Off Peak Arson is a new band for 2021, but garage punk/noise rock fans will certainly recognise a couple of the musicians involved. Tyler Harrington (vox/bass) has previous connections with The Wirms along with OPA guitarist Skyler Gambert, as well as being a member of the insane Musclegoose. For this project, they’ve collaborated with drummer Devan Theos and guitarist Matt Thornton, both of whom are members of Ten High, and between them, they make a ferociously brilliant noise.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
DANY LAJ AND THE LOOKS – Ten Easy Pieces
Unless you happen to be from Ontario, or perhaps have an unhealthy obsession with Transatlantic power pop, there’s a good chance the name Dany Laj will not mean much to you. With his band The Looks, Dany has been cranking out quirky pop-rock sounds since 2016, but his recorded output goes back even further with a (now rare) solo EP from 2010. The third album by Dany Laj and The Looks – 2019’s ‘Everything New Is New Again’ – received some very positive notices from established DIY power pop blogs around the net, cementing the band’s place as a cult act, but the bulk of the Looks’ 2021 LP ‘Ten Easy Pieces’ (featuring twelve songs) runs rings around their previous works.
JATK – Japanese Butterfly EP
At the tail end of 2019, the self-titled EP from JATK appeared seemingly out of nowhere. It’s four slabs of guitar heavy power pop drew heavily from bands like Cheap Trick and The Wannadies, serving up a familiar and retro sound, yet applying the kind of energy that still made the material sound fresh. Despite its very late appearance, it beat some serious competition to become one of the year’s finest releases. [A full review can be found here.]
VARIOUS ARTISTS – I’m A Freak Baby 3: A Further Journey Through The British Heavy Psych & Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-1973
The late 60s and early 70s were a great time for experimentation and free spirited sounds. From within the psychedelic scene came various bands who were less enthralled with rainbows and being “home in time for tea”, preferring instead to stretch blues origins into dark and heavy places, inspiring a generation of guitar heroes. Others took a mod and freakbeat approach and ladled on the distortion thus creating a more inventive take on a garage rock sound, something which arguably helped to spawn punk. By cranking their amps and embracing an artistic freedom, there were a whole spectrum of bands slowly changing the musical landscape. The original ‘I’m A Freak Baby’ box set (released by Grapefruit Records in 2016) gave a solid overview of the era for the curious listener. Although it featured a lot of material that keener rock fans would already own, it still played well as a compilation in its own right. Popular tunes by Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac could be found alongside cult numbers by Pink Fairies and The Groundhogs, as well as a few genuine obscurities from Barnabus, Sweet Slag and Cycle. A second triple disc set released in 2019 offered more gems, but dug even deeper for rarities with unreleased tracks from Natural Gas, Thor, Tarsus, and more besides.
KILTER – Sys EP
A timely follow up to their 2020 full length ‘Axiom’, ‘Sys’ presents three new performances by Brooklyn experimentalists Kilter. Going deeper into jazz than ever before, the material’s extremely moody saxophone sounds and distorted bass grooves will thrill extant fans. As for attracting a wider audience, as before, the strange and alternative elements of Kilter’s sound will upset the jazz purists, but listeners brave enough to enjoy ‘Disco Volante’ by Mr, Bungle, The Book of Knots and the more wilful aspects of early 70s King Crimson will certainly find plenty to latch onto here.