This Hamburg group creates fun, short and snappy little garage-/synth-/eggpunk tunes that don't stray too far from widely established genre formulas but gets everything about that shit so fuckin' right as if they've been at it for ages, cycling through a decent variety of workmanlike genre exercises that you feel pretty sure you've heard somewhere before but can't escape their catchy spells anyway, so i'm gonna say friends of shit like Beer, Media Puzzle, Winky Frown, Prison Affair, Set Top Box, Ghoulies or Goblin Daycare can't go wrong with this shit either.
Kickass electro punk from Portland, Oregon that stikes a perfect balance of abrasive crunch and catchyness. Right away this shit kinda strikes me as a less choppy version of Lansing, Michigan group Snarewaves, especially similar in their overall Lo-Fi Amiga 500 tracker-ish sample punk aesthetic but just as well i'm reminded of Germany's own synth punk sensation Klint and somewhat older phenomena like North Carolina sample punks ISS and Berlin's Heavy Metal.
Melbourne's Metdog have absolutely cemented their status as one of the major players of the contemporary garage-/synth-/eggpunk scene with last year's pretty fucking gaga full length Questions and Answers Regarding Computers and Screens. For their newest LP though, they dial down the overall weirdness ever-so-slightly, which i'm gonna say is actually for the better as i think another iteration of that '90s PC- / early web-themed insanity and ultra-cheesy general MIDI-esque sonics certainly wouldn't hit quite as hard the second time around. Instead we get a somewhat more streamlined and straightforward bunch of alarmingly catchy garage tunes that still let their freak flag fly aplenty, just in case you were worried things might get even remotely too serious here. Anyway, it's certainly their most substantial release so far, supported by a matching growth in the songwriting department without giving up too much of the group's overall playfulness and unpredictability.
For the follow-up to their excellent 2023 EP Feed The Clones Pt. 1 - which has been their first record to fully realize their potential IMO - the Oakland group can't be bothered to tweak their specific formula a whole lot, just as the "part 2" designation would already suggest. That's fine with me 'cos there wasn't anything broken with their sound to begin with and much of the song material collected on here is top notch shit once again - even though, admittedly, this thing sometimes feels more like an EP's worth of hits wedged inbetween a good deal of more sluggish, abstract, atmospheric tunes this time around, much of which i'm tempted to classify as glorified interlude material. Nonetheless, this is yet another essential listen for connoisseurs of demented, Spits-flavoured horror-/garage-/synth punk fodder.
New Gobs! What's left to say about them? If you didn't know about them before, now you do! These Olympia, Washington-based folks absolutely solidify their status as the current kings of fuzzed-out noisy hi-speed lo-fi no-frills garage punk smashers all over again with yet another set of exquisitely explosive sonic weapons.
Lansing, Michigan's Snarewaves are releasing quite a lot of stuff to keep up with so you gotta forgive me for not posting about it every single time the dude releases like another two-minute EP. Now's a good time however as the I'd Rather Die Than Be On Linkedin EP first released a couple weeks ago has now been extended into a twelve-song micro-LP with an epic total running time of six-and-a-half minutes, plus, there's already the next one available which may or may not get that same treatment over the coming weeks. Snarewaves releases are iterative. We're used to that by now. And what can i say, their music always appears to make more sense to me when it comes in a larger bundle, transforming his ultra-short bursts of lo-fi electro punk into some kind of disjointed opera. Right now this shit still sounds like no one else around, as if current developments in garage punk and oldschool hardcore elements were being forced through the low-res sample meatgrinder of ancient Amiga 500 tracker files. If i had to come up with something at least superficially related, it would be the Schleswig, Germany based synth punk viking Klint, probably.
I don't think i've ever given Media Puzzle from Lismore, Australia the full blog post spotlight here so far which is a freakin' crime really, as this dude has by now been a constant presence on the eggpunk periphery for close to two years and, despite keeping relatively close to a well-established genre formula at the surface-level at least, has since developed a voice pretty much of his own after all and it's just pretty fucking hard to escape the gravitational pull of his super catchy and instantly likeable make of garage punk, stuffed to the brim with contagious hooks.
This New York group has just dropped an insanely strong debut cassette via Popular Affliction Records bursting at the seams from all the equally punishing and vitalizing energy, compacted into eleven bursts of garage-, electro- and synth punk with a bit of a dissonant noise rock edge to them but also some of that sci-fi b-movie obsessed Spits- or Stalins Of Sound vibe. A distinct knack for sometimes basic but always exceedingly potent punk hooks and noisy textures which occasionally may even evoke some vaguely Big Black-ish spirit, coupled with a sprinkling of somewhat cheesy, (just barely) egg-ish flourishes most noticeable in Faith in Football, plus slight catchy hints of The Gobs and Sex Mex respectively later on in Accelerate and ADHD make for a thoroughly flammable concoction that doesn't have to shy away from comparisons with some of the best shit the genre had to offer in the past decade-plus like Exit Mould, Kerozine, Cthtr, De()t, Quitter, Broken Prayer, Molbo, C57BL/6, STDees, The Q-Tips and Spyroids, just to name a few that immediately spring to mind.
Austin, Texas group D.A.R.Y.L. had made a strong impression already with last year's Rock N Roll High School mini-LP and now build on that same foundation of synth-enhanced fuzz punk, noise pop and garage punk to even greater effect with their second release. Below the thick layer of blown-out, sledghammer sound aesthetics you'll find a perfect track record of simple, dangerously catchy tunes and melodies, a way broader stylistic variety and much improved songwriting qualities compared to the, at times, still somewhat one-dimensional vibes of the debut. This now kinda sounds like only one half Buck Biloxi / Giorgio Murderer and the other half smelling of Gobs and Exwhite... or Booji Boys, Dadgad maybe? Everyhing about that mixture sounds so fucking right to me!
Big Break of Sheffield, UK previously made some waves with two excellent EPs of both pissed and quirky garage punk in 2021/'22, later compiled and expanded into a full LP in 2023. Their newest EP now consolidates that strong impression with another neat grab bag of tunes of an overall slightly more quirky and uplifting quality. While the opening track Prototype excells as a straightforward no-frills punk tune, The Goon is pretty much the opposite, having a bit of an egg-ish vibe goin' on. Wearing a Wire then reminds me of the garage punk minimalism of acts like The UV Race, Eddy Current Supprission Ring, Sauna Youth and Tyvek. Then at last, the closing track The Eunuch, with its sleazy growls right at the beginning and some ultra cheesy synth action feels kinda like a quirked-up Ex-Cult gone gloriously off the rails.
