Ubik (Melbourne, Australia) and Cold Meat (Perth, Australia) have joined forces to release a split EP combining the two bands bratty upbeat punk styles. The 7” EP features original material alongside each band’s homage to titans of women in punk Siouxsie Sioux and Exene Cervenka of X. This EP connects the present day of Australian bi-coastal punk with a legacy of punk, sometimes overlooked, but, always driven by women. A split release between Melbourne's Lost in Fog Records & Perth's Helta Skelta Records.Our take: Split 7” from these two Australian bands, both of whom we’ve heard from before. Cold Meat are up first and deliver two originals of their amped-up, garage-ish punk rock. If you’re a fan of their other stuff or similar bands like Helta Skelta or the Shitty Limits you won’t be disappointed as this is grade A, energetic, song-oriented punk rock. They close out their side with a cover of “Love in a Void” by Siouxsie and the Banshees. “Love in a Void” has never been one of my favorite Siouxsie songs, mostly because the band got so much better once they got a little more ambitious, but Cold Meat’s version tightens up the playing from the original version and reveals the great classic punk track lurking below the sloppiness of that early Banshees lineup. As for Ubik, they have one brief original and a cover of “Nausea” by X. While Ubik’s previous 7” had a Crisis-esque anarcho-punk vibe, their original here is a brief and blindingly fast pogo-punk number that has all the catchiness of their earlier stuff but way more energy. Most of their side of the split is devoted to the X cover, and while it’s solid and fun to listen to, I wouldn’t say their straightforward, stripped-down version does anything super exciting with the track. I would have preferred more original material over the covers, but the covers are still fun to listen to and I’m glad to get at least some new material from two bands I like a lot.
