(it's a bit late, all my apologizes to the bands ;)
.IKU : Uban's Crack (Close Up).
Remermber, remember, the early nineties, gunriotpower and heavygrrrrlzpunk? That was before female power was reduced to zero by the patriarchal media. Girl Power, what a joke! Enough energy spent on the greatest backlash of pop... As the needle hit the grrove, I immediately thought of 7 Year Bitch, Babes in Toyland, Hole, though a bit punkly faster pussy cat, KILL KILL, Sleater-kinney vocals and screaming and....Moonstruck's "Putrid" in particular, but that very last part happened as soon as I read the title, so I might be biased. What is certain is that if you like these bands (is there any way you don't???), you ll LOVE iku. This was the 90s and IKU is their real public ennemy daughters of chaos power. This was the 90s...or what SHOULD be remembered from them, if we were actively resisting the media (re)creation(national rape) of collective memory, This shall ever be forget: It s ours, not theirs!
www.iku.fr
.Lushus : Infection (self-made, self-released, self-distributed No Label, no bar code).
This is hand-made, unic, art. It is about sound and texture. An offering. A visual, sensual and aural epiphanic experience. As always, Lushus put freedom back in jazz Jazz when it still was jubilatory punkpoetic. Jazz when it was still exciting and horny.Uncompromising. Fun to go back to these versions of Big Fat Man, Some Reason.(on a single released last Automn) or Mein Mann (on Red Blushes) after having been presented the new ones. Going backward though forward- New ways, new directions, new explorations. The evolutionary processes of the songs are thus revealed. The songs are replaced in all their possibilities, the chosen, not erasing the possibles. Art at work, a band stripping to the essential. Lushus is complex but remain accessible, simple but far from simplistic. They are the living proof that musically, punk only comes true through post punk. I know it s this absurd labelisation game again, and I might be shot for what I just wrote..... at least if the gun holders could give it a thought before firing this time (not everyone needs to take this statement personally....you know who they are).
.Candy Panic Attack : A Lo-Fi DIY Sugar High! e.p. (self-release).
Garage punk from their pulsing soul to the stars : the girls/boy trio are real, really, rawly sincere. This lo-fi, high-art e.p. goes back to the essence of punk: personal, political, uncompromising, irreverent, childish and....extremely funny. The kids are pop literate, wearing proudly their 70s-80s punk DIY jubilatory energy throughout the 5 less than 2minutes long tracks of the e.p. The Candy Attack starts by asking a genuine question in a break-up situation: "What's he got that I haven't?" Money? More available? What's wrong with his haircut?!?!? Better in bed? Not as messed-up in his head? Surely not a gender issue in hapy queer-land! "On the Dole at Christmas" sound like some "Gordon is a Moron" or some Toy Doll-ish anthems -if there had been girls in the band. "Operator" throws a little PiL in the soup ("I could be worng I couls be right..."), only more musically punk ... there are talkers and there are doers. "Spending Time with You": this is not a love song! "Heartbreaker" is angry and hurt. A simply great bass line leading to "You broke my heart/i don t know why/you broke my heart/ now you re gonna diiiiiiiiiiiiie" and exploding in rebellious screaming.
The recording is totally lo-fi, authentic, spontaneous. I want more of these bitter sweet candy!!!!! I am sure it says on the package: Don't panic, punk won't die!
www.myspace.com/candypanicattack
.Terset : Annihilation 3, ..... airborne panic factory?????
7 tracks of Slant 6 style post-punk. Terset is a dark 'n' angry all-women trio (a quattuor when cello is added on "The Makeshift") based in Brooklyn you're garanteed to get highly addicted to: the low vocals, the strength and the despair, the music: in kaleidoscopic layers, going circles, alienating but breaking free, never predictable, simple, though not simplistic. "No Alphabet" and "f*d Up" are genius tracks, in their breaks, break downs, break ups. Political. artists engagées. Siouxsie style. Terset is about substance. I should rephrase: Terset is substance, and they are right, there is no alternative to substance. Write this more substantially: THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE to substance- Terset is simply real: perfect poetry from the guts.
www.myspace.com/terset
