While we're at it, speaking of Kitchen People and Warttman Inc., here's another blast of synth punk insanity by some Kitchen People-affiliated solo project, bearing obvious similarities to Warttman acts like Set-Top Box and Research Reactor Corp., with maybe a bit of Digital Leather or Trashdog sprinkled in from time to time.
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The mighty Warttman gang's newest recruits are Kitchen People who have already done a few releases before, although - let's be honest here - none of those has been quite as ripping as their newest EP of appropriately weird, quirky muteant garage-/synth punk. These dudes should fit in comfortably with the rest of Warttman's fucked up bunch.
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So far, the synth-/garage punk project Isotope Soap a.k.a. swedisch punk veteran Peter Swedenhamar has released nothing but top quality stuff in the form of three EPs, all of them were reissued last year on a compilation album via Emotional Response. His first longplayer doesn't dissappoint either. On it, Swedenhamar considerably expands his eclectic raid of obscure punk history, resulting in his most varied and playful release yet, incorporating among other things moments of trippy space punk, pure synth pop, dreamy krautscapes. And of course also a lot of his more straightforward signature Devo-meet-Ausmuteasnts style that made up the bulk of his EPs.
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What a beautifully deranged kind of mess, the second Album by Trashdog a.k.a. Andrew Jackson, the dude also responsible for Austin, Texas label Digital Hotdogs. I didn't expect a lot of normalcy here to begin with, but nonetheless i'm kind of astonished by the massive amount of top notch goodness scattered wildly across this record, especially after i found Trashdog's first effort to be of somewhat inconsistent quality. Roughly one third here consists of dumb jokes and various shades of fucking around. Another third turns out to be brilliantly weird and inventive songcraft in a spectrum of garage punk, power pop, synth-/electro punk and a tiny hint of glam. And as for the remaining third, i'm somewhat undecided in which of the first two categories i should file that stuff. The whole of it makes for an awesome, if at times overwhelming, disorienting roller coaster ride. Some kind of white album on stupid pills.
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On their demo, Brussels outfit Warm Exit come up with a flawless little dose of synth-enhanced garage punk, alternately reminding me of contemporary genre powerhouses like Ausmuteants, Dumb, Erik Nervous or Powerplant.
Not too long after a rather synth-heavy tape by that guy who recently seems to be involved in pretty much any other Berlin band, we get a small encore exhibiting a more guitar-centric sound, shifting the sonic coordinates closer to the garage. The overall vibe here kinda reminds me of early Erik Nervous.
For the austin noise rockers with that distinctive no wave edge, the past three years were marked exclusively by several collaboration projects, resulting in one album, another EP and two 7"s, all of it first rate stuff. Now we get a new "regular" album, although the recordings already date back to the year 2016. Accordingly, these songs sound more like the logical evolution from their last LP Feel The Clamps, released that same year. As always with this band, there's no rush to reinvent themselves. Instead, their sound is evolving gradually and diligent, revealing only a few new facets at a time. Most notable this time is a more minimalist approach to their compositions as well as the increasing use of drum machines and synths. And as always, the results are quite thrilling.
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