UK84, the Noise Ain't Dead (part 2): Dead Meat "Demo 1984" Ep, 2011

To be perfectly honest with you, finding titles for the full series I have been inflicting on the punk scene for five years now is becoming harder and harder. When I initially started Terminal Sound Nuisance in 2012, the thought of undertaking proper series structured coherently around specific tropes and prism (subgenres, areas, eras or random personal fancies) had not struck me as being particularly relevant to a blog. Of course, I was wrong - I rarely am but I don't mind admitting shortcomings when I reluctantly have to - series are more relevant indeed and about five years ago I realized that, not only does the series format allows me to develop my analysis further and progressively, but it also provides a framework reflecting global collective dynamics in punk rock rather than isolated items just happening to gravitate together. Beside, everyone is pissing about watching actual series on Shitflix so that it made sense to jump on the bandwagon and write eight, ten or twelve part online conferences to reach out to the Gen Z. I haven't quite caught up to the famous platform and tragically had to let some of TSN staff go, some genuinely deserving loyal workers had to be put down in order to avoid dishonour, but I remain quite optimistic about the future. Netflix, if you're reading me, you know what to do.

There are significant drawbacks, of course, to series format. You actually have to make relevant selections that highlight both the binding similarities and the diversity of context and content (or on the contrary, the significance of non-diversity like in the case of "just-like Discharge" d-beat) and this process involves more thinking and reflection. A series literally has to make more sense. And you have to plan a precise writing schedule in advance so that you do not end up leaving long gaps between the entries which, because of our narrowing attention span, would lose my modern fellow sapients always eager for novelties. One of the drawbacks I had not predicted at all has to do with titles. I have often prided myself on my skill to easily find top punk puns that make me look both knowledgeable, witty and self-aware, which might be akin to being a punchable twat in some illiterate quarters but is a sensible stance given the polishedness of my readership. A series' title has to sound good, otherwise the modern sapient will not even bother to click on the link and hours of hard work will just be swiped away like the average selfie of a vaguely attractive and muscular wanker. We sadly live in a world where one has to bait innocent punks into reading, as opposed to heary a bloody podcast, what could be a revelation, a redemption, a way out of shoegaze or Casualties cosplay. I am like a missionary promoting Anarcho Crustianity. But for conversions to work, you need a good pun that grabs the readers' fragile attention and sometimes I feel I have run out of them. It's not like I am going to test my jokes on random passersby because I don't think they would quite understand why "let's not discard Discard" is side-splittinh. So if I don't at least giggle at my own jokes, it means they are rubbish and do not make the cut. Simple as that. For this series however I just chose the name of a Dead Meat song for the title. 

 

As I immersed myself into 1984/1985 British hardcore punk for the series, I listened to many raw recordings, drank a lot of white cider and sniffed some glue - an organic brand, I'm not an animal - to get myself in the right mood. When I finally got to Dead Meat and played the demo, I immediately knew upon hearing the first song that the title of this series would have to be "Noise ain't dead". Dead Meat was one of the bands I was almost certain to include in the series as they ideally reflected the core principle of the series: typically British mid-80's raw and noisy hardcore punk. Not necessarily the harshest or meanest bands, just recordings illustrating what was being done and created with the Discharge and Bristol sound - which I call early UK hardcore punk in the context of that series - at that time and place. And to me Dead Meat were a great example of that and because they do not get much attention nowadays - which I have always found odd especially since the UK82 resurgence in the past decade led everyone and their mum to be superficially conversant in obscure acts without even mentioning that No Dead Meat (the continuation of Dead Meat) were actually briefly tackled in Glasper's Burning Britain in the chapter about Septic Psychos - it felt like a noble task to write about them.

