Just a few words today about this new band from Barcelona, Spain, which
released a great EP on bandcamp first mid-2020
but also on tape in south america thanks to
Educacion Cinica
and
then on vinyl thanks to
Discos Enfermos
from Barcelona early this year.
I guess the band's name comes from the concept of
Lumpenproletariat
(lumpen means rag in German) which, incidentally, then gave birth to a generic term to designate "scrounger, riff-raff, hoi polloi, white trash, bogan, or yobbo" and more generally a class of misfitsin Spanish and other languages. The Lumpen was also the
name (for the same reasons probably) of the "The Black Panthers' official house band" which wrote a famous song praising the liberation of
Bobby Seale.
It is thus an inspiring word which has been taken up by several musical formations and the band I'm interested in today should not be mistaken with the
Italian Oi! band
or the
mexican metal band
of the same name.
So let's come back to our Rag...
I don't know much about the actual line-up except that the band features
mostly Colombian punks living in Barcelona and includes in
particularMateo Correal
who is known for his graphic work (especially covers' artwork like the
Impulso second EP's
and the Lumpen's one of course).
Despite being based in Catalonia, Lumpen's
Desesperación
7" got the raw side of Colombian punk bands... I've talked about
a few of them
here but I think
Reacción Violenta
is probably the closest to Lumpen (especially
their first EP). Let's not forget Muro of course which conquered the whole punk
world to their furious hardcore punk / D-beat during the couple of years
before the pandemic.
I'm also thinking of
Pobreza Mental
(from NYC but singing in Spanish) which got the same kind of speed and
rawness... anyway I could go a long way looking for influences, from 80s
scandinavian hardcore / D-beat to modern Spanish raw punk / D-beat bands
like
Totälickers
or
Irreal
through the old classics like
IV Reich...
But where D-beat usually bores me quite quickly, Lumpen manages to keep jumping around all along their five tracks... It's the linearity of the d-beat that tends to put me to sleep (that famous beat... I never could stand Discharge anyway), but the guys from Barcelona manage to inject something moving, lively, catchy into their songs and it works like a charm!
I hope it's not a one time thing and that I will hear more from Lumpen very soon!
Thanks to Ero Guro and the magic of online research, I had the immense pleasure of a head-on collision with a whole area of Japanese graphic art that I had never known existed until now. Not sure I want to thank you guys for overcoming this salutary ignorance though...
Anyway the four guys I'm gonna talk about today don't hail from the
Land of the Rising Sun but from Le Plat Pays aka the
almighty kingdom of Belgium!
Ero Guro it's four guys (of which two brothers) from Diest, in the
Flemish-speaking part of Belgium, who have played in various
rock/garage/punk acts from the area including Coma Commander,
Prince Beastly, Double Veterans and Tubelightbefore getting together in this new set-up. From what I just discovered, and that you will see below, they also share
a strong taste for silly music and videos (which is a perfectly understandable sin to me).
September 2017:
Ronny Rex
releases the
debut 7"
of the Belgian quartet.
Within six songs of high energy garage-influenced punk rock,
Ero Guro shows their ability to let impressive bursts of rage
explode (Borderline's torn vocals), to deliver
perfectly mastered
garage-punk tracks (Righteous Harm and Pacifier) but also,
and more surprisingly, to deliver something a bit different, a bit more
subtle, something edging with other parts of the punk rock planet with
Latex at Gunpoint (Sick Chicks) and some parts of
Dropout Boogie.
Let's just take a break for a sec.
When I hear garage-punk somewhere there will always be a guy to shout
"Jay Reatard" in your tired eardrums (and well OK fair enough even if I've never
been a big fan of his music) but from my side what I am referring to includes a vast
part of the scene which blurry borders go from
The Gories
and
Oblivians
to
Voodoo Rythm Recordsvia some bands like
The Defenestrors
or
The Carbonas...
Yes something like that... roughly...
Anyway I find this little EP quite enjoyable and, without bringing
anything extremely new, it nevertheless stands out enough to give grounds
for hope for an interesting sequel.
