Virus "Unacceptable noise levels" cd, 2007

NO, NOT THE EMBARRASSING US STREETPUNK BAND... THANK YOU. GOOD NIGHT.

Reforming. The eternal myth and paradox. The shitstorm starter. The excuse for endless online arguing, boasting, radical postures or justifications for selling-out. It is the punk equivalent of online name-calling between football supporters. There are usually two fighting sides on this issue. The intransigent will claim that any act of reforming is a betrayal of the punk ethos and, assuming they are into postmodern theory, add that the text is nothing without its actual context. In other terms, what is the point of watching men in their forties sing about topics relevant to them when they were 16? At the other end of the argument, you will find those who think that it is all just music and that they will be happy to hear old favourites of theirs being played live, the idea that the band (or indeed the songs) may have lost its significance not carrying much weight.

While carefully written punk lyrics keep their significance throughout the years (to some extent at least), expressions of teenage frustration may not translate as well when re-enacted by balding men who have had nothing to do with the music world for 25 years. To put it bluntly, on a strictly musical level, texts written by Antisect, Icons of Filth or Amebix are pretty timeless, still relevant today. On the other hand, I would feel a little uncomfortable seeing The Partisans or Abrasive Wheels doing their songs about being 16 and on the dole, not that these bands are necessarily bad today, I bloody love them, but to me they epitomized the youthful, snotty aggression that can't be recreated and I'd much rather see a young band cover them. Know what I mean?

And then you have to consider the motivations of a reforming band. It may not be fair since we rarely question the motivations or the "morality" of a new band, but here you go, old bands have been glorified and mythologized to such an extent that any act of resurrection is akin to heresy and has to go before the punk inquisition. I remember the late Andy Shocker, in the last issue of the sadly missed Punk Shocker, writing something along these lines (I'm paraphrasing here) "who wants to see a reformation of a band that only had the one track on the 'You're bollocks, we're bollocks, fuck the fucking bollocks' compilation Lp in 1984?" And really, what's the point of reforming if you're only going to play big festivals with other reformed bands, doing your old songs because the new ones are really not that good since you've lost the flame, and because the audience only want to get drunk and sing along to your two old hits anyway, because they're the only songs they really know, just like they do at home. It's like an expensive karaoke night really.

I used to be astonished when I was told that some old classic band reformed. It was a mixture of excitation, suspicion, disappointment and curiosity. To be honest I had no idea who Virus were when I got this cd the year it came out (and I was a little upset that I did not). I remember the label saying they were an old anarchopunk band who were extremely good live but never really got to record anything decent back in the 80's. Seeing that it was Jon Active writing this and he certainly knows his shit when it comes to the British anarcho scene, I decided to give it a go. So although Virus were indeed a reformation, since I had no idea who they were initially, I tend not to see them in the same light as "bigger" names (or just bands who did an Ep back then) I am familiar with and therefore scrutinize with a more critical eye.

Back in the 80's, Virus only appeared on one compilation Lp in 1985, "We won't be your fucking poor" on Mortarhate records. To be honest, their offering on this record is hardly memorable (and the band wholeheartedly agree with this as their interview in "The day the country died", which was done before their 00's reformation, attests) and with a chorus that goes "It's about fucking time that a turkey has its say" it almost achieves the same cult status as Oi Polloi's unbeatable "Whale song". Basically, if you were a cynical bastard, you could say that the Punk Shocker reformation theorem could be applied to Virus. But not only am I famous (if not envied) for my legendary open-mindedness but it appears that this Virus cd deserves your attention.

Virus were and are from the good city of Dorset, in the Southwest of England. They initially existed from 1983 to 1986, recorded two demos, both in 1984, and also got to play with Subhumans, Conflict, Liberty, the amazing Hex, the fantastic Blyth Power or the supersonic Disorder (epic mood you all). As I said my first encounter with the band was through this 2007 album and not their original 80's recordings so there are two ways to look at "Unacceptable noise levels". If you are not familiar with their 80's output, do not worry for a second, as this album does not require you to. It stands on its own two feet with ease, and although it undeniably sounds like English anarchopunk, the songwriting is solid enough to make one forget that this is a reformation album. I would go as far as saying that this is one of the very best British anarchopunk album of the 00's, my only complaint being that there may be too many songs (24 of them in 48 minutes, no less). If you already know their 80's demos then you won't be disappointed either, as "Unacceptable noise levels" contains both rerecorded old songs and new ones. If the first demo, "Infected", was indeed a little thin-sounding, the second one, "You can't ignore it forever", was excellent and some of its songs would have made a cracking Ep for Spiderleg or Bluurg at the time. Fortunately, some 20 years later, Virus have not lost their punk-rock skills, nor have they forgotten their political anger.

