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Hello and thanks for reading. I have not been home very much since the last newsletter, which also means I have not been playing many records at all. I do listen to music at work a lot, but it’s usually digital. I can’t even tell you what I was jamming this last week though. My brain is feeling pretty foggy. I unexpectedly woke up today feeling like shit, so I did not come into work. I was going to bail on the newsletter, but on second thought I decided to write about one of the records that was featured in this week’s Hardcore Knockouts. It’s kind of funny to me how bad DESTRUCKTIONS beat VARAUS. I think that DESTRUCKTIONS are really good, but I think that VARAUS’s songs are more memorable to me. Maybe DESTRUCKTIONS is more popular because they were active after the 80s? They’ve also had more reissues. There’s no particular reason why I paired them together for the match, except that I recently got the VARAUS record and was looking for another Finnish 12” to put them against. I’ve had the DESTRUCKTIONS LP for a long time and it really was not that hard to find when compared to other Finnish records. VARAUS seems to be extremely rare. I’ve only ever seen one in person, and that was literally in Finland when we went on tour earlier this year. It’s ironic this record is so rare because I too commonly hear the story of someone finding their copy for something like $15 or even $2, but of course this is a very long time ago, before the internet started dictated the going rate for records. Regardless, it’s crazy to think about something so rare going for so cheap.
I should’ve taken the time to do some proper nerding before writing, but I didn’t plan for this staff pick. I think the first pressing of the 12” had 200 copies and the repress in this poster sleeve had 150. I’m really not sure, but Finnish punk/hardcore bands often pressed stuff in small quantities back in the 80s. I think their 7” had 300 copies pressed. Anyway, I think I’m just explaining how rare it is in my head, since it was the most expensive record I have ever bought! Haha. TAMPERE SS would probably be around the same I paid on this one, but that was a not-so-straightforward deal with cash and trade. If I can remember right, Anarkist Attack was the most expensive record I ever bought for a really long time. I remember when the most I’d spend on a record was $50. That amount went up to around $100 fairly quickly, and I feel like it hovered there for years. It’s hard to remember, but I think the SVART FRAMTID or maybe BANNLYST 7” was the first record I ever spent more than $100 on. After that, it was all downhill. Or uphill? Haha.
I am no longer in denial of being a collector, but I like to think that I’m not as pretentious or snobby as many of those I encounter on the internet. I always pick up a good reissue, mail order from labels I wanna support, and of course I buy records from bands at gigs. The one thing about an 80s pressing of a record, though, is that like nine times out of ten it is gonna sound so damn good. I know this isn’t always the case, especially when the recording wasn’t the greatest. The interesting thing about tons of Finnish hardcore records is that they were recorded with professional engineers. If you didn’t know, tons of bands would be working with engineers who hated them and who obviously hated their music. Typically, bands could afford just enough time to record one take of each song. Regardless of the conflicts these bands would encounter during record sessions, the results were phenomenal. I remember reading about the original VARAUS 12” online, and how bad the sound was. Not that the band was recorded poorly necessarily, but that tape they used was shit or something. In the Svart reissue of the 000 7”, they explained a similar situation they had when they recorded. The engineer didn’t give a shit about them and recorded them on a heavily used tape. The volume is kinda all over the place, and even falls out at times on the original pressing of that record.
The VARAUS 12” material was reissued on a discography CD in the 90s and later on LP in the 2000s. I’m pretty sure the vinyl version was just made from the CD master, since it’s the same track list. The unfortunate thing about the reissues is that they are missing three songs from the original 12”. I had read that when they were mastering the audio for the reissue, they decided these tracks were no longer usable. Obviously, it couldn’t be that bad since the reissue sounds really good and I have heard the rip on YouTube, but I was really curious what to expect when it came to the real deal. It felt pretty crazy to open up the parcel. I actually felt pretty crazy for days after, knowing this record was now tucked away in my shelves. I don’t think that feeling has disappeared either, really. It was packed like mad, which I really appreciated of course. The dude said it was NM, and NM it was indeed. I laid the needle down and the speakers were overwhelmed with that fuzzy VARAUS guitar tone.
When it came to the sound stuff I read about, it was apparent once I was able to play the original. The recording is good, and the pressing sounds nice. It’s not like the 000 7”. It’s not apparent immediately, but on a few songs you can actually hear another band in the background! I think I heard harmonica? Not really sure, but there’s something going on there, haha. I can hear some Finnish folk-type singing here and there too. This stuff doesn’t just happen between songs, but even between some quiet parts. I’m probably making it sound a lot worse than it really is, cos the record does sound really good and you gotta be paying attention to catch this stuff, but it is certainly there. It’s silly to think about some Finnish folk stuff being recorded on this tape before some raw hardcore shit like VARAUS. It also makes me wonder what the sound source for the reissue was, cos maybe they didn’t even have the original tape anymore? I’m gunna have to get back on that one. Alright that’s it for the week. Thanks for reading. And thanks A TON to all of those who bought records off me last month so I could pay off this sucker!!