Post-Trash presents Mid-Year "Essentials" 2025

Here we are at the middle of this already way too long year. The world is in shambles, but there’s still new music to keep us going, each day providing the promise of something great to listen to. Which brings us to this Mid-Year Report, a selection of fifty hand-picked records (and another fifty in the “further listening” section) that come highly recommended by one person with questionable taste. There’s a lot of music out there and it certainly doesn’t all get the coverage it deserves, so let Post-Trash shine a light on a handful of highlights. It's impossible to listen to everything, but these albums have been in heavy rotation in my headphones and on my record player. Your next favorite band/artist could be out there, it's just a matter of listening to something new. Popular opinion isn’t the only opinion, sometimes you have to dig to find the real gems. Buy some records. Support the music you love. I hope you have a good time listening. Thank you for reading Post-Trash. - DG

Featured

ALIEN NOSEJOB | "Forced Communal Existence"

Anti Fade Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Alien Nosejob, one of the finest punk bands of the past decade, plays with genre like silly putty, reshaping and stretching familiar sounds into something new and often deranged. Forced Communal Existence collects all of the project's EPs and singles, highlighting the amorphous shape and manic energy of the corrosive rippers found throughout Jake Robertson's catalog, dive-bombing from one rattled idea to the next, a dissociative freeform look at a legendary discography still in progress.

AMEROL | "Demo CS"

Helta Skelta Records
Bandcamp

Ashley Ack has cemented herself over the years among my favorite all time punk vocalists, from the acrobatic perfection of Cold Meat to the all too short lived Runt and the more experimental Krimi, her voice is at once threatening and sarcastic, tough as nails but full of character. Ack’s latest hardcore band, AMEROL, have released their Demo CS, and it’s everything we hoped it might be. The band play furious no-frills hardcore with bleeding riffs and skull cracking rhythms, digging into the ruthless nature and rawness of early 80’s USHC, but ignited in a way that feels unique to Australian punk these days. Ack and company go full throttle from the get go, kicking down doors and railing against a forever broken system.

ANKHLEJOHN | "Give Grace / Grace Given"

Veblen Goods
Spotify | Apple

DC hip-hop heavyweight ANKHLEJOHN releases albums at a rapid clip, with five records released so far this year. While his records with Cookin Soul and August Fannon might carry a higher profile, the stand outs so far are GIVE GRACE and it’s companion album, GRACE GIVEN. Essentially the side A and B to a singular album, the bars throughout feel laser focused, each word pointed with intention, as punchlines are paired with deep thought. Big Lordy is dropping knowledge, taking jabs, and creating raw yet brilliant grown ass rap tunes all in one fell swoop. Balancing a hard as nails delivery with thoughtful, often poignant lyrics, and soulful introspection, ANKHLEJOHN is at the top of his game, hitting the beat and letting his thoughts run wild.

ARTIFICIAL GO | "Musical Chairs"

Feel It Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Less than a year after their debut album (a favorite of 2024), Cincinnati’s Artificial Go are back, and their sound has evolved. While Hopscotch Fever was primarily rooted in bouncy post-punk and minimalist no wave indebted pop, the band’s second album, Musical Chairs, continues to expand their vision, keeping the tightly coiled charm of their debut, but opting for something much brighter. The band weaves charismatic art punk appeal with a perfectly resonant dream-pop core. With a blissful nature and massive hooks, Artificial Go sound utterly phenomenal as they blur genre lines with energetic joy.

BILLY WOODS | "GOLLIWOG"

Backwoodz Studioz
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

billy woods is one of the all time greats, a true hip-hop visionary whose raw sense of style is met with an equally raw sense of substance. He's a rapper with no shortage of masterpieces and you can add GOLLIWOG to the last, a record that holds a thematic ground even as the production shifts between a selection of in-demand producers (The Alchemist, Kenny Segal, Conductor Williams, Preservation, etc). With a sense of terror at times and a dystopian glare, woods continues to bend time and space with thought provoking bars that unfold with repeat listens. Everything about GOLLIWOG has an impeccable vibrance, top tier beats, top tier rhymes, and yet anxiety inducing vibes.

