mercoledì 21 febbraio 2018

Sistema Para La Violencia

When Discogs surfaced in the record market, I've immediately quit using eBay for buying. I was tired of auctions that ended for way more than the real value of a record, shill bidding and all the other bullshits you had to deal with the infamous auction site. In its early days, Discogs seemed to be a more fair place to buy rare records from. Almost everything was priced honestly and you didn't have to deal with boring bid fights anymore. Like all the good things, it didn't last for too long. Once a record was sold for a high price, the next copies were of course priced way more expansive. It didn't matter if they were in worse conditions or missed something. Prices skyrocked over the last 10 years. And to say fair grading disappered is an understatement. But, overall, it seems like good deals online are still out there if you are patient. Recently a first press of Herpes "medellin" 7" popped up for an extremely good price. It was from a new seller with zero feedback and  it was graded VG/G+ so I was a bit sceptical about the real conditions. But the price was too good not to take a chance. Not only the record took only three days to land in my mailbox but, to my surprise, it was one of those rare cases when a record is not simply conservatively graded, it's totally undergraded! While I was expecting something totally thrashed & partied and a few pops and tons of surface noise were expected at least, it turned out to be in pristine conditions and it plays perfectly. Couldn't ask for more, especially for one of my most sought-after records of the last 10+ years. I've already talked about this EP here, so I won't waste more words about it. I'll just add that it was a real pain in the ass to find a proper plastic sleeve for the stupid oversized cover. Never understood why colombian bands/labels printed such big covers....
At this point I've almost completed my medellin hc/punk collection. I just miss 5 eps. Please get in touch if you can help, I'd love to finish it this year.

mercoledì 14 febbraio 2018

GRIEF interview 2000

Not a huge fan of sludge but I do really enjoy the big names from the 90s. And Grief, along with Corrupted, were the undisputed kings of this sub-genre back then. Taken from #2 of canadian 'zine Infection that came out around 2000.

venerdì 9 febbraio 2018

Ruido Unidad Ideologia

You know, a scene is solid when even an obscure compilation that totally lacks of the classic big names is flawless. V.A. "Ruido Unidad Ideologia" lp, presumably self-released by the bands in 1991, is the perfect example of the aforementioned theory. I've been praising old & modern mexican hardcore for a long time, but this compilation explains it all. Like old italian hc/punk, all the bands from this scene sound unique and with that peculiar urgency that makes a hc band great. Even the most obscure ones. Here are featured four bands with 3 tracks each: Clamor Inexorable, KK Core, Libertad Para Todos & Adictos Al Ruido. Not only this is the only appearance on wax for all of them. It's also their only release ever. I know KK Core put out a killer demo and I've been told that there's an Adictos Al Ruido rehearsal tape flowing around (if you have more infos, please share them!). But this lp is the only official artefact left for the posterity. Yet, all the four bands featured here bloody rule. Not only they rule, they all also have a peculiar sound that don't make them sound like the clone of any other of their contemporary country mates. One of my fave compilation ever, glad I finally scored a copy for a decent price. Not sure about the pressing infos, but I've been told recently that almost all mexican old records were pressed in a quantity of 1000 copies since the pressing plants wouldn't simply press in lesser number. Comes with a nice inserts with all the infos you need.

mercoledì 31 gennaio 2018

Colhendo Desespero

Not for everyone. You've probably seen this sentence often associated with bands, labels or zines that wanted to give themselves a trve underground aura. You know, just to give you the feeling you're part of something special & exclusive. But, in an era where both punk/hc & extreme metal have been decontextualized and deprived of their original meaning to become another meaningless product for insecure teens looking out for an easy rebellious identity, it just sounds like mere posturing. Although, it still fits in perfectly for a band like Putrefacao Humana. Here we are entering in one of the darkest corner of brazilian noisecore underground. A very obscure band from the early 90s that's almost unlistenable. And when I say this, I mean that this trio makes bands like Ulster, Necrobutcher or Noise sound overproduced and polished. Shit-fi recording and noise not music attitude at their worst (or best, according to your point of view). Before being repressed on wax for the first and only time three years ago, "Colhendo Desespero" was originally released as a demo tape in 1994 and, according to the artwork, it features 85 tracks. But, unlike more "organized" noise bands like Anal Cunt or GBN(!!), here you can't really say when a track start and finishes. It's just a blurred mess 'till side one ends. Then, you'll flip it to side B and it's again an aural butchery until the end. Honestly, everything is so messed up and confused that it can only make you say: "what the fuck is going on here?". But that's part of the charm of it: while their resources were obviously very limited, they still put so much passion and energy in what they were doing to make the final result epic. This was pressed in a limited quantity of 300 copies and it's still available out there. But, seriously, it's not for everyone. It's just for the true noisecore fanatics!

