LAND AND LANGUAGE

 

Absolutely devastating collection of underground and experimental hip hop from indigenous artists based in all corners of the globe. Instead of dissecting tracks, I'll give you a (partial) list: NUUK POSSE (Greenland), AMOC (Sámpi), SERHADO (Kurdish rapper based in Stockholm), UPPER HUTT POSSE (Aotearoa, NZ), TJIMBA AND THE YUNG WARRIORS (Australia), HATHUR ZOO (Buryatia), ROLLIN 'N LIL SPADE (Navajo Nation), BANAISSA (Moroccan based in Germany), X PLASTAZ (Arusha, Masaai), LO CUT A SLEIFAR (Wales), M.A.K. (Basque Country)...and that's just the first side. The sounds are all over the place (literally and figuratively) and the delivery is overwhelmingly intense. You can feel the intensity and the isolation in every track, and that is exactly what makes this compilation so essential. The flip features artists from Cherokee Nation, Mongolia, Nairobi, Tajikistan, Chile, Bolivia, Mauritania, Norway, Palestine.....in case you need to be convinced. All praise to the folks who put this compilation together. 

LAND AND LANGUAGE

PSEUDO SADISTS

 

I picked up a box of mostly Welsh tapes from my mate Tim a while back. I resisted the urge to devour all of them at once, instead opting to ration them out over time....and I still get butterflies each time I reach inside to grab a new one. Like many (most) of the bands in the box, PSEUDO SADISTS were from Wales (Swansea) and like most (all) of the bands in the box, their lone demo is an absolute scorcher. Primitive and fiery UK punk - just four kids who had done time in PAY DAY and THE NOISE before joining forces in 1981. According to Tim's source, they played just a handful of gigs, their singer may or may not have been missing his two front teeth and was "mad as fuck," and had called it quits by '82. All of these songs have been comped either then - Oppose Or Decompose, Bullshit Detector, A Country Fit For Heroes - or later on the (essential) Bullsheep Detector comp/s. And that....that paragraph and this eight song demo is all you get. 

 PSEUDO SADISTS

CLASSIFIED PROTEST

 

Yesterday, Karoline and I had a spirited two hour long conversation with a gentleman writing a(nother) book on the heyday of 1980s UK punk. We briefly touched on cassette labels and how seemingly any band with a four song recording could start one. The regional compilations that were little more than mix tapes made by friends with crude hand-drawn covers. And the small towns that became flash pots of honest, earnest, pure and determined punk. Take a one hour minute bus ride and maybe you'd be in another small mining village with another youth center with another crew of a dozen kids making up another four bands and if they didn't all know each other then they all wanted to know each other and support each other with gigs and create an actually community out of a world that seemed overwhelmingly inhospitable in so many ways. Sure, most of those idealistic young adults have grown up or moved on or died, but that doesn't mean that the desperation of "Self Defence" or the pure idealism of "Monarchy Needs Anarchy" will knock you on your ass in 2021 even more than it probably did in 1984....because these kids from Nantyglo (that's in South Wales, population something less than 5,000) were just doing the damn thing. They were a part of something bigger than themselves. And that's what I (still) want to hear.

CLASSIFIED PROTEST

CHARLIE'S FAMILY CRISIS

 

What grabs me about CHARLIE'S FAMILY CRISIS is the way it hits like so many late '80s under the radar USHC acts (NEANDERTHAL SPONGE, BIG DEAL, NAKED HIPPY and the like). It nods to the early part of the decade but the sound is infected by crossover and metal and the early stages of melodic punk in the 1990s. Vocals remind me of CONCEPT OF NONSENSE, some of the more disjointed parts remind me of BURIED or DEMISE, though mostly I think that Family Life sounds familiar, as if it comes from a place that I would have been...if I had been there. Perhaps that's why my reference lines all originate from somewhere close to home, but I've never been to Wales, so maybe punk is universal after all. 

FAMILY LIFE

SKULL ATTACK

 

Gloriously pure UK82 mania from Wales. I sincerely hope that there's a world where we all get to hear Demo I and Demo II, but when you realize that all six tracks on 1982's searing Demo III made it onto the stunningly comprehensive Bullsheep Detector comps, it feels like this might be all that we're going to get. So blast "Killed Someone" at full volume and strap in, because SKULL ATTACK only get better from there. Hot take: this "Born To Lose" stomps Thunders' "Born To Lose."

DEMO III

DECAYED YOUTH

 

Diehards only for this one....but diehards fucking rejoice. DECAYED YOUTH existed for a few months in 1982 and played just two gigs in that time and released no proper recordings. This tape is from an early rehearsal, 58 minutes of some kids bashing out marginally competent punk in a Welsh mining town because...because that's what you did in Ebbw Vale in 1982, apparently. The punks you hear on this tape would later go on to play in bands like UK SUBS, COWBOY KILLERS, and MAGGOT SLAYER OVERDRIVE. For fans of THE DECAY and shit-fi punk in general. 

