MAX KUIPER & THORSTEN SOLTAU

I don't want to get caught sounding pompous by trying to present a bunch of information about these two artists that I only recently discovered because of the internet and their association with Chondritic Sound, so I will spare you. I will recommend that you look into both Max Kuiper and Thorsten Soltau on your own, but I will space you the uninformed summary. Instead....listen to this release. A truly beautiful collaboration that leaves me speechless every time I listen to it. Analog sounds, piano, harpsichord, loops, voice...sourced and conceived by one artist, treated, produced and completed by another. Simply put: This release is stunning. 

ANIMI SUB VOLPE LATENTES

VASTUSTA

I seriously think that this 2015 demo might be the single best thing that you will hear in all of 2018. VASTUSTA are so fukkn fast, the riffs are simple and insane, and the delivery is wild as fukk. "Ei Päämäärää" is essentially a perfect hardcore song, while the entire tape (all 5:19 of it) takes traditional Japanese hardcore and shoves it in the face of the classic Finnish model. It is seriously everything that I want from hardcore music...except that I want more. 

KOHTI LOHDUTONTA HUOMISTA

ANINOKO

Sometimes I think that ANINOKO is straight up the most important DIY band in the Bay Area. Four Filipino immigrants living and working here, surrounded and influenced by their community and shaped by the distance between them and their families, they take honest hardcore intensity to a new level. While whatever flavor of the month band is singing about abstract death and/or despair or perhaps the perils of wars that they will never know, ANINOKO speak bluntly about the problems associated with donating money to mainstream aid organizations and class separations in Philippines permeating every aspect of society (the first track on this demo, "Aircon" addresses this in the context of something as simple as air conditioning). They talk about the social struggle of the immigrant communities they are a part of, and they sing about the reality of raising families while being separated from their families. And if you don't want to get heavy....? That's cool, because they also rip. They translate well on studio recordings, but (as with most, if not all, good hardcore) they are best experienced live....which I will be doing this evening at El Rio in San Francisco. 

AIRCON

INTERCISION

I've oft lamented the gradual migration of raging political crust to "out of vogue" status. Perhaps it's because I am simply antiquated and refuse to change with the times, or maybe I simply get bored if it's always midtempo all the time and there's a chorus pedal on everything all the time. Or maybe it's because I feel like there's always a way to push crust shit further, whereas dark/goth punk sometimes just is what it is (eg - Karoline and I recently saw a band in Oakland - they were great and we both really enjoyed the show. But neither of us had any interest in listening to the band again or going out of our way to see them, just because they were so "by the books" and we couldn't really imagine how they could make themselves interesting to us within the confines and subgenrefication they had placed on their band). INTERCISION is a metallic political crust band. So naturally there's subgenrefication happening here and you more or less know what you're in for when the band starts (and they start right out of the gate with atonal speed picking and ruthless blasts until the guitar takes it and they are fukkn in it before you have even started digesting), they are absolutely ferocious and I find myself welcoming every new blast and respites like the intro to "CTRL ALT DLT," even though you know they are just setting you up to get leveled. The fasts are absolutely sick, the tonnage that they bring to the table is staggering...and I truly hope that there are packs of rabid maniacs throwing beer all over the room while they play. And I hope that those maniacs go home and read the words (that are, at the very least, about something, and I thank them for that) and I hope that they think. And I hope that they are inspired. Maybe just to start their own band....but maybe to do something bigger. 

NO

NEURA

These Spanish punk set the mood even before their first track really kicks in. It might be just a simple bass intro, but the vibe is there from the first note and all suspicions are confirmed when the rest of the band joins in. From Xixón on Spain's north coast, NEURA are loose and unhinged, dripping with '80s attitude and fronted by a singer with a whining snarl that simply must come naturally. A small touch of the '00s Danish nostalgia for '80s California, but with plenty of Southern European fire. "Bajo Control" is the banger, a mid paced number that begs for action surrounded by up tempo action with raw garage rock recording quality. But mostly, whatever it is....NEURA just have it. Even casual listeners will be hooked from that bass intro, and I can assure you that it only gets better. 