martedì 23 gennaio 2018

Desastre Humano

Last summer I visited Nicaragua. While organizing our trip, I realized that my knowledge of this country's scene started & ended with Sacred Reich "surf nicaragua" 12" (great song, btw). I've asked to some internet nerds who seem to know every obscure band from the most remote places on earth with no success. On the process of trying to get any infos, I've ended up chatting with this guy from Costa Rica on instagram. He knew jackshit about nicaraguan scene but at least he introduced me to Flor De Cana (the best Rum from there) for which I of course developed an addiction as soon as I landed in Managua. He also got me curious about Costa Rica so I started looking around for good bands from there as well. One of my first discover was grindcore band Exacerbacion. When I saw they had an ep on SPHC, I knew I must check them out. Flash forward to 6 months later, and I've finally managed to get a copy of their "Desastre Humano" 7". This is old school grindcore the way it was supposed to be played: songs are fucking memorable, not just mere blast beats & virtuosity bullshit. Music is raw and brutal but, on the other side, they keep it simple and direct and, most importantly, they have great catchy riffs as well, if that makes any sense when we are talking about grindcore. Kinda like Terrorizer, if you got my point. These guys have been releasing tapes & records in the underground scene for 10 years but, since they are not coming from a cool western country, they are not getting the recognition they definitely deserve. And that's a shame, since this is some of the best grindcore I've listened to in the last 10 years. So do yourself a favour and check them out since Exacerbacion simply rules!

venerdì 12 gennaio 2018

Danger Situation

Αντίδραση"Κατάσταση Κινδύνου". No, I'm not trying to improve the intellectual level of this blog by throwing down random greek letters to get rid of you dumb punks. I'm talking about one of the highlights of the greek punk/hardcore scene: Antidrasi (reaction) debut lp "Κατάσταση Κινδύνου" (danger situation). The greek scene has always been not well-known outside of their borders. I guess  the main reason was the language barrier: their peculiar alphabet made it simply impossible for non-greek speaking fans to remember the band's names. Nonetheless, in the early 80s' greece had a strong punk scene with incredibly solid bands such as Stress or Γενιά Του Χάους (Chaos Generation). While hardcore was already sprouting all around europe, over there it erupted only around mid/late 80s'. One of the first band doing it was Antidrasi. Their 1989 debut ep "Αίμα Στους Δρόμους" (blood in the streets), released by Wipe Out! Records, is unanimously recognized as the very first hardcore slab of wax that ever came outta greece (one of my TOP WANT, by the way). Their debut full length was released the following year on the same label and it's a milestone: rough, without compromises and energic HC with a sound and songwriting that remind a lot hc/punk bands from mexico & south america from the very same period. You know I'm a sucker for this kind of sound so I immediately felt in love for Antidrasi as soon as I discovered them recently (never paid attention to the greek scene until recently, shame on me!). The artwork features a zombie-cop with a greek flag dripping blood so, even if you don't understand a single word of their lyrics, it's not too hard to figure out that they are not talking about tzatziki or moussakà. Greece has always had a strong political protest tradition (as we saw as well in recent years), so of course it's not a big surprise that its punk/hc bands are extremely political.
There are three presses of this record: the first one from comes with a 'zine, 2 posters and stickers (if you can provide scans, please get in touch); a repress from the same year without inserts and different labels (the one I got) and a third and final press from 1993 on red wax. I've got mine for very cheap so it's not that hard to find a copy for a good price if you look around...