ASPHYXIA "Wardrugs" Ep, 2002

People do silly things. Like that one time, years ago, when a school friend, out of the blue as we had lost touch, offered me to deejay, for just an hour, at her birthday party. I have no idea what she was actually thinking I was going to do. She probably just supposed that, since I have always had a lot of records at home and was involved in a radio show, I must have known my shit when it came to music and been familiar with songs that have people dance flirtatiously but still feel sophisticated about it. Obviously I agreed to the task and brought with me some bands that, I thought, were listenable or at least bearable enough for an audience that, if I'm being honest, was totally unprepared and for whom Rage Against the Pumpkin was the most extreme band they had ever heard. I did get to play Chaos UK, Discharge and was about to unleash some Sacrilege when I was, understandably, cut short as the room had quickly emptied. For a laugh I had planned to play some Asphyxia as a mercy stroke or a coup de grâce. I was never invited again. Oh well. The gig did come with free beer.

I would argue that Asphyxia is not a band you would get into without context. A novice cannot listen to the demo, if they can make it to the end that it, and be positively amazed. If you are clueless about the historical significance of the band, about its birthplace and about the convergence of influences it represents then most of it will be lost on you. Not that the recording is fatally unenjoyable without background but it's not unlike watching a wrestling match with a Canadian wrestler doing a sharpshooter while being totally oblivious of Bret Hart's work. It remains a good move but it doesn't really meaning anything. Still a great submission move though. Do try it at home.

Although this Ep was released in 2002, the recording is actually a good decade older since Asphyxia were only around between 1991 and 1993. At that time the now legendary Osaka crust scene - that I have previously discussed in ancient times - was very much in its infancy, if not in an embryonic form. Indeed the band that is generally recognized as the inventor of what will be referred to as the Osaka crust sound was still very young: Gloom. With Gloom's two tapes, Self-Interest and The End, being released 1991, Asphyxia were clear contemporaries and should be considered as emerging from the same filthy bowl of soup. In actual facts, the band included a former Gloom drummer, Honda, cementing the connection between both bands. On vocals was Jackie Crust War, now famously delivering scorching käng riffs in Framtid, and Asphyxia was, I believe, his first band - the first that at least made it to a studio anyway - and only about 20-30 copies of the demo tape were ever made, distributed for free at gigs. But if a "studio" was involved, do not expect anything fancy: even for fans of the Osaka raw punk style, the Wardrugs demo will deter more than a few audiophiles, leaving only the true noize warriors standing, deafened and proud.

Asphyxia played raw (duh) and fast raw hardcore punk with a significant UK influence (Jhonio mentions that the band was equally inspired by the nascent Squat or Rot NYC scene but I personally don't really hear it). The rough production - or lack of any thereof - as well as the speed and riffs do point out to no-frills, all-out hardcore bands like Asylum, Dirge and especially Plasmid. Arguably UKHC would be the driving force on these seven songs with (very) obvious nods to Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror too although Asphyxia do not cross the crust and grind borders - the vocals remaining rather clear and spiky. Early Antisect, Anti-System and Warwound would certainly have received invites as well while Iconoclast and early Final Conflict definitely got a friendly phone call. But at the end of the day, Asphyxia were a typical and representative example of what a late 80's anarcho-infused raw hardcore band was supposed to sound like when played by genuine lovers of raw hardcore and I think the best synchronic parallel would be Private Jesus Detector. I would locate the two bands, as far away as they geographically were, on the same punk scale in terms of influences and intention (even if they don't sound that much alike at the end of the crust day). And the fact that Osaka crusties have been loving the Belgians is well-known and has been proven by many academics through out the years. 

Brutal avalanche crust?

At the end of the day, this Ep must be seen as a significant piece of Punkstory more than an obscure overlooked masterpiece of Japanese raw punk. A part of the early Final Noise Attack scene (they played one of the first, if not the first, gigs), Asphyxia never had that Gloom effect that makes one goes mental at the ferocity of the music, probably because they didn't have the time, never really achieved that furiousness and split up before they reached their full potential (a common story it seems). However if you claim to be into Japanese crust and are intent on exhibiting Gloom patches online, knowing Asphyxia comes as compulsory if you want to avoid being called out as a poser.

