MASS GRAVE

 

Not at all unusual to find multiple artists who have chosen the same moniker, but it's not typical to see several in similar eras and genres. So to be clear - this is not MASSGRAVE the face melting crust/grind band from Vancouver, this is not MASSGRAV the crust 'n roll band from Stockholm, this is also neither the German death metal MASS GRAVE nor the French death metal MASS GRAVE. This is the Bulgarian grinding death juggernaut MASS fucking GRAVE and thank the god/s that Canada's Funeral Hymns reissued this 2013 masterpiece a few years back or it may have been forever lost in the CDr demo abyss. This is the kind of grind that makes you realize after each track that you haven't really been breathing, but you barely have time to reload oxygen before the next round of grievious bodily harm commences. All consuming grindcore rooted in OSDM, this is the shit that will make you not care about anything else while you're listening, and that is exactly the kind of listening I'm looking for these days. Hail.

FADE OF LIFE

JUST A PRODUCT

 I've shared a couple of JUST A PRODUCT demos before, and these songs also appear on the Free As A Tree demo so maybe one could argue that I don't need to share them here today. But some piece of shit yuppie didn't have to call SFMTA and have my van towed for blocking their driveway today....but they did it anyway. Here's the thing though; while you can not honestly argue that I actually blocked their driveway, you can certainly argue that these tracks are worth listening to (again). If ever there was a band that bridged '80s UK punk and '90s college/alt/grunge, then Bulgaria's JUST A PRODUCT is exactly that band. 

8 TRACKS

D.I.Y. CONSPIRACY VOL.3

 

Another installment in the killer international DIY punk mix tape series from the punks at Bulgaria's Kontingent Records. It was a Covid-era "let's do something because we aren't doing anything" idea that grew wings and left us with a slew of tapes that are essential snapshots of early '20s DIY punk and hardcore. The third installment features G.A.Z.E. (the best track on the tape, methinks), KOMBAT SPORTS, LHUMA, E EMASCULATA, RADIUM GIRLS, DENY, CLUITERATI, PILLARS and several more. Not gonna try to link all of them or describe them, but if you like hardcore punk then you like this fukkn tape. You don't like hardcore punk? Listen to LASSO, you dipshit. Geez.

DIY CONSPIRACY VOL.3

D.I.Y. CONSPIRACY VOL.5

 

These D.I.Y. Conspiracy comps have all been hitters so far, and the fifth is no exception. This is the heavy one, with bands landing blows from all over the wall of noise hardcore, doom, stoner, and proto-grunge spectrums.  Modern bands reared on COWS, SOAD-by-way-of-AIC, CELEST(E), JESUS LIZARD and the like, plus a couple of hardcore blasts and a very intense industrial noise/grind track from DEMIKOV. Choicest cuts to my ears are BUZZØØKO, CALF and FEEDBACKER. Extra bonus? I had never heard any of these bands when I pressed Play.

D.I.Y. CONSPIRACY VOL.5

LAST HOPE

 

I first heard LAST HOPE a lifetime ago on the Bulsa Breakout tape, but I wasn't prepared to blast their 1995 tape this morning. Is it rudimentary? Yes. Is it typical? Definitely. Do I love it...? Absolutely. You like punk music, then you need LAST HOPE in your life. All I can do is speak truths here, punk/s.

LAST HOPE

 

НОВА ГЕНЕРАЦИЯ

 

Admittedly, НОВА ГЕНЕРАЦИЯ (NEW GENERATION) takes a bit to really settle into...but they are worth the (your) effort/s. Eastern Bloc cold wave hits different - the(ir) new wave reflects and projects their environs and it's the very result that is cold, more than the intent. 1987's Вход Б (Entrance B) seems to live in and among that general observation, with tracks like "Ловец На Сърца," "Да, Да, Да" and "Аз Съм Аз" that sound like an '80s new wave broadcast from another dimension. This was the first of several staple releases from the band before founder Dimiter Voev's death in 1992...and my first exposure to them. As you tunnel into whatever you're into, remember that if you keep digging, you might come out the other side and discover an entirely different existence. 

ВХОД Б

GREETINGS FROM BULGARIA

 

Absolutely killer mid-90s comp from the folks at AON Productions, collecting tracks from 17 Bulgarian punk acts to document the scene from its inception. From '77 punk to dark proto goth to no bullshit fast hardcore, Greetings From Bulgaria truly listens like traveling through your way through a scene...and that's exactly what I want from a comp. On top of that, JUST A PRODUCT was the only band I was familiar with before blasting this tape...and that's also exactly what I want from a comp. Favorite discoveries: MEANSTREAM, AVE MARIA and CONFRONT, but there is not a single track on this tape that I don't endorse. 

GREETINGS FROM BULGARIA

D.I.Y. CONSPIRACY VOL. 1

The DIY Conspiracy folks spent the year of Covid cranking out some serious mix tape heat, and I was happy to get the first six installments in one hefty batch. Hardcore, crust, DBeat, punk, doom from Bulgaria, Brasil, Italy, Austria, Chile, Greece, Russia, Australia, Singapore, Portugal...this is the kind of conspiracy I can get behind. 

 

DIY CONSPIRACY VOL.1

Defend DIY Punk indeed - especially from thieves and charlatans. 

But that's for a different post. 

JUST A PRODUCT

 

From a trio of Bulgarian kids bashing out NIRVANA covers in 1995, JUST A PRODUCT quickly evolved into their own and started cranking out wildly catchy US influenced hardcore punk, and Free As A Tree is a collection of songs that would have turned heads in the States at the time. Hooks for days, but with a cold edge that somehow sinks into even the poppiest songs here - "You Can't Tell Me What To Do" is probably the best example - but both elements are pervasive throughout. Twelve songs recorded in '96, with a slightly rawer eight song session from the following year on the flip. 

