NZ Releases of 2021 (so far) Reviews
Here are 10 punk and adjacent releases that have come out of Aotearoa this year so far, and my thoughts on them. Read these reviews if you hate yourself.
PILLCUTTER — “DAY’S OVER” EP
It’s cool to hear some extremely SUB POP slow guitar riffs from Ngaruawahia as opposed to Dunedin for fucking once. They’re probably more interesting than most of the shit coming out of the Waikato. I dig the corny gang vocals in JARS and the morose inflection thing going on. Also huge respect for referencing both gentrification and amphetamines in SLIT, which is probably the most interesting track on the record.
DAHTM — “Kurungaituku” EP (two songs from)
As of writing this review, I can only listen to INSESSANT and 13 because the record doesn’t come out for another couple weeks, but these tracks. The hook in ISESSANT rocks. I normally can’t stand slow doom shit, but this is fun. If you like that sort of stuff, you’ll love this. I hope the rest of the record does the same.
DARTZ — “BATHSALTS” Single
DARTZ are god awful. A classic victim of Kiwi ‘Toxic Positivity’. More like FARTZ! ‘I may wanna do drugs, but I don’t wanna do meth’ may be the most virginal lyric of all time, made only better as a follow up to ‘inspect your gear, get to know your stuff’. Nothing like hearing the gentrification of harm reduction in song form. Bath Salts aren’t even in the same category as meth you dumb cunt! I respect the average tweaker far more than I do someone who decided to play in an even shitter version of THE CHATS.
KĀHU RŌPŪ — “Kāhu Rōpū” EP
Very Boring. LIGHT BRINGER almost sounds like a Midwest Emo song but less preachy, but I guess it’s Psych Rock, which is horrific by itself. I saw them play at The Crown and I thought they had no vocalist, which sucked enough because atmospheric music is for fucking hippies, but the addition of vocals really does not help. One of the dudes from HDU is in this band so in classic Dunedin tradition the myopic Dunedin Sound nostalgia is forced down everyone’s throats but this record sucks so I guess just like, pretend you have an ounce of self-awareness while you listen to it and ignore the suggestions of a local council headed by a cunt who wears suits to bars and admit to yourself that not everything on FLYING NUN (or related) is good.
HALF/TIME — “Half/Time” EP
This is incredible. Obviously PROGRESS has the best hooks. I’m always impressed with anyone with the hand/eye rhythm coordination to manage a drum machine on a solo project and make it not suck. There’s some dorky noise samples, especially in WHAKAMĀ/RAMA which actually serve a purpose beyond making the record seem esoteric. It’s very cool and I don’t want to be a part of the problem (promoting solo projects) but it’s definitely one of the much better releases to come out recently.
GLASSBLOWER — “Younger Than Old Money” EP
Dumb guy himbo hardcore trying to be woke. All the songs sound the same. They call themselves a ‘left wing grind punk’ band on Instagram but also made a memorial post for Ruth Bader Ginsburg which is pretty hilarious. Record art looks like shit. Lots of “bleh!”s and blast beats. The only remotely good song is THE ABOLITIONIST. Very Corny.
SEVERED BELIEFS — “Phrases Of Empty Repentance” EP
The drums sound absolutely perverted and not in a good way. I don’t understand why it’s like that. Everything else on the record is pretty fucking good. I think it’s a combination of weird playing and bad mixing. Like the snares could not be any tighter. Get a new drummer? Honestly the only decent track is the piano interlude A REMINDER cos there’s no baffling out of time high pitched snare.
UNLAWFUL ARISE — “Hell Hole” Single
This is pretty fucking fantastic. There’s so much insufferable over-supportive NZHC gate-opening going on, why don’t guys support this! Super under-produced but in a very good way. Even the obligatory breakdown has some great vocals going on and isn’t like, boring. This rules.
CARB ON CARB — “Be My Mirror” Single
This band and song are cool. It’s simple, sugary and catchy. Papiti Records have had some notoriously Extremely Boring releases but this is a jam. A very 2010s emo revival RUN FOR COVER type release. CARB ON CARB have for real sure outlived the most badly possible aging sub-genre of ‘Emo Revival’, very impressive. I saw them do an Avril Lavigne cover through an Elmo toy microphone a few years ago at a house show and it was real charming. Big fan.
UNSANITARY NAPKIN — “TERF War” Single
These tracks were released as a fundraiser for Gender Minorities Aotearoa in the wake of the recent Boomer lesbian drama proliferating across New Zealand. I fucking despise TERFs. SPEAK UP FOR WOMEN, YOU DON’T SPEAK FOR ME rules. One of the broads from Speak Up For Women threatened to report me to the cops for a public comment I made calling her a transphobe on a public Facebook post of her’s. Very cool! The vocals are terrific.