Well it would be an understatement to say that this EP took me by
surprise! Bye bye garagish punk rock, Ero Guro takes us back
straight to 80s US Punk, right when Punk and Hardcore started to mix. It's
amazing! Yes I'm a complete sucker for this kind of stuff...
I'm especially seduced by Male Pornstars and
Corkscrew which go through a slower, but deranged, side of old
school punk that I particularly enjoy. The band builds a background of
rock'n roll punk rock on which the singer develops a burlesque show that,
for some reasons, makes me think of Darby Crash sharing the stage
with the The Dicks. I love these tracks!
A fantastic EP!
And it took two years to
Ero Guro tomake
Yin Dang, their first full length, released on
Belly Button Records
late 2020 / early 2021.
From the first seconds it's clear that this LP is going to be a lot
closer to the first EP's sound that to No Nansesu's. Garagish
guitar riffs, upfront screamed vocals, drums humming in the background and a couple of enchanting
bass lines here and there, I'm not sure exactly where we are... somewhere
between the first EP and some modern mid-tempo (but screamed) punk
rock. Sometimes it recalls the almighty
Stanly Kubi
(the vocals on Christian Meth!)
To be honest it's not easy album to get into, there is a lot of craziness
(especially in the way the vocals jump up and down over the line of
insanity) but no real "hit", no catchy and easy high-energy punk track. Ok
Rational Coping and
Life In Half got some catchy
parts but the whole things look more like a rotten doughnut than anything
else (can't bite it all!).
I like the surfy (but suicidal) Emotional Wishing which goes all
around the deranged concept... a bit like a love song written by the white
trash cousin of Total Control or something like that...
In a word, an album which starts with Wanna Survive and ends with
Wanna Die cannot be a bad one. Ero Guro is a bit all over
the place, a bit hard to follow, drifting in muddy waters full of screams
and various kind of inbred guitar riffs.... even if it's all rock'n roll
and goofiness in the end and... well that all fucking matters right
??
A band I put at the top of my "to urgently see on stage if the world
doesn't end in the next couple of years" list!
They've been called no-wave (The Contortions
?) and even free-jazz (Blurt
?) sometimes but to me, with this kind of line-up and sound, the obvious
comparison is
Lucrate Milk. Ok let's say a less-crazy-and-without-keyboard version of
Lucrate Milk
but Lucrate Milk nevertheless. So, just for you to be warned, in case you're allergic to chaotic and arty
French punk, I am going to mention Lucrate Milk a lot in this text
(I mean, even more than I already did).
Recorded in 2016 and released in 2017, this 9-track tape called
Plaza Demo
is the very first record of the band and immediately registered it in the
outside-the-box punk band box (if I may say). The songs' structures are all quite similar but effective, as Max can't
blow his horn and sings at the same time (some have tried but...),
Alejandra builds up the beginning with a hopping bass line, before the
"distorted" saxophone jumps in and Max drops some short, repetitive
sentences. And Alejandra sings as well.
And damn I can't help it, I hear
Lucrate
everywhere! Don't get me wrong it's a cool comparison, so yes there is a strong weird-early-anarcho-punk vibe in Preening, which is cool as well!
Demo Again
was released a few months later, as a tape as well.
If I understand right, these tracks were recorded in march 2017,
rerecorded for most of them actually as five out of the six songs were
already on Plaza demo, so I assume the band was not happy with the
result or felt that they had improved enough to justify a new recording
session. The difference is not striking to be honest but yes the quality is
better, it sounds more powerful, cleaner and the songs got more energy
(and we can actually hear the drums now).
SO I guess that this second demo should be considered as the band's debut
release.
And it's a good one! I am not gonna go through the
Lucrate comparison all over again, you got it now. The "new" track (there was only a 46s draft version on Plaza),
Bite The Sash, is actually quite interesting as it's a bit
different, yes the saxophone still bursts delirious madness all over the
place but there is also a slower, heavier background which gives an
almost-noise-rock vibe... It's definitely a different style but it makes
come to mind
Hit Cap by Giddy Motors.
