TELEVISION KNOCKOUT, what an ironic, provocative name. Aren't our brains all dehydrated from the constant bombardment of more than 30 channels of nonsense comedy reality soap shows? Or does television educate? This is not the primary question the band from Berlin is addressing. The trio has recorded "Thrills from the Tube," their first album, in the studio of Smail from THE SHOCKS. A good reference, as Smail knows how good garage punk / '77 punk should sound. The recording has turned out really great. The songs come blasting out of the speakers. TELEVISION KNOCKOUT plays a mix of '77 punk and garage, occasionally spiced with a touch of pop, rock, and power pop. With two exceptions, all the songs are quite short, some under two minutes. These short songs still manage to convey a lot in terms of lyrics. Critique of the state is delivered in ten lines, but there's also bitter, dark humor. Or is it irony? The boundaries are fluid here. Musically and lyrically, the band naturally also reminds one of THE SHOCKS from Berlin. Which is not a bad reference. Nevertheless, TELEVISION KNOCKOUT has a large portion of individuality to avoid being labeled as a The Shocks clone. The only minor criticism is the release itself. Nine songs in less than half an hour is not a lot, but since the CD comes at mid-price, it's still acceptable, especially since the disc comes in a nice digipack with a poster booklet.
This article was automatically translated by AI.
