Fashion Change

Reviews

Fashion Change Smoking Kills flexi EP

To say “I like this three-track flexi” would be a total understatement, because I fucking love it! Effect pedals randomly turn on and off with harsh feedback, but it’s a welcomed addition to the whirlwind of hardcore fuckery that’s taking place on this disc. Chaotic, noisy, and pissed-off: Smoking Kills sounds like you allowed a crew of drunk, primordial beasts to play a basement show at your house, and now they’re using their instruments to tunnel out. Cathartic as fuck—we all have those days when this disc could be crucial sonic ammunition.

Fashion Change / Hologram Live in DC split cassette

Two different solo studio bands from two different coasts of the United States (HOLOGRAM and FASHION CHANGE) came together to tour that country in May of 2022. This particular performance was recorded at Slash Run in Washington DC, current hometown of HOLOGRAM (or at least mainman Brendan Reichardt). The audio fidelity of the performances is very lo-fi, but this does not take away from the listening experience—of course, if anything, it only adds to it. HOLOGRAM, whose No Longer Human LP was my favourite release of 2021, plays several choice cuts from that slab along with tracks from their previous releases Build Yourself Up So Many Times Only to Be Brought Down Again and Again and Illusion of Control, along with, quite fascinatingly, a short cover of the intro to “Horizontal Hold” by THIS HEAT. On the flipside, FASHION CHANGE rages through numbers off of their Coward cassette and Devil’s Laugh 7″, with a couple of new songs thrown in the mix. This cassette tape comes highly recommended to anyone who is already acquainted with these two bands’ previous respective discographies—if you are not yet, make sure to remedy that! Two thumbs up for two of my favourite currently active bands.

Fashion Change Devil Laugh EP

In just four short tracks, FASHION CHANGE put all of their cards on the table. This is really some good old-fashioned, no-frills hardcore punk with all of the audio fidelity of recording in a rotten dumpster. Hey, maybe that’s the way punk was designed to sound. The vocals are close enough to fit on a screamo record, the drums endlessly beat the listener, and the guitars growl like chainsaws. This is one that just isn’t for me. It’s just too grimy and loose to get into, but I have no doubt there is an audience for this EP. If you like the feeling of being trampled in a mosh pit, then this is about as close to that feeling as you’ll find in a recording.

Fashion Change Coward cassette

Nasty collection of raw punk scabs from this Seattle band, recommended for fans of VILE GASH and HOLOGRAM. As soon as you push play, the fast 1-2-1-2 beats start with harsh, almost blackened vocals and blistering, relentless guitar right in your face/ears. “Medicine” slows it way down with a crawling menace of a beat, shrouded in feedback before it speeds up again and ends with a textural sheet metal guitar “solo.” A short intermission comes in the form of “***** *******,” a warbly, non-English language classic thrift store ballad wrapped in Tascam hiss. It’s a mysterious breather before the ripping starts again. Final track “Coward” is a pounding hate crush with lyrics like, “You’re just another coward” and “Detestable—a waste of human life.” Oof, I would hate to be on the receiving end of that one. Misanthropes, check this one out.