Foundation Vinyl Newsletter
Welcome
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Foundation Vinyl newsletter! I popped along to the Moor Beer Vaults in Bermondsey last night to catch the Stress Positions and Blind Girls double-header.
I still vividly remember the whirlwind velocity of C.H.E.W., the predecessor band for three quarters of Stress Positions, when they played New River Studios back in 2019. That intensity has, if anything, only been further ramped up in their current guise. The band have added a subtly psychedelic, almost jazz-infused edge to their breakneck barrage and it works savagely well live. A new album, Human Zoo, is imminent.
Blind Girls are rather newer to me, having discovered them through last year’s latest full-length, An Exit Exists. Screamo has generally become ever more sonically expansive. Blind Girls are, however, something of a throwback to the more chaotic origins of the genre, unleashing short, sharp eruptions of harshly discordant, squalling hardcore. Their set brought the night to a suitably ferocious finale.
So what do we have lined up this week? We have five featured new arrivals to get stuck into. First up, the cracking debut album from Ultimate Disaster, For Progress…, on Kick Rock and Grave Mistake. Next, we have two new releases on Discos Enfermos – the swaggering belligerence of Oust on Rather Be A Fuck Up, and then the utterly unhinged Al Fin! El Demo! courtesy of Bondage.
To round things off, we have the rapid-fire full-length, Den Typ Som Överlever, from Proteststorm on Fight For Your Mind, and the latest haunting 7-inch from E.V.A, II, on Andalucia Űber Alles.
As always, we also have an updated London gig listing. May is absolutely jam packed with fine shows, including Muro, Indikator B, Public Acid, and Shove. Thanks are due to Distort Sheffield who are co-ordinating these four particular tours off the back of their very own, absolutely stacked Noise Annoys weekender at The Lughole in their home city next month (23rd-25th May, details below).
We end with a quick rundown on some of the fine records heading our way in the coming weeks, including new releases from Feel It, La Vida Es Un Mus, Not For The Weak, Static Shock, Toxic State, and Unlawful Assembly among others!
It’s touch and go whether there will be a newsletter next week. The shipment that I was expecting at the start of this week seems to be stuck in the seventh circle of logistics hell. So, more than likely, I’ll see you the week after next!
Featured New Arrivals

For Progress… by Ultimate Disaster / Rather Be A Fuck Up by Oust/ Al Fin! El Demo! by Bondage / Den Typ Som Överlever by Proteststorm / II by E.V.A (clockwise)
‘Preying on hate, exploiting their fear…Stoking blind anger, thriving on tragedy…Manufacture hate, to satisfy your greed’ (Mass Produced Hatred)
The band name and cover art give you a pretty good handle on what to expect as you drop the needle for the first time on For Progress…. What does immediately sharpen your attention, however, is just how venomously well executed it is.
Yes, this is Discharge-inspired d-beat, but with an unyielding focus on distilling these influences to their basest form. Yes, this is raw punk, but force fed through a rigorously disciplined lens. Even the solos are defined by a fierce precision. So, while those initial instincts will have been pretty much spot on, the Richmond, Virginia trio hit home with an impressively fresh velocity.
The rhythm section locks in with methodical precision allowing the waves of relentless riffage to build an unstoppable momentum. And, despite the intrinsic rawness, there is a surprising sense of space and clarity to the fusillade. Meanwhile, the throaty, guttural vocals explore the forces and motives that cultivate the seemingly endless cycle of modern warfare and militarised oppression. Stand out tracks include the groove fuelled What Right?, the searing title track, and the rhythmic fury of the closer, Hymn For A Burning World.
‘Each new variant, of innovation, Data driven pestilence, our ruination’ (Death To The Valley)
Oust return in fervently belligerent form on this their debut full-length, Rather Be A Fuck Up. The band, whose members hail from The Netherlands and Italy, began life as a pretty straight-up d-beat band, but their sound began to evolve in a more distinctive direction on their 2021 EP, Never Trust A Politician. It is a trend that is satisfyingly continued here. This is not to suggest experimentalism, as this is hardcore distilled to its core essentials, but rather a willingness to draw upon influences from across the hardcore punk spectrum and to sharpen them into something savagely singular.
Each element of the band is intrinsic to this evolution. The rhythm section delivers a bedrock of swaggering intensity, while the guitar unleashes wave upon wave of fiercely taut riffage. The barrage is completed by utterly rabid, rasping vocals that drip with contempt for the distorted priorities of society as they tackle the rise of the far right (Rather Be A Fuck Up Than A Fascist), surveillance capitalism (Death To The Valley), worker exploitation (Die For The Economy), and the insidious myths of the ‘wellness’ industry (Körperkultur).
