DÉFAITE

 

If someone wants to get into a deeper discussion about subgenres and why I like what and when I prefer one thing or another and which sounds push certain buttons in certain ways...? Well, obviously if you've been here before then you know I can do that. To a fukkn fault. But sometimes you're talking to a civilian and you just want to say you listen to punk music but then they want to start with a story about how they saw TOOL or took their kid to see SUM 41 and they try to create a false equivalence and there's no hierarchy or judgement but it's just....different. It's not the same and they aren't going to understand (and that's okay). And sometimes in those moments if someone seems receptive, I think about playing them a punk music to show them what I mean when I listen to punk music - the next time that happens I'm going to play DÉFAITE. The shit just captures so damn many things that make punk perfect - CRIMINAL DAMAGE, SOVIETTES, LES THUGS, NEON PISS, GENERACIÓN SUICIDA....you know, punk music. I like punk music. 

DÉFAITE

MINUS TREE

 

This kind of (scr)e(a)mo has always intrigued me. Like, I get it - I absolutely understand the appeal even though it never actually clicked with me. I don't know that MINUTE is the band that's gonna turn me, the band that will make me stop listening to DBeat and commit to feelings manifested as minor key guitar leads and desperately shrieked vocals.....but I'll be damned if "A Journey" doesn't make me think, and "The Throne" is fukkn transcendent so maybe (just maybe) it's time.  

CHANGE

ISABELLE MAYEREAU

 

Truly one of the most beautiful sonic accidents I've ever stumbled into. ISABELLE MAYEREAU's self titled 1978 release (not to be confused with her 1977 self titled release) would likely have stayed in the unknown realm forever had I not happened on a criminally small handful of tapes in a thrift store....but I did. And I will never be the same. I don't understand the words, but the swells in "Souffle en L'air" made me weep. I'm not ashamed. To the contrary, I remain encouraged. Apparently "Tu M'écris" was a hit and I can understand why even though it may be my least favorite track on the tape - I prefer the sparse guitar in "Difference" and the space offered by "Aquarelle." It's a genuinely moving release...I found it by accident and it will stay with me forever. 

ISABELLE MAYEREAU

ENFER DORÉAL

 

On 2009's Devotion, French savant Maxime Primault (aka ENFER DORÉAL) both reinvents and confirms the brilliance of drone. Musique Concrete imagined as atmosphere. Simplicity. Patience. The casual tumult of "Amlothi" coming out of the excruciating 13+ minute "Reborn On Assi Ghat." The ability to make the "Rainbow Warrior" sound so incredibly hopeless and beautiful at the same time....this is a special artist. I'm late to the game (this is typically the case) but I am so glad that I have arrived. And now - listen to "Une Respiration D'ombre" in darkness and silence. You'll thank me. 

DEVOTION

ACCIDENT INSTANTANÉ

 

Earlier this week I had an early start in Santa Clara (for the far-away visitors, that's about 45minutes south of San Francisco, where I live) and I didn't feel like listening to news and/or current events on my drive, even though that's typically my go-to "entertainment" when I drive. I scanned the FM dial past the religious shit and the weird low frequency R&B stations hoping for some public radio drive time avant entertainment and a folk-ish song grabbed me so I hovered...and then I stayed. The DJ was talking about artists I'd never heard of but then he'd mention JOHN FAHEY or PAULINE OLIVEROS between tracks and I figured it was a station I should stick with. I was right....it was good - so good that I kept the digital dial in that same spot for my drive back to SF later that morning. The station? No clue, didn't pay attention. The artists that serenaded me as I drove south towards inescapable corporate drudgery? No clue, didn't pay attention. But while I was listening....I was there, and that was exactly what I needed. Because I wasn't here (which was, to be fair, there when I was listening then). ACCIDENT INSTANTANÉ doesn't sound anything like anything that I heard that day....but I didn't know what to do with ACCIDENT INSTANTANÉ until that moment, shit had just been sitting here waiting for the right day. And on that day, I knew that the right day was this day. 

