CÜLO

Back to Chicago for a second time this week, here's the long overdue return of CÜLO to Terminal Escape. Their first demo made my head spin; 1000mph hardcore punk offered with pure abandon, just the way we like it. Equally killer vinyl slabs followed, and then this: the six minutes on the first side of this white shell make up some of the nastiest lightening speed hardcore that I've crammed into my earholes this year. A brief foray into DISCHARGE's "A Look At Tomorrow" is the only time I miss the presence of a four stringed assailant, and the track that follows more than makes up for any sense of loss I may have felt. One note keyboard solo? Yeah, we got that. Raw and fukkd in all the best ways...the flip side features the Nuke Abuse EP from Punks Before Profits, and this tape came from Frankenjew. Mandatory hardcore.

MUTANT MUSIC FOR MUTANT PEOPLE

CONSPIRACY OF GIANT NOIZE WOODPECKER MUTANT FROM OUTER SPACE (Vol. 1)

Averaging well under one minute per song, seven international bands blast through 27 fastcore gems on this comp. New York's I OBJECT start a truly international comp that includes bands from Sweden, Czech Republic, Indonesia and Belgium. KOBRA XI's raw grinding madness leads into '00s thrashcore from JACKSTONE, bringing to mind TOTAL FURY - a vibe that continues with the USHC stylings of Sweden's DICK CHENEY. POWERCORE might be the most ferocious band on the tape, fast and blown out hardcore perfection, but the whole comp rages. An hour that goes by without listening to hardcore is an hour that you could have spent listening to hardcore. Don't make a mistake you'll regret.

CONSPIRACY OF GIANT NOIZE WOODPECKER MUTANT FROM OUTER SPACE (Vol. 1)

JUNGE FRONT

Taking their name from the youth wing of a proto-Nazi political movement banned in 1982, Frankfurt's JUNGE FRONT (Young Front) managed only one vinyl release in their short lifespan. 1984's Politick is a quintessential Deutsch Punk slab, and this 1983 demo was a perfect warm up for that release. In classic D-Punk form, JUNGE FRONT flit between straightforward beats, rudimentary ska and jerky post punk, all tinged with gruff snarled vocals. The quality varies widely (both in terms of sound quality and technical proficiency) but even the no-fi ridiculousness of "Teddybär" is enticing, if only for the random appearance of group female backing vocals. The snare fights constantly through tape hiss, which serves only to add to the charm of these 12 songs. Borderline inept (and they often veer south of that border), JUNGE FRONT are nothing short of excellent to my ears - this is the kind of earnest determination that cannot be faked. My copy came on a tape with FUNERAL ORATION, END RESULT and DIE KREUZEN demos, but I nicked the cover from the brilliant Tape Attack blog, a must-visit source of '80s German punk, no wave and avant sounds.

EWINGER HASS

CEMETERY

Some folks are taking the current injection of '80s goth into DIY punk a little more seriously than others, and doing so with frightening success. Enter: CEMETERY. A Chicago quartet making music that begs for a dark corner, arms folded in silent frustration while vocals snarl out the very emotions that you've spent your entire adolescence suppressing. Driving, deliberate and decidedly punk, CEMETERY temper their attack with ambient numbers to close each side, giving a genuinely creepy vibe to the tape before you flip it over and get drawn in by distorted bass and guitars that scream in from 30 years ago and pick slide into your list of current favorites. Be careful, this one sneaks up on you, and just gets better the more you listen.

CEMETERY

HARSH VIBES

Nasty, mean hardcore filled with awkwardness and hatred. The vocals are stressed to the very breaking point and their US styled approach is like a ton of bricks on your soul. Eight songs in under 12 minutes.

HARSH VIBES

This comes from Knochentapes.

SECOND AUSCHWITZ

By the time these Dutch maniacs released 1985's Murderers, their seventh cassette offering in just two years, their musical skills had improved so much that many of these unnamed 15 tracks almost sound like songs. Like 1984's The Arse Of Mankind cassette, these are politically charged inept anthems assailing governments and animal abusers with equal ire, to the tuneless mess that can sometimes pass as music. Noise punk has rarely been so cacophonous, and SECOND AUSCHWITZ prove that practicing and good riffs are for jerks. Primal and raw anarcho chaos.

MURDERERS

THE GUILT

Every I see this tape staring at me from the Shelf Of Cassette To Share, I think something along the lines of "Shit, I still haven't put that up? It's so damn good," and then promptly let THE GUILT return to the back of my mind while I sink another evening into turning gloriously analog sounds from years past into an unrecognizable sea of 01s and 00s. Redemption is Worth Nothing, the 2010 demo from DC's THE GUILT, a half hour of smart and determined hardcore that is able to set its sights firmly forward while sneaking fleeting glances over the shoulder at the forefathers (and the generations that followed). I hear SWIZ, and then I hear early '00s positive hardcore disguised as heartfelt '90s DIY basement magic. "Talk Hard" sounds as much like something you might hear on the radio and actually like as "Just Fight" sounds like a lost OUTLAST track, but both sound urgent and anxious - as does the whole tape. I always hated THE REFUSED, but I find myself thinking about all of the reasons that everyone kept telling me they were great, and those are the same reasons I keep coming back to these eight songs. Maybe I wasn't ready for Umeå's heroes back then, but I am certainly ready for THE GUILT now. Well written and expertly crafted songs, offered up with honest sincerity...sorry I waited so long.

WORTH NOTHING