[engl] Behold! Seattle’s immortal IRON LUNG have bestowed upon us their fourth studio full-length, Adapting // Crawling. This, their first album since 2013, is as fierce and uncompromising as we’ve come to expect from the duo of Jensen Ward and Jon Kortland, who originally bonded over a shared fascination of punishing hardcore and arcane medical barbarism. On this new LP, it’s not a funhouse mirror they’re holding up - society has devolved into this misshapen, ugly and distorted form, and IRON LUNG take no pleasure in pulling back its curtain. As truth-tellers in this breakneck and unrelenting hardcore tradition, duty commands IRON LUNG to ram their bulldozers, Hanatarash-style, through the tidal waves of horseshit. Extreme hardcore is not a new phenomenon, yet Adapting // Crawling is undoubtedly a vital new fork in its socket. Hearkening back to forebears Despise You and Crossed Out, these eighteen tracks offer distinctly original pathways to obliteration, from the ominous opening blows of “Adapting” to the inspired decision to sandwich the distressing “Virus” between two halves of “Purgatory Dust”, a rare piece of art that accurately conjures the monotonous terror of surviving an active pandemic. Their blasts of hardcore/agit-prop are savage and unrelenting, but IRON LUNG somehow manage to imbue the negative space between blasts with an oxygen-destroying heaviness as well, perhaps the defining trademark of this group who once saw their reflection in a full-body pressurized metal chamber and decided to turn it into music. -Matt Korvette

[engl] LOINS is a three-piece noise-rock-post-punk-whatever band from Helsinki, Finland. While still a relatively new band with only one self-titled EP under their belt, rest assured, the members are already pros and have been doing this for 20+ years in various bands (including the fantastic Baxter Stockman). While the first release was more of an introduction to things to come, on AFTERGLOW the band is really finding its true identity. The overall tone may feel bleak at first, but there is much more hope underneath than might catch the ear at first listen. It might sound complex, but it is really just plain rock and roll for shits and giggles. Complexity comes easy, darkness is natural, and it takes an effort to ignore it. So, chin up, don’t overthink it, and enjoy this blast from LOINS. For fans of NoMeansNo, Baxter Stockman, and the deep dish Chicago style Albini flavored Jesus Lizard /Touch & Go school of rock.

[engl] With their unpredictable live performances and songs such as ‘Zurück zum Beton’ and ‘Industriemädchen’, S.Y.P.H. caused a ruckus at the end of the 70s - as one of the bands that began to write lyrics in German around Düsseldorf's Ratinger Hof. Right from the start, the band broke with genre-conformist expectations and borrowed from rock, punk and kraut just as much as from Dadaism and the reality of everyday life. After the first album and several singles (re-issued on Tapete Records in December 2024), the band produced two more albums - Pst and S.Y.P.H. (album 4) - together with CAN's Holger Czukay. Tapete Records is now releasing both albums and a collection of previously unreleased rarities - Punkraut 1978-1981. Peter Braatz (Harry Rag), Jojo Wolter, Ulli Putsch and myself in 1980 in Can's so-called Innerspace Studio in Weilerswist: what a happening! I probably still don't have the words to describe how I felt. Were we excited? Of course we were - and then some. It was a non-stop flight to the centre of the universe, to the Holy of Holies, way beyond our musical imagination. After all, except for the first LP "Monster Movie", this is where all the wonderful masterpieces of the very best international German band that we all love so dearly were created. Pure magic was at work here. Future Days had already been a promise for me when I was still a student - and now the four of us were right at the centre of our musical dreams. We could suddenly play whatever we wanted. Okay, on the first day we were all still pretty tense. But Holger Czukay kept encouraging us and quickly managed to loosen us all up a little. And then the thing took off. […] So there was always an urgent desire within us to create intuitive music without making agreements up front, where everyone was listening to their inner self and at the same time to their fellow musicians – that’s what the “Pst”, i.e. “Shh” is about! –, creating music together in the moment. A free, direct way of composing. The spatial atmosphere of the Innerspace Studio contributed significantly to us being able to realise this wish. The studio as a living musical universe. A large, truly infinite space without barriers, where all four of us were in our element. (Uwe Jahnke, S.Y.P.H.)

