Science Man: S/T 12” (Swimming Faith) Debut vinyl from this new project which is an alter ego of John Toohill, whom you might also know as the singer for Radiation Risks. While Science Man features a prominent drum machine and might sound at first listen like S.B.F., Race Car, or other drum machine punk bands from the past few years, they have their own thing going on. When some bands use a drum machine, it can sound like a poor stand-in for a live drummer, but Science Man does a good job of playing to the instrument’s strengths, namely the big sound and the ability to create fast and precise rhythms. While the vibe of the music is very different, the way Science Man uses the drum machine as effectively as a band like Big Black. As for the songs themselves, they range from quirky, Warm Bodies-esque weird hardcore (“Love Potent”) to a punky take on 90s noise rock (“Victor”) to Dead Kennedys-esque surf punk (“Before You Know You’re Dead”). The record is super high energy, sounds great, and it’s packed with memorable moments. Definitely a recommended listen, particularly if you’ve enjoyed a lot of stuff on labels like Neck Chop and Erste Theke Tontraeger.

Preening: Gang Laughter 12” (Digital Regress) Preening has put out a slew of records over the past few years and Gang Laughter is their first 12”. It continues with the format the band has honed on those previous releases: a catchy no wave / post-punk sound with locked-in bass and drums a la Gang of Four, a skronky saxophone, and two vocalists, one furious and one more deadpan. If you liked those earlier records, you’ll enjoy Gang Laughter, but what’s more exciting is how this record pushes at the edges of the band’s sound. Specifically, there’s a This Heat-style experimental streak that seems to run through the middle part of the record. The a-side’s closing track, “Red,” double tracks the sax for an eerie effect and the only vocals come from a sinister-sounding laugh track. Then the b-side opens with “GL,” an instrumental that sounds like it features both a regular piano and a toy piano. “GL” is the most This Heat-esque moment on the record, a spacious and winding composition that serves as a perfect counterpoint to the record’s more aggressive tracks. Genre-pushing bands like Preening always walk a fine line between pushing their sound forward and maintaining a consistent voice, and Gang Laughter balances those adeptly. The beautiful screen printed packaging is a nice bonus too.

Toyota: S/T 12” (Digital Regress) After a flexi and a bunch of cassettes on Discontinuous Innovation, Inc. (who also brought us releases from Wonder Bread, Erik Nervous, Acrylics, Landline, and many more) here’s the proper vinyl debut from Toyota. While I hope that the term “Devo-Core” never catches on, you could do a lot worse than that in describing Toyota’s sound. Like certain Devo tracks, Toyota's music is tightly wound, with lots of unintuitive time signatures that highlight the robotic precision of the playing. Far more than just ripping off Devo, Toyota take the sound to its logical limits. While I doubt it’s an influence, the sound reminds me of the Japanese band Polysics. It’s so quirky, inhuman, and dense with ideas that the record can overwhelm on first listen, but if you’re looking for the perfect soundtrack to downing a quintuple espresso, this is it. They slow things down a hair for a few tracks on the b-side, and these are my favorite moments on the record. When they back off the manic tempos a hair and find the groove the catchiness in these songs comes out. Toyota has demonstrated their ability to play top-notch spazz punk, but they’re already dropping hints they have more tricks up their sleeve.

Geiger Counter: Nuclear EP 7” (Ryvvolte) Latest 7” from these Minneapolis punks. These tracks come from the same session as the recent split tape with Zudas Crust I wrote about a few weeks ago and has a similar Japanese hardcore-influenced crust sound. The big chord changes on tracks like “Nuclear Solution” and the melodic guitar solos betray a Death Side influence but there’s also a punkier element to their sound that reminds me of old Pusmort Records bands like Final Conflict and Christ on Parade. This is true of the two tracks on the a-side, which remind me a lot of Final Conflict’s Ashes to Ashes LP. While a lot of bands influenced by Japanese hardcore can sound too slick, Geiger Counter keep things super raw and punk.

UFO Dicatator: Jackhammer EP cassette (self-released) Debut 10-track(!) tape from this band who, if I’m not mistaken, are from Philadelphia. The music reminds me of Career Suicide and Formaldehyde Junkies with its thin guitar sound, short songs, and the way they litter riffs with quick little rock-and-roll licks. They sound like a band whose members have listened to the Kids just as much as Poison Idea, and they do a great job of combining the best aspects of both sounds. I think I recognize Zach from Gas Rag on the mic, and his harsh yet catchy vocals keep everything firmly on the hardcore side of things. These ten tracks fly right by, and if you’re a fan of the catchier end of the No Way / Grave Mistake spectrum (Career Suicide, Social Circkle, Acid Reflux) you’ll play this over and over.

Organized Filth: demo cassette (Don’t Wanna Talk) Demo cassette from this new project featuring (or maybe even composed entirely of) Cody from Booji Boys / Negative Rage / a zillion other bands. Cody seems to have a lot of projects going at any given time (in fact we got a tape from his electronic project Proper Suggestions in at the same time as this), but the sound here is influenced by Killed by Death-style punk. The tape ends with a Mentally Ill cover and the mega raw guitar sound and snotty, (fake?) British accented-vocals would have me scrambling to the KBD/Bloodstains section of my records shelves for the perfect points of reference if I weren’t already way behind on this week’s update. While this tape feels a little tossed-off, that’s part of the beauty. It’s a loose and raw experiment, and there’s something cool about listening to the bedroom recordings of some person from Halifax, Nova Scotia influenced by a whole tradition of raw outsider recordings that has come before.