I won't deny that today I tend to prefer "You can't ignore it" to "Unacceptable noise levels", not because the latter is necessarily inferior, but mainly because of its production, which is probably a little too clean and lacks the spontaneity that you can hear in the first recordings. On the other hand, one of the main complaints that bands formulate in "The day the country died" has to do with what they sounded like at the time in the studio. For some reason, most of them feel that their demo, or Ep, or album did not have the sound they were looking for and did not represent them properly. The irony is that nowadays, modern anarchopunk fanatics like myself are usually drawn to the genre (among many other things obviously) because of the specific sound and characteristics it developped in the 80's. So while it makes sense that an old band would try to correct the mistakes of the early recordings and get a good production because they didn't have the opportunity to do so the first time around, a lot of people will prefer the old sound, as flawed as it might be, precisely because it is a  raw and fragile embodiment of the DIY spirit of the 80's. Craving for the past is a young man's game. We live in an odd age.

If you have never listened to Virus at all, expect mostly mid-tempo dark punk-rock, with a couple of faster songs too, somewhere between The System, Subhumans, Part 1 and Flux of Pink Indians, but with a heavier modern anarchopunk production (think Bug Central or Active Slaughter). The songs are fairly simple if you listen closely. There are no incredible riffs or earth-shattering songwriting, but they work nevertheless, maybe because of their simplicity, their directness which makes Virus sound quite familiar even to an unenlightened listener. Still, the light, but distinct, cold, dark, mournful mood that pervades some of the slower songs, combined with the snotty and aggressive atmosphere of the faster ones, create a sense of peculiarity which also makes one notice and individualize them. It is both everything you expect from the genre, with the typical anarcho drum patterns, spoken parts about political issues and the typical prosody in the vocals, and there is this little twist that makes Virus stand out. It really is good and a meaningful, genuine continuation of their old demos: they expand on them without betraying their spirit.

The lyrics are quite long and well-written. You find a couple of numbers about animal exploitation and bloodsports, but also CCTV, capitalist industrialization, green issues, social violence, the shallowness of modern society, class justice and how fucked up the world is. The songs are seriously pissed off and the fact that they angrily wrote about modern topics show that they still give a fuck and that's quite reassuring. The artwork on the cd is nothing spectacular, a little plain maybe, but the band had the good idea to keep their great anarchopunk logo on the cover (i'm a sucker for that sorta thing). This was released on Active Distribution in 2007, an anarchist label and distro that also released their second album, "Virulence" in 2011, that I feel is not quite as convincing as this one. In 2013 they also did an Ep for All the Madmen Records called "It's not what it appears" that looks brilliant and is a solid effort. Virus are still very much active though as they will have a new Ep out shortly on Anthrax's label, Grow Your Own Records, which will be a split with Bug Central and The Sytem and they will also be part of a compilation Lp on the same label alongside The Sytem, Anthrax, Hagar the Womb and Flowers in the Dustbin among others. Now, I'm certainly looking forward to these babies.

Unacceptable noise levels        

And if you are interested in hearing their 1984 demos, the promising "Infected" and the fantastic "You can't ignore it forever", you can get it from the always reliable Terminal Escape.            

       

Dažd "S/t" Lp, 2009

After two rather glorious walks along vintage 80's punk lane, I realized it was high time I ranted a bit about a recent band. Punky goodness can be found in any time or place and if I do have my own strong obsessions, I am also a curious geezer who likes to be taken by surprise. And let me tell you that Dažd (which translates as "rain") totally took me by storm the first time I heard that wonderful album.

