Desobediencia Civil "No hay libertad sin desobediencia" cd 2001

Most of the time, I focus on posting rare or obscure on Terminal Sound Nuisance. There are two reasons for this. First, I feel that the sharing of music and knowledge is what punk is all about. Although I alway try to give my own critical view of a band, a genre or a scene, I feel that it is our collective role to ensure that punk history doesn't get lost and that it is important to promote a sort of punk sensibility (for lack of a better term) through an accessible analysis of the punk-listening experience. Second, I am an opinionated bastard with an ego problem who likes to boast. But now is not the time for nerdy posturing, because today's post will be about one of the most crucial Latino anarchopunk bands ever: Desobediencia Civil.

In my (definitely not) humble opinion, DC is an unjustly underrated band that, had they not been from Mexico, would have its name on thousands of punk jackets across the world. I would even argue that they were easily one of the very best 90's anarcho bands worldwide. DC formed in Mexico City and started playing in 1993. From what I gathered, the people involved were all originally part of animal liberation and political collectives and felt the need to do something against the "chaos punk" apathy that prevailed then in the city. DC's discography is far from being massive as they only released one Ep and one album as well as a couple of live demos. I would venture that the band was more interested in getting their message across and touring than in recording twice a year and having coloured vinyls out. Although they weren't the first anarchist punk band in Mexico or indeed in Latin America, they may have been the first to call themselves anarchopunks (possibly along with Coprofilia, Empirismo and Regeneracion) and to merge the canonical anarchopunk sound and aesthetics with the aggression and the rabia of classical Mexican hardcore punk, thus creating a proper Mexican anarchopunk sound in the process. DC's first Ep, "Cuanto tiempo mas", though it already incorporated visual elements from the anarchopunk, still sounded very much like a traditional raw Mexican hardcore punk records and was closer to Massacre 68, MELI or Xenofobia (and my faithful readers already know that I love my Mexicore to death) than Antisect, Doom or Conflict. It is only with their Lp, "No hay libertad sin desobediencia" that the band managed to merge both worlds, seamlessly, effortlessly and with an honesty, a genuine anger that cannot be faked and that I wish I heard more often.

On this recording, DC kept the snotty, desperate anger and chaotic edge of late 80's Mexican hardcore but infused it with the classic UK anarchopunk sound of Antisect, Legion of Parasites or Potential Threat (especially with the addition of the female vocalist), with early Doom (whom they cover), Early Hiatus and early Extreme Noise Terror and finally, I would argue, with a bit of Swedish hardcore like Crude SS or No Security. The dual vocals work to perfection, the bloke having that raspy, raucous, threatening and just so bloody pissed off voice, while the girl shouts in a clearer, warmer tone, not unlike Potential Threat, Homomilitia or Antiproduct. The drumming is reminiscent of Stick (from Doom)'s early bands (Doom or more precisely Excrement of War come to mind): it beats the D but you still get some Disorder/Chaos UK changes and a couple of blast beats. The guitar sound is thick and crunchy, just what you need to get the crust in "crust-punk". The music is just incredibly energetic, catchy, angry AND catchy, as a lot of the chorus will stay with you. There is enough variety in terms of tunes and tempo hooks to make this album a fantastic listen from beginning to end and a real anarchopunk classic.      

To say that DC was a serious band would be an understatement and in that respect they really remind me of the best of the US anarcho scene of that decade, bands like Aus-Rotten, Antiproduct, Mankind? but they remind me more especially of Resist And Exist, a band that was outspokenly revolutionary like DC. Bands like Disaffect, Sanctus Iuda, Homomilitia or Paragraf 119 could also be relevant comparisons. Lyrically, you will find a whole lot of issues covered by the band, ranging from feminism, animal rights, the wage-slave system, class antagonism, social conformity, the corrupt political system to imperialism or being anarkopunks.

The influence of DC on the political punk scene both in Mexico and in the rest of Latin America cannot be underestimated and I see them in the same light as 90's bands like Abuso Sonoro or Execradores in Brazil or Apatia-No in Venezuela, that had relevant anarchist politics and merged the anarchopunk spirit with that South-American urgency and anger. DC split up quite soon after the release of that album, in 2002, because some of the members migrated to the U$ for economic reasons but I read that they reformed briefly in 2008 in order to play a couple of benefit shows in the States. I suppose you could say Mexican bands like Fallas del Sistema or Crimenes de Guerra are (or were?) the real legacy of DC in the 00's. "No hay libertad sin desobediencia" was released on the ever reliable Cryptas Records and I'm pretty sure it can still be found on decent distros everywhere.

No hay libertad.

