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Foundation Vinyl Newsletter

9 April 2024

Welcome

Hello and welcome to this week’s newsletter. I had the pleasure of catching Wreathe on Thursday night and it was an absolute steamroller of a performance! In a new venue as well – The Strongroom in Shoreditch. I’m pretty sure I’ve not been to a gig in that neck of the woods for around a decade (I’m going to say Narrows at XOYO in 2013) and I wouldn’t have been totally surprised if I had never done so again. But the space worked pretty well, the sound was decent, there was a properly up-for-it crowd, and the bands slayed it – you can’t ask for much more than that!

So, what have we got lined up this week?

Five very different, yet uniformly excellent, Featured New Arrivals from Aihotz, Aus, Industry, Mirage, and Twelve Cubic Feet.
Shows And Tours, including new shows for Magnitude, Negative Approach, and No Future as well as a debut album release show for Marcel Wave.
Every Which Way Is D-Beat, a round-up of just-in EPs from Juventud Podrida, Desintegración Violenta, and Traumatizer.
Coming Soon, with a raft of great new releases on their way to us!

Also, just a quick heads up that the rather brilliant Fortress Britain from Stingray is now back in stock.

Featured New Arrivals

A Self-Portrait At The Stage Of Totalitarian Domination Of All Aspects Of Life by Industry / Niebla Total by Aihotz / Der Schöne Scheine by Aus / Straight Out The Fridge by Twelve Cubic Feet / Immagini Postume by Mirage (clockwise)

AihotzNiebla Total

12 Inch

From the howled opening on Intro, you suspect that you are set for quite the ride and Aihotz certainly don’t disappoint as they draw on a broad palette of influences, before fusing them together in intriguingly unexpected ways.

Aihotz hail from Bilbao and Niebla Total (Total Fog) is the follow-up to their 2021 EP, Matar Al Superhombre (Kill Superman). An exuberantly punchy rhythm section underpins honed, metallic-tinged guitars, while the strident Spanish / Basque vocals, aided by an energetic array of yelps and yowls, explore darkly allegorical lyrics. The result is an austere yet infectiously off-kilter melding of hardcore and anarcho-punk that is awash with an eerily psychedelic hue, with the title track, Peligroso (Dangerous) and Atzarria (Claw), perhaps, personal standouts. The artwork has an icy black metal aesthetic but with notably more stylish coats.

AusDer Schöne Scheine

7 Inch

Berlin’s Aus return with a fresh slab of darkly evocative post-punk on their new EP, Der Schöne Scheine (The Beautiful One), a follow-up to the excellent 2020 second full length, II.

Side A tracks Der Schöne Scheine and Zugvögel (Migratory Bird) revolve around the severe semi-spoken vocals, austerely detached through glacial disdain rather than disinterest. These entwine with tautly clean yet coldly discordant, almost scratchy, guitars, while a bleak melodicism is injected by the haunting synths as the tom-led drums and resonantly melodic bass lock into their precise, relentless stride. Meanwhile, the flipside track LSD allows a swinging bassline to forge an inexorable slow-build momentum before the vocals finally arrive for the song’s climax. As ever, Aus deliver a consummate lesson in the exercise of rigorously enforced self-restraint to create an atmosphere of genuinely unnerving gothic intensity.

IndustryA Self-Portrait At The Stage Of Totalitarian Domination Of All Aspects Of Life

12 Inch

‘My landlord called in sick today, My landlord has anxiety, My landlord has nowhere to stay, He calls me up just to say…Your rent will rise, By 300 percent, Starting next week, Extract wealth and die’ (Extract Wealth And Die)

This is Industry’s debut full-length, and you can probably guess from the title that they are understandably rather frustrated with the current state of the world and this has fuelled an album of utterly searing anger. Musically, the Berlin-based band deal in a bristling hardcore infused anarcho-punk as passionately shouted, raspingly rhythmic vocals are underpinned by metallic guitars and a pounding rhythm section. There is a satisfyingly aggressive propulsion blended with eruptions of surging groove on Totalitarian Domination, flourishes of melancholy melody on Extract Wealth And Die, and the stomping aggression of closer Apathy Is Violence. There is also a rousing cover of Exit Stance’s They Kill Dogs.

