German post-punk band Onyon scrambled our brains when we heard them for the first time last year, so much so that we signed them & reissued their eponymous debut cassette EP (originally co-released in limited quantities by the Flennen/U-Bac labels) in June of 22. Last Days On Earth is the bands latest & first proper full-length for Trouble In Mind.

The oddball, synth-soaked world of Onyon is disorienting at first – the bands herky-jerky rhythms may operate in a familiar fashion to bands like Devo, Kleenex/Liliput or label-mates LITHICS, but Maria Untheims woozy synth squiggles that populate & punctuate the bands songs keeps everything at arms-length. Flirting with the primitive cool of 80s minimal-synth and the wire-haired cretinism of 60s garage, especially on tunes like the manic Dogman or first single Alien, Alien. Guitarist Ilka Kellners six-string salvos rage unpretentiously with edges torn & frayed, rarely (if ever) soloing, but never afraid to unleash a spindly lead-line over Florian Schmidts rubbery bass lines & Mario Pongratzs stuttering drum patterns that phase in & out of time imperceptibly like drunks doing their best to seem sober. Kellner & Untheim share vocal duties (in both English & German – sometimes in the same song), but the real magic comes when the two sing together, voices merging in loosely harmonic gang vocals; one deadpan, the other slightly unhinged. The groups beguiling lyrics add to the mystique – inscrutable neu-world fables about egg machines, ghosts, worms that talk, and urges to consume newspaper that ooze a rural, old-world understanding of life & the imperceptible spaces in between reality & fiction, transmuted thru a modernist sci-fi lensflare.

Recorded, mixed & mastered in late 2022 by Martin Mller, Last Days On Earth is released on CD, black vinyl & limited purple vinyl (while supplies last) as well as streaming via most digital platforms.

Recommended if you like: Wet Leg, Es, Devo, LITHICS, Maraudeur, NOTS, The Staches, The Fates, Y Pants, Raincoats, Kleenex/Liliput, Chrisma.

Tracklist:
1. Alien, Alien
2. Talking Worms
3. Egg Machine
4. Goldie
5. Two Faces
6. Dogman
7. Blue Lagoon
8. Yahtzee
9. Invisible Spook
10. I Would Like To Eat The Newspaper
11. O.U.T.
12. Mower