[engl] With their unpredictable live performances and songs such as ‘Zurück zum Beton’ and ‘Industriemädchen’, S.Y.P.H. caused a ruckus at the end of the 70s - as one of the bands that began to write lyrics in German around Düsseldorf's Ratinger Hof. Right from the start, the band broke with genre-conformist expectations and borrowed from rock, punk and kraut just as much as from Dadaism and the reality of everyday life. After the first album and several singles (re-issued on Tapete Records in December 2024), the band produced two more albums - Pst and S.Y.P.H. (album 4) - together with CAN's Holger Czukay. Tapete Records is now releasing both albums and a collection of previously unreleased rarities - Punkraut 1978-1981. In the mid-seventies, Uwe Jahnke and Harry Rag had probably founded the first CAN fan club in Germany and, among other things, conducted an interview with Holger Czukay for Harry Rag's school newspaper in 1976. Four years later, fandom made way for collaboration when the band asked the legendary CAN multi-instrumentalist whether he’d be willing to produce the next S.Y.P.H. album. To their astonishment, he accepted. Thus it came about that in 1980, S.Y.P.H. was recording with Czukay in the fabled Innerspace Studio in Weilerswist, where the iconic CAN albums had been created years earlier. Czukay also performed on several tracks, for instance horn, percussion, bass and harmonica on ‘Do the Fleischwurst’. These sessions resulted in the two albums Pst and the untitled 4th album. We stumbled into the ‘Innerspace’, a raucous and shrill punk band in CAN's private recording room. We wanted to develop our musical style, change it, discover new territory, improvise. We wanted to move away from the punk belters and towards something new. Jojo on bass, Uli on drums, Uwe on guitar - and myself on whatever we could find. Holger would send the signals through the loudspeakers distributed around the room and recorded a lot with several room mics. Most of the recordings were therefore live, only a few overdubs were recorded separately. We probably didn't know exactly what we were doing at the time. After 5 days, the studio days were over and we went home. (Harry Rag, S.Y.P.H.)

[engl]  With their unpredictable live performances and songs such as “Zurück zum Beton” and “Industriemädchen”, S.Y.P.H. caused a ruckus at the end of the 70s - as one of the bands that began to write lyrics in German around Düsseldorf's Ratinger Hof. Right from the start, the band broke with genre-conformist expectations and borrowed from rock, punk and kraut just as much as from Dadaism and the reality of everyday life. After the first album and several singles (re-issued on Tapete Records in December 2024), the band produced two more albums - Pst and S.Y.P.H. (album 4) - together with CAN's Holger Czukay. Tapete Records is now releasing both albums and a collection of previously unreleased rarities - Punkraut 1978-1981. This compilation contains rare and previously unreleased recordings from the first three years of the band's history: The songs “Blech” and “Mondpogo”, performed live at S.Y.P.H.'s first concert in Düsseldorf's Carsch-Haus in 1978 and five recordings made in nearby Solingen between 1978 and 1979. There are also three studio recordings from the Hamburg Container Studios in December 1981 - recordings from a time when ‘the band had finally abandoned punk as a musical genre as well as the influence of interim producer Holger Czukay and had found a style all of their own. ?(Kurt Dahlke, DAF)

[engl] Rerelease of the second abum. Cash Savage and the Last Drinks is an Australian band from Melbourne, formed in 2008 by singer and guitarist Cash Savage. Currently, the lineup also includes guitarists Joe White and Dougal Shaw, fiddlist Kat Mear, percussionist Rene Mancuso, keyboardist Roshan Khozouei and bassist Nick Finch.