Lyrically, the band apply an anarchist framing to explore the causes of climate catastrophe on Lessons In Impermanence, the arms trade on Nothing Sells Better Than Death, the impact of rentier capitalism and landlordism in bitterly distorting our cities on Extract Wealth And Die, and the wider hollowing out of our democracies on Apathy Is Violence. The album has a decidedly polemical energy, and while there is a directness to the lyrics, it is also clear that the band recognise that though they might not have all the answers, waiting for those in power to lead change will be a very long wait indeed…

MirageImmagini Postume

7 Inch

Hailing from New York / New Jersey, Immagini Postume (Posthumous Image) is Mirage’s debut EP and delivers a forceful onslaught of burly hardcore punk, liberally laced with a dark post-punk sensibility.

The blistering first two tracks, Disastro (Disaster) and Non Mi Frega (I Don’t Care), establish the band’s base template of strident yet nuanced hardcore. It is as the EP sweeps into the tautly bleak opening to the next track, Slacker, and the melodic breakdown that brings Mondo Transparente (Transparent World) to its crushing finale, that you see the band beginning to flex its more melancholic inclinations. These impulses become even more organically entwined with the band’s surging hardcore on the flipside opener Evita La Gabbia (Avoid The Cage), while discordant melodies flare up amidst the rampaging Spirito (Spirit) and La Lotte O La Morte (Fight Or Death).

Throughout, raw, bristling Italian vocals challenge our broken economic system on Non Mi Frega (‘You only think of us as objects for your profit’) and Slacker (‘The hand that strangles you is the hand that pays you’), together with the often equally repressive forces of religion on Evita La Gabbia and La Lotte O La Morte.

Twelve Cubic FeetStraight Out The Fridge

12 Inch

Who is in need of some Anarcho Indie Pop? If you answered in the negative, I suspect you may be being premature in your judgment if you’ve not yet immersed yourself in the rather bewitching sounds of Twelve Cubic Feet.

I have always felt that hardcore punk benefits more than most musical subcultures from having a healthy regard for its past, to better understand its musical trajectories and, perhaps more importantly, the evolution of its political conversations. But, at times, when you survey wider musical culture, it can feel like we are being slowly drowned in the nostalgia of reunion tours and lavishly repackaged vinyl reissues. And as the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler once said, admittedly almost certainly not with hardcore in mind, ‘Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire’.

Yet a couple of La Vida Es Un Mus Discos offshoots, Sealed Records and Demo Tape Records, consistently serve to remind us that there remains real value in excavating our musical ashes. They have both brought back to life the recordings of some great bands who are now barely remembered yet, with hindsight, forged sounds that were often instrumental in shaping our musical futures. And Sealed Records have uncovered another gem in Twelve Cubic Feet with the reissue of their 1982 album on Namedrop Records, Straight Out The Fridge.

Sealed’s tentatively proffered suggestion of ‘Anarcho Indie Pop’ is an apt one. The band’s sound is fragile yet fully realised – clean, jangly guitars, a jazz accented rhythm section, and warmly organic keyboards provide the perfect backdrop to dual vocalists of a post-punk persuasion and a keen pop sensibility. The result is an album saturated in an early 1980s’ English aesthetic that feels concurrently both bleak and uplifting, and sadly still rather pertinent to our current malaise. And there are standout moments aplenty – from when the band locks into an extended instrumental crescendo to the ruminative The Almhouse built around an otherworldly keyboard motif, to the infectious vocal harmonies that propel Escaping Again. And the final track Tuesday Afternoon brings it all together quite brilliantly. An unexpected treat.

Show And Tours

*Deaf Club will be laying waste to New Cross Inn on 17th April*

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.

13^th April Frail Body, Chalk Hands plus more (Downstairs at The Dome / UK Tour)

17^th April Deaf Club, Fuck Money, Mister Lizard (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

29^th April The Drin, Tommy Cassock And The Degenerators plus more (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

2^nd May New York Hounds, Stingray, Fulmine (New River Studios)

4^th May Klonns, Tramadol, Turbo, Second Death (New River Studios)

7^th May Moloch, Remote Viewing, Healing Wound, Torpid State (Black Heart)

10^th& 11^th May Soulside and Scream (The Lexington)

16^th May Puffer, Asbo plus more (New River Studios)

18^th May Snuff plus support (Downstairs at The Dome / UK Tour)

