Cult Punk Sewer Witches

Picked this up on a whim from No Patience distro sometime last year but have only gotten around to giving it a proper spin now. This is the 'Attic Noise' 7" by Anasazi put out by Toxic State Records 2012. Toxic State have been responsible for a run of pretty decent 7"s, being responsible for the very cool Thriller 7" and the self titled Crazy Spirit 7".

Anasazi sound like the murkier end of the 80's post-punk/goth spectrum and as such i dig this 7" a lot. I dig the deliberately esoteric vaguely occult vibe these cats give off. Which is odd as i don't normally get into that "I'm a new-age pagan, but i like punk too" nonsense. If you like Lords of the New Church, Bauhaus, mid period Killing Joke, Christian Death et al it's a pretty sure thing you will like this. 

Excellent dudes over at I Could Die Tomorrow have put up a download and purchase link, so check it out and possibly buy HERE.

Whipping boy

Another purchase from Missing Link. The debut cassette by Brisbane based weirdos Multiple Man. Put out by Major Crimes records in 2013. The label dubs them "primitive future punk, poisoned new wave" .

Can't remember where i first heard these cats but i really dig this release. Slow dirgey synth numbers (Whipping Boy) share space with more upbeat songs (Photo Arrays). Reminds me of the excellent Tough Troubles, whose 2010 album "Illnesses" blew me away. Really like the Westworld/Factory Records style artwork of this release. Much as i hate to reiterate what other people have said, for an accurate description of where their sound lies Major Crimes pegs them as "for fans of Tubeway Army, Chrome and Caberet Voltaire" which i definitely agree with. Especially the Chrome comparison.

Listen here.

Primitive Underling

So here we have it. Flesh Police's second demo. Had this one for a little while and I've been stupidly slack in posting about it. I heaped hyperbole upon their previous demo here and this new demo is just as deserving. The whole demo hits like a dirty bomb.

Dug the artwork and hand assembled/cut sleeve. DIY as fuck. Time consuming and tedious work but that personal touch makes a lot of difference.

As many others (Skullfucked, Operation Grindcore) have noted the recording has improved a tonne. Which, before you cry foul, works in their favour. Adam Findlay did a good job recording this. Personally I liked the absolute raw as piss, blown to hell shitty sound of the first demo - but this new recording really cleans up their sound giving the songs (many reappearing in slightly altered form) a bit more room to breathe.

The whole bands performance feels a lot tighter this time. Seeing as I have followed a bunch of his bands over the years I can confidently state Lee Yoresh's bass remains as solid and reliable as ever (read: awesome, do not read: boring). I don't think I mentioned the drummer (Olie Rundin) previously. I feel I should rectify this. Keeping the songs grounded with his pummelling, guy can really blast. There is a lot to be said about a good drummer and it's damn tough to find one who can both blast and swing.
 
Duncan's excellent guitar playing is in the fore of this mix and it's nice to pick out the riffs. "Consequence" & "Hour of the Goat" are standouts both featuring uranium soaked filthy mosh parts. There are a lot more grind parts and a lot less slow parts on this demo, which means when they do happen those slow parts really stand out.

What makes this band stand out so much for me is that they don't wear their influences so obviously on their sleeve. Too often "influences" is code for "bands we've most obviously stolen from" and you can't really say that Flesh Police sound like band X or band Y because they use their influences as just that, influences.  They weld, beat and graft those sounds into something new. A rarity in this genre which relies so much on recycling past glories.

You can listen to the demo here.

Hatred of Solitude

Melbourne heshers Sewercide recently finished a residency at the Gasometer, which meant for the past few weeks my midweek urges for violent grind/hardcore had an outlet. The second show had a killer lineup featuring Sewercide, Doubled Over, Trench Sisters and newcomers Blood Rule. Doubled Over and Trench Sisters ruled as per usual but I want to talk about Blood Rule. I knew nothing about them and to be honest they were super sloppy and noticeably under rehearsed but despite this I was really impressed with their blend of death, hardcore and grind. So a few days later I picked up their demo at Missing Link. I am really glad i did. I can't stop playing this tape. It makes me want to destroy things.

Before i rant about the music i just wanted to note that I really dig the cool red jewel case and cassette. Onto the demo. From the first song (absolute crusher "MPR") this demo is custom built to start pits. Heavy mosh parts, doom influenced riffs and a really cool dirty bass sound (the first thing i noticed live was bassist Ryan's tone). I guess I would peg their sound as between Noothgrush's doomier moments & Crossed Out's faster moments.

The recording captures them perfectly, a cleaner slicker production job would lose some of the dirty hostile vibe. I wouldn't want them sounding any clearer then they do on this release. I think it will be a tough call between this and the new Flesh Police demo for demo of the year for me, I am that confident about this.

You can listen to three of the tracks on the demo here and i highly recommend you do.

More Blood is Shed

One of the burning lights of the largely derivative 80s UKHC scene was Heresy. This release in particular, The legendary 'Never Healed' flexi from 1986, helped cement them in the hardcore history books mostly because of it's bullet train drumming and unrelenting pure speed.

Lets get this straight right away - this release is FAST. Even by today's much advanced standards. Just listen to the opening neutron megablast of a track "Despair" and prepare to be blown away. Absolutely essential record. I scored my copy in a trade and I was extremely happy to find that the copy i had scored had all the inserts and stickers it originally came with.

This is a blank formatted diskette.

I have been following local band Forces since catching them by chance live and really liking their blatant Depeche Mode worship. This unique release is their debut single 'Ice' put out by Siberia Records in 2011 on a playable postcard. I hadn't seen this format before but apparently they were quite common in the 60s and have been making a resurgence with the increase in interest in vinyl. With a bit of research I saw the ever reliable Pirates Press press them, so I can imagine I will be seeing a few more of them around. 

The track itself is a pretty great 80s stomper, sounding as i mentioned before akin to Depeche Mode with more of an EBM edge. The band does a great job of capturing that hard 80s industrial drum sound with a harsh electronic snare that wouldn't sound out of place on Pretty Hate Machine. Give it a listen here.

You can buy a copy here.

All in Deeper Shit.

I spoke about AIDS in an earlier post. Was stoked to score this on Ebay a few months ago as it is pretty hard to come by. That said I have seen it pop up a few times. Definitely happy to have this as I really like the way they pull off their brand of fast hardcore.

The 'Fuckface' CDR put out by the now defunct (or at least very very quiet) Fuckface Records in 2003. My copy is part of the machine stitched red fabric sleeve with hand stamped face edition of 100. Another 25 exist in yellow envelopes and the material here was also pressed to flexi in 2004 and limited to 40 copies. I have missed out on the flexi version a couple of times on Ebay as it tends to blow up way outside what I am  willing to pay. Unsurprisingly the songs here are very similar in style and structure to the material on the Infection CS (recorded a year earlier). Extremely fast hardcore. One major difference is the vocals are shared between members on this release due to the departure of the former singer and as such vary depending which member is emptying their lungs. You can read more about this release at the bassist Rohan's blog here.