Karate, Guns & Tanning is the culmination of a 15-year collaboration between the instinctive songwriting duo, Valerie Green & Paige Shedletsky. Their debut album Concrete Beach is an incendiary blast of industrial-tinged post-punk, shoegaze and dream-pop. Born out of restlessness and pent-up aggression, and further intensified by the ambient dread of the early months of the pandemic, their fierce energy is palpable on standout moments like the rousing, militaristic cries of “Hot Bots,” as well as the synth-splattered “Badlands,” a nightmarish vision of a doomed journey into the darkest heart of the desert. “Breaking Teeth,” with its metallic guitars, gritty bass & chanted rally cries of “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” (not to mention some blazing guitar solos from Mills), evokes the distorted noise-pop clamor of Sleigh Bells. That brooding intensity percolates on “Fire,” a new wave-tinted track powered by technicolor synths, melodic bass & dreamlike lyrics. Meanwhile, “Artifacts” roars to life with pounding, Bonham-sized drums and hyper-processed vocals that serve as another instrument in the mix. Elsewhere, the band’s dream-pop past is resurrected by the lush pop smarts of “Zenith,” a minimalist cut inspired by the SpaceX launch. Consisting of Shedletsky on synths/noise-making, Green on lead vocals and bass, Joy Caroline Mills on guitar, & Daniel Guajardo on drums, the album was written remotely, recorded & produced by the band. Concrete Beach is out now on all streaming platforms.