VAARALLINEN

 

Spent some time at practice tonight learning an IMPALERS cover that we may or may not play in a few days, and honestly I can't think of a better  thing to settle into than this VAARALLINEN tape. The bands that tweak the DBeat formula and make it sound different are special bands - and these punks from Singapore do (did) exactly that, just like those punks from Texas. This is the 2012 demo with tracks from the Hautausmaa EP crammed onto one cassette, and if need a reminder that Scan-DBeat hardcore rulz then I suggest you look no further. Shit is absolutely mental, even (especially) while it's more than a decade in the rearview mirror. "Ei Jumalaa" at full volume, all damn day. 
 

SOSIAALINEN KONTROLLI

STELLARIUM

Some of the killerest and most perfect shoegaze rehash/worship I have ever heard. Ever. From anywhere or any time. Full stop. You want to rewind to Ponca City, Oklahoma in 1988 and I would have kicked OCEAN BLUE to the curb, maybe even that SUNDAYS disc that floated around my collection for longer than it should have (even though it's still great and the "Wild Horses" is better that I am comfortable admitting). STELLARIUM are all those references plus STONE ROSES and the first two RAKTA records and Bug-era Dino Jr. all at once. If it sounds like it was meant to be.....it was. They were. The shit is real. Rarely have I listened to a thing and wanted so fukkn badly to have the entire thing in my mind all at once.

STELLARIUM

IDX

 

Total stench/crust obliteration from Singapore. This came a few years before the mind blowing Onslaught Within, and the sound is slightly (if predictably) more primal. Meticulous howling lurches open the tape, and then they open it up on "Unanswered" and don't look back. By the books? Pretty much. But absolutely flawless execution, and I'm here for it. 

STARK REALITY

HATRED JACKALS

 

This is what I wanted today. Vicious mid-teens anarcho crust steeped in now-classic '90s USDIY sounds and ethos. The guitar leads are going to grab you first (and I warn you that they won't let go), instantly familiar anthemic melodies that float over ferocious dual vocal clenched fist hardcore that borrows liberally reinterprets so you're listening to something that you feel like you already know even though every songs starts with a "holy fukk what is this?!" I first heard the band ages ago on the Singapore Punk Holocaust (with DISTRUST, a recent Monday visitor to The Escape), and was thrilled when I pulled this one out of the stack. It's as good as I wanted it to be. 

DEBELLATO

Controversial Opinion: One of the vocalists kinda sounds like Ernesto on the first LIFES HALT record. 

DISTRUST

 

Greater than the sum of its parts, Greatest Very Fuvkin' Shit$ gives you everything that you might be (should be) expecting from the promises made by the cover, but DISTRUST gives you something else. DISTRUST gives you more. Wild studded jacket dis-crust mixed with stench and a healthy dose of Detestation, this collection of tracks smothers you like an avalanche from the unhinged Scan-DBeat of "Nuclear Tomorrow" to the hollow metalcrust of "Doomed To Oblivion," these Singaporean veterans do absolutely nothing half-assed even when it's painfully simple two riff offerings like "Protect And Save" (okay, four riffs if you count the breakdown and the second solo). Plenty of bands hump the corpse of G.I.S.M. and there's a touch of that here to be sure, but DISTRUST just harness that sonic energy and fuckkn own it in the most diabolical way imaginable. Just filthy, desperate and essential metallic hardcore. Listen to "Nightmares Of War." You're welcome. 

GREATEST VERY FUVKIN' SHIT$

PROTEST

 

I mentioned this release when I was blabbing about the MIDHUMANS tape a few days ago. The bands are nothing alike, except that both existed in the 1990s and then reformed in the 2010s - MIDHUMANS were from Indonesia, while PROTEST were one of the first DIY DBeat/crust bands from Singapore. Thankfully, this release captures the first (?) PROTEST demo from 1998 (The Biggest Proof Of Human Greed Is War) along with 2017's Moral Injustice. Both are killers, and it's interesting to hear the band as initially presented and eventually realized. The vocalist is the only constant member, and the modern incarnation is significantly more metallic, polished and.....well, brutal. Both incarnations are spectacular though, I'm glad I have both. 