SELVA HUMANA

NATURAL CAUSE

A couple of months ago I was at a show in an Oakland record store. Karoline and I were in the front, talking to some friends who were (justifiably) giving me a hard time about cassettes. Specifically how many I currently have and my constant pursuit of more. They asked Karoline how she felt about my focus on a dead (but living) medium, and Karoline responded by looking past me towards a bin of cassettes sitting under the New Arrivals record shelf and asked me, "Whoa - is that a NATURAL CAUSE demo?" I followed her gaze, noted that it was, and happily paid $1 for this three song recording from 1990. We saw Eric (NATURAL CAUSE guitarist, later LOST GOAT and currently FRISCO) a few weeks later, and he didn't even remember the recording or the release....which is a shame, because it fukkn smokes. My first thought was that the Temp demo comes off like later DIE KREUZEN with the fire and energy that DIE KREUZEN seemed to abandon after 1983 or so. Karoline thinks it sounds like PLAID RETINA, but my interest in that band wanes after the Lookout! EP and 12", so I can't comment there but it's definitely a compliment in her book. This recording was also available on VHS (because...1990?), but I'm happy I have a wife who's always looking out. Choice track: "The Quick And The Dead." 

TEMP

Also: Send me your tapes. Preferably the old ones. 

MALCRIA

Perceptive visitors will remember this cover from the MALCRIA/VDS split release that I shared a few years ago. The tracks on this cassette are the same, but with a (relatively) slight tweak to the mix. Now, we can debate whether or not you need both versions, but the honest truth is that this CDMX outfit is just so fukkn good that you need to have at least one (for real though, this mix does sound better). Passionate and forceful hardcore, MALCRIA always seem like they are on the verge of complete chaos while keeping a dark urgency. Check the tempo changes in "Jóvenes Ocultos" and the all out attack of "Mierdas" that follows. It's straight punk, but these kids do it right and do it weird. Don't skip this band...highest recommendation. 

REDEMO

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

More mysterious '90s DIY brilliance...I look forward to the nerds of the world focusing their efforts on unearthing lost and never discovered gems from that forgotten decade. The bands were earnest, untethered by internet created dogmas and rules that should never apply to kids developing their own sound/s and their own scene/s...and sometimes the bands were also really fukkn good. This offering is from Calgary (I'm making assumptions on the decade of origin, though I think most educated listeners will agree), and it strikes me just right. Listen to tracks like "Blind" as they struggle to keep up with themselves....it makes me nostalgic even though I don't really know what for. It just sounds real. 

LOSING THE PAST

АМПУТАЦИЯ

More discordant death/black metal from Russia. АМПУТАЦИЯ (AMPUTACIA) are simply disgusting....churning tempos with minor guitars carrying haunting melodies through the mix and a casually evil vocal attack that makes hatred seem so natural. And if you weren't sold already, the blasts are off the rails ramshackle mania - blasting with determination because they need to, whether or not they have figured out how to do it right. Yet another brilliant offering from Reforestation Records in St. Petersburg. 

АМПУТАЦИЯ

BLISS THE POCKET OPERA

I feel like BLISS THE POCKET OPERA are a "love it or hate it" kind of band. Their sound is almost goth but occasionally almost anarcho punk, the vocals are just a hair off of what could be considered beautiful and teeter on the edge of being super annoying at times, they don't swing enough to dance to, but they aren't pretentious enough to be true dark goth freaks. There are rhythms that conjure up mental images of afternoons wasted at Renaissance Fair(e)s....and still I fall into the "love it" category. "Merry Go Round Games" with its flute taking the lead and the tempo build up at the end before that borders on some Fiddler On The Roof shit before the band chants and picks up the tempo for "Geda" to close this short three song offering. I can't tell you why I like them, because every descriptor I can offer just makes them sound like pretentious drivel...but it's fukkn great. I've shared two other demos on these pages, both were received to mixed reviews (Tribal Dance is one that I have no reservations about - it's truly excellent). This short demo is a live recording from 1987 - and while I'm pretty sure that BTPO benefited greatly from the tools that a studio setting offered....? I'll still take it. 

