SWEET POISON VICTIM

 

I was talking to a friendly civilian at work last week and they said something nostalgic about cassettes being "in the past" and I mentioned that they are very (very) much in the present and they seemed completely floored that the medium still existed, much less still had relevance. I hesitated for a moment, because when the circles of work world and real world overlap it can be weird, but it felt like an appropriate moment to share and soon I was talking to a normal ass woman in her 50s about the nuances of DBeat and crust and how HNW can share as much with quiet ambient as with electronic experimentation and how there are still bands who dub copies of their recordings in their bedrooms to give to friends. I talked to her about Pat and told her about the Copy Wright tapes (trying to connect the tape and punk worlds to the work world in which the two of us coexist) and I told her about '80s UK punk unknowns and powerviolence and '70s Bay Area new age shit.....and then I realized her eyes had kinda glazed over because I had just been rambling on about tapes. Which, to her, was equivalent to rambling on about nothing whatsoever. I didn't bother trying to recover though, because I had genuinely enjoyed my ramble.  Anyway - SWEET POISON VICTIM is (was?) an Afro-Beat band from Indianapolis. They released this tape in 2015 and it's really fukkn good. 

LOWLIFE // EZULI

ENVIRONMENTS

 

Without entering some long winded and partially informed narrative about Irv Tiebel and his Syntonic Research Inc. label, but I'll spare you. I do suggest listening to Altered Nixon Speech and I think it sounds perfect listening simultaneously with Sailboat. The Environments series exemplifies how pervasive honest and pure experimentation was in the 1970s, and demonstrates how perfect even the simplest recordings can be. Sailboat is exactly as it presents, and it's exactly what I need. 

THE MAGIC OF PSYCHO-ACOUSTIC SOUND: SAILBOAT

FORM RANK

 

You've heard sounds like this before, but the beauty of punk is this: You've never heard these sounds. Addictive and anthemic Los Angeles street punk, doing to kids today what CRIMINAL DAMAGE did to us twenty years ago. We had heard sounds like that before too...you see what I mean?

FORM RANK

KJELD DOKNER

 

I'd like to tell myself that I have words that meet the moment, but really I have nothing. Still and again I have nothing at all. We are just so fukkn bad - collectively we, like Thee Royal We, we are just so bad. It doesn't mean The Other is good (far from it) but our pomp is just so transparently false. As if The Emperor didn't even bother to pretend getting dressed before he announced that he was wearing clothes. It's a farce. WE are a farce. It's a false narrative and it's complete bullshit and this timeline is terrifying. To anyone reading this who ever thought we were better than any of the people they told us were bad - we aren't any better. We are the same. It's just a different narrative. Can you imagine what could happen if all of the "others" got on the same page? But alas, this is what they want. THIS is what they want. Fuck this. FUCKAMERICANS.

FUCKAMERICANS

MOTHERFUCKER TERESA

 

Fierce. Dissonant. Shrill. Lumbering. Passionate. Intense.

...I almost feel like a single word sentences could accurately describe Denver's MOTHERFUCKER TERESA,  but then it would start a debate about hyphenated compounds like "Anti-Cop" and acronyms like "PC" because both are essential components to their composition and sound. Nine dual-vocal hardcore songs that sound like they were banged out in someone's mom's garage - and I mean that in the best possible way. Choice cuts include the damaged "Me & Mitch McConnell In A Dark Alley" and their brilliant interpretation of BODY COUNT's most famous track....you know the one, right? This is Covid-era hardcore that feels absolutely timeless. 

OLD NEWS IS STILL NEWS

GJ COPPOLA

 

Listen to the opening (title) track and tell me you're not going to try to fukk with GJ COPPOLA. You do that and I'll tell you to lkisten again....because there are few things like this in our sonic world. BAD SEEDS deconstructed to Moss Side Story vibes - if you know, you know - if you don't know, please learn - you're listening to a story with no words here, and the plot is entirely up to you. It's a gorgeous collection of sounds, grim and hopeful at the some time in part because the artist seems determined to commit to absolutely nothing. It's a slow (s-l-o-w) burn, culminating with "Say My Name" which could be (arguably?) sped up to create the perfect dark/goth/indie track that no one thought they needed. You needed it though...and you needed it like this. Exactly like this. 

BENGHAZI NIGHTS

AUFLAGE 100

 

What a.....what a sweet collection of songs. You could really stop listening after the opening track from GHOST AMBULANCE and feel satisfied - one of the most innocent and sincere love songs I can remember hearing. What follows is a perfectly curated mix of '90s proto-shoegaze and harmlessly mellow indie cuts from TRAUMA GLOW, MANIC YOUTH, COMBAT BEACH, LAUNDROMAT CHICKS, a surprisingly addictive groover by SWELLE and an airy epic from SAKURA.....basically a grip of modern Austrian bands I would never have crossed paths with if I didn't have a well connected pal who likes to meets for burritos on occasion. He says "you're welcome."

AUFLAGE 100