Filthkick "The Peel sessions 1989/1990"

Today's post will be an emotional moment for all of us (yet another one I hear whispering!). Because today I would like all of us to remember our fallen friends, those who did not make it through, who gave up living, for all kinds of reasons. This post is dedicated to all the fallen blogs, all the dead blogs that I used to visit daily and who are no longer with us. Is it because mediafire and co have become such a pain? Is it because of the apparent apathy of the blog-visiting population (myself included) who cannot be arsed to even leave a comment? Is it because sometimes we are under the impression that no one gives a damn about our rants and that what the punks really want is just the files and not the context? Am I being a cry-baby?

But anyway, more seriously, I would like to dedicate this post to a former blog called Panzer Badger that was done by an older bloke and documented very throroughly the mid/late 80's punk and metal scene in Norwich (among other things to be sure, but I remember it quite fondly for that). Of course you would find in the badger's hole (or wherever it lives) many unknown and obscure recordings of Deviated Instinct (from the very early stages to the later ones), a whole bunch of more or less listenable Rhetoric live recordings as well as many live tapes of big metal acts such as Venom or even fucking Metallica if I remember correctly. What I enjoy the most in Panzer Badger was the tone used, it was witty, informative, unpretentious and you could feel that the geezer really loves what he was writing about. Passion is what it is. For some reason, I never got in touch with him, assuming as we all unfortunately do, that blogs last forever and that bloggers won't get bored of getting little more than indifference. Panzer Badger was one of the blogs that prompted me to start Terminal Sound Nuisance. As a tribute to PB, and to all the other blogs that stopped breathing, I decided to make two absolutely crucial recordings that the badger posted at some point available again, two recordings that I had no idea existed but literally pinned me to the floor: the two Peel sessions that Filthkick did. I humbly thank the badger for making the world a nastier place by unleashing the sessions and the files that you can download from my post are originally his.

Filthkick should be a reference in hardcore punk today. Sadly, the are just "that band Extreme Noise Terror did a split with but I rarely (meaning never) listen to their side" and to be fair the songs on the aforementioned split are pretty average-sounding. Not that the songs are bad, on the contrary, the song-writing is strong, but you can hardly hear the guitar and the vocals are nowhere as mean and insane as on the Peel sessions. If you have always thought that Filthkick was an anecdotale band, be prepared to be refuted right now.

As you may or may not know, Filthkick was Leggo's ugly baby after he left Deviated Instinct and moved to Brum. The first Peel session of Filthkick was recorded in 1989 with the first line-up (the band has had a tumuluous, if short, existence it appears) that also included Jim from Ripcord (and much later on the brilliant Warprayer). In 1989, Filthkick must have been the meanest, most ferocious, aggressive, obnoxious-sounding hardcore punk band around in England. Influenced to a large extent by Poison Idea and possibly some Japanese hardcore bands, their music is like a sonic spit in the face, an nihilistic but smart embodiment of "fuck you". Don't expect childish provocation and fake misanthropy here, as Leggo can write good lyrics, a bit hopeless perhaps, but always snotty and quite smart. The seven songs of this first Peel session (among them a Poison Idea cover) will feel like being trampled to death by a rabid fox: fast, short with gnarly and ferocious vocals. Listening to this I cannot help thinking that Leggo should have used this style of vocals with Deviated Instinct at the time, because he does now and it sounds absolutely perfect. Missed opportunity I guess.

The second Peel session, just one year after, sees a different Filthkick in the BBC studio. Only Leggo remained from the old line-up as Pete from Doom and two blokes from death-metal band Obliteration now made up the band. Actually, in only three years of existence, more people came and went in Filthkick, among them future, current and future members of Acrasy or Policebastard. The fast and bitingly direct hardcore songs have not disappeared but you can also find heavier, venomous mid-tempo numbers that are probably my favourite songs from them. You have the same nasty voice, it is still bass-driven, still antagonistic but now aimed to pound you to the floor with a more crushing and groovy (dare I say crusty?) feel to the songs without going metal. Just terrific stuff.

The sound is not crystal clear as it was recorded directly from the radio I suppose). But really, who cares when the music is that good? This deserves to be reissued properly along with live recordings from the band as well (the badger had some cracking ones on his blog).

Filthkick