All Things to All People Vol. 26 (Best of 2017) B/W Featured Release Roundup

Amyl & the Sniffers: Big Attraction / Giddy Up 12” (Homeless) Debut vinyl from this Australian band (collecting two earlier cassette releases) and I don’t think I’ve been this taken with a new artist for months. To my ears, Amyl & the Sniffers sound like a punked-up version of classic pub rock (or whatever music it is that sharpies listened to)… specifically, they sound like their countrymen the Coloured Balls injected with the energy and concision of X-Ray Spex’s best tracks. It’s a good formula, but Amyl & the Sniffers are far more than just a formula… songs range from the primitive, explosive punk of “Someone Stole My Push Bike” to the pop euphoria of “I’m Not a Loser” or “Mandalay” to the stretched-out, stoned boogie of “Balaclava Lover Boogie.” The songs themselves are pretty much out-of-this-world outstanding, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the singer… she’s just fantastic. Her whole persona just drips with charisma, providing a central focal point for the band that you just can’t look away from (literally or metaphorically). If you like catchy, energetic punk in the ’77 tradition (especially if you don’t mind a little pub rock mixed in a la Eddie & the Hot Rods or Slaughter & the Dogs) I really can’t recommend this one highly enough.

Double O / Red C: Demos 12” (Euro Import) Unofficial release collecting these two DC bands’ demo tape releases. While Double O and Red C share vaguely similar names and both very much fly under the typical harDCore radar, they’re very different bands. Red C are kind of a quintessential teenage punk band… they can barely play and their songs are very simple and straightforward, but they’re nevertheless really fun. Concurrently with spinning this 12” a few times over the past week or so I’ve also been reading the anthology of XXX zine and it’s amazing to me how young some of the people who participated in the initial explosion of hardcore were. I mean, I’m still playing and listening to this music and I’m 38 years old, but a lot of these kids were 16-18 years old (sometimes even younger!) and while that can show in the lack of sharpness in their playing (as it does on the Red C demo), it also means that they’re able to get across a sense of naive enthusiasm that older, more polished bands simply can’t capture. However, while Red C’s demo is a really interesting document of that whole teenage hardcore band phenomenon, I’d argue that Double O are a legitimately powerful and crucially underrated band, and that’s definitely apparent on their tracks here. While this recording is looser and rawer than their EP (which I really can’t recommend highly enough), what you hear here is already confident and powerful, easily able to stand toe to toe with any of the best early Dischord bands (excepting, possibly, Minor Threat). While the packaging here certainly leaves something to be desired, the sound quality is on point and given the fact that this LP is the only currently-in-print Double O material I’d argue that it’s worthy of your attention.

Total Control: Laughing at the System12” (Alter) Like a lot of people, I’m sure, I was pretty excited to learn that there was a new Total Control record and I jumped online to listen to it as soon as it was available. I really liked it immediately, so I was kind of puzzled when I started seeing some people express mixed feelings toward the record on various places on the internet. It didn’t really seem to me like Laughing at the System was that much of a different record than Typical System, but after going back and listening to that record I can acknowledge that Laughing is pretty different… it’s notably devoid of the dance floor-ready beats and big choruses of Typical System, with the band instead exploring quirkier rhythms, more dissonant harmonies and more unfamiliar textures. However, these are precisely the kinds of things I’ve been interested in exploring in my own music-listening in the years since Typical System came out, so listening to Laughing at the System it sounds perfectly natural to me. Another reason why less adventurous listeners might find this to be a more “difficult” record is because all of the songs are quite different from one another. This has been the case, at least to some extent, with most of Total Control’s previous releases, but the variety on Laughing really is quite striking. However, every single track here has something that I absolutely love, whether it’s the quirky rhythm of “Laughing at the System I” (which, as a number of people have noted, sounds quite a lot like the later Whatever Brains material), the Robert Fripp-esque abstract guitar of “Vote Cops,” or the ambient Kraut-isms of “Cathie and Marg.” So, if you’re expecting Typical System Part II you might be disappointed, but if you’ve spent the years since that record working to explore all of the other corners of the record store I think you’ll love this just as much as, if not more than, any other Total Control record.

BB Eye: S/T 12” (Lumpy) I really enjoyed the BB Eye 7” a while back, but this new 12” is really a big step up from that. Given the opportunity to spread out on a 12”, BB Eye don’t just write the same song over and over, but rather explore a lot of different ideas. There’s a bit of a mix tape vibe here, but rather than sounding schizophrenic it really only serves to highlight how one-dimensional most bands are. It seems like most groups feel around for a formula that works and then work to explore how flexible that formula is, giving all of the songs on a particular release a fairly uniform aesthetic. However, BB Eye seem to deliberately avoid saving any templates, approaching each new song as if they were starting a new band. Some songs have an earworm quality (there’s no way you don’t walk away from this record humming “I want to poke you poke you poke you… in the eye!”), others get into more of a drone-y, repetitive space that reminds me of early songs by the Fall (see “Dating a Fly”), and then there’s the chilled-out new wave of “Butterball’s Lament” that closes the record on an extremely strong note. Given that it’s so all over the place this record can come off as tossed-off on the first listen, but the more it sinks in the more you realize how many interesting and memorable ideas are crammed into each song. Taken as a whole, the overall vibe of this record reminds me a lot of Brian Eno’s Here Come the Warm Jets LP… it’s the sound of very smart and ambitious musicians stretching out, exploring, and enjoying the freedom of being oblivious to the world’s expectations. I really can’t recommend this highly enough, and with a few more listens it may well replace the Janitor Scum LP as my favorite release yet on the Lumpy label.

