#372 Teenage Panzercorps - German Raggae

When I'm feeling lazy, but not quite pitchfork-lazy, I trawl dusted, which has no BNM feature, let alone numerical scores, so I have to actually read things. I haven't even had that kind of energy all that often lately, but I needed something a little different.

What you get with Teenage Panzercorps is something different, though it is pretty solidly rooted in a lot of other bands who were doing different things. Most immediately, there is a huge, throbbing bass sound with sheetmetal guitars over top, angularly arranged, plus some half-formless screaming, evoking noisy art-punks like Death from Above 1979, The Giddy Motors, and The Fall. The later is especially presence, given the deadpan delivery and the overall sound - you can sure hear The Fall's Barmy in Corpse Watcher's hopsteps and drones.

Everything's a little sludgier and artier than that though, with a Krauty sense of texture, space, and patience, sounding a bit like Deerhunter's haziest moments, Wavves's sludgiest, or Je Suis France's heaviest. And, you know, they sound, at times, like Can. The German menace and muttering help there.

And as you might guess, its a bit unlistenable, with its combination of dissonance and defiance of form. But it's also strangely alive, sounding like something written in passion and performed before the sheen wore off. I liked it more than I should have for that reason alone 3.5/5

You Might Like This If: You like arty, heavy, sludgy post-punk, with a spark at either end, and don't mind if it's all in German.