THE EXPLOITED

 

Starter bands are a weird animal - the cool kids seem to steer clear of them (publicly), but please will someone try to convince me that SHITLICKERS hit harder than the first three (or six) EXPLOITED records? Ask me which one I "like" more and I'll give you an answer, but I will also put "Rival Leaders" up against anything you have to offer, and I'll die on that fukkn hill. "Warsystem" is cool and perfect and everything (of course) but if you want to tell me that it's objectively better than "Psycho" or the title track here....well, that's gonna be a discussion. DIY punk and hardcore rules, straight up and no question - but there's a reason why starter bands are "Starter Bands," you know? It's where you start. Group Sex and In God We Trust, Inc and Hear Nothing... and Damaged and Zen Arcade are essential, that's why there are hundreds of thousands of copies pressed and you can find them in any reputable shop. Well, perhaps the most single genre defining UK82 record was released by THE EXPLOITED....in 1983. And you should al know every note of eery song. Fuck me this shit is so good. 

LET'S START A WAR...SAID MAGGIE ONE DAY

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I've only seen THE EXPLOITED once - and it was in an environment that was perfect for a complete shit show experience that would completely crush all expectation and adulation. 

They were fucking untouchable. 

CURRENT AFFAIRS

 

You could almost swear that you heard this on a grainy third generation VHS copy of a 120 Minutes broadcast....if you were an Old like me, that is. Blatant WAX IDOLS by-way-of BANSHEES vibes in the song construction and the guitar delivery, but CURRENT AFFAIRS do an excellent job of adding their stamp where necessary. Listen to "Cheap Cuts" which is going to become one of my favorite songs from 2017 that I didn't hear until 2023. They dropped a full length this year that I'm going to listen to this morning on my commute...in case you needed any insight into how I plan to spend my day. I'm not really concerned with how you spend yours...as long as you are taking care of yourself. 

"OBJECT"

MARTIAL LAW

 

I was chatting with an old(er) English punk rocker a few weeks ago about the time before my time. His band split up in 1986 and he said they all pretty much felt that punk in general was finished - not that they were finished with punk, but that punk itself was just....done. A few of them dabbled in other bands for a while (some embarrassing funk rock experiments that I'll keep in their collective closets). In retrospect, this seems wild to me, especially considering the flood of punk and hardcore exploding on the British Isles in the mid-1980s, but I wasn't there and I didn't have his experience so there's no judgement. Maybe this MARTIAL LAW demo would have made a bigger splash had been recorded a few years earlier, maybe the anarcho sounds (and...politics?) were just passé by 1985, or maybe that old head I was chatting with had temporarily reached maximum punk capacity after a few years of constant gigs. Regardless, Angry Songs clearly demonstrates what we already know: punk did not die in the '80s. 

ANGRY SONGS

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

POLITICAL ASYLUM

 

POLITICAL ASYLUM slogged about for almost a decade, and somehow I feel like they're Scotland's most forgotten '80s anarcho export. They don't sound like anyone or anything else and they never did - melodic midpaced poetic and anthemic punk that leaned heavily on ripping leads and a confident lilt behind the mic. Walls Have Ears is five self-recorded tracks and a dozen (plus) recorded live, all in 1985/86 - this might be my favorite version of "Disarm Or Die," even though the vocals are pretty buried. 

WALLS HAVE EARS

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

DIDGERIDOO

A nice dose of late '80s Scottish shits that kinda teeters on a weird knife edge between punk and glam metal....but it's not power pop even though it's got the hooks. The guitar tone is what really makes the recording, even though (or especially because) it dominates the mix. "Shanks For The Memory" reminds me of ALL YOU CAN EAT, "Do The Spock Bop" would have found a nice home with some of the post Killed By Death-era HASKELS material, and the title track is just a solid four on the floor dirty punk stomp that highlights the band's deficiency in the vocal department. The completists will add it to their want list, the curious will "check it out," and the casual listeners will probably just keep walking. And maybe that's the right move...but what about your humble host?  "Phantom Whipper" and "The Brucie Bonus" back-to-back is mare than enough to keep me around.

