Diyno Mixtape: the best of January 2025 releases – our suggestions
January 2025 releases selected for our monthly column Diyno Mixtape
Also in this month of January we discovered and listened to a lot of stuff, selecting for you the releases you find in Diyno Mixtape. As always ample space for different subgenres and bands from various countries around the world. Happy listening!
NB: The list is in alphabetical order by band/author and is not a chart.
Be curious and if you have advice or opinions to give us on January releases, feel free to contact us on our social media or via email!
If you’re interested in the physical copy of any of these albums you can write to info@radiopunk.it. Some are in our catalog, some could be available on demand.
Crust Punk
Mem//brane – S/T (DIY)
For those who follow our column, especially for those who love crust sounds surely this name will not come new. In fact, the band from Bellingham, WA very attentive to the rights of trans and queer people is back, and in this new 8-track album it devastates everything to the sound of crust punk / stenchcore with strong metal influences. Ellie’s vocals are very powerful and seem to come from a dark cave, very much suited to both the riffs and rhythms offered throughout the album and the truly evocative cover art. Top record!
World Disorder – Demo (The Seats of Piss Records | Tape)
Debut demo of this new New York band featuring Matt Morgantini, former guitarist in several New York bands including Mirage, old school hardcore with Italian vocals. The cover artwork, also drawn by Matt introduces us to this crust punk vortex that in 5 songs for about 17 minutes pleasantly bleeds our ears with dark and gritty sounds. The screaming, heartbreaking vocals go great with both when the band speeds up and when it slows down giving life to more stenchcore textures. If this is the debut, we can’t wait to hear a proper album!
Death Gasp – S/T (Profane Existence, Audacious Madness | 12″ LP/ Final Return Records, Audacious Madness | Tape)
After two EPs and the tour 2024 tape, the Pittsburgh band’s first Full-Length is released, still in the style of their previous works. The formula is a pressing stenchcore crust punk with hardcore lashings and death metal in the background. The cover art in that sense is evocative of what awaits us in these 8 tracks, namely a bleak, icy, granite landscape. Clamorous record!
Hardcore Punk
Crime Light – S/T (Delayed Gratifications Records, Charity Kill Records | Tape)
There is good news and bad news. The bad is that this EP is the last release as a band; there will be no more. The good is that these six tracks are nothing short of mind-blowing. The band from Columbus, OH pulls out six songs that sound like powerful hardcore bangers, with razor sharp riffs held up by a solid rhythm section topped off with explosive vocals and choruses. You will be missed!
Lab Rat – S/T (DIY)
From Portland, a land full of groundbreaking hardcore bands, comes this lineup, which after an excellent demo churns out this full-length of 9 tracks lasting almost 13 minutes. The hardcore influences are all there as well as the d-beat / punk ones, with straight riffing guitars with icy sharp sounds, pounding drums and Sarah’s fierce and excruciating screams to embellish it all. A great debut, let’s hope it comes out in physical format soon!
Church Clothes – Moral Jerk
If you need some no-frills hardcore punk this record by New Yorkers Church Clothes is definitely for you. Sharp riffs, sustained bass, fast drums, whistling from the amp and slightly hoarse vocals shrieking into the mic. Everything in the right place, powerful and direct, exactly as punk hc should be. A blast!
The Massacred – Nightmare Agitators (Active-8 | 12” LP)
The Boston band starts the year by literally slapping us in the face for 25 minutes with powerful, raging hardcore punk. These 12 songs are a godsend for fans of Exploited, Discharge and Varukers, just to name a few, and trust us, if it said “released in 1982” you would have believed it. 10+ album!
Dolent – S/T (Flexi Discos, Polze De La Mort | Tape)
First album by this band from Valencia, which in these 10 songs offers us a mixture of primitive punk, hardcore with an eighties vibe and that dose of post-punk that gives it that dark sound that really suits it as a whole. They reminded us distantly of the last album by Basque band Gurs, a record that we included among our 2024 favorites. In short, give it a listen, because it is truly a treat!
Punk Rock
Alarmsignal – Insomnia (Aggressive Punk Produktionen | CD/12” LP)
The night amplifies thoughts and worries, and sometimes it happens that we can’t sleep a wink. The common thread of this album by the veteran band of the German scene is precisely everything that takes our sleep away in these difficult times, both personally and globally: the hatred that is increasingly widespread and normalized by the language of the far right, a harbinger of racism, nationalism, sexism and homophobia. But the night is also a source of inspiration, and this is where the poetry of the 14 tracks comes from, punk rock that is solid but also has a strong emotional impact, with the contribution of numerous illustrious features, from Sebastian Madsen to Fucking Angry. And the night always gives way to light and a message of hope in which humanity can triumph over hatred, like the true story, tragic but with a happy ending, told in “Rest Your Eyes”: a visually impaired boy who fled Syria manages to land to safety thanks to his sister’s words of encouragement, “You will be safe to rest your eyes.”
