Digital Leather
Sorcerer CD

Goner Records

Starts out so damn hard and danceable and pounding and great with ”Simulator” that I almost fall out of my chair. Like a disco Lost Sounds. I’m thinking Digital Leather is kind of garagerock’s Blade Runner. Electro but damn rockin’. Hard- and darksounding. A cover of ”Hologram” fits just perfectly. Half of the record is studiorecordings and half is live, with pretty decent sound. You never know what you get with DL, it might be electro or it might be garage. On “Sorcerer” the two really meet and it’s really cool at times. The live part has it’s fair share of good songs like ”Black flowers from the future”, ”Dance till dead” and “She had a cameltoe”. The studiopart is new stuff and with hits like “Simulator” and “Hologram” it’s a real winner. [TS]

Eddy Current Suppression Ring
Primary Colors CD

Goner Records

Aussie hit-sensation comes to Goner! Apparently the Australian version entered  the top 40 list in their home country. Driven by a syntheziser keyboard but fairly heavy on the guitar too och kinda poppy, it’s still very Australian sounding.. Makes me think of bands like Victims, Saints, Fun Things even if it’s far from as punky. They might have most in common with the Scientists without sounding at all like them. It’s hard to describe, but there’s just something Australian about it. By now I’ve written Australian about a hundred times so maybe it’s up to you to decide whether it’s true or not. [TS]

The Great Reuion
Here I Come 7”

Yakisakana Records

The Great Reunion is a funny name for this band consisting of two one-man bands, King Automatic and the Feeling of Love. A-side was a bit too fast and trashy but pretty cool. The b-side however is a cool, static Obliv-style pounder. [TS]

Jack of Heart
San Francisco 7”

Rob’s House Records

Unbelievably great a-side! “San Francisco” is an insanely great, slow, greasy, moody stomper. Akin in style to Piero’s other band, the Demon’s Claws but holding it’s own against them. This band also has Benji from the Creteens on guitar. “Ponytail #” on the b-side is a bit wimpy but pretty cool psychedelic pop nontheless. I have high hopes for the upcoming LP on In The Red next year. [TS]

Lover!
Man in the Woods b/w Foxhole Madness 7”

Rob’s House

New and as always, great Lover! single. Catchy and rockin’. Can’t complain at all about this if Rich keeps writing such bubblegum hits as “Man in the Woods”. A bit different that earlier and it seems Lover! might be maturing more and more into “it’s”own. “Foxhole Madness” is definitely a departure but still sounds a lot like Lover!. Cool single. [TS]

Manikins
Crocodiles CD

P Trash/Full Breach

Nyköping’s punkrock-kings are back. Catchy and poppy while upholding their rock ‘n’ roll of course. Twelve pretty great tracks with some having a kind of Reigning Sound feel to them, which is probably the direction they’ve been moving towards the last few years. There’s really a pretty distinct difference in sound comparing their earlier stuff to this. Which is cool. I really like this new record, there’s a bunch of songs that are great. [TS]

Quintron
Too thirsty for love CD

Goner Records

Haven’t been down with Quintron the last few years, the last stuff I heard was “These hands om mine” that’s just great. Seems he’s taken a leap since then while maintaining his gorgan/drumbuddy-sound. What used to be garagey has taken a more funky/danceable approach. He’s always been danceable but not quite like on songs like “Waterfall” and “The boss wants to party with you”. Really, really good stuff. This one’s more of a whole than his earlier stuff. Organ-garage-funk out of New Orleans. How can you go wrong with that? That’s one cool genre! [TS]

Smith Westerns
Irukandji 7”

HoZac Records

Young kids outta Chicago, punky and arty. They sound a little like the Black Lips maybe..but artier and janglier. This single hasn’t won me over completely yet but I’ll give it a few more spins and I’ll give the Smith Westerns a few more shots to convince me. [TS]

V/a
Jack of Heart / Tunnel of Love 7”

Profet Records

These two ‘of’ bands fit nicely together. Trashy, over the top in the red lo-fi from France and the USA. Tunnel of Love does a crazed out Surfin’ Bird and do a really nice original. Jack of Heart starts out very 60’s with a Back from the Grave-heavy guitarsound, then turns more and more into a snarling noisepounder a’la the Gories. Really cool stuff.  [TS]