Nailed Down - "Resurrection" CD & Rough Mix 2003

They're fast, they're slow, they're fast, they're slow, they're noisy, they're clean, they're simple as fuck, they're less simple as fuck, they're fast again, then slow again, they're...Nailed Down! On Resurrection, their final release, they're clean, fuckin' fast, and occasionally cinematic (the track "You Tell Me")! They're also sardonic and hateful of things PC, but a little more cerebral about the topic than fellow koala cuddlers Rupture.

Founder Kim poured his soul into the band, fully exploring two favored influences: fast Boston hardcore and first wave Japanese chaos-punk. He never fused the styles though, keeping them mostly separated depending on whichever members he had at any given time. So, some releases like Resurrection are sub-blastbeats and desperate melodies, others were oi-beat and crackling speakers. There's still the odd Kuro riff in the fast stuff, but...what's wrong with that? 16 songs, 14 minutes, precision, speed, and the purest hardcore passion. Bonus rough mix kicked down courtesy of Kim himself. Ya know what's fucked up, I don't think I ever sent back Brad's stamps! :/


  

Death Side - "Wasted Dream LP / Satisfy The Instinct EP" 1987-1989 CD 1991 (Selfish)

I've gotten it in my head the past few months Poison Idea's possible influence on later 80's Japanese Hardcore (mostly stemming from a revisit of their "Kings Of Punk" LP). I define traditional Japcore as exhausting rhythm tatted with acceptable metal elements like short screaming solos and upbeat leads, super chorusy breakdowns, and notation so melodramatic you wonder if the bands are just trying to get your attention with extremity for it's own sake. It's crossover really, but more hardcore than hard rock...like Poison idea. Maybe I'm connecting dots that aren't really there, but Pushead always kept a strong alliance with Japan...and he did put out Kings Of Punk...seuoooooo...maybe?

If I'm wrong, so be it, but I'm not wrong on Death Side completely owning the style (whatever the roots), keeping the adrenalin pumping with major label level production that still shits it's guts out over any modern recording you can think of. Metal, punk, MTV as fuck, doesn't matter, all guts have been fully shat. There's times their vibe gets a bit macho, but that seems like most people's attraction to them anyway ("I listen to hardcore so I AM hardcore!"). The band maintains a very high degree of popularity today, with former singer Ishiya still tripping balls on "bootlegs" of the band's merch. Ishiya, we love your meter-long mohawks, but you can stop beating off that skeletonized horse (wear boots = don't cry over boots). Fave track: Cut The Throat!


 

SM-70 - "Bleibt" 1986-1987 2xCD 1997

"German Siege. German Larm." Very aptly naming themselves after an Eastern Bloc tripwire mine, they started as blunt proto grind, didn't really teach that pony any other tricks, then reassembled into another band called Pink Flamingos. I'm especially enamored with the first EP's more mechanized form and noticably interchangeable riffs, but the whole discography is hard not to love if you need your fastcore real and not metal (and eyebrow-raisingly tight). The band, maybe obviously, also break it down with bits of snappy, artsy, and grimey bar-punk as capitalized upon by Rac-O-Rama a few years prior. That's just the final spritz of Aquanet to their spikes though, because 99% of the time it's amphetamines instead of heroin till the bitter blasting end.


The Ovaltinees - "Race And Nation" CD 1982-1983 (2003)

DON'T TRIP (you'll trip)...I just think they were a catchy crap-punk band, snagging my ears because of their profound simplicity and ghetto-ugly sound. I have trouble placing them in the traditional Oi category, as they were nowhere near talented enough to play even that. Fun for fans of one-chord music, with the nationalist messages easily ignored because that's what normal people do. I don't think I'll ever understand their name, but I do understand the best song they ever did was "British Justice". Download them, I won't tell...unless you fuck up.

Late P.S.: One of the overseas homies filled me in on their name. They...they seriously...liked Ovaltine. Something else about a marching song is mixed up in this too, but...OVALTINE?!


