With its heavy letter pressed sleeve and short duration, this does feel like the digital equivalent of an old punk 7". Consisting of Dan Colby and Ryan Francini (formally of The Cignal) handling the rhythm section and Fates’ PJ Norman on guitar, these two songs gave me an instant feeling of nostalgia for the early to mid '90s "alternative" scene, before it became known as "indie" and consequently a maligned, pejorative label.
"Foebic," with its rapid fire beats and repetitive bass line creates a very strong rhythmic underpinning, but the noisy guitar treatments for some reason gave an industrial vibe to everything.The result is sort of like early Mission of Burma filtered through the earliest releases on Invisible Records.Somehow it feels very familiar, yet completely new at the same time.
"Cutters" goes less for the dense rhythms and more towards a sparser, song-oriented feel.With an emphasis placed more on the vocals, the result is more "alternative" than "industrial," but carries the same old/new feeling that "Foebic" had.
While these two songs aren't pushing boundaries or re-inventing the wheel, I don’t think that was ever the intention.What’s here is just good old fashioned punk inspired rock that is familiar but never derivative.For anyone who longs for the heyday when Amphetamine Reptile and Touch and Go weren’t just labels, but institutions, this is as inviting as it gets.It’s a terribly short teaser of what will hopefully be more to come.