The last decade or so had its fair share of classic crust albums. And although it is sometimes difficult to assess the real worth of an Lp when it comes out, now that a few years have passed since Hellshock made the so-called stenchcore subgenre glamorous again, it is obvious that there were some rather average, if lovable (to me anyway), crust bands and some genuinely great works as well. Dažd fell in the second category for one major reason: they were effortlessly original. Although they clearly aimed at incorporating a lot of different influences into their music, it is neither original for the sake of originality, as each addition actually brings something to the music, nor does it have that annoying patchwork feel that bands claiming to blend genres tend to have. Dažd's music feels like a whole, it is fluid yet multifaceted.

The band apparently defined their own music as"Balkan black (anarcho) occult crust post punk". Now I must admit that this sort of annoucements usually scares me. But in this case, this definition is actually relevant. For obvious reasons, Dažd's sound is difficult to pinpoint. It is an organic, thick, substance made of old-school black metal, sludge, doom metal, old crust and metal punk. But despite the extreme metal influences, the music is not as much brutal as it is always heavy. Rather than goat sacrifices and face paints, the music is more like a potion, one that you would be made to drink during a pagan ceremony so that you fall into a trance. If you had a dinner party with an occult metal theme and your guests were filthy crusties, well, that Dažd Lp would be the main course. The music has a ritual, incantation feel to it and range from fast pummeling parts owing as much to Anti-Cimex as to Bathory, to crusty mid-tempo beats reminiscent of Deviated Instinct and Skaven, to slow and heavy sludgy, doomy moments, to dark feral rhythms lifted from Amebixes' Spiderleg era. The vocals may take some time adjusting to if you are not familiar with the band. They have been compared to GISM's which makes some sense since the singer sounds like he is on the verge of insanity, but I would argue that this is a different kind of insanity, one that has to do with the occult, with wilderness, if not with wizardry (close to Skaven's singer doing doom metal maybe?). If the music is quite dark, it is certainly not cold. There is a magical bonfire at the centre of this Lp warming the hearts and the studded jackets of the audience.

The aesthetics of the album are a perfect complement to the music, the visual side of the Dažd experience. The artwork was done by one dude called Jason Barnett and it is just stunning: creepy, slightly disturbing drawings that give a sense of the occult and of magics without falling in the cheesy gore trap (and thanks fuck for that). The lyrics in Serbian use esoteric references and deal with the end of the world, suffering, war, pain, human misery and cute kittens. And for those like me who are wary of pagan metal bands because of possible connections with right-wing politics, you are in safe waters with Dažd as they support anarcho-paganism (I am not too sure what it entails but if it involves listening to Scatha and Iowaska, you can count me in, but only if I can keep my clothes on) and take a stand against fascists. As it says on the inner sleeve "Anarchy/Peace/Chaos/Magic".       

This Lp was released in 2009 (but recorded in 2007) and followed two split Ep's released in 2008, one with fellow Serbians Nakot (on the great Doomed to Extinction Records that later released records by Instinct of Survival and Contagium) and one with Order of the Vulture, a band not so dissimilar to Dažd, although they are more generic. Three labels were responsible for this beauty: Fuck Yoga records from Macedonia, pretty much a grindcore label though it also released some Depressor as well as old-school Colombian hardcore bands like Ataque de Sonido and Herpes; Gasmask Records from Czech Republic that was also involved with the records of the amazing Fatum from Russia; and Kill the Man Who Questions. I am not exactly an expert in the Balkan punk scene, but as far as I can tell, I would situate Dažd in the same wave as bands like Nakot (whose singer was the person behind Doomsday Graphics), Dishumanity, Anaeroba from nearby Slovenia or even Nulla Osta (even though they have been playing since 2002) that were around in the late 00's and succeeded to the mid/late 90's ex-Yugoslavian anarcho crusty wave that gave birth to bands like the brilliant Intoxicate, Brigade OD, Demant, Radikalna Promjena, Krvavi Mandat, Debeli Samuraj or Verbalni Delikt among others.    

