No Frontiers compilation Ep 1989

"No Frontiers" is actually the first comp to be posted on Terminal Sound Nuisance so it is going to be a very emotional moment for all of us. This record was released by the ever excellent Loony Tunes Records, a label you can always rely on when it comes to good political punk-rock. To be fair, I have only heard of this one recently and when I saw that Debauchery and Chaotic Subversion were included on it, I rushed to buy it for a mere 5 euros. And let me tell you that "No frontiers" does not disappoint.

First, it is recommended that you get past the rather terrible artwork and the choice of colours (seriously? Green and white?). First we have the almighty Debauchery. Those Northern mad metal punks have already had their Lp (also on Loony tunes) reviewed here and let me tell you that the song included on this Ep is probably their best one ever. It's called "Code of silence" and is even more rocking than their Lp. It is a  heavy  and groovy crust number reminiscent of a bastard child between GBH, late Antisect and Hellbastard conceived while listening to Venom and English Dogs (a glamourous vision, isn't it?). The sound is terrific and the song deal with state-sponsored torture (you know, "behind closed doors"). If current bands who claim to play "metal-punk", or "motorcrust", or even "motorcharged crust" were half as good as Debauchery, I am pretty sure the world would be a better place. After such musical glory, it is hard to be as enthusiastic about the next song, by a band called Advance Warning that I had never heard of. They were also from the North of England (like Debauchery) but don't expect booze fueled crusty punk, as Advance Warning is a much more UK82 inspired outfit. Despite them being 7 years too late, the song is actually good, quite fast and snotty as it should be and there is a slight early USHC undertone to it. The Enemy meets HDQ maybe? Anyway, their song is called "Blitz" and is about living in poverty-sticken Britain in the 80's.

Now to the other side of the Ep. First is probably my least favourite band of the comp, Bad Attitude from West Germany and their song "Inner motives". It is not bad but lies far too much on the USHC side of things for my tastes. They even have baseball caps. I am not really sure what the song is about either. Well, they don't like working and being told what to do and that's good enough for me. Next are the excellent but equally obscure TWERP (meaning Terminate With Extreme Religious Propaganda). These young lads looked like a fun bunch and they remind me of Rhetoric both musically and lyrically (serious but not too serious). They played thrashy metallic punk with snotty vocals not unlike AOA's or Active Slaughter's (anarchonistic, I know) and a great dirty sound on the guitar. I wish I knew more songs from them. The next song is from a Terminal Sound Nuisance favourite, Chaotic Subversion, aka What-Sedition-sounded-like-when-they-still-sniffed-glue, and a cracking song "Deadmeat". Unsurprisingly the song is about the evil of meat-eating and butcher shops and never have Chaotic Subversion sounded more like a vintage Italian hardcore band than here. Think Eu'Arse and Wretched with a sloppier treatment. Just magic. Finally, the last song, "Care", is from a band from Canada called Neighbourhood Watch and it is pretty standard USHC to my ears with a song about... caring. To be fair, it is raw and aggressive enough and works well in the comp.

No frontiers!

 

Zealot - demo tape 80's

I'll be honest here and admit that I don't know much about Zealot. In fact, apart from their hometown Leicester, Zealot are complete strangers to me. Their demo was on the other side of the Dreadful demo tape and I only have the tracklists. No cover, no recording information, nothing and I couldn't find anything about Zealot on the web. Now, that's an obscure catch, isn't it?

Judging from the music it is safe to assume Zealot were from the mid-late 80's (1987 seems like a relevant guess as far as this demo is concerned) and they were rooted in the anarcho side of things (they do have an anti-hunting/animal right number and a song called "Double standards" about sexism). However, they don't really sound like your typical English band from the period. I guess they listened to a quite a bit of US hardcore and crossover. I suppose the most appropriate comparisons would include Rhetoric and early Concrete Sox but also Septic Death or even a far less metallic Energetic Krusher. It is really fast hardcore punk with distinctive mid-tempo thrashy breaks and angry vocals that remind me of Debauchery or even Deviated Instinct. The singer really sounds pissed off and threatening but the real stand-out of the tape is the addition of a female singer on a couple of songs with a great haunting voice not unlike Post-Mortem or Violators singer's. In fact, with this in mind could almost say that if The Mad Are Sane, Toxic Waste or Symbol of Freedom had gone thrash they would sounded something like Zealot. Finally, the sound is rough but you can actually hear all the instruments which is not a quality you can find on all recordings of that era (oh well, DIY or die as they say). I really wish I knew more about Zealot because I have the feeling those fellows might have been on to some other bands than this one.  

