HYPERDOG-TALES FROM THE MOUNTAIN

Linz, Austria-based indie punks Hyperdog return with the four-song EP Tales from the Mountain (relatively) fresh off the April 2024 LP Frog Mountain, where "with this EP I've tried to bring in some new sounds, like synths and organs, and I've also addressed more serious topics, like addiction and depression. But it’s still a HYPERDOG record, so it’s catchy, quirky and fast," explains singer and guitarist Mario Sanchez. It is, indeed, all of those three things. Opening track "Knife" spends its first twenty-six seconds in very pleasant confines, sounding like early-2010s indie pop, before Sanchez bellows "I got a knife stuck in my head, and I can’t get it out!" signaling the band’s weird merger of angsty vocals with the aforementioned indie pop and some New York Dolls-esque proto-punk.

The second track on the EP, "Not Cool," is foundationally a throwback to early-80s hardcore punk, but it alternates with some Breakfast Club-like synths throughout the track, coming together in a curious synthesis toward its end that merges the two strands with a vaguely surf rock vibe before closing out with more pogo-pit-inducing punk.

Track three, "Sugar Rush," is a generally straightforward punk rock song with the synths providing the upbeat hook, and "Under the Cherry Tree" closes the EP out on a light and breezy instrumental note with birds chirping, sounding like springtime in the Alps, clouds gently floating across a deep blue sky, almost like something you’d expect to hear playing during an opening landscape shot of an imaginary The Sound of Music-type film. So, if you like your punk "catchy, quirky and fast" with a digestif of Alpine pleasantness, then Tales from the Mountain is for you!

Photo Credit: Christophe David