[engl] new album.

[engl] French band from Rennes formed from the ashes of Witcherry Wild.

[engl] Agree to disagree: A selected Krautrock discography Krautrock, what is it anyway? A genre, a derogative term, a song by Faust, … or: a welcome (and recurring) opportunity to talk about all of this. The music associated with the term in question has eagerly been canonized. From the enthusiastic and idiosyncratic ramblings of Julian Cope’s “Krautrocksampler” to encyclopaedic approaches like Alan and Stephen Freeman’s “Crack in the Cosmic Egg”, there are plenty of books to read and lists to discuss: Who’s in, who isn’t? The quarrels and disputes surrounding the terms "Krautrock" and "Kosmische Musik" are a testament to their enduring relevance and fascination. I won’t get into the weeds discussing how to separate one from the other – for all those who do want to, the book “Krautrock Eruption” by Wolfgang Seidel addresses some of those questions. In this book, you will find an annotated discography of fifty albums. Out of these fifty, we are presenting an even narrower selection of tracks from twelve albums on this compilation. Lists and compilation track listings inevitably see tracks missing and being left out. In our case, the compilation was produced in cooperation with the label Bureau B and therefore has a partial focus on some of their back catalogue. That said, the list is meant to inspire repeated or further listening, to spark discussions and – potentially – to provoke new lists, perhaps your own! It’s all part of the fun. Music is made for enjoyment in the first and for friendly debate in the second place, after all.

[engl] Like a white-knuckled ride through the haunted moor—Motorbike roars back triumphant. Jerri’s collarbone has since set but the dust is yet to settle and the smell of burnt rubber remains. Five players, ten tracks, and enough RPMs to kick off your old lady. This second Motorbike album builds on the power of their self-titled '23 debut while seeing the band emphasize more complex song structure and collaborative writing. Recorded in an Ohio basement between busy schedules, sometimes live, over a six month period, Kick It Over represents a true group effort to let the cats out the bag and onto tape. Raise your glass, pump some gas, Kick It Over.

[engl] "More musically accomplished, more obsessively self-questioning, and with equally energetic yet simply deceiving performances, Salt of The Earth finds Private Lives coming into their own. The Montreal group of hitmakers—vocalist Jackie Blenkarn, guitarist Chance Hutchison, bassist Josh Herlihey, and drummer Drew Demers—swerve through a bumper-to-bumper sprawl of charging vocals, searing guitar lines, and a bolting rhythm section that proves sheer rock ‘n’ roll is still very much alive. Where their debut LP Hit Record was a snapshot of a band in motion, Salt of The Earth is a perfect result of the group's rapid evolution, undercutting power pop conventions and challenging itself track after track. “I Get Around” and “Be Your Girl” refuse to keep their foot off the pedal with their snappy and primitive at best garage rock while the simply deceptive pop charm of “Wrong Again” is slashed, spurted, and jangled. “On My Own” bursts through the speakers with its one-two punch of ‘60s girl group melodies and “Psychic Beat” and “Dealer’s Choice” are a glorious jolt of high-power guitar bliss. In a time of derivative punk trends, Salt of The Earth is a refreshing take for pure pop for now people." —JM / Paperface Zine

