Oily Boys - Cro Memory Grin

One of the best punk records of recent years, it's taken an age to get this in the shop for reasons that escape me now. Time is an irrelevance anyhow, since these 13 tracks hit as hard and uncompromising as ever. Outta Sydney, from what i can gather Oily Boys operate in the same orbit as (alongside possibly sharing members with) Low Life, another contemporary Oz punk band who seem to be better than near-all other punk bands around now. Cro Memory Grin is more overtly punishing and harder than anything Low Life have put their name to, though there's a little chorus pedal action here that binds the ties and more a sound so clearly cathartic and tense, these fellas sure know their way around a hook. Make no mistake though, this is, as the label say themselves, 'pure fucking agression', and in terms of straight up hard as nails execution, bth aesthetic and sonic, it really reminded me of those great early Flex releases. Yep, that good. Totally essential.