Tarantula: Weird Tales of Radiation and Hate 7” (Deranged) Second 7” from Chicago’s Tarantula, and it continues in the vein of their excellent first record. Tarantula are exploring a space that not a lot of bands are interested in these days… if the words didn’t have such terrible associations I would call this “melodic hardcore,” i.e. music that has the speed and the gritty sound of early 80s hardcore but relies on the more traditional pop song structure of classic punk rock. The only band I can think of off the top of my head who is doing something similar is Night Birds, but Tarantula is a lot tougher and meaner-sounding. While one might consider the idea of catchy, song-oriented hardcore to be completely played out, Tarantula toe the line between poppy and aggressive so perfectly that their music feels fresh. You can hear the influences quite clearly—the snotty, aggressive punk of bands like the Angry Samoans and Zero Boys, the earnest drive of early 80s midwest hardcore like Articles of Faith and early Husker Du, and a dash of Devo / Geza X-style irreverence—but they’re swirled together in a way that’s just different enough from anything I’ve heard before to be noteworthy.

Crusade: Stay Free 1992-1993 12” (Japancore) Anthology release from this 90s Japanese crasher crust band. Generally, I try not to bring up the gender identities of musicians that I write about in these descriptions, but I think it is notable that Crusade were an all-women band, which is notable not just because all-women bands are very, very rare in the Japanese hardcore scene (Nurse is the only one who springs immediately to mind, though I may be blanking on something obvious), but because women musicians in general seem quite rare in that scene, particularly the noise / crasher scene that Crusade were involved in. I also feel somewhat authorized to bring up gender because bassist Chihiro writes eloquently in the liner notes about how some members of the scene in Osaka were skeptical that women could “really” be into punk, much less start a legit band. Well, the proof is in the pudding because Crusade did, indeed, rip. While I wouldn’t put this on the level of, say, Framtid or Gloom, the demo tracks collected on the a-side here in particular are top-notch crasher crust with a raw, brutal sound and performance to match. If you’re wondering if the band added any kind of “soft” or “feminine” touches to the music (whatever that would even mean) you’re barking up the wrong tree, because this is just pure crust brutality. While I certainly like the music quite a bit, I think my favorite part of this release is the liner notes. Chihiro’s story of how and why she started the band as well as the tragic story of how the band ended is a really gripping read and offers a small window into a scene that has always been completely draped in alluring mystery for me.

Negative Space: Gestalt 12” (Drunken Sailor) Debut LP from this UK post-punk band, and I have to say it’s quite striking. Every once in a while we get in a record at the shop that sells off the turntable every time you put it on… Gestalt is one of those records. Whenever it’s playing at the shop customers ask what it is and often buy it right away. There’s something very weighty and important-feeling about it, but it’s also rather stylish and at the same time poppy and accessible. The label’s description references Wire and Gang of Four and both of those bands are apt comparisons in that they have a similar mixture of qualities, though Negative Space are a bit grittier and sound, to me at least, like they must be informed by hardcore on at least some level. The band they really sound to me, though, is Diät, particularly their excellent Positive Energy LP on Iron Lung Records (and, I guess by extension, one might say that they sound quite a bit like Crisis too). While Negative Space don’t have quite the Total Control-level of pop sheen that Diät have, the vocalist has a very similar intonation and the songs are similarly balanced in their originality and their earworm-iness. I suppose time will tell if Gestalt is a record that people keep coming back to year after year, but it’s definitely looking that way. Even though I haven’t heard much about this group from the hype machine, it’s only a matter of time before something this well-done, engaging, and catchy becomes the hot new thing. Highly recommended.

Sial: S/T 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus) I’ve been hearing quite a lot of chatter about this debut LP from Singapore’s Sial, and when I first put it on I could immediately hear why… sometimes when I put on a record I think to myself that this is the sound of right now, the sound that I’ll think of when I remember this era of punk. I suppose that could sound like a slight—like I’m implying Sial are unoriginal or derivative—but I actually mean it in exactly the opposite way… Sial don’t sound precisely like anything that’s come before, and they combine their various influences in a way that wouldn’t (or maybe couldn’t?) have been done before this very historical moment. I hear lots of threads coming together here… the catchy, vicious punk of Criaturas, the darker, more apocalyptic (but still lightly campy) vibe of Blazing Eye, the progressivism of Una Bestia Incontrolable, and the ear-splitting production of EEL. Like I said, the elements themselves are familiar, but there’s something about the way that they come together that feels really exciting, original, and of the moment. It’s as if you’d always loved both ice cream and apple pie and then someone put the two of them together on one plate and just blew your fucking mind. If you’ve been following the various strains of forward-thinking hardcore on the La Vida Es Un Mus label this LP feels, in some respects, like a kind of denouement, or at least the synthesis of a lot of threads of thought and development. And, moreover, it is an absolutely exhilarating listen. Highly recommended.

