PAPER GANGSTER

 

I've probably told the tale before, but in 1996 FUCKFACE were quasi-stranded with HICKEY at the FAT DAY house in Somerville, Massachusetts for the better part of a week with no shows. We were well taken care of and the show at the end of that week was one for the ages (Matt was green, enough said), but I made a mix tape in their living room...and that's the connection here. We were light years removed from the tough hardcore scene (see also our show with UNDERTOW, UNBROKEN and JASTA 14 in New Haven on the 1994 tour, and the handful of shows we did with BURST OF SILENCE....lest I digress). These dudes were in New England, and 'that kind' of hardcore was everywhere. And the Firestorm EP was in their living room, and that record made it onto the mix tape and that was really the first time I had spent any time with this shit. 1996 - wild, right? 
Anyway, PAPER TIGER are from Depok, not far from Jakarta, and this 2004 recording takes me back to that living room except that Season Of Destruct is undeniably more interesting and innovative.
This isn't 'my kind' of hardcore (whatever that means), but try to tell me that "New Empire" doesn't resonate and I'll tell you you're wrong. Then we can talk about "Behind The System" and "Hope" and "Civil War" and then I'm going to start to wonder if straight edge groove metal is my new favorite genre because....well, because of PAPER TIGER.

SEASON OF DESTRUCT

UNIT X

 

You tell me you know a band called UNIT X and I'm gonna tell you that I think I know what they sound like. Well....that's what I thought when I picked up this tape. And I wasn't wrong. We're talking ten minutes of smart Y2K fastcore and classic SXE 'core and a little bit of that less-posi energy to keep listeners honest (think LACK OF INTEREST sharing a bill with LIFES HALT). The shit hits the spot.

WAR ON SELF, WAR ON EVERYTHING

DAVID RUSSELL

 

Shit sounds like a compilation made by a person on all of the drugs. This person grabbed bits from the Poltergeist soundtrack and used their phone to record some noise band testing out their gear before a show, then looped some squelches and manipulated them before dragging their $20 thrift store keyboard down into the basement, documenting the sounds as it bounced down the stairs. They broke some things (and recorded it). They walked past a stranger's window and heard a baby crying (and recorded it). They put it all together and made everything sound so...fucked...up. A noise recording that sounds like a sound collage - a noise recording that defies description and never even suggests what might be coming next. Eighteen minutes of complete (controlled) cacophony awaits. 

SYNTHESIZER IS A DEAD SCENE

SLAKTATTACK

 

Textbook kång from Göteborg; d-takt mania of the highest order. You've got the breather tracks where they ease off ever so slightly, then you've got blast after blast of full throttle assault. I think the 2009 recordings (from the BIO-CRISIS and ANTIPROTOKOL splits) embodies the subgenre perfectly but SLAKTATTACK clearly don't stop there. Forty-one tracks all in, compiling the aforementioned splits, another with AKTIV DÖDSHJÄLP, tracks from DOOM and DISCLOSE tribute comps and two digital-only releases. If you're thinking MEANWHILE, DISMACHINE, TOTALITÄR then you're thinking correctly - you know what to do. 

DISCOGRAPHY 2006-2013

JACK ENDINO

 

I consciously avoided Jack Endino's recorded material in real time because I wasn't really grooving on the shit frequently associated with him.  What I thought of as 'the C/Z sound' always seemed like the lighter side of the burgeoning grunge subgenre (even though most of of the big dogs were associated with either the label or Endino as an engineer at some point) and SKIN YARD's material kinda reinforced that general, if incorrect, conclusion. I figured the solo stuff would be more of the same so I just never bothered....and these are the losses that are almost guaranteed by validating assumptions, punk. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and a still-in-the-shrink copy at Ragin' Records and I made my move. There are surely some tracks here that land when I thought they would and that's fine ("Big Seth," "Find The Key," "Angle Of Attack" all land somewhere in the MOTHER LOVE BONE realm but less butt rock), but it's the diversions that are blowing my middle-aged mind. The quiet patience of "Time Is Running," the Nik Turner inspired meanderings in "Create What You Fear," the fIREHOSE energy in the opener "Salvation." The instrumental interludes give subtle SAVAGE REPUBLIC vibes (especially "Folks, Let's Nebulate") and the entire recording listens like a journey; the way entire recordings are supposed to be listened to. Even the closer "Post-X" (a reprise on "X-Echo 1" and "X-Echo 2" naturally) feels like it's laying you down gently after your trip. Maybe I wouldn't have fully appreciated Angle Of Attack at 18? Maybe it's better that I waited? Maybe I just needed this one at this moment? Regardless, I'm glad it's here. 

ANGLE OF ATTACK

SAMIN ANARKIA

 

Sometimes you need to feel the surge of the crowded room, moving as a cohesive and chaotic organism as the band you can barely see makes the walls shake. Condensation on the ceiling, beer all over the floor, studded jackets digging into the flesh on your arms as you brace yourself - not knowing if you're preparing for the next body blow or the next riff. This is stadium crust built for basements, walls of sound laying waste to the room while clenched fists pound the air. SAMIN ANARKIA accomplishes in less than fourteen minutes what the previous decade of DIY punk worked to achieve.

MALAPETAKA

APLOGETIC DAWN

 

There are a few Loathed Sound Department tapes I haven't unearthed and I savor them as they (re)surface. I eagerly consumed every release I could when the label was active, each one felt like a deep dive into a world I was (almost always) unfamiliar with. Apologetic Dawn is no different - you know funk and you know soul, but ADAM GRUP's "I Got You" and 6IX will turn your shit on its ear. The hard driving groove of THE STOVALL SISTERS, the silky smooth funk of THE TEMPREES, everything about FUZZY HAWKINS. The whole damn thing - start to finish.

APOLOGETIC DAWN: Music With Movement For The Funk And Soul Deep Inside