 

Let's have a bit of context first. Though it is not completely clear, this being a demo recorded in 1984 and given the rather rudimentary musicianship of the band - not a criticism, it is exactly how that style should sound like - I guess DM started out sometime in early 1984 in the Chesterfield area (Derbyshire). As it is pointed out in Burning Britain and alluded to on the insert coming with the Ep, the members of the band had already played in other punk bands prior to the noise not being dead. Vocalist Chiz used to sing in Septic Psychos, a band that also had his twin brother Mick who would eventually join the No Dead Meat version of the band. If you have never heard Septic Psychos and are able to go past or learn to appreciate the silly moniker, which you should, they were a primal and raw UK82 band with angry snotty vocals that had two songs (recorded at Stockport's legendary Hologram Studios) on Pax compilation Lp Punk Dead - Nah Mate the Smell is jus Summink in yer Underpants innit in 1983 (how did they tell their parents the name of that record they were included on remains a mystery) and will have you shout "No you're not wanted!" in no time. DM's guitar player John and original bass player Rich used to play in Society's Victims (hallowed be Discharge's name), a local band whose rough primitive punk sound was even cruder than Septic Psychos' (the dodgy, if not completely haphazard, tuning cannot have helped). Finally, the drummer played in a band called The Corpse, not to be confused with the anarchopunk band Corpse (I think?). One could think that the boys, upon the split of their respective bands, would have chosen to go for a more polished, refined, mature style, but did they fuck! Dead Meat is even rawer, snottier, angrier and blatantly PUNK. 

 

What I particularly enjoy in that recording is how the songs instantly sound familiar. Take "Noise ain't dead" for instance. If you are keen on second wave UK punk-rock or any sort of 80's spiky and pogoable punk-rock really, you just know what the song is going to sound like upon hearing the first riff. Classic raucous singalong shouted chorus, fast pogopunk 1-2-1-2 beat, raw as fuck guitar sound with sloppy solos, pissed meancing vocals, this is exactly the sound of the Saturday nights of my teenage years where you get ready for a night out on the piss or for a squat gig (I used to listen to the Dutch Antidote on those occasions and the feel in DM is very similar). This shit could raise the dead. Is it really a wonder that the band also had a promotion agency called... Noiz Ain't Dead? I don't think I need to describe the band further but let's say that it sounds like a friendly but chaotic speed-fueled brawl between Instant Agony, Disorder, Last Rites and Ad'Nauseam. A lot of people today posit that the heritage of the Bristol sound of Chaos UK and Disorder is to be found in distorted, noise-drenched hardcore punk but I would argue that bands like DM, for their attitude and obnoxious primal approach to fast punk, can also be considered as belonging to that punk-as-fuck tradition. The six songs included on the Ep (there is a reworking of a Society's Victims' song, "Takin over") were originally released on an excellent tape compilation in 1985 entitled The Final Decay where you can find other UK82 pogopunk gems from the aforementioned Ad'Nauseam, the little-known but ace Reprisal or Death Zone. It is a solid tape that deserves to be revisited if you are interested in proper raw and primitive 1984 British punk-rock. Real deal here. The reissue of the 1984 recording was made possible thanks to Fear of War Records, an American label also responsible for reissue of The Mad Are Sane, Italy's Impact, Tom & the Boot Boys and, of course, Septic Psychos. It is a safe bet that the person behind Fear of War must be something of a pogo expert.

Shortly after this recording, the band changed its name to No Dead Meat (because two members went vegetarian) and Mick from Septic Psychos eventually joined them on the bass guitar and took part in their second offering, a 14-song demo in 1987 which saw them delivering the same exact blend of fast and loud direct UK pogopunk with "new" versions of old Dead Meat numbers. The sound might be a little better and the band tighter but it's pretty much similar and it is precisely why it is perfect. Noise ain't dead and noise will never die, innit?

Noise ain't dead!!! 

Noize Not Music is a Fine Art: "Natural Crust and Punk Force Noise Making" compilation Ep, 1996

Initially, I had not considered including this compilation Ep in the Noize Not Music is a Fine Art series. The main reason for this reluctancy lied simply in my lack of familiarity with the record. After all, I bought it only recently because it included the great Mindsuck, a band whose split with Unarmed was gloriously reviewed on Terminal Sound Nuisance (here) a few months ago, and because it was nowhere to be found for download on the internet. Thankfully for me, neither Mindsuck nor Order and Mental Disease seemed to be particularly sought after since I got it for pretty cheap (not that you should care about the state of my personal financial situation but I often buy records that I think would be interesting to write about on Terminal Sound Nuisance... how heroic of me, right? Please fund me). Is this Ep a crucially brilliant work of punk? No, it is not. Don't get me wrong, it still delivers the good, but it cannot be deemed a classic Ep. And it is completely fine with me. In our day and age of constant, but paradoxically very short-lived, acritical hyperboles, a bit of objectivity does not hurt (though I must admit that it is not my forte). Besides, posting this compilation also fits with what was one of Terminal Sound Nuisance's primary missions back when it all started: reviving and archiving unavailable recordings, regardless of their standing in the current canon.

