Sleep Walk/Impulse – California Violence split 7”– Trends Die/Ghost Friend Records

Short end vs. long end; the eternal debate and likely the most important decision you may ever face in your life.  The short end being the narrower end of a slab of ribs and the long end being the wider end of a slab of ribs, as offered up in BBQ joints around Kansas City.  Short ends are going to give you a meatier flavor, but are chewier and slightly more difficult to eat.  Long ends are going to give you that clean bite off the bone making it much friendlier to eat.  This distinction is taught at a pre-K level here in Grilla City, however, there is no right or wrong answer, both are great, that’s why when in doubt you should just order the full slab.  Just like this split between Chula Vista natives Sleep Walk and Impulse.  Both are similar in that they share members, but they both satisfy in different ways.

Sleep Walk kicks this split off with a throwback 80’s Black Flag meets Dick Dale surfed out intro. California as fuck.  Ultimately, they break it fucking down with laid back fury to end the title track.  Sleep Walk continues that throwback 80’s Cali hardcore throughout their 4 songs.  Stringy guitars behind legible shouts about lifes hardships make for some headnodable jams.  The yell intro into When Things Get Rough is classic.  Lost At Sea comes in at a fast stringy pace, stops, takes off again before building back up with some minor shit talk and breaks it the fuck down Chula Vista style on you.  No bullshit, no faux angry posing, just some dudes from Southern California going all out on some hardcore that’s easy to get behind.

On the other side, Impulse creates their own brand of Burrito Violence.  Sped up Youth of Today energy behind spazzed out “waa wa waa!” vox.  They kick it off with a peacock chest strutting intro that releases into fast hardcore/powerviolence that you'd expect from Southern Cal.  Standout track Ice Control is 43 seconds of fast hardcore with a Youth Crew-ish feel…”You’re Not The Same!”  Turning Point brings that slow powerviolence tension that leaves you hanging by never quite giving way to the fury.  They finish out with 3 songs, each under 22 seconds of hyper fast hardcore that hits like Seau.  This is their Coldstart stuff finally pressed and with their Chula Violence 7" repressed by TLAL earlier this year, this has become the year of Impulse.

Both Sleep Walk's California Violence and Impulse's Coldstart desperately needed to see the light of day. Huge ups to Trends Die and Ghost Friend for putting out this full slab.  You need to get with this shit, now.