Trainer say that this album is even better than their previous one. So there’s your opening hype line.
I was going to open with a comparison to an album from an alternative dimension where Steve Albini was in Fugazi, but he worked on so many damn albums that I always have to double check these things, and yeah, I forgot he was supposed to produce the EP that became In On The Kill Taker and Fugazi hated it, so that’s the first paragraph fucked.
Trainer are essentially a blend of the no- and post- genres that dispersed from punk into a sound with grit, unpredictability and an often frustrated energy. At times, Oh, Mandy! can lull into a repetitive rhythm, before an abrupt disruption of instrument pounding or timing change, keeping your ears honed in on the prize.
The production quality won’t win any awards, but that’s not why we are here; Trainer have an intense rawness that is driven by their unique songwriting approach. At times songs may leave you begging for a bigger mix, but the sound that Trainer have developed seems to have been purposely tailored to awkwardly breeze along to ensure you appreciate the breadth of styles somehow incorporated into the space of 40 minutes.
It is difficult to pick out any individual highlights from the albums; opener Powietrze (Prolog) with its minimal piano piece feeding into the frenzied New Economy Symptons are an extremely enticing start to an album. From The Chinese Fiancée, with it’s mellower-but-wait,-no,-it’s-aggressive-again-…-oh-nevermind styling, everything beyond just feels looser and a little more chaotic, with Verval’s groovy swing and I Would Have Said “Fuck You” breaking down into a powerfully quite vocal segment. The only (maybe intentionally awkward) offering would be Ona što go Pravime e Tajno which feels like it lacks enough variation in comparison to the rest of the album.
That said, in the grand scheme of things, if my only criticism is that one song isn’t as good as the others (i.e. a given), then you know you have a great album here. Oh, Mandy! is a fantastic release with a strong, raw sound of punk going back through its experimental phase. Trainer’s writing is almost flawless and the performances really deliver everything that the album intended to accomplish.
Jake Hancke – 23/06/2025
Oh, Mandy! will be released on 08/08/2025 and is available to pre-order on Vinyl, CD and Casette from their BandCamp
The Cauteriser 
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