Baxter Stockman

Album Title: 
Punter
Release Date: 
Monday, November 4, 2013
Distribution: 
Review Type: 

Some of you who used to watch the television series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may remember that Dr. Baxter Stockman was this criminal genius whom created the Mousers, with whom the series' heores frequently make battle...but that may be beside the point here, unless the Helsinki based Rock/ Noise trio consisting of singer/ guitarist Markus, bassist Visa, and drummer Max actually looked at this character for inspiration when choosing their bandname, back in 2006.

As far as I know, the band released two EP's (the second of which being simply entitled EP #2, and issued in 2009 on Sideffect Records), one 7-inch (2012's Romance, issued through the Kult Of Nihilow label – which may well be the band's own), and now a full-length debut album...which was already released in March of 2013. The thing is, I'm not sure whether that was the CD or the vinyl version...and thís is the other one! If the info I checked (Amazon) is correct though, the album was first issued on vinyl (through Ektro's sub-label Full Contact, and Kult Of Nihilow)! Actually, I first though that colleague Cosmicmasseur might've reviewed the album when it came out as vinyl (thinking we'd already started doin' Ektro stuff before), but I was apparently mistaken (in fact, we díd start off around that time).

As to BS music, it's a nice mix of angular and somewhat dissonant Grungy Rock with Noise tendencies, and definitely (as the guys put it themselves) “for those with an acquired taste. And, guess what, this falls right in with the kind of music I like. It doesn't follow your usual rules of easy-listening commercial music, and indeed warrants some attention of the listener which goes beyond the mere recognition of melodic tunes. Of course, your more experienced listeners (among which I count myself) will possibly argue (I mean, that's what I'm doin' now, you know), that in established angularity there's eventually also melodies...possibly a little harder to understand, but at any rate the musicians will have to do some effort as well, to reproduce their own music!

For your audio introduction to this very nice act, check the “Listen” section at (www.) baxterstockman.com (“Non-Smoker” being a somewhat calmer track, while “Labour” is one of the more energetic/ “chaotic” ones).

92/100