As I mentioned in the first part of Wesh to Sweden - a series that is also the cheapest way to visit Sweden in our plague-ridden postmodernity - the realization that there was such a thing as "Swedish hardcore", that it was a valid concept, one that did not point at bandana-wearing Swedish nationals trying to be Agnostic Front or Minor Threat but referred to a hardcore punk subgenre that was recognizable, definable and specific to Sweden, came through a local radio show. The show was called Ça Rend Sourd (which translates as "it is deafening") and was broadcast every other sunday on the French Anarchist Federation's radio station, Radio Libertaire. Even as an innocent, not to mention rather thick, "streetpunk-oriented" teenager, I had heard many praises about the radio show which had genuine activist punk voices behind the microphones and played all kind of DIY punk music. It was only a matter of time before I started to listen religiously to Ça Rend Sourd, first out of sheer curiosity and then as a positive way to expand my punk horizons. I must admit that a lot of what they played was lost on young me and while I would love to tell you that, thanks to my incredible open-mindedness and my outstanding genetic background, I was hooked instantly to the sound of crust punk, the truth was much less flattering and I would often scoff at faster bands for their ridiculous vocals and the shortness of their songs while wondering why on Earth they only played bands I had never heard about. Still, I remember fondly chain smoking in my tiny bedroom and taping the shows so that I could play them again and write down the names of the songs and bands that I did like (in my pre-internet world, it was never an easy task, especially with the much dreaded combination of international band names and heavy French accents on a cheap boom box).
As time passed, my highly perceptive self started to notice that the playlist always included bands described by the presenters as "d-beat" or "Swedish hardcore" and I became familiar with those terms and was able to roughly identify those genres. I distinctly remember a show of theirs when they played Mob 47 several times (could it have been some sort of Mob 47 special?) and other similar raw scandicore bands among which were Diskonto. For some reason, I recall being particularly impressed with that Diskonto song, with how raw, and yet energetic, it sounded like and thankfully the name "diskonto" was quite easy to catch and spell. The song was a short sharp shock of hardcore punk and I was in awe. From that point on, my tiny mind closely associated Diskonto with classy traditional Swedish hardcore, they became synonymous with the concept, genuine paragons of this furious hardcore subgenre that I was starting to discern with more and more ease, and I became healthily obsessed with them. This snotty raw hardcore edge coming from a modern band who tried to sound like an 80's one conferred an aura of mystery to them and symbolized a new underground world to me. I managed to tape their 1994 Ep, A Shattered Society, from a mate of mine who had acquired it on my ever persuasive recommendation. The fact that it was released on Profane Existence - a label I would have trusted with my own life at the time - taught me that the band was strongly politically-motivated and only confirmed what I already knew: Diskonto were for fucking real.
I remember getting the Silence by Oppression Ep and There is no Tomorrow album (on cd as usual) at about the same time and, while the former delighted me and delivered exactly what I was craving for, the latter had a much cleaner production that - I decided after as much deliberation I could muster - did not fit the songwriting and was missing that raw punk edge that, to me, represented what made Diskonto stand out from the rest. After this deep trauma, I never could listen to any 00's Diskonto (I am not familiar with most of their post-Their is no Tomorrow materials actually) and I have staunchly, if not defiantly, remained loyal to 90's Diskonto, as if a side had to be chosen. And I would not reasonably call myself a raw hardcore bigot incapable of enjoying any recording that doesn't sound like it was done on a rusty four-track, with out of tune instruments and paint tins for drums, as I have been known for a long time - and the most respectable witnesses can testify to that - to be a rather balanced individual quite capable to listen to overproduced hardcore when the situation justifies it. The thing with Diskonto, in my personal soundscape, is that they stood for that raw, cheap and direct punk sound that characterized what I loved in 80's punk music, and I didn't know that many contemporary Swedish bands at the time that went for a similar raw sound, on the contrary, by the late 90's/early 00's, most bands were looking for heavier, tighter and cleaner production (some would says more metal actually) so that Diskonto felt a bit unique. Of course Totalitär were raw but they sounded like they knew what they were doing and, unlike Diskonto, were tight as fuck, while Rajoitus - whose discography cd on Hardcore Holocaust was on heavy rotation - were very punk and very raw indeed but were much more Finnish hardcore-oriented and I was sadly unaware of Frigöra at the time (who were to Mob 47 what Disclose were to Discharge). If I wanted raw käng music played by an active band, Diskonto were the logical option and Silenced by Oppression certainly lived up to my raw punk expectations. The Silenced by Oppression Ep is a deeply gratifying experience if you know what you are in for: 10 songs and about as many minutes of raw käng.
