BARRIO MUSIC

 

This is probably the coolest Barrio Music volume I've delved into so far, which makes me excited to keep plowing my way through the twelve tape series. Anchored by undeniable classics by ELVIS PRESLEY ("Now Or Never"), ? AND THE MYSTERIANS ("96 Tears"). LITTLE RICHARD ("Good Golly Miss Molly") and JERRY LEE LEWIS ("Great Balls Of Fire"), you've also god JAMES BROWN's deadly ballad "Try Me" and "Doing It To Death" by FRED & THE NEW JB'S (a song I always thought was actually by The Godfather Of Soul). And then there't the other stuff....GENE & EUNICE, LARRY WILLIAMS, MANHATTANS, PEACHES & HERB, even PAUL fucking ANKA delivers a killer. A standard from THE PLATTERS and a smooth as fuck track from the suitably named DON & JUAN round out the roster and.....my people this is just a perfectly curated mix of perfectly wonderful music. Like, can you think of a better way to end your week?

BARRIO MUSIC vol.4

TIME ADDICT

 

Free form improvisational misanthropy, presented as experimental free jazz noise shit.
And some days all I ever want is cacophony. 
TIME ADDICT delivers (again). 

U.S. BLUES

CONTRASESSION

 

The early 2000s were fukkn magic - so were the early '90s of course, and I guess the adolescent twenty-tens didn't suck either. I focus on today on the aughts though, because posi-political-hyper-fastcore took over the fukkn world and holy shit it was fun. You could argue that 2005 was on the back end of the shit, but try telling that to these Indonesian motherfukkrs. "Awas Prosess"personifies a tape filled with twenty three sub-60 second rippers culminating in the brilliant "The Only Time I Think About Romance Is When I Wonder Why I Don't Think About It." So here's to the tape you didn't know you needed until now....I guess I drop a lot of shit like that in your lap, huh?

LIDAH BERBISA...

Notable: "Topeng" kinda starts off like "Deny Everything" from a different universe.

GERINC

 

In this shit world, can we please celebrate Hungary for a moment? No one is ever going to accuse Magyar of being righteous, but damn that was a glorious rejection, right? Anyway, GERINC take snappy '00s USDIY and make it sound....theirs. Talking RED DONS and MARKED MEN and NEON PISS and shit, but a little nastier. Maybe like NEON PISS if they had existed in this modern reality. Every hook will stick with you, even though "Constrangimentos" kinda stands out as the song of the century (kinda) . So yeah, let's talk about Hungary for a moment, but maybe fuk the politics and let's talk about punk bands. I'll start: GERINC. Your turn.

REKLAMÁCIÓ

PSYWARFARE // BBVGC

 Not to be confused with the recent P.S.Y.W.A.R. post, this is Dwid's PSYWARFARE sharing destruction duties with Japan's BBVGC. The latter takes the BLOODY MINDED hardcore-as-noise-as-hardcore approach and makes it spooky and theatrical while the former....well, I can't speak on the world of Dwid but I recognize that it's a world. And I respect that he has been doing the shit for three decades (plus). And "Evisceration" is a perfect mind-melt of erratic power electronics, harsh noise and deliberate constructions of desperate sound. If you're looking for something to fukk up your day, then look no further. 

DEMONS MOURN FOR BLOODSHED

12 APRIL 1986

 

Welcome to the first ninety minutes of forty years ago today as broadcast on KALX in Berkeley. 
========

Proto-industrial heavy broadcast with some old 'MATS, some oldies, BIG BOYS, STURM GROUP and a shitload more sounds that you need. 

KALX - 12 APRIL 1986

مارتیک // ضیاء

 

It was probably a decade ago when I talked to Golnar about writing a thing about this tape because I thought it was cool (like...really cool) but didn't know shit about it and she was a music nerd and a Persian scholar and she already knew all about it so why would you want to read my words when I could solicit hers? Exactly. Fast forward to now and we've fallen out of contact but I'll be damned if these sounds don't (still) slap like some Ethiopian jazz meshing with those sounds that you don't understand except to know that you want to understand more than you do. Freak funk with dense horns and Mid-eastern trad funk and I am literally crying thinking about the multitude of realities that this music represents. I'm pretty sure that Ziya (exiled after the 1979 revolution) was in Los Angeles when this was released in 1987, a collaboration (maybe...? paging Golnar) with fellow ex-pat Martik Khanian who was apparently in Los Angeles when this recording was conceived. 

