Reviews

Lulu’s Sonic Disc Club

Exek Good Thing They Ripped Up the Carpet LP

Archly romantic DIY pop shuffling, built from combination analogue and digital rhythms; distracted and/or stoned-sounding synth parts; textures and layers which read dub through the same lens as, say, YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS once did…this album from EXEK out of Melbourne is apparently half brand new shit (Side A) and half comp/split tracks (B), but it all flows with a lumpy singularity, a jumble with mumbling. The PHEROMOANS from England have a loosely similar line in post-punk/minimal synth low-key chaos, although EXEK doesn’t really go in for social satire in the same way. (They do have a song titled “The Theme From Judge Judy” though, which is something.) Recall their previous album, 2019’s Some Beautiful Species Left, being more linear on average than this, but EXEK does “spacey and weird” pretty well however they tweak their basic template.

G2G The Gherkin LP

A modern OZ DIY throwback to the neo-ELASTICA snappiness of those two killer PRIMETIME singles (from a literal decade ago now?!), and on the other side of the ’90s inspiration coin, the Slampt Records-adjacent girl gang sound of SKINNED TEEN, PUSSYCAT TRASH, and LUNG LEG. Like all of those bands, G2G takes an economical approach to post-punk that is clearly borne out of collaboration, friendship, and creative trust, where the whole is, by design, far more than the sum of its parts—Angelica, Georgia, and Greta’s vocals criss-cross in roundabout call-and-responses and converge as a unified front of spoken/sung chants, as barbed twin guitar lines intersect with one another over steady, stomping beats from new recruit Daniel Stewart (of UV RACE/TOTAL CONTROL, replacing the drum machine from G2G’s 2020 debut EP), a deceptively minimalist but solidly grounded sonic framework. “Animated Satisfaction,” the hands-down hit from their previous 7”, gets a reboot here, and it’s a glorious pile-on of needling guitar and three-part shouts tearing apart the rituals of modern romance (“Tell me about the laws of attraction / I’m itchy and particular with my time / Doesn’t matter, I don’t mind”). The buzzing “Up” is equally great, nailing ELASTICA’s loving WIRE worship minus any fear of potential lawsuits, and the LILIPUT-esque “Pop Song” makes it obvious that its title isn’t at all tongue-in-cheek, from the subtle “la la la” backing vocals buried in the mix between verses to the soaring harmonies over handclaps and the frenetic strum of an acoustic guitar in the choruses. Eight freewheeling tracks, short and sweet, a real winner.

Low Life From Squats to Lots: The Agony and XTC of Low Life LP

I haven’t caught up with these Aussies since their debut LP Dogging back in 2017, an album I loved, especially in headphones during the rainy months. Well, their third record has appeared in time for the rainy season again, and despite the years between listening, the band has returned with a record that has everything I found so appealing on Dogging, but just ever so matured and nuanced. I’ve always imagined the LOW LIFE sound being created by some smirking lads, loose and laughing on lager, having made off with the CURE’s gear circa Faith and Pornography, but starting a hardcore band with it instead. Stomping and pushing their chorus pedals to sound less blissed-out and distant than pharmaceutically blurry and smothering, replacing a limp strum with a harder attack. Sonically, there’s some special studio accents like trumpets, orchestral strings, and acoustic guitar textures; song-wise, there’s fewer barreling ragers and more moody meditations, but always brimming with desperation and frustration that frames the album’s spirit around the layers of watery chordage. LOW LIFE is in classically fine form and begs for repeat listening and time for full immersion.

Rocky Rocky LP

Raven Mahon (of GRASS WIDOW and GREEN CHILD) and Xanthe Waite (of PRIMO! and TERRY) have paired up as ROCKY, and their debut LP is a work of quiet beauty, a minimalist grid painting of meticulous post-punk brush strokes on a paper-thin pop canvas. Most the album’s nine songs are primarily constructed around the hypnotic drone of a drum machine, stark bass lines pushed to the forefront, and wiry guitar dropping in and out as single-note stabs and knotted melodic counterpoints, nodding to both of their previous/other groups—Raven and Xanthe’s intertwining and overlapping vocal harmonies definitely give those familiar GRASS WIDOW goosebumps—but even more so displaying a very YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS-inspired balance between chilliness and warmth; simplicity and complexity. Things get slightly more raucous (in a deadpan post-punk sort of way) on “Repeater,” one of a handful of tracks to introduce a full drum kit, further accented with subtle synth buzz and even a bit of warbling violin, and the wound-up, off-kilter ’78–’83 art-punk bounce of “Blackout” (one of the best examples of that particular form since those two HOUSEHOLD records from around a decade ago), which only makes the austere and brittle atmosphere of songs like “Contents” and “Nothing Tuesday” hit that much harder. I’d expect nothing less than genius from these two, and they certainly didn’t disappoint.