BLOOD MONOLITH | "The Calling of Fire"

Profound Lore Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Blood Monolith's debut album sounds like the aural equivalent of getting your head ripped clean off. The DC based band (featuring mems of Ulthar, Undeath, Genocide Pact, Nails, etc) come out bludgeoning with beastly death metal as brutal and claustrophobic as it gets. The opening of "Trepanation Worm" is possibly the least subtle introduction that's ever existed, an annhilation of dexterous rhythms and dizzying riffs played at the utmost extreme. "This can't possibly get more brutal," you say, and yet...

BOLDY JAMES & REAL BAD MAN | "Conversational Pieces"

Real Bad Man Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Ever the prolific MC, Boldy James is back with Conversational Pieces, his sixth record of 2025, a new full length collaboration with the LA based producer Real Bad Man. This one feels cut from a different cloth, Boldy's verses are extra inspired, his street tales as gritty as ever, but his flow is given a range of tremendously dynamic beats to dissect and deconstruct (see "Cutthroats"). He’s worked with a wide array of producers, but on his third album together with Real Bad Man, it feels like they’ve found the perfect recipe to enliven his tough as nails street stories and the grit of his even-keeled cadence in vivid ways.

BUFFET LUNCH | "Perfect Hit!"

Upset The Rhythm
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Buffet Lunch's third album, Perfect Hit!, is twisted in triumphant knots, an experimental pop record that's tangled from start to finish. The Edinburgh based quartet astound over a set of unraveled songs that wind with the polite grace of a tornado at tea time. It's something special to behold, their easy going post-punk feels entirely casual until it doesn't, bending melodic ideas into a dizzying upbeat spiral without shaking the charming structures. Buffet Lunch manage to achieve a technical pop weirdness that somehow feels serene and natural.

CAUSTIC WOUND | "Grinding Mechanism Of Torment"

Profound Lore Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Caustic Wound have returned with their second album, Grinding Mechanism of Torment, a pulverizing and apocalyptic record that hits with relentless carnage. Arguably the finest grindcore influenced death metal band still spewing out records, their latest feels something like being trampled by a stampede for the rest of eternity. The songs are short and... well, caustic, imploding with diabolical riffs over rhythms that both incinerate and groove, played at blinding speeds. The avalanche of spiraling riffs cut like battery acid through the ungodly jackhammering of the drums, and sure enough, Caustic Wound have created a reckless masterpiece of grinding terror.

CHIME OBLIVION | "Chime Oblivion"

Deathgod Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

We are very onboard for CHIME OBLIVION, the latest project from John Dywer's (Osees) ever expanding repertoire of bands. Joined by David Barbarossa (Fine Young Cannibals), Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers), Tom Dolas (Osees), and the show stealing vocal performance from H.L. Nelly (FKA Smiley), the band groove through warped and caustic art punk, convulsing through twitchy kaleidoscopic skronk and jubilant rhythms. It's a contorted record that's marvelous and sonically splattered, bending without snapping, a skittering celebration of punk weirdness and reshaped brilliance.

COLD MEAT | "Cake and Arse Party"

Static Shock / Helta Skelta Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Cold Meat hit like a sledgehammer to the face or defibrillator to a stopped heart, a glorious burst of animated punk and hardcore that bleeds with feedback and chaotic bliss. Cake and Arse Party is a triumphant return, the energy trembling right off the richter scale as they burn and peel through corrosive tongue-in-cheek rippers. Ash Gash's vocals command with an elastic presence, bouncing between harsh yelps and incredible sarcastic inflections, the subtle shifts piercing and undeniably charismatic. The band embrace the destruction of modern life with a smirk, taking the piss out of everyone from yuppies with private wealth to scumbags at the bar, the band shredding all the while. There is but one Cold Meat, proving once again that their artistic take on punk explodes like an atomic balm (yep, balm).

