[engl] A love affair between Australia and Spain - one for the real rockers out there. Those lovers truly can't cease to amaze. Highly enjoyable one-of-a-kind sounding stuff from these masterminds. Demento synth noise from the creepy depths of a dark basement. The energy, hooks, and rawness elevate this above also-ran status, so if you’re a fan of this sound, you have to love it. A wave of skrunky, Adderall-eyed eggpunk-worship. This Split EP is an impressive collection of tunes, and I’m looking forward to seeing what this rockers come up with next. Wrap your favorite body parts in tin foil, dye your eyebrows blue, and get ready to sweat out chemicals when you listen to this one.

[engl] Dead Finks is the musical output of New Zealand-born duo Joseph Thomas and Erin Violet. Formed in Sydney sometime in the late '10s, it's current incarnation is a four-piece rock band based in Berlin. On The Death & Resurrection Of Jonathon Cowboy the band showcase an incredible knack for writing catchy and unique melodies. They play punk music in the tradition of Wire, Sonic Youth and The Fall (whose "Frightened" is covered here, recorded the night of Mark E. Smith's death) and take cues from contemporaries like Parquet Courts and Iceage in their efforts to manipulate and expand upon what it means to be a punk group in 2021. Written and recorded in Sydney, late 2018 (shortly before the duo moved to Berlin) the LP serves as a strange prediction of the horrible state of the world today. Songs about war, plagues, pissing, police, David Cronenberg’s Videodrome and the climate burning. Its a sea of wiry guitars and thumping bass that plants itself inside your inner ear and doesn’t leave. Thomas’ smart-ass delivery and literary style with odd references abounding, sees a return to something similarly touched upon in his previous group Trust Punks. However, on this LP Dead Finks feel more straight-forward in the best kind of way. Stripped down rock music that knows what it is and smashes you over the head. Vocal harmonies and lush organ sounds. It sounds really good. Divorcing somewhat on this release from the harsh underground sounds of previous iterations of the band. An extremely strange synchronicity. Some will try and say it was planned. It wasn’t. This is art working in mysterious ways. Hopefully for some of you it will help. Personally, these songs transcend this horrible situation we are collectively going through. But they cannot be exempt from being looked at through the gaze of a world stricken by plague. It’s the Death… & RESURRECTION of Johnathon Cowboy; you, me & everyone else.

[engl] Following a steady stream of ultra-limited 7" singles, that were collated together in 2019 for the 'Pre/Post: A Collection 2016-2018' on Louder Than War, the bands highly-anticipated debut album, by those that know, arrives. Since forming in late 2016, Girls In Synthesis have quickly forged a fearsome reputation as one of the most exciting and volatile live acts in London. In equal parts frantic, considered, ear-splitting and melodic, the group take their cues from the early DIY punk and post-punk pioneers to keep everything in-house; artwork, videos, performances and recordings are created entirely by the group and their handful of trusted collaborators, under a bedrock of heavy, bludgeoning, dark, post-punk. 'Now Here's An Echo From Your Future' is their first release for fabled experimental punk label Harbinger Sound and finds the band advancing their sound, making subtle but experimental shifts in texture and tone, helping to break free from the shackled straight-jacket of punk rock that, to be fair, never really held them down in the first place. Across the album's ten songs, Girls In Synthesis explore a wide range of sensations and sounds as the album detonates into life with opening track 'Arterial Movements' in a screeching flurry of over-driven guitar and hammering drums. The contrast between the slow, mesmerising look into aging and dying in 'Human Frailty' ('The realisation that you cannot halt their impending death'), to the aggressive attack on the rise of the right-wing in 'They're Not Listening' ('The time-old tradition of the right wing accosting desperate working class people has returned') shows a wide range of subjects and reactions aggressively tackled. Mental health in a fast-moving, unforgiving world, media control, the divide widening between the have and the have nots, the class divide, the blaming of the poor, NHAEFYF bristles with an unforgiving frustration and temper. The recording of NHAEFYF started at Rockit Studio, Hull in April 2019 during days off on the UK tour to promote the 'Pre/Post' compilation album. The Hull sessions were engineered by studio owner and local musician Sean Tomlinson. The remainder of the album was recorded and engineered by the band throughout summer 2019 in a large rehearsal room at Gun Factory studios, Homerton. Production and finishing touches were completed at GIS bassist John's S.I.C.K Studio in Hither Green. The album was mixed by long-time band collaborator and engineer, Max Walker. In their few years of existence, fans and critics alike have been stunned by the bands pure visceral and punishing wall of sound, as well as applauding the groups way of making a GIS show an all-inclusive experience; playing from within the crowd to create a unique and awe-inspiring spectacle. Being hand-picked to support acts as diverse as Damo Suzuki, Slaves, Bad Breeding, Warmduscher and Wolf Alice has seen a widening of the groups fan base. Sold out headline shows across the UK have led to frantic and chaotic performances, and packed, sweaty venues, the word is getting out and spreading rapidly.

