Reviews

General Speech

Blaze Still Nothing Ever Change LP+CD

An all-around great compilation of highly ferocious, emotive, and danceable Japanese hardcore from the early ’90s. I found the vocals and repetitive structure to be annoying at first, but if “Skill!,” “Why,” and “But Nothing Ever Change” don’t immediately hit your pleasure receptors, then you should give up on hardcore. The glossy record contains a booklet with extraordinary colored mohawks and crusty street punk looks, but the real substance lies within the CD collection containing all studio material plus seven extra demo tracks. I’ve never heard anyone play drums like this and the mastering is perfect, allowing everything to come through crystal clear. I would say the LP and CD combo is the way to go on this one. An essential reissue considering you’re getting all the bands’ output for only like 1/5th the price of the original 7”.

Deef 脳 (Nou) LP

DEEF existed for a short period in Sapporo at the beginning of the ’80s. They played fast-paced, primitive but bouncy hardcore punk that was more guitar-centric with radical rock’n’roll elements than focusing solely on ear-torturing noise, which is present in their sound but probably unintentional due to limited recording tools. Imagine a wilder style of rocking-era STALIN; it’s slashing, wild teenage angst rock played pretty tight, but with enough filth that is equally raw and has a secret society sort of bedroom raging vibe. Not the screaming into your pillows, but “setting up a rehearsal in your room” type of noise, behind locked door vibes. But most likely, everyone who loves this sort of punk already knows them, and we are now happy their music can be listened to outside of the dubbed-to-digital punk tape realm. Knowing the dedication of the General Speech fanzine and label, the members have been involved in the creation of this reissue, so I guess it’s good feedback that people still want the music that you made while you were young and find it relevant, even if hardcore is great because it’s about the present. But DEEF is great because the urgency and the wild admiration of speed is in every second of their record. Their youth angst has been recorded and speared, and now it takes a new form. Also, it is another great example of how the deeper you dig in hardcore, the more interesting records you find. The unfiltered and underproduced charm makes me excited, and I simultaneously try to theorize what their actual influences could have been while they capture my attention—I feel as if they are the only band that exists while the record spins. An accompanying info sheet briefly concludes the band’s story, but it also mentions how slow records/influences traveled back then, and how isolated DEEF was from the rest of the scene. This record collects their tape, a comp, a few unreleased songs, and a couple live tracks in chronological order, so as we move along, things get wilder. This is a great record, but most likely it’s not a surprise for most of its listeners and future owners. But for these fans, its release is a labor of love for sure.

Deef Real Control LP

Real Control is DEEF’s second individual release, originally put out on tape in 1984. They started as teenagers, a time when within a short period, significant changes can happen within your taste of music. Luckily, they did not approach songwriting drastically differently. It is still aggressive, exciting punk, in its most raw and primitive way without being overly noisy or filthy. Again, it’s speed that introduces most of the vehemence, but intensity is present in slower jams such as “We Kill All Punk Rock Heroes.” The same info sheet that is included for the Nou reissue is also present here, mentioning DEEF’s isolation. Sonically, this makes them rootless in the sense that it’s so visceral that sometimes it sounds as if they have only read about hardcore punk and tried to reproduce it from imagination, not that it is so out-of-place or sort of avant garde, and it’s rarely reusing lifted gimmicks from other classic records. This is why these reissues are relevant and still sound fresh, because the music on them, even if heard many times, remains new because teenagers made it without having a clue or caring too much about whatever things current bands consider when playing music. The bass sound is more meaty; the distortion has been turned up on the guitars yet they are at the back of the mix, so you have to pay attention to get the real noise-punk element. I like the mid-tempo evil songs and the overdriven vocals, but it is still very rock’n’roll. It’s not only an interesting artifact from an old scene, but this record would be a hit even today. The goal of today’s bands would be to make something this fresh after having heard this record, too. The LP includes an info sheet, a photo booklet of the era, a postcard, and a sticker. One of the great second acts of hardcore punk is the possibility that decades after your existence, maniacs like General Speech could re-release your stuff.

