[engl] Recorded at Torricalla Studios in 2012 and 2013, this cd collects the best of Inutili’s early recordings before the great bassist (Giancarlo di Marco) left the band. In a way this cd is a sort of passage in the artistic evolution of the band. The album starts with the bubbling and forceful “Untitled” then moves into the blissed-out trance of “Bangkok" with its casual web of guitar solo construc- tions. The third track “nicotine” has an electrified blues feel. It starts out chill and smoky but then builds into some sharp shredding. Inutili then fills the floor with cement for "Noise Again" and “No Name Science”. You are stuck in the thick of a pummelling attempt to stop time. It’s super heavy and expansive without being wanky. The sixth track “Radon” locks in hard and stays that way (think Pharaoh Overlord). Next is “The Monarch Must Die”, which is more heavy, perfect, Psych madness that’s bombastic from start to finish. The eighth song “Mechanical Lady” gives you a breather with a creeping groove and an underwater sounding guitar riff. In the last song, you know you’re screwed after the first few seconds. The beginning and end are nauseating and the middle fries your face off.

[engl] Here we go again, ETT - 048. And we bring you one of the most unique and exciting punk bands in the world. ISS born in North Carolina a super group consisting of Edwin J Schneider y cuidado Ricardo Poison Ivey of the Whatever Brain Flannel family tree. If you heard the first record, you know whats up. This one expounds on the ground they already laid out. Second full-length from this North Carolina punk duo. In case you haven’t paid attention to our raving about ISS in the past, here’s the story: Eddie from Brain F? and Rich from Whatever Brains work together to construct songs out of samples from classic punk records, making entirely new songs. ISS’s songs tend to be really different from one another, but the general vibe is an extremely unique combination of dance music and punk that sounds utterly unlike anything that I’ve ever heard before. However, rather than being trance-y, ISS are very song-oriented, relying on Rich’s ability to pen a pop tune and deliver a big vocal hook, a skill which works particularly well in tandem with his bitingly sarcastic lyrics. Going along with the intertextuality of the music, the lyrics are also dense with punk references, my favorite of which smash together bits of popular culture in really evocative and unexpected ways, like the release’s title (which seems to refer to both G.I.S.M. and the Brian Eno / Robert Fripp album No Pussyfooting), or the song “Infinite Jast Last,” which gives me hope that I’m not the only person in the universe who both owns an original L.S.D. flexi and also loves David Foster Wallace. Another thing I love about ISS is the fact that they’re unapologetically funny, but unlike a lot of bands who use humor, the songs actually grow on you with repeated listens. I mean, the first time you hear “Part Time All the Time” you’ll giggle at its send-up of trendy punk fashions, but once you get past that you’ll live for the epic beat drop that sounds like it’s straight off the floor of a European dance club. In case you can’t tell from all of this description, ISS are one of the most profoundly original and exciting punk bands in the world right now, particularly because they’re one of the only “bands” that is actually responding in an interesting way to the profusion of pop- and sub-cultural content that the internet has brought us… whereas most artists I’ve heard either wring their hands about the overwhelming nature of “content” in the digital age (like Parquet Courts) or just shamelessly rip off what has come before (95% of punk bands of the past several years), ISS scrape up the half-digested vomit of information that the internet has brought us and fashion it into something that truly could not have existed before.

[engl] Nothing’s original. Everything’s up for grabs. Nothing is dead and everything is popular and we’re simultaneously experiencing restrospective appreciation for the entirety of pop culture in one fell swoop. Hey, fuck you man, I didn’t invent postmodernism; it’s happening all around us. ISS know this and they don’t give a shit, which is why they’ve concocted one of the best punk releases of recent years from a combination of samples from their record collections and ultra-stoopid but mind-crushingly addictive hooks from their own fertile imaginations. Eddie and Rich are the kids behind this North Carolina outfit, and their ‘we’ll take what we want from punk and make it punker’ approach makes for one helluva potent cocktail – just try listening to this without feeling like a brick in a rusty washing machine, I dare ya. (Dis)Charge It To The Game takes a breakneck D-beat, attaches it to an anchor made of sass and chutzpah then throws it into a canyon; meanwhile on Today’s Active Dads they make like Ty Segall (at his crudest) wrapping The Coneheads in gaffa tape, bundling them in the back of a car and driving them off a cliff face. Canyons and cliff faces? Hey, this isn’t about originality. Post-punk-garage-sample-lo-fi-snot-core at its finest, basically. Originally released on tape in 2015, now finally available on vinyl and wonderfully, gloriously horrible. Buy it and throw all your other records away; this has already commandeered their best bits anyway. Will Fitzpatrick.

