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DOMINANT PATRI from Luton released just one demo and played less than 15 gigs in their short existence. Formed in 1982, the band were part of an active and political punk scene in Luton based around KARMA SUTRA. They recorded and released a three track demo in June 1983 which remains one of the best kept secrets of the peace punk era. It has the tunes, production and lyrics of any classic and it deserved so much more attention. DOMINANT PATRI should have been more than just a footnote in the early 80’s punk world.
On the demo the title track Heroes Glory was a slow, brooding and hypnotic song whilst Experiment and Death of Thomas were more straight ahead Anarcho classics with dual female / male vocals that recalled DIRT,TOXIC WASTE or ALTERNATIVE.
Our take: Demo Tapes Records brings us a reissue of this obscure but worthwhile document, Dominant Patri’s 3-song 1982 demo Heroes Glory. Dominant Patri was only around for a short time, playing a handful of gigs with other punk/anarcho bands of the day and recording these three tracks. While it’s a slim legacy in terms of volume, Demo Tapes makes the most of it with incredible sound and a booklet collecting what must be every scrap of extant information about the short-lived band. As for the three songs themselves, they are gems. Stylistically, these are straight-down-the-middle anarcho-style punk, not as hardcore as the crustier bands and not as melodic as bands like Zounds, but bringing together both ends of the genre’s spectrum. It helps that these songs have a powerful recording, crystal clear and present in a way that you wouldn’t expect from a band so obscure. As the only audio document of Dominant Patri’s existence, I find myself listening to these tracks with a lot more focus and attention to detail than I otherwise would… it feels like this record is a keyhole to a wider world. That actually goes for the reissue as a whole. Some reissues can feel like a feast overwhelming you with music and visual ephemera, but Heroes Glory is like a miniature painting that you pore over and appreciate every detail. Dominant Patri might have been a blip on the radar, but they were a beautiful blip, and anyone with a taste for vintage UK anarcho will love these three tracks, even if every time we listen, we wish we could have more.