[engl] Based between London and Sheffield, and with a lineage as incestuous as the UK scene, RUNT bring us a monumental follow up to their cassette tape from last year. RUNT are total aggro primitive punk built on furious spit and stomp, snarling electric agitation and primal clattering. Each track is short, angry and on the edge of falling apart at any moment. Yet it never does. Ash's vocals are totally confrontational and in your face while the (a)rhythmic section of Jyoti and Ralph pulverise anything in their way, laying the path for Alex’s guitar to slowly build up the sound of city-living anxiety. It has an obvious nod to early Crass Records releases but mixes it with something more modern and definitely more nihilistic. Favourite track and B side opener “DWP” sounds like a 2018 “Do They Owe Us a Living” and synthetize the band perfectly. A confrontational, forward-thinking underground sound escaping the tick inside the box current state of punk.

[engl] Finally! "Hidden In Eternity" and "Eraser III" are put to the perfect format and classed up nicely by some of the finest design work Ryan Tong has ever done. Taking the path of 2018's bulldozing What Do You Stand For? LP, S.H.I.T. crank out two tracks of hyped-up hardcore bombfall with the signature snarl that you've come to know and love. Perfect music.

[engl] A brief but dense dose of simply hulking intense turmoil. Subtle terminology is trite, so to get to the point: S.H.I.T., the LP, blurs by in under twenty minutes of thrashing hardcore gristle. Gone are the tell-tale training wheels of delayed vocals and endless layers of feedback, here now are the tighter louder songs we'd hoped S.H.I.T. would write. A piercing musical rallying cry for the listless and ever approaching bulldoze march of the future, wrapped in cellophane transfers of melted early hardcore and the best of the last decade's fresh take on simplicity and power. What do you Stand for? comes housed in a sleeve designed by legendary hc punk outsider and former S.H.I.T. designer, Jaybo. The intricately illustrated hellish image was produced with bleach onto a massive bedsheet, though the entire package is wrapped in a self censored outer sleeve, seemingly in the service of protecting the purchaser's dignity. Additional design by Ryan Tong.

[engl] Following up on their fantastic 7-track 12” from last year, Singapore’s SIAL is back with Binasa, a new 6-track 7? with a Malay title that translates to ‘Perish’. Binasa sees the band pushing their cacophony of urgent and raw hardcore punk to the red. It takes cues from the likes of COMES, CONFUSE or LEBENDEN TOTEN but makes sure their ferocious sound and message doesn’t get lost in the noise. Their new release is a feast of ripping buzzsaw guitar, ferocious drumming and a vocalist spitting hate towards a racist, classist society that doesn’t protect the interests of the marginalised.

[engl] SIAL returns with 6 tracks of back-to-back pure hardcore assault. Repetitive riffs and unrelenting screams will have you under a spell and bound for a very dark place. This record takes influence from all their previous releases, holding true to the classic sound of raw punk and made it their own- just the way it's meant to be. Behind the harsh energy of SIAL lies a deep-rooted resistance towards a state system that only benefits the rich and the majority race. 'Sangkar' means 'Cage' in English- a place full of anxiety and violence. Home is Nowhere. No one is safe.

[engl] Singapore's SIAL return with another wave of destruction and their 3rd release on LVEUM. They've truly found the perfect balance of melody, noise and aggression while still putting great emphasis on the political aspect of hardcore punk that's always spitting hate towards the power that corrupts. The music and song writing can be somewhat ambiguous to some listeners who have devoted their life to the classic raw hardcore punk format, but this record shouldn't be left out- it carries the same cathartic punk experience. References point being THE COMES, LEBENDEN TOTEN or Perdition era DISORDER. SIAL has always been using strong malay metaphors and proverbs in their lyrics, and more in this release to stress how important the Malay language is to them in expressing a structure that is broken in this modern capitalistic world. 'Tari Pemusnah Kuasa', which translates to 'The Revolt Dance' or ' Dance of The Power Crusher', delivers a sense of mysticism and empowerment. This uncompromising attitude is what we need in these trying times.

[engl] Singapore SIAL return with two songs of bleak mechanised feedback laden punk. This time around their sound is moving from their usual abrasive hardcore to a more HAWKWIND-CRESS influenced setting the tone for a more psychedelic conceptual piece. “Zaman Edan was written during a period when the world was under severe anxiety and uncertainty. The 2 songs tells stories about the real meaning of life. A life running low of dopamine, setting the tone for a bleak and experimental approach whilst writing this record, built up from a very percussive foundation. The dark synth laden ambience sucking in the empty space that surrounds the blistering guitar and bass, like a vacuum, voiding existence. Siti's screeching vocals approaches death, not as a cry for help but as a fatalistic prose to justify means of sacrifice in the struggle against segregation and bondage. Side A and B features one song each, which translates to "You are born to fight" and "You are born to die". "Zaman Edan" itself means Age of Craziness or Mad Times in English. To put it simply, this record is about all the broken promises that the state made towards minority voices, and continues to make in this perpetual Zaman Edan” (Hafiz) The artwork of the single was once again done by drummer Izzad Radzali Shah perfectly matching image and sound.

