Back catalogue: Punk/Hardcore

Review: Short-lived So Cal band Wheezing Maniac will bring back many nostalgic memories for those old enough to have been wooed by seminal skateboarding video H-Street's Hokus Pokus. Two of its most iconic tunes were by this outfit - 'Dollar on a Platter' and 'Don't Come Close' and both showcase their off-kilter invention and high-energy sound perfectly. The band only recorded 17 tunes in all and each one makes it onto this Shade Through the Night Door reissue on Putojefe Records. A fine remastering job brings them up to scratch and makes this an essential one for the collection for fans old and new.

Review: Sheffield metalcore giants While She Sleeps make their long awaited return on the follow up to 2021's Sleeps Society. Taking a more sprawling approach to composition this time around, and allowing outsider influences from the likes of Gorillaz, Aphex Twin and even Britpop to help steer their creative course, the resulting sixth full-length Self Hell, offers simultaneously the band's most aggressive, complex and frenetic work in over a decade, whilst tapping into newfound electronic soundscapes aided by the use of vintage synths such as the Korg MS-20 and Behringer TD-3. These warring textures provide a unique balance of post-metalcore serenity, with technical riffs weaving around lush hues of ambient, euphoric electronica akin to say Mount Kimbie, yet repurposed for angst-riddled displays of sonic, melancholic fury. That doesn't necessarily mean that there's a lack of chugging bangers with glistening synth lines, but they're deftly balanced with moments of triumphant catharsis.

Review: Returning with their first full-length since 1988's Laying Down Law, Australian art-rock auteurs The Wreckery (made up of former members of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Birthday Party, Plays With Marionettes) appear set to make up for their near four-decade absence with a macabre, city-lit jaunt through dingy clubs, bleak narratives, and the type of film noir soundtrack-indebted avant-garde post-punk quintessential to the 80s scene. While their original demise came from creative differences from certain members desiring a more mainstream direction and the others dully devoted to challenging art-rock experimentalism, this dichotomy and rift ultimately led to what made The Wreckery such a sonically uncertain and musically dangerous outfit. Fake Is Forever serves as a return to form, victory lap and dark new chapter for the band all at once, complete with scathing lyrics, fuzzed out atonal bedlam, bombastic baritone sax and minute flourishes of delicacy.