye Boozy and Under The Gun Records but this shit would also fit right in with the Warttman posse so it's probably no coincidence that some dude also involved with Tee Vee Repairman and Satanic Togas contributed some creative input here as well.
A new EP by that Falmouth, UK goup consisting of most of Internal Credit's members, including Charlie Murphy here on guitar and vocals - the dude's also in Freak Genes and The Red Cords. Their newest EP picks up right where the last one left off, which means that once again excellent songwriting chops collide with melodic and melancholy, clearly Wipers influenced post- and garage punk which fans of Nervosas, The Estranged, Daylight Robbery, Radioactivity or Anxious Living should by no means miss out on.
More incredibly bonkers shit out of the belgian Belly Button Records orbit. What we get on this dude's debut EP under the Nubot555 moniker (previously the culprit has been doing shit as King Dick) is some garage- and electro punk mayhem of the overwhelmingly egg-ish variety. These lo-fi gems manage to counterbalance all their quirky weirdnes with plenty of smarts and creative energy, making for an impressive debut easily standing out even in its fairly crowded genre pool. I'd say Egg Idiot have found their match here.
On their first full length effort, this Stockholm group kicks up an excellent fuss divided into snappy to-the-point punk blasts taking place somewhere between the poles of garage punk, hard- and postcore with certain parallels to acts like Tenement Rats, Sick Thoughts and early Teenanger on the more garage-leaning side of things as well as garage-infused postcore acts such as Video, Crisis Man, Ascot Stabber, Batpiss, Flowers Of Evil.
You can't go wrong with any new release by that UK garage-/synth punk duo teaming up Proto Idiot's Andrew Anderson with Charly Murphy of groups such as The Red Cords, Internal Credit and Isolation. After exploring a more cold, minimal synth aesthetic sound on their previous LP, this one presents them in a somewhat fuller sound and probably at their catchiest so far, channeling primarily the spirit of first-wave synth punk acts á la Primitive Calculators, Nervous Gender, Screamers, Units, Minimal Man and of course Devo (duh!), while from the current landscape, comparisons to Isotope Soap or Alien Nosejob in full-on electro mode may be drawn as well.
The most unexpected gem of this week comes from a Paris group and apparently has already been recorded in 2018. This is a puzzling and overwhelming burst of chaotic noise crudely wedged inbetween the edges of garage punk, KBD-style oddities and the weirder fringes of early 80s hardcore punk. The opener VVV evokes a vibe kinda like a mix between fellow frenchmen Subtle Turnhips and US hardcore oddballs Landowner while Moose Lodge conjures up the legacy of, among others, proto noise rockers of the Flipper, Broken Talent or Fungus Brains caliber. City Blocks unites the qualities of Bad Brains and MC5 in a neat little package. Other times, they evoke The Mentally Ill or kinda bridge the gap between Neos and Neo Neos while numerous more recent groups á la Total Sham, Liquid Assets, Launcher, Crisis Man, Freakees or Liposuction aren't too far off either at one point or another. This shit is as unique as it's primitive and mostly unpredictable, more than once defying any attempt at categorization.
Kickass mechanical post punk from Cleveland, Ohio. From the very first notes it doesn't take much of a genius to figure the obvious involvement of Knowso members and it appears there are also connections to Cruelster, among others. While Knowso stay the most obvious comparison here, there's also a slight semblance of Atlanta rippers Nag and Predator. At other times the're branching out into a Wire-esqe vibe as in Cut Ups while The Old Way bears some similarity to the bad-trip cowpunk of Murderer.
Reliable quality shit from the Berlin post punk scene, once again featuring some of the usual suspects known from groups such as Useless Eaters, Idiota Civlizzatto, Clock Of Time, Exit Group… and boy does it sound like it, especially with regards to the latter two bands, striking a sleepwalking balance between classic death rock flourishes, tight-ass grooves and noisy textures. Though not exactly pushing the boundaries of the worn-in, distinctive Berlin sound, they nonetheless manage to stray just far enough from their sonic comfort zones to keep things fresh and interesting while even in their most conventional moments, their vigorous thrust never fails to electrify.