"Slave to convention: A tribute to Doom" compilation cd 2007

Bands like Doom are to punk-rock what beer is to drinking.

Some people merely enjoy having a cold beer on warm days, others drink vast quantity of beer but are not bothered with the quality, and then you have the beer experts who can actually describe the tastes of many different ales and lagers, finally you have people who don't like beer but at least respect it as a worthy beveradge. The same could be said about Doom: the first category hardly listen to Doom but can enjoy a couple of songs at a gig or when really drunk at a mate's; the second category listen to a lot of Doom-type bands but can't really be arsed about the actual quality or even the identity of the bands; the third category include people who know all the records, the recording dates, the line-up changes, they are able to look at Doom and their works critically and are undeniably elite Doom-lovers with a PhD in crust-punk; people in the last category don't give a damn about Doom but at least recognize that it is a quality band, respectable and honourable, just not to their liking. If you don't fall in any of these categories, there are two possibilities: you either have never heard about Doom and I am about to change your life or you clearly are reading the wrong blog and I encourage you to get a life. Seriously, get ouf of my blog.

I generally have mixed feelings about tribute records for several reasons. Bands are often content with merely covering the song without bringing anything new to the table thus making the record a bit tedious to listen to and basically a poorer version of the original songs. In addition, I have seen tribute records with absolutely no information about the bands included or even with hardly any mention about the band that is being paid tribute to (I am thinking about the "Discharged" cd here). But do not despair as there are also really good tribute records, like the two recent (well, relatively) Amebix tributes (the Japanese one and the Balkan one) or the Conflict tribute "Barricades and broken dreams" which exemplify how it should be done. Granted, all the songs were not that great but they aptly reflected the passion that the covered band inspired to the participants and you had some comments from actual members of Amebix and Conflict which made the record more relevant and interesting. Fortunately for you, "Slave to convention" falls in the "good punk tribute" category.

Don't expect too much originality in terms of music on this record. Although there have undeniably been several different periods in the life of Doom with variations in song-writing, sound, musicianship or production, the power of Doom relies on a formula. I would argue that the repetitiveness of Doom - especially early Doom - is one of its strong points. It is a force hammering you again and again with unabated sincerity. Doom took the relentless power of Discharge, Discard (certainly the strongest influence of the band in its infancy), Totalitär or Asocial, added the crusty gruffness (probably more a matter of context than of intent) and the anarchopunk anger and aesthetics. As I mentioned, the Doom sound evolved throughout the years but still, and as the latest brilliant Lp shows, they nevertheless always sticked to the Doom formula, so that for all the different records, and if I may use a witty tautology, Doom will alway be Doom. And thanks fuck for that. Really.

There are 29 bands included on the compilation and I suppose that it would be a boring read if I were to describe each of the songs individually. The bands that took part in this project all belong to the crust/d-beat/scandicore subgenres so don't expect ska versions of "Police bastard". Unsurprisingly, mosy of the covered songs are from Doom's Peaceville days, although some bands also picked songs from "The greatest invention" (my favourite Doom records because of its tension), or from the splits with Hiatus, Selfish and Extinction of Mankind, so it's not 29 covers of "Police bastard" or "Exploitation" either. The strong point of this compilation lies in its international spectrum as you will find bands from the U$A, the UK, Germany, Peru, Japan, Sweden, Poland, Spain, Chile, Canada, Cyprus (yes, Cyprus!), Mexico, Brazil and Italy. In addition to being an ode to world-wide punk-rock, "Slave to convention" includes bands rather "famous" bands like Phobia, Besthöven or Cluster Bomb Unit, but also obscure ones whose contribution to the compilation is actually their sole appearance on a proper record like Aposynthesis, Hollow Scorn or The Indecents. Apart from the Desobediencia Civil song that was recorded in 1998, all the bands recorded their cover especially for this compilation sometime between 2006 and 2007. Not only this but all the bands provided some artwork specifically for "Slave to convention" as well with band and recording information. Funnily enough, three bands did a spoof of the Doom logo, well let's call it an aesthetical tribute, with their own moniker: Ruin, Filth of Mankind and Warvictims. Now that's a labour of love, isn't it?

My personnal highlights include the old-school crust rendering of the mighty Alehammer and the criminally underrated Filth of Mankind, the dual-vocals crustcore attack of the great Accion Mutante, the vintage d-beat punk of Cluster Bomb Unit (with Julia on vocals), Besthöven and Ruin (who have never sounded more like Cracked Cop Skulls than on this recording) and the angry crusty anarcho sound of Autonomia and Desobediencia Civil, a band I specially deal with sometime in the future. Despite unequal production between the songs (some of them must have been taken from rehearsal or live recordings which accounts for some sloppiness), it is on the whole a very pleasant listen and a great way to get familiar with previously unknown bands. In my case, I was really quite impressed with Aposynthesis from Cyprus and wish they had done something else (they get extra Doom points for their Doom/Aposynthesis studded jacket done especially for their piece of artwork).

