Sunday 23 September 2018

Janitor Scum - And the Scums/Instant Music+2 (2018)





Janitor Scum has become one of our favourite local punk bands over the past few years, with their ramshackle shows and fuck it attitude. So two new tapes from them is pretty exciting.

If you've seen them before, Janitor Scum and the Scums more of what you'd expect, with Arielle spasmodically babbling along with the careening guitars and drums. You'd think the inclusion of lyrics here is helpful, but not always. We can't at all reconcile the lyrics of "Small Snail" with what we're hearing. But "Doris Dolores & Boris" is bang on, and sounds kind of like a Slits record being played at 78rpm - in other words, it's exceptionally good.

Instant Music+2 is just kind of weird. We guess these are some form of 4-track demo thing with drum machine and various noises - this has more in common with Janitor Scum side project Pankbend than the main band. Which is still enjoyable in its own right.

The Janitor Scums seem to be eschewing the internet, so you'll probably have to catch the band live to get a copy of these.

Saturday 22 September 2018

Bitter Fictions - Disagreements (2018)



It feels like the time between blog posts here at the CCPS is increasing... we're going to try to get a few things off our desk, though, starting with this tape from Devin Friesen's Bitter Fictions.

This is a varied cassette based around Friesen's solo (looped) guitar, leading with the appropriately abrasive title track before sliding into psychedelic soundscapes, glitchy electronics, the gorgeous and comtemplative "Morning Bow Memorial," ultimately collapsing on itself in the closing "It All Gets Fuzzy In The End." If you're a fan of soundtracks to non-existent movies, this one is for you.