Album Review: Deleter- Oblique Seasons

Sometimes, I wish I knew what I did with my cassette copy of Rancid’s And Out Come The Wolves.

I mean, it’s probably not an album that I would listen to enough to warrant buying it on CD or something in the year 2015, but 20 years ago at a Best Buy in Madison, WI, I purchased this album—I also had their earlier effort, Let’s Go, on cassette as well, purchased less than a year prior after I had read about the band in a short lived magazine called Flux.

Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is that pop-infused punk, and punk in general, I guess, is something that I have a soft spot for, due to records like this that were purchased in my youth.

I think I said something similar in my review of the latest Persian Leaps record, as well as the recently released Murder Shoes record, but I’ll say it again—the 90s are alive, and they are well, and Land Ski Records has a direct line to them—especially on its most recent release, Oblique Seasons by the group Deleter.

From the opening staccato guitar work that kicks off the snarling open track, “Dysphoria,” to the tracks that are less than two minute full on assaults, to songs with titles like “Lab Rats Revolt,” “Worst Person in The World” and “Ridiculous Man,” Oblique Seasons is pure power punk for the year 2015.

Calling to mind seasoned acts like Fugazi, a little bit of Faith No More, and Girls Against Boys, as well as more obscure, nostalgia minded acts like Hausu and Cousins (both of whom put out excellent cassettes on Bridgetown in 2013), Deleter blisters through the album’s 12 tracks in well under a half hour, barely allowing themselves a chance to catch their breath in between high energy tracks like the herky jerky “Seclusion,” the 80s new wave of “Militant Idiot,” or the spooky feedback blasts of “A Ridiculous Man,” before diving into straight forward punk anthems like “Macy Shot a Cop” and “Worry Less.”

The nice thing about a record like Oblique Seasons is that even with its brash, middle finger to the system attitude and aesthetic, it still maintains a sense of scathing humor and it’s a record that doesn’t take itself seriously, which is a relatively refreshing thing to hear.

Oblique Seasons is out on Dec. 7.