Reviews

Push My Buttons

Benni Diamond Man / Heavy Metals 7″

BENΝI is Ben McCullough from WIZZARD SLEEVE, NATURAL CHILD, and HEAVY LIDS. He plays the synthesizer in a rollicking tribute to KRAFTWERK. I enjoyed listening to this on repeat while walking the still-empty streets of San Francisco, taking in the post-apocalypticness of the first anniversary of the pandemic. It’s just the right soundtrack. On the cover, BENΝI is wearing a chainmail hood and black sleeveless shirt, looking like an extra from a Monty Python film. That juxtaposition is just another part of the fun.

Caligulas Mamma Dansa På Min Grav EP

This is a weird one but interesting at least. This Stockholm band plays nice bouncy, energetic punk with electronic overtones and is extremely Euro. There’s music here to dance and/or pogo to, often reminding me of early LEATHER NUN. There’s a side of beef on the cover. I don’t really get it but who cares. Skål!

Corridor People Corridor People LP

This is a new project from Stockholm, Sweden featuring Dan Gräns, former member of garage power-poppers IMPO AND THE TENTS, but this time going in a very different direction—heavy on synths, and banishing all mirth (but not without a retaining a significant amount of cowbell). Brooding yet upbeat, the vocals approach incantations, with intelligible points emerging from the reverb like distant mountain crags piercing a dense fog. The coolest thing about this record is the dance beat. I could definitely picture the dance party in Blade (the ’90s vampire movie) going off to this record, screaming along with the lyrics, “At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul.” Yes, my vampire friends, you will.

Gluer Gluer LP

Gritty, grubby, nasty, and mean. GLUER bashes through fifteen songs of misanthropic, mid-tempo punk rock’n’roll. I would’ve guessed this band was from San Francisco rather than Stockholm. This is oozing with bad vibes in the best way possible, not dissimilar to LIFE STINKS or CRIME. Dirgelike but never plodding, GLUER delivers plenty of tough, catchy hooks both vocally and through instrumentation. “Weird Boy,” in particular, is a choice cut with a killer picked-out guitar riff and the howling cadence of the line “Look at that weird boy!”. Few things brighten my day more than some menacing downer punk. Excellent.

Heihaizi Heihaizi LP

With the ski-masked dudes on the cover, the charging sound, and some of these lyrics, I’m wondering if HEIHAIZI is intentionally continuing the charming trend of “breaking and entering-core” (as demonstrated on FOSTER CARE’s killer El Abuso LP.) This two-man “rap-punk” group is from Zagreb, Croatia, and this record is loaded from front to back with simple, explosive, and addictive songs. One minute they’re spitting fast vocals like a kid who’s super excited to tell you something and can’t get the words out fast enough, then the next thing you know, they’re leaned back, sounding like a punk RUN DMC and rhyming about how bad they stink. Then back to the “EMINEM-on-speed” vocal attack, pounding drums, and ripping guitars. This is some unique cool-kid hardcore if I’ve ever heard it, and it slaps.

Isotope Soap An Artifact of Insects 12″

Surreal synth-punk from Sweden that’s not as blatantly DEVO-core in its intentions as a lot of their recently devolved contemporaries, but I wouldn’t rule out a Booji Boy mask hiding in the back of one of their closets, either. The electronically altered vocals (sometimes high-pitched and robotic, sometimes deep and theatrical) and the general sinister sci-fi aesthetic clearly owe some debts to late-’70s/early-’80s San Francisco synth-wielders like the RESIDENTS and CHROME, except ISOTOPE SOAP is very much a product of the dystopian, technologically-addled hell that we’re currently living in and that those earlier bands could only speculate in their creative visions.

Isotope Soap In Need of Systematic Entropy LP

The glorious synth freaks from Stockholm are back, and ISOTOPE SOAP has outdone themselves here. SPITS, TG, SCREAMERS, DEPARTMENT S vibes all collide with a heavy emphasis on bizarre structures and a timeless sound that refuses to fit in any decade past or present. If anything, In Need of Systematic Energy is slightly more accessible than some of their previous efforts (with a title track that belongs on every mixtape you make this year), but you still never know what to expect from one track to the next. Worth noting that RAPED TEENAGERS and PUSRAD personnel are behind this genius…which is not even remotely surprising.

Kalle Hygien Absolute Bomber EP

The A-side sounds like a weird mix of quirky electro punk and CRESS. Drum machine, distorted guitar and some minimal electronic and synth stuff. Cool, upbeat punky songs with a good drive and hook that sticks. Side B slows down, retains some of the same elements, but loses the urgency. The fourth track has no beat to speak of at all. Fans of HEAVY METAL and AUSMUTEANTS or thereabouts should check it out.

