This one is going to be unfortunately really short as I didn't find as much
information as I'd like about this band. KERØ hails from Perth, Australia, and
recently delivered this killer four track demo which entered my 2021 top straight at
first play !
With four perfectly balanced tracks of hardcore meets punk'n roll,
KERØ
made me immediately think of a few other great Australian bands like
Punter, the short lived Cleanheads but also of many more from elsewhere which followed the path
of
Regulations
and
Flowers Of Evil
with an extra dose of rock'n roll guitars (no one says no to a little bit of
Motorhead from time to time after all) like
Lysol's 2015 LP,
Breakout
(the one from Texas),
Cutie,
Man-Eaters
or, to a lesser extent,
Hank Wood And The Hammerheads
and the
first Foster Care LP
if they were not playing that fast.
But enough with the comparison bullshit, these guys rock! It's just
perfectly mastered punk delivering high energy headbutts of rock'n roll,
if you're into this scene you can't not dig it... this is what you wanna
see on stage the next time you'll get wasted!
Being from Perth, one the many Aussie city with a strong punk history,
KERØ could perfectly fit in theHelta Skelta Records catalogue, let's hope that the label will
seize the opportunity to release (another) killer 7" pretty soon.
Exil showed up unannounced a few weeks ago, no discreet ringing or
polite knocking on the front-door no... Exil showed up with a big
shoulder kick, smashing the wood and dismantling the frame, a good lesson
for my carpenter and my locksmith... god have mercy on my wallet...
These guys have played in half of the best hardcore punk bands which have
come from Sweden over the last two decades (ok not really but you know
what I mean) and I don't think anyone who's really into that kind of music
would stay still when names like
DS13,
The Vicious,
Tristess,
AC4,
Bruce Banner
or
Epileptic Terror Attack
(to name only a few) are whispered to his tired ears... As for me, I'll
start to get severely agitated, my different members taking convulsive
shakes and more or less annoying spasms in random directions... There is
only to add that the singer is none other than Torbjörn who also
screams in
Leper
and used to scream in
Fukushima
and in one of my favourite swedish band, the almighty
U.X Vileheads, for me to become completely uncontrollable...
Well, here is the little appetizer I offer before announcing that these
guys started straight with an LP as a first release, the well-named
Warning released on
Armageddon Label
last July 23rd.
The cover artwork was made by
Joe B
who is far from signing his first
punk album cover art, you may have seen his work on releases by bands like
Subversive Rite,
Extended Hell,
Fairytale
and many more but also on flyers etc... Apart from the "nightmarish"
aspect of his drawing style, it makes me think of some 80s creepy sci-fi
comics I read a long time ago. Anyway I'm not a big fan of the colours
choice and of the "complexity" of the scenes he depicts but let's be
honest, it's still a pretty cool cover.
I was immediately hooked up by Warning's first and eponymous
track, how to not be convinced by the amount of energy delivered in this
great straight forward USHC song recalling the best releases of swedish
hardcore punk? It's fast, it's bursting right in your face,
Exil delivers exactly what you expect and it's hard to hide a
huge smile while you're rolling on the floor under a rain of hardcore
punk kicks.
I've listened to this album many times since its release, as I wrote
above I was really hooked up at first, but then, for some reasons, I
tended to feel a bit disappointed. To me the Swedish hardcore punk scene
is, without any doubt, one of the best of the 21st century and, on top
of all names dropped at the beginning of this post, bands like
Regulations, Damaged Head,
Agent Attitude,
Brudte Lofter(from Denmark ok I know) and even
Refused
are undeniable heroes of my personal punk pantheon and I really expect
the best song writing, the best hooks etc... well the best of everything when it comes to swedish bands to be honest
(yes I'm picky).
So in the end I can't say I was not convinced by what
Exil delivers, it's a super powerful hardcore punk album,
but to me it misses a few breaks, a few details here and there...
a few riffs are a bit "too much", the drums sound a bit too much
in the front, a couple of songs' sound a bit too cheesy... well
you know what I mean, it lacks the last layer of deluxe varnish
which propels an album from very good to exceptional... (what a
snob old bastard I am ahah!).
Let's start over with the usual monthly compilation of brand new killer punk shit! It starts nicely with some great punk tracks before taking a turn to the hardcore side and coming back to some noise-rock and punk rock and other killer stuff.