[engl] Even before they would become a disruptive force on the Dutch rock scene, with their albums Wil Met U Neuken and Moddergat, the still young members of It Dockumer Lokaeltsje were admirers of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft. In 1981 these Düsseldorf-based electro-punks created a stir with their acclaimed record Alles Ist Gut. In their best known track “Der Mussolini”, a massive alternative dance hit, Gabi Delgado-López en Robert Görl dared to provocatively link totalitarianism with Christianity. In 1987 lt Dockumer Lokaeltsje recorded a cover version of “Der Räuber Und Der Prinz”, the most tantalising gay ballad ever written. Now, three decades later, the band have put all 10 vintage DAF-tracks through the wringer. Lovingly and, of course, in the Frisian language. IDoL have created a rural microcosm – populated by reluctant ghost cows, wanton mummies and rattling skeletons – whereas DAF inhabits a darkly romantic, metropolitan universe. Bridging that gap – both thematically and musically – was the main challenge. Many hours were spent holding on to beats and grooves, in order to blend IDoL’s typically short and capricious song structures with DAF’s radical minimalism. Songs such as “Sato-Sato” (whose title remains a mystery, even in Frisian), “De Röver En De Prins” and “As Wie’t De Lêste Kear” don’t stray too far from DAF’s distinct bass lines and beats. Whereas “Der Mussolini” originally by DAF ran over de dancing crowd like a tank division, It Dockumer Lokaeltsje’s steam train drivers have opted for a more rolling shuffle feel. “Myn Hert Dat Slacht” starts with an intro the band members found lying around in their rehearsal room, before settling into the compelling cadence they heard in “Mein Herz Macht Burn”. Delgado’s rhythmical singing on “lch Und Die Wirklichkeit” inspired IDoL to interpret their version as a tango. Which stays in time for a full two minutes, before complety collapsing in classic Lokaeltsje style.

[engl] Between 1985 and 1990, It Dockumer Lokaeltsje left a trail of happy confusion everywhere they went, with their whimsical, jittery songs about spooks, cows, mummies and trains. After the albums Wil Met U Neuken and Moddergat and the CD compilation It Dockumer Totaeltsje, the band took a well-earned holiday. During the absence of the trio from Leeuwarden, the microcosm that they had spawned quietly continued to grow. New characters, some dead and some alive, took up residence in the Frisian ghost village where “de Deale” (the Evil One) is feared and where the village pub stands in the middle of the graveyard, for the sake of convenience. The imperative to report on these new developments within this little world manifested itself within the band members in the way that thunder announces itself: at first with an apologetic subterranean rumble, to be followed by the brash inevitability of thunder, lightning, gathering winds and lashings of rain. This is why the album that is to be released in October is called Tonger: The Frisian word for both thunder and lightning. The music magazine Vinyl once called It Dockumer Lokaeltsje the Chroniclers of Weird Frisian Life. On Tonger, the band chronicle away lustily, while within eighteen new songs new little musical avenues are explored, branching left and right. David Thomas of Pere Ubu used to document his home region around Cleveland, Ohio by taking on the role of various characters in his songs. In the same way, we can lend our ear to the outpourings of a gamut of different characters in the songs of It Dockumer Lokaeltsje. The old school punk song “De Leafde” presents us with a primal reaction to an unrequited rural romance. “Armaggeddon Hoptille” tips its hat to New York No Wave in the form of a breathless narrative about an irreversibly upturned sheep. And while “Kettinggang” invokes a Jamaican chaingang song in the Nick Cave tradition, “De Komeet Fan Strikwerda” concerns itself with a group of suspicious villagers who gossip about and pour scorn on the scientific discoveries of a wilful fellow villager.

