O.U." (Onesnaževanje Uma, Slovenian for "Mind Pollution") is a new D.I.Y. label from Ilirska Bistrica in Slovenia and this is its first vinyl release. KPAX! (pronounced "Krah!”) hailing from Belgrade in Serbia and hence this is already their second album, they still reside most likely on the more obscure side of punk rock.
Now, their obscurity might be based on the fact that vinyl releases in the Serbian DIY punk scene don't come that often and are not as widely distributed. This means a lot of people probably miss out on a lot of really really fantastic Bands. KPAX! are one of them for sure!... They describe themselves as "post-punk from another dimension" and in that dimension we find a massive amount of musical diversity and creativity within their songwriting. They don’t give too much about the current hipstery trends of imitating retro values like the UK82 sound and that's really refreshing!
Literally every song has its own mark. There's quite some 90'ties touch that indicates that there's for sure some DIY punk veterans at work, deeply rooted in the Anarcho/Squat Punk scene of Belgrade.
Not so sure about the "Post-punk" seal, or at least don’t give it too much weight as KPAX! drift back into straight Punk Rock roots from time to time. In my opinion at least. It’s best to give it a listen… from song number two on, it just gets better and better.
In conclusion… this is a great Band and Album and absolute must have if you look for some quality (Post-) Punk from another dimension…
