Shark Toys / UVTV: Split 7"

Shark Toys / UVTV: Split 7"


Tags: · 10s · gb325 · indie · melodic · post-punk · spo-default · spo-disabled
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Los Angeles post-punkers SHARK TOYS delight with off-kilter clatter of the highest caliber, possessing a jagged beauty that defies the songs shamble-pop brevity. Swell Maps and Television Personalities flavor the proceedings without dominating, with SHARK TOYS retaining their own American-DIY-art-punk identity through their wonderfully constructed and sonically thrilling songs. From Gainesville Florida, UV-TV’s debut vinyl offering is a unique hybrid of infectious psyche-punk and dynamic indiepop. C86/Shop Assistants-esque melodies coupled with pounding toms and soaring dark angular post-punk guitar. This is stripped down 3 piece brutal-pop, with smatterings of feedback, counter balanced perfectly by the sweet melodic vocal delivery of Rose Vastola.

Our take: Shark Toys: rickety, pop-oriented punk. The tones here remind me so much of various post-punk and UKDIY bands (the synth [at least I think it's a synth] on "Delerium Tremens" is a dead ringer for the weird casio on "The Man Whose Head Expanded" by the Fall), but the music is much faster and has a kind of early Lookout! Records vibe to it as well. If you threw the Homosexuals or Swell Maps into a blender with Crimpshrine maybe this is what would come out? At any rate it doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard before. As for UVTV, they play a slightly more straightforward style of garage-y punk with sheets of ethereal-sounding distortion, but not so much that it masks either melody or those relentless punk beats... Shop Assistants fans should definitely take note. Emotional Response continues to kill it, and if you're a fan of adventurous but still melodic punk sounds they should be on your radar.