Punk duo Snõõper, originally formed as a duo with Nashville scene mainstay Connor Cummins and animator/visual artist/vocalist Blair Tramel before expanding to a five piece, is as much a band as it is an art exhibition, with videos and live shows using the band’s frenzied garage punk as a soundtrack for garish paper Mache models and charmingly lo-fi animations. Their sound fits in elegantly with contemporaries like Bodega and Panic Shack but with a drive for speed which compliments their tireless art-punk spirit.
Listening to Super Snõõper is like having a conversation with a hyperactive toddler, ideas fly past, barely giving the listener time to process what’s happening, before you can even try and interpret one idea they’re onto the next. Even the intro track ‘Stretching’, despite only lasting a minute, requires multiple listens thanks to its chaotic structure with snippets of music being interrupted by sound effects before fading out to garbled Morse code. The first proper track ‘Bedbugs’ is only slightly more intelligible, darting through with a ludicrously high tempo and 30 second runtime, praise has to be given to drummer Cam Sarrett for their tight playing amid all the chaos.
Singles ‘Pod’ and ‘Fitness’ manage to stand out as upbeat, catchy and cohesive tracks that contrast with many of the more hectic songs on the album. Keeping the Snõõper DNA intact with unrelenting pace, jagged guitar riffs and shouted vocals Pod is a statement piece that explains the band’s massive hype, it’s a tight, compellingly weird yet accessible minute and a half that evokes the best of Talking Heads while staying true to the band’s punk roots. ‘Fitness’ continues this trend with a rushed, angular take on garage rock fuelled by whistles and samples that speeds past like an Olympic sprinter with a berserk, moshable groove that screeches to a halt at the end with a sample of a sports interview. As the two most accessible tracks on Super Snõõper these both show off the band’s unique aspects and expose the album’s biggest weakness, despite their impressive speed both tracks really feel like they could use some room to breathe. Snõõper clearly aren’t struggling to keep up with their own pace but some listeners may find this constant barrage of ideas exhausting.
“Snõõper clearly aren’t struggling to keep up with their own pace but some listeners may find this constant barrage of ideas exhausting”
Snõõper feel primed to carve a very specific niche in rock music, one that thrives on its own weirdness with wall-of-noise guitars and breakneck speeds, like if Devo made grindcore. Never taking their foot off the accelerator works for Snõõper, speeding through their cacophonous snippets of punk leaving no room for breath or a second thought, in fact, despite featuring 16 songs the album barely scrapes past the 20 minute mark with almost a quarter of the runtime being devoted to the closing track. While some of these quick bursts of music work as standalone songs many of them feel more like skits that only make sense in the context of the album or alongside Tramel’s visuals, tracks like ‘Stretching 2 and 3’ take up valuable runtime with experimental, sample heavy nonsense whereas songs with legitimate musical merit like ‘Music For Spies’, a fast-paced power-punk anthem driven by frantic vocals, are lost in amongst the noise. A tighter focus, cutting some of these unnecessary tracks and extending the singles into more substantial songs, may have made Super Snõõper a more memorable experience.
The album’s closer ‘Running’ is an unexpectedly indulgent yet deliberately paced track that shows off an entirely different side of Snõõper. Clocking in at a staggering five and a half minutes, ‘Running’ takes up a surprisingly huge chunk of the album’s runtime but with constant forward momentum from crunchy drums, driving bass and post-punk inspired, reverb and delay drenched guitars the runtime is entirely warranted. Running is a wild left turn for Snõõper but one that massively pays off, keeping the band’s chaotic signature sound intact but allowing them time to find a proper groove rather than being restricted by minute long tracks. Hopefully on Snõõper’s next album we’ll get to hear them explore this side of their sound more.
Super Snõõper is a confidently experimental and unique debut album that shows glimpses of what could be a great band, Snõõper showcase their particular brand of lightning fast art punk, offering frustratingly brief snippets of brilliance. Despite being a bit of a mixed bag there’s certainly some gems to be found here, many of the tracks are catchy and compellingly weird but aren’t given nearly the amount of time or attention they deserve.