The early teaser tracks for the debut longplayer of this Melbourne group featuring members of Piss Wizard and Stray Dogs To Good Homes had already signaled kind of a drastic departure from the simple Wipers-infused garage punk of their previous EP and indeed this record is a different beast altogether, taking on more of a dusty, americana-tinged post punk vibe with echoes of eighties Scientists but also plenty of more recent stuff like the noisy post punk of Copenhagen’s Lower and the early works of Iceage; Sklitakling and Pleaser from Sweden, americana- and cowpunk-influenced US groups like Weak Signal and Bambara, or Australia’s own Optic Nerve and Refedex. A rich tapestry of plausible, well-established influences to draw from for sure but these folks absolutely make it their own with tons of resilient song substance providing the foundation to expand upon for their noisy eruptions, determined performances, a fully matching vehicle of haunting sonics for the frank, urgent lyrics and vocals of frontwoman Freya Tanks.
Nightwatchers of Toulouse, France, one of the higher profile acts that sprung up in the probably Youth Avoiders-induced 2010s french wave of variably Oi-!influenced, melodic post punk/-core groups, has at times struck me as a somewhat spotty, shaky affair on some of their longplayers. On their newest EP they’re operating in the golden zone from start to finish though, churning out four certified bangers with workmanlike routine and while their sound has never deviatied too much from that established formula and won’t reinvent itself here either, they make up for that easily through the sheer strength of the underlying tunes and an unflinching, tight and vicious performance.
This group and their bandcamp profile feel weirdly familiar to me, even though this appears to be their first EP… have they changed their name maybe or had a previous release which has disappeared since? Well, most likely i’m just imagining things. Anyway, this is a neat little EP with a pretty oldschool post punk sound that at times complements its early Nots or classic Siouxsie kind of energy with just a hint of revolution summer-style early postcore urgency, most notably so in the standout tune H-21.
Physicalist is a new group from Vancouver i presume, centering around Dave P of the local power pop sensation Night Court whose catchy qualities are also present on this record of otherwise pretty different sonics, an infectious blend of hard-, art- and postcore with a distinct garage punk edge and melodic overtones which overall reminds me of a bunch of groups like Mystic Inane, Rolex, Launcher on the more hard-/artcore side of things and The Dumpies, Sauna Youth and Eyeball on the catchier, pop- and garage leaning side.
Not terribly hard to describe what this Atlanta group is doing on their debut LP as it’s basically yet another Crass Discharge of Rudimentary Peni unspooling right in front of us, yet for somthing this straight and specific, they pull this shit off in a thoroughly convincing fashion with plenty of intelligence and variation to their compositions, staying reasonybly close within the expected boundaries of their chosen early hardcore, 1st gen anarcho and death rock frameworks while never repeating themselves and drawing a good deal of fresh energy and surprising turns from the decades-old genre tropes in an effort that strikes me as leagues ahead of your average oldschool genre excercise.
In a week not particularly lacking in way-above-average hardcore punk releases, this one takes the cake in my opinion, not that last year’s digital single Plastic Disease hadn’t warned us of what’s been coming though… This is some freewheeling, viciously creative shit reminding me of some of the most far-out acts the past two decades had to offer in the artcore, hard- and weirdcore sectors like Big Bopper, Patti, Rolex, Brandy, Mystic Inane, Beast Fiend, Cutie, Fugitive Bubble, Septic Yanks or Liquid Assets, to name just a few. I need more of that shit fast!
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.
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.
This Fort Collins, Colorado group delivers six blows of rough as fuck hardcore punk whose rustic aesthetics can’t do anything to obscure the catchy garage punk foundations underlying the whole thing, the smart postcore overtones being peppered all throughout and the numerous surprises and compositional quirks it has up its sleeve. This is a record sounding a lot dumber at first glance than it actually is and you know i’m a sucker for that kind of shit.