MORAL INJUSTICE
THE BIGGEST PROOF OF HUMAN GREED IS WAR

••••••

PLEASURE

 

Dark Singaporean punk with Blinko influences oozing from their very pores. For some unknown reason, this trio only offered these five songs to the world....thankfully, one of those five is "The British Empire's Homophobic Legacy" because that shit is perfect and perfectly intense. Good punk is timeless.

PLEASURE

DEATHRACE

 

Look at the cover and image how DEATHRACE sounds. You're close, but they're better. They are looser and more intense than you expect. The high end is more in your face than you expect. The brutality of the repetition in the title track is noteworthy inandof itself, but it's a theme for the entire recording and that's what makes DEATHRACE so fucking good. Simplicity meets ferocity, DBeat mania delivered with reverence and respect.

WAR IS NOT THE MATTER, THE MATTER IS YOU

URGENT MATTER

 

The way they plod through garage punk with a hardcore attitude is instantly infectious, like RADIOACTIVITY and REATARD vibes but played by dudes wearing studded jackets with PÏSSCHRIST patches....it makes sense, I swear it does. If you want hooks, this Singapore trio has got you covered - from the CONEHEADS energy in "No Violence" and "Leave" to "No Shit" (which really should be the song of the summer) and then there's the stunningly perfect "So Punk." The shit is just good, that's all. There's a demo that came before this 2019 tape - I want it. You can have this one now, but I want that one too. 

URGENT MATTER

UNDER NO BOUNDARIES

 

For the last Friday in 2024 I offer you a twenty year old collection of raw DIY hardcore, crust and grind from Singapore. If you're like me, then just a roll call of bands you're likely not familiar with will be be more than enough to get you in the door so.....STATEMENT OF OUTRAGE, DISTRUST, VOLITION., ENDLESS STRUGGLE, TOPSY TURVY, REJEX, MxAxC and HUDUD. There you go. Not a dud in the bunch, and this comp definitely had me combing the dark recesses of the internet looking for more tasty morsels from several of these bands (MxAxC and REJEX most notably). Enjoy.

UNDER NO BOUNDARIES: LION CITY CRUST/GRIND COMPILATION

C.L.A.W.

 

Zero bullshit for today. A hardcore tape that slaps you in the face and moves you the fukk out the way. Think about the last time you pumped a PROVOKE tape? Remember how that made you feel? Did it make you feel like you wanted to destroy everything? Did it make you feel like you could destroy everything? Well that's how C.L.A.W. makes me feel, and I like it. 

ABSOLUTE CONTROL

AFERDEATH

 

If you're thinking about starting the week by spending some time with a dis-crust trio from Singapore....? AFTERDEATH has got you covered. What More Must They Suffer checks every box, a ruthless pummeling that channels Soul Scars-era DISFEAR and pushes the guitar to the very edge of the sonic cliff and lets it teeter precariously for seventeen tense minutes of DBeat. Choice cut? "Greed." Seems appropriate. 

WHAT MORE MUST THEY SUFFER

MANIACS

 

I've been blessed with a healthy handful of under the radar street punk slammers lately, and this collection of hitters from THE MANIACS stands proud at the top of the heap. Not my subgenre of choice, but I can listen to "Bovver Brigade" and "Cause Of Violence" all fukkn day and then some. The full package is well worth digging into - 2014's CDr release Survive on cassette with the Strength Of Oi! tape from 2016 housed in a beefy box with a booklet filled with more than enough images and word to make you feel like you (were) there. You want a hitter from Singapore that lands squarely between COCK SPARRER and CRIMINAL DAMAGE? You found it with THE MANIACS.  

