New tracks and first thoughts can be found here.
Words: James Frostick
High-octane Melbourne hardcore outfit 2 Stroke dropped a new track in late July, one where the aggro four-piece grapples with the thought of a meaningless existence. ‘Crisis, Crisis’ is a forceful rebuking of modern living and the dissatisfying ache it produces.
Words: James Frostick
Band image: Joseph Leary
New Zealand’s own Die! Die! Die! are back with a cacophonous new EP due out next month – one born out of a frenzied period of writing and recording with its most heralded line-up. ‘Casualties Of Decades’ is a bona fide ripper that beats and pummels its way into the upper echelons of Die! Die! Die!’s storied and voluminous discography.
Continue reading Premiere: DIE! DIE! DIE! – ‘CASUALTIES OF DECADES’
Words: James Frostick
Band image: Pia Hannah
Good news for fans of Melbourne-based proponents of post-punk-indebted gloom EXEK – the band has returned with news of a third LP. The record, entitled Some Beautiful Species Left, is dropping on September 6, and is a split release between France’s SDZ, Digital Regress in the USA, and Australia’s own Anti Fade Records. The record’s lead single ‘Unetiquetted’ is a slinky-and-irregular piece of outsider new-wave pop that hints towards a greater level of studio immersion.
Words: James Frostick
Artist image: Jake Ollett
New noise is emerging from Sydney’s experimental electronic scene courtesy of Jack De Lacy. ‘Pure Emotion / Raw Data’ is a thunderous assault on the senses. This slice of subterranean clang and throb is a study in the power of voice as an instrument that can be modulated, and how that bending via technology alters the role of the body and renders it redundant once the organic byproduct is harvested and refined.
Continue reading Premiere: EX-RENTAL – ‘PURE EMOTION / RAW DATA’
Words: James Frostick
Three years on from the release of her acclaimed SMACKWAVE EP, Spike Fuck returns to the limelight with a delicate off-cut from the SMACKWAVE sessions. ‘Body By Crystal’ is a sorrowful insight back to Spike’s times of addiction – an unflinching tale coloured in blueish hues, boasting love-bruised guitar peals and sighs tinged with palpable sadness.
Words: James Frostick
Band image: Julian Hocking
Gutter-rock goons Civic are keeping one lead foot on the accelerator with a brand-new scuzzed-up double-hitter. As one half of a split release with Anti Fade Records and Floridian label Total Punk, Civic’s newest 7″ contains a speedy racket / venomous spray that contains the band’s signature sonic fury, but with a tempo and directness that has been dialled up a few notches.
Continue reading Premiere: CIVIC – ‘SELLING, SUCKING, BLACKMAIL, BRIBES’
Words: James Frostick
After popping up on numerous live bills across Sydney, buzzing three-piece G2G has offered up the first taste of some recorded material. ‘No Kid No Angel’ is a piece of oblique post-punk that carries a sense of entrapment, conveying urgent sentiments regarding identity, change and growth in the face of gloom and uncertainty.
