Seems like everyone in Naarm is having a tough year. When you’re focused on making it through to tomorrow, it’s easy to miss the best stuff coming out of the local underground punk and hardcore scenes. When life gets tough, there’s no better relief than music that fights back, shouting in protest against the powers holding the boot against our necks. If you need catharsis, start here.
Clamm: Serious Acts
Clamm are one of those bands that sit in the mid-zone: big enough to be called overrated and small enough to be called underrated, depending on which circles you hang out in.
Balancing driving noise build-ups and euphoric proclamations, their latest offering pushes the envelope by adding an electronic edge, like underground heavyweights Tongue Dissolver. I wonder if that makes it easier to get away with calling them overrated now.
Mastered by the one and only Mikey Young and recorded by the enigmatic Nao Anzai at Head Gap studios before it tragically burnt down, Serious Acts is the band’s third full-length release and their first recording with bassist Stella Rennex in the mix. It’s still earnest, caustic and sardonic. It’s just that this time around, it’s also refined.