Manicdotes – All Cats Are Beautiful
The cover artwork of this EP perfectly illustrates its content. The first two tracks, in fact, are about the most adorable and most anarchic beings on the planet, namely cats. The other two, however, the exact opposite, namely the uniformed characters of the original version of the acronym ACAB. All this to the rhythm of a delightful punk rock inspired by 70s and 90s styles. The quartet from Phoenix, Arizona, entertains and has a lot of fun, but they don’t mince words, just read the lyrics featured in the player below! Less cops more cats!
Post Punk / Punk
C.a.m.o. – Combative Anthems Motivate Outcry (No Fuss Tapes, Urban Lurk | Tape)
This month’s favorites include a band from a country we don’t often mention here on the site, namely Austria. C.a.m.o. from Vienna come out with 6 tracks of fast, reverberating post-punk with some pleasant anarcho punk and death rock influences. This tape exudes magical velvet vibes, lit candles and the scent of incense. Super cute!
Lightinf. – All Conditions Gear (Hellnation Records | 12″ LP)
This splendid LP arrives at our headquarters with a cover that is as beautiful as it is evocative, which in the meantime brings us back to the band’s geographical origin, namely Bologna, and then to the sound and style, the British/Casual style that in fact rages throughout the record. In the wake of bands such as High Vis, the Bologna-based band offers us 8 tracks sung in English including a cover of Elliott Smith. Theirs is a potion formed by post-punk, britpop, new wave and punk rock, a perfect soundtrack to stroll through the chaotic urban marasmus trying to forget this drifting world. Super! “It’s a matter of class, it’s a matter of style”
Punk
Lambrini Girls – Who Let The Dogs Out (City Slang | CD, 12” LP)
Okay, don’t panic, it’s only January and we are sure we have just heard the record of the year. More than a record, it is a manifesto that addresses, with anger and grit, the historical moment we are living through, reviewing all the hottest topics. Toxic masculinity, abuse in uniform, nepotism in the music world, harassment and gender discrimination in the workplace, mental health, eating disorders, gay awakening, gentrification and so many other issues are touched upon, indeed shouted with as much rage as possible, throughout this wonderful record. “Who Let The Dogs Out” is able to shake you body and soul with both the lyrics and the music, a true noise vortex characterized by fast-paced drum rhythms, which in some places recall electronic music. The heavily distorted bass produces a super fuzz and raw sound on which the extremely eclectic guitar riffs lie. A crazy experience to be had listening to track after track!
Telesatan – S/T (Phantom Records | 7”)
4 energetic, powerful punk tracks shot in the face! This incredible band comes from Leipzig and among tight rhythms, reverberated screams and slightly fuzz guitars shakes us and electrifies us to the sound of hardcore punk with rock n roll hues. Pure adrenaline!
Oi!
No Limits – Norantza Aurkitu Nahian
If you love the prolific oi! strand from the Basque Country, don’t miss this very young band from Bergara. Four years after their debut EP “Borroka Garaia,” they are back with their first full-length, whose title means “Trying to find a direction”: 8 very well-played tracks of fast and combative but at the same time melodic and catchy oi!. Keep an eye on this band, it shows real promise!
Bullshit Detectör – No Joy (31Records | 7″)
New EP in vinyl format by the Texas band. The band proposes this compact oi! sound with raspy vocals and sprinklings here and there of post-punk with icy, dark tints. 7 abundant minutes of great impact, we recommend listening to those who love French cold-oi! As soon as it ends you will definitely re-play!
Ska Punk
Merry Malady – Healthy Life
This is a truly amazing album! Ska-punk by definition, but with prog and folk punk echoes a la Days’n’Daze, listen to it even if you don’t count ska-punk among your favorite genres and you won’t be able to do without it! The product of the extraordinary creativity of Merry Malady, vocalist, guitarist, visual artist but above all songwriter, it is embellished by a band that also includes such well-known names in the American scene as Tara Hahn, lead singer of Half Past Two, and Eric Daino, here on bass and keyboards but also serving as producer. It is a hypnotic record that takes us to explore the innermost abysses of the human soul through lyrics made of bold metaphors and imaginative visions, accompanied by vocal harmonies that enchant and drag us into an emotional vortex. Lyrics laden with the pain of living, which, however, is sublimated in singing, and in the yearning for the healing of the soul. Gorgeous!
Los Ocupados – Only Ska Can Save Us
Two languages, English and Spanish, and two voices, for the debut album of this young band from Olympia, Washington. Upbeat, danceable ska punk with jazz suggestions, the album has as its topic the power of music, also understood as a means of aggregation, against anxiety, stress and anything that threatens mental health. Very pleasant!
Benefit Compilation
VVAA – Rock Against Trump Vol. 1 (Punkerton Records)
Significantly released on Jan. 20, this benefit compilation aims to raise the voice of dissent to the newly installed government, which is not promising anything good (even) when it comes to human rights. 65 bands have contributed as many songs, including some unreleased ones, from all subgenres of punk. Proceeds will go equally divided among the ACLU – American Civil Liberties Union, The Innocence Project, Planned Parenthood, PRSL – Punk Rock Saves Lives, Six Feet Over and The Trevor Project.