LIVE '87

URUTU

I shared their 2014 demo a couple of years ago....because it's good. But THIS piece of plastic? This shit is next level. Hard driving metalpunk paying homage to THIN LIZZY, DISFEAR, MOTÖRHEAD, ANNIHILATION TIME - you get the idea. And these São Paulo punks rip it. Guitar leads are on point and over the top, vocals are throat shredding and the rhythm section seems like they are just relaxing in the pocket, swinging the band through eleven pure burners. "Fronteira" is the hit, which defies logic as it is also the most laid back number on the tape, but the whole damn thing makes me want to get shithammered and bang my fist until the sun comes up. If this is URUTU's trajectory, then I can only imagine what's in store for us next. 

URUTU - K7

===================================

"FRONTEIRA"

RAIN LIKE THE SOUND OF TRAINS

If you were around in the '90s, then you likely heard this band's name from time to time. It was a weird name, so it kinda stuck in my head even though I never (consciously) heard them until I was gifted this demo from a Midwestern friend a few years ago. I suppose that mentally I had filed this with the most self indulgent segment of the basement emo/DIY set....but I was wrong. It's like BLIND MELON, full on funky second wave alternative radio rock that could have shared a stage with MOTHER LOVE BONE. And these were punks? Apparently yes, RAIN LIKE THE SOUND OF TRAINS was a punk band. I'm not a purist, any casual visitor should know that, and I absolutely have an affinity for non-hardcore in both general and comprehensive terms - but GIVE sound like SISTER DOUBLE HAPPINESS but not as good (reminder that SDH has but a scant few tracks...and that's a generous assessment), TURNSTILE sound like 311 playing yahtzee while listening to the bad HATEBREED records....and RAIN LIKE THE SOUND OF TRAINS? It's just bad frat funk. I saw "this band" playing covers dozens of times on Frat Row in Norman, Oklahoma in the early '90s, injecting some "much needed" groove into EAGLES tracks and really feeling that TEMPLE OF THE DOG jam that was all over the radio (before the bros discovered PEARL JAM, of course). I'm digressing and projecting a bit here, but it's only because I care. I care....and I just don't understand. I should have never listened...you should listen though, because I want to know if I'm wrong. But I just wish I could turn back the clock and make this tape go away. 

RAIN LIKE THE SOUND OF TRAINS

TSA

I only saw these kids once, and I left the show wondering what the actual fukk they do to teenagers in San Francisco....because TSA were true freaks. A rare crew of native SF punks, I gather that they have been pals since they were young tykes, cutting their collective teeth on local '00s mutant punk and Bay Area Hardcore while discovering all of the nuggets the internet has/d to offer. Richard is noisy, fukkd up, damaged hardcore pegged in the red - hot and saucy like grandma's turkey. I can't talk about influences or any broad reaching sub-scene, because as far as I can tell TSA were (are?) just a bunch of kids from The Avenues who created their own thing, and created it on their own. Respect. Get weird, get distorted, get bent, get down. 

RICHARD

SEM HASTRO

Hastily recorded, shoddily duplicated (in the van while on tour, no less), and sloppily presented, this demo has all of the hallmarks of a total throwaway....except that it fukkn rules. This São Paulo/Washington DC project burst to life in 2016 and embarked on a substantial North American tour with THE PESSIMISTS....my face was melted at the Oakland gig, and this three song demo is all that I have to show for it. I bought a single too, but I was drunk. It happens. This tape is supposed to have five songs I think, but mayhaps they should have let the edge dude/s in the band and on the tour be in charge of duplication because my copy only has the three (now that I listen, I might have edited poorly, and there might actually be four...oops). And they are all screamers. Ripping, snotty, open throttle hardcore punk with vocals that have a noteworthy ferocity. Real Talk: "Pesadelos" is the bangingest track you will hear today. Dudes from COKE BUST, LOTUS FUCKER, CANKRO and loads more, in case that shit matters. It should. Get amongst it. 

