DEATH CASSETTE – Get Rid Of It EP (High End Denim Records)

strainin’ against the leash

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For this follow-up to 2020’s debut Grim, Winnipeg, Manitoba’s DEATH CASSETTE worked with renowned producer John Paul Peters of Private Ear Studios whose previous clients include PROPAGANDHI, CANCER BATS and COMEBACK KID.

Grunge-tinged punk or punk-tinged grunge? Whichever, DEATH CASSETTE’s sophomore release reveals a startlingly seasoned unit. From the moody, chugging Storm‘s gravelly drawl (think Courtney Love or Brody Dalle) and spy-core guitar, seasoned with grains of desert rock, to the smouldering catharsis of Reflector, it’s clear the band are dispensing with the flabbier aspects of grunge. The coiled spring of Trapped, all throaty bass and guitar stabs, is barely able to restrain itself during the chorus before busting out a searing guitar solo on the propulsive punk-chug of Get Gone. The highlight is the desert-dry, ghost town hymn of Solstice. Never feeling its near five-minute length despite being a masterclass in straining against the leash, it just leaves the pacey Leech to close with ever more abrasive vocals cutting through overdriven punk sonics.

The grunge-averse will be relieved to know that DEATH CASSETTE use it sparingly, concentrating instead on a thorny punk edge. An ever-present sense of seething menace permeates throughout Get Rid Of It, and, though you could trace DEATH CASSETTE’s sound back to HOLE, THE DISTILLERS, even THE GITS, this is a wholly fresh listen. Great stuff.

Released November 17th 2023

https://deathcassettemusic.bandcamp.com/album/get-rid-of-it

SLALOM D – Waltz Into Anarchy album (Serial Bowl Records)

angels of the north

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Slalom D are an unashamedly political band who nail their colours firmly to the mast; left-wing, anti-fascist, opinionated and thought provoking

from band bio

Sunderland’s SLALOM D – named after a now-defunct brand of strong lager infamous amongst local punks – formed in 2018. Waltz Into Anarchy is the follow-up to their 2021 debut Happy Skies.

Being of a certain age, it’s no surprise that SLALOM D take inspiration from a much earlier era of punk rock. You’ll hear subtle, and not-so-subtle nods to THE DAMNED, PENETRATION, TV SMITH/THE ADVERTS, SKIDS, and SLF; even JOY DIVISION get a look-in and, in the rough-hewn guitar melodies, a sprinkling of their relatively more recent brethren, LEATHERFACE and HDQ. That said, for all its old-school energy, opening track Red would fit right in on a millennial BAMBIX album, largely due to Fiona’s gritty vocals, chiming guitars, nifty bass licks, and song structure. Empire‘s intro is a surprise for sure, and as the album progresses, it becomes clear that this is a band unafraid to use synth to add gravitas. With simple, effective piano strokes, the ghost of THE DAMNED hovering respectfully, Empire perfectly encapsulates the depth of this band’s songwriting. The Burning Days, a similarly muscular tune with a great biting riff, atmospheric synths, and an unexpected Gregorian chant, mixes a little TV SMITH into it’s DAMNED flourishes. Elsewhere, a droll, dark carnival air pervades Waltz Into Anarchy, there’s an SLF touch to L’appel Du Vide‘s guitars and a sting of bittersweet melancholy in Cat And Dogs.

When not going for the old-school throat, the bassist peddles a mean line in nasally noodling. See Cold‘s dreamy bridge, the pulsing, punky rhythms of Discordance, and Peter Hook-esque work on The Sound Of Her Wings – more on that later. Gen X faces the question of relevance in ageing with a double-hook chorus and adroit use of synths, while the SKIDS revving of Soldier On – at just over a minute, the shortest song here – is energising, though the song struggles to stand alongside such lofty craftsmanship. The album ends with the near-six-minute emotional balladry of The Sound Of Her Wings. The intro has all the JOY DIVISION/early NEW ORDER atmosphere (heh) you could wish for – Hooky bass, gently rolling toms, and sky-blue synths – building to a rousing, heartfelt epic, a startling moment from these grizzled Northern punkers.