[engl] Back with our fifth release on the slow moving always grooving Mind Meld Records. I thought about releasing this on Total Punk just to get a rise out of all you dunderheads who complain about the Retail Simps punk quotient but this a truly fantastic album and don't want it to get lost in the "what is punk discussion" rather than being taken for what it is. An infectious pop album full of quirky changes, interesting instrumentation, and beautiful harmonies. An album I find more to love in with each listen. I'll leave the rest of the gushing to Nic... "Dumbells are my favourite new band to see live in Sydney since, well, when live music started happening again. They embody a quality apparent in many of my favourite Sydney groups, where pre-existing music scenes blur and new alignments form. Whatever forces brought Sam Wilkinson (Shrapnel, Sachet) , Jen May(Tee Vee Repairmann), Ben Schattner (Shrapnel, VIPP) and Ishka Edmeades (Tee Vee Repairmann, Satanic Togas....) together has unlocked a certain hard-to-describe quality of rock ‘n’ roll I personally yearn for. It’s hard to quantify this particular quality of r’n’r without a long list of nerdish reference points, but I think it’s how non-aligned with any particular sub-genre, or era, or tacked on caricature-ish style they are in their approach to amateur rock music that makes them not just another band in the endless sea of music.  On one hand, a child, or even a Pavement fan could immediately be wooed by the immediacy of the hooks, melodies and charismatic group dynamic expertly, but not too expertly, captured on ‘Up Late With Dumbells’. On the other hand, cold hearted cynics will have their record collector cockles warmed by a feeling akin to discovering Big Star’s Radio City or Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartment’s Bait & Switch.  Dumbells cross examine the classic / independent rock dialectic in a manner that’s musically informed, but more importantly intuitive. They aren’t in reaction to, or embracement of, any micro-trend but embrace the big picture of being in a humble rock band.  Dumbells do shit with their guitars, bass, drums and voices that we all know feel good, natural and exciting, but maybe in a world rife with self consciousness and cynicism, often get lost in the sauce." - Nic Warnock (Repressed Records, R.I.P Society)

[engl] PUÑAL is back with their debut LP seven years after their demo. Hailing from Mallorca, their punk sounds angry, dirty and very prickly. The 10 tracks of the LP are rooted in the classic Iberian punk sound while sounding current. Powered by the classic 1-2 drum beat, with a bass driven sound that is both sharp and dirgy at the same time, and sets the tone for their raging anti-social message. Nihilistic street thug lyrics which bring to mind CICATRIZ or ESKORBUTO but sonically are closer to UK82 and Latin American 80’s aggro, with hints of So-Cal punk at times.

[engl] “In the very first year of the doomed 2020s, the Leeds, UK-based art-punk trio Nape Neck made their debut with a self-titled/self-released cassette, featuring eight absolutely visceral tracks that held a mirror up to the anxieties and tensions of our hellish timeline and then shattered it on the ground. The five-song tape that followed it, 2022’s Look Alive, was an even more concise statement of intent, hitting like a head-on collision between the razor-edged clang and clamor of the Ex or Dog Faced Hermans and the untamed neo-no wave jabbing and scrabbling of the Scissor Girls and Erase Errata. This new LP collects all of the material from those two cassettes on vinyl for the first time (deservedly so; better late than never), and every single song is just as thrilling now as it was on first listen — if you weren’t paying attention then, you really need to be now. Bobby Glew’s guitar is strangled Andy Gill-style, splintering the taut, locked-in rhythms from bassist Claire Adams and drummer Kathy Gray with shards of serrated noise. Each member of the band contributes vocals, with their lines crossing and overlapping in a highly coordinated exchange of calls and responses. “No Platforming” and “Paperweight” communicate in a series of desperate shouts and clipped Morse code beats, while clattering mutant funk cowbell punctuates the spiraling scratch of “Demonstrations,” and “Aim Slow” tumbles through a rapid cycle of needling guitar and staccato bass throb, as “Warm Air” and “Look Alive” slash and burn like DNA if they’d been a Ron Johnson band. A total knockout — the first half of this decade belonged to Nape Neck, and chances are that the second half will be all theirs, too.” – Erika Elizabeth, Maximum Rocknroll/Domestic Depature Records/Collate Compilation of tracks from the band’s two cassettes from 2020 and 2022 – Now re-mixed and re-mastered for vinyl.