The band are still active today (I think even with the same members?), should your interest be piqued. 

They look just like the dudes in the above picture....just 20 years older. 

FREE AS A TREE

УИКЕДА

 

An impulse acquisition from earlier in Thee Time Of Covid, a piece of chud that was too close to something I "needed" when my digital dollar hoover was (apparently) switched to "MAX INHALE" and besides...who doesn't want to fuck with Bulgarian ska anarchy? Exactly. Everyone. Everyone wants to fuck with Bulgarian ska anarchy. And, as is often the case, I won. So you win. Traditional pick-it-up, pick-it-up ska with multiple vocals dominate, maybe there are two hype men, there's a casual undercurrent of traditional Romani sounds colored by commercial rock...and then they drop the primitive but radio ready HELMET-meets-RAGE stomper "Just Another Victim" towards the end of the set. Start searching the internets if you want to know more about the band, because I can't tell you anything I didn't google myself, but I chalk УИКЕДА up as another hearty endorsement of blind bargains...because there's so much more out there, and there's just no way that all the good stuff is expensive. Hell, some of the good stuff is probably still unknown, and that's why we keep digging (even if from our keyboards - thanks, 2020). 

SKA ANARCHY

Таран

I need to be transparent about the rough recording/replication quality here, but an '80s punk/Oi! relic from '80s Bulgaria deserves a pretty wide berth in my (humble) opinion. Таран (approximate translation: Battering Ram) offer only five songs on this 1988, four high energy pogo smokers and one slow bar bluesy rock number to leave you scratching your head as your scour the internet looking for more. And if you find more, please let me know. 

 

Зеленият Шлифер

 

JUST A PRODUCT

The way that punk (and "underground" music in general) crept through Eastern Europe fascinates me. Legendary bands who never released records or even proper demo tapes, just existing on myth and discreet handoffs of live recordings. A cold urgency from punks existing within while actively chipping away the Iron Curtain that separated them from the "west," and creating some of the most compelling music of the 1980s in the process. But what of Bulgaria in 1995? That's what I was asking when I popped in the JUST A PRODUCT demo and heard three tracks of stark, driving UK power pop drenched Eastern European punk. Like XS•ENERGY snuck onto the the Jak Punk To Punk comp or something....and it's cool. There are, of course, five other songs on this tape that completely blow all of my context out of the water because this was of course released after The Punk Explosion, after The (cultural) West had invaded the former Bloc nations, after MTV, after Green Day, and, notably....after NIRVANA. So after those three excellent (and quite compelling) tracks, JUST A PRODUCT offer up five NIRVANA covers recorded at a NIRVANA tribute show in 1995.  So there's that. 

ALONE

RELIEF

You might need to leave some of your scene cred at the door if blasting mid tempo mosh metal isn't en vogue in your world - but these downtuned lurches grow hair on your knuckles and the Russian language (I think?) suits the gruff chants perfectly. The approach has more in common with '90s SXE/metalcore (before tech crap completely took over) - the sixth track is a perfect example of dumbed down (and slowed down) metal riffing delivered with crew vocals that seem to be shouting "Skinhead, Skinhead, Headskin, Headskin"...and it rules. RELIEF hail from Bulgaria, probably early '00s, though this particular artifact does not have a date and my carbon dating machine isa in the shop. Song titles below for those of you who can read Cyrillic.

RELIEF

BULSA BREAKOUT

Perhaps this tape is more valuable as a geographical marker than a musical masterpiece, but when I saw it sitting in Allan's distro I snagged it without a moment's hesitation. Bulsa Breakout is a 60 minute compilation of bands from Bulgaria (BUL) and South Africa (SA) released cooperatively by Sound Action in South Africa and Art Of Noise in Bulgaria sometime in the 90s (I'm guessing on the date based on band photos and musical styles). Bulgaria takes side 1 and starts with LAST HOPE (pretty basic dirty UK sounding punk) and STRATEGY X (an attempt at modern H'C with rudimentary drums and meaty guitars, it works really well)...both are fukkn brilliant. MEANSTREAM sound like a tougher STRATEGY X, and the lo-fi delivery suits them perfectly, FORWARD seem like they are trying to be poppy, but the shit is too fast and chaotic and they come off like 80s Italian thrashers, IN-CRIMINAL are slower plodding angry HC while FACE UP offer one song of late 80s NYHC. The South African side leaves a bit to be desired, and I confess that I almost left a few of these songs off altogether, but then there's beauty and eyes of the beholder and all that, so I included the garage quality NOFX rip off (FUNGY GONE WEST) and a band that sounds like a wimpy WEEZER who likely pre-date WEEZER (THE GLEE CLUB). But then our sub-Saharan friends redeem themselves with killer female fronted hardcore tunes from OUTRAGE (their second tune has a very anarcho feel to it, and is the best on the tape to my ears) and forceful plodding UK style punk from DIMINISHED RETURN. The SA side rounds out with FRIDGE MAGNET (more UK punk) and CRUSH (tuneful ripping HC not unlike SNFU). Just in case there was any doubt as to the international commitment put forth on this tape, things wrap up with a radio piece that features Malaysia's CARBURETOR DUNG from a previous Sound Action tape release.  A few of these tunes should probably be put in the trash file after first listen (not the most ringing endorsement of my potential download, I realize, but honesty always pays off in the end...right?), but there are great tunes buried in here, and the simple fact that two different corners of the world reached out to one another to make this happen makes it more than worthwhile to me. And if you care about the world, then you will download this tape immediately.

BULSA BREAKOUT