THE CONVENIENCE | "Like Cartoon Vampires"

Winspear
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

New Orleans post-punk duo The Convenience are back with their second full length album, Like Cartoon Vampires. With wiry structures and stark vocals that pop from the mix, the band build a framework that allows them room to explore, magically unraveling from the center as the songs hold firmly in place. Sharp corners and liquid grooves abound as the band balance precision and chaotic outbursts with an exceptional grace. Direct one moment and disorienting the next, The Convenience bring a welcome intelligence and off-kilter approach to modern post-punk.

CORPUS OFFAL | "Corpus Offal"

20 Buck Spin
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Born from the ashes of the great Cerebral Rot, that corpse wasn’t left to decay for long before Ian Schwab (guitar/vocals) and Clyle Lindstrom (guitar) formed Corpus Offal, releasing a demo of festering death metal last year on an unsuspecting public. Their full length debut is colossal and menacing, a violent dirge of gut wrenching brutality and splintering riffs that hit with the nuance of an impending apocalypse. The thudding rhythms feel akin to being chased by a maniac with a machete and the riffs ain’t too much safer. Tangled in demonic decomposition, Corpus Offal is a lesson in structural death metal whiplash.

DANA GAVANSKI | "Again Again"

Full Time Hobby
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Less than a year after the release of LATE SLAP (one of our favorite releases of last year), Dana Gavanski returned with Again Again, a new EP that trades in (to a degree) the art-pop sheen for an elegant intimacy, the EP rekindling her love for the piano. Built on gorgeous folk songs that still play with the art-pop formula that Gavanski truly astounds with, the songs wobble around on a woozy bed of piano that slinks up and down with subdued rhythmic pulse. Her vocals maneuver between registers in time with the progressions, another stunning encapsulation of her songwriting abilities.

DEERHOOF | "Noble and Godlike in Ruin"

Joyful Noise Recordings
Bandcamp | Apple

It would be fair that at some point in the process of releasing twenty albums that the magic might falter, but that ain't Deerhoof. Noble and Godlike in Ruin is a visionary escape, a semblance of spiritual rejuvenation as the world and society continues crumbling in non-stop tragedy. Deerhoof can't be shaken though, the band instead pull out all the stops of endless innovation, squirming between nuanced noise pop, knotted touches of free jazz, and a cataclysmic approach to rhythmic expanse that has yet to tire. Twenty records in and Deerhoof remain a gift to the forward-thinking world.

DELIVERY | "Force Majeure"

Heavenly Recordings
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Melbourne’s Delivery have released their second full length album, Force Majeure, a feverishly great post-punk record that sharpens the hooks. Radiantly catchy yet dense and contorted, the record plays to the band’s eclectic line-up, pulling from the best each member has to offer with a three guitar onslaught of blistering energy. “Deadlines” is among the highlights, a tornado of charming post-punk with gluey vocals and an elastic sense of muscle.

DIABOLIZER | "Murderous Revelations"

Dark Descent / Me Saco Un Ojo Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Istanbul's Diabolizer have returned and good fucking grief, Murderous Revelations is ruthless. The death metal band's (which features members of Hyperdontia, Septage, Engulfed, etc) latest is sheer relentless brutality played at blinding speeds with an unflinching sonic clarity. Demonic and putrid (little about it feels human), Diabolizer erupt with a marathon of complex rhythms and filthy shifting riffs that hit with the subtlety (and blast radius) of a nuclear bomb. It’s gross, it’s violent, it’s an entry way to the depths of hell not for the faint of heart, which is to say that this one ripssssssss. Like chewing a mouthful of rusty nails, Murderous Revelations is difficult to stomach with its ultra merciless structures, an aural pillage of death metal pulverization and unglued dexterity.