The Dažd Lp can still be found pretty easily (because of the infamous "had they been from Portland" paradigm) so I strongly recommend that you pick this unique 00's crusty metal punk album. I have always been more than a little dubious about so-called "blackened crust" because if often sounds like D-beat driven black metal and not like real crust and it's usually just not enough to catch my attention. However this lot are different and managed to create a largely unsung classic album without meaning to. And sometimes, this is the key.

Anarchy/Peace/Chaos/Magic

  

The Smartpils "No good no evil" Lp, 1987

Those of you who actually read the mad man's ravings that can be found on this world-renowned blog must have noticed that I love good, authentic crust music. I am therefore very much into Instinct of Survival and needless to say that I was, at first, quite surprised with their change of direction illustrated by their last Lp. From what I could gather, the IOS crowd has had miexed feelings about that record. I know a few people who dislike that Lp pretty much because it doesn't stick to the "stenchcore agenda" (whatever this might mean... and if it has to involve nicking Bolt Thrower riffs every other song, thanks fuck that it does not!) and that it doesn't sound "crust enough". To these people, who must be nearing utter deafness, I should only indicate that all long-running crust bands, in order to survive as bands, did change their sound at some point (a quick look at the discographies of Misery, Panikos or SDS attest to that).

There are also those who claim that IOS are surfing on the postpunk trend and that the incorporation of music elements that could be considered as "postpunk" in the new Lp is merely a means to be fashionable (usually, claims that the band is selling out are never too far behind). Even assuming that the IOS blokes give a damn about fashion (and I am pretty sure that they don't), their change in musical direction is not inconsistent with the history of crust music and the connections that bands from that wave formed. After all, their new sound is not quite unlike a heavier Zygote's. Or, indeed, a metal Smartpils' (now you didn't see such a glorious transition coming, did you?).

The Amebix revival from a few years back did not, for some reason, cause a renewed interest in Zygote which could have, in turn, brought The Smartpils to the unsuspecting public's attention (that's a lot of "if's", I know). The Smartpils were contemporaries of and close to Amebix (in fact the Pils' bass player, George, played the synth on "Arise!") and two of their members ended up later in Zygote (often seen as the sole "post-Amebix band") with Stig. Both bands even lived in the same city at some point, in the "quieter-than-nearby-Bristol" city of Bath. There was another thing that Amebix and Smartpils had in common, one that can be seen especially in Amebixes' early recordings: their love for Killing Joke. In fact, you could argue that The Smartpils were the sonic bastard child of Killing Joke and The Lost Cherrees conceived during an acid-fueled night at some Stonehenge Festival while a Siouxsie cover band was playing. You have these almost industrial, pounding tribal rhythms, a bass work that would not have been out of place in "No Sanctuary", haunting female vocals and a gloomy but distinct psychedelic vibe. Post-industrial anarcho psychedelic punk-rock. Or something.

1987's "No good, no evil" Lp is The Smartpils' only proper record, released on Bluurg Records, though they also contributed two songs to "Open mind surgery", a compilation Lp also released on Bluurg in 1985 that also included Civilised Society? and The Instigators. Prior to their Lp, the band had recorded two great demos for Bluurg Tapes: "Excerpts from the toxic state" in 1985 and "Zen punk" in 1987. As good as these two recordings are, I feel that "No good, no evil" sees the band at the top of its game. The six songs are solid, catchy and memorable and the clear sound production works perfectly, especially on the first side as it was recorded over two sessions. For the record, only the second side has the two female vocalists, Nikki and Claire (who would join The Hippy Slags later on) although the sound is not quite as heavy as on the first side (again, two different sessions). It is not a record that you can grasp in its entirety on the first listen as the different layers of vocals and the rather subtle guitar leads require several listens and a rather careful listener (but don't worry though, you can definitely play that record at a party too, it still works just fine). "No good, no evil" is a unique record that will please fans of Mortarhate/Bluurg old-school anarchopunk, of Siouxise-tinged goth-punk and Killing Joke-styled heavy rock.  

