In just half a decade Olympia’s Gen Pop have forged a singular style over the release of several EPs and the aptly titled, 2020 full length, “PPM66”. The group draws water from the disparate wells of early 80’s American hardcore and late 70’s UK post-punk, filtering it through the shitshow chaos of the early 21st century international cultural, political, and environmental climates. A sound fully realized and on display here in the ninth volume of the infamous Beat Sessions, presented by Shout Recordings. Precise, punchy, yet dynamic and fluid drumming underlie a cascade of tones, textures, styles, and voices to form a repertoire of songs where change is the only constant. The music cycles between uplifting, romantic, distressing, aggressive, and disjointed. Tempo and feeling will shift on a dime, and songs often exhibit romance, buoyancy, aggression, and anxiety simultaneously. This performance was captured by Shout’s Mike Kriebel in December 2021 at LA’s Golden Beat Studios. The line up was supplemented on this session by Anthony Gaviria, of the fellow Washingtonian oddball outfit Lysol, on bass guitar.

Our take: The latest volume in the illustrious Beat Sessions series captures Olympia’s Gen Pop live in the studio. I’ve loved Gen Pop from the start, which makes sense because they wear their Wire influence on their collective sleeve, and Wire is one of my favorite bands ever. As with early Wire, most of Gen Pop’s songs are energetic, minimal, and angular to the point of being spiky around the edges, even treading into hardcore, but without that genre’s more macho and aggro elements. Even in those aggressive songs, though, there are elements that feel artsy and beautiful, like the interesting guitar melodies in “Senseless Action” or the chiming, Paisley Underground vibes in “Rough Slough Triptych.” Of course the ultimate Wire move is dropping a pure pop banger in the middle of all that spiky angularity, a feat Gen Pop nailed on their debut LP and reprise here with the same centerpiece, the gentle and fluid pop song “Pixel Glow.” As is typical for the Beat Sessions series, Mike Kriebel’s recording captures the band in clear and striking detail, like they’re filmed in strong natural light, and that approach only serves to highlight what a great fucking band Gen Pop is. Oh, and since they rip through several tracks that haven’t been released elsewhere (at least as far as I can tell), this makes this volume of the Beat Sessions a mandatory purchase in my book.