DECAYED YOUTH

THE SECLUDED

 

1982 Welsh youth punks from the mining town of Ebbw Vale, THE SECLUDED unfortunately left us with this demo...and that's it. I posted a different version back in the (very) early days of TE - the same three studio burners appear here, with the addition of a rough (live?) version of "Police State" to replace "The More They Have" on the other tape. Not going to try to regurgitate the history of the members or their post-SECLUDED lives (there don't appear to be any other bands of note in that history - key phrase is "of note," because there is that DECAYED YOUTH tape...), but I'll say that while "Steal Cheat & Victimise" seems to be the cut from THE SECLUDED that folks are most familiar with (and it’s a smasher), the other cuts hit way harder. "Royal Blood" and "Mindless Violence" are absolute burners, and if you drop this band in London and add just one 45 to their legacy, I have no doubt that it would be a revered and sought after slab. You've slept on THE SECLUDED for 39 years since We Despise Society was birthed to the world...isn't it past time for you to wake up to it?

WE DESPISE SOCIETY

There's a fifth track titled "Marshall Law" listed on the cover. If anyone's holding....don't be a stranger. 

ARMISTICE

 

Why the continued fascination with "old" punk? Is it pure nostalgia for an era of music (and community, and activism) that so many of us simply weren't around (or alive) for? Are the sounds on their own simply enough to pull in listeners from the future? Are we intrigued by the rarity and the mystique? Or is it that we want to see ourselves in these bursts of pure and desperate energy....and we want to think of ourselves as visionaries like we think they were? Or maybe we just fucking love punk. And when someone tells me about a punk band from Wales who recorded only one batch of songs in 1981, I get fukkn excited. They don't need to be the best songs I've ever heard....because they are new songs and I'm hearing them for the first time. And maybe "Do We Need This" is barely listenable on this tape and maybe "Fight For Freedom" isn't even on here at all but holding a piece of 40 year old punk is still cool as shit. 

All of the cuts here have appeared on compilations, though mostly not until the Bullsheep Detector series on AntiSociety came out in the '10s. No enough can be said about a band who can (successfully) make a so-called song out of a primitive assemblage of rackets like "Conservate & Liberate," but ARMISTICE is reall all about "Anarchy" on repeat all day every day....trust me. 

ARMISTICE

OPPOSE OR DECOMPOSE

 

Brilliant 1982 collection of twenty tracks from eleven Welsh acts. SHRAPNEL are likely familiar to most regular visitors - especially those of you who have been kicking around for a few years or have, (wisely) combed the annals. The two NO LABEL cuts here appear on their demo. SOLDIER DOLLS dropped a couple of notable singles in '82/'83 and YR ANHREFN will look familiar to those of you who (like me) saw a name you couldn't pronounce in a bargain bin and decided to have a gamble (mine was The Dave Goodman Sessions LP snagged from We Buy Music in Washington St. in Albuquerque), but most of the bands here flew well under the radar if the even made the radar at all. DEAD ON ARRIVAL appear to have made just four songs before morphing into FOREIGN LEGION (two of which are here), PSEUDO SADISTS were pre-REALITY ATTACK and made one of the Country Fit For Heroes comps, ARMISTICE were a notable Welsh outfit at the time and landed a few comp tracks as well. The DISCARNATE track is a mean dark stomp but no other information to offer, same with ROBBUTT @T3. And apparently CORRUPT SOCIETY existed as a band for a few weeks. Raw as fuck, duped onto a shitty dime store blank 39 years ago...why are you still reading, you should be blasting off. 

OPPOSE OR DECOMPOSE

IMPACT

This demo is....it's something else. There are only four tracks on IMPACTS's 1982 demo, but they are all perfectly executed UK82 stomps ripped from the grooves of your favorite Riot City and No Future 45s. There were other recordings after this one (many compiled on an excellent LP from AntiSociety that'll likely be far easier to source than a copy of this little monster), but even though it's trite to say it....the first demo is the best. This copy came from a Welsh source (apparently) well versed in the importance of filling blank magnetic tape with the sounds of the day, so a series of 1983 bangers follows the IMPACT demo. You're welcome.  

IMPACT

NO LABEL

 

Short lived Swansea (Wales) punks NO LABEL left after this one demo sometime between 1981-83 (depending on which knowledgeable historian you ask or which reliable resource you refer to). Smart second wave UK punk that doesn't really get going until after the anthemic opener "We Gotta Get Together." But when it really does get rolling (on the burner "Let's Get It Right"), NO LABEL deliver a snappy UK82 pogo frenzy with a healthy nod to SUBHUMANS (talking about the bass runs) and a sharp nasty ska tinge on the guitar (talking about "So What's The Fighting For?") - idealistic, primitive and determined in the best senses of all descriptors. As near as I can tell, the tracks from this demo are all that we've got - "Let's Get It Right" made one of the Bullshit Detector comps, and assorted other cuts appeared on a few DIY tape compilations before the rest of the demo was presented on the killer Bullsheep Detector series on AntiSociety in the early 2010s - so I guess punks will be listening to these seven tracks for the next 40ish years. 

