Split System: Vol I 12″ (euro pressing)

Description

Maybe your demands of punk are a little too high. Maybe theyre a little too exacting – you know what you want, but you dont know how to get it. Maybe youve got an itch thats needed scratching since you first heard (Im) Stranded (sounds like a doctor needs to look at that, mind). Maybe all or none of these things are true and youre just in search of three or four chords and some righteous snot. Reader, you have come to the right place.

Split System came sauntering out of Melbourne back in 2022 with a self-titled 7 and a debut LP (the sensibly-titled Vol. I), and as a listener of exquisite taste, one or both of those items will have carved out their own spaces within easy access of your record player. With members of acer-than-ace garage punkas Stiff Richards and Speed Week among their number, not to mention the redoubtable Jackson Reid Briggs, they deal in a gloriously back-to-basics take on punk thats part Undertones, part Royal Headache and part Chris Bailey – all hooks and glory, all the time. Theyre so much more than the sum of their parts and they make this shit sound effortless.

Well, heres an update for you: theyre back! Second album (the equally-sensibly-titled Vol. II) is now upon us, and a thoroughly tremendous follow-up it is too. As soon as opener The Wheel slams into your speakers, its clear that theyve lost none of the pep or power that made their debut such an essential listen; if anything theyre even more raucous and revved-up than before. Yep, thats jargon for they rule hard, and let me add here that you could listen to this album 100 times in a row or simply try inserting dynamite sticks with lit fuses into your ear canal; either way, your poor little mind is gonna blow. Its an album made entirely of bangers (still on that explosion metaphor, are we?) – the concise questioning of End of the Night is as pure a punk rock nugget as you could ever wish to uncover, and The Drain is just energy distilled to a perfect series of hooks – with a passion for rocknroll in its most scintillating form. Just listen to it. Thats all you need to do. Your demands have been met – heres your new favourite record.

• Label: Drunken Sailor Records
• Format Type: 12″
• Year: 2024