Homo Monstrous are in the same glorious tradition running from the Velvet Underground to P4K 2013 hype act Savages: gently misanthropic art kids who've taken their wounds and scars and turned them into something raw and real and dark and immediately catchy. On their debut EP, 'Nothing Without My Scars,' they screw Bush Tetras-esque skronk onto the head of a scrappy Cramps-shaped sledgehammer handle and knock down all kinds of walls.

firestarter is an apt name for Jaye Kovach's bubblegum-industrial avant-pop project. Her blistering guitar and synths sizzle and sputter out from around raw, thick drum machine beats - ember-like slow-burns radiating intense, glowing heat, and flared-out rave-ups that blaze furiously from a solid core of incandescent punk. It's also a fitting word for Jaye herself; her politically pyrotechnic lyrics on firestarter's first release, 2016's self-released Es-tro-jen-z, bring the album's digitally-mutated hooks into shape with sharp, agile broadsides against tyranny and brutality of all sorts, an explosion of synthetic artistic energy that clears the earth to make way for a better and more meaningfully human tomorrow.