Labels: Black Lake – Napravi Zaedno – sncl
Review by: MH
If you like a good looking slab of coloured vinyl then look no further – this 10inch is a splurge of crimson and black and looks mighty fine. Macedonian punks XAXAXA take side A and serve up two melancholy but driven tracks of melodic punk with pained vocals sung in their own language. There is a handy translation on the insert and the lyrics show a bleakness to their social commentary. Current peers soundwise might be Chestnut Road but you could trace this kind of sound a lot further back to the likes of Husker Du. A very good couple of tracks. They’ve been around a couple of years now and there is more where that came from on their Bandcamp page. Plaids are on side B and they serve up two barnburners that are typical of their unpredictable, urgent and intense trademark sound. Riffs are super tight and they change tempo and direction emphatically without losing any of the urgency or directness in their sound. These are two of their finest songs to date showing you can’t let any Plaids songs pass you by and should tide you over nicely in the run-up to their forthcoming LP. It was a smart move teaming up these two excellent bands on one record.