NANA VASCONSELOS // ANTONELLO SALIS

 

About ten years ago I was introduced to NANA VASCONCELOS' Saudades, which remains one of the most beautifully jarring and intense records I know. It's difficult to imagine a release transporting me to a time and a place as instantly as that one still does (and always will), so it was without hesitation that I snagged this 1988 collaboration with Italian multi-instrumentalist ANTONELLO SALIS when I saw the cassette in a jumbled bin of treasures last month. Lester cannot compare to the aforementioned Saudades, and the accordion can be more then a little distracting....but listening to this music through an improvisational and/or Afro-Futurist lens can be transcendent. Is transcendent. Choice cut is the closer "Ondas (Nos Olhos de Petronila)" which combines Salis' smooth jazz piano with the anything-goes percussion of Vasconcelos - it's a perfect landing for a genuinely interesting journey. 

LESTER

DEATHBED

 

As far as I can tell, this relic is the sole artifact left by a raw and depressive blackened death act from Chicago called DEATH BED. It takes them a full five minutes to start cooking, and even then they stop for a doom interlude just as you start to fall under their spell. But then.....from that point on my friends, this shit is bliss. Howling vocals in the death via screamo vein and a shameless reliance on simple riffing. They use force instead of nuance, so much so that "Hell Is Where The Heart Is" feels almost natural in its desperation by the time you get there. Do not come seeking fidelity; come here for passion and bleak honesty. 

DYSTHYMIA

VIOLENCE OF CRUSDAE

 

A message to virtually every North American and European punk: You will never know the true depth and reach of so-called Third World Hardcore. If you're looking, then you will find another new (to you) band every time you take a breath....and if you want more, then every one of those new (to you) bands will lead you down a new (to you) path where you will open more doors and find even more new (to you) bands and scenes. But the parentheticals are important here - because these bands and scene exist outside of the first world DIY structure even though the influences are often apparant (and sometimes blatant). Enter VIOLENCE OF CRUSADE from Kediri, some ten hours roughly east of Jakarta. They left us with a small handful of deadly metallic hardcore releases form the mid-2010s and 2014's Dead might be my favorite. Dark and intense hardcore that leans on technical melodies and uses stadium crust tendencies without ever falling into the subgenre's trappings. "Dead//Suicide" into the dreadfully intense "Balada Rimba Malapetaka" (roughly translated: "Ballad Of The Jungle Disaster" so draw your own conclusions and sit with that shit) will make your hair stand on end but the whole damn thing is incredible and it just makes me think: "Shit - there's more where this came from?!?" And yes, there's always more. 

DEAD

CHRISTIAN COSMOS

 

Deliberately minimal dark ambient techno from a world that I will never be able to penetrate. I will forever exist as an observer....and that is okay. 

THE SHARP LINES THAT DELINEATE HIS ROBES

ADAM VOID & CHRIS FISHER

 

I've developed several virtual connections through Terminal Escape - people and artists I've never actually met (and likely will never meet) but whom I have followed and communicated with over the course of several years. There's one person who just sends me tapes sometimes - no note, no nothing, just their music - and I return the same. Tapes from the label, Wright Copy volumes, the occasional mix tape. We've been trading sounds for a decade and never exchanged a single word. But...we're connected. Enter outsider Appalachian outsider folk visionary ADAM VOID joined here by Unread Records empresario CHRIS FISHER. The listen becomes a thing in and of itself here; it's not that you listen, it's that you are when you're listening. Force Majeure / Forced Manure is the full experience; never a hint of the next move, just like I never know what 's inside when I open the envelope. I love this shit, and I am grateful.

FORCE MAJEURE // FORCED MANURE

BLINDED HUMANITY

 

Blazing mid-00s Lion City street crust with just enough earnest energy to keep them honest. The way "Sensou Soochi" stomps, the way "Vanished" flies completely off the handle after the intro - they're a product of their influences and it rules. '90s US crust and classic Japanese hardcore all doing battle with ramshackle DBeat, using distorted guitars as weapons. 

ENDLESS MASSACRE

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MONOLITH // DEAD SYSTEM

 

Raw blasting grind/crust from Austria's MONOLITH. I hope you're ready. 
Raw blasting crust/grind from Indonesia's DEAD SYSTEM. I hope you're ready.

You're going to want to hydrate before listening.

MONOLITH // DEAD SYSTEM