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.
Vague Rituals: Self Titled
Vague Rituals are the latest band on the Solar/Sonar label roster, made up of three seasoned rock dogs from Melbourne, Sydney and Portland, Oregon.
Sporting grey hair and boasting all the experience that goes along with it, the fuzzed-out riffage you’ll find through their debut release is exactly the kind of thing people complain there isn’t enough of anymore.
Imagine the late, great Rick Froberg (Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, Obits) doing vocals for Dinosaur Jr. and you’ll understand what makes Vague Rituals so instantly appealing.
There’s nothing tricky about the band. It’s just good songwriting, head-banging grooves, killer guitar sounds (also mastered by Mikey Young), vocals you wanna shout along to: it’s pure rock ‘n’ roll.
Doesn’t hurt that it’s catchy as hell to boot.
Screensaver: Three Lens Approach
Screensaver’s synth-driven post-punk sound leans closer to the late ‘70s goth stylings of the UK, compared with the ‘80s and ‘90s US influences of Clamm and Vague Rituals.
Three Lens Approach is their third full-length release and the band sounds more confident than ever, with singer Krystal Maynard’s unmistakable voice hitting an ethereal mixture of melody and attitude.
The songs are bleak without being angsty, the beats are danceable without being saccharine, the atmosphere thick without being overwhelming.
The drums hit you in the chest with motorik precision, the guitars keep you hooked, and the synths transport you to someplace you’d rather be. It’s everything that makes goths so romantic.
Persecutor: Lateral Violence
Dipping over into heavier territory, hardcore/powerviolence outfit Persecutor’s latest release Lateral Violence is the band’s fourth EP (‘No one wants to hear a whole album of hardcore music’ – anonymous friend in a hardcore band) and easily their most introspective.
When you take a lashing from the hand that holds the whip and feel powerless to retaliate, the easiest targets are the ones beside you. Take it out on the people you can, make yourself feel big again. That’s what Lateral Violence means.
This EP is an unflinching exploration of racism from a band known for platforming the non-white experience. The difference this time is instead of punching up, they’re defending themselves against stray blows from their own sidelines.
African-Australian front man Tyronne conjures an atmospheric and punishing tone here as he explores his internal world of despair and isolation. ‘Familiar faces stare at me, I can feel their hate burning me,’ he growls on the title track. ‘Grab the noose, white fear has been let loose,’ he shrieks on ‘Smear’. ‘Race tarred skin, judgment sets in,’ he screams on ‘Watchtower’. If you’re a racial minority angry at the system, or simply going through the kind of life difficulty that becomes so all-consuming you get sick of talking about it, Persecutor might just scratch the itch.
Illan Kaapan: The Demo
Just guessing here but maybe in the hardcore album economy, EPs are the equivalent of LPs and demos are the equivalent of EPs? Whatever the reasoning behind the release title, this thing sounds bloody good.
Clearly influenced by the likes of SPEED (and probably Persecutor), the first release from the four-piece, all-Sri Lankan outfit is an impressive statement that’ll knock your teeth out like a scary uncle, then nurse you back to health with an interlude of traditional drums and flutes like a precious aunty.
The lyrics tackle heavy themes like friends no longer with us and colonial assimilation, but the real message here is what the band’s name loosely translates to: fuck around, find out.
