Jëg Hüsker – My Dawn

Having already tasted some of their new LP in the form of a perfect teaser EP a couple weeks ago, we finally get to hear the full debut LP by the dungeon punk wizards of Karlsruhe, Germany and oh boy, we’re in for a fucking treat that combines a couple of new recordings of tunes already heard on their 2023 demo with plenty of equally strong new material into a breathless thrill ride that’s further helped along by a perfectly fitting and outright filthy lo-to-mid-fi production that sounds as if the whole thing had been recorded in some fucking parking garage. There’s tons of sparkly psychedelia to the garage rock of the opening track Locket, a primitive proto punk punch and simplicity in Tear it Up while tracks such as As Loud As Me and My Dawn lighten things up with unexpected flashes of melodicism, the latter of the two having a distinct vibe of early The Men to itself. Contrast to that the hardcore-meets-motörpunk attacks of Give Me Beat and All This Heat, the oldschool Sabbath leftovers fused with the space rock abandon of late Destruction Unit in Supression, which is simultaneously being embedded into some vague post punk context á la Nag. The dungeon punk hymn Fomo Boy remains every bit a destructive force as we’ve already gleaned from the demo and the new track Inte Mer Hem following that one has much of the same momentum and qualities. Fuck me, this thing slaps.

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Pódium – Pódium

In the two years that have passed since Podium of Valencia, Spain gave us an excellent first impression with their debut EP, what has been a solo recording project back then has grown into a complete band line-up, restlessly bulldozing ahead with their own flavor of straight & stupid garage punk, roughly in the same orbit as Archaeas, Ex-Cult, Flat Worms and Sauna Youth, while adding to their formula some subtle overtones of noise, stoner punk, hard- & postcore.

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Brain Bagz & Blood Bags – Split LP

Thorougly enjoyable shit, this split LP on Big Neck Records.
Blood Bags from Auckland, New Zeeland sure know how to trigger a deliciously blown out garage-/fuzz-/stoner punk riot evoking comparisons to The Cowboy and early The Men, completing the fun with some raw stooges power, strong Funhouse-esque propulsion.
Salt Lake City’s Brain Bagz then produce a Sound that feels closely related in spirit and in its primal energy, but casts a much wider net in its choice of influences – starting off with a kinda Cramps-meet-Scratch Acid vibe and subsequently taking many cues from the 80s proto noise rock complex including the likes of No Trend, Flipper, Live Skull.

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