DISGUSTING LIES

 

I think there was a copy of this record in every North American bargain bin for most of the 2000s. It seemed like there was a battered copy in every distro crate that had been flipped past by every kid looking for WOLFBRIGADE and TRAGEDY records....and I get it. At a certain point when you see a record everywhere, the "I can get it later" thoughts start to get infiltrated by the "well...seems like no one else wants it" thoughts and the record is doomed. But you know who's really fucked in this equation? Every motherfucker who didn't buy this fucking masterpiece. DISGUCTING LIES are '90s crust embodied - talking STATE OF FEAR and DEFORMED CONSCIENCE caliber churn - razor sharp and delivered with relentless brutality. The break in "Się Ściemnia" is worth the entire fucking record on its own, and every time you hear the band drop out and leave the fierce bass rumble isolated you brace yourself for the blast that you know is coming, and the blast kicks your ass anyway. Two decades later - this is still how you fucking do it. 

PEWNEGO DNIA...

ESCAPISM

 

If you know these pages, then you know I like a nice time warp. Not holding hopelessly to the past, not refusing growth or eschewing the present, but acknowledging the things that make you feel like you felt...then. Which is what ESCAPISM does for me. Chaotic, intense, passionate, erratic sounds that borrow from (and build upon) foundations laid by '90s screamo and early '00s Euro hardcore, Krakow's ESCAPISM use those influences to create a thing that is theirs. Instantly familiar to be sure, like the MOHINDER and ENVY records (that should be) on your shelves, but Equivocation was made for now...not then. 

EQUIVOCATION

GREENEARTH TAPES

 

Not going to take up a ton of space talking about how important international tape comps were (read: are) again, instead I'll just let you know what's waiting for you on this 1990 slammer.  RESIST, NUNCA MAS and INSURGENCE representing the US (hard to believe no one has unearthed the INSURGENCE catalog for a fancy reissue...yet), SEDITION and CRITERIA from Scotland, plus European hitters like VERDUN (France),  STRAWBERRY (these Polish punks were new to me), SILENT WATER (Belgium) and AKIE MAU MAUS (Germany). Throw in Canadians HYPOCRICY and English crustlords DISASTER and you've got an hour of fucking rage that starts with "Dismember Nazi Scum" and ends with "Growing Greed." 

DIE FREIHEIT VOL.3

105 LUX

 

Over the weekend, I got a few tapes from the folks at Music Not Noize (no new posts in several years, though most of the links are still live and you can still get lost there for hours). It's going to take months to really poke through everything, but I had never heard of 105 LUX so I popped in Przeciwko immediately. It's basically been on repeat since (so it's going to take me even longer to get through everything, it seems). Infectious early '90s Polish punk with a heavy (if inadvertent) UK anarcho influence, especially in the vocals. I ripped POLITICAL ASYLUM's Walls Have Ears collection yesterday, and I feel 105 LUX would be an excellent companion - song structures often 'too complicated' for punk, some metallic high end guitars with sung, poetic vocals. Not sure what makes vocals poetic, but once I typed the word I couldn't think of anything else, so I'm sticking with it. 105 LUX feels innocent, feels urgent, feels real - this one is going to be in regular rotation until I can track down their other two tapes. 

PRZECIWKO

CZERWONA CHORĄGIEWKA

 

Brutally lo-fi and gloriously grinding Polish grind crust circe 1991. What the fukk were you doing in 1991....? For most readers, the answer will be: Not this. And that's why you should listen to CZERWONA CHORĄGIEWKA. Because they were. And these seventeen songs fucking prove it. Noise - not fucking music.

IDŹ STĄD

JAD

 

These motherfuckers. Appropriate that JAD comes hot on the heels of HATE PREACHERS as there are similarities in approach and attack, but this Warsaw quartet throws a cold shadow over the stomp/pummel approach to hardcore. Three originals and a devastating ARMIA cover (which really help put all of their sonic pieces together), clocking in under five minutes in total. JAD have gotten better with every release, and this is just the second step in the progression that started with a demo in 2017....if you think that I'm implying their vinyl releases might be even better, then you'd be correct. 

PROMO TAPE 2018

DELIRIUM TREMENS

 

The first (of many) compilations from the Delirium Tremens label, this 1985 cassette is a thing of legend. A solid hour of primitive and raw Swedish hardcore (plus Poland's MOSKWA) and under the radar bangers from PEDANT STÄDTANT, NISSES NÖTTER, INJEKTION, SÖTLIMPA, GODS OF MASTURBATION, BRAINLESS FORCE and several others. I'm not going to dissect the tape, but I will mention (again) that comps like this were the absolute life blood of international DIY punk and hardcore in the 1980s....also the LIBRESSE tracks are absolutely stunning. 