Zealot

Dreadful s/t demo tape 1988

What name could be more appropriate for a extremely noisy grindcore band than Dreadful? To be honest, the band deserve to be called dreadful, but inb the Terminal Sound Nuisance context, that's definitely a compliment.

Dreadful were from Glasgow, Scotland, and this is their first demo. They also appeared on a 7" compilation called "They ain't see nothing yet" which was a benefit compilation put out by Nabate in 91 for the people who had been nicked during the Poll Tax protests and riots (and what an amazing compilation this is: Hiatus, Private Jesus Detector, Mushroom Attack, Psycho Flowers and Dreadful). Here, we have eleven songs that were recorded at two different times, march (B side of the tape) and september (A side) of 1988. As I mentioned, this is some seriously noisy, chaotic and rough proto-grindcore we're dealing with here. In fact, I would argue that Dreadful were not technically a grindcore band, as the riffs, the guitar sound and the song structure have more similarities with hardcore than Napalm Death. You can hear that the band had been listening to Siege, Lärm and Heresy an awful lot. This said, while not a proper grindcore band, Dreadful were certainly as fast and the vocals as gruffy and harsh.

At times, the sound quality being so poor, the band playing so fast and the singer screaming so loud, you don't really know what's going on and you're left with the impression of a wall of noise, of a blurred outburst of fury... and I really like it! I sometimes have this same feeling when I listen to early Napalm Death, Atavistic or vintage Sore Throat. If Electro Hippies had had a grizzli bear behind the mike and had lived (and recorded) in a cave with neanderthal men into hardcore, I think something like Dreadful might have come out of it. Lyrically though, this is serious as hell and definitely in the anarchopunk tradition. Songs about animal abuse, a class war anthem about the Poll Tax ("Poll tax is a milestone, we gave them an inch, THEY TOOK A YARD", anti-nuclear and anti-war stuff as well and a threatening song about poverty and class divides in Glasgow.

This is probably the noisiest band featured on this blog and if you are into early pissed off, political grindcore, Dreadful might be your next favourite band. "A crusty sock production". Noise not music indeed.

Dreadful

Life Cycle "The weight of tradition" 12" 1989

As you will have noticed, Terminal Sound Nuisance is all about quality rather than quantity, and again today, this powerful statement is about to be exemplified with another amazing post: the 12" of Life Cycle.

LC was a Welsh band from the late 1980's. "The weight of tradition" is their second record, the first one being an excellent Ep called "Myth & ritual", both were put out by Mad World records (in fact, they were the only productions of said label). Unfortunately, information about LC is scarce but I understand they rose from the ashes of Capital Gain, a more "traditional" anarcho-sounding band. They were supposed to be included in "Trapped in a scene" but finally weren't (late contributions maybe?). The Welsh scene had a couple of good, original bands at the time like Shrapnel (with whom they actually shared a member at some point in the late 80's), Symbol of Freedom or The Next World (who appear on LC's thank list). But back to the record. LC played a mixture of punk and metal (a popular blend at the time to be sure) but didn't really sound like any other band of the era. This is groovy, crushing, dirgy metal-punk we're dealing with here, not unlike Celtic Frost or late Deviated Instinct, in that LC picked heaviness over speed. They also remind me quite a bit of an obscure German band called Intricate. The atmosphere of the songs is very bleak and the sound is rather cold, almost industrial. There are two vocalists, a girl and a boy, which makes the songs more varied and not monotonous. The male singer's voice has a Hellbastard undertone to it while the female one is much clearer, more powerful, more shouted than screamt, akin to the classic anarchopunk vocal style probably.

Thematically, this 12" is centered around the issue of feminism and the weight of tradition imposed on women. The cover is divided into two parts, on the left is a drawing of a naked woman in a rather suggestive pose whose face is hidden, while on the righ is a drawing of a carcass in a slaughterhouse. The fact that both drawings have the same shape creates a parallel between the female body as seen by the male eye and dead flesh, meat. Quite clever, right? The lyrics are metaphorical and reflects the feeling of alienation and social suffocation. It's pretty dark on the whole and quite short as well, which, along with the circularity of the music itself, illustrates well this sense of desperation and helplessness. Favourite lyrics have to be "Demolition" as they deal with gender relations and contain this great line "We crack ourselves open, Martyrs to social codes". Marie, the bass player/singer, wrote a text about gender issues and conventions that you can find at the bottom of the back-cover. Interesting stuff that can make a good introduction to such issues.

