After a very busy year, over the last few weeks I’ve been catching up with music that I’ve collected over that time. This might include things I’ve purchased physically on LP at record stores, or music I’ve had shared by friends and peers. When I started getting heavily involved in participating in a music community back in the 90s — in this case the punk/hardcore scene I was involved with at the time — it was incredibly common (as well as being a normal thing) to trade music with other artists that were active in the same scene. In many cases it was trades done with bands that any band I was in at the time — in most cases swapping demo tapes as many of us were starting out and didn’t really have a the finances or the expanded musical network to press an actual vinyl record. Things were small and local, but I managed to get into my hands some small local music gems that would ultimately be included in the music that would provide some influence to my musical world.
In more recent years I’ve been getting back into this habit. When I play shows in other countries or at festivals, I’ll often strike up a conversation and establish some sort of kinship with the bands I’d be playing with. I’d offer to trade a record and the other bands would be totally up for doing a trade. With that I’ve collected records by newer bands/artists that I’m into and it’s nice to have that music on a physical copy I’d play at home.
Just over two years ago I went over to Finland to play a handful of shows with a band I was aware of at the time called Aus Tears out of Helsinki. During that time I had a great time hanging out with the band, comprised of Andrea Bonini and Ida-Sofia Tuomisto sharing both synth and vocal duties, and was graciously put up by Andrea in his Helsinki flat. We had a shared background coming out of punk and hardcore music, with he actively playing in punk bands back in the day in his native Italy. Although we both came out of punk scenes out of opposing sides of the world — and with different styles and aesthetics — the core feelings, energy and lifestyle choices were very similar.
Aus Tears began in the mid/late 2010s with the release of a self-titled cassette tape in 2015, and then another cassette entitled 15/18 three years later. During the first year of the pandemic they then self-released their first album Level Directions in vinyl LP format, which I was more than happy to get a copy of during my trip to Finland. I was then handed a download of their most recent six-track, self-released 12″ EP entitled Structure and Collapse that was release in this autumn of 2024.
Like most releases, I need to get a bit familiar with them before I start to develop a feeling for them. So given that I listened to this new release a few times scattered over the period of 5-6 weeks. With Aus Tears I don’t think there is a massively calculated approach to their style — and that’s a good thing. I think it’s moreover taking the energy and experience from their respective punk backgrounds and applying that into an electronic landscape in a very honest way, resulting in a sound that pulls generally from synth punk, minimal wave and early EBM without really trying to follow any of those genres consciously. It just seems sort of natural. The composition of basslines and synths may have come from the same approach from shared experiences from a more standard band instrumentation. Strong saw wave synths push out of PA speakers.
Both Andrea and Ida-Sofia have a strong, commanding vocal delivery — perhaps with less focus on what is traditional “singing” but rather more of a full-diaphragm, rallying chant as a direct message to their audience, adding presence and strength to their compositions. The second track on this release, “Monuments”, has a very mechanical drum pattern that caught by ear that brings the listener almost into a trance, featuring Andrea’s bold vocals. Then, following that, the transition to the following track, “Machine”, offers what I picked up as a sleight change of colour and tone that features Ida-Sofia’s voice. This transition is a noticeable point in tone in the numerous times I’ve listened to this record. Both members trade synth and vocal duties across this release, and their choice of six strong tracks for this year of 2024 makes for a nice bold and recent document of the band.
Like most things I listen to, there tend to be other musical touch points that come to mind when I’m listening, even if vague or at times somewhat unrelated. The energy and vocal timbre of Aus Tears to me somehow bring artists like Theatre Of Hate and Trial to mind — the former being a UK post-punk band fronted by first-wave UK punk musician Kirk Brandon, and the latter being a far lesser known San Francisco dark “peace-punk” band from the mid 1980s (not to be confused with the Seattle-based “straight edge” hardcore band from the 1990s) that I latched onto back in my early twenties. In my mind the connection with Aus Tears to these two bands is merely coincidental, with all three landing in a “tonal zone” in my mind, each on their own completely different paths.
I suppose I get this often enough with listeners taking to my about my own music as Soft Riot — making comparisons on what I do musically to a completely erratic list of artists that really don’t have much to do with one another. This I appreciate though: getting different viewpoints from listeners about what they think I sound like. The answers are always different, and many unexpected, which to me seems like I might be doing something not necessarily completely different, but unique in its own way.