 ROBOTS IN DISGUISE

POLITICAL ASYLUM

 

We saw Ramsey in passing last week, cleaning up downed branches and rubbish on the sidewalk in front of his place in Oakland. Said a brief hello from the street and remembered how much we like hanging out with that guy, and that it's been far too long since we have. Vaguely related, POLITICAL ASYLUM stand far far off from the rest of the '80s anarcho bands. They were more melodic, and that was their approach from the start (as opposed to a mellower sound that they "grew" into). On the demos, I feel like they're punching somewhat above their weight by writing songs that they can't quite play ("Apathy" is a perfect example), which is of course a great charm. Likewise with Ramsey's vocals, always out front and confident but often just a touch off. Soft and powerful, those vocals are the instantly distinguishable component to POLITICAL ASYLUM's sound even though the guitars are clearly what puts the band in their own league. I remember Ramsey telling us that they went to see HÜSKER DÜ in 83(?) and focused on Mould's guitar pedals - what they were, how they were EQed - in a failed effort to mimic the sound. The result of all of this was a sound that was theirs....heavier on the leads, protest prose as lyrics, as quietly fierce as they were earnest. Valium For Masses came out in 1984 less than a year after the first demo, with six studio cuts and 36 minutes of live recordings to tide folks over until the release of the Winter EP in 1985. It's good....and you should talk to your friends more often. 

VALIUM FOR THE MASSES

DISAFFECT

If you're like me, you knew the band's name long before you ever heard the band. I started with the An Injury Yo One Is An Injury To All EP sometime around 1994, and after that I was all in. MANKIND? is probably the best North American comparison (and yes, those singles still hold up) - Scotland's answer are pure dual f/m clenched fist political crust of the highest order. This demo from 1991 is a tad rougher than the records (as it should be), and there's something about the way the guitar threads a needle between speed picking and hyped up metallic chugs while the drums sound like they are constantly off their axis. Ten tracks, all killer, and there's a live set tacked onto this copy that Tim sent my way this past summer...that set will be on Escape Is Terminal shortly for completists. 

DISAFFECT 

PLEADING FOR PEACE

Guessing the sole release from Bloody Monkers Tapes came out in 1982? Seven UK rippers and a poem about killers, all delivered with dubious fidelity. Pleading For Peace is clearly the product of a fan - the cover is colored in by hand and I'm sure they were dubbed one at a time, hopefully in a teenager's bedroom. LAST RITES and BROKEN BONES each offer four snappy UK82 bangers, live versions of SUBHUMANS' "Pisshead" and "Apathy" from a raucous set previously available on an earlier Bluurg release. The mercurial (and prolific) anarcho solo project STATEMENT makes an appearance, and the tape rounds out with MUTED EXISTENCE, THE DISTURBED and AWOL (speaking of low fidelity - yeesh!). The AWOL tracks are perhaps the most interesting - one of the members ran Bloody Monkers Tapes and three of their songs are unlistenable to all but the most curious, top notch mid-paced UK punk buried in 40p cheap cassette bliss, but then the studio cut "Someone In Control" throws off the blanket of hiss to expose a should-be-classic-but-totally-unknown banger that inspired me to go back and check "Died In Action" and yearn for a clean versions of all of their material (also inspired me to drop a postcard in the mail to the label address because...well, I like a nice fruitless adventure). An hour of sound curated nearly 40 years ago, hopefully by an eager teenager who used their creation to network with other enthusiastic and disenfranchised kids. Quality definitely suffers generally (and particularly with the aforementioned replication fidelity for AWOL and some tape speed issues during a couple of LAST RITES tunes), but it settles in pretty nicely and takes you back to a completely different time - a new dawn in a small company town in southern England. 

PLEADING FOR PEACE

MACHINE GUN ETIQUETTE

This band has always flown pretty far under the radar, but I am always pleased when they blip onto my screen. Six blasts of rumbling Scottish '90s crust/punk - file along the likes of OI POLLOI, AUS ROTTEN, BRUTALLY FAMILIAR...you get the drill, and it's a drill that I miss. You get the little melodies in "Political Cheat," you get the full on bulldozing of "Joe Public," you get the tongue in cheek yet earnest "Jesus Smokes Crack" to wrap things up...and when it was done I pulled out the JUGGLING JUGULARS split 10" and that shit held up too. 

NO FRILLS

 If this is any indication, would've been a gas to see them in the flesh....

GLUERASH

Hardcore. Fast and nasty. No frills, just attack. Ten songs in nine minutes. Boom.

 GLUERASH

Find GLUERASH here.

