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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VA - Rien à Faire #32 - Punk, Hardcore, Post-Punk... new stuff only! March 2022

 

The most observant of my readers will notice in RAF#32 cover "artwork" a subtle reference to tragic events currently taking place in the eastern part of Europe. It's not much, but it's a way to show a little support for Ukraine and its people. I care (and I hope you do too) about what's happening there right now.

FUCK PUTIN!

This being said let's get back to loud and music.

A bit more tracks than usual this month with seventeen songs from bands from the US, the UK, Brazil, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Spain and Germany, who play fast and angry punk and hardcore music of course but also post punk, garage punk and noise-rock.

A lot of diverse stuff, I hope you'll like it!

  

N,J'Oi!

 

 

 

01 - Hogar - Humillado
02 - Rifle - Feet First
03 - Lasso - Nêmesis
04 - Blue Venus - Am I Punk Yet-
05 - ΜΠΡΙΤΖΟΛΙΤΣΕΣ - Βzin
06 - Thank - Punching Bag
07 - Ugly World Amusement Park - Gut Oil
08 - Dead Stare - Distorted Truth
09 - Spicer - Tense
10 - Kätyrlauma - 1827
11 - Soft Torture - Medusa
12 - Exil - Overdose
13 - Prayer Group - Continuity
14 - Chinese Junk - X-Ray Eyes
15 - Running - WUYFOWTIA
16 - NightFreak - Surprise!
17 - Die Verlierer - Mann im Mond

 

 

 YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE THING HERE

 

 

  

 

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Lumpen - Corrupción LP

 

Lumpen is back!

If you missed their 2020 EP (Desesperación) you can quickly catch up by reading the enthusiastic post about it I wrote one year ago.

So these guys from Barcelona (Spaniards and Colombians) are back with a 7-track mini-album (including a cover in Spanish of Ultra Violent's Crime For Revenge), available on bandcamp only for now but which should find its way to vinyl in the coming months I presume. 

The cover artwork is, once again, made by Mateo Correal (active member of Lumpen) who keeps making artworks for bands from all over the planet and offers this time something a bit more classic in terms of punk aesthetic I would say. A skeleton, some piles of skulls, a cemetery, some war-zone images... all that apocalypse imagery recalls a lot of american street-punk bands' artworks and all the D-beat stuff too of course and I find it less "attractive" than the Desesperación's one (less original at least). 

 

 

  The record opens with an audio extract of a movie I'm not sure to identify well (I don't speak Spanish) but sounds like Javier Bardem as Pablo Escobar talking to someone in the 2017 movie about the famous Kingpin with the coloured shirts (correct me if I'm wrong). It would fit perfectly with a record named Corrupción from a band featuring Colombian members after all.

 

So Lumpen is still playing that great mix of UK82 and Colombian hardcore punk which could probably fit into the Spanish street-punk category I suppose (in comparison with what I call "raw" American street-punk bands like Holehog, Monster Squad etc...). So yes we got what we expect but there is something quite different though, and it mostly comes from the way it sounds more than from the way it's played. Indeed Desesperación had upfront buzz-saw sounding guitars and raw vocals which gave a very in-your-face vibe to the whole thing (like you could actually shower with the vocalist's spittles), Corrupción sounds "milder", the guitars are quite "discreet" and the vocals are somewhere with all the rest, and it gives a less "powerful" and aggressive result. But don't get me wrong Lumpen still sounds mean as fuck, but a bit less than before.

 

Corrupción's tracks also tend to be a bit more "linear" in their structures, it's less "blasting", and it gives a more resigned feeling, a "sad vibe" (relatively speaking) to the album which is accentuated by the reverb on the "less hoarse" vocals. So in the end I feel much less "attacked" by what I listen to than before (and a big part of the success of this kind of music is the feeling of aggressiveness it's able to express).

So yes I like this album, Lumpen still writes and plays good punk songs but I can't help but feel slightly unsatisfied, I was expecting something more aggressive and I feel like I was moved from the front row in the pogo pit to the back of the room if you see what I mean (I don't pogo any more anyway).

 

Great Ultra Violent cover though! 