Only one month after the release of the second demo (in august 2017),
Preening drop
Beeters, their first vinyl record, a 4-track 7" out on
Digital Regress. The songs comes from the same March 2017 recording session as
Demo Again. Big Big Brains makes a deserved comeback, as well as
Plaza Scare (both were on the first demo) and two new kids make
their entrance.
Beeters opens the show and sums up beautifully all the band's
concept in a great, very powerful and quite catchy track. Ok
Lucrate Milk all over the place etc... you got it now we
said! I feel that overall Alejandra sings more (mainly backing vocals) on this
EP and it gives a strong early British anarcho punk to the whole thing.
Yes I haven't mentioned it yet but there is of course a serious bit of
Crass, and maybe Poison Girls, in the background of it
all.
I finally understand that the march 2017 recording session was quite
prolific.
This 5-track EP (out on
ever / never records) is another (and the last!) "result" of the 2017
Left Field Studios session. Indeed I totally understand why the
trio decided to not release everything at once but rather piece by piece,
it gives free hands to focus on shows and new songs while keeping an
"alive" discography
(smart move). A total of 14 tracks were released between
Greasetrap Frisbee,
Demo Again and the other 7".
Two "old" songs from the Plaza Demo and three new ones, it's a
balanced mix I would say.
Poison is more quiet, less "hopping" (and slightly longer as wall)
than the old tracks, there is more of this noise-rock / experimental vibe
I could feel in Bite The Sash and that I find really
interesting. Same with Face On which manages to mix the anarcho punk influence
(that Alejandra-only vocals make really vivid here) with this slower, more
subtle "new" atmosphere.
Two of the best Preening songs so far (in my humble opinion).
With this third 7" Preening delivers what is probably their most
arty and dis-musical (you know what I mean) production until then.
Released on
Fine Concepts
in mid-2018,
Nice Dice
is composed of four new tracks recorded in may 2017 in Oakland and the
difference between this new recording session and the one from march is
huge.
Ok I will pass quickly on the fact that this song AND this video are
OBVIOUSLY making me think a lot of Lucrate Milk (once again) and
their frantic, Dadaist, surrealist and absurd videos (check out
this recap of their DVD).
Indeed the trio is pushing the "no-wavish" concept a step further:
CPD's "give it back, it makes no sense" stands as the leitmotiv
spine of this perfect anti-pop song, Effigy (a shorter version of
the Demo again one?) and Fascist Flecks are even "worse", reducing the idea of
song structure to a cubic painting whereas
Sister Corridor Oases got a more "classic" Preening song
construction (hopping bass line + ducky-ish sax).
So I would says that this 7" is not the most accessible of all
Preening's releases so far, but it offers a very good example of
the band's capacity to offer something "different" while fine-tuning a now
well-established concept. And that renews my interest even more.
Moving from a short to a long format is a risky challenge for a band like
Preening, which frantic disorder fits well a 7" but can become
tiring, or even worse, boring, on a full album.
Well I have to say I am extremely, and pleasantly, surprised by
Gang Laughter, the full length challenge taken up with flying colours by the
trio.
Back on
Digital Regress
(that they had left after Beeters), Preening delivers ten
tracks of subtle, well-built and more jazzy
than ever,
no-wave punk. Indeed it's been almost two years since their last recording and it's
obvious that everyone is more comfortable with his or her instrument.
Going easy on the frantic sax and slowing down on the hopping bass lines,
the band reaches a more "melodic" aspect of their music that is more
suitable to the LP format, less raw, less "punk", more arty maybe but more
suitable for sure. It may only be because I have discovered this Japanese band very
recently, but I feel like there is something of
Daisuck & The Prostitutes
in this new side of Preening, and I like it.
