I don't really have anything witty or insightful to add here. Approximately a third of these records came from Texas this time around. What's up rest of the world? Step your game up. Between what was submitted to me, and what's been curling my short hairs this is what to check out for yourself. This might also be the brightest picture heading ever for reviews. Notice the lack of dark, ominous tones of these record covers!
COLONIAL WOUND, “Degradation” EP
Yes. This is something we all need in our life- a thick slab of pulverizing heaviness in the form of three new tracks on a 12” record from Florida’s Colonial Wound. I mean, if I had to live in Florida I would probably feel the weight of humanities failures surrounding me and be compelled to play music this angry too. Think of the massive ear-damaging volume of Engineer mixed with some of the strange melodies and dynamics of earlier Kowloon Walled City and you get this newest batch from these noisemongers. They certainly display more melody on this, but not in any way that’s going to encourage you to start humming along. If anything, it all drags you further down into their crushing noisy hardcore wasteland. So it’s a bit of a development from their first EP, which definitely laid on the heavy Coalesce brand of relentlessness, as this finds some new ways to make you miserable. Both records keep the same pace from song-to-song though, which can succinctly be described as ‘lumbering’. It’s kind of the only downside here (aside from there not being more songs), as a bit of variety in the tempo might be good for mixing things up just a tad. The cover art is equally as unique and I can’t quite tell if those are shipping containers, or human file cabinet apartments, like little depression boxes. Or maybe it’s just my future- endless boxes of records stored on shelves. Is this what they mean by “Degredation”? OK, now I’m sort of depressed. Give us a full length already my dudes. (New Morality)
DEAD SPACE, THE, “Chlorine Sleep”
This was apparently recorded back in 2015, right before the band split up. But I guess they decided to reform and are now releasing this record which has sat on the shelf since then? That’s the story I’m getting anyway. Their sound has a rather solid post-punk feel overall, but with a slightly more modern feel. I’m not sure how to quite place it because just as it shares those sort of minimalist and brooding post-punk vibes it could just as easily be tagged as ‘alternative’, as broad an umbrella that may be. To illustrate what’s going on here, take a trio of songs starting with the title track which goes for off-timed repetition for the majority of the song while “Cooked Books” is simple, upbeat, and straightforward for all of it’s 80 seconds Finally, “No Harvest” is a slow burn, cold and brooding and fairly noisy at that. My favorite, and what I feel is the strongest track here, is “Shivering” with it’s repetitive rhythm where the tension of the entire song is so thick you could cut it with a machete and sounds akin to something you’d hear on a Young Widows album sans two pedalboards worth of effects. The album ends with a dusty and morose ballad, the sound of the last couple barflys shuffling out after closing time and the beer-soaked floor is halfway through being swept as the nighttime nearly begins to yield to a new dawn. (12XU)
DRIP-FED, “Kill the Buzz”
When a band opens their record with a song as excitedly energetic, compelling all within earshot to instinctively start running headfirst into the nearest wall, as “Move Right Through Me” (which with the energy displayed here, that wall doesn’t stand a chance), one has to wonder ‘can the band keep it up for the rest of the record?’ The answer, easily, is ‘yes’. Drip-Fed are doing something very exciting for hardcore, which be tough to achieve when you’re still relying on fast, heavy music with screaming. But you know when a band just has that energy surrounding them? That excitement to play and rip the audience in half? And still do something new? I’m getting that here. Their style leans into the more stop-start riffy rock n’ roll hardcore of bands like Suicide File but you can tell these guys are all big Hot Snakes fans the way they incorporate some of that jangly punk vibe into things as well. And finally, they have a really strong melodic side that still manages to sound hard, real similar to the likes of Polar Bear Club at the top of their game. You get a song like “Moonlighting” that relies on big melodies for most of the song before their drummer reveals he has fucking jackhammers for arms and pummels the remainder of the song into the ground. The title track is the only song on this that I feel slightly iffy about mostly because of how borderline bro rock it gets with all the crazy soloing they go off on, but you can tell they’re having so much fun with it that I really don’t mind. Second half of the record takes a few different directions, like the poppy and melodic lead on “24 Hour Fireworks Stand”, the Texas-born circle-pit made “Wearing a Wire”, and the post-hardcore thump that closes out “Turn On the White Noise”. This frickin’ rules and is definitely headed into top 10 of the year for me (unless, of course 10 Drive Like Jehu records come out this year or something). Just get this. (Head2Wall)
GENGHIS TRON, “Dream Weapon”
Genghis Tron is a band I never got too into. I think I was more in line of respecting what they were about due to their original approach, but it wasn’t exactly anything I was freaking out over either. Nevertheless, they have taken 10 years off, and in returning they have changed one member and added a live drummer (instead of relying solely on a drum machine in the past). The result is a very different record than anything they did in the past and I’m really unaffected by the change since I didn’t listen to them all that much previously. Personally, I enjoy this. Most every song sounds like an epic build up that falls somewhere in the trippy electronics of Tortoise or Battles at their most ethereal, early 80’s Genesis at their most triumphantly bold, and maybe a touch of “Bladerunner” in it’s futuristic vibe. They hardly ever get ‘metal’ at all on this record, though some of the drumming by whiz kid Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists, Sumac) absolutely crushes in it’s expertly executed attack (check the title track for evidence of just how hard this dude hits). All the vocals are in a breezy, atmospheric tone, which adds to the transcendent feel of the album as a whole, while a dominant use of various synths provides the bulk of the sound here. It’s a big sounding record without having to beat you senseless. (Relapse)