Kalle Hygien Songs About Chuck LP

KALLE HYGIEN is a Swedish electro-punk band with a singer who sounds like he should be in COCK SPARRER. He’s got that tough guy, plain-spoken style and an English accent. The music is high-energy and futuristic. It’s like listening to the music of multiple amusement park rides while in a nightmare. All the songs on this record are really catchy and the catchiest is called “Nazi”. KALLE HYGIEN is weirdly fun. Highly recommended.

Kalle Hygien The Raft LP

I can tell you with close to 100% certainty that if I didn’t have an obligation to listen to this record, I wouldn’t have. Even if I somehow made it past this MEAN JEANS-ass record cover, I’m positive I would have shut it off within a few seconds of the jokey PET SHOP BOYS-meets-SLEAFORD MODS opener “The Raft.” This just isn’t the kind of shit I’m looking for when digging into any record, let alone one that purports to be punk. But we’re here to give this thing a fair shake, so let’s soldier on. KALLE HYGIEN appears to be the solo project of Kalle Jansson, whom you may know from the Swedish garage rock act the MANIKINS. This is the first LP from the project after a handful of EPs of aggro drum machine punk. But don’t go into this expecting more of the same! Aside from “Dope Him Up,” a cool rinky-dink dum-dum electro-punk number, this record bears little resemblance to his earlier releases. It actually sounds more like the GORILLAZ or an early BECK album. The winky rapping on “Snake in My Garden” has some punk bite to it, but it’s impossible not to imagine Damon Albarn yawning out that chorus. And the production on “Surprise Party”—one of the record’s highlights—really reminds me of the DUST BROTHERS maximalism you’d find on Odelay. Other tracks touch on chintzy ’90s neo-exotica or budget Red Mecca experimentation. Most of the tracks, even the ones I really dislike, are compositionally impressive, even catchy. They’re just not very punk. Probably worth checking out—I really did enjoy bits of it—but I wouldn’t blame you if you bail partway through.

Kerosene Kream Look Mom EP

Quirky new wave from Stockholm for the now-times. They’ve got a quirky vibe, not in an arty or weirdo way but fun, like if GORILLA ANGREB was really the B-52’S. All four songs are upbeat and have strong pop hooks, elevated by multiple charismatic vocalists and a layer of electronics that liven up the whole production. It’s okay and even healthy to have a little fun every once in a while, so if you’re brooding as much as I am these days look no further than KEROSENE KREAM if you need a little pick-me-up.

Polyester Dipsomaniac / Bite Me 7″

Pretty decent shocking pink hard-wave from Sweden that looks and sounds damn fine under a black light. EPOXIES, X-RAY SPEX, the DAMNED, and VAGEENAS are good places to look if you’re needing that feeling of control by comparison. The title track excels and smokes on this platter and being a former “dipso” myself, it gives me that fuzzy feeling inside. “Bite Me” has a much bigger and theatrical sound and is no slouch in itself making this EP flow like luminous paint down the gutter.

Polyester 100% Polyester LP

A super fun and dance-y record—the voice, the music, the lyrics, everything about this band makes me wanna start dancing and jumping. I just love when punks make music like this, because we don’t hear stuff like this really often. I can’t decide what song is my favourite one, because they really, really have a super interesting formula in all of them. “Dale Dale” is maybe the one that surprised me the most, because it’s so fucking good and it has some Spanish lines, so I obviously get excited about that. Also “Sue Me,” it’s fucking fire, the changes in the drums are crazy and the chorus sounds really retro, it’s amazing.  Definitely a band to check out, so different from what most punk bands are playing these days, absolutely love it.

S.G.A.T.V. S.G.A.T.V. LP

Synth-driven new wave and dirty punk rock combine to form a sound that skips the day-glo and instead fuels itself on frustration. After spending the past few years creating in Switzerland, S.G.A.T.V. has finally released a full-length LP, and it goes hard. From the opening track “Never Trust the Rich” to the closer “The Twilight of Infinite Loneliness,” you’re in for a fun trip exploring the depth of sole creative Severin Beerli’s feelings about the contemporary world. If the BOOMTOWN RATS mated with the EPOXIES, the progeny might come out sounding something like this.

Vidro Upp Till Dans EP

VIDRO, from Stockholm in the sense of a base camp, throws some American, Brazilian, and British grounding into the mix (that last one is pushing it, but before vocalist Vendela was doing this band she lived in Manchester and sang in a rad no wave thing, QUEER’D SCIENCE). Their lyrics are in Swedish and are sometimes as brief and blunt as their early ’80s hardcore forebears, but musically speaking, they brood more than thrash: “Allt Brinner,” which is also the title of their first LP but does not feature on it, is played at hardcore tempo while its three companions are slower. The guitar sound is a gnarly plughole swirl triangulating between punk, goth, and anarcho, and Vendela’s vocals get more baleful and antagonistic with every VIDRO release.