EU'S ARSE

 

You should know this already, right? This is the same collection of tracks that 625 and Agipunk collaborated on back in 2002 (which was my introduction to the band) and I can assure you that listening (for the first time in ages) with 2025 ears I was no less floored than I was the first time. What's Inside: the entire first EP from 1982, the split with IMPACT from 1983, live tracks from 1982/83 and a rehearsal from 1984. What You Get: your fucking ass blown out. Seriously, this is quintessential Italian hardcore - listen to Stefano's voice crack on those early live recordings and you can fukkn feel the intensity. Listen to that first EP and wonder why people don't speak THE EU'S ARSE in the same breath as WRETCHED, INDIGESTI and IMPACT - so completely unhinged and still infectious. Some punks reissued this on cassette for their US gigs in 2014 (same year Blackwater reissued the EP) - I appreciate those punks. 

1981 - 1985

COMUNIONE

 

When the fine folks at Iron Lung Records exposed the world to Italy's COMUNIONE a couple of years ago, these seven songs were the soundtrack to my world for days upon end and I was surely not alone. Cold Euro-anarcho punk with a primitive early black metal presentation, these seven songs sounded positively (or negatively) deranged when I first heard them...and in this case familiarity breeds dementia. A lifetime later (read: last week) I pulled this self titled cassette from the shelf, popped it in the deck and waited for the feeling to fill me. The feeling is brilliance and knowledge, but neither is intentional - COMUNIONE is the sound of compulsion and provenance, the foundation of an as-yet-unknown but undeniably great thing. You might find comfort in the familiar aspects of the sound of COMUNIONE, but whether or not you find hope in the promise buried in those sounds is entirely up to you. 

COMUNIONE

PUNK AND HARDCORE MIX TAPE

Sometimes you just need to pop it in and crank it up, and sometimes I'm here to help. Here's an absolute banger from start to finish, packed with some straight up classics. SHATTERED FAITH and the only US BOMBS recording that matters mingle with the HITLER SS split with TAMPX and a few choice cuts from PERMANENT GREEN LIGHT and HUMPERS, all backed with an entire side of VKTMS. Whether you're just getting started or you feel like letting someone else take the wheel, this tape rescued from a would-be throw away box of unmarked cassettes is going to be the soundtrack for your day.

PUNK AND HARDCORE MIX TAPE

Also I kinda feel like I just wrote the copy for a mix tape infomercial and I wish that had been a thing in the '80s because I for sure would have bought one...probably the whole set. 

SECT MARK

 

Absolutely fierce, piercing Italian hardcore - there are only four songs here, but SECT MARK need but a fraction of these seven minutes to wrap you up. Subtle like a serrated razor in the shadows, these are intense stomps tinged with Uchida caliber riff mania and a zero tolerance for bullshit policy. After the initial micropressing's distribution was interrupted by life, the fine folks at Iron Lung Records resuscitated this motherfucker and I couldn't be more grateful. 

PROMO MMXXI

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

LORO DECIDONO...TU PAGH!

Impossible to understate the impact BCT releases had on spreading international underground hardcore punk around the international hardcore punk underground. I shared this tape thirteen years ago, but I was cranking it the other day and was struck for the umpteenth time how absolutely screaming this fukkr is from start to finish. Perhaps there are other BCT tapes with more 'notable' bands, but the CANI tracks here are relentless and bands like LONDON 77, P.S.A., and SAVAGE CIRCLE should not be overlooked. Of course, stalwarts I REFUSE IT!, C.C.M. and KINA make appearances (it is an Italian hardcore compilation form 1984 after all), alongside more ramshackle earnest efforts from NOISENOISENOISE P.N. and VIVISEXIONE who round out the roster. When something's this good, I feel like I should repost it annually instead of waiting another thirteen years....which makes me wonder if I'll still be doing this when I'm sixty four years old. Will you?

THEY DECIDE...YOU PAY!

THINK TWICE

 

Listen to THINK TWICE and it feels like you're listening to a relic. This dose of tinny, thin, raw, determined straight edge hardcore is not so far removed at all from the chaotic hardcore that made Italy famous just a few years earlier but equally influenced by YOUTH OF TODAY and CHAIN OF STRENGTH. And what happens when you came up on a steady diet of NEGAZIONE and EU'S ARSE but then you start digging on a third generation recording of that first SOIA slab and you're defiantly straight edge in a country that serves wine like Texans serve salsa? Maybe, just maybe you get THINK TWICE. Their 1990 debut It's The Time lands like the first time I heard OUTLAST, but rougher, more out of tune, more....innocent somehow. The theme song is great, the breakdown in "Be Aware From Me" is great, Sergio (Of Today)'s lead vocals are painfully strained and gruff while backups drop like claps of thunder echoing in the distance. These thrashers from Venezia were somehow new to me, but I'm all in on this shit.

