[engl] The flourishing Eastern European post-punk scene has given way to a boom of dark, rhythmic, and powerful new activity. One of the most original and captivating artists to recently emerge from this scene is Kiev, Ukraine's Morwan. The solo project of Alex Ashtaui, Morwan evolved from an earlier post-punk project, 563 (Pyat'shest'tri). Searching for a new direction, Ashtaui circled back to his half-Ukrainian, half-Arab roots, arriving at the perfect crossroads - a sonic aesthetic informed by both ethic tradition and the familiar territory of dark, driving post-punk. Ashtaui cites additional influence from contemporary Russian groups Utro and Shortparis, as well as the industrial/experimental sounds of Swans. Zola-Zemlya, Morwan's second release, is an exceptionally original piece of work. It is an album that reaches to the furthest corners of post-punk, further revealing a deep connection to the ethnic sounds of both Arabic and Slavic tradition. There is a profound reverence for nature in Morwan's lyrics - as Ashtaui best explains, "The nature in songs acts as a fundamental force, a given from which you cannot escape. With the help of metaphors associated specifically with nature I tell about some of my personal experiences and stories." Zola-Zemlya is equal parts primitive and contemporary, as traditional Middle Eastern instrumentation and structures are woven through driving, modern post-punk rhythms. Morwan's genius shines across all five tracks, a sound both genre-expansive and futuristic.

[engl] Like so many great bands over the years, noise rock aggregate Mosquito Ego was founded under accidental circumstances. According to main Mosquito Moritz (also in the punk-as-fuck Cluster Bomb Unit and the psych-as-hell Metabolismus): “Back in summer 2013, I ran a club out of a train car in Stuttgart (Germany). Reinhold asked me to put on a show for a band from Erfurt. A week before the show, he told that me they have no backline and play for only 20 minutes. Annoyed that I would have to bring all of my gear and also that I had to find an opening act to make the evening worthwhile, I cynically said: I may as well play on my own. Reinhold didn’t think I was joking and said: Yeah, let’s do this. Let’s start a band. So we wrote eight songs in one week.” A classic punk maneuver and an auspicious start for what has flowered into one of Europe’s most notable, and loud, bands. Having previously released a few 7”s, the five-piece Mosquito Ego is set to unleash their first full-length upon an unsuspecting planet. A key component of Ever/Never Records’ ambitious 2016 release schedule, Glomb is a 12-track declaration of intent. A quintet consisting of Nataly, Tim, Tobi and the aforementioned Moritz and Reinhold, Mosquito Ego play like a highlight reel of postpunk and noise rock’s finest moments, movements and gestures. Underneath a foundation of churning guitar/bass/drums, electronics sizzle and squiggle, while the entire band gets loose and weird. Along with each member’s voice, samples and loops get thrown into the maelstrom; chopped, screwed, pitch-shifted and hard-panned. “Poke” establishes these parameters from the outset. All funhouse mirrors and grinding gears, “Local Zero” sounds like an unearthed Brainiac deep cut. Other parts of Glomb recall the outre’ avant-rock of Terminal Cheesecake and Slug. (These are the parts of the ‘90s we need to come back, people!) But it’s not all sturm und drang; Mosquito Ego is sensitive to your needs. The series of four short electronic “Glomb” pieces act as interludes. But really, they’re just set-ups. Side two opener “Onion Face” is the monster jam on this all-killer slab. The song moves gracefully from OOIOO-like psychedelia into a cathartic scream-along back into a raga that leads to more catharsis, and then ending as sublimely as it began. “Seizure” is the click-pick hit -- try to resist imagining you’re at the coolest party as Mosquito Ego plays “dressed up in cheap costumes as comic-like characters such as the electric poodle, ladyboy moustache, the human cannonball, medication heroine and the sleepover cop.” This gonzo aesthetic is reflected by Mark Bohle’s eye-popping, synapse-frying cover art. Fans of genre-bending freak rock like Guerilla Toss will find a lot to love on Glomb. You will never find a band on Ever/Never halfassing it. The label is based in New York, the city that invented the hustle. Mosquito Ego is a singular force both within their local scenes, and the whole wide world at large.

