FREE VOICE

 

I do not understand why any band of any era and/or genre would think that this artwork was a good idea. And then you listen to FREE VOICE and somehow it all makes sense - it's still a bad idea but it makes sense. Absolute '90s melodic hardcore but from modern Indonesia. Think Ontario's NOAH FENCE (the Canadian Ontario, to be clear) or early AFI - all the shit from the early Fat Wreck / NOFX tree that influenced thousands of bands around the world. Including FREE VOICE, apparently. Seriously dudes, the artwork sucks.

LET'S THINK CLEARLY FOR A WHILE

The dude in the DISRUPT shirt really just reinforces the '90s vibes. 

BARREN SOIL

 

Quintessential UK anarcho crust from Vancouver - right down to the Celtic knots in the art. Apocalyptic and dystopian stench with an ear turned towards '90s Japanese hardcore...and yeah, it's every bit as essential as that (brief) description suggests. 

ALL PATHS LEAD TO DARKNESS

ORIGINAL PIHILIPPINE MUSIC

 

This is like 100 Strings from Philippines, and if you actually dig through records and tapes in thrift stores then you should know what I mean. And if you don't dig through records and tapes in thrifts stores....? Well, you should.  

ORIGINAL PHILIPPINE MUSIC: VOLUME IV

SIDE A

 

These are the things you find when you just.....look. I wish I had some history, but my guess is that was a pop group being marketed by a would-be music business entrepreneur from Oakland. Or mayhaps it was just a bootleg. Either way, we're left with 86 minutes of Filipino pop. No one needs twenty-one songs on a commercial pop cassette, especially when the eighteenth and nineteenth tracks are the only potential hits. There's a really (really) small audience here, but to those readers......keep digging.

SIDE A

WAVE OF NOISE

 

Continuing on a theme....a total hyper-crust assault in four movements. DISCHARGE worship from SKITSÖFRENIA. Ferocious street punk from INCRUST. Clenched fist '90s crust from DISGRACE. Apocalypse fastcore/crust mania from DISTRUST. Singapore meets Malaysia, and DIY punk still rules. 

WAVE OF NOISE
Seriously though, the DISTRUST tracks are next level. 
You're welcome.

ZUDAS KRUST // CONFLITTO

 

Shoelace headband crust assault at its finest - nine minutes of blistering sonic devastation in your earholes. 
All eyes upon Papua.

CONFLITTO // ZUDAS KRUST

HEAVY COMFORTER

 

Gloriously sinister synth driven hyper punk from Tennessee. We're talking infectious Reatard caliber hooks, '90s Rip-Off energy and PHANTOM LIMBS mystique all supercharged and hyped beyond description. Listen to the (backing) vocals in "Unholy Armistice" and know that punk rules, ok?

IRON RATIONS

BACOT!

 

The band name translates into English as something like "shut up" but I want to BACOT! to do anything but. We're talking top notch early 2000s early 1980s worship - Indonesian hardcore with a serious penchant for SoCal punk and an indescribable ability to make eye-rollingly generic hooks seem like they belong....because they do indeed belong. 

DEMO TAPE 2026

unknown artist

 

MUDWIMMIN. OH SEES. REATARDS. MARKED MEN. SUPERCHARGER. MISTREATERS. MISFITS. 50 MILLION. WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN. SONICS. BIKINI KILL. SQUIRREL BAIT. FRIGHTWIG. SHOTWELL. CRAMPS. PUSSY GALORE.....

The hooks are undeniable. 
The power is infectious. 
The only text reads: "18 Nov 2015"
The tape rules. 

18 NOV 2015

GLICH

 

If you wondered whether of not the razor sharp hardcore of the early 2010s was going to stick - look no further than Indonesia's GLICH. Piercing buzzsaw guitars, howling vocals drenched in reverb, arm swinging mid paced moshes that slow to deadly lurches before launching into heart stopping DBeat-as-USHC riffs. Sinister, scowling, dangerous hardcore from 2025; "Safe Means All" on repeat all damn day. 

NO SILENCE LEFT

APHID TRIP

 

Ten minutes of murky, mysterious electronics. Like one component of a spaced-out ambient recording from 1986 got lost in the studio and just degraded for four decades until.....today. 

SKY LISTENING

HAFNER // THE EDOMITES

 

The kind of release that 2026 could really use, only Aklasan released this split five years ago. Four focused tracks from SF's HAFNER - the kind of alt/sludge that that reminds you of the transition from Rev Summer into early Sub Pop....it's a really good reminder. Noise laden drum/electronic freak outs from EDOMITES on the flip - an instrumental series titled "Fuck ICE" in five mind melding movements that made me want to dig around for a GAY BARBARIANS AND OR THE JAURWAURS disc because I know I have at least two of them. Somewhere. 

HAFNER // THE EDOMITES 

CREEPING CHILL

 

I remember being blown the fukk away by this band when I heard their 2019 demo, and here I am in 2026 being blown the fukk away by their 2020 demo. Covid-era hardcore is a real thing, and this bombastic four song bulldozer is a perfect example. "Hate Polluters" might be a (read: the) perfect hardcore punk song. 

