Written by: Dave Cantrell

There’s not one of you reading this that doesn’t harbor beyond-fond feelings for the Kleenex/LiLiPUT movement from four decades ago. I say ‘movement’ instead of ‘band’ because, one, while certainly an integral part of the European post-punk community overall – in memory if not in the moment itself they were in a sort of sonorous sorority with other groundbreakers such as the Slits, the Raincoats, Ludus and others – their effect, one assumes, on their immediate scene in and around Zürich and indeed all of Switzerland was at the very least quite significant; and two, well, listen to just about any track off either of LiliPUT’s albums (self-titled from 1982, Some Songs from ’82) and try not to engage in some serious movement yourself. As for that first point one need look no further than the two bandmates joining original K/L bassist Klaudia Schifferle in new band ONETWOTHREE, whose debut full-length (untitled but with the band name on the cover) appears on Kill Rock Stars October 15th. Sara Schär and Madlaina Peer – fun fact: both also bassists – were also both involved in ‘that’ scene in the late 70s early 80s, the former in the bands TNT and The Kick, the latter with the Noknows. Though making for a solid, and really rather heartwarming backstory, the most salient effect of that connection has to be the advantage it brings to the ONETWOTHREE sound, to their winningly natural no-wave new wave groove. Patching in touches of synth and guitar to their triple bass foundation and utilizing a punchy, lockdown-handy drum machine as their rhythmic foil, producing it themselves, the result album-wide, far from being hermetic, is instead tightly expansive, immensely assured, and a very very welcome shout-back both to and from the era that originally formed them. Resilient, original, and seriously confident about its playfulness, the album, with its slyly generic cover seeming to say “It’s the music that matters!”, is among the most refreshing releases of this plague-fatigued year, and we are stoked and not a little proud to be bringing you the world’s first look at its second single.