Ace Compilations For Less Than a Fiver on Bloody Discogs (part 1): "Squat or Rot vol.2" Ep, 1990

The lockdown has been partly lifted and the sun is back. People are allowed by the powers that be to get stupidly hammered in a pub environment and bore their friends to death about their terrific new yoga classes. Middle-class wankers boast about remote working and still being able to travel. Blokish twats are now allowed to walk around barechested and engage in glaring contests. The infamous moped lads of the Test Tube Babies are massively back on the streets while teenage girls listen to outrageously vocodered shite on their phones. Life, as we knew it, is back and one cannot help but notice that the idealistic fantasies of a different, fairer world expressed by the guilt-ridden at the beginning of the Covid pandemic vanished quickly as soon as opportunities to fly to instagrammable destinations rose. I suppose the return of the countdown to Armageddon was inevitable.  

 

Alright then, here we go again since you do not visit Terminal Sound Nuisance to be assailed by my self-absorbed whining and superficial sociological observations about fellow human beings. After a well-deserved, not to mention particularly unproductive, break from the vicissitudes inherent to punk writing, I was able to hear the call of my punk siblings, dying to read my legendary homemade slices of no-nonsense street wisdom and the remarkable and magnetic biting wit that have been my trademark skills for the past nine years. Endowed with a tremendous sense of loyalty and an overinflated ego, I rolled up my sleeves and started digging. 

 

 

The scope of this series will be nowhere near as dense, epic and ambitious as the previous one. Only five records make up Ace Compilations for Less Than a Fiver on Bloody Discogs, a low intensity project for cheap punks on a tight budget or proverbial stingy bastards (we all have a couple of those in our circle of friends) who still crave for quality music combined with interesting bits of punk history which the duly selected five compilation Ep's will, hopefully, provide. I brooded a little over the issue of using the Discogs' scale of measurement in order to evaluate the average price of said compilations (as you can see, I engaged in some serious analytical work of the world of record economics and questioned the validity of existing tools and the speculative dynamics in relation to punk cultural artifacts). Still, Discogs has become this behemoth for record collectors worldwide, the epitome of temptation, not unlike online mermaids with vinyls in their hands trying to seduce music nerds with promises of "go on, it's in near mint condition" or "$30 for the colour version is not a bad deal". Discogs is like free online porn for record freaks. Some argued that it took the pleasure and fun out of record collecting and trading since now almost everything can be easily obtained and is literally a couple of clicks - and a fulltime job with a western wage - away. The five compilations that will be treated in this series are relatively cheap, common and definitely significant ones. Genuine slices of punk history if you will that can be yours for a small sum from a bargain bin.

 

 

The first one of these delightful and oft disregarded compilations is the second volume of the Squat or Rot samplers released in 1990 on Squat or Rot Records (I'd like to thank Captain Obvious here for the heads-up). Two of the bands included here were already tackled years ago when I wrote about the BBP tape that included live recording of crucial bands - Jesus Chrust, Apostates and of course the mighty Nausea - belonging to New York's infamous Squat or Rot scene. If Nausea, I should be disposed to imagine, are pretty much known by the punk scene at large, the rest of the SoR roster remains fairly obscure to most although I suppose, and hope, this comment does not apply to old-timers. New York hardcore and punk is strongly associated with the musical prowess of tanktop-wearing, bold by choice thuggish geezers that, in turn, gave rise to many tanktop-wearing, bold by choice thuggish bands all over the world. I must confess that I am fairly ignorant about the hardcore scene that is traditionally understood as quintessential to New York because it absolutely never attracted me when I was just a lad as, when it came to hard men singing about being hard men, I was more inclined to go for Blitz or 4-Skins. And well I think that it is the kind of music you have to get into as a teen in order to relate to it, when you reached 20 it's just too late. Therefore, when I hear "New York punk" I jump to Nausea or Dissassociate. Or indeed to Insurgence, a band I was obsessed with in no small degree.

 

 

I first read about Insurgence - the band opening the compilation - in a mid-00's issue of Slug & Lettuce, a well-known (it enjoyed a print of 10.000 at some point which sounds insane from a 2021 perspective) and long-running fanzine done by Chris, a former New York punk that was an active member of the SoR scene which she documented through her ace pictures. I was an avid and loyal reader of her enthusiastic reviews - she had tastes very similar to mine - and never failed to take notes about the records she enjoyed. Memory works in mysterious ways. While I am barely able to remember a discussion I may have had last month, I distinctly recall that I first came across Insurgence in a S&L review about Storm Heaven, the Lp of Requiem, a band with former Catharsis members that seems to have vanished from collective memory. Requiem had three singers, just like Insurgence, Chris said, a band she went on to describe as a "baby Nausea". Now that immediately got my undivided attention. An old-school crust band with three (!) singers that sounded like Nausea. I went on a quest to listen to the band, no small endeavour considering how little-known the band seemed to be. Fortunately, after persistently harrying a local old-timer who used to distribute SoR and Tribal War Records in Paris, he pointed me to this compilation.

