Spicer

 

Just a short one today about this new band hailing from Helsinki, Finland, and called Spicer, which released a pretty cool demo a couple of months ago, in January.

 

 

  I'm afraid I don't have much information to share about the band and its members, the three Finns were smart enough to stay away from the social media hype and fly under my, usually very efficient, radar. Everybody likes to brag online about the "genius" noise they make in their bedrooms you know (except these guys obviously).

 

So let's focus on the music rather than the gossips if you don't mind:

 With a drum machine, a synth and tags like "dark" and "gloomy" all over their bandcamp page, nobody (and certainly not me) would have guessed at first glance that Spicer will have the distinct honour of being a guest on the amazing Rien à Faire page. No-bo-dy! But hey! I've heard that life is all about unexpected events and so here they are. Let me explain why.

Starting with the very-well-named Tense, the demo opens up with a heavy bass-line (and I'm a sucker for killer basslines you know, who isn't after all?) before letting the cold and mechanical drums hit you in the face with a very simple repetitive beat that "holds" some very deep and catchy vocals that sound like emerging from a dark and narrow Finnish tunnel. Yes there's a lot of reverb on those vocals, and that's cool! So yes let's just say I was immediately hooked! I didn't even mind the synth (which I usually hate), which manages to stay discreet enough not to pollute the straightforward atmosphere of the song (and I love "straightforward").

And that's exactly the winning formula the band keeps develops throughout the next four tracks, whether it's with a simple but heavy guitar riff on Inwards and Days Of Drifting, or with a fast "hardcore" beat on Not Yours To Keep (even if those weird synth sounds at the beginning worried me at first), these guys manage to do their thing while remaining "hardcore" in a way. And that's pretty cool!

Cold Machine concludes beautifully the whole thing with a perfect mix of all the tricks perfectly used on the previous tracks, it's catchy, it's straightforward and simple, the vocals get into your head... it's exactly what I wanted (it just lacks another killer bass line somewhere but eh! c'est la vie as they say in Paris).  

 

So yes I really enjoyed this demo! I's love to draw super smart comparisons to some very obscure new-wave / EBM / synth punk bands but that's definitely not my area of expertise so I won't (well ok the only band I could think of was Special Interest because they fucking rule but that's very different!). Anyway, give this shit a listen and let's see if anything else comes from the north in the coming months... Fingers crossed!

 

 

 

N,J'Oi!

 

 

 

 

You can listen to Spicer on Rien à Faire #32.

 

  

 

 

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Mano Fico

 

picture by Julie

Mano Fico is a quartet hailing from Oakland, California, which features people who played/plays in NO, Suss Law, Erradict, Anti-Sycotix (and probably other way-too-loud musical acts), as well as the guy behind Mental Crash Records.

Just a little extra information that will make you look cool at your next local punk trivia: the name Mano Fico comes from an old hand sign, the fig sign, which is far from meaning  "good luck mate!" in some cultures. You're welcome.

 

 

 Mano Fico's first release got out in February 2020 on bandcamp. It also says "Mental Crash Records" but it doesn't look like any physical release followed the digital one.

I guess the four tracks of this EP could be described as some fast raw-punk (leaning on the street-punk side at times) with female vocals and could be reminiscent of Scarecrow or S.O.H (there is this kind of "d-beat linearity vibe", especially on Loving Memory) but with a less "overwhelming", less powerful, kind of sound (the "demo sound"?). Also the vocals are a lot less hoarse than Scarecrow's which give to the whole thing a stronger "punk rock vibe" than the two previously mentioned groups.

I mean, in the end I may just be trying to draw weird comparisons and Mano Fico is just a pure punk band taking as much from old classics like Vice Squad (the vocals on Dysphoria!) as from Peace Talks or Concrete Lawn... All that to say that this demo/EP is pretty good but doesn't really stick out from many bands I've listened to before (which is also a weird thing to say because I listen to most of the bands I listen to because they're in line with bands I've listened to before... well you know what I mean).

And then things changed.

The guitar player left and was replaced by Kevin from NO. And Kevin from No doesn't play guitar, he plays synth. So Mano Fico went from a most classic punk/rock set-up to a band with a synth but no guitar right? Yes and then they delivered Inferno Night.

Taking advantage of a much better recording than the demo and in spite of an atmosphere leaning inevitably slightly towards a synth-punk side which could have very quickly put me off, Inferno Night is obviously a very catchy track. The synth finds its place, keeping a very heavy and distorted sound which doesn't take anything away from the straightforward touch of Mano Fico's punk. A great song and a successful career transition!

The song is out on the Mental Crash Records' double LP compilation, Anti-Police Terror, whose proceeds will be donated to the Anti Police-Terror Project located in Oakland.

 

 

N,J'Oi!

