OLD THRASHERS REUNION

 

For all of the bizarre creations that Necrosignatures Occult Library has bestowed upon us, their opening salvo might still be their most ambitious. A full bodied some-kind-of-feeling album that doesn't remotely hint at the slew of varied (and excellent)releases that would follow, the 2019 tape from OLD THRASHERS REUNION is an evil nasal-y bedroom indie anomaly...maybe it just fits the description, or maybe because it fits the description and it's a perfect recording. A self released tape filled with should-have-been alt/pop hits is a rare treasure in any context, but knowing that the VÖLKERDÄMMERUNG tape came right on the heels of this masterpiece, and knowing that the same party (parties?) was (were?) responsible simply shoots this shit to the stratosphere. 

OLD THRASHERS REUNION

THUP

 

More horror noise wall from the depths of California. THUP create and destroy sonic images, meticulously managing their own sound and the realm it creates as if they're writing the score and script simultaneously. "Spirits Of The Sky" is excruciatingly deliberate ominous ambiance, a quarter hour spent anticipating...something. On the flip, "Demons Of The Earth" sounds like the after - survivors letting their eyes flit across a dark hellscape, wondering how (why?) they were spared. We never know the in between, the event is left a mystery and the listeners is left feeling anxious. Hesitant....dirty. But alive. 

IN THE SHADOWS OF MONSTERS

PAYLOAD OF ATOMIC WARHEAD NIGHTMARES

 

Treble heavy full throttle high end DBeat, from Detroit (get it?!). Riffs are strictly by the book (which I like), and these fools play fast (which I love) and the vocals hit almost like Powerload-era demos. Ultra raw medium fidelity anti-fashion unforgiving fist banging kång through a Midwest dirt punk filter. I literally do not know what else I could ask for this morning. 

SUMMER 2014

DYE

 

This was the first one. There was another one that came after this one, but this one was the first one. Snarling, honest, urgent, in your face hardcore punk....that's what this one is. That's what the other one is too, but that's what this one was first. "Frustration" is the sound of kids burning shit in a parking lot. "I'm Important" is the sound of crying while smashing the face of the people who jumped you last week. DYE is the sound of mid-teens North American punk, and it sounds even better now than it did then. 

DYE

DANIEL CRAIG

 

For a recording (or a manipulation of a recording) to sounds like an event is a special thing. A Past Yet To Come is an event, a journey, and....experience? You aren't watching a nonexistent film while these sounds play....you are the star. You are the only character. DANIEL CRAIG creates a sonic environment with meticulously manipulated sound/s and I'm left wondering whether they were created or conjured. The most subtle and deconstructed techno undertones and/or interludes break up atmospheric events. These aren't songs, they aren't movements. These are more than moments - DANIEL CRAIG creates something that just is. Perhaps more than any other release I've shared here, 2020's A Past Yet To Come feels like an entity...it feels like the past is now. 

A PAST YET TO COME

09 FEBRUARY 1988

Pat effortlessly rolling from GENE AUTRY to THE LOVIN' SPOONFUL pretty much exemplifies the joy of listening to these tapes. LOU REED into PHYLLIS DILLER? Makes perfect sense. A set that includes HALF PINT and SHINEHEAD leads into the event calendar and then 3 MUSTAPHAS 3 brings it home...folks who have been paying even casual attention shouldn't need an introduction to these tapes - simply not knowing what you're going to get is a part of the joy - because what you get is always going to be good. 

KALX - 09 FEBRUARY 1988

GRUMBLE

 

Fuck me, man - Region Rock as a descriptor is such a motherfukkr. The shit is easy to hate on...if you're an asshole (or me). But if you actually listen? Shit, tell me something I want from punk that's not here and I'll tell you it's something from punk that I don't need. Except relentless DBeat - I do need that shit. And GRUMBLE does not offer that, so I can still listen to other records and tapes (which is good, variety is important). But I'll be fukkd if I can't listen to this shit and feel like everything is right...and that's especially weird (and perfect) because 35 years ago I was listening to people 10 years older than me make me feel like I wasn't alone - now it's people 20 years younger than me doing the same fucking thing. I know that's a lot of numbers and math is a real piece of shit, but my point is....right now, this GRUMBLE tape is doing everything right.

MILLION DOLLARS

...help me realize every day ain't so great...