But don't get me wrong, the "old" band is not dead:
Dogtown Top Ranking, Slabs, Durango R or even
Water Closet to a lesser extent are here to make it clear, but even
those sound more mature, quieter... being the result of years of
practice. You can also feel that the trio is happy to (successfully) explore
unpaved ways:
There is the surprising interlude of Gang Laughter with its
"bells" or xylophone I don't know but also the "long"
Pillow Case which mixes pinches of "synth space noises" with an
obsessive pattern recalling early Nick Cave's music. And it's almost too early, while we are finally settled in the album,
that the end track, the absurd Everything is a T-shirt, beautifully
concludes this wonderful achievement by a very balanced mix between the
"old" and the "young" Preening, fading away in a jazzy but powerful
saxophone melody...
Good job!
Almost two years later, Preening is back with
Dragged Through The Garden, a new 9-track LP recorded in two sessions in 2019, out on
Ever/Never
this time
(like the Greasetrap Frisbee 7").
From the first minutes of this new full length it feels like
Preening picks up exactly where they left off at the end of
Gang Laughter. Preening is still Preening, the mature
band that had already displayed the full extent of their talents all along
their previous LP.
It starts as expected with Barn KP and No Season which take
us without any surprise into the, now well mastered, world of hopping
anarcho punk / no-wave with saxophone. It slows down a bit with Economy Head where the saxophone slowly
takes off before reaching a plateau of all-together vocals but in my
opinion it's really with Twinning that we really get into the core
of the band's formula. Dual vocals, insane soaring saxophone parts, long
"breaks"... no wonder it's one of the longest track of the album, the band
took the time to push the whole concept
a bit further... which is great!
After Twinning's "launch pad" to sky high excitements,
Red Red Lava paraglides us back to earth, acting like a noisy
background interlude, before the band fully resumes to their powerful
formula with the three following tracks: Autocon, You Gave It Away
and Rapt Fashion.
But it's really the very last track, the 4:30-long
Extortion, which offers a hypnotic finale composed of long
electronic sequences, diverse and offbeat noises... something I can
picture as a
David Lynch sound film. It recalls a bit what the trio had tried with
Pillow Case on Gang Laughter, but longer and more
"extreme". Described as a "Human-Eastman Dub" I suppose that this track was "built"
on the spot with both sound engineers but I wish the trio would keep
digging that direction...
So yes Dragged Through The Garden
is a good album, it's the expected successor ofGang Laughter. And I'm sure everybody will be delighted by these nine tracks and it's
a really good release to start with if you're not too familiar with the
band discography.
But that's probably precisely why I'm a little disappointed,
Preening has already demonstrated on several occasions its ability
to explore stranger, longer, more inaccessible areas and that's what I
expect from them now, to be to their past selves what PIL was to the
Sex Pistols...
Hackjob is a brand new band from the Auckland area, New Zealand,
featuring long-term members of the local punk scene who've already made quite a
racket in numerous punk and hardcore acts in the past years, including
Blame Thrower,
No Brainers,
Master Blaster,
Shitripper,
Markdown
and the recent
Skull Patrol.
The four kiwis very recently released
a 6-track tape
on
Dust Up!
and that's what I'm gonna write about today!
I was first of all struck by the cover artwork made by
Hanna Salmon aka
Daily Secretion, this gentleman is none other than Rudy Giuliani (former mayor of NYC, Trump's top lawyer and notorious piece of shit) which "trashy" sci-fi portrait is simply
"beautiful". It reminds me a bit of some the illustrations which could be
seen in the old
Métal Hurlant
(and its US counterpart
Heavy Metal) magazines some decades ago.
But let's get back to the music:
Hackjob is in line with recent fast and concise punk/hardcore
bands with female front
vocals like
Haircut,
Cold Meat,
Freon,
Rut
and many others.
Hackjob's music is simple and straight forward (but not simplistic at all) with a pinch of old school heaviness and truckloads of energy...
in one word: effective!
Upfront vocals in a hardcore punk mix can be a risky bet... vocals are probably going to grab first listeners'
attention, so it's a hit-or-miss.