Reviews will be back in a few days, a lot of great records were released recently and I had all summer to listen, enjoy and think about some write ups so I'm on fire!
N,J'Oi!
01 - Cherry Cheeks - Boxes 02 - Laxisme - Les Bancs 03 - Sex Work - Secrets 04 - Chubby and the Gang - Overachiever 05 - Chihuahua - Total Commitment 06 - S.O.H - (you) Don't Have to Wait 07 - Scarecrow - Pain For Profit 08 - Koma - Arkady 09 - Laundry Boys - Ketamine Ketosis 10 - Precipice - One Customary Behavior In One Particular Situation 11 - Grizzlor - Talking To Yourself 12 - María en Drogas - Mal Encarado 13 - Mujeres Podridas - Por Que 14 - The Freakees - HAHA 15 - Sloks - No makeup 16 - Direct Threat - Pressure
You guys know how active the Colombian punk scene is these days, I've
reviewed and
mentioned a lot of great bands
during the past months and here is another one. Infra is from
Bogota, Colombia, and features members from a few killer raw/street punk
acts you may have heard of before:
Tumbas,
Secta Suicida,
Sin Reaccion,
Rito,
Phonophobia
and
Doble Moral.
So yes these guys are really into the UK82-inspired street punk sound
which has shaped the way many Colombian bands have roared like over the
past decade.
Let's starts with La Hora Del Fin (the vinyl B side): with five
tracks of fast and mean raw punk leaning towards D-beat, Infra's
not looking for subtlety but rather for the raw and direct power of an
in-your-face gnarly punk.
Think of TheVarukers and The Undead moving to
Colombia around 1985... well we actually don't even need to mention the
brits as the almighty
Primer Regimen
already shaped a whole generation of Colombian punk rock with their mix of
UK82/D-beat and 2000s Street punk (members of
Primer Regimen actually play with members of Infra in the
already mentioned Tumbas and Secta Suicida). And damn...
Infra delivers exactly what I expect from this kind of band, it's
loud, fast, violent and super enjoyable! Of course it's extremely
predictable but who cares, that's all we like.
Perfect!
Let's jump to the A side (Camisa de Fuerza
side) and its eight tracks from 2020.
In a little less than two years the band has kept all its energy and its
mastery of a hard-hitting and efficient punk rock but has also added a
certain amount of melody embodied by guitar passages that orient the band
towards a certain kind of street punk of which I am less fond. Yes, this was already a bit the case on the 2019 tape, but it was still much more raw. Of course
there is
Peligro Social, which is the perfect counter example as I'm a big fan of the
San-Francisco based band, but in general I get really quickly bored by
lame melodies played by uninspired guitarists in street punk bands with
slight oi! influences.
But ok, frankly I'm a bit harsh, it's another great release, very
enjoyable in spite of those few melodic passages that are quite avoidable
in my opinion. I read somewhere a comparison with the 80s Swedish band
Puke, and even if I'm not really familiar with their discography I
can indeed see the link with their
1987 LP
where raw punk doesn't reject little doses of melody.
But if I want to stay in bands singing in Spanish I should rather mention
the early materials of
Invasiòn / Destino Final
from Barcelona,
Germen
from Buenos Aires (in a more hardcore punk way maybe) but most of all
their friends from
Trampa
and
Reaccion Violenta
from Bogota.
It's been known for a long time that the Colombian scene has nothing to
prove and is even one of the biggest and most active in the world,
Infra just confirms it once again!
I've been really busy lately and I really struggled to maintain the frequency of my posts. Anyway here is, like every months, a new playlist/compilation of super hot punk stuff! A lot of killer hardcore punk but some post-punk and weird shit also.
I will probably have to lower the frequency of my reviews in the coming months but I will always keep this show running!
C ya soon!
N,J'Oi!
01 - Chain Whip - Two Step To Hell 02 - Anxious Pleasers - Errand Boy 03 - Ex-Dom - Desesperanza 04 - Imploders - Rip Em Off 05 - Ready Armed System - Hair Of The Dog 06 - Delivery - Floored 07 - Night Lunch - Stop Spots 08 - Cutters - Australian War Crimes 09 - ШТАЗИ - Штази 10 - Ilusión - Metiche 11 - Soursob - TV 12 - Super Cheap - Lines 13 - Show Me The Body - People On TV 14 - Modecenter - Chain Boys 15 - Dog Rally - Dog Heave
You guys have heard of Martin Sorrondeguy aka
Martin Crudos right ?