[engl] JOWJO is a nick name with a strange sound. Behind the name there is Sergio Carlini, guitar player from the italian punk band Three Second Kiss. Behind Sergio there is a solo project: a full-lenght (Out of the Window into the House – out in Nov. 2011 for the italian label Riff rec.) of electro-acoustic pieces, somewhere between primitive-folk, fingerpicking, chamber music, soundtracks of imaginary landscapes movies. Behind this solo project there are also friends that gave the right shape to the songs. Especially the brilliant Giovanni Fiderio, volinist, viola player and organist from the italian bands Tapso II and Mashrooms, and the special syncopated beat of Julien Fernandez. Behind the Jowjo album, there is this song “Ancora nessun messaggero”, an extract of the album, a vortex of electricity and calm atmosphere, a song that Africantape and the three man decided to put out on a 7″.

[engl] Kaleidoscope are a rare group, having continually evolved and expanded in form since their inception. Volume 3 marks the first Kaleidoscope release of 2017, a masterfully crafted follow-up to several cassette releases on their own D4MT Labs imprint and a 7” EP on Katorga Works. Since then, the three members of Kaleidoscope have taken up residency in a shared Brooklyn apartment and basement studio. In doing so, their collective spirit of creativity and resourcefulness has risen to an all-time high. The six tracks on Volume 3 serve as a testament to the group's unique and unwavering commitment to an original sound – one that is undoubtedly crafted with a well-refined taste for international punk and hardcore, but also embraces experimentation. Engineered entirely in the group's home studio and layered with original samples, overdubs, and guest instrumentation from an ensemble of friends. The end result is simple – a highly impressive production that commands repeat listening. Volume 3 is presented with the recognizable aesthetic of previous Kaleidoscope releases, directed by guitarist/vocalist Information Man [SHDK], though truly a cohesive group effort. Packaged with a Risographed lyric booklet that serves as a proper companion piece to each transmission.

[engl] This release shows how the Destructure musical spectrum is wide. Bordeaux KALTE LUST features members of punk acts like GASMASK TERRÖR or WARNING WARNING among many others but expect something slightly different. Their first LP was critically acclaimed in both parts of the Atlantic. The band delivers a cold and melancolic post-punk often compared to Siouxsie and the Banshees and X-Mal Deutschland due to the female vocals and a strong 80's atmosphere coming up from their music. "Pride is your Consolation Prize" is a step forward, the band develops its personality with more variety and experimentation in the songs structures. This second album contains 8 new tracks sung in english, german and (for the first time) french.

[engl] Limited to 300 copies only! Some beautiful 1980s Art Pop reaches my desk with this album by Yugoslavian band KATARINA II. First released in 1984 this record fits well with the epic atmospheres Mike Oldfield once created on his quite successful mainstream masterpieces “Crisis” and “Discovery” around the same time period. The sound of this album comes as big as it was possible back then and it has a very clean and slick but still vivid approach in a tune like “Geto” but “Katarina II” can also get rough and demented when it comes to the more eruptive independent -, punk – and hardrock moments it offers to the listener. You may compare it to early U2 and BAUHAUS as well as to other Eastern bloc rock bands like OLYMPIC from Czechoslovakia but in a very unique fashion. They seem to have devoured every musical influence from Western shores they could get hold of. The depth of their musical background is amazing. “Katarina II” is quite an accessible album but with sharp edges and spiky corners. The new wave and new romantic aspects are still obvious but the post punk weirdness overshadows the sunny pop appeal of many tunes. If all the Western releases from the 80s were that good. KATARINA II is a strange band among average pop rock acts and still captures your soul with beautiful rock tunes that stay with you forever if you listened to them just once. So this is the progressive way to behold the new wave rock of the 1980s and I must admit that I can drown my mind in these colorful tunes. Lovers of strange but easy to access music, be welcome to get onto the trip of your life.

[engl] New wavey punk with twangy guitars - like Joy Division jamming with Neil Young

[engl] Silver-tongued songsmith and true American treasure Kelley Stoltz brings us a new collection of instant classics with just a hint more synthery than 2013's "Double Exposure". For those not yet in the fan club, Kelley’s like a Ray Davies/Brian Wilson/Tom Petty power-pop Cerebus from another dimension in which well placed tambourines, handclaps, and wry observations are a universal language. Criminally under-appreciated, Kelley's face should be on Amoeba-bucks for his contributions to the pop canon - I'd recommend the black lipstick smeared stand-out and lead-off track "Cut Me Baby" as his walk on music for the acceptance speech. Each track here leaps off the table with Kelley's carefully considered wit and expertly layered arrangements. His innate way around a sticky hook and no shortage of tasty studio flourishes will bring out your inner record collector nerd, guaranteed.