[engl] Cataclysmic punk obituary that basks as readily in the causeways of the sun as it does in stormy, apocalyptic marvel . From the second “Time On Earth” came a clobbering we were returned to the dilapidated, wall-crawling psychedelia that we NEVER saw coming on their five track 7” on LVEUM back in 2017, getting us all buzzy that such a potent cerebral secretion was no one-off and that our beloved Slender would not fall under the axe of Paco’s oft-heralded - “Mate, ANYONE can make a good single” -mantra! Spirits rejoice! SO MUCH to sink into on this debut long haul with the elusive NYC skirmishers. Lean, concise, often juxtaposed songs and interludes are deftly thatched together to make up the majority of Side A, with dense, drowning-world electronics on tracks like “Heavy Weather” clearing the skies for jovial, anthems of the Anthropocene like “New Country” (which for us totally rings the same joyous bells as Yuzo Iwata’s “Gigolo”!!) and the grittier, barnacled basement etherea of “Sleep The Trees”. The restrained fury in the opening minutes of Side B at first recalls the slow-stirring storm clouds on that shadow-cast Blodarna 7”, the thought of seeking shelter only arising as proceedings are adrenalised and escalated into what feels more akin to listening to Amon Düül perform kali ma on the guys from Pelt in some subterranean death church! The closing trio of “So”, “Far” and “Down” tunnels on and takes place as some sorta on-acid-and-caught-in-earthquake rite, that sees the volcanic pounding intensify and whatever THAT sound is (bass guitar?? some demonic synthesiser??!) begin to envelop everything like the swelling of oblivion - any brief interval between tracks serving only as a moment to observe your own mind try to scramble it’s way out of the slowly opening sinkhole. Bonkers. Slender channels the same wild and earthy desire for experimentation as such un-pinnable, sleeping giants as Cro-Magnon, Blumen Des Exotischen Eises, The Fates or Moolah. But far from copying the founding fathers of homemade psychedelia Slender move forward to the caves with their own brand of Neo-Chamber Music. No idea how the inhabitants of earth will express amazement / bewilderment in thirty years time but can imagine some archival psychopath or discogs dweeb digging this one up and ripping a righteous WHAT THE FUCK. (Low Company)

[engl] Debut 6 Track EP from NYC’s Slender after two Demos in 2014 and 2015. Slender is the runt of the litter yet seem to be having more fun than anyone making music for themselves. The EP starts with Suddenly I See which sounds like The Snipers on Crass Records mixed with Warsaw - all tense, basic and rigid. Anxiety follows and has that home recorded Swell Maps feel. There She Goes barely gets to end with a a 4 Track recorded quality and.a Fuck Off records type of experimentation. On the B-Side - there is no let up in the weirdness stakes. It Exists To Make The World Feel Nice has a crazed theremin through the whole song whilst Magic is driven by a Peter Hook style bass line and a sinister vocal. Last track Not Afraid completes the EP with a woozy guitar, theremin and recording quality that just adds to this 2017 outsider music. In twenty years time people will discover this record and still think it’s out there.

[engl] SNOB have snarled around the local London scene since 2014, leaving a trail of two self-released 7 inches and adulation in their wake. It’s now the year 2018, and SNOB finally bring us their fully fledged follow up of tense hardcore punk that’s characterised by frantic snotty dictation, agitated guitar lines and pummelling rhythms. The ten songs on the self-titled 12” are filled with disparities – sneering hi-energy, sentient meat and potato, adroit silliness, agitated apathy – creating a bleak and angry sonic force. The whip-smart whip-short lyrics are almost a poetry-to-arms that rails against all of the absurdities of modern living. To these ears, SNOB is like if you left YouTube tabs of ICONS OF FILTH, PENI, NOG WATT and JETSET/ BLOEBAD all playing at once, and it somehow sounded wonderful.

[engl] Debut seven track album from half Melbourne-half NYC Soakie. It's total no nonsense blistering, fast and energetic hardcore with a vocalist that sounds like she has been chewing on glass everyday since birth. She has a real rasp and anger that is part Nick Blinko (Rudimentary Peni) and Part Vi Subversa (Poison Girls) but the music is totally pummelling and would sit perfectly for those that love pogo punk, Teddy And the Frat Girls, The Feederz and Good Throb in equal measures. Boys On Stage is a real standout with the lyric “There’re too many fucking boys on stage” sticking in your head from one listen.

