Bibione Paprikatraumbrötchen 10″
The first two records from Czech trio BIBIONE pulled from spiky late ’70s/early ’80s Euro femme-punk and the stripped-down spark of ’90s riot grrrl with plenty of rough-around-the-edges charm, and while this new six-song offering still largely reflects those influences, it also twists the kaleidoscope to bring more sharp lines and angles into focus. ”No Friends Just Customers” is BIBIONE at their most locked-in, with clean, pointillist guitar and taut rhythms vaguely reminiscent of SHOPPING or TRASH KIT, with “Tired” throwing in some judicious cowbell clattering for extra art-punk asymmetricality. “Steve Jobless” hits closer to the noisy/shouty UK wave of riot grrrl (more HUGGY BEAR than BIKINI KILL), the relatively sprawling (meaning barely over three minutes long) “Bambini di Traga” puts a modern post-punk spin on AUTOCLAVE’s knotted, off-kilter pop abstraction, and “Jazz” and “Rats in the Attic” take things in a darker direction, with bone-dry beats, snaking bass, and skronking sax like some band that would have played with XMAL DEUTSCHLAND or MALARIA! in a decaying Berlin warehouse circa 1982, although the (English) lyrics for the latter track are decidedly less serious—something about Swiss cheese and holes?
