LA FRACTION

My introduction to LA FRACTION was in 2002. We played with AMDI PETERSENS ARMÉ and TRAGEDY at Gilman and Billy was wearing a bright fukkn red LA FRACTION shirt and it just stuck out, you know? It wasn't black, it didn't look "punk" in the generic sense of the descriptor, and it just stuck out. I knew all those dudes, it's not like we were tight or anything, so I didn't ask about the shirt and just kinda filed it away mentally....to be addressed later. And then five years later their third LP La Vie Rêvée dropped and I was driving that French band on their US/Canadian tour, a tour that included a boat in Texas and threats of violence in San Francisco and and drugs and botched border crossings at Niagra Falls and a crazy ass frontman in Pittsburgh and a show with WOLFBRIGADE and PISSCHRIST in Milwaukee (epic evening, seriously) and it was fukkn magic. Really, it was. I have toured with a lot of bands...good bands, and good people...and I have had a really good time with most of them. But the bands I have really connected with? I can count them on one hand. LA FRACTION lives on that hand. I could talk about the 450+ mile drive east from Missoula (no stops...my longest stretch to date) with Magali sitting shotgun. I could talk about Dédé showing up in Leipzig and making John and me snort soap (that happened). I could tell a lot of stories that are now a fucking decade old, but my point is that this band is special, and if you have yet to discover them...then today is going to be a very special day for you. Similar to the day I looked up at the Gilman stage and saw that bright red shirt and wondered what band would make a red shirt with an (even/already in 2002) outdated Photoshop 101 image plastered on the front. What band? LA FRACTION. They are from Paris.....and they are (still) fucking beautiful.  

LA FRACTION

This tape was released by Nikt Nic Nie Wie, and contains LA FRACTION's debut LP from 1998 and their EP from 1996. Twenty years cannot dull the power of these songs....

WOLF MEETING: PRÊCHEUR LOOP // SKEPTICS

You know those times when you just open your eyes and you are alive? It's a pretty good feeling, and a feeling that we all should have more often. That doesn't really have anything to do with either of the French bands on this tape, but it's a thing I was thinking while I was listening to it....so maybe they are related. Twee/pop from PRÊCHEUR LOOP, really really good shit. Subdued psych/no wave on the flip..."Spare No Time" is a lost Nugget. Get it...feel alive. 

WOLF MEETING

CONTAINER CRUSTIES FROM HELL

If you were around in the '00s then you likely heard about this French band. And if you weren't turned off by the art then you surely dismissed them because of the name. I mean, you have a lot of stuff to choose from, a lot of things to enjoy, so it makes sense that you would want to focus on the things you think you might like. It's cool...I did the same thing. Thankfully, the folks at Dratsab Records in Malaysia are here to help us to get right with this one, and they've made these tracks available to a new audience - even if that audience is made of people who should have paid attention the first time around. Absolutely relentless crust/grind with searing female leads and harsh male backups. The guitars are like rusty knives, and there's a vibe that touches the killer German shits of the era that we all fukkn loved for a season (AKEPHAL, ACME, etc.)....but mostly this tape just rrrriiiiipppppssss. No reliance on downtuning or crushing riffs, instead CONTAINER CRUSTIES FROM HELL just drop a monster in your earholes and leave. Because after a half hour like this? There simply ain't nothing left.

CONTAINER CRUSTIES FROM HELL

SEASON

What would you do if I said "mid '90s metallic French emotional hardcore"? What would you do? Time to decide...

...because I just said it.

SEASON

PEUR PANIQUE

I shared the 2011 demo a while back, but I think that France's PEUR PANIQUE got better after I did. The 61 seconds of "Gachis Permanent" sets the stage (and kinda validates the existence of fast hardcore), and the remaining baker's dozen tracks just keep on settling the score. Ferocious, blistering fastcore/PV with slow riffs that will bring you to your knees (or incite you to mosh the shit out of your bedroom). That 2011 demo takes up eight tracks, and the remaining six bangers (and they are basically all bangers) seem to come from two separate sessions...shit man, I don't care when they recorded them, I'm just happy that they did. It's worth noting that "A Quois Tu Penses?" has a sick Tragicore vibe absent from the rest of the tape...but mostly I just want More French Fastcore!