18^th May Sick Of It All, Violent Way plus more (Village Underground)

20^th May World Peace, Flesh Creeper, Asbo (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

20^th May Earth Ball, Chris Corsano, Terrine (Cafe Oto / UK Tour)

28^th May One Step Closer, Arm’s Length plus more (The Dome)

30^th May Negative Approach, Subdued, Imposter, Ikhras (Oslo)

1^st June Long Knife plus support (New River Studios / UK Tour)

2^nd June Harrowed, Wreathe, Mister Lizard, Komarov, Grim Harvest (New Cross Inn)

2^nd June No Future, Subdued, Last Affront plus more (Shacklewell Arms)

12^th June Judy & The Jerks, Turbo, Gimic plus more (Shacklewell Arms / UK Tour)

14^th June Marcel Wave, The Pheromoans, Lash (Moth Club)

17^th June Gel plus support (The Garage / UK Tour)

21^st June Bad Breeding, Gimic, Scab (Moth Club)

27^th June Ceremony plus support (Underworld)

28^th June Magnitude, Never Ending Game, Gridiron plus more (Oslo)

2^nd July Wound Man, Rubber plus more (New Cross Inn)

20^th August Horror Vacui plus support (Helgi’s)

21^st August Poison Ruin, Home Front plus support (The Garage)

28^th September Morrow, Śmierć, Cady, Hemiptera (New Cross Inn / Brighton on 27th September)

21^st November Undying plus support (New Cross Inn)

22^nd November Unbroken, Shooting Daggers, Rifle, Eyeteeth (The Dome)

Every Which Way Is D-Beat

*La Bestia by Desintegración Violenta / Traumatizer by Traumatizer / Control/Encierro by Juventud Podrida (clockwise)*

Just landed are three brand new EPs, each of which lays a fierce d-beat base, before heading off in their own very distinctive directions. First up from Discos Enfermos, we have politically charged metallic crust, with just a dash of stenchore, from Panama’s Juventud Podrida on Control/Encierro (Control/Confinement) . Think downtuned buzzsaw guitars and raw effects-drenched Spanish vocals (the band share their vocalist with Hez) exploring themes of how political corruption and distorted economic priorities work in partnership to foreclose alternatives and protect entrenched interests.

Also on Disco Enfermos, this time in collaboration with Neon Taste, is the self-titled debut EP from Haarlem’s Traumatizer. Thrashing guitars lock in with an unrelentingly aggressive rhythm section to drive the blown-out onslaught, but the centrepiece is, perhaps, the rasping, almost breathlessly urgent vocals.

Then, on Static Age Musik and Unlawful Assembly, arrives a truly nasty hybrid from Desintegración Violenta on La Bestia (The Beast). D-beat infused speed metal with demonic Spanish vocals entwining with rabid solos and eruptions of blackened melody to create a darkly unsettling atmosphere.

Full write-ups at www.foundationvinyl.com.

Coming Soon

Imminent

Argh ‘Se Pudrio Todo…Adios’ 12-inch (Discos Enfermos)

Cosey Mueller ‘Irrational Habits’ 12-inch (Static Age)

Grisaille ‘Entre Deux Averses’ 7-inch (Symphony Of Destruction)

Gurs ‘Gerran Bizi Gara’ 12-inch (Symphony Of Destruction)

JJ And The A’s ‘Eyeballer’ 7-inch (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Long Knife ‘Curb Stomp Earth’ 12-inch (Sabotage / Restock)

Noj ‘Waxing Moon’ 12-inch (Static Age)

Public Acid ‘Deadly Struggle’ 12-inch (Beach Impediment / Restock)

Rotura ‘Al Otro Lado’ 12-inch (Discos Enfermos)

Uranium Club ‘Infants Under The Bulb’ 12-inch (Static Shock)

Vaxine ‘Frontal Lobotomy’ 12-inch (Discos Enfermos / Toxic State)

April (Second Half)

Gouge Away ‘Deep Sage’ 12-inch (Deathwish)

Heavenly Blue ‘We Have The Answer’ 12-inch (Secret Voice)

Infant Island ‘Obsidian Wreath’ 12-inch (Secret Voice)

Planet B ‘Split With N8NOFACE And Ms Boan’ 7-inch (Three One G)

Prisoner ‘Putrid / Obsolete’ 12-inch (Persistent Vision)