In melding their pick ‘n mix approach with the North-East’s rich history of heartfelt, earthy punk songwriting, SLALOM D have crafted an album of great depth. The extra dimension provided by the synth, coupled with Fiona’s gritty, powerhouse vocals straddle sturdy musicianship with aplomb on an album that is both killer instant hit and addictive repeat player. Excellent work.

https://serialbowlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/waltz-into-anarchy

JUNKBREED – Cheap Composure EP (Raging Planet Records)

cerebral shenanigans

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Lisbon’s JUNKBREED formed in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, its members drawn from Portuguese bands PRIMAL ATTACK, SEVEN STITCHES and SWITCHTENSE. Cheap Composure is the follow-up to 2021’s Music For Cool Kids album.

The swaggering rock chug of Dipsomaniac might seem at odds with its throaty bass and slicing guitar lines, but this is the age of cross-pollination. Post-hardcore? Sure. After all, there’s enough of the rock in this opening track to please fans of LARD and Angel Dust-era FAITH NO MORE, as much as fidgety AT THE DRIVE-IN notes. This uneasy relationship between rock overtures and post-hardcore anxiety is a common thread throughout these four tracks. To The Lions is less introspective, the vocals positively triumphant, there’s some gorgeous clipped riffing on Automatic Drills, and Casual Anger showcases the guitarists’ considerable chops. From stark post-punk to manic riffing and speed changes, creativity and verve sparkle throughout Cheap Composure.

Swathed in inter-mingled layers of rock swagger and post-hardcore anxiety, JUNKBREED deal in a turbulent yet triumphant noise both erudite and mosh-pit baiting. Top-tier cerebral shenanigans.

Released on 7th October 2023 so out now, on Raging Planet Records

https://ragingplanet.bandcamp.com/album/junkbreed-cheap-composure

86 It – Horse mini album (self-released)

tragi-comic fizz

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Ottawa, Ontario-based band 86 It (or 86IT, depending on which member of the band you speak to) return with their third release, the follow-up to 2022’s 6-track Everyday Is.

All members have a go on lead vocals, most notably on the female-led Somebody’s Gotta Go and Too Big To Be True. These songs have an addictive, garage punk fizz reminiscent of THEE HEADCOATEES, while elsewhere, the dudes do good work with some crazed hollering. We’re talking old-school punk diction from a time when vocalists enunciated emotion. It’s a rare thing these days and is most notable on the daft fun of Gimmie Yer Horse and the mid-paced Just Another Day, a cracking, rough ‘n ready punk gem. Those Days beefs up its revved STOOGES riff with a formidable chorus, Plants, Animals And Kids slows down a GREEN DAY riff to great effect, and Upside Down delights with skittery drums, spiky guitars and an upstart Pere Ubu on vocals. There’s more, nine tracks in all, but you gotta retain a little mystery.

86 It play a fun, scrappy style of punk rock that harks back to the days of discovering a cool new demo by a band you’d not heard before. Enjoyably disposable, gleefully raw, these are unpolished gems played with boundless spirit, conveying something of the tragi-comic absurdity of life. Sounds like they had a blast making it, too.

https://86it.bandcamp.com/album/horse

JOHN E VISTIC – Humanz Are Bastardz EP – (Deaf Endling Records)

grimy rock shotz

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“Multi-instrumentalist & award-winning London-born (Raised in Australia), Bristol-based songwriter John E Vistic plays a unique brand of punk, rock n roll & alt country” goes the bio. Humanz Are Bastardz is the follow-up to 2021’s Under The Volcano album, its existentialist themes inspired by various novelists/thinkers – Jared Diamond, Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, Karl Ove Knausgård & Ian Dury – adding a layer of profundity to proceedings.

I guess it was inevitable that someone would tie in our current existential contusion to grimy rock ‘n roll scuzz. You can draw a line from Crime & Punishment‘s swamp-rock drawl and proto-punk pugilism to THE GUN CLUB and THE STOOGES, but lyrics like “Ask Chat GPT, to write a song for me. Maybe I’m human after all? Too human! I am guilty as charged” hold up a smeared mirror to our collective head-scratch. “Take me down to the river, wash me in the water, set me free” Vistic intones, in suitably Eldritch timbre. Well, quite. Vocally, Gunz, Germz & Steal! is a Shaun Ryder/John Lydon tag team, full of spunk in the verse, doped and sneering in the chorus. A backdrop of damaged, rock ‘n roll filth, straight from the wastelands of post-austerity Britain, oscillates between manic pitches and drowsy squalls.

