FLOWERDAY

It's been a month since the last noise post, but this FLOWERDAY tape more than makes up for lost time with a terrifying wash of electronic white. Perhaps some of the harshest shit I've ever heard, these two tracks are like being trapped underwater while waves and currents whip you in all directions until you've forgotten which way is up. A few more minutes into the first side and you just submit...sink into your chair and let the sound take its course and have its way with you. Maybe it's silly to get all philosophical about noise, but tape has a transportational effect on me and it is awe inspiring - if only in its relentlessness. Desperate, bleak, painful noise.

SNUFF VICTIM

BALTHASAR GERARDS KOMMANDO

B.G.K.'s Nothing Can Go Wrogn was the first record I ever ordered through the mail, picked from the Alternative Tentacles catalog because the cover looked cool and packaged along with my Jello Biafra 3xLP spoken word release. The first time the needle hit the vinyl my mind was fukkn blown - I had never heard rage like this before, and these dudes were fast. I think B.G.K. are Holland's answer to Tulsa's N.O.T.A. (or maybe it's the other way around)...just amped up rapid fire hardcore punk, and this live tape highlights the band at their fastest. Excellent quality live recording from 198something, the tape might have been recorded in Phoenix but maybe I just think that because "PHOE" is scrawled on the label...YOUTH OF TODAY and 7 SECONDS are on the other side but no other information is available (I suppose I could ask Devon, to whom the tape belongs, where and when this set was recorded). The guitar, however, is fukkn SCREAMING so I really could give a shit where it was recorded, I'm just glad that it passed through my hands. 14 songs here, but the set cuts off partway though "Distorted Views," so there might have been more at one time.  One of the best hardcore bands ever, though I never noticed until today that Rene's vocals kinda sound like Lee Ving.

B.G.K. live

NOMAD

My weekend ended in the noisiest possible fashion: watching San Jose fucks IN DISGUST shred the shit out of a South Bay basement, but I'll hold off posting their shit until their band calls it quits. But now the weekend is over, and that means it's Monday...and time for more noise. New York is cranking out  ragers lately, and seeing NOMAD a couple of weeks ago put these kids in line with Noise Punk elite. The formula is simple, the challenge is to do it right: echoed vocals are howled, guitars pierce the stagnant air, drums are in a constant battle with a wash of cymbal hiss, and the bass rumbles underneath the chaos. NOMAD fly the DISCLOSE flag higher than most, rarely veering to far off a well weathered path...and that's just fine. The new(ish) EP kills, I suggest you get it as soon as you download these noise punk shits.

NOMAD

EUTHANASIE

EUTHANASIE's later recordings were recently given the vinyl treatment by Loony Tunes Records, which is what prompted me to pull this tape out - compiled recordings from 1985/6, the initial demo from West Germany's EUTHANASIE takes the best parts of Deustch Punk, UK anarcho and brooding goth punk and wraps it all into one great C60. The guitars seem lifted off of '80s BANSHEES records and then reworked to suit the mid tempo political punk. Ferocious and shitty sounding on tracks like "Weisser Schnee," melancholy anarcho tunes like "Justified Rape" create the dark vibe that permeates even the faster tunes that are the highlight of the tape. 14 songs over the course of a dreary and rainy morning.

A WAR TO END ALL WARS

INDIFERENCIA

Great hardcore from Argentina circa 1995...the healthy 'crew overtones might date this tape a little bit, but the power of the gang chorus on the opening track is undeniable and I was hooked from the start. Fast as shit, killer breakdowns, full throaty vocals...the circle pit in "Esquivas Tu Propia Ley" is low and mean, the attack is constant and I wouldn't change a thing.  This shit will grow hair on your chest.

Respirando Violencia

reposted May 2013

PAXTA-CORE: UNDERGROUND UZBEKISTAN

For those who aren't familiar, Tian An Men 89 Records have been releasing music from the far corners of the earth for well over a decade, and it's through this label that I first heard about punk scenes in Nepal, Algeria, Korea, Iran and the list goes on. Many of these bands destroy the boundaries of what we might consider "punk," but the bastardization of musical genres in these faraway lands often results in songs that are far more interesting than just another rehash of those same three chords that we all love. Several of TAM89's vinyl releases were put to cassette a few years back, and here's the Underground Uzbekistan comp LP for your Friday. The mellow bedroom minimalist track from BGMOLSTY I GROBOVYERZHSTY is my favorite, while HARDCORE OPA are probably the punkest thing on the tape. Other styles range from classic 1-2-1-2 punk rock to more commercial sounding alternative (though delivered in a raw and interesting enough fashion that it ceases to sound even remotely "commercial") to more indie numbers like those from SKIZZERZ.  This label cannot be commended enough for exposing these bands to the world (and and exposing the world to these bands).  8 bands, 15 songs, 7,000 miles from my house.

PAXTA-CORE

EUNUCH

Maybe this shit should have waited until Monday, but I've eyeing the EUNUCH tape languishing near the top of the "to be blogged" pile for way too long. Brutal and neanderthal all female powerviolence from Boston, these are ugly and smart sounds not to be consumed by the weak or the narrow. There is a guitar, but it just rumbles and makes noise, leaving the pulverizing to the bass and drums and the eviscerating to the vocals. I believe I mentioned that this shit was ugly, but I would like to reiterate.

EUNUCH