CREEPING CHILL

SIMON FRANK

 

I first heard of Frank through HOT & COLD's excellently sparse Border Area LP, but most of his solo output has eluded me.  Until no, that is - because after relentless and compulsive listening to 2018's Humid Music, I will be making every effort to seek down physical copies of everything. Everything. The 7+ minute "See Self" opener hits like an entire night at the club; everything is there. Everything is here. Monotonous SUICIDE clashing with driving '80s new beat by way of early PIAS and shades of NITZER EBB and then a burst of no wave like the brilliant "Good Taste Is Worthless." Simon freaks and chants deliberately over each track and it feels like you're in a trance just listening....I would love to experience this at full volume in a packed club.

HUMID MUSIC

GERUTUAN BANGSAT

 

Raw UK styled punk from Indonesia - distant, distorted and damaged. 

LAWAN KEMBALI

NSA

 

This shit is absolutely damaged. Carelessly replicated and hopelessly destroyed mutant hardcore maybe from Florida - sometimes I listen to "I's" and I'm thinking "this is like CONEHEADS on a steady diet of CROSSED OUT" and while I know that doesn't really make sense (or seem like it works).....just listen.

NSA IS WATCHING

THUMBTHUMB

 

Super trippy.
Like an improvisational synth artist interpreting a series of insect migrations. 
Definitely mysterious. 

THUMBTHUMB IS NOT MYSTERIOUS

MELT

 

Let the Indonesian S.H.I.T. destroy your brain and let the squirm pit commence.

Depok City hardcore represent. 

MELT

CREPE DE CHINE

 

This shit is so weird, y'all. No idea who and/or what CREPE DE CHINA is (or was), but some ESMERELDA ass freak show karaoke might be exactly what you need today - it's Friday so consider it a compilation....of sorts. Space synth-auntie versions of G'N'R, LED ZEP, SALT 'N PEPA, THE SMITHS, 2 LIVE CREW classics and others. It doesn't have to make sense to be good. 

CREPE DE CHINE

SARJAN HASSAN

 

They've graced these pages before, and any self respecting fan of global fast and/or thrashcore will already be familiar - for the rest of you? SARJAN HASSAN. Kuala Lumpur's premier thrashers offer up twenty-nine doses of high quality metallic fastcore taken from splits with PEOPLE AGAIN, CONQUEST FOR DEATH, DAIG HILA and NADIMAC plus some comp tracks and their 2005 self titled demo. If this band had existed in North America or Europe in the early 2000s....? I'm just saying that fans of the shit need to listen to the shit. 

TAPE RULES

ERROR CREW

 

Another brilliant and under-appreciated street punk band from Indonesia? The more you dig the more you will find, and the more you find...? The more you will find that you need to dig for. 2001's Loose And Gain is anthemic UK hardcore tempered with 1994 RANCID and 1998 CASUALTIES so if you think even for one fukking second that these tracks aren't going to stick with you.....? Well, then you clearly have not blasted "Confused" seven beers into a Tuesday evening. I recommend it. 

LOOSE AND GAIN

DESBORDE

The self titled tape was good (really good), but this thing is an absolute stunner. Maximum energy synth drenched punk from Argentina with multiple vocals delivered with different but competing levels of harsh intensity. RADIOACTIVITY caliber hooks and CRUDOS level ferocity....and killer early '80s new wave synths. "Son Todoxs Policias" is a straight classic that could steal the heart of any era and/or subgenre specific punk rocker and then "Sin Caminos" drops in a mid-paced squirmy driver with keys that would make Greg Hawkes weak. These punks are simply flawless. 

 YA NO KIERO SER PARTE DE ESTE MUNDO

PROTOPLASMA

 

In the world of gloriously bizarre and indescribable recordings, PROTOPLASMA might belong in their very own brain melting category. Complete freak vibes activate - you're going to hear MELT BANANA, RITES OF SPRING, PARLAMENTARISK SODOMI, IDIOT FLESH, JAMES BLOOD ULMER and/or THE VSS (with grindcore drums)....none of this shit makes any sense at all. It's as if some punks fron Budapest got bored with mastering all known amalgamations of outsider music and decided to deconstruct all of them and use the remnants to make....different sounds. Nothing sounds like PROTOPLASMA. 

 - 

Yeah - the tape is called " - " so the clickable link is small. 
Sometimes you have to work for magic. 

VIBRATORS

 Companion post for a batch of killer and essential live recordings from THE VIBRATORS. Sometimes starter bands and standards are what they are for a goos reason....and that is absolutely the case with this LP, captured on the backside of a blank some live tracks and BBC session on the flip. Punk fukkn rules, and there ain't no reason for the most seasoned degenerate to not do a mental pogo to "Sweet Sweet Heart." Also "Whips & Furs" is a stone classic. Don't resist. 

PURE MANIA

THE SABOTAGE

 

These Indonesian street punks have made several appearances on these pages so frequent visitors should know what they're in store for today (as if the cover wasn't enough of a tell). THE SABOTAGE have evolved considerably from the ramshackle UK82 assault that defined many of their early releases - 2021's Generation Is Lost owes to THE CASUALTIES much like Give Us A Freedom did fifteen years earlier, but the sound is so much more realized now and incorporates Japanese hardcore influences (check the leads on "Down & Dirty" and the title track). Just as you'd expect from a crew of DIY street punk veterans.

GENERATION IS LOST

PRESSURE DROP

 

Sometimes you want gruff, hard-hitting, in your face street hardcore. Sometimes when the world is in turmoil, you want to listen to a band called PRESSURE DROP deliver a song called "World In Turmoil" and feel like you still have a fighting chance....or at least that someone else is as desperate as you are. Blast "Streets Running Red" and know that someone else is. 

PAST // PRESENT