Squid Pisser ‘My Tadpole Legion’ 12-inch (Three One G / Restock)

Foundation Vinyl Newsletter

2 April 2024

Welcome

Hello and welcome to this week’s newsletter! We have quite the line-up to get stuck into:

A set of rather brilliant Featured New Arrivals from Sweat, Sectarian Bloom, Unsufferable, Nø Man, and Diploid.
Shows And Tours, including newly announced shows from Bad Breeding, Ceremony, Klonns, Poison Ruin / Home Front, and Undying.
Fresh Arrivals, featuring Deaf Club, Frail Body, and Pettersson
Coming Soon, with a raft of great new releases on their way to us from Discos Enfermos, La Vida Es Un Mus Discos, Symphony Of Destruction, Static Age, and Static Shock amongst others.

Featured New Arrivals

*Glitter And Spit By Nø Man / Strategies Of Tension by Sectarian Bloom / Love Child by Sweat / I Am Yours. And I Am Here Again by Diploid / Unsufferable by Unsufferable (clockwise)*

SweatLove Child

12 Inch

‘The very thought of a full heart, my own volition: a violation, the audacity to feel ok, tremendous cost of living, tremendous cost of loving’ (Love Child)

Los Angeles’ Sweat comprise Tuna Tardugno on vocals, Anthony Rivera (Dangers, Daisy Chain) on drums, and Justin Smith (Ghostlimb, Graf Orlock, Dangers) on guitar / bass. Love Child is their second full-length and follow-up to 2022’s Gotta Give It Up. The band continue to forge a sound rooted in swaggering rock’n’roll infused hardcore, though this time injecting a notably more muscular edge.

Taut, surging riffage is underpinned by powerfully limber drumming, and while fierce solos remain, the band’s more melodic inclinations have been dialled back a touch in favour of a stomping physicality that defines Pair Of Dice and A Real Good Time, the raucously vibrant breakdowns that fuel Pure Display and Bad Taste, and the sheer innate danceability of Physical. Throughout, unexpected flourishes inventively flare, ranging from the melodic crescendo on White Nectarines (‘I know, you know. Stick a knife in 9. I know, you know. Pull it out 6’) to the whispered interlude on the rampaging title track.

Meanwhile, snarled, rasping vocals, accompanied by a satisfyingly hearty range of grunts and growls, dissect the exploitative paradigm of our economic system. The lyrics acerbically explore how we get lured into its rationality on Pair Of Dice (‘You will put in your all, tunnel vision focus, Til you realise you got got, There’s no repaying lifetime missed’), and how it systemically commodifies us on Commercial Pleasure (‘If they can’t break our brain, they’ll break our will, If they can’t lock us up, They’ll feed us pills’), an intention that White Nectarines nails as now barely disguised (‘You think they care? It’s designed this way’).

Sectarian BloomStrategies Of Tension

12 Inch

‘The trail of change keeps moving, To the same tune of loss, And nothing’s tamed that emerald demon, That keeps burning up our lives’ (Working Daydream)

What is the key ingredient to truly great post-punk? Yes, of course, the melodies must be saturated in melancholy, and the atmosphere bleakly foreboding. But the often-forgotten element is propulsion, a fluidity to stir the feet as much as the melodies stir the heart. And these are qualities that Sectarian Bloom have in spades.

They hail from the Bay Area and Strategies Of Tension is the band’s debut full-length, pulling together remastered versions of their two cassette-only EPs – the first side is 2020’s self-titled release and the flip side being 2022’s New Spring. Their sound is a well-crafted display in layering and pacing dynamics. The rhythm section lays a foundation of punchily dark basslines and notably supple drumming, the latter displaying some delightful flourishes, especially on Our Time. Then the richly resonant lead vocals of bassist Will, stark yet nuanced, complete the band’s sonic base.

The more vividly freestyle elements follow. Firstly, the backing vocals of drummer Susi (except on Static when she leads), which provide an infectiously melodic counterpoint, sometimes layered, sometimes brightly dancing in support, competing on Because We Like It. Finally, there is Sam’s tensely serpentine guitar work, which at times is so crystalline that you suspect it is close to shattering, such as on Blue Light.

The albums lyrics have a certain poetic quality as they explore themes of social struggle, state oppression, and gentrification that oscillate between fear that the moment for change may have passed, and a vital commitment to ensuring that does not prove to the case.