Like most Bluurg-related bands, The Smartpils have not yet enjoyed the discography treatment. In fact looking at all the productions of Bluurg Tapes, one can see an amazing number of great demos that deserve to be unearthed: Freak Electric, Phantoms of the Underground, End Result, The Pagans, Insurrection... I can definitely picture a neat cd with the Pils' demos and the Lp. Aesthetically, The Smartpils were quite striking. Dark, pagan-inspired artwork with a lot of symbolism celebrating freedom, not as macabre as Amebix but along the same lines I suppose. The lyrics are quite cryptic I suppose but also poetic: Gothic tales and imagery, evocations of ideas and emotions, mythic creatures, metaphysical stuff about the duality of human nature (as expressed on the backcover "Showing his gorgeous disguise") with some songs reading like (drug-induced?) journeys.

Throughout their hectic life, The Smartpils shared the stage with a lot of good bands: Subhumans, Flux, Disorder, Rubella Ballet, Decadence Within and of course Amebix, with whom they seemed to have played quite a few times. After the demise of the band, George and Tim formed Zygote, Richard joined Hawkwind in psychedelic unity and Claire the Hippy Slags.

So now, who wants to run around in the nude a bonfire on a winter full moon? And more importantly, who's still unconvinced about the new Instinct of Survival Lp???

         

No good no evil

Plasmid "S/t" Ep, 2006

Bitterpunk: "this is raw punk before it was fashionable".

Enthusiast47: "total noisy bollocks aaaarrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!".

Streetpunk77: "this is shit. You can't hear a thing and the singer sounds like a hungover Donald Duck".

Holiernerd: "I don't buy reissues. I own the original tape".

HxCforlife: "I can't believe the Heresy guys were into that crap before. Where are their bandanas?".

Drunkcrustkid: "I think I know that riff from somewhere...lol".

Tradskin69: "Music for crusties with dogs and a bad hygiene. Real HC is from NYC".

IndieTodd: "I'm appalled".

Mummylovesyou: "What has my son done with his life? Why is he doing this to me? sob sob".

As you can see, Plasmid's 1984 demo can have very different effects on the listener depending on his or her tastes, tolerance for the "noise not music" ethos and overall conception of life. Whether you like it or not, this (very) rough recording is undeniably a piece of UK punk history as Plasmid were the earliest incarnation of Heresy, one the most crucial British hardcore bands of the second part of the 80's alongside Ripcord and The Stupids (but I have to say that the early Heresy recordings completely take the cake for me). To put it bluntly, Plasmid existed when the blokes looked like that:

Fashion review: "great Discharge-meets-Antisect at a UK82 jubilee. Nottingham 83".

Later on, as you all know, Heresy would look like this:

Fashion review: "accurate Boston-invades-Britain look with the presence of baseball hats and trainers. The crusty on the right does look a little distressed."

These superficial considerations apart, this demo can be considered as one of the earliest examples of genuine British hardcore. Recorded in 1983 in terrible conditions (it was recorded through only one microphone), it is revealed in the Third Book of Saint Ian Glasper that, initially, the band was against the idea of tuning up their instruments. Youthful naivety or tribute to Skum Dribblurzzz, you decide. The sound on this recording (or rather, these recordings since the last song of the Ep was actually from another rehearsal) was bound to be rough. And by rough, I mean really rough. We are clearly not too far from Gutrot here and even the Dirge Lp sounds overproduced compared to this Ep. Does this mean that this is a dreadful waste of plastic? Absolutely not and for several reasons. 

First, what Plasmid lacked in music proficiency, they largely made up for with an incredible energy. Even as bad as the sound is (you can't really use the term "production" here...), you can hear this youthful power, this burning intensity, this unbreakable will to play faster and with more aggression that you will find in Heresy's demo and flexi later on. This recording IS the essence of raw punk. There is no pretense of artistry, no hesitation, no frills. This is raw hardcore punk played as fast as possible without thinking about musicianship or recording details. There is a spontaneity that you cannot fake and that you cannot recreate with fancy effects, vintage gears or a monstrous record collection. You could argue that the lack of self-reflection is what made recordings such as these possible in the early 80's. For a genre such as "raw punk" (assuming it is one at all, and not an anachronistic and random term used cluelessly) too much intentionality cannot work.

