On their second EP, New York punks Signal brew up a strong potion consisting of raw noise-/fuzz punk and post punk/-core. To me it sounds a bit like an amalgamation of earlier Lié and Littly Ugly girls, but also contains quite some of the rough, garagey vibes similar to Warp or Vexxx.
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This debut EP by Philadelphia band Gunky is kind of an odd and deliciois bastard of (post-)punk and noise, boldly plundering its way through large portions of underground punk history. I think i hear some echoes of MX-80 and mid-eighties Sonic Youth, The Mentally Ill and of early Saccharine Trust's proto postcore. In other moments, their sound reminds me of more recent bands, the likes of like Patti or Plax.
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The australian Scene always finds new ways to surprise, sometimes outright baffle me. This time it's done by a melbourne group featuring members of, among others, Kids Of Zoo, profoundly unsettling my sense of geography by way of having their lyrics sung in japanese. Sound-wise, i'm reminded of more-or-less gloomy post punk stuff by acts like Institute, Diät, Criminal Code, Pretty Hurts or Acrylics - combined with some noisy and rough DIY punk in the vein of Lumpy & The Dumpers, Launcher or Beast Fiend, as well as a faint echo of Hot Snakes.
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Basically, this Falmouth, UK band's line up consists of local punks Internal Credit minus one dude. Compared to the latter's rather straightforward garage punk, Isolation roll out a somewhat more rigid sound on their debut EP, expanding their solid garage foundation by a certain postcore edge, bringing to mind Hot Snakes or Youth Avoiders, as well as melodic post punk acts like Red Dons, Daylight Robbery, Anxious Living, Nervosas and maybe some tiny traces of Wipers. What's not to like about that?
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Here's an ultra neat attack made of noise-drenched hard-/postcore by a band from Denver, Colorado. Think of a curious mixture of Lumpy & The Dumpers, Anxiety, Cülo or their quasi-successors Tarantüla.
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With their third Album, Chicago's Luggage deliver a seamless continuation of the qualities established on their 2017 effort Three, even double down on those. Fittingly and unmistakably recorded at Electrical Audio, a brittle, often crawling sound in the rough area of Noise- and Math Rock, Post- and Slowcore allows itself ample time to unfold and sounds a lot like their hometown in the late 80s to 90s. Or, at different points, like a more straightforward Shellac, slow motion Tar, much louder Slint or an even more bleak variant of Codeine.
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After a number of incredible EPs, it took Santa Rosa's Acrylics a good two years to assemble their fist long player, which - to no real surprise - turns out to be their most varied and mature chunk of noise. Their ambitious, but simultaneously always perfectly coherent mix of styles draws a perfect triangle between the dark post punk of Criminal Code, hardcore punk of the quite punishing variety reminiscent of Cülo, Hate Preachers, Impulso and forward thinking Postcore of acts like Ivy and Bad Breeding.
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Exquisite shit from Rouen, France. Kumusta emerge on the scene with a fun mixture drawing a line from noise rock & -core on one end of the spectrum, some raw garage energy on the other, a shitload of post punk & postcore in between. Imagine a fusion of slowed-down Bad Breeding with Criminal Code in certain moments, or at other times, you might be reminded of Australia's postcore powertools Batpiss and Bench Press.
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Barcelona's Lux already have a demo and a promising debut album under their belt, but with this recent EP their sound really clicks into gear, in which some of the more excentric strands of 80s post- and hardcore punk - Man Sized Action and The Proletariat come to mind - collide with distinctive goth/deathpunk bass lines. You might also be reminded of more recend bands like Street Eaters or the potent cowpunk propulsion of Murderer.
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What the title promises, this record delivers. Danceable shit? You bet! Anarchist messages? Tons of those get proclaimed here in such density you really can't miss or ignore them. Musically, this is not exactly something you'd associate with anarcho punk, although this stuff clearly has much of the same spirit. This is infectouis post punk with a punchy postcore edge which, despite its dancefloor effectiveness, also succeeds in the noise department, showing no fear of waking up the neighbors. This, and their explicitly political lyrics seperate them quite a bit from last decade's short-lived dance punk explosion. Instead of New York cool you get an appropriately blunt and distinctly british sense of urgency, even as they seem to share many of the same influences. Gang Of Four, obviously, as well as Minutemen, mid- to late eighties Membranes, The Pop Group. And in the present, comparing them to Tics, Pill, Slumb Party, Special Interest or UZS wouldn't be too far off.
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