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Split cassette with the UK powerhouse Total Con and Floridian freaks the Troops promoting the destruction of the authority that holds us down globally.
Our take: Split cassette from these two USHC-obsessed projects working at the highest registers of energy and the lowest registers of fidelity. The UK’s Total Con is a one-person project from Bobby of the Annihilated, and he’s had a prolific run lately with a few blasts of raw and immediate early 80s USHC worship on small cassette labels. These four new tracks are as nasty as one would hope, with some of YDI’s desperate but heavy energy, and the cover of Hüsker Dü’s “M.I.C.” is a classy hat-tip. The Troops from Florida have an even more blown-out recording, but they parallel Total Con by starting with a sample and giving us three originals and a classic cover. The Troops remind me of early 80s US bands that took a lot from Discharge—think Crucifix, Final Conflict, Against—and their Ultra Violent cover shows their bona fides while also reminding us that band had more than just one good song. Both sides here are raw, nasty, and punk as fuck.