The weight of tradition

Arrogance demo 1987

Back with another 75p demo tape from an old anarchopunk band called Arrogance. Now that's a good name for a band and I'm surprised it hasn't been picked again since. I don't know much about that English lot though... They were from a small town near Gloucester and judging from the ad for Apostles Lp's in the tape, it is safe to assume the bands were somewhat related. In fact, Arrogance reminds me quite a bit of Statement, an excellent band who shared an Ep and an Lp with the Apostles (edit: and indeed, it is mentioned in Armed With Anger that the bloke behind Statement also played in Arrogance. I am a genius, I know).

The lyrics are unofrtunately not included with the tape but from what I can gather Arrogance sang about your average anarcho issue: religion manipulating people (you got to love the "Bloodshed from bullshit" slogan), nuclear weapons, the rich ("Another fat rich man"), the system being unfair, animal rights and so on. The sound quality is not exactly the clearest but you can still hear every instrument and it's not a chaotic mess (well, it's still punk-rock). As aforementioned, Statement is a relevant comparison (a couple of guitar leads do point to them), there's definitely some Conflict as well and the singer's voice is sounds angry and threatening while keeping the necessary level of snottiness (not unlike Anti-System's vocals on "No laughing matter"). The distorted guitar is not really loud or heavy as the songs are driven by the bass. Overall, it is quite fast apart from a couple of Exit-Stance-ish mid-tempo numbers.

As you will be able to see, the artwork is made up of rather cheesy drawings but I suppose that's what makes them so good. The intro of the tape, a spoken-word piece, has actually been reprinted in the booklet and is a call for unity among anarchopunks. I am not sure who they were refering to, but apparently there were pretty big quarrells between punk factions, one of whom had even printed stickers criticizing the other one (now that does sound like a Conflict story, doesn't it?). Arrogance asked for the bickering to stop and for more meaningful and productive actions, which is all very honorable but slightly useless when one keeps in mind punks' love for rumours.

On the whole if you are looking for mean and angry, even dark at times, English anarchopunk, Arrogance might very well be your catch of the week. And to quote them "END THIS FARCE, BECOME A FORCE". Priceless.

End this farce, become a force!

The Next World - Branded Ep 1988

Have you had enough of the noisier side of punk-rock? Well, I certainly haven't but for a change let's have a post-punk record today. I suppose it is somewhat amusing that post-punk, or goth-punk, or whatever MRR wants to call it this month, is now quite trendy. Just take a look at current bands like Belgrado, Spectres, Moral Hex, Horror Vacui or Lost Tribe. So I think the time is right to offer you a proper post-punk band from the grim Britain of the 1980's (also known as the Thatcher years).

The British anarchopunk world has produced marvelous pieces of dark post-punk throughout the years. I'm thinking about Internal Autonomy, Terminus, Lack of Knowledge, Awake Mankind, Political Asylum and even The Mob or Poison Girls (it has to be said that anarchopunk was a very flexible and comprehensive term at the time that encompassed all styles of music, from the Astronauts to Legion of Parasites). Like many unfortunate others, the Next World have fallen into obscurity and it's a shame because this Ep is really good.

The Next World were from Kettering, East England. Their contact address in Bradford, seems to suggest that they were also close to the mighty 1in12 club. TNW were a two-piece with a drum machine, and they played dark anarchist goth-punk. Now, when I say dark I don't mean "I'm-dressing-like-a-19th century-dandy-and-I'm-a-decadent-wanker-who-likes-drawing-spiders-and-reading-romantic-poetry kind of dark". TNW's dark music came from the gloomy, hard and rough social reality they lived in as their lyrics testify. Don't be fooled by the tuneful melancholy side of the music, TNW were an angry bunch. The first song, "Branded", deals with the idealized and oppressive beauty standards imposed on women (the artwork and short extracts taken from women magazines reflect this theme). The second song is called "Public order" and it is the core of the record.