Mariana's singing doesn't sound so raw and throaty (for a hardcore band), and gives a "fresh" touch of lighter kind of punk rock to the band's songs, and I
like it. I got the feeling that she hasn't reached her full energy
potential though and will be able to deliver "more" in the future.
Some powerful screamed backup vocals come to support her in a very
effective way on a few tracks.
Note the atypical Bike Song, which lyrics are in Bulgarian and is meant to be a motivational song for all Bulgarian cycling punks facing a nasty hill.
Ok what else ?
Did I forget to say it's a good EP ?
Fast and aggressive bass lines, ripping fast drum patterns, perfectly
mastered hardcore guitar parts... but also a few great "touches" that
demonstrate the band's musical writing skills, like the early west-coast
hardcore guitar "thing" on L.S.R (damn I don't know how to describe it) for example but also a lot of little extra "touches" which give a lot of
"depth" to the songs (you know what I mean).
A debut EP like this one can only be a promise for more (and
better and better) stuff very soon!
You guys know Mudhoney's first EPSuperfuzz Bigmuff, named after the band's two
favourite guitar effects
pedals which give this very peculiar dirty fuzzy sound,right ?
Well the Futurat guys, from St Petersburg, Russia, could have actually use that title as their band name!
Because it's a proper OD of super fuzz guitar sound that they plan to
make us have!
I did not find much information about these young lads, they probably
have connections with
DP
(weird instrumental low-fi synth punk) and
Zür Tü
(fuzzy instrumental noise rock, a drummer side-project), two other
St Petersburg
bands which are also internationally oriented enough to write in
english, but that's all I know.
Starting with Entrance Fuzz (and ending with Gone Fuzz)
Futurat are not hiding their hands... it's gonna be slow,
heavy and extremely fuzzy all the way!
Taking us back to the early days of grunge when Seattle and the
world was putting heaviness back on the map, incorporating
Black Sabbath and the heavy rock of the 70s in a modern
punk perspective, Futurat pushes the idea to the limit and
wraps us in a thick layer of buzzing molasses.
Soundgarden, Green River, and Mudhoney of
course... these names immediately come to mind while going through
the more than 4 minutes long tracks of the Russian band. But even
these classics are far from the level of fuzziness under which the
Futurat vocals are buried.
Yes I know we're quite far from the usual short and intense
hardcore punk stuff I usually promote here, but you guys need
some change sometimes as I much as I do..
There is honestly something intensely bewitching, mesmerizing, to
let the thick but soft bass frequencies lull you into a slightly
intoxicating drunkenness.
To be honest it can sound like it's too much at first and yet, in the end I was
quite surprised to see myself enjoy the whole thing way more than
I thought.
The perfect tape for a long subway journey or a Sunday afternoon
of tidying up !
This new tape called
Incinerat
was released by
Under Heat Record
(another aussie record label) a few weeks ago.
On the contrary of their previous release, these six new tracks
have all Russian titles and Russian lyrics, which makes more sense
in my opinion.
But it's far from being the only difference, the tracks are also
shorter and give off an energy that is incomparable with what I've
heard so far from Futurat.
The trio has worked on the drums sound and the overall mix of
the instruments which is now a bit more balanced (the guitar is
still super fuzzy and all over the place of course) in a way that
the energy of each of them is better oriented to the
front...
Ok it starts a bit softly with the first tracks (which I would
not have put at the beginning) but as soon as we reach the very
Bleach-era-Nirvana-influenced
cпонтанное событие(spontannoe sobytie) it's clear that everything before was just appetizer.
But to me the best really comes at the end withво сне (vo sne) and ртуть (rtut') that propel us directly into another dimension made up solely of free energy and low-frequency riots.
To be quite frank it took me several listenings to really digest the heaviness and the thickness of the sound that Futurat force-feeds us deep in the gullet.
But like a good old foie gras, it's worth it!
I nevertheless believe that the band is capable of going one (or more) notch higher in its fuzz and tinnitus pastry. And I'm all curious to taste the next batch...