FKA Smiley | "All Good Boys Go To Heaven"

Self Released
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

FKA Smiley's All Good Boys Go To Heaven is pure art punk bliss, a wonderfully DIY record that embraces raw performances and energetic, splintered, post-punk exuberance. Led by H.L. Nelly (Chime Oblivion, Naked Lights) the quartet play with contorted arrangements, sharp harmonies, cascading rhythms, and aggressively blistering atonal minimalism. Each song is buzzing with character, a record that's both playful and fantastically deranged. It's a hidden gem that should be essential listening, an itchy assault on the senses that hits like an agitated hybrid of The Slits, Bratmobile, and This Heat.

FLY ANAKIN | "(The) Forever Dream"

Lex Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Coloring outside the lines on (The) Forever Dream, Richmond's Fly Anakin is ascending. While he's always been a nimble MC, his latest proves that his smoked out raps are able to shift time and space. Executive produced by Quelle Chris, it would seem the two share a kindred spirit as unique lyricists with a penchant for albums both thematic and adventurous. Over soulful production from The Alchemist, Chris Keys, and Child Actor among others, Fly Anakin spits bars that leap between animated precision and hazy abstraction on a record built with vivid attention to detail.

FRANKIE COSMOS | "Different Talking"

Sub Pop Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Frankie Cosmos never misses. Greta Kline an co. have making indie pop cool for well over a decade now, inspiring a whole generation of bedroom pop rockers in the process. Different Talking seems to put an extra emphasis on their musical exploration, the record swirling between landscapes that bring muscle to Kline's words and gentle atmospheres that contort with vibrancy. It's a truly dynamic record that's balanced by Kline's profoundly human writing.

FUGITIVE BUBBLE | "What Will Happen If We Stop?"

Sorry State Records
Bandcamp

What Will Happen If We Stop? is Fugitive Bubble's second full length album, a record in constant flux, as the Olympia based art punk band jitter and contort from track to track. Combining elements of scuzzy pop and street punk amid corrosive hardcore tempos, Fugitive Bubble have made an unpredictable record where each song adds to the greater picture. With duel vocals from Harley Moore and Kurt Stevens keeping an energetic resolve, the band bounce between blistering punk, riot grrrl influenced anthems, primitive guitar interludes, and a singular dip into fried SST styled cow-punk. There’s an odd sensibility to it, and it’s perfect in that regard. The record rips from start to finish with an adventurous sense of freedom.

GRACE ROGERS | "Mad Dogs"

Sophomore Lounge
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Mad Dogs is the stunning debut from Kentucky based singer/songwriter Grace Rogers, an album of wistful country and Americana, honoring the genre's traditional roots while expanding upon them with an electric radiance. Dynamic and heartfelt, the songs are living and breathing glimpses into a variety of characters, each flush with their own unique color. From the elongated grooves of "Downstream" to gentle intimacy of "Peachie," Rogers has crafted a gorgeous debut that deserves all the attention.

GRUESOME | "Silent Echoes"

Relapse Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Gruesome have more than a passing reverence for death metal pioneers Death, they've basically shaped their entire output as a living tribute to them. If the earliest Gruesome records tackled influence from the earliest Death albums, Silent Echoes moves into the progressive era of Death (namely Human) and it does a fantastic job of it. Matt Harvey (Exhumed) and co. tear through complex progressive death metal with oozing riffs, blistering leads, and genuinely astounding drums, melting brains and cracking skulls in the process.

HELLGIRL | "Hellworld"

Shimp Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Following the dissolution of Human People, Hayley Livingston started working on music together with Jesse Paller (June Gloom) and soon came Hellgirl, the duo expanding to a trio together with Emma Witmer (gobbinjr). Hellworld, the band's debut album is incredibly vibrant slacker pop with colossal hooks and earworm melodies at every turn. It's a brash sing-a-long record of never ending barn burners, recklessly funny pop-centric punk tunes, built on gluey choruses, punchy melodies, warts and all.