The booklet is good too and provides an exhaustive Doom biography as well as some words from Stick. It also shows a lot of original Doom artwork, some old flyers as well as some pictures but I hope you have a good eyesight because it's all printed extra small. "Slave to convention" was released on Helvetet Records, a Peruvian label responsible for records from Los Rezios (I am pretty sure the bloke doing the label also plays in Los Rezios), a Warcollapse discography and re-issues of old 80's hardcore bands from Peru like the fantastic Autopsia or Kaos. Basically a label worthy of your interest.

Are you ready for almost one hour of Doom worship? You'd better be.

Slave to doomvention            

Muerte En La Industria "No dejes que te exploten, sin ti no son nada!" cd 2006

I love Mexican hardcore-punk from the 80's. Now, I know you probably don't really care about what I happen to love, and that's fair enough. But I really do love the Mexican sound and anyone into raw hardcore punk should give it a chance. This post is therefore my personal attempt to promote this style because I feel like I am on a mission to spread good punk music (and I also have ego problems).

"Raw punk" seems to be a rather trendy word these days and it is usually associated with those old hardcore punk bands that had a rough and ready sound and all the newer bands trying to imitate them. In general, Mexico is pretty much absent from the "raw punk" map and that's a real shame because not only did the 80's Mexican scene produced many absolutely ferocious band sonically, but they also epitomized what punk-rock is really about: primal, youthful, untamed, unadulterated anger. From what I can gather, Mexican hardcore-punk really kicked off in the mid to late 80's with classic bands like Massacre 68, Histeria, Atoxxxico, Xenofobia, SS-20, Solucion Mortal, Sedicion or Herejia. Those bands quickly developped a sound of their own, fast, crude and very energetic, from which later bands like Coprofilia or Fallas del Sistema would grow. While not the most famous or prolific, Muerte En La Industria (MELI) probably did one of the most potent recordings the genre has to offer in the guise of the 1988 demo entitled "Tu vida".

MELI were from Mexico City and only released the one demo. The cd we are interested in to day contains their 1988 demo and a live track from 1989. This cd is a 2006 Mexican reissue but there is another reissue that Japanese label Speedstate records did in 2005 with added live tracks from 2000 as MELI reformed at some point. Unfortunately, there is very little information about MELI in the booklet and I am not sure it is even the original artwork, but you have got to love the title as it translates as "Don't let them exploit you, whithout you they are nothing" which gives an idea of the band's lyrics. The demo was made up of 13 songs and they are as punk as you can get. MELI played fast and distorted hardcore punk and they certainly had this typical Mexican sound like Massacre 68, which was basically an even more primal version of Chaos UK or Disorder, as the specific drum rolls and the distorted guitar sound suggest. The demo also echoes Spanish hardcore bands like Antidogmatikss and IV Reich, English bands like Instant Agony, Death Sentence or Legion of Parasites, South American pioneers like Ratos de Porao, Olho Seco from Brazil and Autopsia, Ataque Frontal, Descontrol from Peru and noisy bands like Confuse, Siekiera or EU's Arse. To be fair though, I have no idea whether MELI were actually influenced by them or had even heard of them (the live song being a IV Reich cover, it is safe to say they were into Spanish hardcore and there is 5" bootleg released in 1989 in Mexico that has MELI as well as Confuse and Tervet Kadet on it... how strange is that!). I would argue that MELI manages to sound even more pissed off than M68 as the vocals sound just so angry and desperate and reflect both disillusionment and anger. In other terms, this is rabioso as fuck.

The sound is decent considering it is a demo and it has this roughness and spontaneity that make Mexican punk-rock so good. Unfortunately the lyrics are not included, which is something I just don't understant in reissues. But after doing some research and guessing from the titles of the song, MELI didn't sing about heartbreaks. As young punks, they were angry at the government's corruption, police violence, religion, the army, the class system, nationalism, well, society as a whole really. I really cannot recommend this demo enough as it is a crucial unealthy slice of punk-rock. The last on the cd is a live cover of IV Reich's classic "No al ejercito", a song that must have gone great with the army and police.

Muerte en la industria

    

Sanctus Iuda / Regeneracion split Ep 1997

Now that's an odd one. So odd in fact that it doesn't even appear on the almost always comprehensive Discogs (saying this the Screaming Holocaust Ep doesn't either). I got this Ep for a couple of euros a while back and it features several elements that makes a great record: it is an international split Ep; both bands have a lot to say politically; the bands don't sound alike; it is as DIY as you can get. Let's see in more details where this record comes from.