To Every Purpose Under Heaven sees Vistic take centre stage as a Cave-esque preacher, sermonising on a hymn to the darkness of the human soul. His Rock ‘n Roll Sound System show remarkable restraint, moody guitar spirals rising and falling in a muddy goth churn. The hypnotic Humanz Are Bastardz shakes its head at the species’ glassy-eyed slide into oblivion, laconic vocals accentuated by a minimalist, one-note sax. Haunted sound effects and spiky guitar stabs accompany rumbling bass and drums, spewing forth a sound that is as at home among 6Music-Core mainstays like FONTAINES DC as it is a stinking-squat GORILLAZ or THE BIRTHDAY PARTY on downers.

Humans are Bastards
we want to be free
we want to be equal
but we choose our beliefs
like the tiles on the steeple
for those who burn crosses
are the same who build cathedrals
even the Leopard must drink
from the same fountain as his people

Humanz Are Bastardz

Moving away from the DIY hardcore/punk scene’s long history of documenting man’s inhumanity to man, the planet and everything on it, closer to the mainstream music industry, this sound, these songs, feel almost overwhelmingly timely. Vistic’s multifaceted vocals deliver a poetically pessimistic vision, a motley collection of ne’er-do-wells knocking out grimy rock shots. Humanz Are Bastardz should light a fire under the most fried of Black Mirror casualties. Mr Vistic? We’ve been expecting you.

Released on 10th November 2023 on Deaf Endling Records

BORN SHIT STIRRERS – Scratch ‘n’ Sniff album (Serial Bowl Records)

stirring the shit with BSS

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Fukuoka, Japan’s ‘most notorious punk troublemakers‘ return with this self-produced follow-up to 2020’s Lester. With members drawn from the US, UK and Japan, Scratch ‘n’ Sniff includes guest vocals by Mark from DOWN & OUTS, Chris from CHOPPER and Paul from THE MSGs.

With twenty-six songs of irreverent, obnoxious punk rock, a track-by-track run-down ain’t happening, but I will say this: in amongst the pound-shop pisstakery lies a scattershot album of ADHD-addled pogo punk, by a band with a habit of throwing everything at a song – multiple (male and female) vocalists, samples, speed changes, oft-times in well under a minute – culminating in a sound all their own. When you’re listening to BSS, you know it’s BSS.

I could have done without the horrific bodily function sounds on the title track, but it’s undoubtedly a great rockin’ punk song with a neat stylophone guitar solo. Knockabout singles I’m In Love With Karen Grant, Guilty Of Being Richard White and the glorious, organ-led Love Is A Four Letter Word are here in all their ramshackle glory. There’s a shit-load of sub-one-minute stuff, from the catchy (I Couldn’t Hate Your Guts Enough), nasty (No Time Left To Kill), snotty (Armchair Of Shame) and ranting (the 16-second No Place Like Home). Longer standouts include the SNUFF/nursery rhyme catchiness of All My Ex’s Live In Essex, the MISFITS swagger and screaming chorus of Get Off My Lawn and the epic Barfly, a speedy punker with another nifty guitar solo and a cheesy rock ending. Would have made a fitting final track too but, ever the contrarians, they give us an irritating blues piss-take instead (Beer Bottle). Personal highlights include the bizarre psychedelic/thrash crossover of Religious Fanatic and The Married Incel, I Met Her At Keith Flacks‘ punk rock THE WHO, and the schizophrenic Alcoholic Lesbian Vet (about much-loved Emmerdale character Zoe Tate). Ultra-thrash interspersed with femme-voxed screams and jangly guitar, ya can’t beat it.

Furrowed brows may initially rebel against this blaring, snot-flinging racket of juvenility, in-jokes, and barbed broadsides – mine did – but fuck it, this is an entertainingly disposable throwback to a time when bands released records about stupid shit. For a laugh, like. A riotous good time.

Released on yellow vinyl, CD and digital on October 13th 2023

https://serialbowlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/scratch-n-sniff