This current reality is light years beyond heavy, and imagining a rich culture and fascinating country ripped apart twice in the span of a half-century brings on more feelings than "طلوع ا زمغر" ...and that shit is ten minutes of pure sonic gold. Submitted with apologies, because I wish I could sa the right things.

کفریم / دیوونه / هلل یوس

P.S.Y.W.A.R.

 

The midwestern united states is a special place, sonically speaking. N.O.T.A. could not have come from California. DEAD SILENCE and ANIMAL FARM were influenced by the "cool" scenes on the coast/s but they were so obviously products of their respective environments. You get an Outhouse in Kansas but never in D.C. or Boston. Enter P.S.Y.W.A.R., who straddle/d Denver and/or Kansas City, two of the largest and most influential enclaves in the middle of this country's middle section. Proximity (or lack thereof) breeds isolation and that makes for special sounds....like these sounds. We're talking early '10s USDIY squirms and reverb-laden spiked boots guttural hardcore with dark '80s Japanese influence...kinda. Because really this shit is the product of all of the influences with none of the meddlings, and that's what makes the good shit hit even harder. 

P.S.Y.W.A.R.

80HD

 

When 80HD dropped a few years ago, the hype was all about their energetic live shows and aerial explosions. People scrambled to get to the internet to show the rest of the world how high they jumped, overfiltered grainy black and white photos with mullets and humans flying across phone screens. You never heard people talking about the music except that they were fast....but the shows were lit. Two KLPs and five years after the demo and that first West. Coast tour though, might I suggest revisit the almost unparalleled sonic detonation that is 80HD's Demo 2021? The hype was real, and this blur of j/o riffs (hi Max) propelled by a hailstorm of galloping thumps doesn't merely stand on its own without the stench of sweat and beer interrupting the surge of Gen Z punks scrambling to get the perfect photo, the context breathes new life into the special kind of fury this band was creating. Perhaps 80HD is best listened to alone at 5:30am before the coffee is finished brewing - without context and without filters and without peer promotion. That's when you can hear 80HD and feel their fury unencumbered by the noise. Seven crucial, life affirming minutes on this cassette, re-experienced (by me) the way punk was not meant to be experienced; in the dark and in the flesh accompanied by nothing but a soft snore in the background and the waft of impending caffeine from the next room. Not gonna lie though, thee jumps did look sick.

80HD

BURNING FLAG

 

The title tells you what you need to know - Grind IS Protest and BURNING FLAG are standing tall in the face of authority and sonic competence on this 2014 release. No bass (at least not in the mix), raw dual high/low vocals punctuating political DIY grind - you don't need to know BURNING FLAG to know their sound. Tracks like "Revolusi" and "Fuck The System Government" would have been right at home in 1990s Connecticut (if you know, then you know) while "Dinoe Kasetno Indro" is a more primal, metallic lo-fi crust grind assault. Melodic hooks keep creeping out of the manic DBeat guitar riffs; never enough to actually develop...just enough to raise an eyebrow before tracks like "Ludahi Para Pendusta" rip your face off. Let Grind Is Protest serve as a reminder....I'm not sure of what exactly, just consider yourself reminded. 

GRIND IS PROTEST

POTEMKIN

 

A little over two years ago I posted Sludge Vol.2 and I said this:

You ever wake up feeling....ugly? I'm not talking about "not feeling yourself" ugly, I'm thinking something more like "willing to destroy yourself" ugly. You refuse to look in the mirror - not because you're scared of what you might see, but because you know what's going to be staring at you. And it's disgusting. You ever wake up feeling....hopeless? I'm not talking about "should have slept in today" hopeless, I'm thinking something more like "hopeless" hopeless. You refuse to see the light - not because you're stubborn, but because you know it's not there. You ever wish those feelings had a soundtrack? You ever wish those days had a soundtrack? Enter: POTEMKIN. Terrifyingly misanthropic sludge that understands your desperation and sees you for the ugly piece of shit you know you are. And sometimes...it feels good to feel seen. 

Well, it should come as no surprise that the same sentiment applies to the first volume. This shit is just so disgustingly honest and brutal. When people search for this band's music, results should come with trigger warnings....and this is why we keep listening: so we can feel. 

SLUDGE VOL.1

MOONSCAPE // SMUT

 

It was almost ten years ago when I last posted MOONSCAPE, and I focused on their dark energy. That energy is arguably even more present on this SMUT split. Any if you want to talk about energy.....SMUT is everything you want in a punk. You've had them before but (if you're like me) it's been a minute and this split is a good reminder. "Thirst Trap" is the best punk song you'll hear today.

MOONSCAPE • SMUT

Worth noting that this tape sounds murky as shit in the best and punkest way imaginable.

