Springfield, Missouri’s duo Kudzu are slated to release their new Defeated LP on March 2 via Push & Pull Records, and WL//WH is listening to it right now as we present it to you! Kudzu is Seth Goodwin on vocals, synth, and drum programming, and Mark Gillenwaters on vocals and guitar too, a dynamic duo who released their debut LP in 2015 (Cairoglyphics), performed it live a lot and then got in the studio for their new long play that delivers a cheerfully caustic synth pop assault with psychedelic underpinnings, which also holds a quite groovy, angry and indicative musical and lyrical approach. These pop melodies in choruses and the quite synthetic veil they put on cannot hide their keen on and their actual post-punk character, because the record is all filled with fuzzes created by their hardware generators, their amplified guitars and the sonic wall that they perform in here! Kudzu are sharp minded and angular, tricky and groovy, jumbling and baffling the listener with their music. They blend all these elements and influences in a very kinky musical way that though you may think you listen to post-punk, they cleverly load such melodies that some pop stars would be jealous over and here’s No Backbone for example:
The whole record is already more frustrated than that tune.The DIY scene was and still is part of their lives and that interaction left an evident mark on their style and music. I don’t mean that punk and post-punk music only happens in DIY, but the people who are involved in mostly have a certain and healthy social/political views on authorities while the neighborhood, on many occasions, thinks that we’re weird, and it always looks for Some Cops to solve that “issue”…
Defeated LP includes versatile options and one more paradigm is the title song, a post-punk gem which kinda nailed me for good with its energy and groove. These guys can easily jump from protest songs to passionate sonic manifestos like in here, where the vocal delivery is mostly oscillating between Johnny Rotten’s fame and the cold sinister lyricism of early Al Jourgensen’s Ministry phase, check!
Other songs you must listen when the record is out is definitely BIYE, the title says it all I think, where the anthemic chorus passed me from the rifff’s sound pressure to its large hall oscillation brilliantly, and Balking the Grave, the LP’s well-hidden diamond as number 5 track, a fantastic song that Fabrizio quoted “Isn’t that a maxi yet?”. Keep in track with our mates from Springfield and you won’t regret it at all, the band is so utterly original and it seems that they are currently entering their heyday phase! Here’s Defeated and when the LP is published on March 2 the link will be updated and open to the masses, but you can still pre-order and support the global underground and local scenes!
Keep Up With Kudzu
Written by Loud Cities Mike
