Spion Spion cassette
Four-song debut cassette out of Vienna, Austria, which is also the first release on a brand new label, Aus der Kälte Records. No internet presence for the label and very minimal presence for the band, which is fitting considering the artwork for the tape, which features perhaps the most minimal artwork imaginable, a fully white J-card with only the band name in small lettering at the bottom right corner. Mid-tempo, chanty punk with reverbed-out, single-note surf guitar solos. Infectiously catchy. I was excited when I saw that there were four more songs on the B-side of the tape that were not to be found anywhere online. Flipping the tape while skimming the all-German tracklist on the inside of the J-card, I could tell something was amiss. I may not speak much German, but what language puts their capital letters at the end of words? Just before the first track started, it came to me. These were the same track names, but written entirely backwards. Sure enough, the B-side of the cassette is not four additional songs. It is the same songs as the A-side, played entirely in reverse. A funny concept, but the novelty wears thin incredibly fast. I got through a song-and-a-half , then I jumped up and stopped the tape before the repetitive backwards swish of the snare drum made me hate this recording. Played in the correct direction, SPION is incredibly catchy mid-tempo punk rock and I greatly dig it. If I woke up in that episode of Red Dwarf where everything is in reverse on planet htraE, I would not go see NOIPS play.