DELIRIUM TREMENS 1. 

POLSKA NOWA FALA

 

A reissue of a reissue, and I'm here for it. The (sub)title really tells you all you need to know - Polish New Wave 1983...seventeen songs from MADAME, MADE IN POLAND, VARIÉTÉ and 1984. All four bands play variations of stark, anthemic proto-goth; MADE IN POLAND are slower and brooding, MADAME are quintessential Eastern European mainstream wave (think Klaus Mitfoch and/or REPUBLIKA but darker), VARIÉTÉ come off like OMD on a steady diet of Pornography and saxophone, and 1984 are just...perfect urgent cold wave. Pay special attention MADAME's "Głupi Numer," which has a chorus that will make your entire dark/wave collection melt, and 1984's "Tu Nie Będzie Rewolucji" (taken from their Tonpress 45) which is on a short list of the most fiery, punk new wave songs I've ever heard. Extremely pleased when this one showed up in my mailbox a few months into Thee Covid. 

POLSKA NOWA FALA 1983..

TISSURA ANI

 

These sounds would have assimilated into 1990s North American college/indie/alt - subdued guitars with a barely contained capacity for eruption, sonic progressions based on repetition, lead vocals with a sweet (and also forceful) lilt and a tendency to come completely unhinged. You can plant Poland's TISSURA ANI in the same general region as bands like PIXIES (pre-Doolittle) and STEREOLAB, with mid-'80s THE CURE guitar interspersed throughout. But remember the time and place here - I Don't Know was released during the time of ARMIA and EWA BRAUN, and somehow I feel like this tape is a combination of all of those things without owing a debt to any of them. Songs like "Love" manage to look 20 years into the future when so much (too much) of hardcore would be looking back at TISSURA ANI's contemporaries and trying to recreate...instead of looking inside and pulling out what's already there. And that, my friend/s, that random and indigestible non-descriptor, that is why I fucking love this tape. For a band to be simultaneously of their time, outside of their time, and ahead of their time...that's what you want.

I DON'T KNOW

FILTH OF MANKIND

The churning stench of Poland's FILTH OF MANKIND has been well documented, so I guess this is another one that shouldn't need too much introduction. Hard to believe The Final Chapter is twenty years old, but its bleak power is timeless.  

 

THE FINAL CHAPTER

WŁOCHATY

 

2000's Zmowa is possibly my favorite release from WŁOCHATY, though it's not the one I most often turn to (and admittedly there are a few more I haven't spent time with). This record is just....realized. The way they layer guitars, they way they drop melodies into their bitter and stark hardcore and/or anarcho punk, the way it almost feels like you're listening to a full concept piece instead of a mere collection of tracks. Poland's WŁOCHATY contributed more than a bunch of tunes during their twenty=plus year run...it feels different. They feel different. They feel important, always have. 

ZMOWA

SANITY CONTROL

Simply put, Warsaw's SANITY CONTROL are one of the best old school thrash bands I have ever heard. Killer modern crossover of the highest order. Period. 

SANITY CONTROL

TORPUR // MCHY I POROSTY

A tortured combination of raw outsider hardcore and demented drum/bass/electronics mania. It's a combination that works freakishly well, so much so that I could easily envision TORPUR's damaged light speed stomps and whatever kind of "music" MCH I POROSTY are making coming out of the same band. The former reminds me of DIE KREUZEN (but after a nonconsensual trip to Venus), the latter sounds a primitive LIGHTNING BOLT (....perhaps they were the ones who stole TORPUR and took them to Venus). I've already spent more time that I should have trying to explain, when really what I needed to to is say: "Two bands from Poland...you need to hear both of them." But alas...I talk too much. 

TORPUS // MCHY I POROSTY

PORCJE ROSOŁOWE

This one requires patience and full attention. Meticulously calculated builds and swells while the background crumbles seemingly inside your ear, Polish duo PORCJE ROSOŁOWE (de)construct primitive electronic sound in a most casual(ly beautiful) manner. Ballet is not just a trip, it's a journey.  

