IMPAIRED

Straight talk: "Shitstream" is a certified banger. Period. Such power in simplicity desperation, this song is an absolute crusher. I don't want this fact to overshadow the other five tracks that are about to bowl you over like a ten pin....but fukk that's a good song. IMPAIRED are modern day Singapore DBeat crusters of the highest order, a nod back to a partially forgotten time when folks didn't mind a good formula (who am I kidding? folks still love a good formula, it's just that the kids are globbing onto a different formula now) and we all clenched our fists a little tighter when we heard those Swede-bendies pop up in the verse. Once again, Black Konflik doesn't fukk around. 

MERDEKA

DIVIDED MINDS

"Frozen," the track that closes this demo, is exactly the kind of thing I want to listen to on a late night drive. Simple, straightforward, with a driving bass line that rolls and swings as the white lines pass by and I'm serenaded by barking vocals that echo through the night. . The rest of the thing is great too, with a pervasive not-quite-perfect vibe that draws me in even closer (I'm like that). Five tracks on this demo, and I also recommend the EP that dropped the following year. 

DIVIDED MINDS

MICROAGGRESSIONS

Someone's listened to a few NEON PISS and/or OBSERVERS records, and that is completely fine by me. Intensely catchy Portland punk, with decidedly off kilter vocals that sporadically pump up the intensity in a way that's somewhere between brilliant execution and a terrible final mix. It makes these tracks seem and feel real, and that's an important thing. Even though a track like "Paradise" might not otherwise appeal to this listener (hey, I am only one person, am I not?), I adore it in this manifestation. "Lost Cosmonaut" however? I'm gonna love that tune every damned time. Recommended for evenings with friends, especially if they also know all the words. 

SHIT'S LOOKING GRIM

GLITTER

More from Canada? Why not? GLITTER hail from the plains - those plains....they are fukkn vast and intimidating, and that frustration manifests here in the form of three snotty and raw bursts of freek punk with distortion free piercing guitars and sharp desperate vocals, all driven by a gloriously basic pummel from behind the kit. Well...that covers two songs. The tape ends with a drugged out drum machine/synth missive, which is obviously a positive. In and out, kids...

SPINNING BALLERINA

ALIENATION

More mutant hardcore from Nova Scotia. Urgent, fierce, raw, primitive, fast, killer. 

ALIENTATION TIME

STEFAN CHRISTENSEN

CHRISTENSEN's sounds are from another time and/or dimension. Dreamy and dreary vocals flittering in and out of drawn out tracks that owe as much to early psychedelia as to the early '90s bands who showed us that shoegaze can still have teeth. The sounds meander a bit, but it's a journey well worth embarking upon. "In My Head" is this fellow's favorite, but you are welcome to choose your own....and then peruse subsequent recordings that show this gentleman progressing into something of a force. 

EMPTY CONTINENTS

RAD

They've visited The Escape before, but it's been a while. And correspondingly, it's been a few years since this tape was released. But....holy shit do Sacramento's RAD fukkn smoke. Still. Their lo-fi tinny recordings capture the relentless '80s USHC assault perfectly - you could sneak "Who Wore It Best?" into the middle of the Master Tape comp and no one would bat an eye except to wonder how they missed a burner on previous listens. It's like JERRY'S KIDS reborn in the 2010's. And in California. All of this reminds me that it's been way too long since I've seen them play. 

RETURN OF THRASH RADICAL