FIST OF FURY

Repeat visitors here have surely read my waxing and waning (both pro and con, to be fair) about modern hardcore's apparent newfound love for Oi! and streetpunk. But take a gander at this shit and tell me that the new wave of rehash isn't about three generations past its time - which is totally fine...just a gentle reminder. FIST OF FURY hailed from Kuching, Sarawak (that's in Malaysian Borneo, in case you are curious), and dropped this demo in 1997 (the year their city was covered by an inexplicably brutal haze arguably caused by multinational greed, in case you are curious), and even though the "third world" punk scene was still burgeoning at the time, these tracks are pure devastation. Four on the floor straightforward hardcore punk, with gruff, throaty vocals that could not be more blunt - the "Chaos!!" chorus to "Organised Chaos" is quintessential blitzkrieg, so simple and absolutely bang on. There are only five tracks here, with the title track and "Fuck The System" standing out as highlights, but those looking to expand old school hardcore horizons beyond North American shores would be well advised to join in. 

GUILTY OF INNOCENTS

DESIRE XXI

Another terminally fascinating offering from the Nostilevo family. Erratic dub/drones meld with abstract industrialisms for a truly weird experience. I find DESIRE XXI difficult - the first few listens were a challenge, and I still find this cassette difficult to digest...but it's worth it. The sputtering low end combined with THE NORMAL-esque minimal synths (but on acid) that make up "Destorsion De La V.L.F." is the example of a thing so weird and yet so perfect. This sounds like it comes from a really dark and confined place....

LA PLANTAGO SCOTIA SON TINITE ÉLETRIQUE

IS/IS

This Portland outfit just nails it. So casual and confident, they just stroll in and just ooze out flawless dreamy fuzzed out noise/pop. Bass lines drive most of these tracks, while guitars swim in the aether, a relationship that bears more than a passing (and extremely flattering) comparison to Fraser/Guthrie circa Blue Bell Knoll, when they really dialed the shit in (I'm probably in the minority there, but you get my drift...). IS/IS veer effortlessly into garage pop on "Sideways," and reaching deeper into their repertoire it seems that this success isn't a fluke, and the band pulls off a brilliant '90s alt/indie number with "Gleam," but their excellence is rooted in the way they approach relatively simple melodies and breathe life and mystery into them. Listen to "Rune." Listen to it a lot. I stumbled on this cassette in a bargain bin and purchased on a whim and a fondness for the cover (don't think I'm a baller, the thing was a dollar), and IS/IS is my favorite accidental discovery in years, even their stabs at a rudimentary grunge rehash are worth your time. For fans of STONE ROSES, WAX IDOLS, early PINK FLOYD, MBV, COCTEAU TWINS...and sheer bliss.

IS/IS

WALKING WRECK

Hopelessly infectious no-fi garage hardcore from a crew of early '00s So Cal wingnuts. The guitar is so piercing and so gloriously shitty that it's almost hard to tell when tracks like "Big Dick Crucifix" launch into breakneck hardcore for a few seconds before they settle into their fierce and snotty groove, while the sheer chaos of "Future Cop" rivals greats like FAT DAY for discordant irreverence. The best seven minutes of your day are ahead of you, my friends.

WALKING WRECK DEMONSTRATION CASSETTE

ALPINIST

Every time I think this brand of hardcore faded away, I hear a new band belting out heavy and (almost too) slick hard hitting and (sometimes too) melodic jams and the shit is so gloriously on point that it reminds you why every band in Europe wanted to sound like TRAGEDY in the '00s. ALPINIST was the band that did that too me a few years ago when I saw them in Oakland - they just nailed it, and they sounded like their own thing instead of a clone. Interludes like the title track/s for LichtLærm make the rest of their attack hit so much harder, and there's a bit of MODERN LIFE IS WAR style power in the mix ("Yarncarrier And Break," for example). This act should be old news to many visitors here, but I've listened to these records enough recently that I felt it only fair to dig this baby up and share. Two records on one cassette, Minus.Mensch and LichtLærm from 2010 and 2011, respectively...twenty tracks of fist pounding, emotional, neocrust of the highest order, and the drummer is really fukkn good.

LICHTLÆRM // MINUS.MENSCH

LIQUID DRAINO

This is an aural time warp as much as a demo. Dayton, Ohio's LIQUID DRAINO sound like a combination of mid '80s Dischord, 7 SECONDS, and the collective DIY punk output in the year 1990. This shit fits so perfectly in my ears...even the almost ska-meets-"Miserlou" instrumental "Dinosaurs." There are some sure individual winners ("Dinosaurs," "Blow Up The World" - the singer's chuckle at the 1:02 mark is perhaps my favorite part of the tape), but the entire tape is fukkn great, and "Innocence" is a track to be played on repeat for hours on end...if you want to stay punk forever, that is. I do. And I hope that the "kids" who wrote the words below 25 years ago had some clue how much an old ass man was going to love singing them in the future. 

OOPS! ANOTHER DAY.

You threaten us with your "real world"

well this is as real as it gets

pushed in a different state of mind

trying not to forget

all of the worries and all of the fears

and all of those wasted years

I won't forget the pain...of being innocent

*********

just kids...living our lives

just kids....wondering why

just kids...we're just kids

GROMM

When my narrow little uneducated mind first heard black metal, this is what I thought it all sounded like. A grating presentation of haunting melodies with demonic little hobbit vocals? Yes, that's what I thought all the shit sounded like. I know I was wrong and I know that the genre has a limitless well of aural offerings....but still I keep venturing back to these sounds. This is the first offering from Ukraine's GROMM, a 2004 demo that shows them at their most primitive. Choice track: "Time's Dust Upon Millstones Of Eternity." See what I mean?

HAPPINESS - IT'S WHEN YOU'RE DEAD...