[engl] Four new songs! Stoned crust d-beat from Sweden. All copies with A3 poster and sticker.

[engl] Featuring Sir Henry Fiat under his new name Paul Fashion. This new incarnation of the band with synths added is heavily influenced by Devo and German krautrock.

[engl] My Descent into Capital represents the most ambitious recording to date from London-based duo Circuit Breaker. Even if they're taking influence from minimal synth, post-punk, or early industrial sides, Circuit Breaker are unmistakably contemporary with their delivery, forging together metallic drum machines, propulsive synth lines, and stark guitar-degradation into bold, simple, and effective songs about downtrodden themes of isolation, discontentment, and the true horror of work. This album transgresses any simple nostalgia for its musical forefathers and showcases a band with their eyes fixed firmly on the future. Any obvious reference points are contorted and stretched to the point where they are transformed into something new. After two well-received releases on Tombed Visions, this is their first full-length album, and their first release on abstract-punk imprint Harbinger Sound.

[engl] Circuit Breaker are a band split in half. On the one hand you have the jagged guitar and maudlin vocals of Peter Simpson, slotting into the lineage of expansive and gothic punk a la Killing Joke, Bauhaus, Wire, etc. On the other you have the contrastive production approach of his brother Edward, whose washes of glassy FM Synth melodies are counterbalanced with bursts of electronic harshness recalling artists such as Autechre & Pan Sonic. ‘Hands Return To Shake’ is the second full length from the London based group. It is also the second release from them for longstanding avant-punk label Harbinger Sound. Moving on from the previous record, ‘My Descent Into Capital’, ‘Hands Return…’ is a much more personal and emotive work. The orthodoxies of minimal synth and post punk are stretched and squeezed to breaking point in both a reaffirmation and a deconstruction of the duo’s many influences. Embodying a fluid eclecticism that ties together industrial, minimal synth, post-punk, abstract electronic music and everything in between, ‘Hands Return To Shake’ is their finest work yet, a record marked by inspiration and their own increasingly elusive and individual direction.

[engl] Consumer Electronics return with a double album of all new studio recordings produced by Russell Haswell. Some wondered how the songwriting team of Philip Best and Sarah Froelich would fare after the leaving their London home to take up residency in the United States. Well, here's the answer. Recorded in San Francisco, CE deliver "Airless Space",a state-of-the-union address that does for our American cousins what the band's earlier "Estuary English" album did for a British audience poised upon the coming madness of Brexit. Unusually for CE, "Airless Space" clocks in at 60 minutes, a hexed induction for a country labouring under a presidency, that like Brexit itself, few saw coming or contemplated having to endure. Soundwise, CE have maybe mellowed the tone a touch, allowing their electronics to stretch out and breathe, whereas the frenzied and anxious vocals of Best and Froelich remain as snatched and breathless as ever. Stunningly produced by Russell Haswell and gorgeously mastered by award-winning cutting engineer Matt Colton, "Airless Space" by Consumer Electronics is their most complete and rounded statement yet.

[engl] The Ceramic Hobs are the band in the corner of the old man's pub round the back of the venue getting drunk before they either a) slay your senses with a mind boggling set of punk inspired psychedelia or b) fall over screaming and fighting. They make The Fall look as stable as U2 and the Butthole Surfers as mainstream as R.E.M. They're from Blackpool and have been going since 1985. This double LP retrospective of the North of England's most unique, overlooked and long-lasting underground band spans 25 years of recordings, with tracks taken from numerous releases carefully selected and sequenced by Philip Best (Consumer Electronics), ergot trip front cover art from John Godbert (Vibracathedral Orchestra), gatefold bad vibe intricate line drawing from Darren Brian Adcock and a twelve page booklet featuring an extended interview/essay by Chris Sienko and a band family tree.

