Well, it took like a year longer than promised but better late than never i guess, here's finally a new LP of Stockholm's synth punk bulwark that's been around for roughly a decade already. So they've got nothing to prove at this point anyway and simply deliver yet another brilliant collection of spaced-out garage punk delicacies filled with their trademark Devo-isms and bookended by a couple of somewhat John Carpenter-esque instrumentals to underscore the pervasive cinematic qualities of this record, another killer one at that.
Here's yet another new nicho for you that's so top fucking secret you can find it on bandcamp! On the successor to last year's Dining Nothing / Sin Agenda Para La Muerte single, the group from Rosario, Argentinia delivers more of that same greatness drenched in the murky waters of eighties post-, garage- and art punk with an additional layer of fuzzy psychedelia on top that makes this record a neat companion piece to that recent Zulo EP which, coincidentally, has been released just a couple weeks prior on the very same local boutique label, Fake Sex Tape.
Reuben Sawyer has been active for quite a while already with various groups and projects in a wide variety of musical styles, though he only really entered the 12XU universe in 2023 with Demons Obey, his third LP under the Anytime Cowboy moniker, which has been a strange beast for sure in juxtaposing elements of blues-ish and jangly cowpunk- and garage pop with a somewhat surreal, otherworldly quality anchored by Sawyer's uncannily calm vocal delivery. His newest LP now may as well be his strongest, most accomplished one yet, streamlining his previously somewhat cluttered disjointed sonic space into an unexpectedly cohesive whole, making his equally odd, catchy and melancholic compositions - enabled by some next-level songwriting chops - glow and sparkle like never before.
Zulo of Rosario, Argentinia have already accumulated a respectable number of LPs and EPs with a varying sound inbetween the parameters of fuzzed-out psychedelic garage punk, noise- and power pop, but never before have their tunes been as consistently awesome as on this new LP on which they lean in on their more spaced-out tendencies, a psychedelic haze enveloping an impeccable batch of super catchy new tunes that at some points may resemble an oldschool Telescopes, Spacemen 3 or Flying Saucer Attack vibe as much as somewhat more recent shit á la Honey Radar, Far Corners, Germ House or Violent Change.
Over the last couple years, Shrudd of Louiseville, Kentucky consistently upped their game with each new release and yet i'm gonna say their newest one is playing in a different league altogether, such an amazing leap from anything they've done before. Where their previous work cycled through numerous subgenres but had an undeniable egg-ish quality in common especially on their most recent bunch of EPs, this one moves way beyond that with the opener M.M.I.T.L. still bearing the closest resemblance to their previous work with kind of a Ghoulies vibe before Stagnant shows the first subtle harbinger of a darker, more psychedelic-leaning overall vibe reminiscent of the likes of Useless Eaters, Pow!, Electric Prawns 2 and Mononegatives, which really kicks into gear with the slightly Powerplant-esque aura of Bodies. EMT on the other hand has quite a bit of a classic blues-y, slightly cowpunk-ish garage vibe to itself, followed by Gift where they're going into full spaced-out acid punk overdrive. And in such a vein it continues, gradually expanding their sonic color plaette with almost every new tune. So basically, here we have the newest example of a band growing the fuck up and branching out from their humble eggpunk beginnings towards new horizons, which i guess is gonna make ex-Lumpy Martin Meyer kinda happy and it makes me quite happy too cos this shit is so freakin' good!
This Philadelphia group's 2024 Nyuck Nyuck Boing LP was among of the most unlikely stunners released that year, a weirdly anachronistic-feeling, unwieldy behemoth of a record that seemed equally heavily inspired by US post punk/-core acts like Saccharine Trust and Minutemen as by british art punk of the Swell Maps and The Pop Group strain, with further echoes of mototik kraut-y grooves, no wave atonality and '60 acid rock excesses. So here we have the successor now, on which many of these things still hold true while the band also manages to package their ecclectic influences into a somewhat more coherent-feeling and tangible package by mainly leaning into the psychedelic side of things here with a slow burn tension building throughout the first half, doing away almost completely with the previous LP's funky post punk grooves, although those do make a brief comeback too in The Big Hit, which kicks off a comparatively lighthearted and, at times, leaned-back second half - the yin and yang of a group that still won't give half a fuck about neat genre categories and our own conceptions thereof.
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.
Hamilton, Ontario group Corpus Earthling mad quite a splash at least in my own backyard with their 2024 The Glove LP and followed up on that with another neat EP and a whole LP full of cover tunes. Their newest EP of original songs has yet another excellent batch of spaced-out psych punk tunes for us that on one hand sound inspired by old art punk groups of the MX-80, Chrome and Métal Urbain variety but on the other, also fits in quite well with a number of contemporary groups like Pablo X, Stdees, Zoids, Silicon Heartbeat, Mateo Manic and Thee Hearses.
Considering the rave reactions i've heard so far about this Melbourne group's shows, their good-not-great 2024 debut EP so far had convinced me that their probably incredible live sound has been struggling a bit to translate into recorded form. Well, i can certainly say that this is less of an issue for much of their new mini LP which makes an overall much stronger impression for their sparkling sound that at times kinda reminds me of the psychedelic and variably surf-infused garage rock of Crsytal Stilts and Disappears mixed with a hint of early No Age and maybe White Fence, in addition to the eccentric monotonous fuzz escapades of City Yelps and the ethereal, abstract post punk melancholia of Kitchen's Floor and Mother's Milk... A quirky mixture that is for sure but it works quite admirably. Even when the band runs an acute risk of overstretching their most airy qualities in the record's slow middle stretch, the bet pays off and shit just refuses to come apart, however precarious it might look at first glance..
I wasn't entirely sold on the novelty-rocker vibes of the bluesy, hard-/dad-rockin' preview tune Hairy Man, but damn, does this new record not only get better from there on (plus, Hairy Man does work a lot better in the album context too), but there's also easily some of the groups best material to be found on here with the following tracks Beef and Fire having plenty of an oldschool Useless Eaters and Pow! feel to them while Out Of Touch gradually dials up the levels of psychedelic haze that we've known at its most pronounced from their previous Perspex LP, before Hell (or rather, the first part thereof) finally kicks open the floodgates of catchy-as-fuck garage punk/fuzz pop goodness as we all know pretty much any Electric Prawns 2 record eventually does. The second circle of Hell (or maybe they're better understood as two seperate songs, both called Hell?) takes all of the above and imbues it with a slightly campy goth note not unlike more recent Powerplant. Other notable highlights are the burst of ultra-classic aussie rock'n'roll that is Piece of Me and the in equal measure melodic and blues-infused bubblegum vibes of Waste, all of it arguably making for their overall strongest record so far. Who would've thought, making albums of conventional length may not be the worst idea after all!