[engl] "Erupting at two-to-three-minute intervals, the songs are steeped in dissonance, a fusion of driving melodies and eyes-rolled-into-the-back-of-your-head slow builds. Pointed and unconventionally melodic guitars combine with high intensity drums and unrelenting bass. The short sharp jagged boil of SUPER THIEF sets the air on fire, vocals jumping from spoken introspection to incendiary verbal detonations, blasting waves of intensity but never at the cost of a pervading melody or hook." – Paul Stinson "Students of the AmRep/Touch & Go school for noise rock, SUPER THIEF draw comparisons to bands like The Jesus Lizard, Hammerhead, and Tar, but their attack is more impenetrable, more persistent. There’s no lull, no restraint. When the band pull back ever so slightly from the carnage, it’s only to hammer in the reality of their earthquaking rhythms and rusted distortion." – Dan Goldin (Exploding in Sound, Post-Trash)

[engl] Vienna-based international quartet Autor returns with a third installment to their pretty relaxed discography (s/t, 2020; Nektar EP, 2022). For nearly half a decade, Autor has preached the evangelium of European post-punk, taking inspiration from west to east, chewing on the sound of their predecessors from Bern, Manchester, or Pu?awy. On their newest album “Kommen und Gehen” ("Coming and Going"), their sound is perhaps the most confrontational ever. Wrapped in a silk layer of nihilism, their lyrics are witty takes on dysfunctional relationships. “Kommen und Gehen” resembles a sweaty night at a dimly lit crust-punk squat, where bartenders working behind a pallet-built bar are handing you lukewarm beers and clouds of cigarette smoke are burning your eyes. The band on stage is playing really cool anthemic songs, but you will end up throwing up in the gutter on your way home either way. Good posture won’t help if everything else is broken. As for the post-punk cookbook, Autor of course has it all: dominant and punchy vocals, laser beam-sounding guitar, and a persistent rhythm section that won't let your neck rest for a second. All that is wrestled into eight addictive songs. The album clocks in at 21 minutes—just enough to down a coffee or two and feed the frenzy wiener dog in you. At least for a while, before there’s more to chew on the plate. Albums like this are rare these days, and it’s good to know Autor still bears the torch, which was just a temporary trend for many. Ultra gute Arbeit. Autor is connected to the prolific punk collective Urban Lurk, which functions both as a label and an underground show organizer. Members of Autor have a long and fruitful history of playing in hardcore, black metal, or avant-rock bands (Gomme, Pitva, Raw Deal, Parasite Dreams, Agit or C.A.M.O). Their new album is released by the Viennese label Contergan Punk on vinyl (and digitally) and by Urticaria Records on tape. The album release will be followed by a Continental Europe tour in April 2025.

[engl] A final limited repress of only 319 copies on Magenta & Black hazed vinyl! Comes with original artwork, insert and poster! CHAOTIC END formed in 1989 were the greek answer to AMEBIX and played a similar style of ultra heavy, atmofearic but shredding political crust and hardcorepunk. In my opinion they were one of the most convincing bands of that genre. This is their one and only vinyl-output they did in 1993 on Wipe Out Records. It captures the band on their high-point after two already excellent demo-K7s. Here the 3-piece deliver 9 songs of extraordinarily good Crust-Metal - 3 long brooding bits on the A-side followed by 6 heavy galloping anarcho-crust pieces with harsh and raspy vocals on the B-side. Music that makes no prisoners influenced by bands such as Amebix or Axegrinder on one- and Doom or the good old swedish mangel of the early 1980ies on the other end forged together to something on their own. In 1996 they sadly ceased to exist. In 2014 after 18 years of silence they picked up their arms again and played a convincing live-set – Ten years passed and the Band is still kicking ass with even a new LP under their belt! This is Greek CRUST at its best!

