12 January 2020

GEEN NAAM


There's something about the innocent and determined approach to clenched fist political punk that keeps me coming back to this 2011 demo from Malaysia. The guitars have that cheap distortion pedal almost shitty thrash metal fuzz that permeates the riffs themselves and makes breakdowns to tracks like "Police State (Knock 'em Dead!)" sound all mushy, and then there's the straight forward early-WASTE speed picking in "Unanswered Prayers" that stands in opposition to the fiery street punk vibe that dominates most of Deaf, Dumb and Blind. All of this says to me that GEEN NAAM are just fucking going for it, and the results aren't necessarily predetermined...and that is an honest fukkn band. They play fast, they play strong, and they play punk as shit. Maybe this is a decade old, but it's timeless - and by that, I mean that this could just have easily come from '90s North American basements or late '80s South America....it's actual and international punk. I like punk. 



1 comment:

Unknown said...

Not "cassette tape" related, but Asian-punk related. I don't know if you were ever privy to the Asian Crust Demos Vol 1, 2 and 3 that the person over at the "Crust Demos" blog put out in like, 2009 / 2010. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore punk. All three volumes are super great and I think now, like 85% of the facebook and MySpace (Yes, MySpace) pages they took the music from all all inactive or deleted. I don't know if the person who runs Crust Demos would ever be persuaded to re-up the links. But, I have all 3 and have moved them religiously from hard drive to hard drive over the past decade. Just to make sure I don't ever loose them. There is a certain ferocity and naivety (not an insult or drawback) to the punk/hardcore/crust that comes out of this region. Just very straight ahead with raw power and anger. And it seems pretty consistent!!