HORSEGIRL | "Phonetics On and On"

Matador Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

There are decidedly different stakes this time around as Horsegirl released their second album, Phonetics On and On. Recorded together with Cate Le Bon, it would seem they were ready for the big follow up, pulling out new tricks while remaining intrinsically tangled together. The album is sparse, simple in some ways but deceptively complex in others. The knotted progression and clean sense of dissonance feels like a tribute to The Raincoats, the band strumming into hypnotic circles, repetition used for disorientation.

JEANINES | "How Long Can It Last"

Slumberland Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Western MA via NYC indie pop duo Jeanines return with their third full length album, How Long Can It Last, another fuzzy nugget of foggy pop hits. Channeling late 60's folk, sunshine pop, and power-pop into a set of breezy sub-two minutes songs, Jeanines manage to achieve an incredible scope and depth. The compositions and vocal melodies are in perfect harmony, tackling tough topics with the lightest of touches. Jeanines make it all seem effortless. Everything about How Long Can It Last is fully realized, the band putting a spark to dusty production, their songs eschewing spiky dynamics while retaining impeccable nuance.

KALEIDOSCOPE | "Cities of Fear"

La Vida Es Un Mus Discos
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Hot damn, we're thrilled that Kaleidoscope are back. Five years since the Decolonization EP, they've returned (following stints in Straw Man Army and Tower 7) more blistering and corrosive than ever on Cities of Fear. Channeling psychedelic touches into hissing hardcore and anarcho-punk, the band play with unglued structures that understand nuance. Shifting from one section to the next, the record leaves a wake of genuine political disdain for a system that’d be happy to see us all burn.

LE PAIN | "Dirge Technique"

Slouch Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Le Pain (a band that shares members with both Slippers and Peel Dream Magazine) are making French pop from the heart of Los Angeles, their music jangling with a rich harmonized elegance. After a few years of wonderful singles, the band's full length debut, Dirge Technique, arrives fully realized, built on sweetly psychedelic compositions, a kinetic power-pop charm, and an unwavering glow that sweeps from their soft hooks and dreamy resolve. With stunning harmonies, yé-yé sophistication, and a plastered sense of swoon, Le Pain bring retro pop into the modern age, the

LE VOLUME COURBE | "Planet Ping Pong"

Duophonic Super 45s
Spotify | Apple

Le Volume Courbe, the enigmatic solo project of the French born Charlotte Marionneau, is back with Planet Ping Pong, her first new album in ten years. Well worth the wait, the record is a shimmering vision of experimental pop, dreamy but primal, beautiful yet intrinsically strange. It's an album worth getting lost in, allowing the twitchy minimalism and jazzy art pop exuberance to traverse as it may. Residing somewhere between fever dream and detached lullaby, Marionneau’s songs can feel awash in stream of conscious thought but it only adds to the majestic beauty of the squiggling accompaniment and the inherent charm in her writing.

LEOPARDO | "SIDE A / SIDE B"

Dot Dash Sounds / Chrüsimüsi Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

If everything Leopardo has done prior to this year was always leading up to SIDE A / SIDE B, it was worth the wait. The Fribourg, Switzerland based collective have blurred all the lines, their latest an amorphous fusion of psych pop, art punk, experimental country, and warped folk with an end result that sounds entirely refreshing, an alien vision of familiarity. SIDE A / SIDE B deserves a deep dive with undivided attention, a record of garage-tinged magic that's rich in detail yet easily accessible, delightfully strange and undeniably confident.