[engl] "Push My Buttons and Svart Ljud proudly unveils the debut record from Stockholm's new punkrock future! These kids burst onto the scene, playing tons of shows as either Caligulas Mamma or their sister-band Kerosene Kream but mostly both of them played. They would hang out for hours in my store, listening and buying records. And they're the nicest guys around too! These four songs show both their sides - straight, fast punkrock and the weirder more arty side of punkrock. Dansa på min grav is the spirutual successor to Lädernunnans Ensam i natt!" -Thomas Savage

[engl] Consumer Electronics return with a double album of all new studio recordings produced by Russell Haswell. Some wondered how the songwriting team of Philip Best and Sarah Froelich would fare after the leaving their London home to take up residency in the United States. Well, here's the answer. Recorded in San Francisco, CE deliver "Airless Space",a state-of-the-union address that does for our American cousins what the band's earlier "Estuary English" album did for a British audience poised upon the coming madness of Brexit. Unusually for CE, "Airless Space" clocks in at 60 minutes, a hexed induction for a country labouring under a presidency, that like Brexit itself, few saw coming or contemplated having to endure. Soundwise, CE have maybe mellowed the tone a touch, allowing their electronics to stretch out and breathe, whereas the frenzied and anxious vocals of Best and Froelich remain as snatched and breathless as ever. Stunningly produced by Russell Haswell and gorgeously mastered by award-winning cutting engineer Matt Colton, "Airless Space" by Consumer Electronics is their most complete and rounded statement yet.

[engl] Limited to 250 copies.

[engl] The debut EP from from Stockholm's Kerosene Kream brings four hopped-up, screeching songs on black vinyl. Featuring members from Polyester, Caligulas Mamma, Sticky Baby and Polyester. Recorded at the Dustward by Frank E. Male. Limited to 300 copies.

[engl] After two well-received self-released records Mentira have hooked up with Harbinger Sound for the release of this mini-album which features six brand new tracks recorded over 2019. This Sao Paulo duo - although they now reside in Barcelona - produce more infectious tunes than those previous records hinted at. These fragmented minimalist tracks captured with just cheap keyboards, a bass and the occasional drum topped with some engaging vocals from Laura Lanca will please anyone one with an ear attuned to contemporary post-punk coming from further afield than London.

[engl] Limited to 250 copies.

[engl] Benni have two LPs out on Goner Records, he was in Wizzard Sleeve, Natural Child, Heavy Lids and played Mr Quintron's right hand when Quintron had broken his wrist. John Carpenter-ish garagerock? Garagey Vangelis with creepy vocals? It's fan-fucking-tastic for sure!

[engl] Originally released in a very limited edition during 1983. The RJF album has gone onto achieve legendary status amongst both collectors and fans of 80's murky Industrial underground music. Crawling out from the dark heart of Gothenburg, Sweden to no fanfare whatsoever, this record now commands a high three figure sum on the very scarce occasions it actually appears for sale. It is now considered to be one of the true corner stones of Swedish dark electronic music and , unlike a lot of obscure records from the same period, with very good reason. The record just oozes ill intent from all seven tracks. It's riddled throughout with a grim lo-fi electronic minimalism that makes the record so effective. The tracks run the gauntlet of sparse programmed beats, sustained heavy distortion that oscillates and weaves its way around monotone depressive and painful vocal outbursts as it crawls off back into its dark corner. There's no love to be found here. This reissue comes courtesy of Harbinger Sound. Original artwork and extensive sleevenotes as ever.

[engl] AMOK RECORDS is proud to release the first volume of a new compilation series. If you enjoyed former series like Killed by Death, Bloodstains or similar, this is a new one to discover rare, obscure but either great bands or songs of the 1990s. And if you enjoyed the 90s Punk and Hardcore szene anyway here you find some more gems which might have passed your attention in that century. This compilation needed around 4 years to get finished and a lot of effort was put into it. It is a labour of love. The tracks, with very few exceptions, won’t be available digitally from AMOK RECORDS. Volume 2 is already in the pipes and will get released in spring 2022.

[engl] "The Most Brilliant Man Alive" EP is the debut release from Vincent Buchanan Simpson who usually is in bands like Kitchen People, Hideous Sun Demon and more. Eugh started as a one-man recording project beacuse of the pandemic and the idea he got from one of his bands doing an all Devo cover set where he realised he loved that kind of music.