[engl] Bursting through the door with a raw martial snap, SDL blast out snarling anarcho-hardcore anthems inspired by the raspy maniacal sounds of the 80’s Italian punk greats and the sloganeering/passionate-rant lyrical delivery style of the UK’s legendary anarcho punk scene. A riveting combination that doesn’t pull any punches and serves to highlight the beauty of the world rather than dwell in the brooding fodder that usually haunts those genres. Catchy, rudimentary and ecstatic music of the highest order.

[engl] Chaos and punishment battle for supremacy in the battlefields of Albion once again as the unyielding carnage of STINGRAY overloads your stereo and stains your brain. Putrefacting punk gnashing between metal stained flourishes of hateful competence and a touch of total rhythmic lobotomy. Tin Savage’s fantastic growled vocals trample his unmistakable London drawl across the five muscular and sickening tracks, the result of which is the musical child of ASID, ENT, SHOK, BGK, and a musical representation of two skeletons strutting through an alleyway on an early 80s CHUY-designed AGNOSTIC FRONT flyer. Boasting an A-Team of London punk minds, a real lust for metallic punk a la GBH and enough panache to make an ear piercing racket sound stylish: Stingray are simply on fucking fire.

[engl] Crashing dirty carnage somewhere between Neuroot, Ripcord, and Sacrilege lands in your lap with Stingray’s debut LP. Tin Savage barks his brutish textural east London drawl on top of unrefined metal-tinged hardcore punk veering between scandi wallop, jacked up amphetamine hardcore and jaw snapping mosh lusciously and confidently. Recorded by Jonah Falco at Fuzzbrain Studios, mixed and mastered by Chris Corry in the Paincave, Fortress Britain is a ruthless and unrelenting blunt instrument.

[engl] Forming in 2004, Straightjacket Nation (featuring members of other important Australian bands such as Pisschrist, Total Control and The UV Race) have long been considered by many to be among the best that modern hardcore has to offer. Whether rearing their ugliness live or remaining underground and birthing releases sporadically, Straightjacket Nation absolutely DESTROY - undeniably deserving the cult following they've earned over the years, and the cult is alive. 2017 sees the release of the second Straightjacket Nation LP. Intimidating and foul, ridden with feedback, lurching and slamming, screeching and boiling over. There's no hint of youthfulness here, instead lurks a fearful incarnation of hardcore punk at it's darkest and most foul. One moment disciplined, the next a sprawling chaos. Straightjacket Nation stands alone, a horrible entity carved out in stone. Mean. Strict. Remorseless. Vengeful. Harsh. SJN.

[engl] Preorder releases April 15, 2022 New York’s Straw Man Army return with ‘SOS’, the follow-up to their 2020 debut LP, ‘Age of Exile’. Emerging from the D4MT Labs group that also includes Kaleidoscope and Tower 7, Straw Man Army’s delicate musical touch, embrace of melody, and rapid-fire, clearly articulated vocals separate them from the louder and noisier end of New York’s fertile punk scene. While ‘Age of Exile’ examined the legacy of colonialism through the musical milieu of melodic anarcho-punk, ‘SOS’ turns its attention to the increasingly bleak prospects for the human race and planet earth. While Straw Man Army’s lyrical approach remains dense and thought provoking on ‘SOS’, their musical scope grows wider, encompassing ‘Age of Exile’s’ melodic take on anarcho, bleak and brooding post-punk, psychedelic instrumental excursions, and even the wistful pop of album highlight ‘Beware’. ‘SOS’ is everything Straw Man Army’s fans could have hoped for in a follow-up and so much more, cementing the band’s status as one of the most original, exciting, and important groups in the contemporary punk underground (Daniel Lupton)

[engl] Subdued unleash their crushing debut album and not a moment too soon. In these dark and bleak days of 2020 they deliver a perfect album of classic anarcho punk with gothic tinges. impassioned vocals, raging guitar work that ranges from straight ahead to every so tinted flanged sounds mix with a locked in, energetic and relentless rhythm section. Their are moments of quiet and calm, spoken word vocals and metallic edges that just add to the tension and intensity. if someone told you that this was released in 1986 on Mortarhate, you wouldn’t be surprised. This album, along with Bad Breeding are setting the bar for a new golden age of anarcho punk in the UK. This album deserves a place in your collection next to Icons Of Filth, Anti Sect, Vex and Exit Stance.

[engl] Storming debut by satanist, leatherist, body build-ist, Rat-ist, Subdued. Described aptly by a casual passerby as “North Shields War Metal” this London band brings us six tracks of powerful hardcore punk indebted to Amebix and the cold mud and unforgiving wind of the empty British landscape. Slyly tuneful guitar leads in the indentured service of plodding metallic riffing accompanied by dismembered bass, pummelling drums and a hateful full throated roar. All these aspects bringing to mind some imagined thin line walked by Icons of Filth inching toward early Venom. Noise contributions by Canadian upstart Liam McCarthy (Jockstrap, Mud,…), and original artwork by drummer Nicky Rat and vocalist Jack Sabbat.