The song deals with the police and the Public Order Act that was passed in 1986 by Thatchula. Basically, this act gave the police a whole new set of powers in order to control the population and especially to break any mass-actions from the working-class. One has to remember that the huge miner strikes had only just ended and that during those strikes the police had been incredibly brutal, breaking into any homes in miners' villages, beating up elders and kids, tapping phones, opening mails and so on. In fact, whole sections of the mining regions were completely curfewed and cut from the rest of the country while the police, who often vastly outnumbered the miners, did their dirty job. I remember reading an account of the strikes from Belfast anarchists that said that the tactics used by the British police during the strikes were pretty much the same as those used in Northern Ireland. One has to love Thatcher claiming afterwards that, really "the police have been wonderful". Back to TNW record now, you'll find inside the cover a long text entitled "The police are out of control to have us all under the control" that not only describes the new repressive 1986 Public Order act, but also gives you a history of the creation of the police in Britain (Class War has a whole brochure on the subject for those interested). It is a great read and it certainly tells you where the band stood ideologically.

The last song is a bit depessing. It's called "Safe territories" and it tells the story of a bloke who will never leave the small town where he was born as he'll live there and work there all his life, in a "safe territory" of routine and exploitation. It's probably my favourite of the record though. Sonically, TNW are tough to pigeonhole. The singer has a very distinctive voice (pretty much a "love it or hate it" voice) that reminds me of Southern Death Cult, The Dark or Sisters of Mercy (only not as low). The music is bass-driven with a couple of great bass lines and the guitar has a rather warm and heavy tone, defintely not as cold as many other bands of the era. I hear some Zygote and early Amebix, a dash of the Mob maybe, with a punkier guitar, Smartpils and Terminus could also be points of comparison, but in the end TNW really had their own sound (you can thank or blame the drum machine for that) and once you've heard them you're bound to recognize instantly.

The Next World

Domination Factor "Dominated till death" demo 87 + live in Brum 87

Don't let the rather crappy name fool you, Domination Factor is a crucial listen if you are into early crust music (and if you aren't, what the hell are you doing here?). Not only does this band rule, but they also deserve a seldom used adjective in the realm of punk: they are original.

If you have any serious interest in 80's British crust punk, the voice of the DF singer is bound to ring a bell and for good reason since it is the same bloke who sang afterwards for Prophecy of Doom. In fact, DM was very much a pre-POD band so it is no real surprise that DF aimed for originality as POD, beside being absolutely excellent, were a band that stood out for its distinctive sound and aesthetics. Ian Glasper, who knows his shit, describes DF as "grind-crust-reggae-ska" in "Trapped in a scene" and claims the band's short lifespan was due to its unorthodox mix of music genres (I mean reggae AND crust? Really? And that was long before Mouth Sewn Shut). I don't know if he's right but it makes sense that at a time when everyone was going more metal and was trying to play faster and heavier, DF might have picked a wrong card intending to include reggae and dub influences in their music. But 25 years later, listening to their demo know, only one thing can be said: the demo is bloody brilliant.

To be honest, there aren't that many dub moments on the demo and when they come they always fit very well with the rest and create an interesting atmosphere. While POD were very much a grinding metallic crust affair, DF were a lot punkier, definitely not as metal, more straight-forward than its gloomier successor. The vocals don't have as much effect but they still sound quite similar to POD's. It reminds me of early Deviated Instinct crossed with early Extreme Noise Terror, some anarcho bands like Exit-Stance or Anti-System and even, as strange as it may sound, One Way System's mid-tempo songs.

As if the demo wasn't enough, I have also included a whole live recording from the same year (1987). The gig was at the Mermaid in Birmingham (a venue also known as "crust valhalla") where every band of the period got to play at some point (remember that flyer with Antisect, Deviated Instinct and Hellbastard? Yes that was at the Mermaid. Or the stenchcore festival with Chaos UK, ENT, Hellbastard, Deviated Instinct and Ripcord? Mermaid again. Antisect, Sacrilege and Generic? Yep, there too. Amebix, DI, Sore Throat? Huhu.). The sound is rough but still enjoyable. All in all, I guess Domination Factor will be of great interest to Prophecy of Doom lovers and will be a potent offering to stenchcore maniacs.

CRUST!

