VA - Rien à Faire #13

Either it's summer or winter, Rien à Faire is going to bring hot and cold pain to your eardrums!

A lot of great new tracks from great new bands; very punk and hardcore with a few weirdos: it is just love baby !

 N,J'Oi!

01 - Ohmns - My Boy Was There
02 - Utopian - Tierra Ajena
03 - F.E.I.D.L. - Fünf Finger Rabatt
04 - Blacklisters - Sports Drinks
05 - All Hits - Blockhead
06 - Public Eye - Lost Dog
07 - Era Bleak - Era Bleak
08 - Die Bonzen - Keine Gefahr
09 - CTRL Group - Blood Sausage

10 - Gutter - Spectator
11 - The Celetoids - Wormhole
12 - Stiff Richards - Do It Right Now
13 - Chain Whip - Laguna Bleach
14 - Kobra - Confusione
15 - UK Gold - Employer - Employee
16 - Cry Out - Your Shame Not Mine
17 - Expose - SCULPTURE

 

And as usual the full compilation can be downloaded:
HERE
 

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Nape Neck

Nape Neck is a new band from Leeds, UK, featuring ex-members of Beards and Guttersnipe.

If you are familiar with the Slits-influenced modern post-punk of Beards you won't be totally surprised by Nape Neck, which is its logic sequel.

Nape Neck self-released tape (kind of produced by Gringo Records if I understood well) brings us 8 songs of great modern female-fronted post-punk. Some will say No Wave or talk about The Scissor Girls and Erase Errata but (even if the last one is not irrelevant at all) I will stay with more "classic" comparisons... The Slits of course but also Delta 5 (from Leeds as well!) and more recently Mr.Wrong or some early Shopping...

Yes we are definitely on the super groovy side of post-punk, a land with jumpy bass lines, tight and rolling but rhythmically deranged drumming and melodic but edgy vocals...

These guys know their classics and control perfectly the whole lot of their musical production.

They even manage to beautifully conclude their first full length with The Gate, a great mix between the funky ping pong game of the two ladies and the discreet but lovely out-of-hand touch of Guttersnipe...

In the end the only thing I can say is that the British trio has released a great album, full of funky post-punk energy that has been on repeat since I purchased it...

Treat yourself and listen to Nape Neck!

You can listen to Nape Neck on Rien à Faire #12.

RAF is on FB

Leper

Leper is hailing from Umea, Sweden, which is famous in the small world of punk for being the hardcore punk capital of northern Europe.

If you guys know a bit your history I won't need to go through all the great punk and hardcore bands the cold shores of Sweden have seen during the past 3 decades...

And if you dig Fukushima and the amazing U.X Vileheads you will be happy to know that some ex-members are actually rocking in Leper!

With this 4-track demo released in 2017, the swedes deliver a classic but good hardcore punk introduction to what their future release will sound like. Fast and brutal with heavy vocals à la Negative Approach, Leper does not bring anything to new to the world but manages to not make any bad taste mistake (keep metal out of hardcore guys).

Sounds like a less "trashy" version of Agent Attitude with a skinhead behind the mic.

Two years and a half later, Frail Life (out on Kink Records) is bringing the demo recipe to its best, everything is just faster, angrier, meaner and heavier... But also better written and played... while keeping a real classic formula the band adds small pinches of the ingredients which made U.X Vileheads so great. I am thinking of the short melodic guitar parts, the breaks etc... and that is good but overall it remains really classic, falling more and more on the tough guys hardcore punk side like Buggy, Boston Strangler or more generally the Boston hardcore scene.

It's a real good hardcore punk album for fans of Negative Approach and the Boston Scene but it misses the extra touch of genius that put so many swedish bands above the masses to really make me wanna start a mosh pit in my bedroom.

picture by Robin

You can listen to Leper in Rien à Faire #12.

N,J'Oi!

RAF is on FB

Gimmick

Unfortunately this one is going to be really short as I could find almost no information about this band.
Gimmick is from Portland, Oregon, plays since February 2020 and has released the digital Quarantine EP in March (soon as a tape on Sorry State).

These guys don't sound like it's their first pogo so I suspect them to have been part of the Portland punk scene for a while, would there be any link with the furious U-NIX, Reek Minds, Suck Lords or Putzfrau ?

If you wonder why this mid-march 2020 tape is called Quarantine, dude you should probably spend less time on TikTok...

With 7 songs of super angry freak hardcore punk, Gimmick is not praising love and world peace but instead joins the crazy dudes of Nasti, Acrylics, Maximum Roach or Android in a what I called freak-punk!

It's dirty, nasty, weird, angry and I absolutely love it! It's the mutant son of Darby Crash and GG Allin jamming with Poison Idea, it's the hungover Clown from IT covering for all the singers at a No Way Fest in the 2000s... It's all that and it's crazy and great!

Please give us more guys!

The physical tape has been released by Sorry State!

You can listen to Gimmick on Rien à Faire #12.

RAF is on FB

CLAMM

Clamm is a young band from Melbourne, Australia, which probably started early 2019 or late 2018.