[engl] Extra fine songwriter and longtime bedroom-pop auteur Kelley Stoltz has a new album Que Aura, and it delivers on the promise so many of his records have slyly hinted at, teased us with - what we have here is the platonic ideal of a Kelley Stoltz record, which is a very exciting thing indeed. Mr. Stoltz continues to embrace his best synth-pop tendencies, but the glimmer silvers an incredibly self-assured set of tender tunes, embracing in his own hangdog fashion both a disco-lit abandon as well as the attendant post-party sighs of dread and remorse. Great songs come out of Kelley at an alarming rate on any given day but this particular collection is some of his most effortlessly catchy stuff yet. Ennui under the disco lights suits him very well - there’s a hearty sip of Pulp-ian white Brit shimmy with a wink…a dash of Fleetwood Mac’s cynically professional late 70’s sheen, and even a spritz or two of Echo and The Bunnymen, which should surprise no one who’s noticed Kelley’s been playing guitar with McCulloch and Co for the past year or so. This record should cement Kelley into the power-pop pantheon where he belongs, right between Dwight Twilley and Martin Newell…let the Hall of Fame know we’re expecting their call.

[engl] Keuhkot (Lungs) is a one-man multimedia avant-garde band from Finland, started in 1988. Originally on the legendary label, Bad Vugum, Keuhkot is famous for its lo-fi experimental fake jazz, arabic rock, industrial post-punk, scary preacher-like vocals and even scarier live performances where you might be amused by moving sculptures, lottery machines and unpleasant smells from mixed chemicals. "Jatketaan Universumia" is Keuhkot's first album in 10 years. The download gives an alternate version to one of the songs on the vinyl mixed by Pentti Dassum of the late great Deep Turtle.

[engl] Cryptozoon quadraphonic mix was commissioned by INA-GRM and premie- red at the Festival Présences électronique in Paris, France on the 6th of April, 2013. Subsequently it’s been performed at some other festivals in Europe such as Festival für Zeitgenössische Musik in Hamburg, Germany. Aagoo now presents a quadraphonic mix on DVD and a stereophonic mix on CD. "Let’s recall the sonic memory of earth the hidden history of space and time, listen to the sound buried deep in the ground and floating in the air, folded in invisible dimensions in various phases and scales. Inside my body and brain I still hear everlasting echoes and feel vibrations from the big bang. When thunder strikes I smell destruction and creation and beacon from radioactive substance synchronizes with my heartbeat, light speed blood streams run through my brain. Listen! Laughter of the joy of life, chorus of a vital force. This is all about the endless dance struggling against entropy! “ Kazuyuki Kishino

[engl] These works are a collaboration between the Japanese figure of experimental electronic music, KK Null, and Mexican artists and brothers Israel and Diego Martinez. Diego is best known as Lumen lab, and both are mentors of the label Abolipop -Suplex. The process started at the end of 2012 when Kazuyuki Kishino, based in Tokyo and Israel Martinez in Berlin, started to share electronic sounds and field recordings. They tried making new pieces exploring various approaches to composition such as the recording of improvisation sessions, the capturing of the soundscape and incorporating some electroacoustic computer processes. After several exchanges, Israel invited Lumen lab to participate in the project from Zapopan, Mexico. The two had not worked together since 2002 when Israel was part of Lumen lab. Sharing this experience with an early influential musician of the 90's electronic and experimental scene provided a good moment. The process of exchanging isolated sounds and then fragments of composition continued. The three musicians worked using each others' lead. Eight months after moving back to Mexico, Israel together with Diego and Kazuyuki, finished four pieces called Incognita, now available on CD as an album. In addition, they composed work for a limited edition vinyl, Terra. It includes the first track of Incognita, which makes it especially appealing for vinyl collectors. The result of this collaboration shows the different profiles of the musicians, from the semi-rhythmic and powerful electronic dynamism of KK Null and Lumen lab to the deep drones and the convulsive field recording's treatment of Israel Martinez. Incognita and Terra Incognita are a celebration of sound as a bridge of communication between people of diverse geographies and generations, sharing respect for each other's work and their cultural context. Friendship, reflection and teamwork.