First, I don't know for sure when this was released as there is no information about recording dates inside the record. I know both bands were very active between 1995 and 1997. The Sanctus Iuda tracks are actually also included on a tiny cd (by size) called "Jap Pressing" that contains all the band's songs that appeared on splits (with Sarcasm, Sharpeville and Regeneracion). It says that the Sanctus Iuda side of our split was recorded in June 1996, so I assume the actual record must have been released in 1997. It was put out by Cryptas Records from Mexico, which makes sense since Cryptas released all the Regeneracion records along with a few other absolutely brilliant bands like Desobediencia Civil, Tortura Auditiva, Apatia-No, Coaccion or All Systems Fail. Now that the record looks a bit less mysterious, let's have a look at its content.

Sanctus Iuda were a Polish band from Bialystok that seemed to have been really active in the mid 90's. They were very much part of the eurocrust wave both in terms of sound and lyrics. Though this kind of music appears to be quite unfashionable nowadays, I am personally very fond of it. There were a couple of great crusty Polish bands by then like Homomilitia (arguably the best one), Toxic Bonkers, Silna Wola, Stradoom Terror or Enough! and Sanctus Iuda had everything you expect from a good political Polish crust punk outfit. Sanctus Iuda were not as metallic as Homomilitia but harder-hitting and rougher than Fleas and Lice. Their songs are not really original per se but they are certainly played with heart and guts and that's really all that matters in the end. Overall, the sound is pretty raw and some great riffs will inform you that SI were above your average crusty bollocks. The singer is snotty and pretty angry and at times a second, much gruffier voice reminds us that indeed Hiatus had already toured Poland by then. I really enjoy Sanctus Iuda and an Lp has been reissued in recent years so you should still be able to find it. Lyrically, the band was firmly rooted in the anarcho side of punk. Their side of the record is entitled "The heart stops beating" and it aptly reflects the recurrent theme of their three songs: ecology. The first one is about the industry destroying the Earth/heart; the second one, "McMurder" is an attack against McDonald's and the food industry and how they sacrifice the environment on the altar of profit; the last one is an anti-capitalist song that depicts how land theft in the thrid world creates hunger and poverty. Joyful stuff as usual. The artwork on SI's side is dark and nature-themed and reinforces their message. The band also lists a number of Polish ecological and animal rights groups that you could get in touch with.

If Sanctus Iuda lied on the raw side of the punk moon, Regeneracion lived on the rough and chaotic side of Mars. I have no idea whether the band went for the noisy path on purpose but whatever their intent was, it worked. But it was not noisiness for noisiness' sake, as the band were very serious politically and indeed had a genuine revolutionary message. The term "regeneracion" was the name of Mexican revolutionary Ricardo Flores Magon's anarchist newpaper so I suppose it gives us some clues as to what the band believed in. I wish I had the lyrics of Regeneracion's songs but they are not included in the record. Instead there are two texts. The first one, "Vivir para ser libres, o morir para dejar de ser esclavos", deals with legality and illegality and how respecting the law and being a revolutionary are antithetic. The second, longer text is called "Bienvenido al infierno neo-liberal" (which is also the title of Regeneracion's side of the split). I wish I understood Spanish better but from what I can read, it is very much a call to action against capitalism and the state that supports it, basically an incitement to get off our arses, stop being apathetic and afraid and have a go against the laws that oppress us. Epic stuff. I am not sure however if the band chose the best media to get their message across as Regeneracion played really gruffy and chaotic crust punk, which is perfect for me, but might scare the average Manu Chao fan. Oh well. The cover is a pciture of a military vehicle driving by a young Indigenous kid, possibly in Chiapas as the time periods would indicate. Musically, Regeneracion lies between Brujeria (especially in the vocals and the intonation) and early Doom/Hiatus. The vocals are very deep and threatening and the guitar has a glorious fuzzy sound. It also reminds me of Mass Genocide Process, Embittered or Despite at times, but that's probably just because of the roughness. With no lyrics and a wild pig grunting in Spanish behind the microphone, I confess I have troubles getting what the songs are actually about. I think the first one (I don't even have the songs' titles!) is about the frontier behind Mexico and the U$, the second one may be about animal suffering and fuck knows what the last one is about. Don't let this put you off though, Regeneracion are one of the best Mexican crust band ever and the chaotic nature of their sound reflects their anger.

On the whole a great split and a perfect example of an international punk collaboration. Lovers of the 90's crust sound will be delighted.

Poland meets Mexico