MOLOCH

There was a time when I reached for this genre (and honestly, this band) with some frequency. For whatever reason my ears started turning towards the kids in the '10s, and I feel like doom is primarily a second wave thing - your first band doesn't play oppressive doom, it's the later bands...after you've become rightly disillusioned. But still, the familiar riff that starts "Who Is This Who Is Coming" makes the chills come, and slowly the intensity and despair cloud the rest of the experience. Eight songs, averaging around six minutes apiece, with a devastating RORSCHACH cover to close things out. MOLOCH's catalog is much celebrated, but I confess that I always reach back. 

MOLOCH

CONUNDRUM

It's just....mean. Two demos on one cassette, and the spine pretty much describes the band: Toronto Hardcore. Vicious, deliberate midpaced bursts that pack no subtlety whatsoever. Brutality in two movements, both recorded in 2014 - the second batch is faster, ever so slightly more polished, while the first is dirty and furious. "No Truth" is the toughest NAHC track I've come across in a long long time. Today was exactly the day to revisit this one. 

CONUNDRUM

FREAK ELECTRIC

1970s PINK FLOYD crashing headlong into psychedelic goth punk, all presented in a style just easy enough to compartmentalize that casual listeners will catch the JAMC/COCTEAU/SIOUXSIE similarities (as I did the first time) and make the mistake of moving on (as I also did). Two of these cuts made the 1985 Open Mind Surgery compilation,  including "Crazy," which is probably considered the hit by most folks. But "Psychotic Episode" is really the focal point on this tape, and it is nothing if not aptly named. Only four songs here, yet another example of all of the stones still left to be uncovered...

FREAK ELECTRIC

DISTANCE // FREAKOUTS

:Two mix tapes:

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Distance was put together by me one night last week. My challenge was to use one EP box for each side, with a little help from the "recent listening/to be filed" section, and the result is quite nice. Freakouts 17: Helvetinmatka is part of a series of mix tapes from Jensen Ward (IRON LUNG, Iron Lung Records), and is presented as two 31 minute movements (track listing is included with the download). 

DISTANCE // FREAKOUTS

JUST A PRODUCT

The way that punk (and "underground" music in general) crept through Eastern Europe fascinates me. Legendary bands who never released records or even proper demo tapes, just existing on myth and discreet handoffs of live recordings. A cold urgency from punks existing within while actively chipping away the Iron Curtain that separated them from the "west," and creating some of the most compelling music of the 1980s in the process. But what of Bulgaria in 1995? That's what I was asking when I popped in the JUST A PRODUCT demo and heard three tracks of stark, driving UK power pop drenched Eastern European punk. Like XS•ENERGY snuck onto the the Jak Punk To Punk comp or something....and it's cool. There are, of course, five other songs on this tape that completely blow all of my context out of the water because this was of course released after The Punk Explosion, after The (cultural) West had invaded the former Bloc nations, after MTV, after Green Day, and, notably....after NIRVANA. So after those three excellent (and quite compelling) tracks, JUST A PRODUCT offer up five NIRVANA covers recorded at a NIRVANA tribute show in 1995.  So there's that. 

ALONE

FORCED ENTRY

This is a MONSTER. From the chaotic simplicity of the guitar that opens "Chump Change," Georgia's FORCED ENTRY is off to the races. Ironically, that first track may be the least interesting of the bunch, as they seem to gather steam (and confidence) as they move forward. Classic and honestly somewhat basic USHC, reminiscent of MECHT MENSCH or even a slower NEON CHRIST at times but, as with most of the things that grab me by my old ass throat, FORCED ENTRY don't sound like they are going for a sound as much as they sound like they are going for it. Which is to say that their influence and motivation is drawn from the same well as the greats....and a well is way cooler than a mirror. 

 FORCED ENTRY

The tape snapped halfway through "Police," which opens with such a nasty and blown out bass that you leap up and break shit before the rest of the band drops in 3 seconds later. It's a bummer, but fortunately the internet can be used for more than just conspiracy theories...like, the rest of this demo. 

BLACK SS

Ripping, throaty SXE hardcore from Syracuse. Sometimes you need it raw and primal, and that is precisely what BLACK ASS (aka BLACK SHEEP SQUADRON) do. If you're looking for more jams, and there are several slammers from the mid-'00s, please search very carefully, lest those searches lead you to a fascist power electronics act and/or a very specific genre of pornography. 

 ANIMALS

BRAIN POLLUTION SYNDROME

I'm gonna say it yet again: fukkn Halifax. Thanks to Brett from WARSH/ANTIBODIES for making sure I didn't snooze on this one even though I missed it when it came out last year. Blinding speed, DEATHREAT fury, chaotic riffs and a recording that is just destroyed. Not like "ooohhh we are SO noisy" destroyed, but like "we broke the machine because that's the only way we know how to play" *shrugs* destroyed. There is nothing subtle here, BPS just go, and they go hard. Six tracks in eight short minutes, and let me know if you can listen to "Blood Red Leaf" without clenching up.

BRAIN POLLUTION SYNDROME

CULT SYNDROME

Sinister snarls and MGHC cum late 'teens contrived nihilism be damned, "I'm Hell" has one riff and one refrain and it will destroy you. "Life In The Woods" sounds like "Ace Of Spades" invented by Youth Attack - not reinterpreted, not reimagined, not rediscovered....fucking invented. And "Corpses In Their Mouths".....? Yeah, I'm just dead. Everything from "Banality" to "Psychic Violence" is just gravy - and "Banality" is the best song on the damn tape! More Cults...I guess we need more Cults. 

CULT SYNDROME

CULT VALUES

A couple of these tracks found their way onto the 2016 Sabotage/Deranged/Static Age 12", but most of this 2015 demo will be new even to those smart enough to add that platter to their arsenal. Dark, driving punk packed with desperate melodies and dominated by a clean, damaged guitar doing serious work, not unlike predecessors like RED DONS and NEON PISS. Germany's CULT VALUES are catchy, drawing from SoCal '80s hooks and energy but distracted by the more easily compartmentalized frustrations of the goths. To say it's a formula makes it seem contrived, and that CULT VALUES does not sound contrived is the thing that makes them work so damn well. It's real, and you can feel it when you listen. "Parallel" is absolutely an anthem for a ____ generation, and maybe that generation is/was yours. 

CULT VALUES