IT'S THE TIME

WISTERIA

 

The poor replication on this cassette is borderline criminal because the two songs it contains, which apparently compile all of WISTERIA's recorded output, are stunners. Brilliantly crafted dark dance punk with haunting keyboards lurking behind melodies carried by single note ethereal guitar leads - it's exactly what you need, just takes a minute to settle into the fidelity. The keyboard solo on the first song is where Italy's WISTERIA really settle in and the chorus that follows has even more presence and power than the band did earlier in the song, setting the stage for a b-side track that will knock you out of your boots. Marzia's vocals are clearly the focus even (especially) when they float above the mix - a sharp, urgent innocence that you just can't fake. I know this was just a side recording project, but damn....

EUDEMONIA

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. 

SENZA TREGUA

The Senza Tregua comp from 1984 is one of the most searing examples of Italian hardcore dominance -  ninety minutes from bands that changed the face of hardcore punk when they hit the international stage and bands who stayed (mostly) under the radar...labels like BCT reissued this (and other) masterpiece.  and distributed it for $4ppd. That shit changed kids' lives. A few bucks would get you CHEETAH CHROME MOTHERFUCKERS and WARDOGS and STATO DI POLIZIA and poof! that stale by-the-numbers punk band your buddy is in...? Well that shit just didn't matter anymore. Enterruption and Schizophrenic put this on wax in the early 2000s, taking the choicest cuts and condensing to a single LP, but even though you can score that one on the cheap (and you should), the whole tomato is a thing of beauty. Even if it's (still) a motherfucker to edit. 

SENZA TREGUA

I posted this back in 2011 - that DL link is long dead, but this source tape was in way nicer shape for anyone who fancies an upgrade. Also, I need a copy of the self titled JUGGERNAUT LP. 

 

 

RAZGRAAD

 

The Water Towers listens like the come down from the most demented high. An ambient chill zone exercise with faint hints of Hi-NRG dance synths and an undercurrent of minimal synth beats sometimes only audible if you take the time to listen through the primary sounds. Italy's RAZGRAAD skirt the edges of what is more of less standard downtempo fare, but they (he) do (does) so by merely dipping their (his) feet in the water to let you know that its comfortable and relaxing before taking your hand and pulling you into the mist. Calmly disorienting...elements of heavier synths and industrial sounds treated and compressed and repurposed (or reimagined) for presentation as a part of an altogether new (or at least different) creation. The entire tape exists as a thing outside of itself, and listening intently offers you the same experience....it's not a bad place to visit. 

THE WATER TOWER

A GIFT

You are welcome to choose between two stone cold classics. You are also welcome to choose both. 

 

A dub, likely many generations removed from the original, that includes the searing and essential (and much circulated) 1983 demo and the live in Pisa set from the same year that was tacked onto the more common BCT#5 reissue. Track listing from the live set appears to be a bit different, likely a few things just omitted by the limitations of the generational cassette format, and there are three burners from You Are The Victim tacked onto the end. I often feel that if RAW POWER had just called it after Screams From The Gutter, they would be revered as one of the most important and intense hardcore bands in the world...but when you spend years (decades) touring on records that are basically just "pretty good," it might serve to fog up the view in the mirror when folks are looking back. Regardless, these recordings are simply fucking insane. 

BCT-05

Was in the kitchen last night with Karoline and we were listening to a digital radio station dubiously classified as "new wave." Billy Idol was interviewing Miley Cyrus about their favorite holiday songs and playing pandering insipid drivel from RAMONES, DAMNED and BLINK 182. They did play that POGUES song with Kirsty MacColl, but Idol's "Run Rudolph Run" was more than enough to kill any shred of enjoyment, and that was before BAD RELIGION's embarrassingly straight cover of "Little Town Of Bethlehem" nailed the fun coffin shut. Gratuitous holiday recordings are fucking insulting. This one set me back a quarter, and is easily my least favorite WILLIE NELSON recording. Fortunately, after distorting the hell out of "O Come All Ye Faithful," the tape mercifully gives out a few seconds into "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." Moral of the story is that we should have been bumping punk tapes instead of listening to the radio. Lesson learned (again).

CHRISTMAS

BRAIN OF STONE

Come on, do we really need to have a discussion about the importance of BCT in the '80s? Or a discussion about the impact that the OG tape traders had on the spread of music and scenes around the world? We should not need to have this conversation, so instead here's BCT-11: Brain Of Stone. 

A couple of standards on this one (ACCUSED, CANCEROUS GROWTH, YOUTH KORPS), and a healthy dose wild ass under the radar bangers (DIET OF WORMS, ÄMIVÄX, WILD HAIRS, KANALKOTZER, BILL OF RIGHTS, KILLING CHILDREN and loads more) who never received attention, much less accolades. Like the subtitle says: 23 International Bands, 58 Cuts. 

