Gai - "1981 To 1985" (1985, FLAC O.G. + Insert)

You've heard the tape a million times before, it's just sourced from an original in lossless now. First wave noisecore, more jangly in the guitars than their contemporaries Confuse, but visionary nonetheless in taking the Chaos U.K. / Disorder influence to dimensions that made Thatcher's finest look incompetent in their later work. This was a rehearsal sampler, released when the band changed their name back to Swankys. There's quite a few unreleased or drastically alternate versions of tracks (including a fun cover of "Rock Around The Clock"), some of which were split up for the official discography CDs that came out around '97. Going by the terse inlay, the band seemed only semi functional for it's first few years of existence, and there's no real explanation for the back and forth on the name change, but here we are 32 years later still talking about them. That's the power of good-bad music!

Suss Law - 2015 Demo

9 songs in 10 minutes of PDX blastbeat chaos punk. I'd add "noisecore" in there, the Japanese variety, but the guitars are fairly controlled minus the occasional solo eruption. Quoting Death Dust Extractor in the foldout, but sounding more like Florida/PDX's Radiation (a.k.a.: Tattooed Cop Cocks with blastbeats), this is great hardcore in general that fuses anti-music elements with ease. Real songs, real lyrics (out there and interesting), the tracks blend a bit but the D.I.Y. production is very clear and aides the band's acoustical vibe. They've already got a short stack of vinyl and other tapes out, so start playing catch up with where it all began...

Eu's Arse - January 2004 Demo

My fave Italian band, new or old! Sent to me by Jan/AGx back then, gifted to him via the group, it's a nicely home engineered and powerfully...but not tunefully...performed re-record of the band's classic '83 discore material (with a new singer who rabidly screams not unlike Rattus' Annikki). I was greatly disappointed with their "comeback" CD, but this recording and the psychotic vocal enhancement is D.I.Y. excellence! I don't believe this was marketed or even given away to the public, so there was no cover or even basic track listing that I'm aware of (it's pretty much do-overs of tracks from the two EPs). I'd ripped and upped this years before, but reminding you lot about the best music is just what I do...

Tortura Sistematika ‎– "Todos Somos Culpables 84-85" CD 2013, "Tolosako Hardcore 84-85" Tape 2013, & Ruido De Rabia Live Soundboard '87

The Basque analog to Chemotherapy (half of the members later formed Ruido De Rabia, who were stunningly sloppy in their own legend). Pre-grind noisecore and reductionist '77 slower jams, mature in ideology and extreme ideas of attack...but incompetently, really incompetently performed. In a Shyamalan twist, many of the songs still seduce the listener in memorability, intellectual display, or erosional blasting speed. At the very least they had great ideas that just far exceeded their already terrible playing ability. 82 songs on the CD alone, with a bonus I tossed in of a soundboard live set from R.D.R.'s '87 thrashcore days (not on their own CD collection either!).


Bog People - "Complete Recording Collection" 09-12 (2015)

A 21st century band that actually sounded like they came out of the U.K. in '82 (and they weren't a Bristol chaos clone). Skanky hi-hats, heavy chorus on guitars, amateurish but good production, and...well, typical plain lyrics that still charmed me instead of making me yawn to death (sometimes you just catch an extra sliver of vibe with a band and deeply appreciate it). As the title suggests, these are the complete recordings, with the LP remaining unreleased on wax because "the songs were too fast". Too much glue on that very poor life decision Bog Peeps!

Darvocets - "Do The Crop Circle" 7" 1996

This EP's fuckin' magic dude. Chris taped me the session about the time the vinyl trickled out, and being the music-otaku I am, the very next letter back to him I tripped for a physical copy. I got it...unexpectedly signed by Chris and Larry...and very soon after it attained retroactive KBD glory. It's straight punk (no pop), living room as shit, obsessed with alien conspiracy theories, mid-fi, and flawlessly fun beginning to end. The end. Even The Authorities cover is tight. No amount of jaw jackin' will convince you, just download a beam-up to their addictive dimension!

Doctor And The Crippens - "Fired From The Circus" 85-88 CD (2014)

If Monty Python was a thrashcore band. A little cross-genre and a lotta stupid, Doctor And The Crippens didn't exactly get to play Warped Tour, but if they did set those stages on fire it would have been from their Gwarish live theatrics (firecrackers in vegetables was one of many antics) as much as their highly characteristic hooks and sharp performance. Juvenile instead of anti-PC, topics included body parts in freezers, slugs, sentient washing machines, and just being so fucking British that the piss-taking is measured in dekaliters. This is a rip of the Boss Tuneage CD, which acted as a complete discography of the group's first few years, containing the debut LP, Peel Session, demos, and live.

Paradise Lost - "Lost Paradise" LP 1990, "In Dub" 12" 1990, Demos & Live '88-'90, Live Holland 2-16-89

Godheads, but lone wolves in a scene that (at the time) was obsessed with outdoing itself in adrenalized craziness. What made their doom so memorable was that it was composed as heavily rhythm based death metal...chuuurrrned sloooooow. There's no lingering on the same two notes for 30 minutes, things go places in the band's songs (at their own shambling pace), and those places are black, freezing, interdimensional, maybe a little steamgoth, and sanity-erasing. The debut LP has remained the classic we young heshers predicted it would be (extraordinary organic production too), "In Dub" was a remix 12" from the LP's session, the demos were very close in sound and style to the LP, and the Holland gig is a nicely gravelly soundboard recording I'm paying forward from the very sadly missed Panzerbadger blog.


Rupture - "Righteous Fuck" 7" 1991 & "Corrupture" 10" 1992

I had to listen to Rupture...again...already...and so do you! These are my fave ever releases from the band, when they were concentrated hardcore thrash 120% of the time. Rupture stripped paint with no chug, down tuning, or lowered vocals, with buzzsaw guitars taking a majority of inspiration from the entirety of Sweden's mid 80's thrash scene (Righteous Fuck is where I first heard Headcleaners as a sick cover of their track "With Medication"). Heresy and Intense Degree were just as fast and occasionally abrasive, but their songs didn't blast nonstop, and philosophically the members were firm believers in keepin' it posi n' skatin' gay. Rupture is your incestuous hebephile cousin who's always going to rehab for meth (and their lyrics weren't far off from that!).


Men Behind The Sun - "Unit 731" 10" 2002

A one-shot project from Rasthof Dachau, exclusively sampling Chinese ultragore classic "Men Behind The Sun". Besides the obvious dialog samples, every synth note and high-whir scream is a repurposed transmutation of sounds from the film. The sonic puree is finely tuned, keeping a steadily cold yet very active ambiance (though boldly shaped blasts do occasionally interweave into the mix). The final result is like getting your teeth drilled while peaking during an accidental PCP poisoning...that's precisely the sort of Hellraiser box that fans of morbid electronics seek!

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