Reviews

Rolltreppe Rolltreppe LP

Vinyl version of a nine-song cassette that this Austrian group released last year, with the sort of lo-fi immediacy that can only be captured by playing together live in a room with a four-track running. There’s a definite NOTS vibe on this one, specifically NOTS as they existed in that transitional period between the stripped-down punky garage bash of their first two singles and the dark, driving electro-post-punk on their most recent LP, from the spaced-out delay on Rebecca’s shouted vocals (largely in German, with a few detours into English), to the squeals of synth on “Mischmachine,” to that wiry, post-WIPERS guitar strangling that comes through on the more urgent tracks like “Forgotten Keys” or “Glasfaser.” Despite some borderline post-punk flourishes (like the see-sawing rhythms and quick cuts of sax skronk on “Lebenslauf” and “100 Grad”), ROLLTREPPE is decidedly a punk band, with a raw, shambolic energy in step with any number of German-language, femme-centered DIY classics from a time well before now—GLUEAMS, HANS-A-PLAST, A-GEN 53 if you want to go really deep, etc. A solid debut, no doubt.