PLETKYA

 

This Budapest trio is only going to get better with repeat listens. Bare bones synth/bass/drums with airy vocals like a minimalist RAKTA with indie/twee undertones....and PLETKYA really are as good as that descriptor suggests. If this witch shit could be the embodiment of modern dark wave then we would collectively think about that modern subgenre differently. Because this is what that should be. 

PLETKYA - DEMÓ

WRECK

 

Listening to WRECK reminded me instantly of seeing 1000 TRAVELS OF JAWAHARLAL in Fukuoka in 2000. We were playing with fastcore and thrash bands every night and then something just....something jerked us back to meaning and community and belonging. We had all of those things in our scene, but there's something about emotion being presented in this sonic context, and it hit different. I listened to a sick grindcore record before I ripped this demo and I understood it. I listened to this tape and I felt it. It's different. Perfect? Nope. That's not the point. 

WRECK - 4 SONGS

CULVERT CORPSE

This band is unreal. A perfect amalgamation of urgent, bombastic hardcore/crust and primitive, lo-fi black metal and it's just impossible to describe how perfect the execution is. Perfect, because they don't sound like they're trying to be any specific thing and as a result they end up being the specific thing that other (lesser) bands try to be. There are three demos, I have shared the first and the third.....this is the second. They are all perfect. Atlantic Provinces DIY punk rules. 

DEMO 2

BAD NERVE

 

Brilliant Swedish garage hardcore from the mid-teens in the tradition of modern classics like THE VICIOUS, GORILLA ANGREB, TERRIBLE FEELINGS....but bump tracks like "Not A Perfect World" and know that this is what we mean when we say garage hardcore. Because it's both. It's AVENGERS and CRUCIFIX on the same bill, LIVIN' SACRIFICE and MASS MEDIA embodied as high energy modern punk slammers with a decidedly goth tinge. Listen to "You Got Me Paranoid" and "Human Desperation Pays For Your Vacation" and then file this shit in the essential column. 

THE LOST ONES

JENGLOTH

 

The cover looks vaguely cartoonish and the title suggests some kind of joke grind but were aren't supposed to judge tapes by their covers....right? This is brutal, primal, savage grindcore of the highest order. 

NEWS FRIED CHCKEN

ENERGIES

 

Please.....just listen.

Gorgeous and etherial.

Beautiful.

Start to finish. 

ANNA LUISA.
EMMA CASTRO.
CHEETAH GIRL.
MICHAEL VIDAL.
CAT MAHATTA.
MONA DEMONE.
.....more.

ENERGIES

PRIMAL BRAIN

 

Not the first time I've shared music from Oklahoma's PRIMAL BRAIN and oh my stars I hope it won't be the last. This shit is ferocious and intense and......and godDAMN I swear the first 40 seconds of the opening track are '90s college/alt reimagined by modern punks. We're talking 1982 Touch & Go, 2012 S.H.I.T., 1986 Twin Cities and indescribably relevant USDIY punk...that's fukkn PRIMAL BRAIN and I don't jknow how to convey that they are better in 2025 than they ever were before and listen to (the aborted) "Northside Story" if you don't believe me. Sometimes (often) I am grateful that I will never land to Oklahoma....moments like this make me sad that I ever left. This 2025 cassette might be the toughest and most realized hardcore recording I've heard in 2026.

IS IT ALL A GAME?

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