Labels: Phratry – Swear Jar
Review by: Alex Deller
Really enjoying this. Swear Jar crank out a brilliant and wilfully anachronistic racket that kinda reminds me of those strange times when hardcore might have ‘officially’ died but folks were still making some interesting fucking music, avoiding pigeonholes while at the same time creating new ones for those who’d follow in their footsteps. Things clang and rattle with intelligent intensity, blunt-sounding bass plunks wandering in and out of drunken yet purposeful grooves while tinny guitar strings are shaken and strangled into awkward new shapes. The singer, meanwhile, offers up some weird sung/yelled/spoken/stuttered vocals that suit this kind of thing perfectly: odd, individual and as varied as the music itself. Something tells me these guys are most likely going to be overlooked by the punk rock masses, but this shit is totally great and should at least be given a punt by those who haven’t forgotten the likes of Bastro, Scratch Acid, NoMeansNo and (later) Honor Role or fancy a gnarlier take on what Tiny Hawks were once doing. Awesome.