BACTERIA

They dropped this demo off and then disintegrated in a flash, and unless you were in Portland in the very early 2000s, you probably missed them entirely. Much like MIDNIGHT, their past and future projects probably over shadow them (the rhythm section would spend the following two decades forming the foundation of WARCRY), but there's something about the rock solid hardcore fronted by completely unhinged vocals that sets BACTERIA apart. Ten songs in less than a quarter hour. 

BACTERIA

ASHWIN BATISH

You think you know what to expect....but it's better.

The wailing sitar of Ashwin Batish set to the dated back beats of the 1980s. 

It's what you want it to be, and it's also more that you hope it will be. 

BOMBAY BOOGIE // INDIA BEAT 

SPOKENEST

I like this tape. SPOKENEST are shrill, piercing treble rebel two piece punk. They're probably hooked in closer to indie and/or garage scenes, but these songs are just so anxious - they demand attention but don't require too terribly much of it, which is a rather nice combination when you're diving into an artist for the first time. They're going for it and going hard, which is another nice combination. Once again, I'm late to the game (this tape is from 2013), but once again I'm totally OK with that. 

SPOKENEST

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..

REDRUM

 

Time has been kind to REDRUM. Don't get me wrong, when I saw them at the PCH in 98 (or 99?) I was fucking floored. It was the first time LIFES HALT and WHN? played together - the entire show was wild as shit, I think REDRUM played second, and they just set up with purpose and without pretense and they leveled the joint. Only saw them a couple of times after that, and quickly they were overshadowed by the drummer's other band, but this thing....it's a fucking beast. Imagine them as a lifeline, connecting the fast intense hardcore that took over the turn of the century to the dirty, pissed, patched up hardcore punk of the 1990s basements. Not the introspective emotional shit, the sketchy desperate shit. And it still sounds real. 

REDRUM

CHRISTIN DIOR

My first thought was that CHRISTIAN DIOR sounded like KILLDOZER and THE VSS conducting a weird transactional mating ritual....then it just kept getting weirder. It's noisy, damaged modern grunge from 2025 - a time when all things old are still old but you live in the future past. They're from Madison, and they way they go from complete chaos to BREEDERS on mushrooms is...well, it takes me back to that future place. Also, if "Mu" is an Ed Gein song...it is in fact Ed Gein song. Then listen to "Iodine" on repeat. 

PATRIOT GLASS + DIORIA

you are nothing 

come from nothing 

and you will be nothing

 

GRAEME REVELL

Stunning 1986 LP from SPK's Graeme Nevell, as broadcast on KALX's Midnite Trax. Nevell uses field recordings of insects as instruments to create a dark carnival of sound...I am only disappointed that it took me long to discover it. Much has been written elsewhere by actual scholars, so I will step aside and encourage deep listening. Stand out track: "Nature Morte."

THE INSECT MUSICIANS