Demo + live

Agonie - demo 2006

En français :

C'est avec une émotion non-dissimulée que je tiens à poster aujourd'hui la demo d'Agonie, un groupe parisien, dans lequel j'officiai au milieu des années 2000. Agonie s'est formé en 2005 et cessa d'exister en 2007. A cette époque, la scène parisienne avait en son sein des groupes sincères avec lesquels nous avions des affinités : Munda di Mierdo (le groupe le plus chaotique et sympathique du monde), Décombres (mais quelle idée de tenter le crasher-crust au pays des Bérus?), SkitYouthArmy (Paris city thrash attack) et donc Agonie (gros bordel sonore). Agonie c'était Audrey, Caro, Clément, Romain et Simon. On a eu la chance de jouer avec des chouettes groupes étrangers comme Born/Dead (excellent concert), Makiladoras (pire concert de l'histoire) ou In the Shit, et dans des lieux accueillants (Chalet, Moulin, Miroit).

Comme vous allez vous en rendre compte, Agonie n'était pas le groupe le plus doué de sa génération. Le son est aussi fauché que nous ne l'étions, et on ne peut pas dire que les qualités et aptitudes des musiciens du groupe ne ressortent spécialement de l'enregistrement (ne mentionnons même pas nos performances live...). Malgré nos évidentes limites artistiques, beaucoup d'influences se bousculaient au portillon. Il y avait les groupes @punk à chant mixte comme Disaffect, Antiproduct, Jobbykrust, Antischism ou Easpa Measa, les groupes de crust tragédiques, du crustcore à la State of Fear, mais aussi Disorder, des trucs plus metal comme Hellshock ou Nausea et quelques groupes de grindcore (le batteur avait une obsession presque inquiétante pour Yacopsae). Un gros foutoir était à prévoir. J'aimerais pouvoir affirmer qu'Agonie était une synthèse incroyable de tous ces groupes suscités mais en réécoutant la demo aujourd'hui, il est plus honnête de dire que nous étions un groupe d'anarchopunk rapide, un peu crusty, avec des chansons qui ne ressemblent pas. Au final, on pourrait avec optimisme avancer que nous étions une version crue et décomplexée d'un combat de catch alcoolisé entre Mankind?, Contropotere et Disaffect quand ils commençaient tout juste à faire trois accords. Ou alors on était juste nous-mêmes, ce qui est sans doute la meilleure chose à être. La mauvaise qualité involontaire de l'enregistrement n'est pas non plus sans rappeler certains disques actuels de groupes noisepunk qui cherchent à imiter les productions caverneuses de célèbres bristoliens. Mais ça nous venait naturellement. On arrivait même à rater les reprises de Disorder et de Doom, ce qui est rétrospectivement la chose la plus punk à faire en concert.

L'intérêt principal d'Agonie réside probablement dans nos textes. Sans vouloir trop frimer, on passait du temps sur leur élaboration et on essayait d'éviter les clichés. Pas de haïkus dischargiens (même si on kiffait Discharge), pas de bancales et obscures métaphores pseudo-païennes (étrangement Amebix ne faisait pas l'unanimité). "Démocrature" parle de l'illusion démocratique, de la capacité d'adaptation du pouvoir et de l'idée de sacrifice pour le système; "Mal(e) dominant" est un morceau sur la domination masculine et sur les rôles imposés aux femmes afin de perpétuer le système (on aimait pas le système comme vous le voyez); "SO" traite de l'attitude des services d'ordres des syndicats pendant les manifs qui n'hésitent à suppléer les keufs et les aider dans leur noble tâche; "Terre sous garantie" est la chanson écolo/apocalyptique; "Peace bomber" parle de la guerre en Irak et de la propagande militaire; "Fashion punk" est une attaque contre les punks plus concernés par leur touche que par la politique (ironiquement, je suppose, j'étais à l'époque recouvert de patchs); enfin, "Police state" est une reprise de Disorder qui nous a permis de ne pas écrire notre propre chanson anti-flics (on reprenait aussi "Police bastard" de Doom en live).

L'artwork a été fait à la main, avec des collages et des montages et a été le fruit de nombreuses heures de travail, de lecture de textes situationnistes et de roulage de joints. La demo était à prix libre et les sous allaient à une caisse de soutien pour les prisonniers. On était clairement pas le groupe le plus doué de l'époque (la palme revient sans contestation possible à Munda di Mierdo), toutefois Agonie était un groupe honnête, pas poseur, croyant en une démarche DIY radicale. Avec des tripes, du coeur et une âme. Et quelques gueules de bois.

Up the punx.

Paris chaos crust!