Felchers Felchers LP

Solid hardcore punk record in the vein of BLACK FLAG, RKL, and fellow midwesterners ZERO BOYS. Surf-y drums, dynamic riffs, heavy reverb and treble on the guitars, and wreck-your-throat raw vocals. They catch you off guard, and keep you enthralled through all sixteen tracks, like mid-tempo rocker “Decimal” which features some weird horn or something. Maybe just a poorly played saxophone? Whatever it is, it’s punk.

Legion of Parasites Undesirable Guests 12″ reissue

I love discovering bands that were orbiting some of the major players in the punk scene back in the day but never received much recognition—bands you see on old flyers from a CRASS gig but never really hear. LEGION OF PARASITES is one such example, and after doing some research and hearing some of their material, I’m bummed that they weren’t able to take off more than they did. LEGION OF PARASITES were a UK anarcho-punk band active in the mid-to-late ’80s who played as a support act for everyone from CONFLICT to BROKEN BONES. After a whimper of a demo, they pulled themselves together and released this, their first 12” Undesirable Guests, receiving more if not still minimal acclaim. LEGION OF PARASITES have a sound similar to many of the bands on the CRASS label, but stand out for their wild drumming, excellent SUBHUMANS-esque vocal delivery, and surprisingly catchy tunes. Each song here is strong, and as mentioned before, the drumming is out of control. Check out the D-beat on “Party Time” and the galloping bounce on “Eroded Freedom.” These are genuinely good songs and I’m left scratching my head as to why I don’t hear these guys talked about more. Oh well, at least now thanks to General Speech we can all listen to what we’ve been missing.

Puncture Mucky Pup / You Can’t Rock and Roll 7″ reissue

General Speech is a shoo-in for 2024’s reissue label of the year. Those DEEF LPs, the LEGION OF PARASITES 12”, those two DIE ÖWAN collections—just absolutely essential shit! And this reissue of PUNCTURE’s 1977 classic, the 7” that kickstarted Small Wonder Records (one of the first independent punk labels in the UK) is quite the cherry to throw on top of all that. For my money, “Mucky Pup” is one of the best (and maybe punkest!) numbers to come out of the UK’s second wave. Just an absolute burner of a track, a two-minute ode to being a gross teen from a bunch of gross teens who preferred the DAMNED to the PISTOLS and were too Cockney to be bothered with all the bondage pants and safety pins of their contemporaries, looking instead like they’d been outfitted at the UK’s equivalent of Sears. The track’s loutish attitude would serve as inspiration for the emerging streetpunk subgenre—in fact, the EXPLOITED covered it on their debut LP—and its unbridled immaturity (including some extremely wild synth racketry) ultimately earned it a spot on one of the Killed by Death compilations. It’s really great…but you likely already know that. What you’re less likely to be familiar with, though, is this B-side. “You Can’t Rock and Roll” is less a punk track in the KBD sense and closer to one in the Nuggets sense. It sounds like one of the more R&B-influenced beat groups (let’s say the YARDBIRDS circa 1964), but it’s stripped back to the point of almost qualifying as a skiffle number. But with an attitude straight out of a kitchen sink drama and a yobbo-ass sense of humor, it ends up sounding undoubtedly punk. Fuck—I just love it! What an incredible 7”!

The Last Survivors 2001​–​2016 LP

“Important” is an understatement when describing this band. The LAST SURVIVORS amalgamate the raw energy of UK82 with the ferocity of Scandinavian hardcore, delivering a relentless sonic assault that leaves listeners electrified. Their music pulsates with the unbridled spirit of rebellion, echoing the grit and determination characteristic of their predecessors. This LP collects their 7″s on Crust War, Dan-Doh, and Pogo 77, as well as other rare tracks, fully remastered for vinyl. In the words of Jacky Crust War: “There were some bands we couldn’t ignore. That was the one, the LAST SURVIVORS.”

The Swankys The Very Best of Hero LP reissue

The SWANKYS played punk with a wild, untamed style most of the time. They range from their beginnings having some ’77-style punk influence, and then starting to play more hardcore-style while still writing songs with some melody, or just playing ripping hardcore that reminds me slightly of the BRISTLES from Sweden. This says it was mastered at Abbey Road Studios, if I’m reading it correctly. General Speech is doing a great job bringing this kind of thing to us.I have a feeling that this could be sold out by the time anyone reads this.