The feral ferocity comes to a visceral crescendo on the closer Our Anger Is Appropriate. A reworking of a song by the Bahamian musician and artist Exuma (Tony McKay) that called for spiritual vengeance on the those who enslaved his ancestors, it brings proceedings to an uncompromising climax.
‘Podemos ser todo, Podemos ser nada, Sólo quiero vivir a mi manera, Ya no quiero morir mañana, Sabiendo que puedo ser libre’ / ‘We can be everything, We can be nothing, I just want to live my way, I don’t want to die tomorrow, Knowing I can be free’ (X-Gender)
Al Fin! El Demo! (Finally! The Demo!) is Bondage’s first vinyl release and arrives just as the Santiago band have announced that they are calling it a day. But as sign offs go, it is an utterly bonkers one, in all the right ways. The band take the raw fury of Latin America punk, add a generous dollop of off-kilter Japanese noise punk, and then fashion it into something that is very much their own.
The swinging bass and primitive drums are front and centre, while the rhythm guitar lays down a barrage of unrelenting white noise. The raucously unhinged vocals are absolutely inspired as they explore themes of personal liberty – the freedom of personal expression, escaping the clutches of our technocratic society, and freeing ourselves from the constraints of our own personal histories.
The EP includes a hidden track plus, for the more creative among you, a cut-out insert of one of the band members.
‘Utan riktning, utan mål, Utan rimlig vett och sans, De lurar oss, de sviker oss, De leder oss till ingenstans’ (De Levanda Döda) / ‘Without direction, without goal, Without reasonable sense and common sense, They deceive us, they betray us, They lead us nowhere’ (The Living Dead)
Den Typ Som Överlever (The Type That Survives) is the debut album from Proteststorm, following on from two EPs. The Swedish duo have a deep background in both grind and hardcore, having played in a myriad of bands, including Axis Of Despair, Livet Som Insats, Krighsot, and Nasum. They draw on this rich experience to hone a ferociously stripped back fastcore onslaught.
Urgent Swedish vocals, lacerating guitars, and blast beat fuelled drumming form the basis as the band rip through twenty tracks in just a shade over twenty minutes. The key as ever, with such an uncompromising emphasis on speed, are the subtle shifts – ephemeral melodic flourishes, briefly flaring solos, fleeting eruptions of groove – that lend the all-important texture. The relatively clean guitar ensures that this detailing is vividly clear.
The tensely agitated battery is matched by the lyrical dissection of the fractured, distorted, anxiety-inducing priorities of contemporary society. De Levanda Döda and Oskyldig (Innocent) perfectly capture the band’s blistering essence.
‘No, ya no encuentras consuelo en el tiempo, Es demasiado tarde para cambiar, No, ya no encuentras consuelo en el Viento, Y te quieres ir’ (La Muerte) / ‘No, you no longer find solace in time, It’s too late to change, No, you no longer find solace in the wind, And you want to leave’ (Death)
E.V.A’s members span Granada and Bristol and return with a follow-up to their self-titled 2020 debut EP. On this new four track release, the band continue to hone a post-punk sound that is shrouded in equal measure with both bleakly gothic impulses and a rich pop sensibility.
Brightly shimmering guitars are underpinned by throbbingly resonant bass lines and crisply precise percussion. The driving force though is the fiercely melodic Spanish vocals as they entice us into the hazy hinterland between the real and the mythical.
The darkly catchy EL Oro (Gold) gets us underway. Then, the haunting chants that define El Fuego (The Wind) and La Lune (The Moon) transport us to that precipice where desolate beauty and danger interlace – the wind howls, the waves crash, and the swirling mist shrouds the cliff face. Before, the powerfully compelling La Muerte brings proceedings to a rousing, if fittingly ambiguous, finale.
Shows And Tours

Noise Annoys Weekender, The Lughole, Sheffield (23rd-25th May)
This section lays no claims to being a definitive listing! It is simply gigs coming up in London that catch my eye and that I think people who read this newsletter might be interested in. I will always try and highlight where a show forms part of a wider UK tour.
