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The Drin: Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom 12” (Feel It Records) We named the Drin’s first album, Engines Sing for the Pale Moon, Record of the Week in March 2022, and now, less than a year later, their follow-up gets the same honor. The Drin’s first album had such an original voice I was worried some of its charm might have come from an idiosyncratic recording or some other chance confluence of factors. Turns out that wasn’t the case, because Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom carries forward everything I liked about the debut. The Drin’s music still uniquely combines punk, dub reggae, and motorik rhythms filtered through the hazy, lo-fi aesthetics of early Guided by Voices. I’m tempted to draw comparisons to PiL’s first two albums or Joy Division’s more droned-out, Neu!-inspired moments like “No Love Lost” or “Incubation,” but the lo-fi quality and the American-ness of the Drin’s music means those comparisons only go so far. But like those aforementioned bands, as well as the avant-punk/pop music Rough Trade Records released in their early years, pop isn’t a huge part of the equation, yet the songs are catchy and hooky in their way… it’s just those hooks reside in the beefy bass lines and interesting drum rhythms. I also love how much stylistic ground the Drin covers on this record, from the straight up reggae of “Eyes Only for Space” to the motorik punk of “Stonewallin’” (which sounds a lot like Joy Division’s “Transmission”) to “That Day (Azoic),” the poppiest and most vocal-forward song on the album. Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom is a gripping record from start to finish, and an essential listen for anyone whose tastes veer into the experimental fringes of the punk diaspora.