LUMBERER, s/t
Think of a grunge-y, shoegaze-y take on the Lungfish template, as performed by a duo. If someone used this description on me I’d automatically be all in. But truth be told, there’s only one Lungfish and no one else can really quite capture that magic. These two musical cohorts have clearly studied- the almost singular riff repeated throughout a song into a trance-like mantra and lyrics that read like Dan Higgs took some time to temporarily reside on our plane of existence- all filtered into a fuzzy 10 song collection. The thing about Lungfish though, is that even though they are the kings of ‘writing one song over the course of 11 albums’ it’s a really good song and it somehow remained incredibly interesting no matter how repetitive they got. Lumberer haven’t quite cracked that code yet, but I give them a thumbs up for trying. As an EP this would probably be pretty great. As a full length it gets a bit same-y. Maybe it’s the lack of a full band to expand upon the sound they’re going for since being a duo can become a little bit restricting. (self-released)
THOUGHT PARTNER, “Work Cake”
Weird indie rock that hails from somewhere in Massachusetts. At times resembling a less chaotic Clikitat Ikatowi (especially in the vocals), but certainly just as weird. There’s a fair amount of what sounds like synth going on at various points (or maybe it’s just some wild guitar effects, I have no clue, this isn’t Guitar World Magazine) and it’s most apparent on the slow and drony “In Defense Of Moderate Luxury” and then continues into “Bit Rot”, which goes for that synth-propelled post-punk/proggy Gospel vibe, and I’m definitely OK with that sort of noise. There’s also a couple odd interludes (does it sound like I’m working with a ‘weird’ theme here?) that get kind of spooky but make for a nice respite in the album. This band is called Thought Partner, but by the way the text is presented on the cover I assure you it is not “Partner Cake” by Thought Work. (Crass Lips Records)
TUNIC, “Exhaling”
There’s 23 fucking songs on this record. Holy crap. When Tunic said they were putting out a new record they must have really been on a creative streak! Wait, some of this sounds familiar. So there’s actually just 8 tracks I haven’t heard, a total of maybe 17 minutes of new music and their last full length, as well as their 7” tacked on as well? I get there’s a reason to include older material because their last label screwed them, went under, and basically took all the remaining stock into a vortex or something. So for those having a tough time getting yr paws on older Tunic stuff this is really cool. For a person who (luckily) does have a lot of this material on other records already and was hoping for a bit more than 8 songs on a full length (Tunic tend to write pretty short songs) this is a bit of a letdown. And just to dig a bit deeper, it appears the ‘new’ material was recorded at various points over the last 5 years… so this is more of a compilation than anything? But let me tell ya- if you want music that is both high-tension jittery post-punk that goes lean on minimalism but still beats the ever-lovin’ piss out of you with it’s bouts of chaotic noise, barked vocals, and rapid-fire delivery Tunic’s got what you need. They’re like what happens if USA Nails and Metz quit their jobs together in a fit of rage, punched the boss in the snot locker, set fire to the copy machine, and pushed it out the 10th floor window. And then everyone either cheered or froze, jaw agape in shock. I got this in the mail and upon unpacking it the cover immediately fell apart. Sweet. (ArtefactRecords)
UNSANE, “Improvised Munitions & Demo”
Even after death the lingering shadow of Unsane remains to remind any imitators out there who the true kings are. This is actually an unearthed piece of Unsane history as it’s their first record that never really came out, along with a demo from 1988 that also never saw official release until now. The story behind dusting off this artifact is wild, but completely gels with the one-of-a-kind truly scuzzy nature of Unsane’s sound. It cannot be imitated because they have lived the experience of “Taxi Driver” as if it were an every day ordeal and not a work of fiction. Long story short, they recorded a record, test presses were approved, and then the record disappeared having never gone fully to press. Fast forward about 25 years Unsane lead Chris Spencer gets a message that some rando found the test pressing in a used bin of records. I highly suggest reading the full account. It’s amazing and would only happen to a band like Unsane. The demo songs on this are just tracks they whipped up to give to promoters around NYC to get on shows. Some of these songs eventually made it on to other actual records, singles, etc, but these are the original recordings. This is Unsane at their most raw, before they became the precisely dialed-in, exacting killing machine we all have come to know and love (and before they got themselves well-versed in recording expertise). It’s them at their most loose, chaotic, and making lots of raucous noise and it’s great. Even back then they had the grit and wild tenacity of unleashing pure pent-up stress and anxiety upon hapless eardrums. The only bad thing here- this record cover looks like it came from Shutterstock or something. (Lamb Unlimited)
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