Sorry the pictures above is actually with the old line-up, Luke the bassist has been replaced by Maisie since then (but I thought the picture was cool).

Featuring members of Gamjee And Dragons and The Belair Lip Bombs, the trio is playing an energetic kind of punk, a lot meaner than you would think when you listen to their other bands.

Since the end of last year, the Aussies have dropped a few singles including Dog which obsessive melody is quite catchy. That's when the world discovered that on top of writing good songs these guys really love animals (like everybody in the australian punk scene these days I guess).

cool artwork with The Walrus and Carpenter

But what is really interesting is the release of their first full length, Beseech Me (Self-released), early this year.

With 10 tracks of super catchy punk rock, rolling bass lines and sharp guitar riffs, Clamm is writing another beautiful page in the big book of Aussie punk history. Of course we are not talking street punk, oi! or hardcore here, but what I would call modern punk: Politically conscious,catchy but not clichés.

As Weirdo Wasteland wrote it better than me: "CLAMM takes a stand against violence (“If they wanna fight, give them the flower power” – ‘Sucker Punch’), the extent people will lie and cheat to be a winner (‘Liar’), and being generally baffled by the state of the country – politically and socially (“I’m confused about, well almost everything” – ‘Confused’)."

Clamm manages to maintain high tension all along the album, no repetition or boring plans here, it's all straight forward and easy to enjoy but not simplistic either (check out the noisy Confused guys)... they even manage to beautifully conclude with the 4:41 long Bossman which bass line and noisy roller coaster of sadness and anger will make you confidently nod a "sure a good album, mate!".

Highly recommended!

N,J'Oi!

You can listen to CLAMM on Rien à Faire #12.

RAF is on FB

Snarling Hate

WOW!!

These guys are not fucking around! Snarling Hate is exactly what you can expect from its name, a straight to the face shotgun shot of hate, anger and negativity!

Out on Youth Attack records which is specialized in super pissed music (no surprise when you know that the label was created and is run by Mark McCoy, ex-vocalist of the legendary powerviolence act Charles Bronson), How To Kill was born of the meeting of two old legends of the I-am-super-angry scene...

On one side we have James Trejo a long-time friend of Youth Attack as several of his past bands were released there: Culture Shock, Cadaver Dog and now Life Support are a few examples of  James' interest in every aspect of the violent and the loud. Almost every aspect indeed as James is actually playing and recording all instruments on most of his records while a professional screamer is invited to add the hateful touch. Yes and that is exactly what is happening in Snarling Hate.

On the other side we have Shaun Dean who has been screaming and shouting in hardcore bands all over the US for the past two decades at least...

Repercussions, Bad Faith, Men's Interest, Cold Sweat... yes Shaun has not been lazy and seems to be as angry as the first day!

Oh yes sorry and also Matt Wilga decided to join these two cheerful lads with his guitar! Not a newbie at all as well, Matt has played in a bunch of bands featured on Youth Attack like Failures, Suburbanite and The Cancer Kids but also in Angel Flares, a quite surprising rock'n roll / folk solo project which did not make it to Youth Attack.

So as I am not a big fan of all the bands quoted above (most of them are a bit too much on the heavy/brutal side for me), Snarling Hate manages to find the right angle between speed, violence, brutality and hateful vocals... It's super pissed but it is still punk, it is still hardcore and there is even some more melodic parts which are not without reminding Kill Your Idols as we were talking of New York (Youth Attack is based in NYC).

Unfortunately this EP features only two songs, which is really frustrating as I would love to hear more!

Highly recommended anyway!

N,J'Oi!

You can listen to Snarling Hate on Rien à Faire #12.

RAF is on FB

The Worms

The Worms is a former duo turned three-piece from London playings some kind of garagish punk since 2015 or something.

The band features members of Omi Palone, Tense Men, ES (which released a new album in April) and Primetime among others...

Released in 2016 on Negative Space, Everything in Order is the first full-length of the band, featuring 12 songs of garage punk. Nothing really new here but it sounds like a band which could be on Total Punk along with the guys from Brandy or Curleys.

Simple and straight to the point The Worms is here to keep punk silly and enjoyable...

and it works!

And as the world got busier and busier it took almost four years for our three invertebrates to lay a new album.

Back From The Bog was released as a tape on Hidden Bay Records early 2020 and without being a total revolution after the first full length brings a lot of interesting new ingredients to the British compost.

The Total Punk Records vibe is not gone but The Worms have got meaner with time... The riffs are sharper, the vocals are angrier, the lot is just...punker!

... and crazier: the wild and frantic guitar solo at the end of Humble Brag, the breaks and background synth (is it?) in MLTL, the super nervous Belly of The Beast but more than everything the psychedelic insanity of Bored of Bastards and Anxiety Pit and the obsessive hammering riffs of Frequency of Behaviour...

The Worms manage to deliver a lot-smarter-than-it-looks album which does not betray the sound and energy of their first release but on the contrary enriches it of a tasty touch of out-of-the-line delicacy...

N,J'Oi!

You can listen to The Worms in Rien à Faire #12.