Following the band's downfall, guitar player Okamoto formed Defiance with members of Gloom, Gun formed Despair and Jackie joined Condemned (I totally forgot I knew this, that's the stuff of trivia glory), all three bands appearing on the mythical Final Noise Attack compilation Ep in 1994. As I said, History in the making. 

Do I need to mention that Wardrugs was released on Crust War Records?

Final Asphyxia Attack

               

PEACEFUL PROTEST "Tsetorp Lufecaep" Ep, 1997

Considering the recent events in France - and those probably to come sooner than later - the irony of writing about a band called Peaceful Protest is not lost on me. To be fair and perfectly transparent it is all a coincidence, your Honour, I am no rizzless class traitor to the Cause - or however Gen Z's call the enemy - even though my student years are well behind me as my critically receding hairline suggests. And I do tend to moan or get angry about mundane things like any aging unfortunate. That's not without its irritating consequences, mind you, since the doctor told me I should start worrying about the old heart rate at my age and he did look very skeptical when I mentioned that I should be alright as long as it doesn't exceed a proper old-school grinding blast beat "like on Scum's first side, if you know what I mean". Which he doesn't. Probably a shoegaze fan. I should see a real professional next time. But getting back to Peaceful Protest and peaceful protests, I had planned to tackle it in third position, revolution or no revolution. Beside, there actually is a similarity between the two: just like Aus-Rotten used to say "They ignore peaceful protests", the government is oblivious to the old-fashioned "let's march from point A to point B chanting behind the Party's banner" protests and punks don't seem to give a damn about Peaceful Protest either. 

I may be a little thick at times because I didn't instantly connect the Ep entitled Tsetorp Lufecaep with the band Peaceful Protest. I suppose they thought it was funny or even wittily modernist to write the band's name spelt backward. I first thought it was in Esperanto or some other language reflecting that peculiar, challenging idiosyncrasy of (hyper)polyglotism in Japanese hardcore (Swedish, Italian, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese and, indeed, Esperanto) before I realized I was a fool. Did it keep me from getting this humble one-sided Ep? Did it fuck! I am a forgiving customer if anything.

Peaceful Protest can be said to epitomize the lower-mid card position during the golden age of Japanese crust and d-beat (aka from 1993 to 2006 roughly). It was a tough league, undoubtedly, and the competition may have been fiercer than I candidly imagine, so why should you care about and give some of your precious time for a humble Tokyo band that was only active for a couple of years (they stopped playing in 1997) instead of being busy salivating on pricy Gloom or Confuse long-sleeves on Instagram? 

First, there is about only three minutes of noise on the record so the act of listening will not take all day. Second, Peaceful Degree, as short-lived and footnote-worthy they may have been, could boast some pedigree. Indeed, drummer Tetsuya was part of an early Battle of Disarm lineup (he played on the excellent split with Brainstorm notably) while guitar player Asai played in an early incarnation of Frigöra (I haven't been able to identify whether the bass player and the singer have been doing else punk wise) and Abe from Life produced some of the songs on this Ep.

But what about the "music" I don't hear you ask? Peaceful Protest proudly and openly played old-school Garanterat Mangel and this is exactly what you are getting served here. There is little - if any - production value on these four songs. Raw, urgent and punker-than-you is the sound. The obsession with Swedish hardcore among Japanese punks was nothing new, even then, and bands like the aforementioned Frigöra, Collapse Society, Crocodileskink or, of course, Disclose were all already dealing in mangel and käng and therefore Peaceful Protest must be thought as belonging to that same maniacal trend. They may not have been the best to do it - I suppose that if you really had to pick a national Mangel Champion it'd be Frigöra - but they sounded the most spontaneous with a vibrant, youthful energy highly reminiscent of Mob 47 and a very snotty and possibly spotty singer. This is a very fun, very fast and very RAW Ep with four songs, the last one being a cover of Shitlickers recorded in the Philippines (I assume the band played over there which is pretty ace). 