Featured

LIFEGUARD | "Ripped and Torn"

Matador Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Lifeguard continue to expand and explore on their latest full length, Ripped and Torn. Recorded with No Age's Randy Randall, the Chicago based trio take a large step away from caustic post-hardcore into something harder to define, pulling bits and pieces of frazzled garage pop, moody post-punk, and expansive art rock into a swirling clamor of gleaming harmonies, discordant jangle, and wonky hypnotics. While the band could easily rest on well earned hype (and the buzzing rise of Sharp Pins), they instead choose to go down the road less traveled and in turn have made their best record yet, a dynamic study of punk’s past and future.

LILY SEABIRD | "Trash Mountain"

Lame-O Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Vermont based songwriter Lily Seabird is committed to never making the same album twice. Taking a step away from the grit and distortion of last year's Alas, her latest album, Trash Mountain, focuses on country twang, gentle folk, and front-porch acoustics to create an album that feels warm and lived in. Seabird's lyrics capture emotional narratives and steely observations, captured with a raw honesty and a reverance for Americana balladry. Trash Mountain puts down new roots in timeless folk tradition.

MCKINLEY DIXON | "Magic, Alive!"

City Slang
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Virginia’s McKinley Dixon is carving himself a place among the greats, and he’s doing it entirely on his own terms with his own wave length. His latest album Magic, Alive! is immaculately conceptual, musical, and deeply personal. It's rare to hear hip-hop with such rich detail in terms of lyrical focus and compositional grace, the live performances of the beats are lush and sweeping, the drums locked in and dazzling, and most importantly, Dixon's rhymes feel chiseled out of stone as he reminisces on life past and present, navigating it all as both rapper and human being living in a strange world. He raps circles around the competition, his elastic flow as dynamic as his razor sharp lyrics.

MCLUSKY | "The World Is Still Here And So Are We"

Ipecac Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

The magic of mclusky has always resided in their ability to pair intimidating brilliance with sheer stupidity, and to do it with noise rock songs that are as insistent and sordid as they are catchy. Over two decades have passed since their last album, and yet the world is still here and so are we has a caustic spar. The songs are deranged, punchy, and dynamic, finding bliss in agitation and absurdity. Falco's sense for irreverence is prickly yet radiant, his tightly wound sense of humor forever coming unglued as the band slink between unnerving post-hardcore and explosive punk rippers.

MONDE UFO | "Flamingo Tower"

Fire Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Monde UFO's latest album, Flamingo Tower, is deeply psychedelic, a lo-fi odyssey that swirls, churns, sputters, and detaches entirely from this plane of existence. Which is to say, it's an astounding album, a triumphant voyage to the astral plane that retains a low simmering elegance. Ray Monde dips in and out of avant-jazz, spaced out atmospherics, synthetic textures, and hallucinogenic noise pop to create an ever shifting melancholic chaos that unfolds one piece at a time. Flamingo Tower is a must listen.

MOONTYPE | "I Let The Wind Push Down On Me"

Orindal Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Four years after their debut, the great Moontype have returned. I Let The Wind Push Down On Me is indie rock at its most astounding, led by Margaret McCarthy’s immaculate songwriting - a mix of glistening beauty and compositional grit. This is no solo project though, and it’s the incredibly locked in nature of the quartet (Andrew Clinkman, Joe Suihkonen, Emerson Hunton) that pulls their music out of this stratosphere and into the next. Moontype have always been adept at lulling you in only to subtly let the ground give way, and they do just that throughout a record of sweetly nuanced art folk songs.

OSSUARY | "Abhorrent Worship"

Me Saco Un Ojo / Darkness Shall Rise Productions
Bandcamp

Death metal at its most putrid and septic, the long awaited full length from Wisconsin’s Ossuary has crawled out from the primordial ooze. Abhorrent Worship brings a wretched fusion of doom and death metal that feels as violently cinematic as it does disgusting. The songs lurch their way forward from the bowls of despair and depravity, grinding in slow motion as the band lay waste with riffs that feel pulled through hell’s most rotten swamps. In a genre that generally avoids repetition, Ossuary embrace it, their carnage set to a slow burn that’s immersive and hypnotic, a demonic metamorphosis from one of this era’s most consistently intriguing death metal bands.