Born in Uruguay but growing up in Chicago, Martin has managed to
become, during his couple of decades of involvement in the American punk
scene, a major figure of both the Latino (with
Los Crudos) and Queercore (with
Limp Wrist) scenes. He also sang in other furious hardcore punk acts like
Needles
or
N/N
(to mention only those starting with a N), he is a
photographer, a
teacher, a regular contributor to
Maximum Rock'n Roll
(at least when the paper version still existed) and even directed a short
documentary about the
U.S. Latino punk scene. Yes the guy likes to keep busy.
Anyway Canal Irreal is the latest musical project of
Martin (it features members of
Sin Orden
as well, Martin released their first EP on his label
Lengua Armada
back in 2000) and sounds quite different from his other past projects
(which are often made of the same dough). To be honest I've never been a
huge fan of Martin's singing (too shrill, too high-pitched and not
powerful enough for my taste) but I was quite curious to see what it could
sound like in a different kind of punk.
No time to waste, these guys have nothing left to prove and have decided
to skip the demo and EP phases to start straight with a full length.
Featuring nine brand new tracks, Canal Irreal's debut record was
released a few days ago on the very good Richmond based label
Beach Impediment Records.
Pestes, the first track which appeared on bandcamp a few months
ago, led us to imagine a distinctly mid-tempo album and that's exactly
what we got. The Chicago punk veterans deliver high quality tracks
swimming in a kind of post-punk / darkish melancholic vibe which
recalls two things to me: first the 2000s Portland melocholic scene
that I've mentioned many times (The Observers,
Red Dons etc...) but with way harsher vocals and second the great
80s Colorado band
Dead Silence. Indeed the same kind of mid-tempo punk with ripping, shredding vocals
can be found on tracks like Knockdown, Si Somos or even
Glaze whereas tracks like Pestes, Not Tomorrow or
Emergencia
have a much more modern construction built of subtle melodies which could
make me think of a jam session between bands like
Isolation,
Generacion Suicida,
Crosta
or
Los Monjo
if the vocals were not so "hardcore" oriented.
With the unavoidable Jonah Falco at the mastering control desk,
the band benefits from a superb quality of sound which allows to give all
the depth
necessary
to this kind of songs, it does sound great.
I've listened to this album many times for the last few days and in the
end I'm not sure what to think of it. Yes it's pretty cool but it's not
mind-blowing either, the tracks are well built and well written but I feel
like there is something missing to make them really striking. And there's
the vocals of course... they don't sound bad and go surprisingly well with
a "softer" side of punk than the usual fast and furious
Martin's hardcore bands but I still have mixed feelings about his singing style
and it blocks me to really get into it, but that's really a question of
personal taste.
Anyway you should definitely give it a try I'm sure most people will love
it!
Skeleton Glove started as a studio side project involving mainly
Assaf (originally from Israel but lives in Berlin if I'm not
mistaken) who is behind the Berlin-based labels
Order 05 Records
and
Twintoe Records
(he also plays in
Egonx
and played in the
Tanning Bats
and other projects in Israel like the
Uzbeks). There's been probably other people from the Berlin punk scene
involved since the beginning but it looks like they wanna keep it a bit
secret (what we do is secret!) even if there are clues that
Dong Xuan Production was involved and that
Skeleton Glove turned into a "real" band with the latest
12"...
Anyway the main idea is to make some kind of super dark, super angry,
low-fi hardcore punk in the vein of
Gimmick,
Gag
or
Glue
(to stay in the G section only).
So let's see!
I don't know if the word Demo freak does make any sense but if
it did it would apply perfectly to Skeleton Glove. In two years
(from early 2018 to late 2019) they released not less than four demos
(well three actually but you'll see)!
I understand that, as a "bedroom black metal" project (or at least as
an over-the-top parody of it), the quality of the recordings did not
reach the point of a proper release but I nevertheless salute the
literal creativity in terms of titles.
This 2018 demo is only two tracks and looks like it may have been a
"solo" project only.