ALTERNATIVE

One of the more under the radar UK anarcho acts of the early '80s, ALTERNATIVE cranked out consistently interesting releases. Whistful (almost COCTEAU TWINS-esque) guitars and lilting vocals fronting a forceful Scottish outfit, hearing these tracks (many for the first time in my personal earholes), a decidedly more mellow take on the out front weirdness of many previous releases, is excellent. I'll still take If They Treat You Like Shit of course...but old punk demos are fukkn cool, and this reinterpretation of "Fuck Off Thatcher" is a total killer. Not entirely sure about where this demo fits in their discography, but a few of the tracks appear on the Get Away From It All In The Army and How Dare You cassettes towards the end of their run. 

JULY 1986 DEMO

INANGER

Cassette version of the Reality Blind EP on Tribal War (please read the interview with Neil/Tribal War in the recent MRR, excellent stuff) and an excellent rehearsal recording. 15 tracks in all, driving political punk from Scotland...exactly what you need.

WITHIN THIS CORRUPTION

4 MINUTES

Mid tempo and catchy melodic Scottish punk from 1982. This is a rehearsal tape from one of the hundreds of bands that sprouted up in the second wave of UK punk and then faded away just as quickly as they appeared. No information available, no track listing available, but a companion post on Escape Is Terminal of a live set from the same year is this is what tickles your pickle.

4 MINUTES

LAST RITES

All hail home taping! I found this gem on the backside of the tape from which I culled the POST MORTEM shit last week - these tracks from Scottish punks LAST RITES come from 1984's Fascism Means War EP (check out THE BLOOD style guitars on "The Dreams Of Many," subtle but brilliant) with the A side "We Don't Care" from their debut single thrown in (B-side gets cut off before the first chorus). The first single is notably less impressive ('80s Britpunk at its unimaginative worst. This band plods forward uneventfully, spitting out hackneyed lyrical clichés along the way. It sounds like they don't care, so why should anyone else? - Tim Yo, MRR #7), but the next record is a quintessential UK82 scorcher. Cheers to someone in the past for putting this wax on tape - enjoy.

FASCISM MEANS WAR

BARBED WIRE

WHOA!!! I don't know how this one slipped under the radar for so many years, but this 5 song slab from BARBED WIRE is a scorcher! Ferocious UK82 styled hardcore punk with a little touch of DISCHARGE (especially on "TV Drug"), and they deliver a killer cover of THE REZILLOS classic, a nod to their fellow Scots that sounds more like a hardcore tune than I ever knew it could. This is the final installment from the three band tape that also brought us THE DEAD and INTERNAL DIMENZIONS...if only there were more gems on the B side!

BARBED WIRE

NORTH ATLANTIC NOISE ATTACK, vol. 1 - UK

Just like the title says: a compilation of punk and hardcore from the UK. This Lethal Dose tape (catalog #LD10 for those keeping track) features OI POLLOI (three tracks off the first demo), POLITICAL ASYLUM (who are criminally under appreciated, probably because they released primarily - if not exclusively - cassettes, making them unappealing collector fodder) with tracks from the Walls Have Ears tape, SUBHUMANS, THE STUPIDS (who I sometimes forget were fucking incredible...after I ripped this tape I blasted the Van Stupid LP and it was so damn good), CIVILISED SOCIETY with two killers from their 6 track demo, CHAOS UK ("4 Minute Warning" still gives me chills), GENERIC, LUNATIC FRINGE, and the unfortunately named but really good FRANKFURTER. This thing fucking smokes, and I think it's probably the perfect compilation for you to listen to today.

NORTH ATLANTIC NOISE vol. 1

6 MORE YEARS OF SHEER BLOODY HELL

This comp was released as a benefit for Martin Foran who was wrongfully convicted for robbing a pub in 1984. I wonder how much money the sale of this raised for his legal defense, but I'm glad they put this stuff together for me to enjoy in (what was then) the future. There are some usual suspects on the TDK D90, like THE INSTIGATORS (reasonable quality live tracks), CULTURE SHOCK, SHRAPNEL, THE APOSTLES, A.O.A., and  OI POLLOI, but the fun shit here is lesser known bands like GODORRHOEA, INCEST BROTHERS and LIFE CYCLE. 30 tracks from 13 bands in total, and consider yourself warned: the tape opens with some horrific live drum machine driven tunes from THE NEXT WORLD, but once you get past those, you can rock out to the freedom of Mr. Foran!

6 MORE YEARS OF SHEER BLOODY HELL?