First, let's talk a little about the record itself before getting to the music. I bloody love the name of it! Natural Crust and Punk Force Noise Making. With such a title, I guess I was bound to select the geezer anyway. Karma it is. It has an almost poetical quality and summarizes very well the central topic of the series with its focus on noisy music as a chosen path and on rawness as a being the real, "natural" state of punk. The cover looks great if you are into silly, punk as fuck drawings and the visual aesthetics of the Bristol school (you all know I am). Two different types of punk kids - crust punk and spiky punk - organically united in the puerile but essential purpose of making an aural racket through the distorted sound of a "chaotic noise" telly (it all makes a lot of sense, right?). I love the face of the mother entering the teenager's bedroom and witnessing a Gremlins-like disaster. Of course, there are visual referential clues pointing at the genres represented on the Ep with the presence of the logos of Doom and Chaotic Dischord on the door. However, I think that Natural Crust and Punk Force Noise Making was probably originally meant to be a split Ep between Order and Mindsuck, since the two cans from which the snotty punx emerge respectively indicate Mindsuck and Order but there is no trace, no mention of Mental Disease... Could they have been a late addition, after the cover was already done? Strange indeed.

Anyway, this Ep can also be seen as a local compilation of - then - young bands from the Aichi prefecture since Order were, I think, from Toyohachi, Mindsuck from Nagoya and Mental Disease from Kariya. But let's start with the first band, Order. Or should I say ORdER? That's a dilemma. Apparently, the band changed the capitalization of their moniker around the time of their first (mini)album from 1999, 秩序. But since the comp was released in February, 1996 (on the ever prolific MCR Records), a few years before they switched, I will stick with Order. I already feel better now that this crucial issue has been settled. 

Punx'n'doves unite and win!

I have long been familiar with Order - if rather vaguely at first - because Disorder covered an Order song ("Trap" from the aforementioned '99 album) on their 2002 Lp We're Still Here and I actually like this album (played the cd to death when it came out as a matter of fact). Back then, the idea of Disorder covering a Disorder-influenced band called Order sounded ridiculous, in a good way, and I registered that Order were closely tied to the Disorder style of punk-rock. The song "Natural" included on the compilation appears to be the band's first vinyl appearance and I would not be surprised if it were taken from a demo. As expected, Order plays what can be called noizy punk-rock. Since the so-called "noisepunk revival" that kicked in the late 00's, the term has progressively come to designate mostly super distorted, tight, fast hardcore with a binary beat and reverb drenched vocals (as they say), and I am not dissing bands sounding like that and I can really enjoy some of it but a lot of it sounds too generic and soulless to me. Order however focused more on the catchy, punky, snotty, UK82ish aspect of it. And that's what I really enjoy in their early period (the Ep Punk Navigation is a masterclass of noizy punk-rock), they have that fun and sloppy singalong quality usually associated with Japanese pogopunk bands (like Discocks or Tom & The Bootboys for instance), but they still build on early Disorder (they used the same font at the time), Chaos UK or Ad'Nauseam and on old-school noisy Japanese hardcore like Confuse and, obviously, The Swankys (they do also have that demented aspect). The sound here is genuinely raw and spontaneous, the band didn't feel the need to use a tons of effects and for their upbeat, cider-fuled, anthemic noizy punk-rock, it works perfectly. I wish more current bands had taken that side of noisepunk instead of pointlessly hiding their boring lack of catchiness behind walls of fuzz. I suppose bands like The Wankys, Skizophrenia and Sad Boys would be into early Order. A really good song that will make you feel like you're 16. Order went on to release many records up until the early 2010's but I unfortunately have to confess that I am not knowledgable enough about their later works to talk about them properly... Any takers? 