Second, we have with Plasmid one early example of British hardcore. By this term I mean that we have a blend of British Discharge-influenced bands and international hardcore-punk. It has to be said that Plasmid members themselves retrospectively claimed that their primary influences at the time were Discharge, Antisect and Anti-System, and listening to the demo one can definitely agree with that. But at the time, in a 1983 handout given with the tape, the list was much longer and not only contained a lot of anarcho bands such as The Mob, Anthrax or Flux, but also bands like Varukers, GBH or Abrasive Wheels. So on this side, Plasmid was certainly a band of its time, at the national crossroads between anarchopunk and the Discharge school.

However, it would be a mistake to restrict Plasmid's influences to Britain only. For instance, where  bands like Warwound or Violent Uprising pretty much kept to local dis-ness, Plasmid borrowed from other scenes as well. Indeed, as the Heresy chapter of "Trapped in a scene" reveals, the members of Plasmid also listened to a lot of hardcore as they traded tapes with Dig from Earache records. You can guess that they were really into Mob 47 (especially the drummer), Anti-Cimex and fast Scandinavian bands in general, but also Wretched (who had recently played in England), Siege or BGK. What made Plasmid different from influential local bands is that they also had this influence from abroad that made them thrive to play faster and faster (a common obsession apparently at the time when one also reads the Napalm Death Chapter). The result is a tornado of musical insanity that blends Antisect, Discharge, Wretched, Mob 47 and Disorder. The distinct Boston influence that Heresy is most renowned for will only come later. Here you have pummeling Mob 47-style drums with a distorted guitars playing sped-up early Antisect riffs, some Chaos UK/Disorder flavoured breaks, and a snotty singer who barks (or does he quack?) continuously albeit rather indistinctly (a Wretched influence perhaps). Even through the myst of noise, one can discern that the songs are actually solid and really energetic like the backbone to the future Heresy. 

Before discussing the lyrics and the aesthetics of Plasmid, let's have a brief yet epic word about this reissue. It is stunning. It honestly couldn't have been done better. In fact, this record is probably the best-looking, most comprehensive Ep reissue that I own. In later years, there has been a trend to reissue records exactly identical to the original, which is fine since it allows one to play the "let's-pretend-I-was-around-in-1984" game but still lacks the background information about the context of production of the band (and often the context is as crucial as the text). Here you have both, original artworks, lyrics, two inserts, liner-notes from band members now as well as how they introduced themselves then, a gatefold cover that turns into a poster in true Crass fashion. If they had included an old-looking patch, it would have been the reissue of the decade. If I had only one complaint, it would be that the cover is really not that great when compared to the amazing artwork inside the record. Indeed, if you are initially clueless about the band (and let's face it, a lot of people are), the cover is not very likely to entice you. I know, I am a picky bastard when it comes to all-important things.   

If Plasmid played hardcore-punk, their approach to music as conveyed throughout the topics of their songs and their visual quality was firmly ensconsed in the early anarchopunk scene. Not that there is any discrepancy in that, Antisect were as much an anarcho band as D&V, anarchopunk being supposed to be a way of doing things and a shared set of values, and not a genre. Still there are specific signs that indicate that one is entering vintage anarchopunk territory as construed by the British punks in the 80's: anti-war songs, the threat of a nuclear annihilation, animal abuse, the destructiveness of those in power and so on. The song "Lust for power" is about power-hungry politicians waging wars for their interests while discarding the very real effects of conflicts on populations (the careful geek will notice some Discharge intertextuality with the line "Lives are squandered"). Despite the Discharge nod, the lyrics to the song are rather long and more akin to an Anti-System number in terms of writing. The lyrics to two other songs are provided ("Cry of hunger" about starvation and poverty and "Immortal shadows" about victims of a nuclear fallout coming back from the dead!) but they don't appear on the demo. I guess the lyrics to the four other songs have been lost and you would be pretty lucky to understand them by just listening to them, in fact you would probably get a nobel price nomination by achieving this true feat.     

The absence of some of the lyrics doesn't, by any means, imply that you don't get much to read: as already mentioned, you have a two-page history of Plasmid written by Steve and Garn (with, as a bonus, the short review of the demo Pus did for MRR back then comparing Plasmid to fellow noise merchants Chaos UK and Asylum) as well as a text about bloodsports and fox-hunting and one text written by the band as a handout accompanying the demo. The reissue is packed with fantastic cut'n'paste artwork with top-notch drawings (the punk-skeleton doing the peace sign should have been used for a shirt... any taker?) and superb anarcho-influenced symbolism and slogans. As I said, this is possibly the loveliest Ep reissue that I have seen and one that the record label, Shortfuse records (also responsible for records from Lärm, Ripcord or Uniform Approach), must be very proud of.  

