Hit The Dirt – Six Pack EP

Despite only being four years into their existence, Berlin’s Hit The Dirt had toured Germany and Czech Republic and released their debut self titled EP before the pandemic brought things to a grinding halt. During the enforced inactivity they settled down to write and record new material, and now we they shared their Six Pack (I’m presuming this refers to beer rather than being a gym bunny) with us via High End Denim Records. Their latest EP contains six brand new tracks borne of the stifling inactivity of lockdown, and the need to do something, anything in the cultural desert of eternal streaming that was lockdown.

Not to put too finer point on it this is some damn fine fast gruff melodic skate punk, no more no less, for some this will be enough and away with you skate punkers to the label’s Bandcamp (other digital services are available), for the rest of us, we’re going in. The opening track, Crash, was written before covid was unleashed upon the world, but it’s almost prophetic about coping with isolation and reaching out for support. Stand Up follows on in the same fast and furious vein, a furious call to arms and an anthem for doing things your own way. The term relentless could have been coined for the first half of this EP, as Better Place keeps the machine gun rhythms running at full pelt.

Things slow down ever so slightly for Not Too Late, a track that dips into a more straight up punk vein, and weirdly this almost counts as the EP’s introsepctive moment, at least comparatively. The wonderfully titled Heart Social Chlamedia keeps the punk rock vibe and is dedicated to the social media platforms that keep people welded to their phones from the moment they wake up. Finally we get No One To Blame, and we’re back into straight up skate punk to close the deal on an EP that, whilst not breaking any new ground, does what it does in (mostly) breakneck style.