Just when eggy lo-fi threatens to clog up the weirder corners of Bandcamp and threaten the contentiously termed ‘eggpunk’ with an association of tiresome derivatives, in comes Ukrainian Завірюга with a new EP so hooky and flavoursome you’re reminded of why the genre was so exciting in the first place.

Following from last year’s more caustic and choppy Жо​в​т​и​й, latest EP xxx is similarly filled with bendy guitars and tape hiss, but its six-track length (his longest so far) affords Завірюга further scope to explore DIY garage at its slackier and wistfully lethargic.

‘Не До Нас’ evocatively wanders into drowsy, sunny-soaked psych terrain before a slouched bass grooves up the acceleration into an intriguing cavern of propulsive muffle, deftly steering the languid shuffle away from unmoored meander. Gelid synths ripple and percolate among Завірюга’s sinewy guitar-picking on the frigid ‘Джем Малиновий’ recalling the excavated cold-wave gems like Solid Space or Dark Day and honouring his namesake Ukrainian translation for ‘A Blizzard’ with frosty bite.

Elsewhere, the familiar atonal honk of Завірюга’s twitchy garage is still as warped as ever. ‘Рево ван Шот’ saturates its hacking fuzz with trippy flickers of discoloured echoes and reverbs while stitched together with primitive drum machines, ‘Закохався’s’ indie blast channels Billiam at his most coyly giddy, and EP opener ‘Ресентимент’ skulks along mordantly scoring claustrophobia and pent-up resentment with acerbic sting, xxx‘s prevaricating mood swings anchoring the EP’s hazy daydreams never too far from sardonic reality.

Stringy, scratchy and feverish yet never confined to lo-fi conformities or expectations, Завірюга delivers another tangy slice of gristly wonk-punk with a welcome dose of hypnagogic drift that surpasses previous EPs both musically and conceptually.