New music review with singles from Post Common and PISS
- Julia Mason
- 9 hours ago
- 6 min read
Our weekly fix of the best new music as Julia Mason (aka The Decibel Decoder) brings us her new music review with singles from Post Common Space/Time and PISS time loop at hot slit
Artist: Post Common
Track: Space/Time
New Brighton trio Post Common have announced their signing to Brace Yourself Records alongside word of their self-titled debut EP arriving 20 November. The band, comprised of current and former members of UK DIY stalwarts JOHN, TRAAMS, Sisterland and more, also offer a first peak behind the curtain of their intense sonic world with the EP’s lead single Space/Time.
Space/Time’ lays out an effective roadmap for the unwieldy beast that is Post Common, comprised of Stuart Hopkins (guitar/vocals), Ian Humes (bass) and John Newton (drums/vocals) - a project that shares DNA with the trio’s musical heritage but that expands outwards taking in elements of electronic and industrial music alongside their love of post-hardcore.
At the centre of their sonic alchemy is the thrilling juxtaposition of Hopkins’ and Newton’s shared vocals - like a MacKaye and Picciotto of the verdant English south coast, the two play off each other to stunning effect. The former’s often yearning, searching melodies are perfectly counterpointed by Newton’s famed guttural bark as they trade lines that walk a fine margin between romance and dystopia, poetry and mundanity. It’s exquisite corpse songcraft at its finest.
“This was the first experiment of me writing lyrics and Stu mangling them in his own way,” explains Newton. “It’s a really good illustration of that exquisite corpse process. It feels like a natural opener to introduce the band and EP. A lot of drum pads and electronic stuff; a deliberate attempt to play around and challenge more traditional instrumentation.”
Post Common were initially formed by Hopkins and Newton after the former moved back to Brighton and they hit it off over a shared love of DIY punk rock, particularly Dischord Records, but also a desire to play with more industrial and electronic flourishes, finding particular inspiration in highly influential New York duo Suicide. The ranks were bolstered with Ian Humes joining on bass, after Newton and Humes struck up a friendship across a record shop counter; Humes becoming the perfect foil between Hopkins and Newton’s self-recognised differing approaches.
After this meeting of minds and mutual interests, Post Common truly came to life in the practice room. While there was no identikit, hardened decision as to what the band should sound like, they quickly found a unique, intensely physical sound that’s best experienced in a small room surrounded by sweating, living bodies; something that’s already been seen at select shows across the South East including an appearance at this year’s Great Escape festival and a slot opening for Mclusky.
The band quickly decamped to The Bookhouse in South London alongside engineer Tom Hill to lay down the fruits of their earliest efforts in the guise of this four-track EP. Space/Time’ is joined here by the careening, motorik Check Atomizer, before opening up into a cavernous second side comprised of Invisible Tools and Paywall which hits like a punch to the gut and showcases the haunting emotion of Hopkins’ vocal leads, before Newton’s gruff, fierce husk returns in the EP’s final implosive meltdown.
That interplay between Post Common’s joint vocalists never fails to walk a thrilling tightrope both sonically and thematically across the EP. “Sometimes we collaborate, and sometimes we write separately,” Hopkins offers. “John’s more dystopian and industrial, like he’s Bauhaus, while I’m personal. If he’s brutalist, I’m more introspective - if he’s the outside of the house, I’m the inside.”
The Post Common EP will be available from 20 November exclusively on vinyl as part of Dinked’s Early Doors series in a limited pressing of 400 copies on 12” ice plume blue vinyl alongside a pair of collectable artcards. The EP will be available for download via Bandcamp. There are no plans to release the EP on streaming services at this time.
Post Common Live Dates
September
12 - Bristol, UK - Strange Brew (Breakfast Records presents Breakfest)
18 - London, UK - Blondies Taproom (Only Here For You presents 5 Years of OHFY)
* * *
Artist: PISS
Track: time loop at hot slit
On 30 October, noisy, genre-bending four-piece PISS will release their debut album, you made me / skin on linen, on LP/CD/CS/DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop, and in Canada from Paper Bag Records.
The Vancouver, B.C. band combines punk, poetry, sound collage, performance art, and visual art, creating a multidisciplinary body of work that blurs the line between personal and political. The announcement comes ahead of UK shows this week, including a date in Margate and shows at Brighton Psych Fest and End of The Road Festival. More UK and European live dates have also been announced today, with a new London headline show confirmed for 14 November - details below.
you made me / skin on linen, depicts a childhood shaped by structural, systemic, and intimate violence. Throughout the record, art-making motifs serve as metaphors for the myriad ways we carry the effects of this violence: each experience leaves an impression, gradually creating or deforming the self, much like a piece of clay moulded by every mark it receives. The record resists simple conclusions; rather than offering a single perspective, it examines violence as a ubiquitous facet of our culture. It asks questions: how does violence impact our development? Are our wounds inextricable parts of us? And if not, then where do our wounds end and we begin? And allows the listener to devise their own answers.
The band has shared their first offering from the album, time loop at hot slit a frenetic noise-punk examination of girlhood in a culture of sexualisation. The song pairs a danceable chorus with witty, poetic lyrics wailed in anguish and uncanny eroticism. The official video was co-directed by PISS front-person Taylor Zantingh and Vivyen Sagsen. Filmed at the now-closed-down DIY space, Take Yr Time Back in Vancouver, BC, Zantingh shares: “Some of the people with whom I shared the earliest version of time loop at hot slit take the stage to sing it themselves. Our local scene has been singing this song with us for two years!! It's very exciting to finally share it with the world, but no matter where it ends up, it will always belong to the femmes, queers, and weirdos in the Vancouver underground community."
you made me / skin on linen is now available to preorder from Sub Pop and Bandcamp. LP preorders from SubPop in North America, Mega Mart Europe in the UK/EU, and your local record store will receive the album on Baby Pink vinyl, with a Baby Pink/Grey Blend available exclusively at their Bandcamp page and at the band's live show, while supplies last.
In addition to the album pre-order, PISS are partnering with autonomous spaces and radical community hubs around North America to distribute free copies of the album. Until October 30th, customers can purchase an additional, discounted copy of you made me / skin on linen to be donated to one of these spaces.
The band shares: "The purpose of this project is to increase the accessibility of physical copies of the record, but I also hope it will encourage anyone who enjoys our music to connect with other radicals in their communities! It is more important than ever to lean into offline, autonomous social spaces. We cannot build a real movement by communicating with tools built and controlled by the powers we aim to challenge!!!"
PISS Live Dates
September
3 - Margate, UK - Where Else?
4 - Brighton, UK - Brighton Psych Fest
6 - Salisbury, UK - End of the Road Festival
25 - Toronto, ON - Second Summer Festival
26 - Kitchener, ON - Wrecker Fest
October
14 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts*
15 - Brooklyn, NY - Elsewhere - The Hall*
17 - Allston, MA - Brighton Music Hall*
20 - Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace*
21 - Detroit, MI - Third Man Records - Cass Corridor*
22 - Chicago, IL - The Bottom Lounge*
24 - Saint Paul, MN - Turf Club*
27- Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater*
28 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court*
30 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios*
31 - Vancouver, BC - The Pearl on Granville*
November
1 - Seattle, WA - Neumos*
5 - Reykjavik, Iceland - Iceland Airwaves
7 - Paris, FR - Pitchfork Paris
8 - Kortrijk, BE - Sonic City
10 - Amsterdam, NE - Paradiso (Small Hall)
11 - Nijmegen, NE - Merleyn
14 - London, UK - Moth Club
* supporting Gilla Band
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