Kids of the 90's (part 9): No Prejudice / Dischord "Uma Guerra Entre Classes Pela Paz Entre Os Povos" split Lp, 1998

Believe or not, I always have to prepare mentally and physically before the start of the actual listening process when I work on a series for Terminal Sound Nuisance. Sometimes, I feel like an astronaut getting ready for his future journey into space, only I do not need as much cool technology and my journey is much less boring (I never got why people would even want to spend time in space, it looks like a snoozefest up there) although probably not as telegenic. As I prepped for Kids of the 90's, I realized that you could actually recognize and identify a lot of 90's punk records just by the looks of them. Of course, it is perfectly sensible if you take into consideration the evolution of trends and the aesthetic commonalities linked with a contextualized timeframe. But what I mean does not only have to do with covers, fonts or themes, but also with means of production. Technological advances certainly led to better, cleaner-looking productions in the following decades (even when some tried to look "vintage" and "authentic") but what really struck me is how amateurish, simple and even cheap a lot of 90's DIY punk records looked and felt. A mere sheet of paper printed on both sides and folded correctly was often good enough for the cover of an Ep. It was not all like that as you also had records with massive booklets with amazing drawings and lovely posters and everything, but for labels and bands with limited finances and logistics, you had to make do with what you had at your disposal in terms of material means. That's passion and dedication. This, in turn, resulted in a record that accurately reflected its conception and fabrication, as if the way it had been made and the efforts it took to do it were as visible and tangible as the object itself. Or maybe I have just had too much coffee this morning. Who knows. 

This 1998 split Lp reeks of this proper DIY spirit from the 90's, both in form and content. Despite its rather unsophisticated look, you can tell - even before actually listening to it - that much passion and a strong faith in the core values of punk-rock were involved in its making. If you have some kind of hippie gift and can feel vibrations, energies and whatnot, just place your hands above the cover, close your eyes, concentrate and you'll get my point. No Prejudice and Dischord were two Brazilian bands, from São Roque, in the state of São Paulo. Now, if you claim to be into punk and hardcore, sport the whole studded uniform and yet are unaware of the significance of São Paulo punk-rock, not only on a national level, and not even just on a continental one, but in the history of punk-rock as a whole, then do yourself a favour, get off instagram for a second and research some SP hardcore right now. If you can't be arsed, please leave your membership card on my desk before the end of the week. 

I cannot claim to be an expert in Brazilian punk, that would be far-fetched, but an incredible amount of bands, past and present, points to the direction of São Paulo, a monstrous industrial city that birthed Brazilian hardcore which I mean here as a genuine genre. No Prejudice and Dischord were not from SP itself, but from a nearby town, so I suspect they played in the big city quite often and the São Roque punk scene must have developed thanks to the impulse it provided. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there were hundreds of active punk bands (of all kinds) in the SP area during the 90's and to this day the punk dynamics inherent to the city are quite overwhelming. But let's get to the record, shall we? In fact, a mate of mine recommended this Lp to me arguing that it was "absolutely glorious and sloppy grindcore and crust recorded in a cave" so I obviously took the bait.

On the first side are No Prejudice. They were active during the late 90's and, all things considered, I think this first recording of theirs - from April, 1998 - rates as one of the sloppiest crust/grind records from the 90's that I own, which is no mean feat. In fact, I am not even sure the lads tuned up together or that they even cared to. It is all over the place, messy and sometimes you can tell that they play the wrong chords, if not the wrong songs, and I can imagine them looking at each other in bewilderment during a session that they must have rushed through for financial reasons. As for the production, the guitar is trebly and buried, the vocals and drums are too loud but the level of the bass is alright I guess. If you are wondering what NP sound like, just imagine an energetic and inept blend of vintage Rot, Agathocles and the great Discarga Violenta with over-the-top undecipherable vocals. And it is amazing! I bloody love it. Of course, I would not advise to play it to someone who is getting into punk or even into grindcore since the 19 songs are rough as a badger's arse and quite obnoxiously so. But NP is exactly my kind of primitive grindcore, very punky and hasty, with ridiculous dual vocals and a sense of urgency that is very similar to traditional Brazilian, Italian or Finnish hardcore. I realize that bands like NP will probably appeal to the punk, rather than the metal, side of the grindcore crowd and there were quite a lot of raw and primal grind bands like them in the 90's. Urgency and impact are two words that characterize well Brazilian hardcore so it should come as no surprise that there are still bands like this today in São Paulo (alright, maybe not as overtly messy but still). This is chaotically glorious and when I need to play some genuinely raw and disorderly fast punk music, I'd rather play NP than most of the current pseudo "raw punk" bands. It is to be noted that playing NP's side can also allow you to kick someone out of your flat without actually having to ask. Works all the time.

