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.
This Cleveland, Ohio group weaves compact and simple gems of moderately spaced-out, egg-ish garage- and synth punk into a neat little package of catchy delirium that reminds me of a quite colorful bunch of groups á la Metdog, The Gobs, SGATV, Sex Mex, Hyperdog, Beta Máximo or Apero and this shit is every bit as good as any of these.
Sex Mex have been a constant for the past couple years as my go-to act for straight-ahead fuzzy and melodic no-frills garage punk that doesn't evolve much beyond its time-tested formula but so far hasn't ever disappointed either, always kept afloat by the quality of the song material and this newest EP is without doubt among the strongest sets of new tunes they've let loose so far, another no-frills treat of synth-enhanced, euphoric garage pop to lift the spirits when we desperately need it.
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!
The Beta Máximo dude's new synth-driven project Sonic Youth Of Today shapes up to beome a tireless tune factory just as prolific as his former thing. EP number three kicks things off with a neat cover version of the greatest fake punk tune ever put to tape and probably one among the essential eggpunk foundational texts, Village People's Food Fight, but the real meat of this EP are once again its three original tunes which are simply synth punk at its very best, every bit as throbbing and propulsive as they're irresistible in their catchyness while carrying the unmistakable signature of its creator.
First-rate new eggpunk goodness comes to us from one-man-band bedroom project Walter Ego out of Aschaffenburg, Germany. While this shit no doubt dabbles in, at this point, quite familiar sounding territory with varying echoes of such genre powerhouses like Prision Affair, Billiam, Beer, Set-Top Box or Nuts, it also never fails to hit the spot dead-on in a perfectly dialed-in mid-fi aesthetic balancing garage crunch with eggpunk whims and quirks and on top of it all, Race The Alps and even more so the closing track Forevermore (In The Dungeon) are nothing short of certified instant genre classics.
Last year's full length debut of this Raleigh, North Carolina group already made a lasting impression and their latest EP via the local scene bulwark Sorry State Records continues in a similar vein, although there are also gradual changes to be gleaned here, with their overall aesthetic feeling more playful this time and not quite as grim as it still was on the LP, with those quirky toy keyboard vibes and a good deal of nutty ideas making for an excellent counterweight to their otherwise pretty much wrecking ball-like sound inbetween the worlds of Noise Rock, Post- and Synth Punk that once again reminds me a lot of groups á la Isotope Soap, Broken Prayer, Powerplant, Kerozine or Beef.
A hefty charge of synth-enhanced in-your-face hardcore and garage punk driving straight into the abyss in an act of blissful defiance, that's what we're geting on the debut tape of Buffalo NY group Havana Syndrome. On one hand this shit has a bit of an unhinged Lumpy And The Dumpers energy and a straightforward attack akin to that Feed/Zhoop/Brundle/Nightman/etc dude but just as much i feel reminded of a number of varyingly egg-leaning groups like Baltomore's Quitter, Italy's own The Bad Plug, the greek eggpunk pest that is Μπριτζολιτσεσ and there's also an undeniable hint of early Skull Cult or Research Reactor Corp at play here.
Just a couple weeks after their debut, the second EP of the Beta Máximo dude's new synth punk project simply picks up the strands right where they left them on the predecessor, yet there's also some neat experimentation and surprise to be found in there which we haven't heard before like the airy synth polyrhythms in the verses of El Fin De Los Días showing SYT at their most aloof so far but also rewarding the patience by segueing into some of their most catchy moments in the chorus.
These australians' 2023 mini-LP was tons of weird-ass dungeon- and fantasy-themed fun already and their newest longplayer has an even stronger batch of headsplitting tunes made up of elements of garage-, synth- and post punk that right out of the gate delights with a distinct flavor of vintage Useless Eaters and Ausmuteants action in the opening track Pillager, complemented with a note of psych-/acid Punk á la Pow! in Moneyman while Big Hat - one of two holdovers first heard on their 2021 Mammon Machine EP - has a bit of a Strange Attractor vibe and Dopaminer may easily fool you into thinking it's an exceptionally strong Why Bother? tune. Further, i can imagine friends of the likes of slightly more dungeon-flavored like Curta'n Wall or Oslo's own eggpunks Molbo getting a kick outta this shit.
