Astoria, Oregon’s Beta Voids released their debut EP Scrape It Off on November 19 through Hovercraft Records, delivering a fierce and chaotic mix of punk, post-punk, and no-wave noise. Recorded at Sweatbox Northwest, the EP captured the band in a loud, unstable, and high-pressure state that felt closer to a basement show than a studio session. With sharp guitars, rattling rhythms, and screaming sax lines, the record pushed past nostalgia and landed somewhere wild, restless, and fully alive.
The group is led by vocalists Mandy Grant and Carrie Beveridge, whose dual voices gave the EP its most striking edge. They shifted from shrieks to tight hooks with a fast, tense energy that recalled early West Coast punk but with a more jagged, no-wave twist. Their back-and-forth delivery gave the songs a volatile spark, as if the whole EP were balancing on the edge of a fight or a breakthrough.
Across Scrape It Off, Beta Voids leaned into abrasive textures and quick, punchy arrangements. The guitars cut through the mix with a harsh, broken tone that fit the band’s rough style, while the saxophone stabbed in and out like sirens or alarms. The drums stayed fast, dry, and urgent, pushing everything forward as if the songs had to reach the finish line before falling apart. Tracks like “Brain Malfunction,” “Baby’s in Detox,” and “M-O-T-H-E-R” showed different sides of that momentum: twitchy, pounding, or reckless, but always locked into the band’s raw spirit.
The EP’s production stayed true to the band’s live sound. Bassist Mike Vasquez recorded, mixed, and mastered the EP in a way that kept everything sharp and unpolished, letting the instruments crash into each other without losing clarity. Guitarist Dan McClure’s serrated tone, Seth Howard’s aggressive drumming, and Alpha Rasmussen’s wailing sax made the record feel loud even at low volume.
Scrape It Off marked Beta Voids as a band carrying the unruly spirit of early California punk into the present—messy, intense, and fully committed to noise that hits without warning.
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