GIGLIOLA CINQUETTI

When I travel and take time away from The Escape, I frequently put out a very general request for people to give me tapes. I mean....of course I'm going to do that, right? Who doesn't like free shit? Well, every now and then my plan works, but sometimes it really works, like last month in Los Osos, California. The show was sold out, but a young woman came to the merch table, asked if I was Robert (I said that I was and braced myself), then told me that her friend was outside with some tapes for me. Obviously cassettes trump fire marshall capacity regulations, so within moments the young man was inside, and I had a grip of tapes in my hand. Some grindcore from Iowa, some PV from Florida, some schmaltzy '60s pop dude....and the beautiful voice that you will hear today. Sixteen year old Gigliola Cinquetti stole hearts across Europe when she won the 1964 Eurovision contest - just listen through the Mantovani styled strings and gratuitous overproduction on this hits collection and it's easy to see why. Her voice is like silk, and with this (well loved) tape as my introduction, I quickly got lost in a rabbit hole of soft beautiful words that I could not understand. But you don't need to be a linguist to translate the depth of tracks like "Do Come Ti Amo." For the record, this post is not meant to be tongue in cheek, and I highly recommend spending some time with this greatest hits collection, a tape which fate has inevitably destined for bargain bins even before it finds its final resting place at the bottom of a plastic tub on a shelf in a thrift store somewhere in Kansas....wondering if it will ever bring anyone joy. Well....this one has. 

NON HO L'ETÁ

KLAM

Sometimes when people dive into '80s dark indie tunes, it just sounds like a poor attempt at a recreation of a thing that was really cool. But sometimes modern beings dive in headfirst....and it works. I could have heard KLAM in 1987, and it would have been awesome....just like it is in 2016. Melancholic down tempo ethereal magic, that's what this shit is. Elizabeth Fraser caliber vocals, deconstructed Robert Smith guitars...I know it's lazy to make comparisons like this, but I could easily file KLAM alongside artists of that caliber, and these sounds would have been worthy of mainstream independent recognition in those years (Maybe they are now, too? I dunno, I mostly listen to mindless DBeat, atonal grindcore and country. Seriously). A feeling, a genre, and a moment in time, all perfectly captured on tape....good job. 

THE CONCRETE VAGINA

This cassette includes The Concrete Vagina and Canciones de Otras Bandas, a covers collection with tracks by RAMONES, WILL OLDHAM, RIDE, VANDALS and BOB DYLAND given the treatment. Well played, my Italian friends....

POLIS-ÄCKEL

Noisy and bombastic hardcore, blown to shit just the way you mutants like it. It's from Italy. You know what else is from Italy? Fukkn Rome. ROME is not just from Italy - Rome is IN Italy. Shit is fukkn wild. POLIS-ÄCKEL bash out DBeat creamer after DBeat creamer...full fury fist in the air manis...tinny guitar peaked for no reason, total and glorious monotony. This is what Mondays were made for....this week is yours, punk.

WORLD WIDE DEATH CULTURE

SIEGE STOMPERS

Sometimes you want to listen to really catchy punk, and sometimes you want to listen to Blood Sweat and No Tears...and sometimes you don't want to have to choose. For those times, I offer Italy's SIEGE STOMPERS for your consideration and inevitable enjoyment.

SIEGE STOMPERS

OVSKUM

Stark and minimal black metal...does it sound odd if I suggest that the band's cover art suits their sound? Slightly deranged and amateurish, but deeply depressive at the same time. The approach is simple, with wailing tinny guitars dominating the mix while drums bang away in a seemingly aimless manner, struggling to maintain anything resembling a steady rhythm, but that's exactly the appeal of Italy's OVSKUM. By the time the "blast" (a generous descriptor) starts near the 5 minute marl of the second track, I had already accepted my fate and was settling into a weird and distant recording, which made that section of the song especially off putting and set me up for the remainder of the tape. OVSKUM has been prolific over the last decade or so, Untitled I was released in 2006. This is far from advanced music, more like an exercise...or perhaps a test.