April
24th Great Falls, Glassing, Helpless (The Black Heart / UK Tour)
25th Final Dose, Läbrys, Ekstasis (Helgi’s)
May
3rd Condor, Tramadol, Hitmen, The Dogs (The Shacklewell Arms)
6th Blow Your Brains Out, T.S. Warspite, Always Watching, Hellscape (The Grace / UK Tour)
7th Agnostic Front, Crown Court plus more (The Underworld / UK Tour)
14th Muro, Second Death, Secrecy (New River Studios / UK tour)
17th Boom Boom Kid, Traidora, plus more (The Shacklewell Arms / UK Tour)
19th Time Heist, Uncertainty, Equals What? (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)
20th Whores, Help, Ritual Error (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)
21st Indikator B, Koridor, Es, Hellscape (New River Studios / UK Tour)
25th Public Acid, Tramadol, Stingray, Traidora (New River Studios / UK Tour)
25th Onelinedrawing, Secondary Education (The Waiting Room / UK Tour)
30th Lawful Killing, Imposter, Frisk, Last Orders, Scab (New River Studios)
31st Shove plus support (The Old Blue Last / UK Tour)
31st Feral State, Regimes, Do One, Vile Rapture (New River Studios)
June
3rd Ultras, Xiao, Grandad, Aku, This Hurts (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)
9th Moral Bombing, Blossom Decay, Diall (Blondies / UK Tour)
14th P.A.I.N, Hiatus, Zero Again, Instant Ruin, Ancient Lights (New Cross Inn)
16th Alien Nosejob, Middleman, Fatberg (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)
17th Contention, Long Goodbye, Hour Of Reprisal (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)
18th Iron Lung, Bad Breeding, Frisk, Total Con, Casing (New River Studios / Sold Out)
18th Terror, Jivebomb, No Relief (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)
19th Cicada, Necron 9, Total Nada plus more (New River Studios / UK Tour)
22nd Fuckin’ Lovers, Hez plus more (New River Studios / UK Tour)
July
3rd Quiet Fear, Wreathe , Death Of Youth (Paper Dress Vintage)
3rd Destiny Bond, Big Laugh, Flesh Creep, Closed Hands (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)
4th Fentanyl, Kute, Do One, Unreal Cruelty (New Cross Inn)
5th All Out War plus support (New Cross Inn)
7th Stick To Your Guns, Love Letter plus more (Downstairs At The Dome / UK Tour)
7th Xibalba, Extinguish, Mutagenic Host (New Cross Inn)
7th /8th The Messthetics & Brandon Lewis (Cafe Oto)
8th Terminal Sleep, Spaced, Still In Love (New Cross Inn)
October
30th Godflesh plus support (Scala)
November
3rd City Of Caterpillar, Incaseyouleave plus more (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)
Coming Soon

Nisemono by Nisemono lands in May
May
Artificial Go ‘Hopscotch Fever’ 12-inch (Feel It / Restock)
Axon ‘Axon’ 7-inch (Not For The Weak)
Cicada ‘Wicked Dream’ 7-inch (Unlawful Assembly)
Cinder Well ‘Cinder Well’ 12-inch (Contraszt)
Destruxion America ‘Self-Titled’ 12-inch (Unlawful Assembly)
Earth Ball ‘Actual Earth Music: Volume 1 & 2’ 12-inch (Upset The Rhythm)
Fugitive Bubble ‘What Happens If We Stop’ 12-inch (Sorry State)
Gentle Leader XIV ‘Joke In The Shadow’ 12-inch (Feel It)
Grand Scheme ‘Grand Scheme’ 7-inch (11PM)
Headsplitter ‘Curse Of Life’ 12-inch (Toxic State)
Heaven’s Gate ‘Tales From A Blistering Paradise’ 12-inch (Beach Impediment)
Hubert Selby Jr Infants ‘Bingo’ 12-inch (Super Fi)
Innuendo ‘Peace And Love’ 12-inch (Unlawful Assembly)
Iron Lung ‘Adapting // Crawling’ 12-inch (Iron Lung)
Kaleidoscope ‘Cities Of Fear’ 12-inch (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Motorbike ‘Kick It Over’ 12-inch (Feel It)
Mother Nature ‘Loving, Joyful And Free’ 12-inch (Static Shock)
Mutated Void ‘Tarnished’ 7-inch (Unlawful Assembly)
Necron 9 ‘People Die’ 12-inch (Unlawful Assembly)
Nisemono ‘Nisemono’ 12-inch (Toxic State)
Paranoid ‘MMXXII’ 12-inch (Beach Impediment)
Plasma ‘Mua Et Voi Omistaa’ 12-inch (Sorry State)
Private Lives ‘Salt Of The Earth’ 12-inch (Feel It)
Shatter ‘Deny The Future’ 7-inch (Desolate)
Stress Positions ‘Human Zoo’ 12-inch (Three One G)
Svffer ‘Eternity Moment’ 12-inch (Contraszt)
Sweeping Promises ‘Hunger For A Way Out’ 12-inch (Feel It)
Tàrega 91 ‘Ckaos Total’ 12-inch (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Xiao ‘Control’ 12-inch (Twelve Gauge)
June
Artificial Go ‘Musical Chairs’ 12-inch (Feel It)
Kilynn Lunsford ‘Promiscuous Genes’ 12-inch (Feel It)
Lung ‘The Swankeeper’ 12-inch (Feel It)