SCARLET WOMAN

 

Continuing on a theme (almost) this live ritual from SCARLET WOMAN lands like a black metal summoning interrupted by psychedelics and noise. Captured in København in 2009, a half hour of mystery and patience groans like your aching body...and then there was nothing. 

SCARLET WOMAN

SLYTTER

 

Wild freak and/or dirt punk amalgamation...like SONIC YOUTH conjuring STOOGES, CRUCIFUCKS, FLIPPER and '76 NYC punk at the same time and making you feel like you were an idiot (are...present tense...you are an idiot) for not understanding. It doesn't just make sense, SLYTTER feels perfectly relevant and/or present. Punk can be messy and confusing. Punk be like that sometimes.

TÆNKER PÅ DIG

OK SATÁN

 

Rarely does a recording sounds as much like you think it's going to sound....rarely is the book (tape) so easily judged by its cover. But this duo? This shit sounds like it looks. Primitive drum machine punk fury with wild/ly damaged guitars and vocals that embody the opening line of the final track: "I don't get it, shit's too much. It's too much." And it is a lot, my friends, but OK SATÁN understand this. 

OK SATÁN

••••

Look at these folks...they understand a lot. 

D.I.Y. CONSPIRACY VOL.6

 

The beefiest contribution to the DIY Conspiracy series, from the bulldozer Scandi-crust of CONVINCE to SHEEVA YOGA's fastcore/grind and an absolute smasher from ΝΥΞΗ leading the charge. Bands from Chile, Denmark, Belgium, Russia, Greece and Czech Republic spatter a Swede-heavy volume in a series born out of Covid isolation. Pop one of these shredders in and you'll be instantly reminded how big DIY punk is....and then you'll likely skip the reflection and start raging. 

DIY CONSPIRACY VOL.6

PASS THE ELIXER

 

The folks from Noise Addiction (and Noise Addiction II) put this together in 1987 - just some kids from Pennsylvania trading punk tapes and making a zine who decided to make a compilation to accompany their ninth issue. But Pass The Elixer is different...because it's a flawless document of a (or at least their) time and place. DISORDER mingling with QUOD MASSACRE and MISANTHROPIC CHARITY? Lehigh Valley's FOLLOW FASHION MONKEYS, ANTHROPHOBIA and BENTONITES sharing space with MISANTHROPIC CHARITY and PRESIDENT FETCH from Copenhagen and P.K.G. from Torrance, California. Some of my favorite QUOD MASSACRE tracks, a few rippers from PATARENI...you get the idea. This is what it was all about, and these kids did it right. 

PASS THE ELIXER

INDRE KRIG

 

I feel like INDRE KRIG was on the tip of every tongue when this demo started popping up two summers ago, and last year's stellar Destroyer EP only sealed the deal. Fierce, frantic hardcore punk with constant swing and more riffs on this four song demo than most bands can muster on a full length platter. Bands that full every void don't come around often, but INDRE KRIG does. 

DEMO '21

PUCE MARY + RODGER STELLA

 

Terrifying sonic deprivation in the form of a 2014 collaboration between two formidable and prolific sound artists. NYC stacks numbing layers on top of one another and drags them toward crescendo after crescendo until the noise isn't even building on itself...it just grows. I thought I knew what I was in for after I finished the two pieces on the first side, but the untitled piece that takes up the flip is an absolute crusher of hope. 

NYC

PRESIDENT FETCH

 

I'm not going to dissect PRESIDENT FETCH. I made some sonic comparisons when I posted their tracks from Pass The Elixir a couple of years ago, but mostly these Danes don't sound like anything else. If this demo had dropped a few years earlier I feel like the cool kids would be crawling over themselves and (rightly) referring to the back-to-back-to-back "Bestial" into "Ill Dog" into "Police Crime" as one of the high points in European hardcore punk. Maybe '87 was just too late, or maybe the LPs are far enough removed from hardcore that the cool kids just never bothered digging deeper....but there are few bands who put this much snotty punk into their hardcore, and PRESIDENT FETCH don't sound like anyone else. 

