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SSRI are/were a relatively short lived Sydney Hardcore Punk band that blur the imaginary line between “straight ahead” and “outsider” HC. Or to put it another way, you can imagine they have an appreciation for both Negative Approach and No Trend.
Far from tumblr-mood-board statement makers, the frustration and desperation is believable, and the oddball twists feel purposeful. Organically demented punk, may contain traces of nuts. - Nic, Repressed Records
Our take: Sydney, Australia’s SSRI brings us this limited 5-song cult banger. Like a lot of bands from Australia, I hear a lot of 90s Cleveland in SSRI’s sound, particularly the desperate and nihilistic sounds of the H100s. Like the H100s, SSRI can sound unhinged, the soundtrack to a complete abandonment of control, but there are other elements to their sound too. Most prominent is a United Mutation-esque psychedelic guitar style that peeks around the edges of the first four faster songs, then comes to the fore for the title track, the extended, warped, No Trend-esque dirge that closes the record. Rather than the band’s style, though, the first thing you’ll notice when you drop the need on Nice Life is the crazy vocal sound. It sounds like the singer is overloading the mic, to where it almost drowns out the other instruments. That idiosyncratic production choice gives Nice Life a cult feel, scaring away the poseurs and serving as a clarion call to the true heads who like their hardcore fucked up and dirty. Said true heads should note Nice Life is pressed in a minuscule edition of 150 copies, which appears to be sold out pretty much everywhere else.
Far from tumblr-mood-board statement makers, the frustration and desperation is believable, and the oddball twists feel purposeful. Organically demented punk, may contain traces of nuts. - Nic, Repressed Records
Our take: Sydney, Australia’s SSRI brings us this limited 5-song cult banger. Like a lot of bands from Australia, I hear a lot of 90s Cleveland in SSRI’s sound, particularly the desperate and nihilistic sounds of the H100s. Like the H100s, SSRI can sound unhinged, the soundtrack to a complete abandonment of control, but there are other elements to their sound too. Most prominent is a United Mutation-esque psychedelic guitar style that peeks around the edges of the first four faster songs, then comes to the fore for the title track, the extended, warped, No Trend-esque dirge that closes the record. Rather than the band’s style, though, the first thing you’ll notice when you drop the need on Nice Life is the crazy vocal sound. It sounds like the singer is overloading the mic, to where it almost drowns out the other instruments. That idiosyncratic production choice gives Nice Life a cult feel, scaring away the poseurs and serving as a clarion call to the true heads who like their hardcore fucked up and dirty. Said true heads should note Nice Life is pressed in a minuscule edition of 150 copies, which appears to be sold out pretty much everywhere else.