Records of the Week: Never Mind the Taqwacores… & CHORNAYA RADUGA EPs
Out fourth and final Record of the Week feature focusing on seven new releases from Luk Haas’ incredible Tian An Men 89 Records label. Go to tam89records.com for more info on these releases, and check out Maximum Rocknroll‘s October issue for all of these reviews and many, many more!
Never Mind the Taqwacores Here Is the Real Deal compilation 7″
Of course I’m fascinated by this compilation of Pakistani bands. I want to know to what extent expatriates versus native Pakistanis are involved in these bands and scene(s). Unfortunately, for the bands that do have contact information, some of the links (to Facebook) seem inoperable. Scoping the others didn’t answer my questions, so I’m still ignorant. From listening to the comp I can tell you metal and grind are big influences. MARG gives us a bouncy, mid-tempo track with languid vocals and some noodly guitar leads. The lyrics (translated into English) critique society. CORNHOLE‘s track, “Beards in Power,” is catchy enough through the verses, losing something on the chorus. BVLGHVM plays a standard nasty grind with rather short songs. CHOOTS (which apparently translates as “vaginas,” though any subtleties there may be lost on me) play a quick, fast metal track, with the vocals dominating over the music. “There isn’t a tunnel with fucking light, ain’t no pearly gates, ain’t no Satan to torture you, there is nothing.” MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION plays a heavy grind attacking religion with lyrics in English and a native language. FORESKIN precede their track with what I believe is a sample of the BAD BRAINS, before attacking “faggots” who don’t headbang. “Break those mental barriers and run to the fucking front.” This song is about 25 seconds long. GLORIFIED WHORE MONGERS play some demo-quality metal, which I prefer to the work of BATHORY, who seem an influence. KAFIR E AZAM has a short, well-executed grind track. Overall I’m more excited about there being kids into metal and grind in Pakistan than I am for much of the music here, though a few of these songs I’d be glad to hear wherever they’d originated from.
—Jeff Mason
CHORNAYA RADUGA – All of Us Will Fly… EP
This 7″ appears on the always-interesting Tian An Men 89 Records, that has been putting out records by punks who live in parts of the world where they lack the resources to do it themselves. The label is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. On this release, they bring us Bender’s (Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic) CHORNAYA RADUGA, who belts out four songs of post-metal that is informed by emotional hardcore and melodic punk. The first track, “War,” begins with a bomb siren and launches into a depressive, downtrodden song about the business of war. The other three songs delve deeper into the post-metal side of their sound and almost resembles nu-metal in a few moments, but those moments are (thankfully) brief. There are also some solid, confident guitar solos taking up a good chunk of time in these songs. This is a solid release for fans of this style.
—Greg Harvester