For all the stylistic sloppiness, NP were a very serious band and, although I am not sure the singers actually utter the words, the lyrics are political, short, honestly angry bursts against patriotism, police repression and scene elitism, and really that's exactly what I want from my grindcore. Following this split Lp, 1999 was a busy year for the band since NP appeared on a compilation Ep with three other fast Brazilian bands (Septicemia, Provocazione and Contraste Bizarro) and shared a split tape with Parental Advisory and an Ep with the mighty Rot on Absurd Records (the label of Rot's singer Marcelo).        

On the other side of the split are a band I am more familiar with, Dischord. If you expect any similarity with Dischord Records then be prepared to be sorely disappointed because the Brazilian Dischord were one of the few national bands standing for a punk genre crucial to the 90's: crust. I have no reasonable explanations for this surprising discrepancy, especially when one considers the vitality of the Brazilian punk scene and how attracted to fast aggressive music it has always been. So why so few crust bands? There were loads of noisy grindcore, fast thrash ones or metal-punk bands but very few all-out crust ones, no real Hiatus-y bands (let's just use them as a crust measuring stick for the sake of argument) and if Extreme Noise Terror and Disrupt can be said to have had a noticeable influence on 90's Brazilian hardcore, it was only to the extent that the borrowed elements fitted the grindcore caveat. Very good bands like Abuso Sonoro, Execradores or Amor, Protesto y Odio did have some crust-infused moments, but the only bands I can think of that went for gruff crust savagery were early Under Threat (that I have already raved about here) and Dischord. 

Dischord were a rather prolific São Roque band active between 1996 and 2002. Their first offerings were the rather rough '96 split tape with Rotten Sound (back when they were great) and '97 4-way split tape with Agathocles, Grossmember from Poland and the oddly-named Orchestral Pit's Cannibals from Russia on the quaint Oral Diarrhoea Records. Their side of the split Lp with NP was recorded during two sessions, one in April and the other in October of 1998, which accounts for some songs sounding crunchier and more powerful. Dischord played typically fast, pummeling dual vocal 90's cavemen crust (though Marcelo did all the "singing" parts on this recording) reminiscent of Hiatus, Disrupt and Amen. The production is raw but fits the genre perfectly, conferring the instruments a spontaneous, organic tone that I crave. For all I know, the band could have been working on the clock because there is a definite feel of urgency in the songs, in a "race against time" kind of way that reminds me of Namland at times. I like how aggressively upfront the vocals sound, a common trait in Brazilian hardcore, and how simple yet effective the songwriting is. The song "Dead nature" uses some spoken words done over the cavemen crust savagery and is a lovely nod toward Doom's "Means to an end". This is classic hyperbolic 90's crust done with a lot of heart and conviction.

The lyrics are in English on this record but Dischord mostly sang in Portuguese on their subsequent productions. If the genre they embraced can be thought to be raw and schematic (something I have no qualms about), the band certainly had a lot to say and were more political than most. The foldout includes a text from them which explains how their lyrics connect with each other and tackle subjects that are linked with one another shaping a global resistance to oppression. "Uma Guerra Entre Classes Pela Paz Entre Os Povos". Revolutionary crustcore for ya.

Following the Lp, Dischord relevantly did a split Ep with Under Threat and a split Lp with fellow gruff crusties Lies & Distrust from Czech in 1999. I suppose they made some meaningful contacts there because they went to record a full Ep, Fuck Copyrights, in 2000 for Insane Society Records and a split Ep with Čad in 2002.

This punk as fuck split Lp was released on Shit Records (you cannot make that up), which was Dischord's guitar player's label.

Weird choice for the labels... The pressing plant's? 