 

 

N,J'Oi!

 

 

picture by Christina Carlsen

 

 

 

 

You can listen to Lumpen on Rien à Faire #31.

 

 

 

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VA - Rien à Faire #31 - Punk, Hardcore, Post-Punk... new stuff only! February 2022

 

The new year's starting really well, January's been a really fructuous month in terms of punk music and this RAF compilation got a lot of killer tracks in store for you all little thrill seekers. A lot of hardcore punk, but not only, and if you're patient enough to listen until the end there are a few "outside the box" surprises there for you.

Seventeen bands hailing from all over the planet, from the US of course but also from Australia, Italy, France, Greece, Spain, Holland, Norway and Japan...

I'm trying to keep as international as possible while not avoiding the great stuff coming from the land of the free.

 

 

N,J'Oi!

 

 

  01 - Insane Urge - There's a World
02 - Assistert Sjølmord - Kontroll
03 - Invertebrates - Red Lake Earth
04 - Lumpen - Renuncia a tu vida
05 - Foil - Peruvian Coke
06 - Jailer - Sexual Janitor
07 - Counter Control - The World is Burning Up
08 - Comunione - Esca
09 - Glands - Break Me
10 - Piss Kinks - Fight I Can't Win
11 - Rampage! - Notion of Elite
12 - Split System - Hit me
13 - ΜΠΡΙΤΖΟΛΙΤΣΕΣ - ΚΟΥΡΑΔΟΚΑΣΤΡΟ - Shitcastle
14 - Thatcher's Snatch - We're Going to Hell
15 - Boucan - French Manucure
16 - Dyatlov - Death Machine - Factory
17 - Gotou - Wet 背

 

 

 YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE THING HERE

 

 

  

 

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Ejecución X

 

This is probably going to be the last review of the year so what's better than ending 2021 with a DIY punk tape from a non-English speaking female-fronted international band?

 

Well Ejecución X looks a one time thing, the opportunity was there, would have been a shame to not seize it, indeed fate had the good idea to bring together in Barcelona, during the month of September of this year, several protagonists of the South American punk scene with some of the Spanish/Catalan scene, and so when punks meet punks, well, they want to do a lot of things but, most of all, they want to make noise!

 

The most recognizable is of course the voice of Cromi, from Buenos Aires, who sings in Farmaco, Inyeccion and Covid-SS (another international project featuring people from Chile and Mexico), I imagine that she is very solicited to sing in many projects. There's also a guy from Bogotá (unfortunately I could not find any information about the other bands he may play in) and two Spanish punks from Nueva Fuerza, Ultra, Lumpen, Anarquia Vertical and probably others.

 

 

 The five songs were recorded live with a Tascam in September and were released on tape by Atemptat Sonor a few days after (so don't expect them to sound like the latest Foo Fighter album). And the tape is being repressed on Tormenta De Ideas!

What I like in Ejecución X is that it's just pure plain punk with a hardcore twist and doesn't try to sound like anything else, it's just a good old punk demo. The banger on this record is without any doubt the first track, Hipsters pokemones de Internet (great track name by the way), a very catchy bass-driven song and for that one alone I bet this tape sticks out in the heart of a lot of punks this year. The vocals are aggressive in a kind of "hoarse" way (you know, the sore throat style that Axe Rash and Soakie particularly affectionate, who said "too much"?).

The other tracks are more classic in a fast Spanish-speaking hardcore punk way (they're similar to what the other bands lead by Cromi sound like), they're very well-written and sound perfect to start a pogo at your granny's funeral but they're not the kind of songs you're gonna talk about to your best friend after two pints you know. With a better recording they would definitely rip though!

Overall it makes me think a bit of Tozcos and Destruye Y Huye even if the vocals sound quite different, but they're a lot of other bands you can think of I guess (Exotica?).

Anyway that's a pretty cool demo and I'm gonna keep my eyes open for whatever these guys may release in their other bands in the near future!

N,J'Oi!

 

 

 

 

   

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VA - Rien à Faire #29 - Punk, Hardcore, Post-Punk... new stuff only! December 2021

 

Last RAF compilation of 2021!