DEMOS: 2011 - 2013

LITOVSK

While I feel like the formidable '80s goth/new wave rehashed by punks might soon be cast aside for the next regurgitation du jour, releases like this one give me pause. France's LITOVSK just fukkn nail it on their 2014 demo, and I have every hope that the upcoming vinyl release will be even better. It's as close to perfect as any brooding punk could ask for - driving, forceful, catchy, engaging...all of the right adjectives apply. Five tracks that have been passed around the internet for some time already, but I like to be thorough and make sure your needs are met.

LITOVSK

TRAITRE

I know that all of you punks have scooped the RIXE single by now (and if you haven't, then you should), but there's another French Oi! band, slightly more under-the-radar, that you need to get hip to. You can thank me after you listen to this shit.

TRAITRE

KRIGSKADE

When I posted the NO REFLEXION LEFT demo a couple of months back, I mentioned that Mike was sending tapes from a couple of his newer projects my way and that I was looking forward to hearing them. But I gotta be honest: I didn't think the shit was going to be THIS good. KRIGSKADE play forceful and lurching hardcore punk with (excellent and poignant) lyrics in Danish and tortured guitars that use '80s US hardcore as a starting point instead and proceed forward in the direction of total damage. The breakdowns sound like they are included out of sheer exhaustion rather than a desire to start any circular (or wall to wall) motion, and the English explanations give a purpose to the intensity in the vocals. This is everything I want.

KRIGSKADE

¡KØD ER MORD!

TRASHLEY

Sometimes I listen to shit and I just think that the band knows something I don't, that somehow they have the inside scoop on life and sound and that's why I can't stop listening to them. TRASHLEY do this to me - there's a secret they aren't letting the rest of us in on, but they seem to have the formula for aural earworms perfected. The vocals remind me of FUZZBOX and the keyboards certainly serve as further justification for that comparison, but the rest of the music is much more in line with catchy garage punk...or maybe with some weird proto-pre-indie band like VASELINES that NIRVANA would have celebrated even though no one had ever heard them. It confuses me....both that it exists and that I like it so much. TRASHLEY...laid back and smart and I can't get enough.

TRASHLEY

HEIMAT-LOS

Sometimes life gives you lemonade, and you add too much sugar and wind up making it all gritty at the bottom of the glass. And sometimes life gives you a tape packed with killer '80s punk and hardcore demos and you share them with your friends one by one. Life is kinda funny that way. HEIMAT-LOS did a pretty killer discography CD with this dude that you should buy, but in the meantime, here is their five track creamer from 1984.

HEIMAT-LOS 1984 DEMO

TELECOMMANDE

After I posted their 2009 demo last year, Vincent from TELECOMMANDE was nice enough to send their cassette discography my way - call it a "tapeography" if you like, this combines their 2008 & '09 releases in one handy red plastic shell. No sense in reposting the B side, since those of you with taste have already snagged it here, so today I offer you the first TELECOMMANDE demo tape. Brilliant synth driven punk jams that will have your ass shaking all over the office...or bedroom, or warehouse, or wherever it is you find yourself today.

