New Releases: Undress for Success, D-Crash, SRRX, The Psyders

Tunes, tunes and more tunes – yet another week of new releases to pop your earbuds into. Disco punk and surf rock out of Shanghai, hardcore punk from Beijing, and the newest craze – grindcore – coming at ya Inner Mongolia via Dalian. Yes folks, time to take the plunge – here’s the latest from Undress for Success, The Psyders, Dead Meat Man Cave/SRRX, and D-Crash.

One of my first videos I posted on LBM was for a Shanghai dance punk outfit called Battle Cattle, whose early 80s British dance punk inspired anthems was my first real taste of what Shanghai had in store. As is the story for most bands down south, Battle Cattle eventually closed up shop. Nevertheless, the man behind the vigorous rhythms, bassist Laurent is back with a ‘semi-solo’ project entitled Dressed For Success. Their first release – The man in the machine. And it’s kinda awesome – it’s clear Laurent wanted to jump deeper down the disco-ridden electronic-laced post punk hole that Battle Cattle had molded out but he manages to inject a lot of character into each of he songs. Whether it’s the cathartic tail end of ‘It’s in your mind’ or the backing vocals to the beaten empathy of ‘Nine to Six’, it’s a loaded collection of tunes that almost seems effortless. Give it a listen over here – curious to see if Laurent will take Undress for Success live. Hat tip to Deadly Silence for this one.

Grindcore – what hath you wrought? I remember hearing some time ago that the abrasive noise-driven genre which takes its cues from the more extreme variations of hardcore punk, industrial music, trash metal, had infected southern China, namely Guangzhou. But looks like it’s been infecting the rest of China as well – Dead Meat Man Cave or SRRX, a Dalian-based, Inner Mongolia raised, is the latest to wave the grindcore flag strong and proud. His second album entitled A Sick World out for you grindcore freaks – and it’s a sick twisted piece of work that left me feeling dirty. Like really dirty. This is what I would imagine Bebop and Rocksteady from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would be creating had they gone off the deep end. If the toilets sounds and ass slapping doesn’t do it for you then there’s no hope for you. Bask in the glory that is grindcore here.

Speaking of songs that whizz past you in a fury of rage, albeit with a bit more anti-authoritarian edge (as compared to the gore and porn aesthetics from above) local punk outfit D-Crash recently released a EP entitled Blood & Noise that clocks in at under six minutes – yup six tunes under six minutes. Fast and furious spit in your face jams with wonderfully catchy titles like ‘Inject AIDS’ and ‘Go Die’. Particularly digging ‘Kill The Party’ and though punk of this nature is supposed to ignite, combust, and leave you reeling before you even notice it’s gone, I kinda wish they held on a bit longer – perhaps it’s the format of the this kind of music in album format or the plain fact that six songs is barely enough to sustain my fleeting interest. Nevertheless, as far as riled up, untethered hardcore punk goes this ain’t bad – and has definitely perked my interest in seeing them live. Give it a listen kids.

Back to Shanghai for this blast of 60s surf rock throwback from The Psyders – the 7’’ EP suitably titled Introducing The Psyders (with throwback album artwork) is simply that – a three-track introduction to the bands kinetic surf rock that’s ridiculously fun. Tight, energized, and proficient to a tee, to shit on this album you really would have to have a chip on your shoulder. And it costs one buck online people – as for me, I’ll hold out for the vinyl with apparently is a spilt with Canadian hardcore punk legends DOA. So dman, hopefully that’s still floating around somewhere down in Shanghai. Give it a listen here and here.