UnsufferableUnsufferable

7 Inch

Unsufferable are a three-piece comprising Robert Fish (108, Resurrection, Every Scar Has A Story), Dave Buschemeyer (New Day Rising, Spread The Disease) and Ryan McInturff (Bloodjinn) and their debut seven-inch is a statement of blistering intent.

The band deal in metallic tinged hardcore and they lay down an onslaught of searing intensity across these two tracks. Opener Enemy Of The State eviscerates the current political environment in the US (‘True intentions clear, despite the lies, Picking rights off, one by one, its easy to feel free until you are the one’), highlighting the assault on abortion rights (‘Upon birth, their life is inconsequential to you, as they were always nothing more than a pawn’) as a critical battle against the wider dismantling of people’s rights (‘It’s a war on women, a war on the poor, a war to disenfranchise. This war, it’s at our front door’).

Flip side track Revisionist sees the band focus on forging a monolithic, slab-like groove as they explore the importance of dispassionate readings of history and facing up to the realities of what happened (‘We can’t heal, we can’t prosper, we can’t move past, what we deny’). Throughout both songs, the guitars and rhythm section lock into a truly relentless delivery, the breakdown riff on Enemy Of The State genuinely spine-tingling. It provides the perfect foil to a characteristically visceral vocal performance from Rob Fish as he segues from cathartic roar to impassioned spoken word as only he can. A debut LP is slated for early 2025 and it can’t come soon enough.

Nø ManGlitter And Spit

12 Inch

‘We’re running in place, addicted to everything, Skin deep, pretty and neat, keep it on the surface, Small talk trivia, we want a shallow experience, Century of self is sprawling and we’re all famished’ (Monument To Pleasure)

Comprising three parts of Majority Rule and vocalist Maha Shami, who as it happens provided guest vocals on Majority Rule’s contribution to their 2002 split with pageninetynine, Washington DC’s Nø Man are back with their third length, Glitter And Spit. Sonically, the band continue to forge a sound that is rooted in relatively clean, leanly crafted, groove laden hardcore – thunderously resonant basslines and pounding drums lockstep with taut guitars and harshly aggressive, almost blackened, vocals. There is a powerful clarity of intent in evidence, most vividly, perhaps on the utterly fierce March Of Ides and Can’t Kill Us All.

Lyrically, the album primarily focuses on Maha’s visits home to Palestine, prior to the horrors that have unfolded more recently, and seeing first-hand the dehumanising realities of life for her family, as well as reflecting on her own personal experiences growing up as a refugee from the region. The album closes with a clean sung cover of Burning Skulls by Lydia Lunch and Rowland Howard that then segues into a haunting instrumental, Damaar.

DiploidI Am Yours. And I Am Here Again.

12 Inch

‘The violence erupts, A scorched earth, A lipless smile, Recognise the life gone, A history erased, A scorched earth’ (Scorched Earth)

Diploid hail from Melbourne and have been prolifically active in the Australian DIY scene for the past decade. I Am Yours. And I Am Here Again is the band’s fourth full-length and follow-up to 2019’s Glorify. It sees the band take their fierce fusing of chaotic hardcore and grindcore to new levels of ferocious inventiveness. The album itself is, perhaps, best understood as a single visceral movement, packing as it does 18 songs into 25 whirlwind minutes, songs segueing almost seamlessly into one another.

Diploid though are experts in judging just when to change gears to ensure that their onslaught retains its unbridled intensity throughout. Opener Falling, and closer Active Shooter, provide suitably discordant bookends to the sonic carnage, while tracks such as the crushing The World Is Overflowing With Sorrow, the swaggering Scorched Earth, and the utterly bruising His Arms Bound prove to be personal highlights.

The album’s title comes from a speech by exiled Turkish author and human rights activist, Dogan Aqhanla, when speaking at the Armenian Genocide Commemoration in Berlin in 2005. The author’s work has been defined by explorations of genocide, and this together with processes of radicalisation provide the band’s lyrical fulcrum.

I had the pleasure of catching Diploid on their first European tour in July of last year. And while my expectations were high, nothing quite prepared me for the battering that was delivered that evening. Every aspect of their set from Mariam’s raw screams to Reece’s demonic roars, from the ferocious riffage to Scarlett’s brutally frenzied drumming was amplified beyond what felt physically possible. Cathartic doesn’t even begin to describe the impact, and as the set ended you found yourself almost dazed from the brutal velocity of their performance.