No Dischord

Eat Shit "Leather, bristles, studs and 'ackney" Ep 2007

As you may have noticed, I have been replacing dead links for the past week and hopefully, I will be done by the end of the month. If you encounter any trouble downloading a file, please let me know and I will do my best.

The last post was very much about brooding tunes, melody, heartfelt quality punk-rock. Today will be a shit post. Or rather a post of utter and unashamed shite: Eat Shit!

On a musical level, Eat Shit were, well, really shit. I am not even sure that they had proper songs. In fact, I don't think they even cared! However, they were part of the notorious and riotous Hackney squat scene of the mid-80's and could be thought to be the real original crusties, because of their dodgy hygiene, their drinking habits and their filthy Mad Max clothes. As members of the infamous Hackney Hell Crew (a group of punk squatters bent on causing troubles and having a lot of fun in so doing), Eat Shit belonged to the same music scene as Sons of Bad Breath, Brain Damage, Gutrot or the mighty Coitus.

Despite obvious sonic limitations, this record is worth having because it is a right laugh. Eat Shit would pretend they were a thrash band from Nebraska and would adopt in their interviews (an hilarious example of which is included in the booklet) and on stage an appropriate anticommunist rethoric and an Old South slang. A crazy bunch of people for sure. The two songs on the Ep (it is a single-sided record by the way) were recorded live at a squat gig, with Conflict (if they actually showed up that is), Subhumans, The Infected, Stalag 17, Serious Drinking and others. Eat Shit are not even mentioned on the flyer but I suppose they just went on stage, "borrowed" some gears and "played" chaotically for about five minutes before passing out. The insert also has Scruff from Hellbastard trying to raise money to get members of Sons of Bad Breath and Eat Shit out of prison and probably an extract from Ian Bone's biography in which he explains that a collaboration between Eat Shit and Class War was to happen at some point (that would have been legendary!). Finally, the pictures of our good-looking shit-eaters imply that they played at some point with Oi Polloi. Not bad, right? This Ep was released in 2007 on Short Fuse records, a hardcore label responsible for records from Lärm, Ripcord and Scalplock among others. I doubt "Leather, bristles, studs and 'ackney" was the label's best-selling record, but who knows?

The music? Do you really want to know? It makes Disorder and Chaos UK sound mellow and puts to shame Confuse's distortion power. The songs don't really make any sense either. However, painfully listening to this today, I wish I could take a time-machine and drink cider watching Eat Shit play in a filthy squat. This is punk as fuck. In fact, this is probably the punkest thing you will be listening to this year.    

Eat shit you cunts!

Dreadful s/t demo tape 1988

What name could be more appropriate for a extremely noisy grindcore band than Dreadful? To be honest, the band deserve to be called dreadful, but inb the Terminal Sound Nuisance context, that's definitely a compliment.

Dreadful were from Glasgow, Scotland, and this is their first demo. They also appeared on a 7" compilation called "They ain't see nothing yet" which was a benefit compilation put out by Nabate in 91 for the people who had been nicked during the Poll Tax protests and riots (and what an amazing compilation this is: Hiatus, Private Jesus Detector, Mushroom Attack, Psycho Flowers and Dreadful). Here, we have eleven songs that were recorded at two different times, march (B side of the tape) and september (A side) of 1988. As I mentioned, this is some seriously noisy, chaotic and rough proto-grindcore we're dealing with here. In fact, I would argue that Dreadful were not technically a grindcore band, as the riffs, the guitar sound and the song structure have more similarities with hardcore than Napalm Death. You can hear that the band had been listening to Siege, Lärm and Heresy an awful lot. This said, while not a proper grindcore band, Dreadful were certainly as fast and the vocals as gruffy and harsh.

At times, the sound quality being so poor, the band playing so fast and the singer screaming so loud, you don't really know what's going on and you're left with the impression of a wall of noise, of a blurred outburst of fury... and I really like it! I sometimes have this same feeling when I listen to early Napalm Death, Atavistic or vintage Sore Throat. If Electro Hippies had had a grizzli bear behind the mike and had lived (and recorded) in a cave with neanderthal men into hardcore, I think something like Dreadful might have come out of it. Lyrically though, this is serious as hell and definitely in the anarchopunk tradition. Songs about animal abuse, a class war anthem about the Poll Tax ("Poll tax is a milestone, we gave them an inch, THEY TOOK A YARD", anti-nuclear and anti-war stuff as well and a threatening song about poverty and class divides in Glasgow.

