Billiam’s first releases were around the 2020 mark yet it feels to me as if this dude has been around for a lot longer, a subliminal presence always hovering at the periphery of a wider 12XU-relevant bubble. His newest LP should launch him right into the spotlight though, this being his strongest and most consistent batch of new tunes so far in his hard-to-imitate (though plenty of folks are trying for sure…), vaguely egg-ish melange of sometimes rather bare-bones synth- garage- and post punk – catchy as fuck, simple and dumb yet every single move hits home!
The only ukranian eggpunk group that i know of so far had already piqued my interest with a batch of super solid extended plays in recent weeks and with their newest one, they’re fucking killing it if you ask me. Mandatory new listening for fans of shit á la Prison Affair, Set-Top Box, Beer and Nuts!
Swedish label Push My Buttons brings us the full length debut of this swiss group, which also presents their strongest set of tunes so far and their sonic vision at its most realized. That means: a deviously catchy dopamine rush of glitzy wave-ish synth- and garage punk smashers – exquisite sugary goodness echoing the likes of Wristwatch, Digital Leather, Sex Mex, Teledrome, Powerplant, The Gobs, Shrinkwrap Killers, Stalins Of Sound and Videodrome.
A good four years after an insanely enjoyable debut LP of this Berlin group, we finally get another taste of the same, fairly quirky yet expertly propelled synth-, garage- and post punk goodness sure to delight admirers of stuff in the vein of, say, Belly Jelly, Puff, Dummy, Ausmuteants, Quitter, Liquid Lunch, Ghoulies, Diode or Spotting.
This is indeed a tour i’m pretty psyched about already! This new split 7″ on Goodbye Boozy Records presents the two Perth groups at their finest as Aborted Tortoise make your legs shake with their patented constructs of smartypants garage punk á la Uranium Club, Pinch Points, Dumb, Vintage Crop and the like. Ghoulies then follow up with two strong and catchy garage-/egg-/synth punk tunes roughly in the Research Reactor Corp, Cherry Cheeks, Set-Top Box, Alien Nosejob or Satanic Togas fashion.
Australian label Painscale Records delivers its strongest entry so far in a series of split cassettes. Main attraction here is clearly the longer side comprising the debut batch of Melbourne group Noise Violations, who set ablaze an irresistible barrage of catchy hooks in a slightly egg-adjacent brand of garage punk with echoes of well-renowned genre powerhouses such as Satanic Togas, R.M.F.C., Ghoulies, Booji Boys, Metal Guru, Erik Nervous or Gee Tee, to name just a few. The other side then contains the previously released 2022 EP by Granada, Spain group Sprgrs, which is well worth another listen for fans of danceable Lo-Fi punk stuff in the vein of, say, Prison Affair, Beer, Nuts, Pringue, Dee Bee Rich and Beta Maximo.
Following up on a neat first EP from last year, this Providence, Rhode Island group’s second batch of tunes is a marked refinement in pretty much every aspect, their mix of garage punk and power pop having reached a whole new level of catchyness that also wouldn’t sound out of place next to shit like Sweet Reaper, Power Pants, Gee Tee, Alien Nosejob, Set-Top Box or Satanic Togas.
This Cincinnati group’s second EP sets off a strong new set of highly flammable charges made up of ingredients found somewhere in the grey areas of Noise Rock, Post-, Garage- and Synth Punk… a bit like an unstable mixture of Busted Head Racket, Brandy, R.Clown, ISS, Spyroids and Knowso boiled down to an almost ’70s/’80s The Fall-esqe simplicity and repetition.
Stupid dumb catchy safe no-frills garage- and synth punk fun clearly harvested from the depths of a heavily Reatard-damaged subconscious on this kickass tape by australian dude Riley McCloskey, who supposedly has also played in at least two bands i didn’t know shit about. Is that a styophone emitting these beeps and squeaks? We need more stylophone in everything!
If nothing else, it’s at least been a great few days for friends of oldschool synth punk action including not only a couple of essential The Steves reissues via Iron Lung records but also these two beauties from Oakland and Berlin respectively. Nasty World kinda go about their stuff like it’s 1981 or something, conjuring up a vibe kinda like a wild mixture between Screamers, Devo, Units, Visitors, Nervous Gender or Minimal Man but also not quite dissimilar to more recent shit of the Isotope Soap, Powerplant, Lost Packages or Freak Genes variety. All of that could equally fit the description of that Lohn der Angst record but in their case, i’d add a good deal of Primitive Calculators on top as well as a couple of german influences ranging from ancient DAF to more recent acts like Puff! and Pisse, as well as some distinct kraut-/motorik vibes in tracks such as Warteschleife and Grelles Gesicht.
