NULA

 

It's hard to communicate and/or quantify our connection to this...thing. Yesterday a dude I work with talked about a tour in the '90s when he was stuck in the Lower 48 with The Merchandise while The Band (he was touring with) played a few shows in Canada and he snuck in a CRUDOS show in Boston while he was waiting for them to come back. Then tonight I was listening to Numero Group's Miracle Year record and feeling sorry for myself for never getting to see The Best Band Ever even though I have been lucky enough to see some really fukkn important bands. 

Anyway, NULA are so far outside of the above mentioned realms that it's not even worth discussing. Furious, raging '90s DIY punk from another world - listen to "Žrtve" and "Demokracija" and tell me the shit isn't important....just like CRUDOS and DÜ. Listen to "Anarhija" and tell me punk doesn't rule everything. There you go. That's it. Punk rules. 

POBJEDIMO LAŽ

OLIVER with guests....

 

Thanks to Pat's tapes for continuing to insert mystery into my ears. As near as I can tell, MILO HERNĆ was a Croatian pop singer and who the fukk knows what NARODNE MUZIKE was all about. Apparently both collaborated with someone named OLIVER and apparently someone Pat knew copied these recordings onto a cassette that I digitized last week. Pat wrote "demos" on the label he put on the case. And now we have reached then end of my knowledge and the beginning of my questions. Notably: Who is Oliver? So enter a different realm of sound and please enjoy yourself. See you tomorrow.

MILO HERNĆ + OLIVER // OLIVER + NARODNE MUZIKE

KMET

 

The patience required to make dungeon synth actually work is impressive, and the artists who can properly pull it off are few and far between. To create sounds that are equal parts sinister black metal, Stranger Things soundtrack and FLOCK OF SEAGULLS is one thing - to do it with a straight face is something else entirely. Croatia's KMET will have you suspend belief....anxiously waiting for a crescendo and/or a conclusion knowing that they're only inviting you along for the journey, not the destination. Smrt Feudalizmu compiles five painfully deliberate tracks all released digitally over the last few years - final cut is the magnificent "Kuga" but don't think you'll be free when it's finished. 

SMRT FEUDALIZMU

MODERN DELUSION

 

One of the many nuggets from the last decade that I'm still catching up to, this release from Zagrab's MODEN DELUSION is instantly addictive. Hard swinging synth punk with a dark SPITS or MARKED MEN vibe....they absolutely nail the sound and all this tape makes me want is more songs (there was an LP the year after this one, so I've got some searching to do...which I love). We all want more songs, right? Songs like "My Life" and "Wasteland" in particular.

WASTELAND

ABERGAZ

The more you dig and the more you learn, the more you will realize how little you actually know. This one was easy to skip over...weird bedroom digital logo with a high school notebook drawing of a rat crawling out of the world, initially hard to tell who the band is or where they're from. But after passing it over amidst gems on the "I need to listen to these" shelves, I popped ABERGAZ in a few weeks ago. With more than a dozen releases (so far) in their decade and counting long existence, it's no surprise that these Croatians have their approach dialed in and on point. Perhaps a touch too slick for some Escape visitors, I find these tracks ultra addictive. Fast and tight, the approach hits me like RATOS DE PORÃO clashing with catchy Eastern European punk...there's a slight enjoyment curve to be sure, but it's worth whatever it takes to get over and/or around whatever might be in your way. Now....I'm going to spend my Sunday listening to all of the tapes with bad covers that I keep putting off until another day, and then I'm going to listen to more ABERGAZ. There's lot of content in both categories, so these tasks will thankfully spill into tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that...because there's always more to learn. 

MINIMALIZM MEGALOMANIJE

DIVIDED MINDS

"Frozen," the track that closes this demo, is exactly the kind of thing I want to listen to on a late night drive. Simple, straightforward, with a driving bass line that rolls and swings as the white lines pass by and I'm serenaded by barking vocals that echo through the night. . The rest of the thing is great too, with a pervasive not-quite-perfect vibe that draws me in even closer (I'm like that). Five tracks on this demo, and I also recommend the EP that dropped the following year. 

DIVIDED MINDS

THE CELETOIDS

It's fast. It's peppy. It's catchy as hell. It rocks and it swings. It's somewhere in that mysterious and indescribable void that you didn't know existed between MARKED MEN and NEON PISS. Yeah...it's that good. 

PUPAL STAGE