RANCOR A CIDADE

JAD

Five songs. Six minutes. Polish hardcore delivering that stomp squirm that you kids like to get low to, Polish hardcore that launches and lurches into breakneck ferocity on the second track and leaves your clenched fist/s in the dust. Thick and meaty (check the chorus riff in "Paich" and then just quit punk) mania that is so deliberate, so precise, and so perfectly executed. Listen to the fire in the vocals and remind yourself how well suited Slavic language/s are to hardcore, especially hardcore of the cromagnon variety. This demo is on wax now, and should be considered essential modern punk in any and/or all formats. 

JAD

SMOKE WEED

I got this one in the mail a few weeks ago, part of an impressive an appreciated box of aural treats ranging from Midwestern harsh noise to '70s South African psych. There were little descriptors on each tape, and this creation was simply labeled: "SMOKE WEED." So that's all you get, and whether your curiosity is rewarded or punished remains open to interpretation. For me, I will say that the eleventh track (presented here via my questionable editing skills as "08") and the instantly recognizable sixth number are the ones that will keep this collection in my life....at least for a while. But it's the time, the care, and the steadfast commitment to weird that needs to be lauded. Keep the gifts and donations coming, kids...

SMOKE WEED

DANGER MOUSE

I've talked about late '90s ChicagoLand hardcore before, but it seems logical that greatness warrants an occasional revisit (this time to the suburb of Elgin). Sure, everyone knows CHARLES BRONSON, but it's the smattering of contemporaries (whether from the same "scene/s" or not) that put the metro area on my mental map of essential DIY bastions. PRONOUNCED DEAD, PRETENTIOUS ASSHOLES, LITTLEMAN COMPLEX, DIED AT BIRTH, MY LAI...and this little banger from DANGER MOUSE. Fierce fastcore reared on early 625/Slap-A-Ham fodder and presented with a youthful irreverence that is simply impossible to fake...sometimes I think you simply can't be this pissed if you aren't a kid. Six songs in just under four minutes, DANGER MOUSE blur riffs and blow minds; it's real and it's pure. And more than 20 years later when you hear that dismissive yet decisive "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" that closes the demo, it still feels relevant. 

 DANGER MOUSE

DISASTRONAUT

Heavy guitar rock rooted in the shit that crossed over into college town indie circa early '90s. We're talking GUZZARD, CHOKEBORE, early SubPop and/or AmRep with subtle sprinkles of Homestead. The recording is just a little too hollow (or raw?) to really pull off the style but, not surprisingly, that's kinda why I like it. The focus is on the guitars and on the jam, with vocal sections serving more as interludes between periods of ferociously heavy space rock. This is rarely the thing I need in my life, but there are times when it passes me by - this 2015 DISASTRONAUT tape is one of those times. 

DISASTRONAUT

CONDENADA

If you were around at the time, then you surely know. Rarely have I ever (and I emphasize ever, to make it clear that I mean to encompass the entirety of my show-going and punk living life) seen a band that approached CONDENADA's intensity. At the beginning, they were simply "Megan from REACCIÓN's new band" but that changed quickly as these four wonderful people combined forces to create something truly and genuinely special. Munch was such a casually bad ass bass ripper, so chill that it looked like she wasn't really trying. Megan's guitar always seemed like she was writing and playing riffs that were just out of reach of her skill set, and I attribute some of the band's sonic edge to this effect. Trash is still one of the weirdest and loosest drummers I've ever seen or played with, but when you hear (or feel) through the chaos, her pocket is impossible to fukk with....and then there'e Merm. Pure unabashed power. Period. Perhaps "pure" is the single best description for her vocals, or perhaps the only description necessary is of the chills that would fill every inch of my skin each time I heard "This Fight Is Ours" or "Not Yr Victim." They continued sporadically after members scattered (today, only Megan remains in Chicago), and I spent a few (oddly) quiet hours in the driver's seat driving them up and down California in the late '00s, genuinely humbled by their connection and their comaraderie. Not Normal compiled all of the recordings on this cassette a few years ago, and while I do not think that any piece of this music can compare to seeing CONDENADA in the flesh, the power is there, and the power is undeniable. 