PRESIDENT FETCH

ZYFILIS

The first release from Malmö's ZYFILIS is a complete ripper. Every release from Malmö's ZYFILIS is a complete ripper, but the way the riffs just keep coming (and coming) and you know that is was the first shit? Like...what the fuck is gonna come next?!? (hint: it was more riffs). Beyond the riffs (seriously, they're worth even more attention than I'm giving them), ZYFILIS is all about Johanna's vocals; complete fucking ferocious intensity as they spit fire and fire and more fucking fire. The only respite on their self titled demo comes during the last track "Blodets Hav" - but it's a respite in the form of a midpaced squirmy one bass riff mosh part that draws out the inevitable with huge open guitar chords until it just fucking blows up. Like you know it would. And you can feel the room completely explode with it, even though you aren't in the room. This shit is real real good - and the records that followed might be even better. 

 

ZYFILIS

SOUNDS OF DEFIANCE

 

I should just be able to list the bands and if you weren't already aware of this 1987 comp then you should be salivating. So....DARK AGE (Switzerland, ex-THE DECAY), BAD ATTITUDE (Germany), INSTIGATORS (UK), 16 BLSÂRE UTAN HJÄRNA (Sweden), KRULL (France), UNIFIED FIELD (USA), NO CONTROL (Australia), SCOUNDRELS (Holland), G-3 (Peru), PRESIDENT FETCH (Denmark), R.I.P. (Spain). Not too shabby for a comp put together by some kids from South Dakota, I suppose. More mix tapes, more comp tapes, more international collections. 

SOUNDS OF DEFIANCE

PRESIDENT FETCH

 

Only four songs here, probably as a (then) advance for PRESIDENT FETCH's 1987 cassette debut. Ripping European hardcore that somehow owes equally to HEIBEL and Fresh Fruit-era DKs, this band flies well under the radar, and the first recordings capture them while they were still raw. The first LP is great, and I love the Mould tinge on the guitars on the later recordings, but the piercing chorus on "Bestial" here is a thing of pure beauty. 

PRESIDENT FETCH

edit: These tracks were used on the Pass The Elixer compilation, which was recently shared by (and fucking co-curated by) the folks at the excellent Freedom Has No Bounds blog. 

DOGMATIST

Denmark's DOGMATIST hit like a chain whip, and the beatings continue for every single one of this tape's 34 minutes. Inhumanely fast kång clashing with hyper intensity EuroCrust and face melting leads. I can't wipe the smile off my face while I'm blasting this...2014 LP issued on cassette by Cactus with a two song single from the same year tacked onto the end. Your welcome is not worn out here. 

You're Welcome.

 WORN OUT WELCOME

VI

Tape traders. Fucking love 'em. This is from the same tape as the WAR OF DESTRUCTION that appeared here a few weeks back, a screaming recording of tracks from the underrated The Triumph Of Death EP. Worth noting that you can still snag the record for a few bucks...and you should. 

(EP DEMO)

WAR OF DESTRUCTION

Unearthed a scorching collection of tracks on a relic from the '80s trading circuit earlier this week. Denmark's WAR OF DESTRUCTION should be well known to most readers, and by 1986 they had honed in on some of the hooks that they only hinted at on the earlier recordings. Three of these made it onto the Sauerkraut + Smørrebrød comp (which can still be snagged for a relatively reasonable sum), and the entire recording was unearthed in the early '00s on a GTA bootleg with an atrocious cover. Somehow this band still kinda flies under the radar, this recording is just one of the many reasons that makes no sense.

DEMO 86

 Noteworthy: "Åh, Hvor er Jeg Hvid" sounds like a bridge between Scandinavian hardcore and fucking ECONOCHRIST. 

BRAIN OF STONE

Come on, do we really need to have a discussion about the importance of BCT in the '80s? Or a discussion about the impact that the OG tape traders had on the spread of music and scenes around the world? We should not need to have this conversation, so instead here's BCT-11: Brain Of Stone. 

A couple of standards on this one (ACCUSED, CANCEROUS GROWTH, YOUTH KORPS), and a healthy dose wild ass under the radar bangers (DIET OF WORMS, ÄMIVÄX, WILD HAIRS, KANALKOTZER, BILL OF RIGHTS, KILLING CHILDREN and loads more) who never received attention, much less accolades. Like the subtitle says: 23 International Bands, 58 Cuts. 

BRAIN OF STONE

Louisiana's contributions here are SNUFFLIX and TOXIN III, both rippers (I'm in the market for their split tape if anyone's holding). And while we are on the subject of Louisiana, check out this 1978 New York City set from New Orleans first wave power pop punks THE NORMALS over at Escape Is Terminal. There's a good New York radio interview in the file as well, and some general shenanigans. Who doesn't like shenanigans?