PHRENELITH | "Ashen Womb"

Dark Descent Records / Me Saco Un Ojo
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Copenhagen’s Phrenelith released their third full length album, Ashen Womb, an all encompassing record that feels like a singular beast of cohesive destruction. A malevolent dirge of murky tremolo and abhorrent stampeding rhythms cave in an existence often best forgotten into a juggernaut of corrosive resolve, the demonic cleansing to rearrange our senses. The album is depraved and destitute, but also primal, catastrophic, and maybe a touch subtle and psychedelic (in a very death metal sort of way).

PORRIDGE RADIO | "The Machine Starts To Sing"

Secretly Canadian
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Porridge Radio’s final album found the London based quartet approaching perfection, as songs blurred edges while sharpening others. From those same sessions comes The Machine Starts To Sing, a companion EP that (tragically) serves as the project’s final release. With four more songs cut from the same cloth, Porridge Radio’s depth shines in heightened sensibilities. Take the title track, a song that skitters and grooves on a sultry rhythm, bent with an almost progressive structure. Dana Margolin wraps her brilliant run-on lyrics into knots, the tension of the music responding in kind.

PUFFER | "Street Hassle"

Roachleg / Static Shock Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Street Hassle, the full length debut from Montreal's Puffer arrives with reckless punk swagger, hitting like a wrecking ball to a crowded pub. Following the quake of their self-titled EP, the band strike on their full length like lightning in a bottle. Big face melting vocals are howled with melodic bite and garage punk combustion combining to create habit forming party-til-you-puke punk. It’s collection of street punk anthems that seem to raise the question, which goes harder, enormous riffs or enormous hooks? Highly recommended for fans of C.O.F.F.I.N, Split System, and beer guzzling.

PYREX | "Body"

Total Punk Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

While Pyrex have already followed Body up with the great Slugman EP, the fact remains, Body is one of the year’s most exciting (and interesting) hardcore records, a vicious blast of noise punk, crusty production, and feral riffs played with steely precision. The Brooklyn based trio mangle hardcore into a uniquely catastrophic form, part caustic distortion and paint peeling riffs, part d-beat brutality. Throughtout the blunt force of it all, Pyrex are no strangers to hooks, an impressive feat delivered with sheer aggression.

RAZ FRESCO & FUTUREWAVE | "Stadium Lo Champions"

WavGodMusic
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Following a productive 2024 that saw Raz Fresco release four albums (including a record with DJ Muggs), the Canadian MC teams up with producer Futurewave (Rome Streetz, Boldy James, Daniel Son) for Stadium Lo Champions, their first collaborative LP since 2021's Gorgeous Polo Sportsmen. Fresco wraps tight stream of conscious bars over Futurewave's hazy psychedelic beats, a deluge of both lyrical abstraction and conscious sentiment, golden age hip-hop (see “Cyanide”), and elastic rhymes that land somewhere between Quelle Chris and Mobb Deep.

RETIREMENT | "Attention Economy"

Iron Lung Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Attention Economy, the latest from Portland hardcore maniacs Retirement, is a decidedly crushing look at these modern times. There’s a feeling that everything won’t be okay, but a shared catharsis is available. With a blown out density and a mid-fi production aesthetic, their new album sounds great, a feral dose of violent hardcore with plenty of detail and metallic rust peeling buzzsaw riffs. Retirement bludgeon all senses as they dig and thrash into the corrosive disdain.

ROME STREETZ & CONDUCTOR WILLIAMS | "Trainspotting"

Mass Appeal
Spotify | Apple

A year after the Daringer produced Hatton Garden Holdup, Rome Streetz is back at it, this time teaming up with the great Conductor Williams for a new full length, Trainspotting. It's a perfect pairing, the intricacies of both the rhymes and the production feel tailor made to one another. Operating at the height of their respective games, Conductor flips dusty samples into spooky boom-bap gems that feel entirely timeless while Rome Streetz runs rampant, his elastic delivery and raw lyricism cutting like diamonds on tracks like the west coast burner “10 Toes” and the hard as nails coke rap bounce of “Blood In Boogers”.