TELECOMMANDE 2008

DEFLAGRATION

For the last two weeks I've posted compilation tapes that were really more like Best Of collections. Last week's Bad Entrails was a comprehensive trip through '80s US hardcore, while the Us Against Them  comp concentrated on some of the best the UK had to offer.  But this Friday's compilation is full of deep cuts, and doesn't really flirt with anything more well known than DEZERTER or NEON CHRIST. The tape centers mostly on European hardcore, with the aforementioned Southerners and Canada's F.O.A.D. and UNNATURAL SILENCE as the only off continent contributions, and is full of lesser known killers like BLOEDBAD (Holland), UNDERAGE (Italy), CERESIT '81 (West Germany) and UNDERDOGS (Belgium) as well as French TE alumnus RAPT and KROMOSOM 4. Most of this shit is fast and raw hardcore, and some of the recordings leave a bit to be desired in the sound quality department (in the bands' defense, the tape was distributed on a sub-par Salvy brand cassette, which might have affected the distortion levels in an adverse manner...it just depends how much you care about such things and, in turn, how punk you are), but when you hear crucial blasts from Finland's PROTESTI or classic shit from Germans INFERNO and SCAPEGOATS or SQUIRT from Switzerland, do you really care about a little tape hiss?

DEFLAGRATION Vol. 3 Side A

DEFLAGRATION Vol. 3 Side B

YOUTH AVOIDERS

I really should have slipped this into French Punk Week, but I got blinded by all that great '80s shit and YOUTH AVOIDERS totally slipped my mind. Better late than never - sink your ears into these adrenaline fueled garage punk rippers. There's enough hooks to last you another week, and the energy level is through the roof from start to finish. There's a laundry list of cool and/or hyped bands that play this style not even half as well, and if there is any justice in the world (there isn't, in case you were wondering...or just optimistic) the 'in' crowd will be murmuring about YOUTH AVOIDERS instead of just wailing about the latest boner jams they think will get them laid. In fact, if there is any justice in the world, then these songs will get you laid. Today. Just by listening to them. 

YOUTH AVOIDERS

VERDUN

The last installment from that French tape - I would apologize to those who aren't a fan of French punk, but then again I should also chastise you for not digging the diverse and amazing music that has graced The Escape this week. Perhaps you have terrible taste? Then again, I posted songs by bands like ASS and SHITDOGS OF WAR, so it's entirely possible that it is I who have terrible taste. VERDUN might just be my favorite '80s French band (though I am far from an expert - I need Luc to make me a mix tape of the classics), I first heard them when a long time MRR shitworker dropped a few crates of records by the magazine's HQ (nothing finer than a heavyweight dropping out of the record game), and after I snagged all the MAIDEN and JUDAS PRIEST I needed, Arwen came home and we started jockeying for the killer slabs. After several rock/paper/scissors contests and a bizarre tie breaker that involved a processed potato product and an impossible toss onto a precariously narrow ceiling beam, I left with a brilliant VERDUN LP, and I've been a fan ever since. These tracks are killer raw female fronted punk, totally simple but completely awesome. Government regulated baguette prices, health care for everyone (even the dipshits), great punk tapes, and retirement at age 60? Even if at least one of these is achieved only by strikes and riots, and even if it costs more in motorway tolls to drive across the country than I paid for my DIE KREUZEN record, if you can crank out tunes like "Tentative" and everyone is as nice as the French people that I've met...then your country is just fine with me.

VERDUN demo 1984

CHARNIER

Trading yesterday's chaos for catchy French punk. The 1984 Explosif demo from CHARNIER is full of melodic Oi hooks, and while I can easily imagine the sound being polished to a point that makes them rather uninteresting, these songs in their demo form are fukkn great. Great punk, nothing more to say except thanks again to Luc/Kängnäve for producing the track listing for me (and in turn, for you), and here's a shitty cover scan I nicked from Discogs in case you happen to come across this gem in the bin at your local charity shop:

Explosif

Also: I just returned from vacation last night and repaired the US AGAINST THEM post from last Friday. Apologies for my technological failings, but please enjoy this mix tape.

FINAL BLAST

As promised, here's the killer 1985 demo from FINAL BLAST...perfect guitar sound and just 100% punk. Cheers again to Luc for the track listing on this one. Did I mention that this shit is punk?

