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.
Install our app to receive notifications when new upcoming releases are added.

Recommended equipment and accessories
-
Nagaoka MP-110H Cartridge
Features a high-quality elliptical stylus that provides excellent tracking and minimizes distortion, delivering a detailed sound reproduction with an output voltage of 5.0 mV
-
Pro-Ject Phono Box DC Pre-Amp
Compact, high-performance phono preamplifier for both MM and MC cartridges, delivering a clean, detailed signal with minimal noise.
-
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
-
Vinyl Care - Top Picks
A selection of accesories to keep your turntable equipment & vinyl records in the best shape
-
Denon DP-400
Featuring a high-precision, belt-driven mechanism and an adjustable tonearm that ensures optimal tracking and minimal resonance
Featured Upcoming Vinyl
-
Lucy Dacus Forever Is A Feeling (Clear)
Geffen
March 28, 2025 -
Nad Sylvan Monumentata
Inside Out Music
June 20, 2025 -
Arch Enemy Blood Dynasty
Century Media
March 28, 2025 -
Kinski Stumbledown Terrace
Comedy Minus One
March 28, 2025 -
Swami John Reis Time To Let You Down
Swami Records
March 21, 2025 -
GALACTIC AND IRMA THOMAS AUDIENCE WITH THE QUEEN
Tchoup-Zilla Records
April 11, 2025 -
Ebba Åsman When You Know
Dorado
March 28, 2025 -
Pale Blue Eyes New Place
Universal UK
March 14, 2025 -
Volbeat God Of Angels Trust
Republic Records
June 6, 2025 -
Wang Chung Clear Light / Dark Matter (White & Black Ice) [2xLP]
Sing
May 9, 2025 -
Vazz Your Lungs and Your Tongues
Numero
March 14, 2025 -
Djo The Crux
Joe Keery p/k/a "Djo" - Twenty Twenty
April 4, 2025 -
Sorcerers & Outer World Jazz Ensemble Exit
Ata Records
March 28, 2025 -
Benthos From Nothing
Inside Out Music
April 11, 2025