ISABELLE MAYEREAU

 

Truly one of the most beautiful sonic accidents I've ever stumbled into. ISABELLE MAYEREAU's self titled 1978 release (not to be confused with her 1977 self titled release) would likely have stayed in the unknown realm forever had I not happened on a criminally small handful of tapes in a thrift store....but I did. And I will never be the same. I don't understand the words, but the swells in "Souffle en L'air" made me weep. I'm not ashamed. To the contrary, I remain encouraged. Apparently "Tu M'écris" was a hit and I can understand why even though it may be my least favorite track on the tape - I prefer the sparse guitar in "Difference" and the space offered by "Aquarelle." It's a genuinely moving release...I found it by accident and it will stay with me forever. 

ISABELLE MAYEREAU

KAGAMI

 

I feel like it was just yesterday when I posted a five minute long hardcore tape that felt like the greatest thing since sliced bread (a ridiculous saying, by the way....sliced bread is fine, but it's nothing special unless the bread itself is special). These five minutes come from Tokyo circa 2021, and they manage to grab early '00s fastcore, US82 by way of TOTAL FURY style retro hardcore and modern Japanese treble heavy punk all at once. They get in, they get out, there's no bullshit. Who wants bullshit? Nobody wants bullshit.

KAGAMI

647(F)

 

We've talked before about the lost late 1980s. Those kids who were young adolescents when their older siblings dragged them to FLAG and THREAT gigs were young adults at the end of the decade and...guess what? By the time hardcore wasn't cool and the dude from DEEP WOUND was a solo-ripping college indie darling, those kids were making some ripping under-the-radar hardcore music. It's just that hardcore wasn't cool anymore....except that it was. Hardcore was always cool. Still is. This recording was released as the brilliantly titled Cop Corpse 12" in 1988, but thankfully they made a tape too. 

SIX SICK SONGS

COOKING COURSE

 

More recipes narrated by your friend Vincent Price. More echo this time, as the legendary noir villain walks us through recipes from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Never stop looking, young punk....you never know what you may find. 

COOKING COURSE #1: FOODS FROM THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE

SANGUINE MOON

 

The polar opposite of yesterday's bludgeoning, Portland's SANGUINE MOON creep their way into your soul with one 19+ minute dungeon synth missive. Raw, distant, bleak, minimal.....haunting, introspective....complex in its deliberate simplicity. It would be a lie to say that I seek these sounds, but it would be dishonest to not acknowledge how tight their grip on me is. 

HAUNTING DREAMS OF AN ANCIENT TIME

REFRACTIVE ERRORS

 

Five minutes. Five pieces of distorted, bombastic fastcore punctuated by the terrifying squirm of "Psychosis." There's really not much to note other than the brutally sinister and overtly dangerous energy that REFRACTIVE ERRORS puts into their sound - even the bits with hooks (I'm talking "Useless And Consuming" here) sound like Satan themself has taken over the songwriting for ADOLESCENTS or some shit....and then it's just over. And you realize you haven't really been breathing. 

REFRACTIVE ERRORS

DEHIDRATÁLT FEJEK

 

You remember twenty-ish years ago when EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING dropped in from heaven and changed the way a (punk) generation of hardcore (punk) listeners approached listening to blatantly simply and simply brilliant punk music? Well, DEHIDRATÁLT FEJEK are like that but they are from Budapest and the sounds owe as much to awkward UK post punk the indescribable intersection of dark wave and '80s college/alt as they do to '10s NWI freak punk and/or NEON PISS. Essentially what I'm saying is that DEHIDRATÁLT FEJEK, much like EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING, sound like a thing that you already love and feel connected to.....before you even realize it. "Térkövezett Hala'l" is perhaps the single best example, but literally every track on this tape hits and Szégyen Kazetták wins again. 

GONDOK