UNTITLED I

JUANITO 4 GUNS

Killer comp of mostly under-the-radar hardcore/pv bands. CALLATE from Chile start out with three tracks of frantic grind with crushing sludge dirges, then Japan's FLAT SUCKS dish out ultra chaotic spastic bursts that bring to mind acts like FUTURES and DKs - hard to put a finger on what exactly  they are doing, but suffice to say that when I was playing the tape my lady friend commented "wow, that is awful" to one song and "who's this? I like it" to the next. San Francisco's VENKMAN are up next - eight tracks of fastcore and comedy (typically at the same time) before our Italian friends xDELOREANx drop four downtuned numbers influenced by West Coast pv/thrashcore. All four acts are quality, and will inject a healthy dose of irreverence into your serious consumption of sounds. It's good to be a little irreverent.

JUANITO 4 GUNS

L'ALEPH

Fast and raw Italian hardcore circa 1996. The whole thing is packaged in stapled cardboard at there are like five different inserts and a handwritten note about how half the band quit and they are looking for new members and are gonna keep playing...it's a time machine in cassette form, really. But the bonus is that the jams are really damn good - furious raw hardcore masking infectious hooks. As always, you're welcome. And I'm kinda sorry that I rarely (read: never) repair dead link, but I'm too busy (read: distracted).

L'ALEPH

CONFUSIONE

"Everything Louder Than Everything Else" is a phrase attributed to one specific band, but Italy's CONFUSIONE seem to have borrowed the mantra for this tape. Tracks from a few early '00s vinyl releases and live shows, they rip through a few dozen bangers in just under an hour, catchy fast hardcore mingling with amped up melodic Eurocrust and blistering fastcore with a more than casual nod to their contrymen form the '80s - and everything pegged in the red for added intensity. The live tracks show a band that I would love to see in person, maximum energy without sacrificing chops and an excellent partner for the blown out studio tracks that make up half of the tape. 40+ songs in all, and I'm virtually certain that I fukkd up the titles somewhere along the line...I would apologize if I was actually sorry, but I was chair moshing too hard to really care.

CONFUSIONE

SOCIETY MADE ME THIS WAY

This might be the single most important mix tape anyone has ever made me. When Dan Riffe (much celebrated on this blog, ex-ILLEGITIMATE SONS OF JACKIE O, VAN GOGH'S EAR, BRUTAL GARDENERS and current frontman for Tulsa's DON'T CARE BEARS) gave me this tape in '91 or '92 the only bands I was familiar with were FEAR, N.O.T.A. and BLACK FLAG, and my introduction to searing Euro hardcore for the first time was like a kick in the gut. With educated hindsight, I can see that Dan primarily just put a couple of records on and let the tape run - but when they are the right records, that's maybe all you need.

SOCIETY MADE ME THIS WAY

N.A.F.T.A.

A perfect bridge between ripping '80s Italian hardcore (think INDIGESTI here) and more constructed (read: slightly less unhinged) '90s contemporaries from the States. This nine song demo from 1996 is the first (and only) thing I've heard from them and, while there are moments that sound dated, bits like the chorus of "Via La Polizia" are undeniable.

ASCOLTA CIÓ CHE VEDI

My copy is well worn but the sound quality improves drastically halfway through "Corri." Didn't seem right to leave a few tracks off just because they sound a but muddy as a result of years of repeated listens (and likely improper storage)...if it bothers you then you know how to use the delete feature, right?

DISWAR COMPILATION

Absolutely pulverizing grind/crust comp that pits Italy against Czech Republic. Never mind who wins (the jury is still out), this is a devastating array of power...GRIDE, LAHAR, LYCANTHROPY, INKONGRUENCE and KOMPLEX VINY from Czech Republic (you should seriously examine just how fast GRIDE is, the shit is insane) backed with CONTRASTO, KONTATTO, DOWNRIGHT, LE TORMENTA, TEAR ME DOWN and CAMPUS STERMINI from Italy (DOWNRIGHT are the standouts - flawless ferocious female fronted political fastcore). There is a stunning array of power here, and a distinct lack of clunkers. And I have no idea what's up with the rooster.