[engl] 2024 Repress of the 2020 release. Pre-JALANG. Lái ? forged an absolute menacing fusion of raging swedish d-beat and manic old school hardcore punk. Imagine G.L.O.S.S. on a rampage with TOTALITÄR. Based in Melbourne, Australia the Band is made up of members of the mighty Pisschrist, UBIK, Masses, Ritual Blood and ExtinctExist. With lyrics sung in Bahasa Indonesian as well as English, Lái explores politics, religion, feminism and queer rights in South East Asia and the diaspora. The name of the band is taken from a Chinese Mandarin phrase meaning 'to come/next.' and Lái invokes these diasporic identities and themes through punk, mixing ideas and personal experiences that often inter-connect but also continue to conflict in the world around us.

[engl] Geneva-based Synthwave and Krautrock band GARAVENTA have announced the release of Casual Drama, their debut album, on 21 February 2025. Celebrating their many influences from the past (Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, Patrick Cowley, Brian Eno, DEVO, Tangerine Dream, Suicide, Prince) and the present (Working Men's Club, Snapped Ankles, TVAM, Warmduscher, Fat White Family, Osees) Casual Drama lays the foundations for Garaventa: a glam vibe, a strong taste for dancefloor punk and a constant search for psychedelic trance. Although firmly rooted in the contemporary post-punk revival, Casual Drama claims a genuine filiation with the electro/techno advent of the late 70s and early 80s, and even more so with the Italo-Disco and Synthpunk movements. The use of electronic drums and synthesizers are at the heart of Garaventa's music. They evolve in vintage and generally disco textures, and are typical of the Synthwave and Hi-NRG movements of the 1980s as well as those of EBM and contemporary techno, with a more modern sound treatment. In the early days of the band, its members suffered a tragic event when a loved one died suddenly. Casual Drama evokes dark, melancholy themes: death and the fascination that surrounds it, mourning, the loss of loved ones, the absurdity of existence and the fragility of life. Darkness, literally and figuratively, is an integral part of the band's essence. In a way, Casual Drama evokes the daily and inevitable tragedy of the passage of time.

[engl] The four to-the-point rippers on the a-side pick up where the Hell’s 2023 album left off, fusing big riffs (see: “Liabilities” and “Circling the Drain”) with agile rhythmic shifts (“Cut the Chord”) and executing all of it at hardcore tempos. While these tracks have a similar energy to nihilistic punk-on-the-edge-of-hardcore like the Lewd or the Zero Boys, “Dirt Nap,” which occupies the entire b-side, takes the Hell’s sound to new places, soaking in eerie tension for several minutes before erupting into a brilliant, Buzzcocks-esque chiming chorus. Atop it all, the Hell’s vocalist sneers like a weary, middle-aged Darby Crash whose woes have only compounded as life has unfurled. The Hell speaks to the dismay and cynicism we all feel as part of a species in decline, but they also deliver the jolt of energy we need to face another day. Daniel Lupton.

[engl] Alrighty-o, here we go! A new band to join the Monster Zero ranks, Mondo Wave! The british / austrian band deliver their first full-length, Gonzo, and it's a pure 'n pretty rager. Currently based in Bristol, the band wanted to make an album more diverse than London Calling, they still do. We find them rocking hard somewhere between punkrock, garage and surf, with the occasional indie thrown in. The Hunter S Thompson reference should be clear and appreciated. You will DIG! If Andrew W.K. would take his music seriously, Mondo Wave would be a good reference.

[engl] The bands signature guitar-trident, backed by an ever-roaring bass and heavy drums, sound more fine tuned and synched up than ever, showing off in all the right moments while leaving enough space for additional instruments like piano, organ, synth and percussion to really shine through. “Deep Dive” is Dirty Talons’ sword in the stone and together they have liberated that blade with sparks flying all around!

[engl] Here it is…DOMINO, the fifth studio Album by The Mugwumps. And what a record it is. A little bit poppier than their previous one, but overall it combines in perfect fashion what we ever liked about the boys from Innsbruck. Outstanding pop-smashers mixed up with fast-paced-heavy-hitters. 14 songs, killer production all packed up in an 80s inspired artwork designed by JV. If you liked the band before, you’ll LOVE this one.