BRAIN OF STONE

Louisiana's contributions here are SNUFFLIX and TOXIN III, both rippers (I'm in the market for their split tape if anyone's holding). And while we are on the subject of Louisiana, check out this 1978 New York City set from New Orleans first wave power pop punks THE NORMALS over at Escape Is Terminal. There's a good New York radio interview in the file as well, and some general shenanigans. Who doesn't like shenanigans?

WRETCHED

You probably already know this - and if you don't then you should - and there's nothing on here that hasn't been widely circulated, albeit primarily underground, for the last 35 years. But still, as the world collapses, there is nothing that can compare to WRETCHED. Songs held together like a house of cards, paper thin walls unsuccessfully containing their ferocity. This tape has the essentials - the 1984 LP plus the In Nome Del Loro Potere Tutto E' Stato Fatto... and La Tua Morte Non Aspetta EPs. Power that is so unbelievably primal and so unbelievably pure. 

 WRETCHED

ARBRE DU TÉNÉRÉ

The "artist" in focus and/or question (today) is a somewhat less prolific collaboration between two considerably more prolific Italian noise/experimental monikers. The first cut sounds like it could be the introduction to an unknown prog band's set, and from there the duo flirts with primitive electronics (John Pfeiffer, Nic Raicevic) and space age soundtrack fodder. Everything is sparse, light...and freeing. The entire recording listens like a casual, but nonetheless-just-barely-missed, connection, and I'm left feeling unbothered and pleasant. What if all sound could have such an effect....?

QUANDO GLI UOMINI ADORAVANO LA LUNA

NOTE: Each copy comes with a photograph of the desert, and that is extremely fukkn cool. 

WHITE DWARF SPIRAL

A subdued but casually transfixing collection of sounds and trances make up Counting Stars. Italian multimedia wizard Antonio Gallucci dropped the WHITE DWARF SPIRAL moniker shortly after this release (his second) - perhaps after listening with intent (and at volume) and realizing that there was really nowhere else to go once this journey through space and sound had been completed. Four compositions, electronic sunrise ragas pulsing out of a modular reality, elements patched together with intent. Just under 40 minutes in total, this release is at once all consuming and a base at which to start an aural journey - some true Other Worlds shit, and I look forward to the night when I can listen in silence, under the stars...and count. 

COUNTING STARS

RABID DUCK

1988 may have been well past the heyday of ripping Italian hardcore (though I would suggest that perhaps the Italians might have kept it interesting longer than any of the Europeans....save the Scandinavians, but this line of conversation could get really annoying really fast), but try telling that to RABID DUCK. They are a little more together and a touch more melodic, but this 11 song banger holds it's own amidst a sea of more heralded bands. Nice and weird, with perfect guitar and bass tones (come on - it's superficial, but you know that shit is important) and a cavalier attitude towards tuning, RABID DUCK were combining metallic thrash riffs (Q: and solos?; A: and solos!) and melodic punk before LAGWAGON taught us that those two tastes did not taste great together...and it works (so maybe it was just LAGWAGON, and not the combination of subgenres?). Eleven tracks here, get wild. 

SBEREQUACK

STASIS

It takes a while to get used to the speed. But, just like speed, once it settles in and you accept the fact that you're in for a ride, the nuances start to appear. The subtleties hidden in the cracks of an overpowering force - a force that holds you mercilessly in its grip, a force that will beat you into submission if you let it. A speed that wants to hide the riffs, a speed that wants to overshadow the tracks and the intent...even speed this blinding, even when it drops into blasts during "March Of The Doomed," speed this intense cannot stop STASIS. And when STASIS themselves create and ingest, as on 2014's Progress, your only recourse is to take a deep breath and find your footing, because they aren't stopping for anyone. It's so fukkn fast - ScandiCrust and apocalypse stench delivered with incomprehensible rage...the fury is appropriate, and the power is real. 

PROGRESS

MISE EN ABYME

A marriage of sparse solo guitar and subdued acoustic industrial improvisation, the sole release from Italian experimental duo MISE EN ABYME listens like a deconstructed SIR RICHARD BISHOP treated by BLIXA BARGELD. It's a challenging journey at times but one well worth embarking upon, as these two invite the listener to evolve and discover with them, in real time. The journey should be, after all, just as important as the destination. 

CRIMINI d'ODIO

ITALIAN PANDEMONIUM

Another in the series of Pandemonium compilations, the Italian installment certainly does not disappoint. Visitors who pay attention have already enjoyed the Iberian and Brazilian editions, but I dare say that this one is even better. I'll spare you the descriptions, just know that this is a crucial collection of seminal Italian hardcore and punk that features my single favorite IMPACT track along with NEROGASMO, CANI, PEDAGO PARTY, BED BOYS, NABAT, LAST CALL, DECLINO, SATAN 81, STIGMATHE, all along with acts that most punks will be more familiar with. Fukkn essential sounds, my friends. 

ITALIAN PANDEMONIUM