PASSION VICTIME

YOUTH AVOIDERS

 

I was assigned to review a record by YOUTH AVOIDERS forever ago and I recall needing repeated listens to fully wrap my head around what they were doing. It was never a matter of whether or not I liked it, it was trying to figure out where they were coming from and what their intentions were.....and honestly I'm still not sure. From a foundation of consistently driving and intentionally repetitious punk very much along the lines of LES THUGS and/or LA FRACTION, YOUTH AVOIDERS add a melody that owes more to OBSERVERS than their country-folk, there's the (almost) Deathreat Davis vocals...and there's something extra infectious about the clean guitar that pierces through the mix. There's a world where someone might hear these sounds a couple of times and think "Oh cool, I've heard shit like this before" and move along. I get it - and I admit that I was dangerously close to doing the same thing myself but something kept drawing me in and demanding that I pay closer attention. Listen to that something, because it's here. YOUTH AVOIDERS have the indefinable something that allows them to morph punk music that you understand and recognize into punk music that you feel. 2018's Relentless was their final release (I believe), and it capped an almost decade long string of recordings that deserve a place on a very short list. 

RELENTLESS

DESTROY SONIC'S FOURGIVEN VETERANS

Most of this should be on the other blog, but I've been digging through a lot of random tapes filled with a lot of banger recordings and....and I don't want you to miss them. So please still check the other blog for live shit, but also here some live shit:
• SONIC'S RENDEZVOUS BAND - I feel like this band is still under my radar but true rockers have always known what's up - Fred "Sonic" Smith (MC5) and Scott Asheton (STOOGES) bashing out classic Midwest proto-punk like it's in their blood....because is was. Four song set recorded in Detroit in 1977.
• DESTROY ALL MONSTERS - Another Michigan supergroup of sorts active from the early 1970s, featuring Ron Asheton (STOOGES) and a cast of influential characters. Two tracks of unknown origin.
• VIETNAM VETERANS - I wasn't familiar with the band before this tape but consider me a convert. Bare bones French garage punk, pure beauty found in pure simplicity. The pick slides in "Dogs" would make John weep, that motherfucker loves a good pick slide. 
• THEE FOURGIVEN - California garage punk captured live in San Francisco in 1985. Only ten minutes here, but this rendition of "I'm Goin' Home" will change your mind about some shit all on it's own.

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS
SONIC'S RENDEZVOUS BAND
VIETNAM VETERANS
THEE FOURGIVEN 

D.I.Y. CONSPIRACY VOL.2

 

Sometimes with the comps I don't know if it's better to just go: "here. it's a comp. the tracks generally fall into ____ genre. enjoy?" or if I should dissect the shit track by track. It's even harder with collections that aren't genre specific because the dissection can get really pedantic and I feel like I'm gonna lose you...and I don't want to lose you. So anyway....here's a compilation. I've posted a few of these Covid-era collections previously and I'm pleased to say that reaching for a 'new' volume still gives me those good shivvers because I know I'm about to bump a bunch of tracks I've never heard from bands Ive never heard of. This second volume is more about the catchy almost-garage shits, and listeners would be forgiven if they mentioned SOVIETTES and./or REATARDS when referring to bands like GULG BEACH and LA VASE, but then there are some rippers on the flip from GHETTO GOSPEL and SKARA and there are some primitive blackened punk/metal shits from UDDA so maybe there isn't any kind of theme at all. Maybe the intent was just to collect a bunch of good ass bands from all over this flat-ass planet and present them in one place for you to listen to. If so? Success.

DIY CONSPIRACY VOL.2

TÉLÉCOMMANDE

 

Here's another repost. Even though TÉLÉCOMMANDE's swan song only popped up here five or six years ago, I recently snagged a copy with a cover and I know that if I just quietly edited a post from 2018 then something like zero people would even notice. My admittedly mild OCD would be satisfied, but that wouldn't do shit for the minions who have yet to experience this brilliant but relatively short lived French outfit. I mentioned SOVIETTES and SPITS when I first posted this tape in 2018 and I'm gonna stick by those references while I think about how much you're going to enjoy spending your Sunday  listening to high energy French punk with heavy synths. Lots of tasty morsels in those old posts...treat yourself. You're worth it.