The cover is rather minimalist and cheap-looking, this is not fancy at all. It was released on Peace Punk Records (a label that released Stracony or Social Genocide) and there were several versions of this Ep with four different colour sleeves available - mine is green as your discerning eyes have noticed and I have never seen any of the others. The band also released a split Ep with Medellin's punk legends IRA and in 2005 the label Aktiva//Protest Rekordo, run by members of Voco Protesta (a fine distorted raw hardcore band in Esperanto of course), released the Ep A Noise Barrage Against Authority, recorded in 1997 and originally meant as a demo because the world was rightly begging for it. Let's throw in here that singer Satoshi Kase actually became a movie director and shot Spinning Kite, a film I haven't seen but has had good reviews. Is there any raw punk on the soundtrak? You tell me. 

By no means can it be said to be an essential record but if you are into distorted Japanese mangel this will be your kind of shit.

They ignore Peaceful Protest

           

       

REDUCTION "Social Disorder" Ep, 2002

Almost 25 years after the release of the Social Disorder Ep, it is unclear what Reduction were actually trying to reduce either with or through their music. Even if it would be far-fetched to pretend that the jury is, to use a common metaphor, still out - I assume the jury fucked off home a long time ago when it comes to this case - I would still personally endeavour that matters of noise nuisance were decidedly not planned to be reduced by this savage crust band that the cruel world seemed to have forgotten. Record sales or audiences might have taken much of the reducing though.

Although they were from Osaka and indulged in crust, Reduction did not seem to have any strong connection with the mythified Gloom or Crust War crew, a discrepancy which, decades later, from an outsider's perspective that could be totally irrelevant, does not give them enough of an aura for their work to get into the Crust Pants Premier League. If you need proof of that just ponder over the absence of any Reduction bootleg badge on Etsy. Not that I care, mind you, my heart has enough room for crust music of all the leagues. In fact, Reduction were recommended to me by a friend a little before I embarked in my epic and highly successful compilation series Distorted Hope and Cruster Rags which allowed for their well-deserved inclusion. 

The band must have started in the late 90's but although their first 1999 demo tape Disruption boasted an artwork that indicated some noizy-crasher-crusty-core Reduction were much closer to traditional Japanese hardcore in the early days. And I would even go as far as declaring that, beside Social Disorder, Reduction were more a metallic Japanese hardcore band than an all-out crustcore one - which might impact their legacy among the unwashed legion. A bold claim I know but a man must be brave sometimes and stand up for what he thinks is right. In the early days the band had two members of a direct crusty punk band called Chaos of Brutality, Naoki and Atsushi - who would, of course, go on to sing in Ferocious X - as well as a member of Last One Standing (a positive hardcore band!) on the guitar and the drummer of Youth Strike Chord (amazingly another posi-core band). This very lineup recorded the Ep in 2001 and it would be released the year after on Mangrove Records, a Tokyo-based label responsible for works from SDS, DSB or Crow.

What makes this Ep a rather fine slice of Japanese crust lies in its abrasiveness and in the reproduction and execution of the style rather than any songwriting flamboyance. The metallic guitar has a thick distorted sound and sometimes reminds me of SDS - a mighty compliment indeed - and the extremity of the vocals (Atsushi really screams his head off like a possessed man condemned to stub his toe on a particularly sharp coffee table for eternity) also points in that foundational direction. The many mid-paced, groovier moments and the transitions make me think that AGE would have been close to Reduction's collective turntable but the level of distortion and pummeling brutality scatter any doubt as to Reduction's intentions: a good old crustcore attack with a crush on Sweden and Distortion Records. Early Truth of Arize on a date with Iconoclast at a restaurant owned by SDS with AGE in the kitchen? Let's go for that.