RAF is on FB

Liiek

picture by Tegoslucham

Liiek is a new post-punk trio from Berlin, Germany, part of the Flennen collective and the Allee Der Kosmonauten "group" (if I can say that). ADK is actually a street in Berlin, which seems to have been (and to still be) an artistic hub for the youth of the german capital. In the punk scene ADK is, I think, a group of bands rehearsing and playing at the same location (somewhere in this street obviously). Achtung, a compilation of the ADK bands was released a few months ago on Billo Tontraeger and I suggest to give it a try if you are interested in modern artyish (but not only: AI) european punk.

So the Liiek members are not starting from scratch and you can find them in other present and past ADK bands like the great Pigeon, the amazing Benzin and AUS (which last album really disappointed me).

So yes, we could only expect the best... and that's what we get!

Released on Adagio830 in April, the self-titled first full length of the Berlin band features 8 songs of very enjoyable post-punk.

And when I say post-punk these guys had the good idea to really underline the punk part, no songs are longer than 3 minutes and only 3 songs are over the 2 minutes mark... it's tight, fast and sharp... with the sound of the most nervous Gang of Four tracks Liiek is not falling in the synth/cold-wave side (you have understood now that it is really not my cup of tea) and delivers a highly energetic post-punk lesson.

I mean when the first song is called Crisis you know where you going...

Yes the 80s influence is everywhere, once again the North London Bomb Factory, which seems to be the only place to record a punk album these days, managed to give the perfect sound to the Berlin trio...

a sound that brings us back to the gloomy early 80s in the UK.. and if one song is called Wire it's not a coincidence!

Despite being a bit predictable, Liiek manages to deliver the best of what we have already heard:

a fantastic punk post-punk album!

You can listen to Liiek in Rien à Faire #12.

N,J'Oi!

RAF is on FB

Impotentie

picture by RazorBladeAndAspirin

Impotentie is a 2-piece band from Montreal, Canada and has been around since 2017 or something.

These two guys are definitely not newbies in the punk business, Matt played in Thee Nodes and the great No Negatives before joining Kevin aka Spoiler in this soft "wood" project.

So Spoiler is originally from the Flemish part of Belgium and started his punk career by the SxE side with Justice (from Belgium) which had quite a success in the Youth Crew scene at the time (but never convinced me). Since he moved to Montreal he has been spotted in several angry musical acts as Sanction A, Omegas, Proxy and Stigmatism (a duo as well, a bit obsessed by Vinnie as weird as it can sound)... and is on the way to become a living encyclopedia of early NYHC.

So yes Impotentie's lyrics are in flemish and, obviously, Spoiler is the one singing them...

The duo first release is the Demonstratieve Opnamens cassette (Swollen City Records) which then became a 7" on Drunken Sailor. This 6-track demo is an interesting mix of early french or italian oi! with a lot of guitar fuzz ... Sounds weird but I can imagine the guys from Rough or Basta jamming with Reich Orgasm in Antwerp while trying to sound like Mudhoney...

  A nice EP but easy on the fuzz guys...

Leopold II is niet Dood Genoeg, the band first LP (out on Roachleg Records), is a political charge against the "leftovers" of the belgian colonial system implemented under Leopold II reign. I don't understand Flemish but they made it quite clear and the Leopold II ballad is obviously about it. It's interesting to see how these songs written a few months before George Floyd death perfectly fit with the debate about systemic racism and colonialism past which erupted afterwards.

On the musical side the two hardcore veterans have softened their Fuzz obsession and hardened their oi! influences...

Let's be clear it's almost an oi! album, the kind which is not made by Skinheads but by punk/hardcore enthusiasts who take the best of it and leave all the usual and tiring clichés at the door.

The bouncy bass lines, the melodic but sad guitar lines and even a few gang vocals... in these 6 songs (without the intro and the ballad) there is everything you can expect from a classic but good oi! band from the heavy guitar side.

To be honest it took a few listens for the album to grow on me but I really enjoy it now... a lot more than the demo.

N,J'Oi!

You can listen to Impotentie in Rien à Faire #12

RAF is on Facebook

Bikini Body

picture by Daniel McGowan

Bikini Body is a young band from Edinburgh, UK, which is playing some kind of female-fronted modern punkish post-punk and has just released Pond Life, a 5-track EP (digital only).

Artwork by Shipei Wang

First of all Bikini Body sounds extremely british to me: the accent, the humor, the vocabulary... it all comes straight from across the pond... and I love it!

Post-punk with a punk attitude, the band delivers really enjoyable high energy songs full of  the cynical criticism you can expect from the POMs.

I am so posh is an anthem! "I'm so posh Boris Johnson is my dad"

Hands off is a great and fun feminist song about men, relationships and all that.

Vicky manages to mix some kind of powerful speaking singing with occasional shoutings, keeping the energy high and the songs catchy.

It sometimes makes me think of Necking with a slight Shopping influence.

In one word, it's a great EP!

You can listen to Bikini Body on Rien à Faire #12.

N,J'Oi!

Rien à Faire is on FB