FINAL BLAST Demo 1985

RAPT

I got a tape a few years ago that was simply titled French Punk, with a list of four bands. With no song titles, I enlisted the help of Luc from Bordeaux to try to nail the origin of some of these ripping tunes - he did so several months back, and now I am just now getting around to sharing them with you. The first installment from that tape is from Vernon, France's RAPT, and is more than suitable for a Noise Punk Monday visit to France...totally manic and chaotic noise core with an emphasis on speed instead of technical precision. The complete lack of fidelity on this rehearsal tape is augmented by fierce determination and a need for speed, and this primitive attack will make your head spin with nonsensical blasting mayhem. RAPT only cranked out one vinyl release, a split with FINAL BLAST (whose demo is on this same cassette, and will appear here tomorrow), but here are 9 raw as fukk rehearsal tracks. Thanks to Luc for trying to track down song titles, but most of these tracks are unknown even to him:

The Rapt songs are a mystery to me. I've never heard that recording before. A lot of the songs didn't sound familiar, so much that I first thought it was a different band! That's until I heard track 6 ("Torture"), which is definitely a Rapt classic. One of my old bands used to cover this song. Haha. OK, hope it helped...

RAPT Rehearsal

FACE UP TO IT!

Staying on the European continent today, but traveling north and east a few hundred miles to the French city of Bordeaux and picking up the pace for FACE UP TO IT!'s 10 song, 9 minute demo. This bad boy was recorded in 2000, near the height of the 80s thrash revival and the birth of what would soon come to be known as fastcore. It's not hard to imagine a sweaty 17th century building full of rampaging, circlepitting Frenchmen and Frenchwomen losing their fukkn marbles while FACE UP TO IT! blaze through DC influenced hardcore tinged with late 80s UK thrash (hence the HERESY moniker), throwing in a NEGAZIONE cover just to ramp up the singalong factor. FACE UP TO IT! are still killing it ten years later, faster and tighter than this recording, but there's something appealing about the earnest attack on the demo. Drummer Luc is responsible for Kängnäve (both the blog and the killer single page zine from the '00s), and helped me identify a bunch of early French punk I had on an unmarked tape. Which reminds me, I need to post that shit...

FACE UP TO IT!

NO PASARAN!

I skipped over No Pasaran! several times, justifying my bias with the forgettable cover art and the late '80s release date. But pop this baby in the player and watch me eat my shorts, because this is one of the best international compilation tapes I've unearthed at TEHQ. Two ragers from Peru start the tape, PANICO and the recently reissued AUTOPSIA, but as great as these raw punk tunes are, they pale in comparison to Yugoslavia's QUOD MASSACRE - this tape is my first and only exposure to them, but the four tunes included are all classic and dark punk, simultaneously reminiscent of '70s UK and catchy '80s German shits, theirs are by far the best songs on the tape. Several songs from JUVENTUD LA KAIGUA and ERUCTO MALDONADO (both from Peru), France's PARIAPUNK, post-SUBHUMANS band CULTURE SHOCK (they don't really fit on the tape, but they are the reason I have it, so no complaints here), plus G03 and DECONTROL. The raw Peruvian rippers would be worth the whole tape, but throw in the QUOD MASSACRE shit and the French and UK punk? That doesn't make me a tape peddler...that makes me a nice fukkn guy. Now say thank you for the best 60 minutes of your day.

NO PASARAN!

KROMOZOM4

Hardcore circa 1984 from France's KROMOZOM4. Their only appearances on wax came with two splits, in '86 and '87, both with countrymen HEIMAT-LOS (who does a split EP and LP with the same band? that kinda rules...), but they dumped a slew of cassettes on us, starting with this gem. Ripping slap happy hardcore that keeps reminding me of the straight ahead attack of Poland's SIEKIERA (especially the 6th song, which sounds like a SIEKIERA out take), but more fun loving and carefree. Here's the bible page for them, you can look at pictures while you listen to the jams.

14  TRACKS HARDCORE FUN