[engl] “I’m so tired of making sense” - Mountains & Rainbows “AM 580” Last summer John came back from an Oh Sees tour talking about a fantastic band he’d played with in Detroit called Mountains and Rainbows. What followed him home was a double LP’s worth of shopworn weirdness and a delightfully loose attitude that must have something to do with the ecstasy of a midwestern summer…these are backyard freaks jamming into the twilight, led by a vocal quaver belted to the cheap seats, a groove and a grin and a heaping spoonful of “damn aren’t you glad we came out tonight?” Vibrant and confusing like the insane-o artwork they sent us which appears to be constructed of many layers of fluorescent duct tape. Careening from the mellow chugger vibe on “How You Spend Your Time” to the tightly wound twitch of “Dying To Meet You”…and somewhere between they manage to stretch their legs deep into the strange, with a dark oddness lurking in the corners of tunes like weirdo highlight “With Beefheart”. They go all over the place but somehow I feel like I know these dudes and they’ll look out for me if I get “too far out”. A great addition to a little journey of your own perhaps and just in time for the sunlit afternoons to come.

[engl] Fernando Corona : Hailing from Tijuana, on the Mexico/US border, and now a Barcelona resident, Fernando Corona rose to attention as part of Mexican collective Nortec, mostly for his work as Terrestre, but it is with another project, Murcof, that he has made an extremely strong impact. Merging micro-beats with samples of contemporary classical music, his work, often crystallised into sweeping haunting pieces, bridges the gap between Arvo Pärt or Henryk Górecki and part of the electronic scene of today. He is credited with being one of the main influences of the likes of Erik Skodvin and of many of the artists who have appeared on Miasmah in recent years. Philippe Petit : This self-styled musical activist began his career as a journalist and DJ in his native Marseille, and went on to form Pandemonium Rdz., a label with which he explored the outer reaches of experimental rock, before turning his interest to electronic music by setting up BiP_HOp Records at the beginning of the noughties. Since 2009, his focus has shifted once again, this time on his own music, a refined blend which can incorporate elements of experimental rock rock or classical music and can take the form of complex electronic, electro- acousticism, experimentation or turntablism. Although Petit occasionally works alone, it is in the collaborative space where he truly thrives, casting his sonic world against that of the likes of Eugene S. Robinson, Lydia Lunch, Pietro Riparbelli, Bella Emerson, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Asva & loads more...

[engl] 10" EP compiling songs from The Other cassette (Side A) and the Nachthexen 7" (Side B).

[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 is too busy being an ear-bleeding good time to care about shit like that. It’s too wrapped up asking questions like ‘is this real reality?’ - too caught up in pushing Bernard Sumner minimalism into furiously energetic bruisers and ever-darker corners. It’s the record you’ve been waiting for throughout 2021, whether you knew it or not. This RIPS. Formed in Atlanta, GA, Nag have already dropped an LP (last year’s ‘Dead Deer’, on Die Slaughterhaus) and a handful of 7”s - all must-haves - but they’ve never quite cut loose like this. Vocalist Brannon Greene pitches his delivery somewhere between a caustic holler and a dead-eyed sneer, taking the blank generation for a midnight drive and hurtling straight into a brick wall. Meanwhile, the band nab ideas from no-wave, the wilder ends of Goner Records’ almighty roster, and the best (and sometimes synthiest) aspects of gothed-out post-punk - the resulting concoction may be composed of familiar elements, but it feels like no one else other than Nag. A more hyperbolic and verbose hack than me might say this is the moment that signals the band have ‘arrived’, but not me. I’d just say this is a damn fine record - one of the very best things to have emerged from the wider punk rock mess in the last 12 months. Oh, and I’d add that if you don’t buy it, you may as well sever those things called ears, toss ‘em into the woods and let any of their redeeming qualities seep out into the soil, ‘cause that’s the only way you could continue to argue that they’re serving any useful purpose. But you know, that’s just me. You do you, friend. Actually, scratch that.

[engl] A neat split release via Berlin’s order05records. The opening track by Atlanta post punk institution Nag surprises with some synth-equipped psychedelic vibes á la Mononegatives or some later stuff by Useless Eaters, while detonating another charge of their rough and abrasive sound we’ve come to know and love in the other song. On the flipside then, Italy’s Astio complement the sonic assault with a slightly more conventional but no less classy, mature make of moderately melodic oldschool post punk energy, the kind we’ve heard before from the likes of Criminal Code, Sievehead or, more recently, Pyrex, Body Maintenance or Schedule 1. limited on 100 copies

[engl] Combining an array of smartly used synths, damaged guitars, dubby baselines, drum machines & live percussion with sparse vocals. Employing early 80's antics integrated with sublime worldly,post punk, minimal and kosmische overtones help mark this release as a powerful jumping off point for Naked Lights.  Chime Grove is a strong prequel for the band's current live and studio endeavor's which mend newly added singer Aurora Crispin's poignant and playful vocals with a full encompassing post punk splatter,  including a classic no frills live show  featuring live drums,  percussion, double jarring glass like guitars and bass.  With the band's newly completed Santo Studio,  a full analog recording studio at their disposal, this release charts an important initial offering in Naked Lights no doubt prolific future. Preceding an amalgamation of newer full band compositions, Chime Grove will hold up as a classic,  a musically free and expansive listen.  Limited to 500 copies