DISWAR COMPILATION

WE MAY FIGHT A BATTLE THAT CAN'T BE WON

A most excellent comp from 1996, released on cassette by Experimental from Portugal and on CD by Boisléve, We May Fight A Battle... concentrates on heavy edge/vegan hardcore, but since it was the '90s there is more than enough crossover into other subgenres. The easy highlight is Lithuania's SC - disjointed punk that seems like perhaps it wants to be metal but doesn't quite pull it off, these songs are well worth the entire cassette and I find myself scouring the internet searching their few cassette only releases (it is so far a fruitless search, but it is not finished). STONEWALL, Portugal's X-ACTO and Brazil's PERSONAL CHOICE fall nicely into the straight edge hardcore box though all write songs more interesting than a generic genre descriptor might suggest. BY ALL MEANS from Modena, Italy were the first band I ever drove on tour back in 1997, and the sonic assault they delivered at those shows has not been lessened by a decade and a half - I still think they are a seriously under appreciated band, pure and personal brutality. MEANSTREAM are gruff heavy hardcore with an affinity for mosh and Mexico's AUTOCONTROL round out the line up. AUTOCONTROL seem to have a criminally limited discography (this cassette and one track on a 1999 compilation LP) but their multi vocal doom tinged metallic crust are also worth the entire cassette, so now you have even more reason to get amongst this...

WE MAY FIGHT A BATTLE...THAT CAN'T BE WON

DIOXINA

DIOXINA's sole vinyl release, Nessuna Pietá, doesn't quite stand up to many of their Italian contemporaries - their approach comes across as more metal than the unhinged hardcore that helped put Italy on the map (though I confess that a revisit in preparation for this post resulted in considerable mind moshing and fist banging). But long before that 12" was released in 1985, DIOXINA were banging out  skinhead anthems of the highest caliber, most notably on 1983's Skins E Punks = T.N.T. compilation EP, a taped version of which I listened to with wonder for a solid decade before I learned anything more about any of the bands. The two tracks from that comp (including "Franz," an infectious midtempo burner) are featured on this rehearsal recording, and the other eight tracks are just brilliant UK influenced gruff Oi! delivered with pure insistence and barely contained energy. The vocals are appropriately rough, and while this session is quite raw, any nuance lost in the recording is more than compensated for with power. "Contro Potere" is screaming, and will power you through all of the rough patches you might encounter today, and the follow up "Eroina" throws a drunken ska groove in my face and has me dancing before I even realize what's happened. Would be nice if DIOXINA had left us with more than a 20 songs from their brief run, but I'll take what I can get.

DIOXINA

Live versions of these tracks can be heard on Escape Is Terminal, originally released as a split with fellow Italian skins ROUGH in 1983. No, I do not have the ROUGH material, but I would certainly like to have it....

KAM HASSAH

Indulgent and dark...very dark. KAM HASSAH are power electronics digested and expelled in the form of mood and mind altering sound. Controlled and calculated chaos.

LE ORIGINI DELL IDOLTRIA

ITALIANO PUNK

This is one of the many tapes that's been sitting on a shelf for months (years) politely waiting for me to throw them up here. More of a collection of recordings than a proper mix tape Italiano Punk features live IMPACT tracks and I REFUSE IT songs from the Sfregio Permanente split cassette, but these were unsalvagable even after a ridiculous amount of time performing manual (and then digital) surgery...the things I do for you people. But what you do get was well worth the effort: a few from CRASH BOX's 1983 demo, CANI's Guai a Voi EP, an insanely good under the radar hardcore influenced Oi creamer, and a collection of songs from S.I.B., who could have almost been lumped in with parts of the UK anarcho scene (their frontwoman was a Brit, which helps the comparison). The S.I.B. tracks are taken from one show in 1981 and their final gig in Cesena in June 1982 as well as healthy chunk of their 1981 Third World War LP. Everything here is delicious, even if you don't get to eat the whole thing.

ITALIANO PUNK

LET THEM EAT PASTAS! LET THEM EAT SHIT!

Mid-90's international comp from the folks at Spock Productions. A few acts you are likely familiar with (WAT TYLER and THE GR'UPS deliver live performances that justify their status, while CITIZEN FISH have never sounded more inebriated than on this recording), but the highlights on this comp are the unknown bands. ONE BY ONE sound like NAUSEA interpreted by a churning, metallic CONTROPOTERE, easily the best tracks on the tape. W.O.R.M. and THE SHREDS manage to make the melodic side of the '90s sounds raw and insistent (no mean feat for these ears), Germany's BOOT DOWN THE DOOR are solid and burly take-no-prisoners hardcore, and there's a bizarre electronic/dance song by Florida's SPHERE LAZA that is going to be getting a lot of spins around TEHQ. Germany, Switzerland, France, England, Italy and the US are all well represented here. You won't get any punk points for listening to it, but the reward for listening to killer jams tends to be rather personal, in my opinion.

