Experimental punk from out of the grave. The NUCLEAR CRAYONS’ sound is dense and abrasive; their tempo is slow; their aesthetic is similar to FLIPPER’s; their musical structure is somewhat arty; and their lyrics are rather cryptic (especially in “Political Punk”). All in all, I prefer their more focused cuts on the Mixed Nuts Don’t Crack compilation.
To be creative, one needs not overtly placate our inherent need for aggro; this lot chooses the back way in much the same way a certain strain of barbed leeches swim into children’s rectums when they stop moving in the Amazon. A disc like this will languish on record shelves only because people would rather cop out on the tried and true rather than burn their big toe in the boiling hot-spring of newness. Your loss, fuckers.
An excellent DC compilation which deserves a much wider distribution than it has so far received. It contains diverse material from a number of relatively obscure bands, including garage thrash by MEDIA DISEASE, raw experimental punk by CHALK CIRCLE and the NUCLEAR CRAYONS, powerhouse thrash in a Dischord vein by SOCIAL SUICIDE, NEOS-type 78 rpm thrash by UNITED MUTATION, and garage rock by HATE FROM IGNORANCE. The gritty production accentuates the good music, so look for this.
