Gym Tonic - Play Dead

  

  Here's a release I've been waiting eagerly for. Berlin quartet Gym Tonic released a wonderful album in 2019 titled Good Job which they pitched as being hyped up synth punk in the vein of DEVO, Half Japanese & The Residents. I featured this song from it :  https://justsomepunksongs.blogspot.com/2019/04/gym-tonic-carsick.html

  Since then, all I've heard from them was a track that featured on the No Way Back compilation :  https://justsomepunksongs.blogspot.com/2020/06/gym-tonic-by-time-i-was-young.html

  There was however some outstanding live footage of the band playing live at Fritz's Ranch (HOW AWESOME IS THIS!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBvMWyq73mY). 

  Today that eager wait comes to an end. They've just released a new 6 track ep titled Sanitary Situations. Featuring a line up of Olivier Bernet (Synth & Voc), Karen Thompson (Bass & Voc), Stéphanie Morin (Guitar & Voc) & Alice Huet (Drums) it's everything I was hoping for. It's catchy, inventive synth punk that'll keep those live crowds dancing. You can get it on vinyl or digital download here : https://gymtonic.bandcamp.com/album/sanitary-situations

  I could have chosen any of the songs to highlight but I'm going with Play Dead...

Gym Tonic - By The Time I Was Young

  Did you see the Just Some Punk Songs' Top 100 Songs Of 2019 list?   (https://justsomepunksongs.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-50-songs-of-2019.html). I hope you did as it was bloody good (though I would say that as I compiled it!). Anyway, the point of bringing it up (aside from tempting you to check out some of the great bands that featured) is to demonstrate how impressed I was with one of the bands I came across last year. Berlin based synthpunk 4 piece Gym Tonic (https://www.facebook.com/GYM-Tonic-597778927050736/) released their debut album, Good Job, and it was a delight. 10 killer songs with possibly the highlight, Tourists Of Death, sitting proudly in 4th position in the Top 100. Obviously new music by the band was always going to be very welcome and that's what I'm featuring today.

  Holed up in isolation, Olivier (keys/vocals), Karen (bass/vocals), Andrea (drums) and Stephanie (guitar/vocals) haven't been letting enforced separation keep them quiet. They've been working on a few demos and they contributed one of them to an impressive 36 track sampler from No Way Back   (https://nowayback.bandcamp.com/releases). All income from the sampler goes towards Mission Lifeline (https://mission-lifeline.de/).

  The Gym Tonic song is quite a restrained affair by their standards but it creeps and crawls it's way into your consciousness and it reminds us why we loved Good Job so much. I'm left thinking "Fuck off virus and let bands like Gym Tonic back into the studio and get back to releasing great music."

  It's called By The Time I Was Young...

Gym Tonic - Carsick

  Gym Tonic are based in Berlin with members from Canada and France and feature Olivier (keys/vocals), Karen (bass/vocals), Andrea (drums) and Stephanie (guitar/vocals). They describe themselves as playing hyped up synth punk in the vein of DEVO, Half Japanese & The Residents. Last month they released a debut album titled Good Job, it's available via Et mon cul c'est du tofu? and Transistor 66 and you can stream it here :   https://gymtonic.bandcamp.com/album/good-job

  You can get more info here : https://www.facebook.com/GYM-Tonic-597778927050736/

  Good Job is their first release since their 2017 split 7" with PUFF and it features rerecorded versions of their 2 songs from that split along with 8 other very cool synthpunk bangers. Most of the songs feature predominantly female vocals, the exception being the excellent Tourists Of Death (I'll play it on next Sunday's Just Some Punk Songs show). There's a video for B12 Injection which is well worth checking out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IjcBd-vEvA) but the song I'm featuring today is called Carsick....