Total Sham

picture by Marley Kennaley

 If you've been around this page a bit you probably know that I'm fond of the Kansas City hardcore punk scene and I've written enthusiastic reviews about Loss Prevention, Beta Boys / Electric Chair and D.Y.E... well D.Y.E is dead but came back under the name of Total Sham (an expression widely used by the right wing media to describe the last US presidential election if I'm not mistaken) and that's what I'm going to briefly talk about today.

Yes I really enjoyed D.Y.E last year tape, I actually enjoyed it so much that I included it in my year end's top list so I was utterly excited when I understood that Total Sham was nothing less than D.Y.E!

 

 

 

 

  So no surprises here, these nine new tracks are in the pure lineage of the 2021 tape: mean and ugly furious hardcore punk! These guys are really good at making you feel a strong mix of rage and disgust for the modern world: Total Sham are your dirty fingernails scraping your sore throat when you force yourself to vomit all the disgusting goon / cheap beer that you and your loser buddies have ingurgitated all evening...

Mostly fast-paced, Total Sham tracks can also have heavy and dirty mosh parts that feel like kicks in the guts while you're puking blood in fetal position, lying in the mud. Definitely a "feel good" record!

 

In my November post about D.Y.E I mentioned Glib and Discovery, some aspects also make me think of the less power violence-influenced band from John Cardwell from Portland: Suck Lords. There is the same kind of sloppy "I don't give a fuck" attitude in the way it's played and the way the anger and rage are displayed literally all over the place. To a lesser extent I can also think of The Bug from Chicago who've managed to take the mess to an even higher level. 

You got my point anyway, if you're into dirty, sloppy and mean as fuck US hardcore punk, this is exactly what you're looking for.

 

 

 

  N,J'Oi!

 

 

 

You can listen to Total Sham on RAF#35. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ex-Dom: New EP!

 

I've already said a lot of good things about Ex-Dom from Bremen, Germany in my September 2021 review of their demo, with the raging hardcore punk of the Germans and Colombians even making my Top of 2021 list... so yes, you could say I was especially happy to hear that a new tape was on its way!

 

 

  Available for streaming only for now (except if you're ready to pay 666$!), you should be available to purchase these six new tracks really soon thanks to Abfall Records which is kindly going to put them on tape. Named Zwangsvollstreckung (Foreclosure), this records picks up right exactly where the demo left off, if you liked their raging hardcore punk à-la Jarada inspired by furious Colombian bands and modern D-beat hardcore groups you're going to absolutely love this new release. It's raw, it's fast, and it sounds big, powerful and angry as fuck!

 The dual (raw) vocals German/Spanish keep working perfectly, with both singers individually asserting themselves perhaps a bit more in their parts than in the demo as they continue to explore a raucous tone that smoothly takes us to the dark side of raw punk or even crust. My German is very rusty and I don't speak Spanish at all but it's easy to notice that with titles like Krieg (War), Kalt (Cold) or Devastación the topics of these songs are not the lightest or the happiest (and I like it better this way). 

I have to point out Massengrab Mittelmeer (Mass grave Mediterranean Sea) which seems to address the tragedy of migrants dying while trying to cross the sea (mostly) from Libya to Europe (it is estimated that more than 20,000 people have drowned since 2015) and I always salute punk bands that deal with today's topics instead of always rehashing the same worn out clichés about Hiroshima... On top of that, this track got a heavy and sad mid-tempo vibe which suits the topic perfectly and stands out from the rest of Ex-Dom's fast-paced tunes.

 

In a few words it's another great release by Ex-Dom, I unfortunately still haven't been able to see them live but I hope this will change in the coming months.

 

 

 

 

You can listen to Ex-Dom on Rien à Faire #35.

 

  

 

 

Rien à Faire is on FB 

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Gluer

 

I already wrote a lot of nice things about Gluer from Stockholm, Sweden, a few months ago in my very enthusiastic post following the release of only two of their songs on their bandcamp page (and you should definitely check them out).

The four swedes are now back with a 4-track tape and I was really excited to listen to it, my expectations being really high after their two 2021 hits...

 

 

The first thing I noticed is that the band's managed to keep a similar kind of sound to their first release, but yet there is something a little different, the guitar sounds slightly "fatter" and the vocals (still quite distorted) more distant even if, overall, Gluer got their sonic identity firmly defined. The four tracks we got here are mostly mid-tempo and built around cool guitar riffs recalling the "garage-punk guitar riffs" side of the Swedish hardcore punk scene (I mentioned Regulations in my previous review and I would say that the comparison is still accurate).

So yes this tape goes through charted territories and the songs are really good, really good yes but unfortunately not as striking or as catchy as Pumping The Iron and The Room, to me it comes from the distant vocals and the more "compacted" kind of sound resulting from a different mix which doesn't give as much space to each instrument to be able to hook you up (the guitar tends to overshadow a bit too much the vocals)... it's hard to say really where it comes from, I mean the songs are good for sure but in the end, even after several listens, they didn't stick to my mind... 

To be honest I feel that these four tracks plus the two previous ones mixed as a whole and put together on a record would make a hell of a mini-LP, but right now I can't help but feel slightly disappointed (that's probably what happens when you put your expectations too high).

 

Still wanna see them on stage ASAP though!

  

 

 

 

 

N,J'Oi! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can listen to Gluer on Rien à Faire #35.

 

  

 

 

Rien à Faire is on FB 

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VA - Rien à Faire #35 - Punk, Hardcore, Post-Punk... new stuff only! June 2022

 

Summer's finally hitting the northern hemisphere and it looks like the next months (and probably decades) are going to be hot as hell... well so is the new RAF compilation! 

Bands these time come mainly from the US (I can't help it if the quality of the American productions is so high) but also from Sweden, Germany, Serbia, Spain and France.

It starts out very hardcore before taking a more weird-punk turn midway through... 

  

N,J'Oi!

 

 

 

  01 - Gluer - Ride it Down
02 - Total Sham - Backstab
03 - Ex-Dom - Immer in der Ecke
04 - Crna Žuč - U Rovovima
05 - Salted Wounds - Count On You
06 - Invalid - This Life
07 - Irreal - Era Electrónica
08 - Judy and the Jerks - I Lost My Feet
09 - Little Angels - You Can't Always Get What You Want But I Can
10 - Daddy's Boy - Superspreaders
11 - Placid - Vexed
12 - Spread Joy - Ich Sehe Dich
13 - Girlsperm - Disembodied Man
14 - Syndrome 81 - Violence Sociale
15 - Astaffort Mods - Sentiment
16 - Malflora - Lady Damiana

 

 

 YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE THING HERE

 

 

 

   

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