This is probably the noisiest band featured on this blog and if you are into early pissed off, political grindcore, Dreadful might be your next favourite band. "A crusty sock production". Noise not music indeed.

Dreadful

Agonie - demo 2006

En français :

C'est avec une émotion non-dissimulée que je tiens à poster aujourd'hui la demo d'Agonie, un groupe parisien, dans lequel j'officiai au milieu des années 2000. Agonie s'est formé en 2005 et cessa d'exister en 2007. A cette époque, la scène parisienne avait en son sein des groupes sincères avec lesquels nous avions des affinités : Munda di Mierdo (le groupe le plus chaotique et sympathique du monde), Décombres (mais quelle idée de tenter le crasher-crust au pays des Bérus?), SkitYouthArmy (Paris city thrash attack) et donc Agonie (gros bordel sonore). Agonie c'était Audrey, Caro, Clément, Romain et Simon. On a eu la chance de jouer avec des chouettes groupes étrangers comme Born/Dead (excellent concert), Makiladoras (pire concert de l'histoire) ou In the Shit, et dans des lieux accueillants (Chalet, Moulin, Miroit).

Comme vous allez vous en rendre compte, Agonie n'était pas le groupe le plus doué de sa génération. Le son est aussi fauché que nous ne l'étions, et on ne peut pas dire que les qualités et aptitudes des musiciens du groupe ne ressortent spécialement de l'enregistrement (ne mentionnons même pas nos performances live...). Malgré nos évidentes limites artistiques, beaucoup d'influences se bousculaient au portillon. Il y avait les groupes @punk à chant mixte comme Disaffect, Antiproduct, Jobbykrust, Antischism ou Easpa Measa, les groupes de crust tragédiques, du crustcore à la State of Fear, mais aussi Disorder, des trucs plus metal comme Hellshock ou Nausea et quelques groupes de grindcore (le batteur avait une obsession presque inquiétante pour Yacopsae). Un gros foutoir était à prévoir. J'aimerais pouvoir affirmer qu'Agonie était une synthèse incroyable de tous ces groupes suscités mais en réécoutant la demo aujourd'hui, il est plus honnête de dire que nous étions un groupe d'anarchopunk rapide, un peu crusty, avec des chansons qui ne ressemblent pas. Au final, on pourrait avec optimisme avancer que nous étions une version crue et décomplexée d'un combat de catch alcoolisé entre Mankind?, Contropotere et Disaffect quand ils commençaient tout juste à faire trois accords. Ou alors on était juste nous-mêmes, ce qui est sans doute la meilleure chose à être. La mauvaise qualité involontaire de l'enregistrement n'est pas non plus sans rappeler certains disques actuels de groupes noisepunk qui cherchent à imiter les productions caverneuses de célèbres bristoliens. Mais ça nous venait naturellement. On arrivait même à rater les reprises de Disorder et de Doom, ce qui est rétrospectivement la chose la plus punk à faire en concert.

L'intérêt principal d'Agonie réside probablement dans nos textes. Sans vouloir trop frimer, on passait du temps sur leur élaboration et on essayait d'éviter les clichés. Pas de haïkus dischargiens (même si on kiffait Discharge), pas de bancales et obscures métaphores pseudo-païennes (étrangement Amebix ne faisait pas l'unanimité). "Démocrature" parle de l'illusion démocratique, de la capacité d'adaptation du pouvoir et de l'idée de sacrifice pour le système; "Mal(e) dominant" est un morceau sur la domination masculine et sur les rôles imposés aux femmes afin de perpétuer le système (on aimait pas le système comme vous le voyez); "SO" traite de l'attitude des services d'ordres des syndicats pendant les manifs qui n'hésitent à suppléer les keufs et les aider dans leur noble tâche; "Terre sous garantie" est la chanson écolo/apocalyptique; "Peace bomber" parle de la guerre en Irak et de la propagande militaire; "Fashion punk" est une attaque contre les punks plus concernés par leur touche que par la politique (ironiquement, je suppose, j'étais à l'époque recouvert de patchs); enfin, "Police state" est une reprise de Disorder qui nous a permis de ne pas écrire notre propre chanson anti-flics (on reprenait aussi "Police bastard" de Doom en live).