You can listen to Mano Fico and other punk punk songs on Rien à Faire #30.

 

 

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Dyatlov

 

picture by Lana Mesic

Dyatlov is a new band from Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, featuring members of Beach Coma, Jibber Jabber & the Jams and Iguana Death Cult, which actually looks like a mutated version of Beach Coma as the band "disappeared" to better come back to life under this new form.

 

Before going any further let's make a short stop on the band's name; obviously of Russian origin it refers to Anatoly Dyatlov, the deputy chief-engineer of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in charge of the test at the time of the "incident", who, on top of making one of the biggest technical fuck-up of the last century, was also responsible for ignoring the consequences and not reacting in a way that could have saved some lives (quite the contrary)... I guess the four Dutch have been as impressed as I've been by the 2019 Chernobyl TV show!

 

 

 So Dyatlov recently released a 2-track 7'' on the dutch label Spazz Records, that specialises in the craziest and loudest fringe of (mostly) Dutch "garage punk" you can think of including the excellent Forbidden Wizards and Pig Frenzy (a seriously good band, leaning towards post-punk).

And Dyatlov has his rightful place in the Spazz stable... With only two songs these guys manage to reach the heart of the game, frantically conjugating the recipe of crazy punk at all heights of rock'n roll...

Yes this cheap, absurd, disturbing and slightly ridiculous video (recalling a bit the Cuir ones, if Cuir was making good music) fits perfectly with the degenerate synth punk produced by our four maniac friends from the land of tulips and coffee shops. It's noisy, stupid and mean, it's wild, it's overflowing everywhere, it's fucking sick!

   

  Call it furious noise-synth-punk or just a pure rock'n roll band, these guys don't give a fuck and are here to engrave it with a dagger in your eardrums of little hipsters in down jackets.

Just put together in a bag bands like Headlice, Teengenerate, The Stools and Viagra Boys, shake vigorously for a solid half hour (DO NOT STIR) and savour with headphones and a suitcase of lukewarm Pils beer... 

N,J'Oi!

You can listen to Dyatlov on Rien à Faire #20.

 

 

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Headlice

 

picture by Finlay

 

 

Headlice is a very new band from Brisbane, Australia, that you're going to hear about more and more I'm sure!

They're friends with The Chats, they've just released a 7" on Bargain Bin Records (a sunshine coast label releasing, among others, The Chat's records), they are not without humour and well... that's roughly all I know! 

beautiful and disgusting art by Russell Taysom

Headlice play fast, simple, super energetic and straightforward punk with synth (more accurate in this case than synth-punk in my humble opinion) which I'm sure will delight both young and old lovers of thrills and itchy hair.

 The lyrics are fun and silly, they're young and full of energy, it all sounds like a party!

Think Ausmuteants on speed / Alien Nosejob on weed!

And yes... it's super good! 

  

  Headlice is one of these bands which take the Rock'n Roll game from the fun side, focusing on high energy live shows made of catchy sing-along chorus (H.E.A.D.L.I.C.E!!), a no-fucks-given attitude and (sometimes) costumed performances.

In the vein of The Spits (heir of a degenerate union between The Toy Dolls and the Ramones), or the recent Bipolar, this is all silliness and fun which only goal is to turn every concert place into a giant regressive rock'n roll party; putting musical "complexity" (whatever it could mean for a punk band) to one side and giving priority to explosive waves of energy.

These bands are usually brilliant stage performers (at least when stages were used for something else than storing dust) and from what I read here and there and fell in their tracks... there is no doubt Headlice is too! 

So let's pray and get drunk (or the other way for that matters) to see them on an European stage in the not-too-far future!  

 

  In a way it reminds me of The Rip-Offs (probably because of the masks/nylon) when they toured Europe after their 2007 reunion (even if I was disappointed with the show and still think their music is boring to be totally honest).

In a nutshell this EP is pure, highly enjoyable, silly punk rock at its best!

It's called Vol.1 so expect more very soon!

picture by Chloe Millroy

 

 

 

You can listen to Headlice on Rien à Faire #19.

 

 

 

 

 

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Schiach

 

Schiach is a quite mysterious German band claiming to be from Schkeuditz and which has been around since 2017 or something.

When I discovered the band in 2018 my mind immediately associated it with a label, Phantom Records, and with another very German band, Pisse. 

Indeed both bands got a very German touch, the main thing being the German language of course and the second thing being a strong sense of offbeat humour...

 

 

 And that's where the "mystery" comes into play.

All the songs from the 2018 LP are written and sung in what looks like Bavarian dialect or Bairisch (it's important to know that the south of Germany, Bavaria in particular, is famous for what other Germans consider as a very weird accent and is then source of countless jokes; we all have in our countries places where people speak "funny" right?) and from what I have read here and there it's not clear if this record is some Bavarian irony and/or German humour (?).

