NGL012, Limited to 300 copies (SOLD OUT - Brisbane)

I tried to talk the Low Life cassette up as much as I could - fantastic animosity from Australia, it was super-aggro even by Oz standards. Apparently NGL liked it a bunch too, which leads us to the 'Sydney Darbs' 7", that just gets right down to business with "Atomised". Sheer aural assault, fleshpeeling guitar, hatred-spewing vox, earthquake rhythm section - real streetcleaning shit. "Rewire" retracts the venom a bit but operates in a more neanderthal-like fashion. Blunt and rather rude. "Submission" kicks off Side-B (and your dick) with more of that skinflaying guitar sound, I think the first lyric is something about "old cunts" - real anti-human sermonizing that I can get behind. This one barrels along like a beat-to-shit pick-up blazing down outback roads, shooting guns at anything that moves. A legit corker, great lyrics included. "Down Under" closes up shop, and it's a fucking black hole. Exceptional. I feel like these guys are the closest thing to an Aberrant Records band I've heard in modern times, and they add a bit of NYC-scumrock filth to the proceedings. Even the lyrics are top fucking notch. I feel like taking a shower after a few listens to this. Watch out for their 'Dogging' LP in 2012. I know I will be. (RK - Terminal Boredom)

It would be remiss to exclude the downer nihilism of Flipper when referring to what is so energizing about this mass movement of Australian half-speed hardcore repossession. Low Life is the perfect representation of what makes junk-punk such a gnarly revelation. The Sydney trio displays such a classic tone on their debut that it’s like discovering some lost pocket of proto-sludge from the early ’80s. While Black Flag and Bad Brains were searching for speed, Low Life’s inspiratory mainline is filled with Drunk with Guns records and, as expressed in “Atomised” or “Rewire,” Wire as pigfuck. This is heavy face-melting metal, really, just bypassing actual metal in exchange for AmRep aggro. Think Cows and Cherubs, rhythms so blatantly bashed to a grind it’s like being dragged by the leg on hot asphalt, with skin flayed to reveal the gory details of the circulatory system. This is the grimiest twist on the Aussie underground’s already soiled underbelly, perhaps the Australian doppelganger to the sonic rape provided by the Unholy Two. That’s definitely apparent on “Down Under,” which ends the EP with their distinctively abrasive structure, but soon devolves into brown-acid psych or some nightmarish PiL mantra driven into oblivion. (The Agit Reader)

Low Life Sydney Darbs 7″ (Negative Guest List) Anyone to recently complete their Riot City and Erl discographies and in need of a new obsession will find lots to dig in Low Life’s Sydney Darbs EP. Low Life have this horribly washed-out guitar sound, straight out of the late ’80s (like later Dr. Know, or maybe a dollar-bin SST record) and approach their songs like Fang, probably closer to Fang than any other band going at it today. A fake British accent (can Australians do a fake British accent?) mugs over some California-circa-’83 hardcore riffing, just oozing disgust and the plausible possibility of violence. Definitely the sort of band that you’d randomly hear on a Mystic comp and run to the Internet to research, hoping that they did more than just a demo in their time. I could definitely go for more of Low Life and their British street-punk / American noise-rock combination. Some angry sounds were just waiting to be mixed. (Yellow Green Red)

Debut 7” from this group from Sydney, Australia on the classy NGL imprint. Major UK scuzz damaged four-tracker that combines psychedelic post-punk with damaged Afflicted Man/Accursed style vocals and monomaniacal guitar, almost Brainbombs style insistence and the kinda scorching string attack that could almost be Frankie fucking Fix. Totally compulsive and highly recommended. (Volcanic Tongue)