Sometimes side projects can be better than main gigs when there’s less pressure on a band. This seems to be the case with Brooklyn-based Damemas, a collective five piece from other U.S. punk and hardcore bands who came together to create Let Your Tape Rock. Instantly from first notes of lead track a blistering assault of garage rock and screeching dive bombs of punk charge at you. The glue that holds the cunning, crushing and melodic orchestrations of punk-blues-hardcore together is guitarist/producer/mixer Virgilio Castillo who blends soul with punk, somehow cleaving melodic hardcore with psych-rock splurges recalling the MC5. The EP listens like an exciting side project of experimentation, full of risks that rumble, thump and groove through mid-song left turns, jetting from Fugazi-esque punk to soulful blues riffs, a solid EP that shines bright promise forward should a full length be on the horizon and all parties involved decide to stick out the hybrid rockpothesis and let it rock a lot longer next time.

• Multiple songs MySpace