Reviews

Blow Blood

Cryptid I Exist demo cassette

Crusty noise punk blitz from a foursome who appear to have hooked up in Melbourne and at least partly dispersed since: Kyle from SHEER MAG, drumming here, was pandemically confined to Oz but has returned to Philadelphia. Not sure where vocalist JonCon (also of ZODIAK) lives, either. So you may or may not see CRYPTID live any time soon, but their demo is rad—chaotic, sure, and pretty thrashin’ fast for a noise-not-music band, but fully holding itself together with a nail-hard rhythmic frame as all sort of swirling psychedelic gloop enters the fray. This was also released, just prior to the tape versions, as a cool looking lathe-cut on the Winter Garden label, which you are way late to get a copy of, but comes with this apology from the label guy for potential bad sound quality: “my dog Ruben bumped the gain up without my knowledge so some of them are flooded with distortion.” He means an actual dog, as opposed to his friend trying to help out in the studio.

Osbo Say It to My Face EP

USHC-inspired downer punk from Down Under. Sydney has cultivated a reputation for producing eclectic acts, and OSBO maintains that tradition in a wholly distinct way. Following up their 2020 demo, the band has honed their sound some, but make no mistake, this is just as heavy, noisy, and unhinged. They eschew the standard hardcore formula in a way that has me imagining what PISSED JEANS would sound like covering NO TREND. There is a tension arising from their oscillating tempos, where just when it seems like things have gone completely off the rails, the meandering instrumentation will snap back into a focused assault. Atop it all, the snot-addled, back-of-throat vocals propel the songs forward. OSBO pulls off the rare feat of being frenetic, unpredictable, and tight all at once. An ample reminder that it pays to keep it freaky.