Diskonto formed in 1992 in Uppsala, a town near Stockholm that had a vibrant, if rather incestuous hardcore crust scene in the 90's. In fact, Diskonto's singer Steffe and guitar hero Martin also played in Time Square Preachers and the same Steffe was also behind the mike in Zionide alongside Diskonto's drummer Malmen. A dozen of musicians for as many bands but then hasn't it always been the case since the 90's? If your innate sense of curiosity leads you to take a legitimate interest in the Uppsala käng scene of the early/mid 90's, I strongly suggest the Uppsala Crust compilation Ep from 1996 which will get you acquainted with wonderfully furious and raw scandicore bands like Dismachine, Abuse (who did a split 10'' with Diskonto in 1997) and Aparat. Diskonto appeared to have been very active in the mid-90's as they did no less than four different recording sessions with the same lineup between December, 1994 and late 1995, all in the ADM Studio in Uppsala. These logically resulted in quite a few releases with 1995's A Shattered Society Ep on Profane Existence, 1996's Silenced by Oppression on Clean Plate, the 1996 split Ep with mangel mongers Frigöra from Japan on Blurred Records (arguably the early lineup's most potent recording), 1996's More Power to the Cops... is Less Power for the People Ep on Malarie Records and a split Ep with Distjej for Crust Records in 1997. The band kept recording at a steady pace afterwards with a new lineup - Daniel (from Dellamorte) and Jonas (from Dismachine) replacing Kaj and Malmen - and the 90's saw Diskonto further release a full album, the Destroy! Rebuild! Lp in 1996 for Reiterate Records, a split 10'' with their fellow Uppsala-based Abuse on Consume, Be Silent, Die (a jovial label if there ever was one) in 1997, the Diyanarchohardcorepunk Ep in 1998 for Retard Records and finally a second Lp, Freedom is Out of Sight on Crust as Fuck Records in 1998, followed two years later by There is No Tomorrow which I mentioned earlier. And of course, that's without mentioning eight appearances on various compilations. Diskonto were undeniably strongly motivated and prolific, busy bees with a passion for stripped down classic Swedish hardcore and radical anarcho politics. If quantity sometimes prevailed over quality during their first decade (I would argue that the Lp format did not really suit their basic raw style and were bound to include some fillers), I still believe that on Ep they were a formidable unit if you have more than a passing liking to käng. By which I mean, basically, if you are not a poser.
When working on this review in my office (meaning in my Disclose pajamas), I have been thinking about the perception of Diskonto in the 90's by older punks who were already into Swedish hardcore. The 90's were saturated by Discharge-influenced hardcore bands. Whether they came from the d-beat/d-takt, käng, crust or mangel persuasion did not matter, they all believed in the same god. In the midst of all the Swedish heavyweights building on the Discharge mythology and its 80's Swedish children, Diskonto were completely of their time, their dis prefix acting as a relevant tribal sign ("diskonto" actually means "discount" in Swedish, a moniker that gets the band a mere C+ on the Swedish government's official Disnames Rating Scale - a barely passing grade) and there were many references to Anti-Cimex or Mob 47 (not only did they cover "War machine" but the sound engineers were nicknamed Anders Cimex and Nicke 47). Yet, Diskonto, at the apex of the Swedish 90's wave, were also quite different in the sense that they never attempted to rely on a heavy production like Driller Killer or Wolfpack, never incorporated metal or crust influences like Skitsystem or Warcollapse, never strove to be perfect dischargists like Dischange or Disfear. Indeed, the band's original drive was simply to play primitively raw, fast and aggressive, traditional 80's käng and I think that they succeeded in doing so.
Silenced by Oppression could be likened to a stripped-down version of Anti-Cimex' Raped Ass-era (the solos especially point in that direction), but I am also hearing some Moderat Likvidation in the fast-paced shouted snotty vocals (undoubtedly one of the band's most easily recognizable feature) and raw punk-as-fuck käng acts like Kvoteringen or Rövsvett but driven with more Discharge-inspired riffs. The ten songs are unsurprisingly fast, juvenile and energetic, so to speak, käng-paced (a notch faster than the traditional d-beat), and they are all pretty much the same musically with similar song structures as the band enthusiastically goes directly to the point, the sloppy bits being the collateral damages of the angry hardcore attack. If you like your scandicore with a crushing production and scorching guitars, this won't probably be your thing, however if you in the mood for ten minutes summarising the quintessential raw energy of hardcore punk, this Ep will do perfectly. Just pure and unadulterated Swedish hardcore that is both strictly tied to a specific creative sphere of the 90's - one of replication and referentiality - and yet quite timeless because of its classicism. It is, in a very noble sense, typical raw käng. As such, it was a wonderful introduction to the 80's greats for me, one that prompted me to dig deeper into the world of obscure Swedish hardcore, and for that I will be forever grateful to Diskonto and to this Ep in particular. Silenced by Oppression was recorded in December, 1994, during the same session as A Shattered Society (although I like the song selection on Silenced by Oppression better) except for the Anti-Cimex cover, recorded in March, 1995, during the session that will give birth to the split with Frigöra and More Power to the Cops.
The angry and direct confrontational lyrical content ranges from anti-capitalism, the glory of Finnish hardcore, the conformity of PC punk, alienation through fashion, war profiteers and a person whose name was pronounced "Käng" in Swedish which, indeed, is pretty funny. A note on the foldout reveals that the Ep was supposed to be released on the French-based Minstrel Records (that released a Zionide cd) and then on Eugene Records but it did not happen so Clean Plate (label of Will Killingsworth from Orchid that put out materials from From Ashes Rise, Detestation or Misery) stepped up and agreed to release it with that extra cover song. There is also a political anti-capitalist statement entitled Silenced by Oppression - Tied by the Ropes of Democracy that sums up the band's position about modern democracies and their inherent support of the Capital. Relevant sentiments, to be sure. Ironically, Diskonto were not that cheap in the end.
This humble review is dedicated to the memory of Steffe, singer of Diskonto, Time Square Preachers, Zionide among other projects, who sadly passed away in 2018. I have never met the guy and this is really not much, but here is my tribute to a man who has, since 1992, sung several hundreds traditional Swedish hardcore songs in his life and, in a world based on shallowness, fashionability and instantaneity, such dedication and passion are admirable. May he rest in punk.
It's the red version (obviously)
*about the title of the series
"Wesh to Sweden": "wesh" is a slang word commonly used in France by the
urban youth. It is derived from the Arabic language and can mean a
variety of things like "hello", "what's up", "how are you?", "what!",
"fuck" and the list goes on and on. Sorry if the meaning gets a bit lost
in translation.
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