In English:

It is with undisguised pleasure that I am posting the Agonie demo today, a Parisian band I served in during the mid 2000’s. Agonie formed in 2005 and called it a day in 2007. In those days, the Paris punk scene had genuine bands with whom we shared a lot like Munda di Mierdo (the world’s friendliest and most chaotic bunch), Décombres (what were they thinking trying to play crasher crust in Bérus country ?), SkitYouthArmy (Paris city thrash attack) and then Agonie (massive sound nuisance). Agonie were Audrey, Caro, Clément, Romain and Simon. We had the privilege to share the stage with good foreign bands such as Born/Dead (our best show), Makiladoras (our worst show) or In the Shit and we got to play in cool venues as well (Chalet, Moulin, Miroit).

As you are about to hear, Agonie were hardly the most gifted band of their generation. The sound of the recording is as crappy as we were broke, and our musical skills don’t really shine through the demo (let’s not mention our legendary gigging abilities…). Despite obvious artistic limitations, we were driven by many, rather ambitious, musical influences : fast anarchopunk with male/female vocals like Disaffect, Antiproduct, Jobbykrust, Antischism or Easpa Measa, Tragic crust, State of Fear type crustcore, but also noisy bollocks like Disorder, metallic bands like Nausea or Hellshock and even some grindcore bands (our drummer had an almost unhealthy obsession with Yacopsae). A huge mess was to be foreseen. I would love to tell you that Agonie were an amazing mix of all the aforementioned bands but listening to the demo today for the first time in years, it would be more honest to say that we were just a fast and sloppy crusty anarchopunk band with songs that don’t actually sound alike. In the end, one could optimistically venture that Agonie was the equivalent of a shamelessly raw and drunken wrestling fight between Mankind ?, Contropotere and Disaffect when they were just starting to play their instruments. Or we were just ourselves, which is probably the best thing to be. The very raw sound quality of the recording isn’t unlike what current noisepunk bands are trying to emulate when they aim for famous Bristolians’ worship. But it came to us effortlessly. We even managed to butcher our Disorder and Doom covers, which is retrospectively the punkest thing to do live.

The main interest about Agonie probably lies in our lyrics. Without bragging too much, we spent time on the writing and tried to avoid clichés. No dischargy haikus (though we loved Discharge), no cheesy and obscure pseud-pagan metaphors (surprisingly enough, we didn’t unanimously love Amebix). « Démocrature » is about how democracy is an illusion, how power is able to adapt and force the idea of sacrifice upon us ; « Mal(e) dominant » tackles male dominance and the gender roles imposed on women in order to perpetuate the system (we weren’t big on the system as you can see) ; « SO » deals with the behaviour of unions’ security boys during demos where they don’t mind doing the cops’ dirty work and helping in their noble enterprise ; « Terre sous garantie » is the eco/apocalyptic song ; « Peace bomber » is about the war on Iraq and military propaganda ; « Fashion punk » is an attack against punks who are more concerned with their looks than with politics (ironically, my clothes were quite litterally covered with bands’ patches at the time) ; last but not least, « Police state » is a Disorder song we covered so that we didn’t have to write our own anti-police song (we also covered Doom’s « Police bastard » live).

The artwork was hand-made, in a cut-and-paste fashion, and was the result of long hours of labour, what with reading situationist texts while rolling spliffs. You could get the demo for a donation and the benefits, as small as they were, went to a prisoner support fund. We clearly weren’t the most talented band of our time (this highly-coveted title goes undeniably to Munda di Mierdo), but we were a genuine, down-to-earth band with strong radical DIY ethics. With guts, heart and soul. And a couple of nasty hangovers.

Up the punx.           

Chaotic Subversion / The Disturbed split tape

As it has been a while since the last post, I have decided to offer you a double dose of amazing punk-rock. Two for the price of one. Believe me that's a quite a bargain you're in for.

On the first side are the grand Chaotic Subversion and not only did they have a terrific (and cheesy) name, but their recordings include some of the snottiest anarchopunk I have ever heard. Judging from the cover (yes, that's a poorly drawn cartoon of the band rehearsing), one can easily notice that these young lads were also influenced by the Bristol glue-sniffing brigade of Chaos UK, Disorder, Ad'Nauseam. But like other followers of this cider-drinking cult around Britain at the time (Dirge, Caustic Filth, Insurrection, Plasmid...), Chaotic Subversion had seriously angry lyrics (from what I can decypher) and belonged to the mid-late 80's Scottish anarchopunk scene. They even had an anti-fur song, "Why fur?".