This is the European pressing from Rope Or Guillotine.

Shows And Tours

*Enemic Interior, Rifle, and Zeropolis at The Waiting Room, Saturday 6th April*

2^nd April Spaced, Going Off, Shooting Daggers, Ikhras (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

3^rd April Findom, Sniffany And The Nits, Sorority (Windmill)

4^th April Ancient Emblem, Wreathe, Fox Strikes, State Sanctioned Violence (Strongroom)

6^th April Wren, Wreathe, Healing Wound, Mortar (Moor Beer Vaults)

6^th April Enemic Interior, Rifle, Zeropolis (The Waiting Room / UK Tour)

6^th April Hell Is For Heroes, James And The Cold Gun, Templeton Pek (Electric Ballroom / UK Tour)

8^th April Subzero, Ninebar plus more (New Cross Inn)

13^th April Frail Body, Chalk Hands plus more (Downstairs at The Dome / UK Tour)

17^th April Deaf Club, Fuck Money, Mister Lizard (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

29^th April The Drin, Tommy Cassock And The Degenerators plus more (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

2^nd May New York Hounds, Stingray, Fulmine (New River Studios)

4^th May Klonns, Tramadol, Turbo, Second Death (New River Studios)

7^th May Moloch, Remote Viewing, Healing Wound, Torpid State (Black Heart)

11^th May Soulside and Scream (The Lexington)

18^th May Snuff plus support (Downstairs at The Dome / UK Tour)

20^th May World Peace, Flesh Creeper, Asbo (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

20^th May Earth Ball, Chris Corsano, Terrine (Cafe Oto / UK Tour)

28^th May One Step Closer, Arm’s Length plus more (The Dome)

1^st June Long Knife plus support (New River Studios / UK Tour)

2^nd June Harrowed, Wreathe, Mister Lizard, Komarov, Grim Harvest (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

12^th June Judy & The Jerks, Gimic plus more (Shacklewell Arms / UK Tour)

17^th June Gel plus support (The Garage / UK Tour)

21^st June Bad Breeding, Gimic, Scab (Moth Club)

27^th June Ceremony plus support (Underworld)

2^nd July Wound Man, Rubber plus more (New Cross Inn)

20^th August Horror Vacui plus support (Helgi’s)

21^st August Poison Ruin, Home Front plus support (The Garage)

28^th September Morrow, Śmierć, Cady, Hemiptera (New Cross Inn / Brighton on 27th September)

21^st November Undying plus support (New Cross Inn)

22^nd November Unbroken, Shooting Daggers, Rifle, Eyeteeth (The Dome)

Fresh Arrivals

*Productive Disruption by Deaf Club / Artificial Bouquet by Frail Body / Ashen Plain by Pettersson (clockwise)*

Ahead of their fast approaching UK tours, we have landed copies of Frail Body’s new LP and the new pressing of Deaf Club’s most recent album. Frail Body’s Artificial Bouquet captures the raw urgency of the band, which they skilfully blend with moments of beguiling beauty, while Deaf Club’s Productive Disruption is an utterly manic eruption of acidic hardcore.

We have also picked up Ashen Plain from Pettersson on I Corrupt Records. Hailing from Vienna, the band have returned after a longer than expected hiatus with a new album of melodically charged emotional hardcore.

Full write-ups at www.foundationvinyl.com.

Coming Soon

April (First Half)

Aihotz ‘Niebla Total’ 12-inch (Discos Enfermos)

Argh ‘Se Pudrio Todo…Adios’ 12-inch (Discos Enfermos)

Aus ‘Der Schöne Schein’ 7-inch (Static Age)

Cosey Mueller ‘Irrational Habits’ 12-inch (Static Age)

Desintegración Violenta ‘La Bestia’ 7-inch (Static Age)

Grisaille ‘Entre Deux Averses’ 7-inch (Symphony Of Destruction)

Gurs ‘Gerran Bizi Gara’ 12-inch (Symphony Of Destruction)

Industry ‘A Self-Portrait At The Stage Of Totalitarian Domination Of All Aspects Of Human Life’ 12-inch (Static Age)