Claiming to be from a small town close to Leipzig (super far from Munich) it could actually be both.

As my German is definitely not good enough to understand the whole joke I will let the German speakers distinguish what is humour and what is not and let them decide if it's funny or not. 

 

This being said let's go back to the music!

Schiach is playing a great mix of upbeat post-punk and minimalist punk rock. 

A super sharp guitar sound, nice round bass lines in the background,  slamming drums, barking vocals with nevertheless a clear and clicking sound... the lot is delivering super tensed but super catchy songs.

The true (or fake?) Bavarians also know how to take a classy break with tracks like Gammler which catchy bass melody will make your head shake and your bum twist.

  This album got an 80s vibe all right... in the way the vocals sound ? in the way the whole thing sounds ? do we care ? No because this record will not bore you for a second from the start to finish. Expressing various feelings, from suppressed anger to sadness (Olle Gleich Schiach) through all the in-between mix (Leit, Ja Mei), your brain will not be stuck on one note and is it not what we are all looking for in a LP in the end? A variety of mixed feelings to slightly disturb our brain chemical balance ?

 

In 10 tracks the band wrote one of my favourite record of 2018 and at the time I included it in my Best of 2018 playlist. 

 

 

 

So you can imagine of excited I was when I heard that a new album was on the way two years later. Released once again on Phantom Records, 2 (great title) comes to the world only as a tape for now.

 

 

 

Well this not at all what I was expecting. 

Since the first note of  Des G'Schiagta Recht it's clear that the atmosphere has changed... a lot more melancholic, a lot more electronic as well. The band (which seems to be a duo scattered between Leipzig and Vienna after all) has chosen to keep the shout vocals but to change almost everything else: "Tchüss!" super guitar riffs, "herzlich willkommen" weird 80s drum machines, synths and dodgy late night clubs atmosphere!

 

Well if you've read a few of my reviews you may have noticed that my tastes in terms of new wave / Cold wave / EBM and all lame 80s goth / industrial music are very clear... NO WAY!... for most of it at least.

So yes it's not surprising that I am not seduced at all by this new album except for Feiawea and Disziplin which got a bit of the first LP clicking energy. 

 

  These 9 new songs will probably please a lot of people but not me unfortunately. I will never criticize a band for evolving, I really believe that change should not be avoided but embraced on the contrary, but sometimes it just does not do it for me at all (ok a loooot of people love Blitz's Second Empire Justice for example, I don't).

 

Too bad. There is still the first LP anyway! 

 

 

You can listen to Schiach on Rien à Faire #16.

 

 

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MSPaint

 

MSPaint is a new band from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which released a 4-track demo tape earlier this year. Not much more information about these guys so it's going to be a short one.

The tape is out on Earth Girl and for some reasons caught my attention.

I don't really know how to describe what MSPaint is playing. It's kinda slow, kinda heavy most of the time, kinda noisy but with always some catchy melody in the background... there is some synth (but not too much)... the singing style is edging with rap sometimes... yes it's a weird but really interesting mix in my opinion.

 

MSPaint songs sound to me like end-of-the-world lullabies, like Zach de la Rocha on Prozac directing the soundtrack of Twin Peaks with a drunk white trash synth band... there is a quite unique atmosphere that makes me want hear more from them...

 

Let's see what comes next... 

Voir cette publication sur Instagram

Une publication partagée par MSPAINT (@mspaintband) le 10 Août 2020 à 6 :10 PDT

You can listen to MSPaint on Rien à Faire #14.

 

N,J'Oi!

 

 

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Expose

 

Expose is a mysterious band from Los Angeles, California, which has produced quite a lot of super weird songs since summer 2019.

So yes sorry I won't be able to give much information about the band.

 Both Demos released in July and August 2019 and respectively called E1 and E2 have been put on a single tape (called Demos) by the Californian label 5 Star Limo almost at the same time (August 2019). 

5 songs from E1, 4 songs from E2, these 9 tracks are probably issued from the same recording session anyway. But where the fuck are we here?

It starts fast, dirty, noisy and punk with Motive and Protest, almost experimental noise punk if I may say... a bit electronic as well... like Kraftwerk, Devo and Discharge jamming together in an unsanitary basement... 

  Then it slows down a bit with Max Reduction and Demons and its heavy synth lines, bringing a more classic Devo-ish on speed synth punk touch before reaching the proper new-wave track Deaf Trust... 

After CNS which can be seen as the intro of E2, Now, the next song, comes back to something more punk, a mid-tempo noisy mix with a lot of delay on the vocals and a very linear drum machine pattern... a bit like a slower version of a Murderer song.

Same recipe but so much slower for Arrest. 

