2026 is the year in which UK punk celebrates its 50th anniversary, and who’d have thought that a scene powered by such frenetic energy would have lasted so long and reached middle-age? Far from having a mid-life crisis, punk has gone from strength to strength, and that’s thanks in no small part to bands such as Daemönik Fonce. Whilst many in the scene are content to paint themselves in a corner and play within genre confines, not so much this crew who have a sound that’s just as cryptic as their moniker. If proof were needed, look no further than their latest long player DFII, an eleven track affair that blows any preconceived ideas to smithereens and pieces them back together in strange and exciting ways.
Daemönik Fonce are a band who wear their influences proudly on their collective sleeve. The chant of “fight war, not wars” that heralds the arrival of opening track ‘Oh Corita’ will be familiar to anyone with a passing interest in anarcho-punk. However, this London-based crew are far from copyists and any influences that might inspire the band are precisely that, and are merely used as a springboard towards something new. As such it is hard to pin any kind of label on the band; sure, ‘Oh Corita’ is undoubtedly punk, but from which sub-genre is open to conjecture. It’s far more tuneful than the anarcho variety and comes wrapped in a melody that’s certified earworm material and should really come with some kind of health warning (i.e., “may cause addiction”). The guitars paint interesting motifs and have a definite space rock vibe that recalls the edgier end of Hawkwind and Thin Lizzy, and while a prog/hard rock influence might be an anathema to some, the fact that some people say they shouldn’t include it is exactly why they should. It’s this break with convention that makes ‘Oh Corita’ (and, indeed, the whole album) a contemporary force. While Daemönik Fonce haven’t torn up their roots (they haven’t, there’s plenty here tethering them to their past), there’s an exploratory nature to DFII and tracks such as ‘Speck’ that ensures this is no exercise in nostalgia. In fact, the likes of ‘Speck’ and ‘Solar Man’ sound as if they have been sent to the present from the future; kind of like Ziggy Stardust for the Bostik generation.
No two songs inhabiting the same sonic space means that there’s little danger of the listener’s attention flagging over the album’s eleven tracks. Things veer wildly between the slightly surreal ‘My Fathers Banana’, the proto-punk of the Roxy inspired ‘On The Skids’, to the all-out progressive rock of ‘The Great Epiphany’, a six-minute closer that shares little in common with raucous opener ‘Oh Corita’ (aside from that pioneering spirit) and evidences a band not content to stay static and ensures that DFII has an evolutionary arc. This is an album stitched together by its own eclecticism, a patchwork quilt that refuses to be shackled by genre constraints, which is probably the most punk thing you can do.
An album that perfectly encapsulates punk’s longevity, and with bands such as Daemönik Fonce on the scene, it’s safe to say punk will be around for another fifty years.
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DFII is released via Property Of The Lost Records on 13th March 2026.
- Bandcamp
Track List:
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Oh Corita
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Test Tube Grappelli
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Speck
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On The Skids
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Solar Man
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My Fathers Banana
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Chippin’ Away
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The Human Leach
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Night Terrors
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Provincial Bohemian
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The Great Epiphany