After the Ep Reduction underwent significant lineup changes with Atsushi notably gone to yell in Swedish and being replaced by the singer of their neighboring partners in crust, Victims of Greed, and a new guitar player who also made noise in Nationstate. The following records are pretty decent and well worth a listen but the heart wants what it wants and in this case it wants to crust things up with Social Disorder (an Ep that still goes for really cheap). The only critique I would formulate is about the almost unreadable cover. I still have no idea what it is meant to represent so your guess is as good as any at this point. Would it make a good-looking shirt? I'll leave the answer to you.       

Reduction Disorder!

       

  

DISDOMESTIC VIOLENCE "S/t" Ep, 2006

It feels like it was only yesterday when I was gloriously engaging in discussing the odd anarchopunk record and very much enjoying myself in the process, almost supernaturally propelled as I was by some great, singable tunes (my next-door neighbour would probably disagree but then she's well into Céline Dion). Well, those times are over. Just like summer recently bid us farewell, so did the half-listenable music you had the luxury, and privilege, to read about here because we are going back to the basics with some loud, primitive, guttural, mums-scaring crust music from Japan. Fuck yeah indeed, old bean. This time around I have been digging a bit deeper into the ole collection and have excavated some lesser-known records from what could be best described as "mid-table crust bands" if not "the second fiddles of the crust choir", but also some other legitimately atrocious works that have sunk into obscurity for a reason and a couple of (minor?) classics to give you the impression that I also own some actually decent records. I have ripped many a work so we are clearly in for the long run. 

And let's start with a band that went for a moniker that manages to sound both awkward in a silly way and also slightly offensive in its utter nonsensicality: Disdomestic Violence. Yes, them. There was no way we could be content just with brilliant lexical ideas like Disfornicate, Dissober or Disturd (a great band with a poor name) and the world needed a band to take things a step further in the great d-beat dadaism. I assume the band meant that they were against domestic violence even though no lyrics can give any clue on this level beside the very cryptic line "Jealousy disturb take care of woman" which could mean anything and epitomises the sense of being lost in translation. To be quite candid, the first time I read about Disdomestic Violence I instantly thought that they cannot have sold much merch during their run but then I remembered I owned a Genital Deformities shirt myself. You will always find a dorky enough punk to spend money on such things. 

If the name does boggle the mind, the music hits all the right keys and solidly reassures the listener that this is not some dodgy anti-PC grindcore band. Disdomestic Violence played classic 90's-style Doom-obsessed Japanese crust reminiscent of Abraham Cross, Macrofarge (the last song must be an "homage") or Battle of Disarm with a thrashing edge and munificent excessive gruff vocals that would make Jon Doom blush as they sound like a moose and a tractor fucking. Yet, Disdomestic Violence do bring some originality in their classic cavecrust attack both in the sound and in the songwriting as they incorporate some Frost-y evil-sounding proto extreme metal influences in some dark transitions but also in the guitar sound and the almost grotesque incantatory intonation. Scum noise future as they offer? 

Clearly this Ep will prove to be too much for many of us but I personally completely validate it and I am of the opinion that, 20 years after its release, it can stand on its own crust pants. The band itself is fairly undocumented and while I thought they had been going for just a couple of years in the mid/late 00's before dissolving into the grand punk Ether, a new record actually came out in 2019 seeing Disdomestic Violence experimenting a bit with heavy psychedelic influences and sludge/drone moments (I have sadly never heard it, I'm just dumbly paraphrasing a review). There is however a (very) rough 2009 demo on youtube that saw the band already toying with metallic sludgecore. This development cannot be said to be isolated when you consider that these Tokyo crusties appeared on the very good Tokyo Sound System compilation cd that brought together traditional Japanese crust bands and some techno or experimental acts, the common thread being underground noisiness. Again, the compilation is no walk in the park - unless your park is a den of rabid hyenas on speed - but you should check it out, especially if you claim to be an Abraham Cross fan (as I KNOW you must be). 

This 2006 Ep was released on DIY Records, the label of Ryuji from Battle of Disarm and on the whole the discerning punk elite of whom I am a honorable representative deems this humble but fierce and punchy record worth getting if you are an obsessive fan of Doom-like bands or of Japanese crust, which is pretty much the same thing.   

Disdomestic Crust