Featured Releases: September 3, 2024

EXO: demo cassette (Roachleg Records) This cassette is the debut release from New York’s EXO, out on their hometown label Roachleg Records. While Roachleg’s primary focus is the more abrasive end of hardcore, EXO isn’t afraid of melody, trimming their antsy pogo beats with breathy, ethereal vocals and touches of what sounds to me like xylophone. It still sounds raw and punk, but there’s also an artsy, introverted feeling that creates a unique tension. The latter qualities also manifest in the lyrics, which focus on the lives of insects. The songs are all a little different from one another: “Mantis” is the most ferocious, while “Figwasp” has an upbeat, garage-punk feel and the closing “Plastic” foregrounds the vocal melody and has more of a C86 feel. Yet it all sounds like New York punk, albeit of the more enigmatic variety. Fans of artier New York bands like Nandas, Pinocchio, and Dollhouse will certainly enjoy this, as will folks who love bands like Zounds, the Mob, and others who pulled pop and art-punk tendencies into rawer punk aesthetics.

Grimly Forming / Rolex: Split 12” (11PM Records) 11PM Records brings us a split from these two perfectly matched LA punk bands. While Grimly Forming and Rolex sound pretty different when you describe them—the former plays weird hardcore with black metal touches, while the latter plays arty proto-hardcore—their music has a similar overall tone and feel: fast, minimalistic, agitated, and progressive. Rolex—a band we’ve been following for many years at Sorry State—delivers their most compelling material yet with a set of skronky, bass-led numbers that sound like the moments in the early Minutemen and Saccharine Trust catalogs most influenced by Wire’s Pink Flag. Here Rolex also reminds me of Texas’s Blue Dolphin in the way they embrace both the freewheeling, anything-goes hippie mentality and intense musical chops (see: the crazy drumming on “Destination Moon”) that characterized the early SST set. As for Grimly Forming, their sound is similarly thin and arty, but their vocals are nastier and more guttural and their drummer incorporates blasting techniques that remind me of Norwegian black metal, particularly those moments that feel eerie and weightless. While that’s a big part of Grimly Forming’s sound, they also have a knack for writing killer mid-paced riffs, which you hear on “Killing Spree,” “Passing Cars,” and the climactic “The Mirror,” whose riff approaches Warthog levels of battering ram catchiness. The split record is kind of a dying art, but this one knocks it out of the park with a full helping of grade-A material from two bands who are well-matched but different enough to complement one another.

Heaven: 4-track EP 7” (Iron Lung Records) Iron Lung Records brings us the second EP from this hardcore band from Texas. As the label’s description notes, these four tracks have a crustier sound than the band’s more straightforward debut, with low, guttural vocals and a monolithic, wall-of-sound production informed by masters like Framtid and Physique. The first track, “Stagnant Dream,” is a full-bore bruiser, but other songs conjure eerier and more demented sounds, like the demonic interval in “S.C.U.M.” and the closing “Peace Lies,” which winds itself up into a real frenzy. The band writes that “The inspiration for this record is the hopelessness we often feel in our survival as the cogs in a vile and inhumane machine of capitalism,” and that rings true when I listen… these four songs feel vital in a way mere genre exercises don’t.

Taifun: Kaiju Power 7” (Black Water Records) I listened to these two tracks several times without the thought even crossing my mind that this band wasn’t Japanese, then I sit down to write this description and find out they’re from Germany. Who woulda thunk it? Taifun features at least one member from Burial, though, so they have years of experience looking to the east for hardcore inspiration. One reason it never occurred to me that Taifun wasn’t Japanese is that these songs are so idiosyncratic. Typically, when a band looks to a far-away scene for inspiration, they are careful to include touchstones everyone accepts as markers of that style, but Taifun doesn’t. I can’t pinpoint moments where I’m like “that’s a Death Side move,” yet it’s clear Taifun takes inspiration from the grandiose quality of so much Burning Spirits hardcore… they just summon that quality in their own way. I particularly like how they stretch out motifs, like the extended outro for the a-side song and the way the b-side track pounds on those epic punches at the end until they achieve a hypnotic effect. I’m sure folks who are interested in contemporary bands in the Burning Spirits style will enjoy this, but I think what Taifun does here is interesting and unique, and worth the time of anyone who likes progressive hardcore punk.

Gen Gap: Hanging Out with Gen Gap 7” (MF Records) MF Records—the record label arm of the Delco MFs rock and roll group—brings us the debut 9-song (!!!) EP from this new Philadelphia band featuring 3 members of the current MFs lineup along with two other Philly punkers. As you might expect from a 9-song EP, this is hardcore punk, but hardcore punk of the snotty and hooky variety. Tracks like “First Gen” and “Used Up” blaze at hyper-fast, near Delco MFs speeds, but “Fuckshit” and “Scumbag” are punkier, with chunky, major-key riffs and the occasional burst of lead guitar providing an extra bit of hook-age. A couple mid-paced sections like the breakdown in “Strut” and the stomping “Five” keep the pit moving, while the vocals are fast and snotty, occasionally rising above the din with a memorable line or phrase. Hanging Out with Gen Gap presents itself as no-frills, but airtight song construction and blistering performances ensure this is a cut well above. Limited to just 300 copies too, so scoop one quick.

Fulmine: Randagio 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus) According to the label’s description, Fulmine came together as a band and recorded these six tracks in a mere six hours without a single rehearsal. Amazing! Maybe it’s because they kept things so loose, but Fulmine ended up with a unique modern oi! record here. The recording is raw and nasty, the bass sound blown to shit and vocals so guttural as to sound almost demonic (I think Nick who sang for Arms Race also sings in Fulmine). Especially with the Italian vocals, you can’t help but think of those grimy Italian classics from the 80s. However, while the songs and performance are raw and direct, there are all these details in the recording that give Fulmine a unique sound, whether it’s the Camera Silens-esque sax that pops up now and again, the ethereal backing vocals in “Vita Di Sudore,” or the layers of noise in “Puro Odio” and “Insurrezione,” whose origins I can only guess at. The bruising street punk on this record pulls you right in, but those more idiosyncratic touches really separate Randagio from the modern oi! pack.