OI! AGAINST RACIAL PREJUDICE

ANXIOUS LIVING

 

Hard to imagine that a group of people can get together and create something this perfect and then....nothing else. History will likely file ANXIOUS LIVING alongside other late-aughts dark punks, but the careful listener will notice the difference/s immediately. The sound is rooted in '70s punk - as much early Slash and Dangerhouse as SOVIETTES and WAX IDOLS and they drive their machine hard even when trading vocal harmonies in "Graveyard Orbit," inviting inevitable Doe/Cervenka comparisons. There are only five songs here (including a gorgeous WIPERS cover) but, as I've said countless times in these pages: if your legacy is short then make your legacy great. 

ANXIOUS LIVING

••••

SNÄGGLETOOTH

 

The lazy move is to drop MOTÖRHEAD and DISCHARGE comparisons. The right move is to acknowledge the Singapore's SNÄGGLETOOTH spent the 2010s doing for the Asia what INEPSY had done for North America the decade before. Every time I pop one of these tapes in the deck I am transported...every time I pop in one of these tapes I'm floored...every time I pop in one of these tapes? I rage. 2013's Road To Nothingness on the A Side with the 2012 demo (that I've already posted...twice) on the flip.

ROAD TO NOTHINGNESS 

THE JHAI ALAI

 

In 1999, WHN? were arranging a tour that would include shows in Australia with Scotland's SHANK and shows in several SE Asian countries. On the one hand I'm glad that it didn't happen, because I feel like that might have been the last thing we did (we just weren't really gelled as a unit yet) and I wouldn't trade the tours we did in the years that followed. But at the same time....man, that shit would have been fucking cool, especially when so many of those scenes were so young and just bursting at the seams with energy (note: they still are). I like to think that we would have played with THE JHAI ALAI in Singapore, because why wouldn't a self described Bandana Thrash band from The Bay share a stage with a chaotic blasting screamo band from Lion City? This is the real shit - the MOHINDER, EOTCP, HONEYWELL, HEROIN kind of emo manic with blast beats and strained screams and drawn out guitar driven mania - I would love to see this live....I would have really loved to see it live then. 

THE JHAI ALAI

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. 

SNÄGGLETOOTH

 

Sure, I posted this tape ten years ago. But that link is long dead (no apologies), and SNÄGGLETTOTH still fukkn rrrrriiippp. Three ruthless doses of fist banging mötorpunk from Singapore, and it hits even harder after a decade long deluge of dupa-dupa shit punk. I love dupa-dupa shit punk, don't get me wrong, but goddamn these kids were on fire and sometimes I just want to pound my fists into shit. 

SNÄGGLETOOTH

ZODD

 

Those in the know already know, but for the rest of you: ZODD. Most (Western) folks started paying attention when the tracks from this Pissed Off! Records tape (and a few more) were slapped on wax by La Vida Es Un Mus a couple of years back (get it), a devastating collection of hardcore slammers from the S.H.I.T. school. And really...what more do you need to know? This scene in Singapore has left a serious stamp on the international hardcore map in the last decade, thanks in no small part to bands like this (and DOLDREY, SIAL, LUBRICANT...going back to MILD SHAG and well beyond.  Mutant stomps abound, this one is worth the hype and more. 

OPERATIONALLY READY DEAD

STILETTO

If you got half a fukkn brain, then you're paying attention to the punk and hardcore coming out of SE Asia. I'm not going to try to make a list of bands and scenes and labels because all I would see later is all of the bands and scenes and labels that I missed, so I'm just going to say that that's where you should put your eyes and your ears, and that's where you should focus your consumption. Singapore's STILETTO are a prime example - primal, raw, ferocious hardcore punk...but with hooks and swagger. Seven minutes of pure destruction...there are days when I just want to listen to this demo over and over. Make the right choice. 

NEW WORLD

This tape was brought into the world by Pissed Off! Records in Malaysia. I strongly recommend keeping your finger on their pulse....they never fucking fail.