L'artwork a été fait à la main, avec des collages et des montages et a été le fruit de nombreuses heures de travail, de lecture de textes situationnistes et de roulage de joints. La demo était à prix libre et les sous allaient à une caisse de soutien pour les prisonniers. On était clairement pas le groupe le plus doué de l'époque (la palme revient sans contestation possible à Munda di Mierdo), toutefois Agonie était un groupe honnête, pas poseur, croyant en une démarche DIY radicale. Avec des tripes, du coeur et une âme. Et quelques gueules de bois.

Up the punx.

Paris chaos crust!

In English:

It is with undisguised pleasure that I am posting the Agonie demo today, a Parisian band I served in during the mid 2000’s. Agonie formed in 2005 and called it a day in 2007. In those days, the Paris punk scene had genuine bands with whom we shared a lot like Munda di Mierdo (the world’s friendliest and most chaotic bunch), Décombres (what were they thinking trying to play crasher crust in Bérus country ?), SkitYouthArmy (Paris city thrash attack) and then Agonie (massive sound nuisance). Agonie were Audrey, Caro, Clément, Romain and Simon. We had the privilege to share the stage with good foreign bands such as Born/Dead (our best show), Makiladoras (our worst show) or In the Shit and we got to play in cool venues as well (Chalet, Moulin, Miroit).

As you are about to hear, Agonie were hardly the most gifted band of their generation. The sound of the recording is as crappy as we were broke, and our musical skills don’t really shine through the demo (let’s not mention our legendary gigging abilities…). Despite obvious artistic limitations, we were driven by many, rather ambitious, musical influences : fast anarchopunk with male/female vocals like Disaffect, Antiproduct, Jobbykrust, Antischism or Easpa Measa, Tragic crust, State of Fear type crustcore, but also noisy bollocks like Disorder, metallic bands like Nausea or Hellshock and even some grindcore bands (our drummer had an almost unhealthy obsession with Yacopsae). A huge mess was to be foreseen. I would love to tell you that Agonie were an amazing mix of all the aforementioned bands but listening to the demo today for the first time in years, it would be more honest to say that we were just a fast and sloppy crusty anarchopunk band with songs that don’t actually sound alike. In the end, one could optimistically venture that Agonie was the equivalent of a shamelessly raw and drunken wrestling fight between Mankind ?, Contropotere and Disaffect when they were just starting to play their instruments. Or we were just ourselves, which is probably the best thing to be. The very raw sound quality of the recording isn’t unlike what current noisepunk bands are trying to emulate when they aim for famous Bristolians’ worship. But it came to us effortlessly. We even managed to butcher our Disorder and Doom covers, which is retrospectively the punkest thing to do live.

The main interest about Agonie probably lies in our lyrics. Without bragging too much, we spent time on the writing and tried to avoid clichés. No dischargy haikus (though we loved Discharge), no cheesy and obscure pseud-pagan metaphors (surprisingly enough, we didn’t unanimously love Amebix). « Démocrature » is about how democracy is an illusion, how power is able to adapt and force the idea of sacrifice upon us ; « Mal(e) dominant » tackles male dominance and the gender roles imposed on women in order to perpetuate the system (we weren’t big on the system as you can see) ; « SO » deals with the behaviour of unions’ security boys during demos where they don’t mind doing the cops’ dirty work and helping in their noble enterprise ; « Terre sous garantie » is the eco/apocalyptic song ; « Peace bomber » is about the war on Iraq and military propaganda ; « Fashion punk » is an attack against punks who are more concerned with their looks than with politics (ironically, my clothes were quite litterally covered with bands’ patches at the time) ; last but not least, « Police state » is a Disorder song we covered so that we didn’t have to write our own anti-police song (we also covered Doom’s « Police bastard » live).

The artwork was hand-made, in a cut-and-paste fashion, and was the result of long hours of labour, what with reading situationist texts while rolling spliffs. You could get the demo for a donation and the benefits, as small as they were, went to a prisoner support fund. We clearly weren’t the most talented band of our time (this highly-coveted title goes undeniably to Munda di Mierdo), but we were a genuine, down-to-earth band with strong radical DIY ethics. With guts, heart and soul. And a couple of nasty hangovers.

Up the punx.