Words: LMW, Photos: Richie Yates
Charm Offensive by Gas Kunst feels very much like an explosion of character. The band hails from Northwich, but their influences are anything but provincial — sonically, they’re eclectic, and this record brims with a chemical cocktail of pure energy. This four-piece bends genres, stretching across categories in amoeba-like fashion. You can hear their imagination spilling through every track.
The opener, ‘101’ is stark and bare-bones. A drum machine provides the skeletal frame while singer/guitarists Justin Case and Dick Cable lace it with fuzz-drenched riffs. There’s a raw honesty here—unguarded, almost naïve in its directness.
Contrast that with ‘Do You Wanna Ride a Bike With Us?’ which plays like a collision between post-’65 Kinks, the youthful fizz of I Should Coco-era Supergrass, and the scrappy wit of The Lovely Eggs. It channels a distinctly ‘English-ness’ of sardonic wit and whimsical wonder, splicing it into the already-established noise and fuzz
Elsewhere, the band channels the grit of the ’90s. ‘Lose Change’ carries echoes of Soft Play and latter-day Refused, garage punk smeared with industrial grime. That same rusted edge runs through ‘Gift Wrap’ which hints at Belgian alt-rockers Millionaire while brushing up against Mudhoney’s sludgy fuzz.
Then there’s ‘Burgers ‘n’ Bills’—a turbo-charged punk tune that could sit comfortably between (early) The Hives and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. ‘Lighting Mary’ sweetens the deal with a sugar-coated garage-pop shine, somewhere between the B-52s and bubblegum punk. By the time we get to ‘I’ve Got a Big Cup (If You’ve Got the Potion)’ the band have drifted into late-’60s counterculture territory—think CCR jamming with Buffalo Springfield after a few nights listening to The Sonics.
Charm Offensive works almost like a documentary of the band. It introduces you to their sound, their identity, and their unapologetically broad range of influences. Gas Kunst clearly understand not only their musical forebears but also the cultural environment those sounds came from. This is the 21st century: a post-postmodern landscape where retro revivalism folds in on itself until both halves touch. It’s meta — but not in the Zuckerberg sense. The band revels in post-punk and garage rock’s full toolkit: drum machines, shifting guitar textures, lyrical wordplay that’s both biting, honest and cheekily comedic.
For fans of Eagles of Death Metal, Ty Segall, and Millionaire, Charm Offensive is not just an album—it’s a ride through a hall of mirrors where the past and present swap jackets, share records, and jam out together.
Links:
Available from Rare Vitamin Records at https://rarevitaminrecords.bandcamp.com/album/charm-offensive
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LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/gas_kunst