New Jersey lo-fi rockers Plague Skater’s Plague Skater II was one of my favorite albums of last year. Today the self-professed “scuzz pop” act is back with another efficiently titled project, an EP called psep.
Will Schwester continues to handle mostly everything where Plague Skater is concerned; in this case that means “vocals, guitar, bass, drums, sampler, keyboard, percussion, drum machine.” His Mascis-esque guitar solo on “Rip (New)” is a thing of beauty. The high-speed lattice work on “Bubblegum Face” is just as impressive, lending structure to a bash-out harmonic racket that calls back to early Wavves or Cloud Nothings. The shoegazey “Dearest,” meanwhile, is like a dust storm blowing through.
In terms of outside contributions, “Shield,” the new EP’s shot-from-a-cannon opening track, is cowritten by Lucy Ferrara, who contributes lead guitar to the recording. The abstract guitar meditation “Mint” is built from samples of Schwester jamming with Josh Skoudis. It’s the beginning of a comedown that concludes with an acoustic version of “Rip,” one more gorgeous track from one of the best lo-fi rock projects going. Stream the full EP below.
psep is out now on Flea Collar Tapes. Buy it here.
59