Autumn usually brings a lot of interesting records, and who wouldn’t enjoy that part of the year when the trees change colour and we change one record after another on our turntables? One of the releases I was extremely excited about this year was the debut album from Traxx, a project from San Diego, California. The leaves are already down, frost is starting to appear at night, and this LP has finally found its way onto my turntable thanks to the joint efforts of Try And Stop Me Records and Longshot Music.
Traxx have put together eight songs with a total running time of roughly twenty minutes. The band delivers a mix of rock’n’roll, Oi! and punk, and the different elements blend together surprisingly well. Take The Hives, Problem, No Time and a few classic Oi! bands, throw them into a bag, shake them up properly and then dump the whole thing onto a stage – they transform into Traxx and immediately grab their instruments. The songs draw from slightly different styles, which keeps the listener’s attention throughout the record and prevents it from ever becoming predictable. It’s exactly the kind of album where you never quite know which direction the next song is going to take.
Boot Hill is a solid rock’n’roll opener, setting the pace from the very first seconds. All The Bastards is an energetic skinhead banger that comes looking for trouble with every bastard who gets in your way. Gutter Saints takes its starting point from a rougher, old-school Oi! sound but gives it a more modern face and a little extra punch. When HotShot kicks in, the roof starts coming off, because this is a brilliant anthem with perfect gang vocals that practically demands to be shouted along with the band. King Kong Hard Head should probably be prescribed by doctors to football fans during the off-season to make sure they get their weekly dose of football chants. Wild Eyed And Wicked mixes all the influences mentioned above nicely while pushing the tempo up another notch. You can scream along with the rest of the room during the choruses of Automatic, and we finish on a similar note with How Much Can We Take?.
I simply love this record. So far, it’s easily my most-played album of the year. I keep spinning it on vinyl at home, listen to it through streaming services in the car, and last night my wife even caught me jumping around on the kitchen table to the rhythm of the album and screaming the choruses. Yes, alright, it was Automatic, you’re right. The world might survive the loss of one marriage this year, but my 2026 would definitely be a lot less fun without this record.
My only minor complaint concerns the sound. Since Traxx recorded the material over a period of time, there’s a noticeable difference in sound quality between some of the songs, and it seems likely that they come from three separate recording sessions. It’s nothing that seriously gets in the way of the listening experience, but when you play the whole LP from beginning to end, the differences are occasionally noticeable. I’d also have appreciated having the lyrics included, because with a record this energetic, I’m always curious to know what exactly is hiding behind all those shouted choruses.
But enough writing. I’m putting it on again.
TOP TRACKY: All The Bastards, Automatic, Hot Shot
