Futures & Pasts | MRR #428
I didn’t do a column for issue 427 because I was too maxed out from getting ready to go on tour when the deadline rolled around in October, so this one is from issue 428 (January 2019).
NAKED ROOMMATE is the latest project from Amber and Andy of the WORLD (not to mention a slew of other former or current Bay Area bands between the two of them), and though there’s definitely some echoes of the latter group’s skronked out, early Rough Trade-aligned post-punk gyrations on NAKED ROOMMATE’s self-titled debut cassette, they also wander down some other very disparate and sneaky pathways here. The buzzing keyboards and clattering drum machine pulse in “Fondu Guru” and “Love Gains” hit a similar thrift-shopped minimal synth aesthetic as CRASH COURSE IN SCIENCE, while Amber’s deadpan vocals over the jittery new wave basslines in “I Need A Slob” and “Lube Boys” evoke the loopy, Su Tissue-centered side of SUBURBAN LAWNS. Of the tape’s six songs, “John Is Gone” probably comes closest to the WORLD’s spiky rhythms, only stripped of the fiery dual saxophone clash and skimming a sparse, ESG-worthy bass/drum tumble occasionally punctuated by bongos and clanging metallic percussion. Limited to 100 copies with a great risographed cover (clearly a band after my own heart here); get in while y’all still can. (nakedroommate.bandcamp.com)
Julius of Gothenburg, Sweden’s foremost shambolic punks SKIFTANDE ENHETER is behind two other projects with new 7” releases in the last month, and each single continues his fixation with the halcyon ‘78-83 DIY era, albeit in ways that go beyond SKIFTANDE ENHETER’s economically ramshackle DESPERATE BICYCLES/SWELL MAPS approach. JJ ULIUS is his solo endeavor into perfectly crafted, threadbare pop along the lines of TELEVISION PERSONALITIES, CLEANERS FROM VENUS, and if you want to go really deep, the brilliant, one-off single from VOICE OF THE PUPPETS. “Tänder Ett Ljus” sounds like it could unravel at any moment, with some trebly guitar jangle pinned in the red, cheap organ warble, cardboard box-quality drumming, and nonchalant vocals (in Swedish), all over and done in two minutes flat. The BUZZCOCKS have been thrown around as a reference point by people who aren’t me, and I could maybe see that, if the more subdued and pining hooks of the post-Howard Devoto era were recast into the sort of lo-fi, bedroom home-recording context befitting the PASTELS or the VASELINES. Then there’s MONOKULTUR, his dystopian-punk duo with Elin Engström (formerly of Slumberland-backed C86 revivalists LIECHTENSTEIN and also currently of SKIFTANDE ENHETER) with a new four-song EP on I Dischi Del Barone that crawls through the sort of dimly-lit, post-industrial urban decay occupied by bands like CABARET VOLTAIRE and the NORMAL on the other side of this century. The cavernously echoed vocals and warped motorik beat running through “Lindholmen-Stenpiren” could have been pulled from a secondhand dub of a THIS HEAT cassette after it’d been slightly mangled in a tape deck, and “Äckel” slinks into some skeletal and slow-burning futuristic dub with reverberations of spectral synth. Swedish DIY domination now! (Happiest Place, happiestplacerecords.bandcamp.com; I Dischi Del Barone, monokultur.bandcamp.com)
Outer Reaches is a new UK-based record label with a focus on the far edges of the weirdo DIY fringe, and you can’t really argue with the statement of intent made by their very first release, a reissue of the one-and-done 1983 single from scrappy English art-punks GARAGE CLASS. The 7” originally appeared on Gymnasium Records, the label started by the equally scrappy UK DIY combo HAPPY REFUGEES, who technically formed in the wake of GARAGE CLASS (the single was recorded in 1980 but didn’t physically materialize until a few years later) and whose vocalist Tim Shutt provides the overlap between the line-ups of both groups. A-side “Terminal Tokyo” is textbook Messthetics material—total freewheeling, primitive glam clamor with emotionally detached monotone vocals, off-kilter handclaps, wiry guitar, and just a touch of first-gen punk sleaze for a result that’s one part NEON BOYS and one part SOFT BOYS. In a somewhat odd move, the reissue adds two versions of a previously unreleased track called “I Got Standards” (one original take, and one contemporary dancefloor banger remix by JD Twitch) in place of the frantic, punky thrash of the single’s B-side “One Hell of a Kiss”... and did I mention that the Outer Reaches edition of this record was pressed on that most dreaded of all vinyl formats, by which I mean, of course, the 10”? Just include both sides of the 7” AND throw in the bonus odds and ends if you’ve got the extra inches to spare! At any rate, the raw version of “I Got Standards” is great, channeling a darkly psychedelic TELEVISION PERSONALITIES/Whaam! Records mod-pop sound and throwing in the extremely Dan Treacy-ish line “I’m pretty young but I don’t take chances / I once had a girl like Jackie Onassis” for good measure. Brilliantly amateurish, amateurishly brilliant, and necessary enough for me to actually recommend that you buy a new 10” record in 2018. And a side note: Outer Reaches also just reissued the incredible, painfully hard-to-find single from early ‘80s minimalist post-punks INDIFFERENT DANCE CENTRE that I’ve previously raved about in this column, so use those postage funds wisely and grab both records while you’re at it. (Outer Reaches, outerreaches.bandcamp.com)
The one and only 7” from early ‘80s Canadian post-punks the HUNGER PROJECT was something that I came across entirely randomly and without any background context whatsoever, so it was more than a little strange when I finally did some research on the record and found out that half of the band actually wound up in the COWBOY JUNKIES after their first group fell apart. Stay with me here, though! So, the HUNGER PROJECT formed in Toronto in 1979, allegedly after being inspired by the first wave of post-punk coming from the UK, and it definitely shows on the single—it was actually released in 1983 after the band had relocated to the United Kingdom, following a spell spent in New York’s Lower East Side where their take on moody, atmospheric 4AD-style post-punk was likely a little out of step with the confrontational and caustic downtown No Wave scene that was enjoying its heyday circa 1981. Singer Liza Dawson-Whisker’s dark, dramatic vocals suggest a slightly introverted SIOUXSIE SIOUX, and the twin guitars (they didn’t have a bassist) alternate between the sort of chorused chime that bands like the CHAMELEONS were concurrently exploring (the gothy A-side “Assembly”) and a jagged, staccato harsh-funk slash descended straight from GANG OF FOUR (the sprawling seven minutes of “The Same Inside” on the flip). An unexpected femme-punk gem, and worlds away from what any “ex-COWBOY JUNKIES” associations might conjure in your mind.