SCIENCE MAN | "Monarch Joy"

Swimming Faith Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Science Man is John Toohill's (Ismatic Guru, Alpha Hopper) dystopian hardcore project turned bulldozer of a full band. The project, and it’s ever expanding world of combustible dread, has been melting our senses for the past six years, but it would seem that little could prepare us for this version of the band, as they present a caterwauling atonal descrambling of our brains. Monarch Joy is a full band effort, best described as the difference between the claustrophobic alarm of sci-fi terror versus a roving gang of ruthless maniacs.

STEREOLAB | "Instant Holograms On Metal Film"

Duophonic / Warp Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Having inspired an entire generation in the years since their last record, the legendary Stereolab have made their triumphant return. Fifteen years after the release of Not Music, the band are back with Instant Holograms On Metal Film, a record that play's to the quartet's many strengths, from expansive lounge-pop tinged psych to jazzy post-punk and retro futuristic jangle. There's much cosmic space to explore and the band sound laser focused, bending between shapes new and old.

STRESS POSITIONS | "Human Zoo"

Three One G
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

Chicago’s Stress Positions return with Human Zoo and their corrosive brand of hardcore is as combustible as ever, erupting with seismic force and never slowing to watch the decimation as it unfolds. Their onslaught it brutally direct, built on stampeding drums and earthquaking guitars. Then there's Stephanie Brooks’ vocals, howling at breakneck speeds, her throat absolutely shredded as she shouts against injustice and needless war with righteous fury. The EP explodes with atomic force, peace punk for the end times.

TERROR CORPSE | "Systems of Apocalypse"

Self Released
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

From the rotten catacombs that brought us Malignant Altar (and Insect Warfare before that) comes Terror Corpse, a project that lurks in a familiar yet new territory of death metal and grindcore in comparison. With a reverence for the crust of early 90's death metal (think Morbid Angel) and the grinding of rusted over blast beats, Terror Corpse howls and contorts with a cavalcade of creativity and demonic fury, sputtering between harsh throat shredding vocals and gurgling low end. Systems of Apocalypse is as sure footed a demo as they come, a sign of the wretched devastation to come.

TROPICAL FUCK STORM | "Fairyland Codex"

Fire Records
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple

It's been a challenging four years since Tropical Fuck Storm's last full length, for the band and our rapidly burning world at large. Fairytale Codex, the band's fourth album seems to reflect tough times, there's a different energy to it, its more reliant on restraint and reflection. Have no fear though, the Melbourne based quartet remain one of the world's most forward thinking rock bands, their bent and visionary music a blend of glowing pop, dissonant punk, noise rock, and folk that feels nearly impossible yet entirely natural. They've peeled back on their more abrasive tendencies and some of the volume for an all encompassing record of psychedelic wonder and dynamic grace that gets better with every repeat listen.

VIAGRA BOYS | "Viagr Aboys"

Shrimptech Enterprises
Spotify | Apple

Even among the world of cocaine fueled punk rock, Viagra Boys always felt like a long shot for mainstream popularity and yet they are inching ever closer, with arena level touring an ever increasing possibility, and we're all for it. A great band with a heaping dose of hilarious personality, their fourth album, viagr aboys, continues to expand their tongue in cheek post-punk nihilism in new directions. Locking into absurdist dance punk and dub-influenced art rock, Viagra Boys load up on sleaze and excess with a raw sense of style.

Further Listening:

Here’s fifty more records that should come highly recommend. They are every bit as worth your time as the record’s featured above, but for a series of arbitrary reasons (mostly hours in the day), here they are. Please do check them out, especially the ones you aren’t familiar with.

by: dan goldin