Portland’s COLLATE continue with their angular and distinctive sound. With idiosyncratic guitar and punctuated vocals, it’s like a KRAFTWERK and GANG OF FOUR mashup. “Communication” is almost robotic, with an occasional release, followed by an epic, noisy, and tangled flop at the end. Flip to side B. “Selective Memory” is strange funk with infrequent shouts, and the striking of clean, unfiltered guitar. Art school dropout punk right here.
Somewhere between the 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS and the ANIMALS, this single is deeply rooted in ’60s psychedelic rock. The A-side is a jangly, lo-fi California-style rock track that combines tremolo guitars with distorted synths. The B-side is a lighter acoustic ballad that easily could be a cut by the BYRDS or BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD. If you’re looking for some ’60s nostalgia, you won’t find anything that emulates that sound better than this.
Oh hell yeah, this authentic lo-fi synth eeriness from Ohio’s the SERFS is right up my alley. The whole thing just pops the second you put it on. The synth does a great job of making an otherwise straightforward song just a little off-kilter and uneasy. The first two tracks are direct post-punk ragers, but it’s “Debt World” on the flip that really wins me over. The arpeggiated synth and pulsing bass evokes KRAFTWERK’s Radio-Activity LP or the primitive industrial of early SKINNY PUPPY. A solid EP worthy of its Ohio punk pedigree. The snappy risographed cover is a bonus.
