Did i ever mention i've been a christian once? Yeah i know. True story and i hope y'all had a good laugh. Nowadays i'm only worshipping Satan though. Huge fan! The music's a lot better too. The Devil's australian, as everyone knows and so are his togas, who have as of yet utterly failed to ever shred a single tune that doesn't fucking rip. Their newest extended play has more of their signature blend of garage-/synth-/eggpunk and power pop goodness burning fast and brightly with obvious similarities to other recent shit á la Research Reactor Corp., Ghoulies, Gee Tee, Daughter Bat & The Lip Stings, Alien Nosjob, Buck Biloxi, Set-Top Box and Eric Nervous.
Just weeks after their recent tape on Iron Lung Records here's a new one already by this, presumably, icelandic group, this time again coming to us courtesy of dungeon-/blackened-/experimental specialist label Grime Stone Records and it's their strongest, most fully realized one so far if you ask me. Take the rough specs and traits of black metal, noisy synth-, hardcore- and electro punk, complement that unrelenting force with a slightly eggpunk-y aesthetic that just seems a little too cute and quirky in face of all that grimness and you just might end up with something similar to what these folks are going for.
On their second LP - once again brought to us by the tasteful folks of Total Punk Records - Orlando group Cherry Cheeks present themselves at their straightest and simplest, dumbest and catchiest so far making for yet another gloriously fuzzy lump of joyful high-calory power pop, garage- and synth punk fluff with abundant echoes of classy shit á la Smirk, Set-Top Box, Prison Affair, Gee Tee, Ghoulies and ISS.
Montreal group New Vogue follow-up their excellent self-titled 2020 mini LP with another batch of kickass tunes - way more synth-heavy this time yet every bit as infectious as before, radiating a constantly shapeshifting kind of vibe calling to mind bits and pieces of Freak Genes, Useless Eaters, Powerplant, Andy Human and The Reptoids, Lost Sounds, Mononegatives and Alien Nosejob, to name just a few high-profile references.
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.