Album review: The anomalys - "Glitch"

The Anomalys - Glitch
(Slovenly Recordings)
Scrutiny by Die Heiden

Twelve years is a bit of a stretch between album releases. However, when your band is called The Anomalys, this practice of releasing an album every three US presidential election cycles may as well be considered normal. It’s great to see this Dutch punk n’ roll unit restart the machine with their longtime home Slovenly Recordings releasing the band’s second album, Glitch.  A big thing to point out with Glitch is regardless of the album gap, these three guys haven’t rusted one bit (a slew of single releases and tours in between helps that), and this new lineup of the band exhibits more power and command in the songwriting than prior lineups have.

For those unfamiliar with The Anomalys, this trio is one of the first bands signed by Slovenly Recordings back in the label’s early 2000s salad days. Slovenly has also stuck by their side ever since releasing The Anomalys 2005 debut single, “Black Hole Blues/Nat Approved” and has five other releases from the band in their catalog.  It wouldn’t be until 2010 for The Anomalys to release their first record and follow it up with a slew of world touring on the heels of its release. For seventeen years, The Anomalys can credit their run across the world due to the efforts of their founder, Bone, whose writing background extends through punk rock, garage beat, and surf guitar. Throughout the years, Bone and crew have thrown all three styles into simple three-chord songwriting structure-gone-hyperdrive that gets the sweat pourin’ and the asses shakin’ from people packing the nineteenth-century church halls of Amsterdam’s Paradiso to Austin, TX former 1960s roadhouse bar, The Legendary Swan, to the southern hemisphere of Curitiba for Psycho Carnival. With Glitch, Bone enters a new era for his band by roping in two Frenchmen who, like Bone, are lifers in the wild world of Euro garage punk as Looch Vibrato (The Magnetix, Louder Than Death) and Remy Pablo (Weird Omen) round The Anomalys new appearance. Glitch being this lineup’s grande entrée, this lineup has already laid down a preview of things to come from their camp with 2019’s Trooper EP release. That EP could be considered a practice run however, there’s a better representation of how these three sound together on Glitch. 

A goddamn powerhouse rock n roll kamikaze is a dead-on term to use when describing this record. Bone n’ Looch n’ Pabo rip through nine songs in a manner that confirms veteran punks can and DO throw down harder than the young newcomers in the genre. However, their level of play on this record could be stemming from two scenarios: Are Looch and Bone keeping up with Pablo or vice versa? Either way, Pablo’s drum work is a highlight throughout Glitch as his command and variations on BPM keep Looch and Bone skintight and in rhythm with each other. At the same time, he puts on a clinic for 20 + minutes. The proof in this statement lies in the two instrumentals with the high-octane surf “Panic” and Bone and Looch’s neurotic riffing mixed with Pablo’s atomic clockwork on “Anomalys Rise.” Pablo’s work stands out immensely on Glitch, but of course, the bright mixing from producer extraordinaire Lo Spider plays a part in Glitch’s balls-to-the-wall sound. Glitch’s cut of “Trooper” has a more urgent sound in the mix that isn’t featured on the 2019 title track of their Trooper EP, almost like the band is recording during the 11th hour of a session, and there are no do-overs allowed. The in-sync performance from the trade-off surf licks between Bone and Looch make it seem like these have been regularly rehearsing and playing with each other for years despite their geographic distances. Among the hi-speed exhibited throughout Glitch, the trio makes time to slow the tempo and have Bone wail and grieve in melancholy over fallen comrades with the slow waltz groove of “Dead Friends.”  

Glitch is just additional proof that The Anomalys never needed a shtick, gimmick, or anything outside of their ability to write hard-hitting punk n’ roll songs. Twelve years later, they’re still doing just that and don’t need to deviate from what they’re good at. If they take another twelve years to make a third record, I doubt their approach will change, and that's totally cool in this jerk's book.  

Get down with The Anomalys over at Slovenly Recordings or visit their Facebook page for their updates. 

Pre-orders for the Glitch vinyl can be found here with the digital release coming out everywhere on February 18th.