Reviews

Contact Minimal

Coins Parallèles Démo cassette

Montreal post-punque pour toi. I breathe a heavy sigh listening to this, as I wonder how many new minimal post-punk bands we need? How has this style survived the pandemic? To be fair, I get the allure for bands that play this kind of music, much like the spikeys glom to D-beat. It’s a recognizable sound, it has a defined aesthetic, and it’s usually a surefire ticket to a built-in audience. But at this point, the style is so minimal that it’s become deeply generic and overdone. Listening to this demo is akin to opening my lunch and seeing that it’s peanut butter again. But I will say there are some textures on this that I liked, and the lead guitar has some occasionally inverted, diagonal-sounding passages that contrast with the hard parallel lines and 90-degree angles that the songs are drafted with. My biggest complaint with this (as with most bands of their ilk) is that the rhythms are so stiff and uptight. Their drummer’s neck and shoulders must be so sore from playing like this! How the hell do you make a cowbell sound so damn unfunky? I just wanna get them a massage, some beers, and a plate of poutine, let them loosen up a little before going back to the studio. Groove is in the heart, but this sounds like music for Lego-men to dance to, and I’m sorry to tell you, Lego-men have got no heart.

Ruined Virtue Ruined Virtue demo cassette

Every now and then (usually once a month or so), the music review gods look down upon me, smile, and say “Eric, here’s a tape to review that you’re really going to fall in love with.” This month, that assignment is RUINED VIRTUE’s demo, a five-track banger that is my new favorite thing. Coming from the same swamp in Sheffield as the magnificent RAT CAGE, RUINED VIRTUE’s demo sounds like WARTHOG, GOLPE, and the rest of modern punk’s finest. They even have a little bit of medieval charm, heard most prominently on standout “Flowers of Flesh & Blood.” If that intro isn’t enough to make you want to suit up in some chainmail and go to battle I don’t know what is. I’ll be eagerly awaiting some wax from these guys, really, truly killer stuff.