NONPLUS

Hardcore rippers from Malmö/København, NONPLUS deliver exactly what I hoped they would. Fiery, desperate, hard driving, clenched fist hardcore punk. Check the riff that opens "Conspiracy?," check the vocals that close out "Unleashing Violence," listen to the frenetic simplicity of "Finite." And I urge to to adjust your volume appropriately, as volume here is the pathway to power. Members of URO, HÅRDA TIDER, NUCLEAR DEATH TERROR and others, in case you need a referential nudge. Apocalypse on repeat, all damn day.

NONPLUS

Another fine offering from our friends at Pissed Off! Records.

GUTTERCUT

The internet will never be comprehensive - there will always be artifacts from the physical realm that remain there forever. But thankfully, today there's one more piece to the never ending DIY hardcore puzzle reduced to soulless code for the purpose of consumption. This GUTTERCUT is a tale of two sides - both full of noise and fury - relentless, raging crust/hc on one, chaotic and damaged noisecore on the other. The noisecore tracks are incredibly fukkd up, warbling guitars and non-riffs punching their way through sub-60 second bursts of nearly unlistenable insanity. The hardcore is what really shines, six tracks of full fukkn throttle dual vocal '90s crust/core reduced to its purest form. Raw and furious, these tracks are enough to bring even a new generation slime punk over to the OG dark side of hardcore...the the very embodiment of chaotic rage. The thing is....I'm not sure which is GUTTERCUT, I'm not sure if both are GUTTERCUT, it's possible that neither are GUTTERCUT.  According to the address on the back, this banger is from Denmark and was recorded in 1995, there are nine tracks listed (each side has seven, and one is a Hank, Sr. cut) but I'll be fukkd if I can tell you anything else. Historians encouraged, and I look forward to being told that one of these sides (I'm guessing that the hardcore) is actually a known entity and I just can't place them - I will happily correct the files and right the internet once we know more, but until then I will keep breaking things in my mind and listening to some brutal sounds. 

ACME VULGARIS

FREE THE LAND

A subtly ominous collection of audio manipulations, casual electronics and field recordings, the product of a TransAtlantic collaboration between PUCE MARY and HOAX members. The closer you listen, the more ou hear....the deeper you listen, the more you experience. 

GLOBAL ECOPHONY

THE WAR GOES ON

You remember 2001? You remember when, amidst the sea of proto stadium crust clones and a relentless assault of by-the-numbers rehash thrash coming from every corner of the world, a crew of teenagers from Copenhagen completely changed the face of DIY punk? Sure, there was the HUL 12", but that one slipped past most folks, but in rapid succession there were records by AMDI PETERSENS ARMÉ, YOUNG WASTENERS and NO HOPE FOR THE KIDS, whose self titled 2004 LP quickly became as omnipresent as Vengeance had been just a year earlier. There were others after that first wave, as the teenagers grew up and influenced teenagers of their own, but I can think of very few times in my punk life when one sound from one scene in one city so drastically affected the international punk scene. And this....? This is the natural progression. More than the bands that came after the initial detonation, THE WAR GOES ON listens like a more focused, more determined incarnation of those early sounds. When adulthood is a reality and that reality really sinks in - youthful idealism is washed away and the choruses are cloaked in darkness and resignation. I confess that The War Goes On didn't initially grab me as tightly as the aforementioned (now) classic acts. Where is the "Rainy Day" on this record? Where is the hit? But....just listen. "This Shitty Life" into "Darkest Days" is the highlight, followed by the guitar drenched desperate bliss of "The World Hates You" (check those titles, and that shit is back to back to back). There can be no mistake that while time may have been as cruel to these kids as it has been to the rest of us, they have remained as fierce (and as full of hooks) as ever. Songs to get lost in, songs to sing along to, songs to understand and a well earned time to be understood. 

THE WAR GOES ON

As always with current acts, support of the artists and labels responsible is encouraged. This cassette version of the LP on Adult Crash/New Dark Age comes to me (and now, you) courtesy of Singapore's Pissed Off Records. 

KNÆKKEDE STEMMER

A foreboding collection of sounds from Danish aural collagist KNÆKKEDE STEMMER. Subdued industrial ominousity reduced to its most primitive form. The next thirty minutes of your life will be quiet, even temporarily peaceful, but there is nothing calm or reassuring about this release.

BETYNGET AF...