ProductDetails

  • 01. S Construction
    02. Violent Game
    03. Blind
    04. Eyes Conversing
    05. Lude 2
    06. Mind Temp
    07. Do You?
    08. Goons On The Beach
    09. New Way Out
    10. Lude
    11. Step
    12. Irrelevant Man
    cover

    SMIRK

    s/t

    [engl] A year characterised by a pandemic, lockdowns, political ineptitude and oh, so much staying the fuck at home is enough to make anyone want to blow off a little steam. One overused piece of glib idiocy at the start of the Trump era was ‘at least punk will be good’, as though punk can only be good when it flips the bird to right-wing, authritarian shit-headery rather than amplifying anything else. Sure, there’ve been plenty of great records over the last four years, but sometimes (across the whole of 2020, for instance) the levels of anger, fear and frustration can be overwhelming and you need a little space to goof around. For some of us, though, goofing around is serious business - and here’s a record to illustrate that perfectly. Smirk is the solo project of Public Eye’s Nick Vicario, and while you’ll hear similarities to his main outfit across these 12 excellent tracks (from the off, you can imagine how PE might refine garage-carved nuggets like ‘S Construction’), here there’s less sang-froid and more… well, fun. The reference points you might expect are still there (Killed By Death comps and Wire, especially their 80s period, to name a couple), but with added scuzz and something even approaching joy - the whirling synths of ‘Eyes Conversing’ feel ominous, but they also convey a sense of delirious excitement. And dammit, it’s all fucking cool too. With a name like Smirk, your first instinct might well be to wonder whether Vicario is laughing at us. The first line of the album (a defiant ‘it’s not funny’) should tell you that this isn’t the case, but the album certainly finds him in playful mood. The tasteful acoustic instrumental ‘Lude 2’ descends deliberately into farce as it speeds up and slows down like a turntable alternating speeds, or a record warping in real time. Obviously you’re gonna play this on vinyl, dear reader, purchased directly from Drunken Sailor or Feel It Records, but we all know that those other listeners - not us, the other guys - are gonna chiefly listen on phones or through laptop speakers. It’s a 37-second sketch, but it prompts questions of what it means for technology to fail nowadays - can a record warp when it’s all bound up in digital files? Where does the disconnect lie between the player and the record; when the objects exist only virtually? Am I overthinking this? Oh, almost certainly, but it’s a record that’ll kick that noggin of yours into overdrive. Get involved, get addicted and laugh along.
    Format
    LP
    Release-Datum
    05.03.2021
    Format
    TAPE
    Release-Datum
    16.08.2021
     

Einsortiert unter

Mehr von »SMIRK«

  • cover

    SMIRK

    E.P.

    [engl] Smirk is a solo project from Nic Vicario (CEMENTO). Following the release of ‘LP’ on Feel It (US) and Drunken Sailor (EU/UK) earlier this year, Smirk is back with a brand new EP. While ‘LP’ co
  • cover

    SMIRK

    Material

    [engl] As the Decline of Western Civilization comes into full focus, our ears turn once again to Los Angeles. The first proper full length from Smirk could very well be the soundtrack to a Decline pt. IV, wi
  • cover

    SMIRK

    Material

    [engl] Pro-duplicated cassette edition of 150 copies. As the Decline of Western Civilization comes into full focus, our ears turn once again to Los Angeles. The first proper full length from Smirk could ver
  • cover

    SMIRK

    s/t

    [engl] New 4 song 7" by LA punks Smirk.
 

Mehr vom Label »Drunken Sailor«

  • cover

    NAG

    Observer

    [engl] Halloween has been and gone for another year, but darkwave-inflected hardcore punk never goes out of fashion, right? And frankly, who gives a solitary fuck if it does? Nag’s sinister second album i
  • cover

    WONK UNIT

    Feel The Wonkness

    [engl] Wonk Unit were formed several years ago by Alex Johnson, formerly of The Flying Medallions, I’m told they began as a performance art project, essentially a vehicle for vocalist Alex. Alex Johnson is
  • cover

    ITCHY SELF

    Here's The Rub

    [engl] A year characterised by a pandemic, lockdowns, political ineptitude and oh, so much staying the fuck at home is enough to make anyone want to blow off a little steam. One overused piece of glib idiocy
  • cover

    BABY GHOSTS

    Ghost In A Vacuum

    [engl] Amazing debut 7" from Baby Ghosts
  • cover

    DARK THOUGHTS

    Must Be Nice

    [engl] “You only get worse,” goes the first line on Dark Thoughts’ third album, but while they might be correct about your personal decline, this West Philly trio are quite evidently better than ever.
  • cover

    SCRAP BRAIN

    A Journey Into Madness

    [engl] London / Oxford-based SCRAP BRAIN are back with a long player that expands and improves on their dirgey and unconventional brand of hardcore punk. This time around the group embraces a wall of sound a
 
Zeige alles vom Label »Drunken Sailor«