V/A Epidemie LP
Volumes have been written about Eastern Euro punk, and I feel like I’m going to keep discovering new (old) sounds as long as I’m breathing. This 1990 compilation was reissued last year, and featured one band I knew (TELEX) and seven more that I am fast becoming obsessed with—KRITIKÁ SITUACE, ZELENÍ KANIBALOVÉ, PLEXIZ, SVOBODY SLOVO, S.P.S., AKUTNÍ OTRAVA, and WANASTOWI VJECY. I’ll spare you the tedious band-by-band analysis and just say that literally every track here is a killer, and fans of Czech/Slovak punk will rejoice. A few bands on the more melodic tip and a few slightly more metallic, but everything falls in the realm of dark and stark Iron Curtain punk and I couldn’t be more thrilled.