BALLET

DEZERTER

I'm going to assume that introductions and background information would largely be wasted on such a knowledgable assortment of punk fans, but I also cannot ignore DEZERTER's importance, so here you go. Released by Maximum Rocknroll in 1987 from master tapes that D.O.A. brought back from a European tour, Underground Out Of Poland combines tracks from DEZERTER's first EP on Polish state label Tonpress and their set from the Jarocin festival in 1984, previously released by the band as a cassette. Searing and essential punk rock music - the version of "Niewolnik" here is impossibly fierce, and "Szara Rzeczywistość" is simply one of the greatest punk songs of all time. Period. 

UNDERGROUND OUT OF POLAND

DEZERTER are, of course, still very active. They continue to plays shows and release records, and many of their older releases and recordings have been made available to the masses by Pasażer.

JAD

Five songs. Six minutes. Polish hardcore delivering that stomp squirm that you kids like to get low to, Polish hardcore that launches and lurches into breakneck ferocity on the second track and leaves your clenched fist/s in the dust. Thick and meaty (check the chorus riff in "Paich" and then just quit punk) mania that is so deliberate, so precise, and so perfectly executed. Listen to the fire in the vocals and remind yourself how well suited Slavic language/s are to hardcore, especially hardcore of the cromagnon variety. This demo is on wax now, and should be considered essential modern punk in any and/or all formats. 

JAD

SOLO SE OYE PUNK

You've seen these comps before...I mean, if you have paid attention to The Escape then you have seen them before. There are four volumes of Solo Se Oye Punk (that I know of), and I might argue that this one is the most crucial (though Volume 1 is pretty fukkn essential) - basically, this is the perfect international hardcore punk mix tape. The one that your friend never made you because your friend didn't have the KORO single and had never heard of RAPPRESAGLIA. It's like internet-era punk making the pre-internet-era tape you wish had helped you change your life instead of listening to DEPECHE MODE until you were 17 and then finally figuring out that Punk Rules and that yes, you do need to listen to ATAQUE FRONTAL to be happy. This one leans heavy on Italy, USA and Sweden (I guess that's fair), but Finland, Japan, Poland, Spain and Peru make notable appearances. File under: Essential. 

HARDCORE

KRZYCZ

It's been a few years since I pulled this one out, and Trauma is still an absolute monster. Oppressively dark and epic late '90s Polish hardcore with drawn out forays into ambient and improvisational interludes (someday, let's talk about how the horns in "Blind Love" should not work, but work so damned well, and when the vocals join the madness after the jam in the middle...the intensity is sublime) offering little respite from the power. Deadly, searing high register vocals and comparisons (flattering) to Word As Law-era NEUROSIS and '90s Per Koro metalcore are both justified and well earned, but I think that KRZYCZ hold up brilliantly on their own. As with most '90s Polish stuff, this one is pretty easy to track down on wax if you keep your eyes open...and I suggest that you do. 

TRAUMA

WŁOCHATY

Fourth full length from some of my favorite Polish anarcho punks. The guitars are inimitable in tone and presentation, and the combination of fierce political punk and hopelessly addictive pop tunes is one that has always worked well for WŁOCHATY. Fourteen songs, not a dud in the bunch, and still available from Nikt Nic Nie Wie - some things should always be in print. 

DROGA OPORU

ŚMIERĆ KILINCZNA

The second volume of Punky Reggae Party (find the first tape here, hard to believe that I posted those tracks more than five fukkn years ago). I'm going to avoid a history lesson, primarily because I know little about ŚMIERĆ KILINCZNA aside from their two 45s on Tonpress, these two cassettes, and the things you find when you slip down an internet hole....like this insane video for "Paciorek" (a more subdued, yet weirder, version of that track can be found on Punky Reggae Party cześć 1). Basically, I know that ŚMIERĆ KILINCZNA were a band of Polish punks active in the early '80s who bridged punk and reggae sounds and approached everything with an intellectual weirdness that is difficult to describe. Favorite jammer on this installment is "Robinson," but this might simply be because it rocks harder that any of the tunes aside from the untitled and impossible to digest final track, a free form rocker that sadly falls victim to age and the physical limitations of magnetic tape. Their normal approach was steeped in reggae/punk, but these two tapes forgo the latter for the former, and you should prepare yourself for extended jams and gratuitous guitar solos...not that I'm complaining. I can't pretend that these tracks weren't a hard toke at first, but context and concentration is everything, my friends....and now I find myself binging on these two tapes with almost alarming frequency. If nothing else, this version of "Edukacja" from the second Tonpress single is really really cool.

PUNKY REGGAE PARTY cześć II