Musically, the "Law and order" demo is very much in the UK82 tradition (think Court Martial, Instant Agony, Septic Psychos, Actives and so on) and although it may already have been 5 years too late, they did it with heart, spikes and teenage anger. The second demo recorded in 1987 is even better as Chaotic Subversion started playing fast, raw straight-up hardcore-punk. Bass-driven, distorted guitars, drum rolls all over, this will please the Chaos UK/Disorder fanatics who will also notice a European hardcore influence in the mix (Italian hardcore comes to my mind. Wretched perhaps?) and the seeds of what was to become the almighty Sedition. If the name of the song "Why fur?" hadn't rung a bell (yes, that was a clue), let me tell you that Chaotic Subversion was a pre-Sedition band, hence the presence of this song that will also find its way in the Sedition set (and later in the Scatha one) and the strong ressemblance with early Sedition recordings from the 80's. Sounds awesome, right? Their side of the tape includes their two demos and a compilation track.

On the other side awaits another Scottish band called The Disturbed and amusingly enough, this bunch also had people who would go on to play with Sedition, Disaffect, Scatha and even TRIBE. How incestuous can the punk scene get! If you want to know more about Chaotic Subversion/Sedition and The Disturbed, I strongly advise to read the chapters about Scotland in "Trapped in a scene" (I know this book starts to take on a biblical importance here...).

Back to the tape, you'll find The Disturbed 4th demo of 1987, a rough and ready practice of the same year, their 1988 Ep called "This is credibility" and a compilation track. Though some songs are reminiscent of Anti-System or AOA, the band played beefy, fast punk-rock in the Varukers/GBH/Broken Bones/One Way System vein, which made sense their singer also used to front Last Rites in the early 80's. Interestingly, it wouldn't be far-fetched to point out that The Disturbed were sonically not unlike how were to sound 90's British hardcore-punk bands. The songs are aggressive, the sound is raw but dynamic and you can even actually understand what the singer is on about sometimes (but still not too often). Again, lyrics are political and serious and deal with everyday life's hardships.

If you don't like this, you should give up on punk-rock.

Chaotic Disturbing Subversion

Decontrol "Thunk!" demo tape 1991

People with decent music tastes tend to agree that Discharge's "Decontrol" is possibly the best song ever. It therefore doesn't come as a surprise that punk bands around the globe chose "Decontrol" as their moniker. There is a d-beat Decontrol in Canada, there was a Descontrol in Peru and even an utterly skilless Decontrol around in the early 80's in England, but the band we are talking about here was around in the very early 90's in the Durham/Tyne &Wear area.

Like Slander, Decontrol were part of the Northern anarchopunk and hardcore scene as their thanks list testifies (Hellkrusher, One by One, Senile Decay, Armed Relapse). While Slander had taken a Varukers/Hellkrusher path, Decontrol is much more of an 80's anarchopunk band in terms of sound, lyrics and esthetics. Their obvious main influence would be Conflict (they even offer a sloppy cover of "Increase the pressure" on this tape) but there is also a distinct UK82 spontaneity and snottiness to their tunes. The drumming is fast and binary, the riffs are simple, the chorus are catchy and can be sung along and the presence of two pissed off singers really helps make the songs dynamic despite the rather rough recording. The Ad'Nauseam demos, the Insurrection Lp or early Instant Agony would not be irrelevant comparisons. If Active Slaughter were 16 and couldn't play, you wouldn't be too far from Decontrol. If you like your English anarchopunk with a healthy dose of snot, aggression and attitude, Decontrol will work perfectly.

The lyrics are probably the strongest point here. Those were angry young punks. "Organized crime" gives the fingers to all religions, "Stereotyped" is about punks who are into politics for fashion's sake (it seems Decontrol were not too keen on the "metal invasion" of the scene), "No torture" deals unsurprisingly with vivisection and "Working class hero", my personnal favourite, tells the story of Harry Roberts, a man who killed three coppers in 1966 shortly after the World Cup in England. You have to love the parallel: "In the 1966 World Cup final / Geoff Hurst scored three goals / Less than two weeks later / Harry got a hat trick of his own". Just brilliant. Judging from the artwork, the band was very involved with Class War, the ALF, throwing bricks at the pigs, kicking nazis in the bollocks and having Tintin say "All yuppies are bastards!".

Top notch or what?

Thunk!!!