Obediencia: Erosión 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus) In between all of the numerous raging hardcore and confrontational post-punk released on La Vida Es Un Mus, there has also been a thread of dark, melodic punk that has remained a consistent, if sporadic, feature of the label’s discography. It’s not often that LVEUM drops a release like Juanita Y Los Feos’ Nueva Numancia LP or Rata Negra’s Oido Absoluto LP, but when they do you know it’s going to be really good, and indeed that’s the case with this LP from Obediencia. On the surface Obediencia have a lot in common with the aforementioned bands—all three bands have a similar kind of production and overall sound—but Obediencia definitely have their unique points as well. In particular, the songwriting here is dynamic and interesting. The songs are really sophisticated and have a lot of subtle parts that makes the songs come off as dynamic and exciting where so many other pop-oriented bands sound kind of flat and uninteresting. Someone in this band is an incredibly talented songwriter, which is something that sinks in over a couple of listens, as the first few times I listened to this what I mainly heard was the genre, not the band’s unique approach to it. Certainly if you’re a fan of the genre—i.e. if bands like Red Dons, No Hope for the Kids or the aforementioned LVEUM acts tickle your fancy—then this is a total no-brainer, but if you like any degree of pop in your punk at all I would strongly recommend giving this a few listens and seeing if it starts to sink in. Once it finds a place on your turntable I’m pretty sure you’ll have a hard time getting it off.

Psico Galera: Senza Via Di Fuga 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus) Debut release from this new project featuring Jonah from Fucked Up / Career Suicide on drums and a couple of Smart Cops among others. Obviously the list of members has me very interested in this one, but I’m pretty sure that this would rise above the pack even if it came from a bunch of unknowns. The tack here, ostensibly, is classic Italian hardcore, and it definitely has the loose and wild quality that I tend to associate with early Italian hardcore, but there’s lot more going on here. First of all, there’s an epic quality in some places that seems to come from somewhere else… “Mani Sporche” in particular has a very triumphant tone that would probably remind me a lot of Death Side if the production weren’t decidedly more on the G.I.S.M. end of the spectrum. Second, there are a lot of curious, slightly “out there” production touches, from the “underwater” effect on some of the vocals (they sound all wobbly, sort of like the guitars on “Come as You Are” by Nirvana), some guitar tracks that are obviously out of tune (“Voci Nella Testa” uses this to great effect, which makes the song sound seriously unhinged), and SUPER loud lead guitar overdubs. I’m always a fan of the lead guitar overdub coming in twice as loud as anything else, but the playing here is at least as interesting as the production trick. Oh, and they even have a classic, old-school hardcore dirge in the last track, “Nessuna Rivincita.” So, while this definitely does what it says on the tin in that it delivers a blast of wild hardcore in the vein of the Italian classics, I think that it is actually a very unique and interesting record beyond how it pays homage to history. Here’s hoping this isn’t the last we hear of Psico Galera.

Haircut: Shutting Down 7” (Feel It) After an excellent demo, here’s the debut vinyl from Haircut. In the months since their demo I believe that the band has moved from Charlottesville to Richmond and, as is evident on this record, have largely shorn their sound of melody (the demo had a real Brain F≠ vibe in places) and gotten a lot faster and tougher. In fact, I can’t think of another recent release that so closely recalls the “peak No Way Records” era… back then it seemed like everyone was experimenting with some combination of Direct Control’s crossover-influenced riffing and Government Warning’s alternately pop-infused and blindingly fast hardcore, and Haircut sound like they could be coming from a similar place. The riffs are definitely interesting and the rhythm playing is super solid, but even without the emphasis on melody I think the vocals are what really sets Haircut apart. Juliana just has one of those voices that you want to sing along with, and that certainly sticks out in a genre that tends to be dominated by fairly uniform shouters and screamers.

Lux: S/T 12” (Discos Enfermos) Debut vinyl from this band out of Barcelona. This popped up on Bandcamp a few months ago and it’s been a favorite around Sorry State HQ ever since, so I think all of us were stoked when the vinyl finally arrived. Lux have a sound that kind of sits on the dividing line between UK82 and very raw and primitive anarcho punk, and the first thing you’ll probably notice is the very Beki Bondage-esque vocals. Indeed the vocalist is certainly the star here, as the music is very straightforward, even primitive (both in its composition and in the very loose playing), while the vocalist tends to inject the songs with subtle little melodic flourishes. If you don’t have a taste for very straightforward punk along the lines of Vice Squad or Anti Pasti you might be tempted to write this one off on the first listen, but after a couple of listens this record really grabs you… there’s a lot more going on than seems to be apparent at the first cursory listen. However, if you do like that UK82 sound of the classic bands I mentioned or newer groups like PMS 84 this is, of course, highly recommended.