[engl] Surrender yourself into Naked Lights' dark and intense orbit! From the first few seconds to the end this record here is intensely addictive and welcomely unpredictable stuff. Shades of post-punk, dub, even anarcho-punk vibes are thrillingly reblended into wholly futuristic shapes that defy easy categorization. The cross-talking guitars speak their own thorny language, the atmosphere is wide-focus and carries a subtle tang of danger, the whole sense of timing and space is unique and fresh, and it’s topped off with a feminine yelp that is as in your face as it is intriguing and foreign-seeming. An altogether unique and refreshingly vital listen, we are incredibly excited to share with you this asymmetric jewel “On Nature”.

[engl] Static Shock is pleased to bring the fully formed debut 12" from Sydney's NEGATIVE GEARS to the world, following a domestic pressing by Disinfect Records (Low Life, Oily Boys). Seven tracks of tightly wound post punk from a group of individuals that give you the feeling that they're looking at the glass not so much half empty, but long since spilt and with no replacement on the horizon. The type of anguish that makes you either want to scratch your head at the state of the world, or take a full on somersault onto a razor blade, being held up by an anonymous hand from your home country, much like the mateyboy on the front cover. If you've had time for bands such as DIÄT, INSTITUTE and MARBLED EYE, you should be taking 16 minutes out of your life for NEGATIVE GEARS too.

[engl] "Romance" is Neurotic Fiction's final exhalation. 4 new songs recorded with Mark Jasper (from Witching Waves) at Delicious Clam in Sheffield. Dragged around the block, dishonoured at the dinner party, pining over its own reflection, it crawls back into bed with its tail in its mouth, surrendering four agonising spasms of neurotic obsession before it expires, liberated at last from its waking thought - "oh no, not again".

[engl] Neutrals return with a stunning new 4 track EP on Static Shock, after an album on Emotional Response in 2019 and two 7”s on Slumberland and Domestic Departure in 2020. Each song on this EP is a golden nugget of DIY Indie pop with clean and jagged guitar work, tunes at every corner and a joyous naivety. Go straight to Gary Borthwick Says - a song about a full time bullshitter with lyrics akin to I, Ludicrous’ Preposterous Tales with music which has the charm of prime The Television Personalties and The Times. New Town Dream is another gem and if it had come out in 1979 as an obscure DIY / Post Punk 7", the kids would be paying £200 for it. Honestly, it’s love at first listen and pure infatuation after repeated plays. This EP will not leave you turntable. (Sean Forbes)

[engl] Neutrals return after five years with album number two, a co-release between Static Shock Records and Slumberland. New Town Dream is thirteen songs of innocence, intensity and observations of everyday life. It’s like a Mike Leigh film lyrically - seeing the world through the eyes of normal people but with music that leans heavily on the TV Personalities, The Times, The Wedding Present and the Jam. The rhythm section is the perfect foil for the spikey and clean guitar work but it’s always the tune that is king with Neutrals. One listen and you are transported into the world of travel agents, bus conductors, kebabs and substitute teachers. It’s the sound of a time long gone but a time we miss and love.

[engl] The moment you realize this album could have easily been a complete killed by death sampler or some non-existent CRISIS, WIRE, WARSAW demo hybrid recording from 1977… NEW BERLIN started out as a one man project in TEXAS. Indeed, the 13-track, 24-minute affair is the stuff that ’80s indie dance nights are made of. The McAllen-based trio — founded by Michael Flanagan, Gustavo Martinez, and Andrew Richardson — cut a rug with ringing guitars, frantic bass lines, and hyperactive drums, sounding like a particularly nervous SMITHS trying to impress John Peel. What should i say? This is a stripped down, bare bones, fucking perfect record. Hardcore Punk, perfectly introduces you to what this band is all about: worn down and beaten vocals speakin' honestly, accompanied by anarcho-bass lines and awkward guitar sounds. All-in-all, it all just comes together beautifully. Personally, I feel it meshes best in Fan Boy, my personal favorite track that always leads to graceless head-bouncin'. It’s got the sound, the energy, the recording and the attitude. NEW BERLIN brings influences from a host of punk sub-genres together to the year 2016 and made a instant brilliant classic for my ears. If you're already a fan you know what to expect: deceptively simple but supremely catchy songwriting, spare arrangements, and memorable vocals that somehow sound remarkably British despite the singer being South American. I'd say that NEW BERLIN lack the looseness, weirdness, and sense of experimentation of the original UK DIY bands. Perhaps it's just the limitations of the play time, but taken together these tracks sound like pretty straightforward punk to me, and the combination of minimalist production and upbeat, simple pop songs reminds me almost as much of a Billy Childish-type record as it does tot he Desperate Bicycles or the Television Personalities. That's certainly not meant as a slight so much as a warning that this is way more straightforward and way more punk rock than all of the UKDIY descriptions of this record seem to indicate. Definitely a banger of a 12“ though, and no one will regret forking down their twelve bucks for this.

