Amyl And The Sniffers
Some Mutts (Can't Be Muzzled)

You can't muzzle certain bastards.

Take Amyl and the Sniffers, now and always the best thing to happen to punk rock in the new century.

An EP with four songs in February 2016 and a second with the same number just a year later – «Giddy Up» and «Big Attraction» – both self-produced and given away to anyone with ears to hear.

2018 was supposed to be the year of their full-length debut, heralded by meeting with a record label and the release of a vinyl that compiles the two EPs.

Then things didn't go as planned because those bigwigs demanded Amyl and company smooth out the edges a bit, they responded as naturally as someone would in front of a microphone and with an instrument in hand just to have fun and crash some parties, so dear record company, see you never again and forget the thanks.

Because you can't muzzle certain bastards, nor can you put them on a leash: translated, «Some Mutts (Can't Be Muzzled)».

Which is the title of the new single by Amyl and the Sniffers and it seems so much, in ideal substance more than in musical form, like that «Complete Control» that the Clash put out 30 years ago to seek a clash with CBS.

Just two tracks, like the most classic of singles.

«Some Mutts» on side A marks another shift in the sound of Amyl and the Sniffers, because if their debut step is punk in the most classic '77 tradition and the following «Big Attraction» clearly flirts with proto-punk – in this sense, «Balaclava Lover Boogie» is a modern classic of the genre – then, «Some Mutts» has a formidable rock'n'roll drive and my first thought is that if there had been a young sprout in the lineup in love with Jerry Lee Lewis, Satan himself would have shown up to spit in the face of these ruffians, including Amyl.

On side B «Cup of Destiny», released a few months ago and accompanied by a video that makes clear the decidedly sloppy and amateurish attitude of Amyl and company, reiterates all the vigorous passion of the four, even if with less rock'n'roll and more punk, but whoever has something to say undoubtedly understood little or nothing of the matter they are dealing with.

“Only” 4 minutes and 51 seconds, but for me, record of the year, like everything done by Amyl and the Sniffers in the last two years.

Waiting for the album, but aware that even if there were never an album, these four guys from Melbourne have already done great things, few but great.

And that you can't muzzle certain bastards.