V/A News From Another Side LP
Records like this are a funny thing to me—I’m not sure what these bands have that brings them together. COLERA is a Brazilian hardcore band that has been around since the late ’70s (I thought it was the early ’80s, but I was wrong). They get seven songs, some new, some not. RAZOR KIDS are from Scotland, I believe they’ve been around for a bit. They get four cuts. Lastly, the ZIPS are a relatively new Portuguese band. They get three tracks. If you know COLERA, you’ll know what to expect. Classic South American hardcore. Fairly catchy, straightforward. It’s what you’d expect from them. I reviewed the RAZOR KIDS late last year on another weird split EP. They deliver four solid cuts of COCK SPARRER-inspired Oi!. And the ZIPS play super-melodic, mid-tempo power pop, and they do it very nicely. Still a head-scratcher as to how these three ended up on the same record, but I’ll take it.