Whatever sense of unity bound a hodgepodge of underground American punk sounds in the 1990s like a Duct-tape wallet began to come unglued by the end of the decade. A couple years into the new millennium and the emo scene that once had enough space for a band as brazen in their fusion of slowcore, jazz, and post-hardcore as Boston's Karate would barely be reflected in a cookie-cutter style commercialized by major labels and mid-level indies that acted like the majors. The part of punk that overlapped with indie rock would begin a slow ascent from it's comfortable home on college radio charts to the soundtrack of American Apparel shops and eventually the Billboard charts. In this strange, stratifying milieu, Karate, a band that seemed to thrive by cleaving to a nether-zone between several sounds that otherwise never touched, delivered an engrossing constantly shifting shot of rock that covered three sides of 12-inch vinyl: Unsolved arrived in 2000. Karate spent much of the ' 90s wrestling punk aggression and volume into svelte shapes and often condensed what felt like a generation of scuffed-up intensity into whispers. The quiet moments carried much of that unbridled intensity throughout Unsolved -the fuzzy guitar squawk and snatchet of machine-gun drumming on "Sever" aside, things hit a little more sharply the moment the trio pivoted into their subdued jazz melodic interplay on that song. Karate's transition into indie-rock maturity had become so complete by the time they dropped Unsolved that you could play the coffeehouse soul of "Halo of the Strange" and sultry jazz of "Lived-But-Yet-Named" to an unsuspecting punk and spend an entire evening trying to convince them that, yes, this band had made their bones playing the same DIY circuit made of bands that sounded like they wanted to harm their audience. But few bands other than Karate played like they understood the musical lingua franca of scene godheads such as Fugazi and Unwound, and knew how to make that language evolve, and nearly every song on Unsolved made that clear. If you didn't get the memo by the end of the elegiac 11-minute closer "This Day Next Year," which gained an irrepressible power from a plaintive guitar melody cycling through the song's back half like a yearnsome cry for the divine, you might've been better off buying a ticket for Warped Tour and waiting a decade or two to figure it out.
Release date:
May 5, 2023
Label:
Install our app to receive notifications when new upcoming releases are added.

Recommended equipment and accessories
-
Technics SL-1500C Turntable
Features a direct-drive motor, a high-precision tonearm, and a premium MM cartridge, delivering exceptional sound quality
-
Ortofon 2M Red Cartridge
Features an elliptical stylus that accurately tracks the grooves of vinyl records, delivering a rich, detailed sound with an output voltage of 5.5 mV
-
Denon DP-400
Featuring a high-precision, belt-driven mechanism and an adjustable tonearm that ensures optimal tracking and minimal resonance
-
Vinyl Care - Top Picks
A selection of accesories to keep your turntable equipment & vinyl records in the best shape
-
Nobsound Little Bear T7 Tube Preamp
Delivers rich, warm audio through its high-quality vacuum tubes, featuring multiple inputs and adjustable gain
Featured Upcoming Vinyl
-
Church Tongue You'll Know It Was Me
Pure Noise Records
March 21, 2025 -
Dr. Strangely Strange ANti-Inflammatory
Think Like A Key Rec
April 11, 2025 -
Finn Wolfhard Happy Birthday
Night Shift Productions, Inc
June 6, 2025 -
Southern Avenue Family (Coke Bottle Clear)
Alligator Records
April 25, 2025 -
Kathryn Joseph WE WERE MADE PREY. (Red)
Rock Action Records
May 30, 2025 -
Warren Zeiders Relapse, Lies, & Betrayal [2xLP]
Warner Records
March 14, 2025 -
Kal-El Astral Voyager Vol. 1
Blues Funeral Recordings
May 16, 2025 -
Gerald Clayton Ones & Twos
Blue Note
April 11, 2025 -
Cigarettes For Breakfast Slow Motion
Abandon Everything Records
March 14, 2025 -
Swami John Reis Time To Let You Down
Swami Records
March 21, 2025 -
Mumford & Sons RUSHMERE
Glassnote Music
March 28, 2025 -
Magnolia Park Vamp
Epitaph
April 11, 2025 -
Idle Heirs Life is Violence [2xLP]
Relapse
April 11, 2025 -
PUG JOHNSON EL CABRON
Break Maiden Records
March 28, 2025