I obviously cannot recommend this enough. If you don't already own this geezer, it might very well be the best thing you can get for a fiver in 2015. 

Part Antisect, part The Mob. An anarcho wet dream.

The gatefold poster with another Antisect nod for the road.

Lust for power!

  

Bug Central "Money and riots" Ep, 2000

Reading news about Class War today inspired me to post this Ep. What with the successful Poor Doors protest and the current occupation of a building to resist gentrification, CW has a youthful and outrageous energy - the age of the participants notwithstanding - that I greatly enjoy. And having banners with "wankers" written under pictures of prominent members of the political class is as childish as it is wonderful, not to mention empowering and, who knows, effective. Just like a healthy slice of punk-rock, right? For some reason, while reading Ian Bone's blog, I thought that Bug Central would be the perfect soundtrack for a Class War action. It is angry, politically-charged, direct and snottier than a bus full of teenagers.

One can meaningfully associate Bug Central with the late 90's/early 00's London anarchopunk scene that saw bands like Active Slaughter or Riot/Clone at the top of their game. The band formed in 1996 and originally had a former X-Cretas member on drums. They were really active until 2002 then seemed to have taken a long break before kicking back to life in 2008. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that Bug Central is to the UK anarchopunk sound what Zero Tolerance (assuming you read my earth-shattering post about their album) is to the UK82 one. Both bands were around at the same time, probably from the same generation and shared that genuine, sincere approach to music. Like Zero Tolerance, Bug Central was not a referential band, and although they were undeniably influenced by bands like Subhumans, Anthrax, Liberty or Riot/Clone, I would venture that they didn't really intend to sound like them, as if it were not intentional but rather something that came naturally to them because they overplayed "Religious war" or "Capitalism is cannibalism" at home or something. Anyway... Expect some nasty, tuneful mid-tempo punk-rock with distinctive vocals that definitely sets the band apart if you ask me. Just like the music, the voice sounds effortlessly angry and threatening without ever being forceful or parodic (it reminds me of one of the singers of Cress actually), a rare feat if you really think about it. The music is not spectacular or especially original but it does a perfect job at providing the listener with a slightly updated version of the early 80's anarcho sound and I like to think than it does it better than bands who purposely have that kind of agenda and, more often than not, fail because they just try too hard.

Lyrics show that the boys were not too happy with the state of things and thanks fuck for that. "Money and riots", the best track on the Ep, is about capitalism, poverty and social classes; "Smart-bombs for the nation" (I apologize for the few skips...) is about the alienating power of television; "Bank job" is an Intensive Care cover (not the 80's band, the latter one from London) and "Halo projector" is a song against religious loonies and their dangerous fear of God. The Ep also includes a short text about punks who are stuck in the past and are just a parody of themselves, wallowing in self-complacency and being self-righteous armchair critics. Next to this text, the band provided a list of contacts of worthy struggles to support such as Class War, the ALF or the AFA.

My version of this 2000 Ep is the North-American one, released on Arson Records from Canada, a label that also put out a really good live from Amebix ("Make some fucking noise") as well as Besk and Kakistocracy records. The UK version was released on BBP records, a label that was responsible for the Icons of Filth live Ep and the Nausea/Jesus Chrust/Apostates tape that I posted on the blog a while ago, as well as excellent tapes from anarcho bands like Alternative or Civilised Society? in the 80's. For some strange reason, Bug Central's first Lp had been released on Helen of Oi! just one year before, an oddity that I still can't really explain... Maybe the label was drawn to the 80's sound of the band? To the band's direct approach to politics? Maybe they didn't bother reading the lyrics? Whatever the reason is, it is a little absurd to see a Oi label releasing an anarchopunk record... Oh well, if Hard Skin were able to fool them... Maybe they couldn't read?

Money and riots