[engl] February 21st saw the digital release of TAQBIR’s first outing. Released via bandcamp and YouTube this enigmatic recording turned many heads and got many people speculating about this absolute rager of Moroccan origin. Four months later the physical version of this recording sees the light. Simply put, it was just too good to be a digital only endeavour. The four tracks of “Victory Belongs To Those Who Fight For A Right Cause” are four short vomits of anti-religious sentiment made music. Sang in Moroccan Arabic TAQBIR’s lyrics are irreverent, careless outburst of anger towards an extremely patriarchal oppressive place. Musically TAQBIR walks a thin line joining some of my favourite qualities in punk music. The aggression of fuckwave originators DISKOLOKOST, the nastiness of THE COMES vocalist’ Chitose and the raw reverb-drenched heavily-distorted non-production of THE SEXUAL or DESTINO FINAL. An amazing example of primative world Musik and hopefully part of a new wave of Taqwacore bands. The record comes with a double side A4 poster with lyrics and band’s graphic.

[engl] “Fill De La Merda” is the debut of TÀRREGA 91’. Hailing from Tàrrega, a small town in Lleida, the band celebrates the antisocial riots that nearly burnt down the Town Hall in 1991 and ended with the arrest of 86 youths. Four tracks of radical punk that fill the void between Demo era HHH, MG15 Derecho a la Vida and ARROGANTA AGITATORER EP. The band regurgitate the sound of golden era Worldwide Hardcore Punk explosion, in the post DISCHARGE EPs days, but bring it up to date for the current depressing world. Angry, nasty anarchist tunes which could fit right in on Welcome to 1984, P.E.A.C.E. or any of the Attack Punk compilations.

[engl] The Astronauts second album It’s All Done By Mirrors was originally released by All the Madmen in 1983 and finally gets reissued on vinyl for the first time. Original copies are now really sought after and on a lot of people's wants lists due to both its scarcity and its status among outsider art, free music and weirdly enough peace punk fans. It’s All Done by Mirrors is a stunning collection of explosive pop songs and traditional folk ballads and considered to be the pinnacle of the Astronauts recorded output. It’s easy to hear and see why. Musically it’s tighter and more focused than on the debut album Peter Pan Hits the Suburbs and lyrically it’s on another level. From Mark Astronaut's lyrical pen comes a woman dreaming of the Dorset coast whilst writing to her former lover (Seagull Mania); or the man on the street and his wife living out the final day before nuclear destruction (Typically English Day). Mark Astronaut really should been seen in the same light as Ray Davies from the Kinks with his observations of a time long gone. Three of the tracks feature legendary sax player Lol Coxhill. As with all Astronauts releases - totally under rated yet totally essential.

[engl] Reissue of this long lost masterpice from 1981 originally released by Bulge / Genius records. The Astronauts were (and are, after close to 30 years and a history of lineup shifts only bested by The Fall) the definitive psych-punk ensemble, though even that title doesn't do 'em justice. Their sound culminates the post '77 punk dabblings of head forbears Twink (his 'Do it 77' single and The Rings' 'I wanna be free' platter), Nik Turner (the outstanding Inner City Unit and the 'punkier' late 70's bits of Hawkwind) and Daevid Allen's planet Gong (with fellow acid-punkers Here and Now) all woven in with an earlier Robert Wyatt / mellow candle-y psych folk vibe... While not sounding like any of those things at all. Get it? The album's range is gigantic: from dissonant punk a la Fall ('Everything stops for baby'), to epic progressive folk ('Protest song', 'Baby sings folk songs'), ditties ('Sod us'), hard-rock ('The Traveller'), pop ('How green was my valley'), garage / surf ('Still Talking'), industrial ('How long is a piece of string'), and set to arrangements that employ synths, flute, saxophone, and strays into progressive or even free-form / psychedelic sections. The icing on the cake is the mature statement of the lyrics, a cynical and bitter exploration of the lives of simple men, miles away from the generic horror / punk overtones that permeated most of alternative albums at the time.

[engl] In true Limits fashion of leaving everything to the last minute I was approached by a band member 10 days ago and handed a CD of what apparently was their swan song. Originally approached as a theme record Speculate/ Accumulate was a project of which many people heard of but no one actually heard it. Finally written in one afternoon and recorded the next one the six songs EP sounds urgent, as it should. Nothing has changed in the LIMITS camp, they are the same four kids that were bought up on a steady diet of Pebbles,ATV, THE FALL and other British weirdoes of yesteryear. Don't get me wrong they still are un-together, fast by default and punk as fuck so this platter will surely please the fans and convert the stiffs.