I have some old EPs from The Hang-Ten Hangmen dating back to 2010, playing trashy lo-fi surf with a bit of a dark edge to them. They turned that around with their much more bright and bouncy EP "Destination Saturn", which had some great expensive-sounding production and beach party vibes. They followed that up in 2018 with their LP "This is Boss", which doubled down on the party feeling with big foot-stomping vibes, sax, and keeping guitar tones fairly clean.
I'll admit that while it was a solid record, I felt like it was devoid of the grit from those 2010 recordings. This EP, on the other hand, feels like the summation of everything along the way. The very first track is a reworking of an older tune "Zombie Stomp", but it now howls and screams while making sure to bounce enough to keep your body in motion. "Point Break Hop" is even more rhythmically focused but with some pretty gnarly guitar swelling and crashing throughout. They certainly haven't gone back to their lo-fi selves, but the grit is back in a big way. In general this is a surf record, though certainly not in an uber-traditional simple riff way (especially not on the patient and moody "After the Storm").
While I certainly wouldn't want to keep a band from pushing themselves further, I feel like this band has really found their strength here, and I only lament the fact that there's just six tracks.
Digital and CD. Check it out!