JJ And The A’s ‘Eyeballer’ 7-inch (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Juventud Podrida ‘Control/Encierro’ 7-inch (Discos Enfermos)

Mirage ‘Immagini Postume’ 7-inch (Discos Enfermos)

Noj ‘Waxing Moon’ 12-inch (Static Age)

Public Acid ‘Deadly Struggle’ 12-inch (Beach Impediment / Restock)

Rotura ‘Al Otro Lado’ 12-inch (Discos Enfermos)

Stingray ‘Fortress Britain’ 12-inch (La Vida Es Un Mus / Restock)

Traumatizer ‘Self Titled’ 7-inch (Discos Enfermos / Neon Taste)

Twelve Cubic Feet ‘Straight Out The Fridge’ 12-inch (Sealed)

Uranium Club ‘Infants Under The Bulb’ 12-inch (Static Shock)

Vaxine ‘Frontal Lobotomy’ 12-inch (Discos Enfermos / Toxic State)

April (Second Half)

Gouge Away ‘Deep Sage’ 12-inch (Deathwish)

Heavenly Blue ‘We Have The Answer’ 12-inch (Secret Voice)

Infant Island ‘Obsidian Wreath’ 12-inch (Secret Voice)

Modern Life Is War ‘Tribulation Worksongs’ 12-inch (Deathwish)

Planet B ‘Split With N8NOFACE And Ms Boan’ 7-inch (Three One G)

Prisoner ‘Putrid / Obsolete’ 12-inch (Persistent Vision)

Squid Pisser ‘My Tadpole Legion’ 12-inch (Three One G / Restock)

Foundation Vinyl Newsletter

26 March 2024

Welcome

Hello and welcome to this week’s newsletter! Apologies for last week’s unscheduled non-appearance – a couple of shipments from Germany have found themselves trapped in a torturous customs purgatory, but should hopefully now be with us next week. In stark contrast, another couple of German shipments have whipped through in record time, highlighting the delightfully erratic nature of modern-day logistics…

So, what have we got lined up this week?

A cracking set of Featured New Arrivals from Wreathe, No Sun Rises, Zeropolis, and Sacrofuoco
With Wreathe’s debut LP landing, I thought it would be timely to rerun Dark Myths, Venomous Realities, which explores the book that inspired the album
Shows And Tours, including a newly announced show from Morrow!
Coming Soon, highlighting new arrivals on their way to us from Discos Enfermos, La Vida Es Un Mus Discos, Rope Or Guillotine, Symphony Of Destruction, Static Age, Static Shock, and Vitriol.

And also, just a quick heads up that Ostraca’s Disaster is now back in stock.

Featured New Arrivals

*1000 Walls by Zeropolis / The Land Is Not An Idle God by Wreathe / Anni Luce by Sacrofuoco / Harmisod by No Sun Rises (clockwise)*

WreatheThe Land Is Not An Idle God

12 Inch

‘Tears, the blood, the sweat, Quotas filled when all are shed, The labours gone unacknowledged, Shackles grimly greased, The only residue of their toil’ (Mother Of All Woe)

Featuring members of Fall of Efrafa, Morrow, and Arboricidio, this is the debut LP from London’s Wreathe. The band build vigorously on the foundations of those three bands – roared, sometimes layered, vocals entwine in raucous tandem with darkly lean melancholic riffage and a thunderous rhythm section. A palpable rage courses through the sonic onslaught, but it is matched with a defiant optimism that, if we act collectively, all is not yet lost.

The album’s lyrics are based on vocalist Alex CF’s book, The Book of Venym: An Egalitarian Demonology. This is a fictional exploration of the philosophy and invocation of a pantheon of pagan nature deities, known as the Increscent, ‘a battle cry for the much-beleaguered idea of compassion above self-interest and bigotry’. It examines humanity’s deteriorating relationship with nature and how this is in turn then reflected in its fracturing relationship with itself through the privileging of individualism over the collective good.

This provides the album with a powerfully unifying momentum as the narrative unfurls and the philosophical tenets of the book are vigorously animated. The slow build eruption of opener One Hundred Swords Of Righteous Anger sets the tone perfectly, the album then melding bristling rage with discordant melody (Green Messiah, The King Is Risen) and powerful slabs of doom drenched bleakness (Enemy Of All Reason, The Stumps Are Graves Of The Land) with equal relish. The visceral Mother Of All Woe brings proceedings to an utterly crushing finale.