 

 

My maniacal search for Insurgence proved to be worth it, although I might have been a bit of an annoying chap to be around with when vocalising my frustration. "Hawk and the dove", that's the title of the Insurgence song, can be said to be one of the best crust numbers ever written, and I make this claim with the utmost seriousness. Tasteful and powerful old-school anarchocrust with three vocalists, among whom Alicia who would later on front the amazing 13. The song starts with a soft guitar introduction before exploding into pacifist metallic crust heaven. I love how the vocals work with each other to provide a feeling of (ins)urgency and political anger. Nausea come to mind obviously, although Insurgence were probably more straight-forward. I am also reminded of Anti-System, Antisect, early Sacrilege or a filthy crust version of Civilised Society?. Brilliant, essential stuff. The rumour of the existence of a full Insurgence demo had been circulating for some years and it finally surfaced recently which enchanted me to no end. Top peacecrust as could be expected. I also heard about an Insurgence retrospective record but that was a long time ago so our collective breath should not be held. The following band on the compilation is Malachi Krunch, a Connecticut act that released a full Lp in 1991 as well two split Ep's, one of them with the great The Pist. I am not really familiar with the rest of the band's catalogue but this is a good, raw and direct hardcore song, quite typical of the sound of the time, not far from the aforementioned The Pist and Broken, a later band that had members of Malachi Krunch in its ranks. 

 

 

Next up are the very prude Jesus Chrust, who previously appeared on the BBP live tape and thus have already been discussed. The band had Nausea's first singer and Tribal War mastermind Neil and future Dissassociate frontman Ralphy Boy on vocals and, judging from what Discogs tells me, also employed John and Roy from Nausea at some point in their illustrious career too (actually, in spite of their relatively short run, the good-natured JC seemed to have seen a number of musicians coming and going, probably obeying the well-tried principle "if you want in, you're in"). Most of JC's songs could be defined as rather fast and hard-hitting dual vocal crusty anarchopunk, pioneering a cocktail that would be quite popular in the 90's in the $tates, but "Means of destruction" is a simple - if not simplistic - traditional mid-paced plodding gruff stenchcrust number with a raw punk sound, a filthy epic chugging riff, hoarse shouts replying to threatening growls, with implications of dodgy personal hygienes. Just another crust at the office and possibly my favourite song from the band. I love the song for its sheer directness and primitive structure. Early Deviated Instinct and Sore Throat at their Frostiest as well as early 90's bands like Glycine Max, Embittered or Jesusexercise could be relevantly convened. Primal antinuclear crust punk for crust punks. Because we're all worth it. The two split Ep's with Social Outcasts and Würst - also released on SoR - are solid slices too and go for equally cheap so that with some crafty negotiations, you should probably be able to take the lot home for a tenner. Neil would keep Tribal War going until the mid-00's and sing for Warning and Final Warning while Ralphy Boy, as alluded to, would unleash a grinding fury for Dissassociate.

 

 

Next is the fourth contestant of the compilation and let's all welcome Yuppicide, a long-running and still active Brooklyn hardcore band that was in its infancy when they recorded the song "Ourselves" for the Ep. In the 90's, agents of gentrification - a urban process against which squatters fought hard in New York's Lower East Side - were called yuppies. Suits and ties type who exhibited their money and symbolized triumphant capitalism. Nowadays they are called hipsters and they are no less damaging to working-class communities all over, except they are wolves in vintage sheep clothing with their pretentious progressive politics, their expensive tattoos and their postmodern pseudo bohemian mindset. At least yuppies hated you in your face. To get back to Yuppicide, they played straight-forward New York hardcore with terrace chorus and a mosh-friendly heavy break toward the end. You know what to expect.

 

 

Finally, you have Apostates, one of New York's best kept secrets. Like Jesus Chrust, they also had some live songs on the BBP tape. The band had John John from Nausea on guitar but do not expect anything crust or even hardcore-oriented in Apostates' music. Apostates were to The Mob what Disaster were to Discharge. It's not exactly the same but it's this close. Mid-paced brooding 80's styled anarchopunk with deep vocals and an excellent sense of tunes with a bit of deathrock, a style of UK anarchopunk that, for some reason, did not really take in the US (apart from Trial and maybe Atrocity on the other side of the country). That the band is not reverred by anarchopunk lovers (and there are quite a few of them if Insta accounts, also known as "Making punk a selfie again", are any indication) is akin to an anomaly. In a perfect world where people are just like me, Apostates should be treated with deference, as an obscure, secretive band that one only whispers about when in the company of initiates, a band like Awake Mankind or Two-Fingered Approach. Oh well. The endless rediscovery of humankind's flawed, directionless nature. Lyrics deal with the inheritance of ecological destruction for future generations and they could have been written yesterday. If you are into the moody but beautiful side of dark, melancholy mid-paced anarchopunk, like The Mob, Zounds, Null&Void or early Blyth Power (they are could have called themselves All The Mad Joseph Porters really) then Apostates are for you. The Burning World of Hate Ep also comes highly recommended.

 

 

Squat or Rot Vol.2 is a sensible compilation including at least two absolute classic songs in the guise of Insurgence's "Hawk and the Dove" and Apostates' "Grows up in the puff of smoke" and it is the best one of the three. However, music is only one side of the record as it came with a genuine SoR newspaper showcasing what punks would do when they organised a little and put their money when their mouths are. The five bands enjoy striking full-page artworks in the paper and you will also find great punk art, an article about squatting and how it relates to class antagonism, private property, housing rights and autonomy and another one about fascism, racism and white supermacists in the States. Detailed pieces that reflected the activism and idealism of that scene. The paper is not in mint condition (I doubt you'll be able to find a perfect copy of a 30 year old newspaper) and the vinyl is not deprived of surface noise, but it is an interesting and inspiring - as millenials say - piece of our collective history. 

 

Squat and Rot: the Return