7-TRACK CASSETTE

SHRAPNEL

 

SHRAPNEL made a few appearances in these pages years ago, but this 1984 live tape is a recent acquisition. Total screamer of a set, with almost comically "aw, shucks" between song banter. Board recording, and the guitar come up in the mix until around the 60-second mark....but when it does? The quintessential primitive punk buzzsaw sound is fukkn perfect. Eleven tracks spanning a touch over one half hour, and if you can't sing along to the chorus of "Let There Be Anarchy," then I don't really know if there's any hope for you. 

LIVE AT BRIDGWATER, 31.3.84 

CLASSIFIED PROTEST

The thing that makes this one stand out is the nagging SoCal snotty punk comparisons. Even if accidental (and likely so), these Welsh kids delivered UK punk with adolescent Agnew-level hooks and this 1984 recording is shockingly mature. Responsible parties formed RECTIFY a few years after this tape. 

 

MUSIC FOR THE STREETS

SURREALIST DREAM

 

I don't know much about this one, but once you crank these five lo-fi punk burners you'll be in a sweaty pile and not fussed about the history. When you come to your senses and start asking questions.....Tradegar, South Wales, early '80s. Comes to you via COWBOY KILLERS through YOFC. If there were justice, this would be on every "best of the unknown" list. Fuck. Louder. Punk. 

SURREALIST DREAM

CORRUPTION

It's not until about halfway through the opening title track to acclimate to the murky replication, but once you get used to the presentation of this 1982 Welsh slammer, CORRUPTION fukkn shines. Eight doses of stellar UK82 in the vein of THE INƧANE or DISRUPTORS, with a touch more ooomph on the guitar leads than either (particularly on the haunting "Out Of The Shelter"). Choice cut is the closer "False Security," falling almost completely at the drum accents in the verse nearly every time they roll through it. Forgive the sound quality and pogo your ass off, I reckon you might sound a little murky 38 years after your peak too.  

GOSPEL OF HATE

Edit: Apparently I fucked up this morning, but the file is now complete and corrected. Shit get's murky sometimes...I cannot apologize for the truth. 

THE ABNORMAL

Nice under the radar street punk ripper from Mid Glomorgan, Wales. Stand Together seems to be the only offering from THE ABNORMAL, featuring quintessentially gruff Isle vocals, a mid paced stomp and an occasional TRANSISTORS tinge to the guitar. The mellow crooner "Bridget Riley" seems a bit out of place, but they follow it up with the slip shod knuckle dragger "Out On The Streets" and it feels like the Earth is back on its axis. Style and proficiency are a bit all over the place (the extra guitar on "Neighbours," for example) which is part of the charm (of course). Two uncredited tracks, which only adds to the mystery...and the fun. 

 STAND TOGETHER

NO CHOICE

The first phase of NO CHOICE faded after the release of their killer Riot City EP, but the Welsh band reformed a couple of years later for another stint - one of a few different incarnations that would carry them well into the new century. A couple of new members on this 1985 demo, and a recording that honestly smokes the '83 vinyl slab. 

QUESTION TIME

SHRAPNEL

Welsh bangers SHRAPNEL left a criminally small output before calling it a day, but with this and the Restricted Existence demo in your stable, I guess it's not really necessary to crank out a bunch of crap to beef up your discography. UK82 styled punk circa 1983 with gloriously amateurish lyrics ("We're just working class // So they can stuff their education right up their ass") that look at the world with the bleak and uncertain frustration of 1980s teenagers. Pogo your asses off.

THEY CONTROL OUR DESTINY FOR WE LIVE IN MISERY

Accompanying this post is a 35+ minute live set from SHRAPNEL, also from 1983, which can be found on ESCAPE IS TERMINAL.

RECTIFY

I posted the Ebullition demo last year, and here is the follow up release from the Welsh band RECTIFY. They were an ocean away, but cranked out a sound that was right in line with their contemporaries in the US (mostly New York).  There's a touch of cock rock in the vocals, and even more so in the occasional tasty leads, but it suits the tunes just fine...I picture this dudes being stiff and uninteresting to watch live, the kind of band you keep watching because they can all play their asses off but you want them to just unleash. '90s US hardcore meets HELMET? It totally works. 

VIRTUAL REALITY

THE SECLUDED

File this right along with THE CONVULSIONS and SMILES, but Wales' SECLUDED sit back a little mellower, with an almost street punk groove at times. This 1982 demo was the bands only recording, and it is well worthy of whatever legendary status it might have - each one of these tunes is infectious and I can't rewind the tape fast enough when it's over. Fucking perfect driving UK punk with bouncing bass lines that positively demand a pogo pit right this very second, even if you are the only punk in the room. Smiffy, Stu, Lou and Brainy fucking nailed this one, I only wish they had given me more.

WE DESPISE SOCIETY