A lot of hardcore punk in this one (as usual) but also some post punk halfway through and some cool noise-rock at the end. There are mostly bands from the US but also bands from Germany, Spain, Romania, Hungary, Finland, Singapore and even a Japanese one singing in Esperanto!

I'm working on the "Best Of 2021" episode, stay tuned for a condensed version of the best of 2021 noise!

 

 

N,J'Oi!

 

 

  01 - Glands - Neurasthenia
02 - Aihotz - Lunula
03 - Peoples Temple - M16
04 - Hot Load - Hot Load
05 - Pseudo Reality - Pseudo Reality
06 - Cold Brats - Down By Law
07 - Discreet - Dead Man's Line
08 - Koprolit - Végtisztesség
09 - Liiek - Object
10 - Mop Buckets - Happy
11 - Smut - Side Piece 2
12 - Socio La Difekta - Nur unu ekzisto
13 - Tensö - Te Eliminaràn
14 - Grins - Breeding Morons
15 - Black Beach - Laugh Riot

 

 

 YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE THING HERE

 

 

 

  

 

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Presagio

 

Presagio is a young band hailing from Valencia, Spain, which started in the middle of 2019 as a trio with Maxi on drums, Bruno on guitar and Javi on bass and lead vocals. The three Spaniards were soon joined by Francesco who took over the bass so Javi could fully focus on vocals. After Maxi left the country, Mikel (who also plays in Mausoleo and Margartia Quebrada) replaced him behind the drums... the you-know-damn-what crisis happened and the band was not able to rehearse or perform for months (they've actually never played live at all!) before finally working on their songs again during summer and stepping in recording studio in December... to give birth to their first EP whose artwork by Ruben Badenes is staring at you right now. 

 

 

  

Out on Polze de la Mort (a DIY tape label from Benissa, Spain), Antes Era Divertido is Presagio's debut release. Within four tracks the band delivers some classic Spanish punk rock edging with post-punk which recalls some mid tempo melodic 80s classics like the early Paralysis Permanente tracks, the early days of PVP, the Familia Real 7" and of course Eskorbuto (late 80s, early 90s era) as the band is, after all, named after one of the Basque band song (actually covered and included as a bonus track). More recently the comparison with the least goth tracks of Cadaver Em Transe (in Portuguese though) or with Peluqueria Canina would not be totally ridiculous.

Dressed with rather discreet drums, catchy bass lines melodies and a sometimes distorted, sometimes clear and melodic, guitar sound, the songs leave a lot of room to Javi's vocals that oscillate between a protest speech tone and a always energetic, but never unnecessarily aggressive, kind of singing.

  

My Spanish is unfortunately quite limited but thanks to beautiful tools provided by the developed modern world I can say a few things about the lyrics: getting drunk gets boring at some point (Antes Era Divertido, It Used To Be Fun), war and death are scary as fuck (Somos, We Are), the prospect of dying and being locked up for eternity in a coffin is indeed a universal fear (Muerto, Dead) and drug induced deliriums are actually not that cool (Todo Es Ficticio, All Is Fictitious). I'm not able to judge the quality of the writing, but in any case the construction of the tracks is smooth and pleasant and the topics are pretty good, so that's cool!

 

 

  Antes Era Divertido is a cool and refreshing short tape which manages to mix a lot of old school influences with a modern melodic sound, if you're into not-too-fast not-too-harsh Spanish punk you're at the right place buddy!

 

 

 

  

You can listen to Presagio on Rien à Faire #22. 

  

 

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VA - Rien à Faire #22 - Punk, Hardcore, Post-Punk... new stuff only! May 2021

 

New month, new RAF compilation!

Here comes another batch of straight-from-the-oven punk, hardcore, post-punk and whatever other genres you can fit in-between and around those.

As usual these nineteen bands come from all over the planet, this month we got three from Italy, two from Sweden, three from the UK, one from Norway, one from Indonesia, one from Japan, one from Colombia, one from Spain, one from Belgium, two from Australia, one from Germany and only three from the US (I don't think I ever had such a low ratio of American bands in any RAF compilation before).  

