HOUSE ARREST

 

Absolutely fukkn screaming hardcore from Indonesia. No bullshit, pure ferocity, USHC influences are front and center but HOUSE ARREST sound like the best version you've never heard of the shit you've been listening to for your entire life. Six songs in seven minutes, punctuated by "Too Close" and the sinister bludgeoning of "Can't Fix Stupid." This shit was so good that Extinction Burst gave it a US reissue - copies of both are long long gone but they dropped Food On Your Table a few months ago and positively I'm smitten. 

HOUSE ARREST

99 LUFTBALLONS

 

I recall a post from years ago where I used the term NDW ("Neue Deutsche Welle" = "German New Wave") to describe IDEAL or EXTRABREIT or some similar artist. Someone got annoyed at the distinction because, well, isn't New Wave music just New Wave music? Why is there a Deutsche Punk or a Kraut Rock when we don't have designated and commonly accepted terms for punk, classic rock or new wave from other specific regions or countries? Perhaps it's because the Germans did (do) just hit differently, but also it's because it's just what the fukkn Germans called their shit, you know? Case and point, this stellar collection of commercial NDW bangers from 1983. Like a K-Tel cassette from across the pond, featuring hopelessly palatable and undeniably addictive cuts from EXTRABREIT, HUBERT KAH, FRL. MENKE (the least interesting artist on the tape, and the only one with two tracks), TRIO (you know the song even if you don't know you know the song), SPLIFF, NEON BABIES, JAWOLL and others, plus the title track from NENA. Just solid ass '80s summer hits - off kilter, infectious and definitely Deutsche. 

99 LUFTBALLONS
NDW - HITS FÜR UNTERWEGS

IDX

 

Total stench/crust obliteration from Singapore. This came a few years before the mind blowing Onslaught Within, and the sound is slightly (if predictably) more primal. Meticulous howling lurches open the tape, and then they open it up on "Unanswered" and don't look back. By the books? Pretty much. But absolutely flawless execution, and I'm here for it. 

STARK REALITY

SNICKERS

 

I could dig into the internet archives and regurgitate the things that pundits pre-me have said about SNICKERS....instead I will leave these sounds here for you. This lands somewhere between bedroom 4-track experimentation, (early) MERCURY REV and wallowing in a murky lake in the middle of America at sunset. What a gloriously damaged collection of sounds. 

ON THE HI-FI VOL.2

WRATH

This CD was in one of the last promo packages I received when I was doing radio in Oklahoma, though by 1990 I was immersing myself in whatever goth and/or industrial and/or punk stuffs I could get my hands on so I wasn't particularly juiced on some Midwest thrash metal. But Insane Society scratched an itch even then, and when I saw a pristine copy of the cassette sitting on a shelf last week, I did not deny myself a little trip down memory lane. This was the third and final album released in WRATH's initial run (they got the band back together in the '10s) and their sound was fully realized here. Razor sharp mid tempo US metal clearly weaned on The Big 4 with a hollow rumbling bass vocals that teeter on the edge of being too over the top. Choice cuts are "Swarm" and "Law Of Lies," both a touch faster and more melodic, and the glorious stomp of the title tracks, but you really need to crank the whole thing - preferably while working on bikes in your garage or something. 

INSANE SOCIETY

SATELLITE vs. PROLETAR

 

Strap in, young punk/s. I don't think you're ready, but honestly I don't think anyone is ready for this assault. PROLETAR with a unbridbled white-knuckle fastcore/grindcrust assault - shit is simply terrifying to listen to, even more so than the Rakyat Jelata tape I posted last year. And then there's SATELLITE, godfathers of the Jakarta crust scene dishing out maniacal metallic raw crust. Check "Amerika = Imperialist" and think about your life. Then reach for the volume knob (or toggle switch thing or whatever) and drown yourself in noise. 

DERITA TANPA AKHIR // THERE'S A SPECTRE HAUNTED

VELVET MONKEYS

 

VELVET MONKEYS were so damn far ahead of the curve, and this collection of oddities and live cuts shines the spotlight squarely on that reality - even the shit they didn't bother releasing in real time blew the doors off of everything. "All The Same" is a picture perfect '80s college alt number that would have smoked TEENAGE FANCLUB except that this song came half a decade earlier. 1981 version of "Everything Is Right" fukkn screams. The damaged BEATLES mini-set is a thing you didn't know you needed (you do), and the demo version of "You're Not There" is Milwaukee DEATH caliber dark genius while "See You Again" is simply a perfect power-pop track disguised as garage punk. Even the damn TROGGS cover works.  So yeah - maybe you didn't know you needed VELVET MONKEYS in your life, but now you don't have an excuse. 

ROTTING CORPSE AU-GO-GO
(IMPRESSIONS VOLUME ONE)