Audio Karate releasing "lost" album 'Malo' (watch the "Sin Cuchillo" video)

SoCal punk vets Audio Karate reunited in 2018 and released a 7″ with two “lost” songs from the aborted followup to 2004’s Lady Melody, and now they’re gearing to release the full “lost” album, titled Malo, on October 18 via Wiretap/A-F Records/SBAM Records. Here’s some more background:

During 2018, Jason dug up his old MacBook which contained the Protools files for the 13 songs recorded in 2007 at Lady Melody Studio. A time capsule of sorts, AK learned the songs were a lot closer to complete than previously thought, many of the songs they had forgotten they had ever written and recorded (except Justo he remembers random stuff). Enlisting the help of their old friend Mike Jimenez (Rufio) who now owned Modern Fuzz studio in Pomona, AK remixed the album taking special care to not re-record any parts and rely on the rawness and spontaneity of the original sessions. The result is Malo, a snapshot of AK in their prime.

Along with the album announcement comes new single “Sin Cuchillo,” which premieres in this post along with a video. Here’s what guitarist Jason Camacho tells us about it:

“Sin Cuchillo” is a very long time coming. The main riff was written pre-Lady Melody, but we didn’t commit and write and record a song around it until 2006. There’s robot backing vocals, the “meeeeooooow” keyboard riff, it was really us just having fun with having our own studio and working at our own pace. I absolutely never thought we’d release this, and had forgotten we had recorded it honestly. Putting this out is closure in a sense. The video was really fun to make. There are some old friends in there that AK or Rufio fans may recognize…and come on, who doesn’t giggle at the sight of a cute little kid cussing?

Check out the song/video (directed by Mike B. Nelson) below, and if you like what you hear, you can pre-save the single on Spotify here.

Audio Karate also have two upcoming shows: The Fest in Gainesville and the 25th anniversary show for Bill Stevenson’s (Descendents) and Jason Livermore’s studio The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO on 11/23 with Rise Against, A Wilhelm Scream, ALL, and more.