EN LÍGNE DE MIRE

GASMASK TERRÖR

The final offering from one of the most relentless modern French DBeat machines, 2015's Chape De Plomb wrapped up a GASMASK TERRÖR's formidable discography with confidence that can only come from mastery. The influences are plain and upfront - TOTALITÅR, anthemic Japanese hardcore, modern colossal DBeat...and also TOTALITÅR - but it's what GASMASK TERRÖR do with those influences that set them apart. The riffs are straight fire, the riffs are fast as fukk, and this is a band who aren't trying to be heavier or creepier or anything more - this is a band who were simply driven, and it's refreshing. "En Opposition" is so brutally simple; two riffs and a blistering solo before the obligatory mid-tempo number that follows. You know what's coming and it still knocks your socks off, and then they sneak up on you (I'm thinking "Les Temps De Charniers" here) and knocks you the fuck out. Feels so good to listen to this shit with older ears...the tinnitus is louder than the leads this morning, so I cranked it up a bit so I could really hear the drums kick "Survivre En Temps De Paix" into gear before I walked into the other room to brush my teeth. Because I like punk. 

CHAPE DE PLOMB

ZAD KOKAR

A mind bending no-fi sonic journey through Space and France, ZAD KOKAR pushes the limits of sound perception on Moon & Earth Collapsed On The Day (4,46 Billions Years Ago) and I can't get enough. Maybe you call this experimental punk? Maybe it's just what happens when a creative mind is allowed to create unencumbered? Damaged drum machine techno beats form the foundation for repetitive future punk deconstructions, and then ZAD KOKAR drops a surprise in your lap (the brilliant "Warm Leatherette" cover, for example - a treat for everyone (like me) who didn't think they ever needed to hear another "Warm Leatherette" cover). MILK CULT meets LAIBACH in the twenty second century...but from France. 

 MOON & EARTH COLLAPSED ON THIS DAY (4,46 BILLIONS YEARS AGO)

 

IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?

 

Y'all want to do this again? Well, you should. The second offering from the Acts Of Defiance folks is a killer romp through mid 1980s DIY European punk - THE NEXT WORLD, DROWNING ROSES, THE LUMPS OF MERDE, ROSTOK VAMPIRES, FINAL BLAST, THE DISTURBED, AGEN 53 and a couple of others. Sixty minutes of rough and raw hardcore and primitive punk...I still need more tapes from this series (Are You Still Ready To Follow Your Leader?, Where Is The Freedom?, You Can Be A Victim Of Their Authority, and the others too) because they are all so fukkn good. 

IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?

GREENEARTH TAPES

 

Not going to take up a ton of space talking about how important international tape comps were (read: are) again, instead I'll just let you know what's waiting for you on this 1990 slammer.  RESIST, NUNCA MAS and INSURGENCE representing the US (hard to believe no one has unearthed the INSURGENCE catalog for a fancy reissue...yet), SEDITION and CRITERIA from Scotland, plus European hitters like VERDUN (France),  STRAWBERRY (these Polish punks were new to me), SILENT WATER (Belgium) and AKIE MAU MAUS (Germany). Throw in Canadians HYPOCRICY and English crustlords DISASTER and you've got an hour of fucking rage that starts with "Dismember Nazi Scum" and ends with "Growing Greed." 

DIE FREIHEIT VOL.3

LA PLANETE DE TOUS LES DANGERS

 

I have become low-key obsessed with the compilation tapes released by Acts Of Defiance from France in the late 80s and into the next decade. Top quality international punk/hc collections that seem to always manage to reel you in with the candy you know you want (in this case: THE SNAPPING BOGSEATS,  FINAL BLAST, CIVILISED SOCIETY?, THE DIRTY SCUMS) and then smash you over the head with under the radar freaks like DISTURB, RICHARD III, PIN PRICK and LD50. La Planete De Tous Les Dangers was the first of these comps...and the search for the rest continues. 