[engl] Nikki Louder are chaotic noise rock trio from Slovenia. “Our World Died Yesterday” is their second album, even noisier and more intense than its predecessor. Shining in all its shrieking glory, their sophomore effort shows the band doing what they know best – spitting out fast, messy, energetic bursts of percussion-ridden guitar noise, slowing down occasionally with a melodic twist only to take a short break for more speaker-ripping thunder. And a good scream or two over everything spices the songs just about great every now and then. Despite all the hardcore / math / noise chaos in their sound, which is also prominent in band's lyric surrealism, the album makes a perfect musical sense, sounds very compact and provides a great listening experince, which is oftentimes a hard goal to accomplish for majority of bands who try to blend that much diversity at once. In a strange way, Our World Died Yesterday invokes deep emotions and reminds us of a couple records by some Ebullition bands from the nineties, which is just fantastic.

[engl] Nikki Louder is a noise rock trio coming from Kamnik area, Slovenia, made up of Blaz? Sever (vocals, guitar) and brothers Luka (drums) and Peter Cerar (bass). Since the formation in 2007, the guys have been touring Europe and releasing records every two years – starting with debut album “Alain, I'm Sorry“ followed by “Our World Died Yesterday“ and “Golden Men“ (both for Moonlee Records). Received very positively by critics and audiences, Nikki Louder's past discographic efforts showed their ability to deliver a different, yet consistent signature sound that progressed further with each new release and ultimately made them the most skilled band of the genre in the area. “Trout“ leaves the listener with a light sense of uneasiness for the first half of the album as music slowly evolves, creating spacious atmosphere of expectation before gaining momentum and sucking you into Nikki Louder's messy and chaotic guitar/percussion interplay that they are known for. Sometime mid-record, things get more straightforward and vigorous – noisy, rhythmic wall-of-sound textures dominate the soundscape, complemented with carefully integrated feedback and dissonance of an untamed, screaming guitar that suddenly overwhelms the eardrums, only to start slowly fading away once again as the last track clocks in. Muffled, troubled, shouting vocals bring lyrical themes characteristic of Nikki Louder – a layer of bizarreness, a layer of social criticism, and another one about personal distresses left there just for good measure.

[engl] «A highly beautiful experience, Brothers’n’sisters». Julian Cope’s Heardheritage Tiresias is Niton‘s second album. It contains material collected and elaborated in little more than a year; fifteen months of intensive existential and poetic torment for each of the three members. In comparison to their first album, the communal musicalor the Memorymoog (the most powerful polyphonic synth). Tiresias is Greek mythological soothsayer who lived forhave nine and the man only one. Furious at his response, she blinded him. Tiresias is the only being to have incarnated the profound opposites. He experienced the unpleasant truth and told it. He overturned the commonplace. Now blinded, he predicted the barren ruins of the human race. Of these ruins, Niton has recorded the sounds.

[engl] Introducing 'Waxing Moon,' the debut release from Berlin neo-nihilists, Noj. Waxing Moon takes the listener on a tense trip, pulsating through 9 chunky tweaked out tracks of industrial post punk whose combo of punishing percussion, antagonistic basslines, broken glass guitar and cool, bloodless vocals conjure visions of a cyberpunk version of The Birthday Party with Trent Reznor on synth, produced by a young Rob Zombie. An undeniably German swagger is present throughout, decorating a chilling Carpenter-esque sense of foreboding. Like sisyphus rolling the stone, each song gathers momentum as if it may build on a promise, keeping the listener in anticipation of some great crescendo or divine reason for being… before abruptly ending with the realisation that the journey was the anticipation, hopes dashed, collapsing new buildings.

[engl] Driving post-punk synth from Dresden with the dark sparsity of COMSAT ANGELS or BAUHAUS, but with the lyrical creativity of NICO’s The Marble Index. The JOY DIVISION comparisons will be made, but they have their own original dark surf vibe going. The album has a danceable goth-pop sound, and the ten tracks grow more with each listen for a solid release. - MRR