MOOSEO

 

This band sounds like they were a fukkn blast to see live. Fast, loose and wildly catchy hardcore with roots in early century fastcore and '90s melodic punk, I picture them sharing space with ALL YOU CAN EAT and GOMEZ in some different reality. Seems like this 2012 sample laden release is all that MOOSEO offered the rest of us....so enjoy the next twenty minutes of punk. 

PUNK PERCONTOHAN

KILT

 

I was having a conversation with my mother yesterday, discussing the nuances of stench core versus crasher crust and the minute but distinct differences between the Japanese and Swedish interpretations of DBeat. Most of these fascinating details were unfortunately lost on her (though she does acknowledge the differences between THE LETTERMEN and CHUCK BERRY). At one point, I inserted noise into our conversation - there's harsh noise wall and power electronics and ambient and drone and countless more subgenres, and I brought this up to demonstrate that the more you know about a subject, the more there is to learn about the same subject. Came home that night and Nathan texted me a reminder that CRUDITY totally rips (see: Swedish interpretations of DBeat) and then I listened to 2010's Culos Asados and tried to make sense of my day. 

CULOS ASADOS 

DEATH GASP

 

My fukkn stars this shit sounds so desperate. AMEBIX, INEPSY, VENOM. Low end cavernous churn. Absolute evil and/or sonic destruction. Pittsburgh man....let's go to Pittsburgh. 

EXECUTIONER

DJ EONS // BAD SHANE

 

History is going to look at this shit and (rightly) determine that their importance far outweighs their real-time influence. Local heads know what these folks are and have been capable of, but the way they continue to push Bay Area hip hop to (and in) new and different directions with baffle historians for sonic generations to come. BAD SHANE's "Winning" is a sample-laden screwed collision. DJ EONS offers the gloriously repetitive "Gazebo Mission" that embodies '90s hip-hop and makes me feel like I'm an outsider watching low riders roll down 24th Street. No one does the shit like these dudes do the shit....even the novice knows greatness when he hears it. 

41st & EL CAMINO

ASTRAL BUTCHER

 

I played with them once. It was in Sacramento - it was probably with NO STATIK even though my brain keeps telling me it was SUICIDE BOMB) - and ASTRAL BUTCHER felt fucking dangerous. They were like the drug dealers who showed up to the high school dance and lurked in the shadows. They played with irreverence, they destroyed with abandon. They fukkn destroyed the joint. 

CEMETERY GOATS

FILE UNDER: Blistering high-end black psychedelic metalcrust power trio.

SPUR

 

This one almost made me question my commitment to physical tape rips....because the shit is so damn demanding and in your face and I feel like the murky lo-fi replication kinda pulls back the power. But I am a purist, so you get what I got. And you're gonna get smacked in the damn mouth by Florida's SPUR just like I did. And when the pit-churning mosh part in "Scraping By" drops you're going to be yearning for fidelity just like I was...and don't even get me started on "Headache" because the desperation is particularly palpable there. the point isn't what's lacking though, because this tape is ready to be party blasted. This tape is pumping out of a shitty ass speaker while young kids attempt new tricks at the downtown skatepark. This shit is real punk - it's desperate and honest. This punk is real shit. 

COWBOY KILLER

SUCCUBUS

 

This one will be tough to describe so I will try to use few words (but more words than I spent on the glorious TOURIST tape a couple of days ago). SUCCUBUS are clearly drawing from classic goth and dark wave but SUCCUBUS are just as clearly rooted in punk sounds so the result is....different. They hit like retro dark wave but they also beg to be filed alongside RAKTA and UNA BÉSTIA INCONTROLABLE and they sound like fukkn punks, particularly on "Judas." Only three songs on 2020's Coherence - soaring and determined. They are still active and still pushing boundaries...

COHERENCE

PRE-MARITAL SEX

 

Next mission is to bootleg the three PRE-MARITAL SEX tapes I borrowed from that dude in Fresno a few months back. Anyone who can successfully justify this band's legacy languishing in the shadows owes me a sandwich....but that's a sandwich I will never eat because PRE-MARITAL SEX deserve all of the accolades. This band's should be on the lips of people who (still) speak of TEAM DRESCH and SPITBOY, but these women had a fukkn saxophone too. Songs like "Feminine Hygiene Blues" just wouldn't hit the same today, and "Big Scrotum" places a tongue so firmly in cheek that I'm left speechless. So yeah - expect a Tape-ography before the end of the year because it needs to happen. 

BLOODY MARYS

TOURIST

 

Powerviolence.

TAKE FIVE

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