LET THE EAT PASTAS! LET THEM EAT SHIT!

SFREGIO PERMANENTE

Mandatory '80s Italian hardcore, this is tape version of the split LP from I REFUSE IT! and CHEETAH CHROME MOTHERFUCKERS. CCM crank out 20 tracks in well under half an hour - searing guitars and gravelly vocals snarling their way through an attack that is equal parts GERMS, primitive FLAG and murky European squats. I REFUSE IT! have always (perhaps inexplicably) reminded me of BIG BOYS, but incarnated as relentless thrashers. The irreverence is there and is arguably their principal appeal, but tracks like "Fall Down" and "Contagio" just fukkn swing, and make awkward physical motions often referred to as "dancing" nearly unavoidable. This release and these bands have been well documented, and most internet trollers have probably had these files lurking around their external hard drives nicked off youtube in some fourth generation manifestation two months after they first heard Operation Ivy. But punk evolution (and the evolution of punks) used to be different, and even though I knew about Sfregio Permanente, it was years before I ever heard these sounds. No matter, because "Questo e I'inferno" and "Secret Hate" will blow your mind, regardless of the stage of your punk development.

SFREGIO PERMANENTE

FALLOUT

I decided a couple of months back to concentrate on demos and cassette releases on Terminal Escape, and started Escape Is Terminal (don't thank me for the original blog title, I've already congratulated myself plenty) as an outlet for live recordings, but it didn't seem right to let this Italian gem languish on a blog that is in its infancy and likely has a much narrower appeal. FALLOUT unleashed this collection of live tunes in 1985, a few years after dropping an essential ripper in the Criminal World EP. Classic thrashing Italian mayhem very much in line with WRETCHED, EU's ARSE and other contemporaries and recorded live in 1984/5 at various venues. The sleeve is a cut/paste hodgepodge (and in Italian) so I fear that my editing might be a little lax on this one, but that's no reason to keep these songs from entering your life. 

INSURREZIONE

EUROPEAN HARDCORE

In the interest of full disclosure, this tape has a rather misleading title, but I'm guessing that Finnish and Italian Hardcore didn't really have an interesting ring, so the tape maker just lumped in the whole damned continent. And while a tape called Finnish and Italian Hardcore might inspire titillating excitement in your loins, you would have a hard time constructing an arsenal as potent as this one. Most of these tracks come from relatively (or extremely) sought after records, so the true collector scum among you may skip this tape, but we common punx will be treated to indispensable tracks from KAAOS, NATO, INDIGESTI, CADGERS, SEKUNDA, DACHAU, TERVEET KADET and others. This is a masterful 90 minute trek through the annals of hardcore legend. Mandatory.

FAST LOUD HARDCORE

12 Bands, 90 Minutes, 74 songs

RAW WAR

This was the third cassette comp release from Xcentric Noise Records. I could try to spend some time describing it, but I figure that Pushead did a pretty good job in the review section of MRR in 1983 when this gem was unleashed: "The best international sampler cassette available, with bands from Brazil, Canada, Finland, Holland, Italy, Norway and U.K. Features TERVEET KÄDET, NEOS, OHLO SECO, INDIGESTI, RATTUS and more! A lot of jarring explosive doses of chaos from the world of punk" (Maximum Rocknroll #5, March/April 1983). Lots of live tracks, some tunes from records you might have if you are a collector scum, SIB, 5º BRACCIO and NY RAVERS are probably my favorites on this tape, although the RATTUS and TERVEET KADET tracks are pretty unfukkwithable. And remember ADMASS, those inept UK punk miscreants who made a pair of of yawn inducing appearances on The Escape? Yeah, they made it onto this tape filled with '80s international heavyweights, and Gary Bushell is still a cunt.

RAW WAR

My copy came to me sans cover, and thus sans track listing. Thankfully, Kill From The Heart came to the rescue in both departments.