On the contrary to what the aesthetic makes us expect it does not sound
so distorted actually, but almost garagish thanks to the clean
guitar parts and the weird little outer-space noises. It's not so fast
either, it's totally mid-tempo.
Ok they obviously overplay the "dark" or "black metal" aspect with
creepy "horror" lyrics (like a satirical version of a lame
Misfits song, and there's plenty of choice) and a totally, and
probably literally, "threw-up" vocals style (ahah I can imagine the
recording session).
It does work quite well actually as a fun little bedroom project.
More than a year and a half has passed since the first demo
and Skeleton Glove is back with four new tracks and another demo
called Demo, probably to announce the resumption of activities on
new bases (which will be confirmed by the "intense" activity of the
following months).
But to be honest, I'm quite disappointed by this release: ok the creepy
"horror" atmosphere and the "threw up" vocals are still giving the same
"color" to the Berlin "bedroom" hardcore punk but the recording quality
is very very low-fi and turns the whole thing into a big smelly soup
it's really hard to enjoy.
Too bad.
Unfortunately I am obliged to make the same observation with the
two following demos (Demo 2 and Demo 3): it sounds like shit guys!
Ok maybe there are a couple of tracks on Demo 3 which are barely edible
(The Brain Is The Glove Of The Thoughts,
These Shoes are Gloves to My Feet) but that's all (ok the track
titles are funny also).
So let's not waste any more time and let's go to the real purpose of
this review:
Skeleton Glove's first LP!
Well well well... I've been waiting for that one for quite some time,
first announced last December with only two streamable tracks on their
bandcamp page and then for the end of March, here it is finally (6
months later!!!)... so was it worth the wait you're gonna ask ?
Fuck yeah it was!
Credited at first as the result of a one day recording session
(at Dong Xuan Production)
by the original duo (Assaf and Jake?), it looks like the
project turned into a proper "live band". I know for sure that there is
now Marian from
Imposition Man
and
Constant Cold War
who also played in
Catholic Guilt,
Gesture
and
Cult Values
(great bands), Jake, a
multi-disciplinary artist
who plays in
Stinkholeand Stéphanie whose background is unknown to me.
Well in the end all this time was not wasted as, finally, the result
does sound good!
As you'd expect, the band delivers high quality mind sick trash/punk
hardcore, it's fast, it's direct, it's mean as fuck, it's a real blast!
You can hear screaming, barking, yelling, vomiting in all directions while
the drums hammer relentlessly on a crushing rhythm and the guitar, with
its rather and quite surprisingly not-so-distorted sound, keeps everything
within the limits of an appreciable straight forward melodic
construction. With nine out of ten tracks under one minute thirty these guys don't
waste any time, but don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean that all the songs
are geared towards fast hardcore, for example there are the awesome, but
super nasty, I'm Moving In and Spooky Tower whose mid-tempo
construction has a lot to do with their dirty moods... Yes mean, nasty and
spooky are probably the key words here, I would say that
Skeleton Glove is doing to hardcore punk what
Maladia
and
Slimy Member
did to Anarcho-punk in a way, to turn it into something dark but
more in the spirit of a genre film that manages the excess for the sake of
entertainment than a real depressing and haunting approach like in black
metal or that kind of thing (even if the four Berliners would probably say
that making a parody of Black metallish bands was part of the
original idea). I mean when you got songs called Gimme Chocolate,
Booze Ghoul and Trillion of Dead Cops from a band called
Skeleton Glove
you can't deny a very appreciable sense of humour...
The comparison with the "G bands" mentioned in the intro are more
relevant than ever and I can probably also add
Candy Apple
whose some tracks of their latest LP fall into the same kind of atmosphere
and also the dark side of
Nasti
and many more more or less affiliated with what I call the
freak punk
scene.
To make a long story short, this album is a success, of course the tracks
are very anchored in a
very powerful and straight forward
genre with a strong identity but with a final result which is nevertheless
quite diverse and well made and is not without a very appreciable sense of
humour and taste for parody. As in many places where the punk and
affiliated scene revolves around a fairly small group of endlessly
motivated individuals, these same individuals like to develop various
highly musically connoted projects in order to indulge their overflowing
love for the various chapels of punk rock, and Skeleton Glove is a
good example of a successful "genre band".