DISCOGRAFIA

"I am my own...I am my own worst enemy"

MYSTERY DATE

I've been sitting on this one for a few years, if only because there's never a right time for some things. The amateurish hard driving lilt of "Talking and Talking" may be great, but often at six in the morning I'm more in the mood for relentless blast beats or (more) shit-fi noise punk. And the self important relevance of some late '80s indie/punk mix tape often seems more topical than the garage-meets-UK punk swagger of "High Speed Romance" so I tend to fall back on the things that make me more comfortable. But I will likely hang on to my SOVIETTES records through virtually every imaginable purge, and I have no connection there except for some really good tunes - and "Come Find Me" is a good tune of a similar caliber. There's something lazy about the vocals, and there's something casually brilliant about the presentation...and sometimes that's all you need. 

LOVE COLLECTOR

LITTLEMAN COMPLEX

I picture myself losing my shit watching this band in 2001. A room full of sweaty kids singing all the choruses with arms outstretched before launching into brief midtempo circle pits and then hugging each other and laughing. Because it really was that much fun. Raw, in your face fastcore (more complex than you might expect)...I miss this shit. 

LITTLEMAN COMPLEX

CHLORINE

Is there a genre descriptor that encompasses all of the sounds of 1990s North American emotional do-it-yourself punk? The stuff that only creeped out of the basements and living rooms masked or manifested as "successful" indie bands who had somehow gamed the system? The stuff of gravely vocals and songs carried by meandering bass melodies while JCM800s peak and present the most basic four chord riffs as indispensable Songs Of Our Time? I don't think there's a word or term that I (or anyone else) can use to describe that sound, to describe those bands, that sound, those scenes, or that time. But CHLORINE comes pretty damn close. 

CHLORINE

MERKIT

You remember this band? I feel like they were just a short blip on the early '00s USHC timeline, but that might just be a perceptional clouded by geographical limitations. The sound is maximum energy turn of the century fastcore/hardcore, but delivered with filth, negativity and hate more indicative of the downtuned sounds that took the second half of the decade by storm. I know there are more MERKIT recordings to dig into, but I go with what I know....and I've blasted these five songs countless times over the years. 

MERKIT

DÍA FINAL

It's hard to describe how insanely off the rails this thing sounds. The guitars are shrill, piercing banshees that sound like a lost incarnation of LEBENDEN TOTEN, and the vocals echo and howl like the best of the recent crops while substituting pretense with desperation. The songs are weird both in construction and delivery, which only adds to the tension that the recording delivers right out of the gate. Check the solo in "El Porenir es Largo" if you still need convincing, and then spend some time looking outside of your comfort zone for sounds that will make you uncomfortable. Uuuufff.

DÍA FINAL 

MICHAEL RYAN EXPERIENCE

As far as I can tell, the only other appearance from MICHAEL RYAN EXPERIENCE was on a comp with a bunch of bands I have never heard of (including one who offered up a track called "Lick My Love Pump"). Four burners here, killer catchy late '80s punk that merits more than a glossing over thirty years later by some dude sitting at the computer in his underwear. The tape starts with "Let Me Go," featuring a chorus worthy of lost classic status, and there's not a dull moment anywhere amongst the remaining tracks. So file this one alongside the hordes of forgotten gems, I suppose? 

MICHAEL RYAN EXPERIENCE