Voco Protesta - "Vojo Al Libereco" 12" 2009

I love basic midpace discore. Minimalism at it's maximum has always fascinated me, so if it's played and produced like Doom's Peel Sessions or E.N.T.'s solo debut, I'm down (and if it's simpler, I just limbo lower!). Japan's Voco Protesta traces these templates smoothly enough, with a tighter spiritual focus on this 12" than any of their other efforts, pre or post. There's a glaze of intimidating braindrill as always, but it never overtakes the live-ish mix. The band continues to say fuck you to everybody's racism and still sings in Esperanto. It's not a mindblowing record or even saying anything unique, but it's solid and familiar in warm instead of lazy ways. Sometimes that's all it takes to earn a "classic" respect from me.

P.S.: Actually, the closing title track is mindblowing.

Gauze - "Go Back And Wash Your Face" CD 1997 (Fresh Rip @ 320)

One of the "most hardcore" records ever made. I personally rank this highly (#1) not only in Gauze's canon, but in Top 5 debates of "best hardcore LPs ever". If Gauze really isn't the best, there's still no comparing them to any other band on the planet. Here, their 4th album in what was then 16 years of existence, intentionally dry production maximizes the listener's focus solely on each song's supernova E-N-E-R-G-Y! I don't agree with their mystical status (they're just niggaz yo), but with music performed with such burning fury you psychosomatically feel the strain of their muscles and brine of their sweat in every beat and note, there's a fairly good argument to be had for why fanboys pop their puckers on Gauze's schlong. Unbelievably shocking H-A-T-E-R nihil-lyrics too...when you can find translations.







MRR 1997...

 

Mr. Bungle - Rough Mix of Debut '91 & Live Hamburg 2-14-92

The confusion the rough mix (more like raw sessions) causes is actually insight into the autistic writing process that originally gained the group's deep cross-scene admiration. In short, they freeformed the entire LP then sutured the disparate pieces back together, thus forming the classic track listing. I'm sure they had rough structural ideas in mind, but many sections are completely different pieces if not entirely new and unheard songs. Even the tracks that are most recognizable to the released versions are still constructed of alternate takes, alternate riffs, alternate samples, alternate vocals, alternate everything, bearing only the mushiest semblance to the final pressed product. It's easy to see why John Zorn was picked to produce, as his master's hand would be needed for a band whose creative process was as eclectic and electric as his own. Tracks 12 and 13 skip really bad due to the age of the disc and apathetically allowing it's physical deterioration (an early cdr trade of mine when that became a thing instead of tapes), but I still left them in for completism. The German live performance is a very good audience recording, and is just as compositionally unfamiliar and surprising as the rough mix.

The Mad - "We Love Noize!" CD 1999

O.G. ('78) KBD horror-artpunk fronted by makeup f/x guru Screaming Mad George. Grand Guignol live shows, twangy energetic distortion, sizzly synchronizing drums, enthusiastic doodly bass, frenetic screeching sax, and George's meltdown shrieks jam-kick your brain with memories that punk started as a vehicle for the rawest artistic passions (no matter how esoteric) and not a default genre for extreme agendas. Refreshing isn't a strong enough word when listening to The Mad these post-hate days, so I'm honestly hoping they provide your own mind with an ultra deep douching as well. Absolutely everything the band ever studio recorded, and the CBGB's live show too!

Warcry (Paul Speckmann) - "Trilogy Of Terror" Demo '83 & "Possession" Demo '84

Orale ROCKenheimers! Speckmann's first bass gig (as a cog and not the MASTER!) kickin' out pure heavy metal with grit and searing tone. Speckmann bailed after the first demo to form "a thrash band", so the remaining members soldiered on with a harder rock goosestep and melodic vocal change. Guise, I'm not even being facetious, with Speckmann's departure they stylistically flourished playing surprisingly memorable KNAC-core. Fave track: In For The Kill



Senseless Apocalypse - Demo, Live, and Cunt Decide (1993)

Japan's answer to...nothing...they were just a refreshing sound in grind's already dying sub-scene of noisecore (a genre of extremity birthed by hardcore but babynapped by chaos-punks). Scaling back sonic excess for their vinyl splits, they were then lionized as uncanny clones of S.O.B.'s original fastcore style. My contrarian mind...agrees, with the "musical" change already foreshadowed within a couple of the pure noisecore trax. In general, It's all screaming and spazzing with an unusually high degree of seriousness and production value their shitblurr influences were too marginal to ever fuck with. Because I don't (necessarily) hate you, you get the debut demo in wav, live mp3, and pre-band Cunt Decide in mp3, with tolerable scans of the covers and a hi-res cleanse of the MRR interview.

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