 

And here we go slower and slower again with Glue which concludes these demos... a lot of delay, a really "crushed" synth sound, some depressed and distant vocals, sound almost like a slow EBM song!

 

Well it's an interesting start, I am not sure what to say about it, I like it though.

It's free, wild, a bit dirty and crazy... quite arty of course... but why not?

 

A few months later, in November 2019, 5 Star Limo releases a new Expose tape humbly named E.

With these 9 songs including Protest, Demons and Now, Expose continues its journey in the weirdest parts of noisy punk meets EBM meets art and synth.

Faster and more energetic than the demos (the new versions of the 3 songs are also shorter because faster!), the band is finding its way, keeping the atmosphere and the weird, insane and electronically deranged transitions but being more consistent in its use of noise effects and synth. 

 

  Expose concludes this second release with the slow, disturbing and EBMish Dagger reminding us that the new wave / electronic scene influences are not gone.

 

And BIM!

Expose comes back in June with what caught my attention in the first place and is their masterpiece in my humble opinion: their latest self-titled tape.

This time Expose sounds like a real, complete band, forget the drum machine and the EBM / Electronic side, here is some proper and furious noisy punk!

With only 2 songs out of 7 passing the 2:30 min mark, the guys from LA are now playing faster, stronger and louder! Screams all over the place, stomping drums, deafening guitar riffs yes Expose came to turn the place upside down!

Even Owl Sighting which started as a nice little punk ballad turns into total chaos...

The synth is gone for good as well but the arrival of a saxophone is a success and adds an extra touch of weirdness (think of a Lukrate Milk kind of saxophone) and buzzing atmosphere to the galactic craziness.

But this is not just a never ending downpour of noise and fury no! Expose is smarter than that, building slowly but surely the mayhem to come, giving some air to our poor eardrums before pushing them again to the limit, making sure to not let us leave untraumatized...

 

This is the kind of record/band that is pushing the genre to its limits, opening the way to another dimension of punk... thank you for that, thank you EXPOSE!

You can listen to Expose on Rien à Faire #13.

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Pisse

picture by Tegoslucham

Pisse is a quartet from Hoyerswerda, Germany, which has been around since 2012 and plays some kind of a-bit-of-synth weird punk sung in german.
The kind of band with which you never really know where you are and have absolutely no idea where you going but you're ok for a ride anyway.

Theese guys already have quite a big discography so I am not going to go through each of their releases but just write a quick word about the "main" ones.

 

Their first "proper" release is a 2014 6-track 7" on Mamma Leone Records called Praktikum in der Karibik.

Basic, low-fi, with a decent dose of synth and some nice "punk explosion", the band, without having the maestro of today, has already found the "Pisse sound".

 

 In 2015 Pisse releases Mit Schinken durch die Menopause on Phantom Records (note that Phantom Records also released a super low-fi and weird Pisse kassette in 2014).
Well... at the time the band music was already hard to describe...the album starts like a Die Antwoord song before taking a sharp U-turn to a sequence of short punk songs with quite a lot of synth, oscillating between fast and mid tempos... can be a bit unsettling at first...

With Kohlrübenwinter (Turnip Winter) (released on different formats by Phantom Records, Harbinger Sound, Beau Travail, Gafas Del Rigor and In A Car) we are at the album which made me discover the band and made them quite "hype" around here.

In my opinion it's exactly the release where the band finally mastered its recipe; finding the right balance between punk guitar riffs, gang vocals and synth melody...
The dual "question/answer" vocals infuses a great energy to the lot and even if my german is a bit rusty these songs are obviously full of jokes and sarcasm ... and it's probably one of the reason why they became so popular in german speaking countries...

My favorite Pisse song:

Ok now let's pass Pisse's next couple of releases: the short Album Name (really guys?) and the also short Hornhaut ist der beste Handschuh ("Cornea is the best glove"??) which are still wandering on the weird synth punk map but with sometimes a darker post-punk vibe.

Latest Pisse release to date is a selft-titled full length out on, once again, Phantom Records and Harbinger Sound, in January 2020 and featuring ten new songs.

Starting with the fast and very punk Die Fetten Kinder, Pisse is taking us for a ride through some really diverse, but always breathtaking, landscapes... the weird and very german post punk Duracell, the almost hardcore Angenehm Staff, the very surfy ballads of Zu Viel Speed, the "very Pisse" synth punk of C02 Bilanz or Feind/Fehler... to finally conclude with the fun fair tango and chicken calls of Jenny L...

Probably less sarcastic, but still super efficient, the band is seriously keeping us in the dark all along... is there any plan? what the fuck are we doing here?... 
Helpless, blindfolded and speechless the only option we got left is to enjoy, until the end, the restless madness of the german punks...

You can listen to Pisse on Rien à Faire #8

picture by Laura Sophie

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