A lot of raw stuff with a bit of a rough sound, I hope you'll like it!

 

N,J'Oi!

 

 

 

 

 01 - Reaksi - Tidak Ada Manusia Ilegal
02 - Sloi - Sloi
03 - Candy Apple - Sweet Dreams of Violence
04 - Posy - Rerun
05 - Golpe - Non Piegarti
06 - Alambrada - Ilegal
07 - Presagio - Antes Era Divertido
08 - MoE - Tephra
09 - Cutters - Modern Problems
10 - Pink Room - Losing
11 - Maladia - Evil Eye
12 - X2000 - Apagando Incendios
13 - Spleen - Flower Basket
14 - LLRR - 週末のフール
15 - Kattpiss - A4-liv
16 - Waste Man - The Siren
17 - Health Plan - Post Traumatic Growth
18 - Italia 90 - Declare
19 - Bitch Diesel - Hail

 

 

If you're old school you can of course download the whole thing HERE (I like old school)

 

 

 

  

 

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Sublevación

 

A short one today about this 7" from Sublevación, a new band from Barcelona, Spain.

Released on Discos Enfermos, this is the band's very first release and I unfortunately didn't find much information about these guys.

Based on the cover picture I would say that it features two members of Irreal (the singer and the drummer) but I may be wrong.

  Anyway the comparison with Irreal is far from being irrelevant as the two bands are swimming in the same pool, which happens to be the pool where Spanish raw punk / d-beat bands frolic happily in studded swimming suits. Similar yes but not the same anyway, yes the drumming and guitar riffs are heavy, the vocals come from far away with a lot of reverb (a bit like if the singer was locked in the cathedral basement and was singing through the window well) and everybody's playing quite fast but the low-fi recording gives a "demo" or "an obscure old Spanish band tape unearthed from the posthumous mess of some old alcoholic punk whose liver would have finally exploded" vibe.  

Irreal has always benefited from a more than decent recording quality, even on their very first demo back in 2018, and to be honest this 7" from Sublevación sounds exactly like it was Irreal's first demo tape (before the "official" demo) with a "real" demo tape sound.

  So it's a cool little 7" of good-but-not-surprising Spanish raw punk. I'm just a bit disappointed by the recording quality (except if it actually is a demo) and the maybe too much similarity with Irreal (what's the point of playing so similar stuff?).

Let's see what comes next... 

 

 

 

 

  You can listen to Sublevación on Rien à Faire #21.

 

 

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VA - Rien à Faire #21 - Punk, Hardcore, Post-Punk... new stuff only! April 2021

 

Oyez Oyez braves gens, young lads and old farts!

Here comes the new compilation of punk-related new (good) stuff from the last month or so.

Following my last month "policy" of trying to discover and share bands from non-english speaking countries RAF#21 features bands from the US and the UK as usual but also from Japan, France (2 bands), Indonesia, Czech Republic, Spain (3 bands!), Colombia and Germany...

20 killers for Easter!

 

 N,J'Oi!

 

 

  01 - Ataque Zerø - Destrucción
02 - Canal Irreal - Pestes
03 - Electric Chair - Bastards
04 - Hasss - I Don't Care
05 - Toads - Chumhum
06 - Crotch Rot - Fucked Your Daughter
07 - Bibione - Gloves
08 - Dead Meat - Son Of Sam
09 - Crown Court - Sect 59
10 - Nafra - Txarnego!!!
11 - Sublevacion - Laberinto
12 - Trigger Cut - solid state
13 - Mon Autre Groupe - La Joie
14 - Illiterates - 11 Born Here
15 - Esperanza - Identity Through Consumption
16 - Cunter - This Throat's for Smokin'
17 - The Juakinners - Jurasik Punk
18 - Valse Noot - Angst
19 - Predator - Never Anything Before
20 - NO NO NO - Can't live in the past

 

 

And you can of course listen to all past shows on Mixcloud!

 

Download the full compilation HERE

 

 

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Lumpen

 

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 misfits in 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 particular Mateo 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! 

 

 

 You can listen to Lumpen on Rien à Faire #19.

 

 

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