[engl] The music group Klapper from Berlin has recorded new music after their S/T cassette. Now they are releasing their first album on cassette and vinyl! Once again you can hear the instruments synthesizer, guitar, bass, drum machine, drums and some Klapper instruments. Groovy bass lines and melancholic harmonies as well as a noisy lofi sound let you melt away. The album begins with a hip hop beat and a helicopter sound. The lyrics refer to how elbows ahead mankind is etching around in all areas of life! The other songs will not be described further here, except to say that the content continues in a similar way.

[engl] “Banana Split” brings a double exciting dose of an insightful musical expression. Full of energy and curiosity, TRUS! fill their side of vinyl with post-punk playfulness, indie-electronic mischief and seductiveness of trashy pop. Therefore, it's simply impossible to put their musical expression inside the usual genre compartments and pull up obvious comparisons with other bands, which is just one more reason to cock our ears and simply spin the music. On the other side of the disc, kleemar took care of sentimental ethereal electronics which explore the subtle melancholic microambients and invokes a delightful atmosphere. Kleemar remains indefinable by genre, as well, as he draws influence from very diverse artists such as Mount Kimbie, Dan Deacon, Gold Panda, Four Tet, Album Leaf, Caribou …

[engl] With previous releases on Total Punk, Drunken Sailor, and Neck Chop, many of you know Knowso. Maybe you’re even familiar with Cruelster and Perverts Again, projects that share members and sensibilities with Knowso. As for the rest of you, some percentage will hear fifteen seconds of Pulsating Gore and decide it’s not for you. (You’re missing out.) Knowso is too quirky, too nerdy… they don’t rock. But if you have a soft spot for angular rhythms, they’ll pull you in. From there, Pulsating Gore has layers to peel back. Its music is intricate, dense with notes delivered quickly and precisely, layered into interlocking patterns that brim with organic tension. The vocals are not really singing, but memorable nonetheless… a kind of purposefully forceful, yet emotionally detached incantation. And then there are the lyrics, which quick-cut between cryptic images, cracked and fragmented slogans, violent premonitions, and austere documentation of drudgery, words and phrases repeating as their meaning throbs in time with the music. Much of the imagery comes from singer / guitarist / bassist / artist Nathan Ward’s day job as a trucker: roads, highway stops, caffeinated beverages, gory accidents, etc. The images have a darkly psychedelic quality, relating to Nathan’s preoccupation with the ideal of reality “glitching,” a topic Knowso explores both musically and lyrically throughout the album. Also informing Pulsating Gore is Nathan’s intense but ultimately futile struggle to unionize his workplace, with many of the album’s lyrics reading as abstruse but biting analyses of work, labor, and capital. Rather than topics for separate songs, these ideas float through Pulsating Gore’s music and lyrics like garbage in a gas station parking lot on a windy fall day. And that’s only part of the story, so strap in and let Knowso sweep you away.

[engl] 315 copies – Screenprint & stamped cover + Download code Nearly 5 years after their last EP, it's perfect day as the winter solciste to present you the new icy Mini-LP 6 tracks of KOLD FRONT, now as duo, PostPunk/Coldwave from Copenhagen. (MRR review: Lovely femme-led post-punk/coldwave album from Copenhagen’s KOLD FRONT. The duo presents six songs, only one of which is under four minutes (and just barely), giving plenty of meditative noise-space that turns into a snare-driven fantasy ride. The album’s ominous, reverb-chamber guitar and drum machine theme stands alone in ”Interlude,” and despite the general allergic reaction to the instrumental, I think it works here. My favorite track is the closer, ”Did You Wish to Die”—it’s dream pop vocals float over their signature, desperate sound, while being slow enough to contemplate the title, which comes as a statement, not a question. If you’re looking for something moody to chew on, look no further. Symphony of Destruction bags another keeper.)

[engl] Their 4th installment of high-quality synthies punk is exactly what you wished for. KOMPLIKATIONS don‘t get boring. They get bored. And these new songs might be even more intense than ever.

[engl] KOMPLIKATIONS fifth release is yet another 12" that proves they just don't run out of great melodies, awesome harmonies, smart lyrics and aggressive dance beats. No Good News starts with synthesizers that sound like a car with engine troubles but don't get fooled - these 5 songs will take you on a wild ride through a mixture of emotions. Joy, hate, disbelief, frustration and mourning. No guitar, no bass, just synthesizer, drums and vocals. Still Punk as fuck!