by Dan Goidin (@post_trash_)
If you haven’t been paying attention, Chicago’s Born Yesterday Records has quickly become one of the underground’s absolute best labels. Since their inception they’ve been steadily cranking out forward thinking post-punk that includes records from Stuck, Landowner, Cafe Racer, and beyond. Today the label welcomes Red Tunic to the family, the solo project of Chicago via Cincinnati’s Ezra Saulnier. No stranger to the artistic punk world, Saulnier was previously a core member of Cross Country, a band that faded out as he made his way to the Windy City. With a new location and a new project, Red Tunic have released their debut two song single.
The album’s b-side is “Angel Lamp,” a great introduction to the project’s hypnotic and wonky post-punk. Detached and off-kilter, the song bounces and pops in fractured colors and tangled chords, nearly suffocated by a shifting rhythm that sounds like trash can lids one moment and a stampede of elephants the next. As the chaos layers on top, the song carries along in its own carefree manner, as if unaware of any sense of mounting tension. Saulnier heads forward as path around him curves, mixing primal and minimal tendencies with futuristic pop melodicism.