Next up are two songs from the gruff crust heroes Mindsuck, from Nagoya, that I have already covered quite extensively in the past. To sum it up, Mindsuck was a short-lived pre-Reality Crisis band active in the mid-90's and they were going for a sound that they defined as "Rags noise crust". The two tracks on Natural Crust and Punk Force Noise Making are "Blind and dominion" and "Hypocrite is piss!" and I think they were recorded before the songs the band contributed to the split Ep with Unarmed that was released later in 1996 (MCR-092 against MCR-104). But to be honest, the difference between both sessions is pretty slim (there is even a song in common!). There is more fuzz and generally more care given to the guitar texture on the split with the Swedes but that's about it. As you are entitled to expect, Mindsuck unleash two top quality, monomaniacal and delightfully repetitive, noizy cavemen crust songs heavily influenced by Doom, Macrofarge, Sore Throat and Abraham Cross with a thunderous bass sound, a pure Scandi beat and a highly distorted, fuzzy Collapse Society-ish guitar sound. The vocal work is amazing and qualifies as one of the best Jon Doom impersonations I have ever heard (the World Championship in that peculiar punk discipline alway takes place in Japan and attracts many foreign tourists each year). More please. 

The third and last band on the Ep is Mental Disease and, like Order and Mindsuck, it was their first appearance on a proper record, so the idea behind this Ep may have been to offer a medium for young noizy punk bands from the Aichi area. Despite a rather honourable discography (one Ep and three albums), the band can hardly be said to have left a deep mark on Japanese crust history. And I am not sure why that is. The Get the Knowledge. Free your Mind Ep is a very solid crust punk record and compares well with similar works from the 90's crust era. Maybe Mental Disease got lost in the abundance of quality bands or maybe they are still remembered fondly in Japan but went unnoticed elsewhere. But then, it is not particularly surprising, the history of punk is replete with such instances after all.

As I mentioned on numerous occasions, Japanese crusty bands have always had an acute sense of details and referentiality. Mental Disease were no exception. If Disclose cosmically worshiped Discharge and SDS cherished Antisect and Abraham Cross honeymooned with Doom, Mental Disease wholeheartedly married Nausea. From the use of the exact same hairy font, to the circled (F) and (E) in the logo, to the crunchy riffs, to the over-the-top Amy-like intonations of the female singer, the band's late 90's period was stamped with a Nausea branding iron. And you know what? I am a huge sucker for Nausea and I have often wondered why there weren't more crusty bands openly working on their amazing legacy (a similar statement could apply to Misery). The song "Human lost" is a raw metallic crust number that sounds like early 90's Nausea were invited to a garden party held at the SDS house, with Iconoclast handling the buffet and LIFE taking care of the drinks. Or something like that. To be honest, the sound is a bit thin and the drummer experiences some awkward moments but it does not impair the listening pleasure. The song kicks off with a crunchy, mid-paced Sacrilege-meets-Effigy metal riff, then bursts into orthodoxally fast, dark and epic crust punk with aggressive dual male/female vocals, then there is an eerie break with the return of the opening metal part, and finally the song closes with a groovy stenchcore bit and accentuated trade-off vocals. I'm into it. Regardless of the production, there is a healthy Nausea feel to the song but still completely sounds like the intense Japanese crust of the time. I also like the fact that MD were the (sole) national instance of a typical 90's punk speciality: heavy crust with dual male/female vocals. The aforementioned Ep, release on MCR in November, 1996, saw the band polish their Nausea crust style and can be said to be a minor classic in terms of crust-with-male-female-vox. MD also recorded a full Lp, Sometimes Like Flowers, for MCR in 1999 which contained the band's best, most powerful crust materials with some ace songwriting but also what can be diplomatically called "artistic mistakes" (there are some uncomfortable and unfortunate rap/fusion numbers on the Lp too...), which makes listening to the full album a rather ambivalent experience. The two following recordings of MD were released on Discrete Records during the first half of the noughties but I have sadly never heard them.

To wrap it up, Natural Crust and Punk Force Noise Making is an unpretentious but highly enjoyable compilation Ep with three bands who were being offered their first vinyl appearance to proclaim their love for Disorder, Doom and Nausea and who would go on to pen some solid records afterwards (in Mindsuck's case, they did it under the Reality Crisis name but it counts, right?). And let's face it, how could you not love a record that has a two-dove logo on its backcover?      

Natural Noise Making