ACTS OF DEFIANCE: LA PLANETE DE TOUS LES DANGERS

===

RECOPILACION PRO-VEGETARIANA

 

Pretty fukkn self explanatory today - twenty eight blasts of pro-animal rights mid 1990s crust/hc from around the world. INTOLERANCE, EXCREMENT OF WAR, HIATUS, FLEAS & LICE, SEDITION, HELLKRUSHER, ACTIVE MINDS, , NATIONS ON FIRE, CONFRONTATION, INTESTINAL DISEASE, MEDIA CHILDREN, SCRAPS....do I need to go on? Because there's more. 

HARDCORE PO EL DERECHO A LA VIDA, A LA LIBERTAD Y AL RESPETO DE L@S ANIMALES

MONKS OF THE BALHILL

 

For those not in the know, early Windham Hill releases are not to be skipped over. The label that became synonymous with commercial shopping mall mass marketed sonic enlightenment (whether or not this characterization was just is up for debate) started as a humble, honest and fascinating collection of experimental artists from the Bay Area making truly interesting, and often very wonderful, sounds. What does that little nugget of wisdom have to do with MONKS OF THE BALHILL....? Not a fucking thing, except that listening to the opening five minutes of "Andy Trotter Jumped Into The Fire" kinda made me think about that early catalog. This release descends into darkness of course, melting those early Ackerman LPs and drinking the ensuing sludge. Like a distant train in the night, two French Vincents make sound dance off of mountains whose silhouettes are obscured by the very weight of the night air. And the primitive synths move closer, rising....enter obligatory and/or unnecessary dawn metaphors. Ten Ways To Get Out Of The Water offers but two. Perhaps the other eight are waiting until someone (else) is drowning. 

TEN WAYS TO GET OUT OF THE WATER

BÉRURIER NOIR

 

No one sounds like BÉRURIER NOIR, and no band even comes close to the approach on their first tape - a collection of two live recordings from 1983. It's hard to describe how primitive the band is, just a tinny drums machine, a punk/ska guitar that sounds like it's being played through a mini-pocket amplifier, and damaged reverbed art/punk vocals. It's like half of CABARET VOLTAIRE* didn't show up for a gig and the rest of the band tried to improvise a set of CLASH covers. Few bands before (or since) have so clearly demonstrated that punk experimentation has no bounds.

MEILLEURS EXTRAITS DES DEUX CONCERTS À PARIS

* - I am well aware that if half of CABARET VOLTAIRE didn't show up for a gig in 1983 then the "rest of the band" would likely consist of 1.5 members. Which is exactly why it would be so damn weird. 

ZWEI KREISE

 

Parisian minimal techno flavored by ambient passages and a foundation in the monotony of break beat repetition. "Background music" sounds like a dig, but that is exactly how I hear 2017's Silvarum/Rvlen, a recording that takes you to another places while staying with you wherever you are. A recording that is ultimately pleased if you listen with any consciousness at your disposal. 

SILVARUM/RVLEN

Physical and digital copies from Chicago's Jacktone. 

PINKU SAIDO

I was hooked the second the UK tinged guitar lead pulled me into the first track. It was a ruse, of course, because this French act only flirts with those early '80s hooks enough lure in those among us who are scare of hooks....I didn't need to be tricked into falling head over heels for this tape, but I understand the motivation. Over the course of six tracks, PINKU SAIDO manifest as a brilliantly melodic punk band, taking a determined path through a forest that has seen the footsteps of THIS IS A FIST, SLEEPERS and LA FRACTION leave footprints slowly obscured by time and trend. As the comparisons suggest, this is hard driving and forceful, with powerful femme vocals delivered in Japanese....and these bands don't come around very often. 

PINKU SAIDO

ROBOTNÍČKA

I don't know where this came from (I do actually, it came from France) but this ROBOTNÍČKA band is fukkn fire. Spastic synth freak punk insanity, released for their Japanese tour in 2016. Equal parts SPITS and CARS and SOVIETTES and SCREAMERS and NENA, and highly recommended. 

JAPAN TOUR 2016