No Sun RisesHarmisod

12 Inch

‘Time sleeps inside of me, Sunken, Silent, Abandoned in sorrow, Emerging thoughts narrowed, Far away from myself’ (Unter Tage [Regress])

No Sun Rises deal in blackened hardcore and Harmisod represents their third release following 2021 EP Dominium Terrae and their 2019 debut full length Ascent/Decay. It sees the Göttingen based band give greater rein to their black metal instincts, while continuing to draw on an avowedly hardcore propulsion. Four tracks across a forty-five minutes run time speaks to the ambition on display and impressively the momentum never dims as an atmosphere of wintry darkness is expertly conjured.

Bleakly cold guitars that brim with sombre flourishes entwine with a powerful yet nuanced rhythm section, while underpinning rabidly harsh German language vocals that weave a darkly allusive lyrical imagery of fog and forest, dark and light. Opener Nebelleben (Fog Life), which includes a spoken word reading of Hermann Hesse’s poem Im Nebel (In The Fog), and the third track, Tanz Im Fahlen Lichte (Dancing In The Pale Light) are powerfully executed explorations of mournfully atmospheric blackened hardcore.

But, perhaps, the two stand out tracks are where the band meld their searing black metal with explorations in dark folk. The first half of track two, Unter Tage (Underground) [Regress], opens with a beautifully haunting vocal guest appearance from Nicole of Berlin’s Luminescent, which interplays with acoustic guitar and violins as it builds to a spine tingling crescendo (‘No one responsible, Although in charge’) that then erupts into a ferocious second half. Album closer, In Trockener Erde (In Dry Soil) [Bury Me], builds from a darkly infectious, almost menacingly jaunty folk opening, courtesy of Dutch duo Tüül, before segueing into a blackened onslaught that reworks the same eerie melody to dramatic effect.

Zeropolis1000 Walls

12 Inch

‘Atomise, Control the territory, Control the technology, Isolate, Assimilate, In the void of thought, That fits the hate’ (Dominion)

Now I can’t claim to have ever been much of a clubber, but there was a now long departed club in Birmingham that I always rather enjoyed on my occasional Saturday night visits. The front room was the sort of banging techno favoured by those who enjoy wearing furry boots, the middle room a more mature house vibe, and then an upstairs room where quite frankly mash-ups of all varieties would be unleashed – some really didn’t work, others definitely did. And Zeropolis, a London based French duo, deliver a fusion that would have brought that particular house down.

1000 Walls is Zeropolis’ full-length follow-up to their self-titled 2020 EP. They deal in darkly pulsating synth punk, saturated in post-punk melancholy, and riven through with a seething anger and defiance. Shouted vocals and infectious choruses soar above the twin synth and guitar attack, while pounding dance rhythms underpin the bleakly discordant melodies and uplifting euphoric eruptions.

This proves the perfect soundtrack for the band’s exploration of the atomisation of society through rampant social inequality (Dominion), populist harnessing of the resultant discontent (The Nobodies), and workplace exploitation (Bullshit Job), as well as the anxiety and insecurity that this provokes (Keep Calm). The themes also speak to our need for hedonistic release (Dance) while steering clear of nihilistic acceptance – yes, you’ll want to bust out your best moves but never in resigned abandon, always in preparation for the battles to come.

SacrofuocoAnni Luce

12 Inch

‘La nostra casa é in fiamme, il calore mi spacca le labra, mi spaccala facia, mi abbandono tra le tue braccia, tra le macerie e i resti sparsi di ciò che credevamo di avere messo in salvo, e avevamo lasciato indietro’ (Le Ombre Intorno) ‘Our house is on fire, the heat splits my lips, it splits my face. I abandon myself between your arms, among the rubble and the scattered remnants of what we believed we saved, and we left behind instead’ (The Shadows Around)

Turin’s Sacrofuoco comprise the same four members as their previous iteration, One Dying Wish, that was active from 2017 to 2022. The band felt that they had outgrown their original form both musically and personally, and while both bands share the same kernel of emotional hardcore inspiration, it is vividly clear that a newfound confidence and assurance permeates their music.

Anni Luce (Light Years) is their statement of renewed intent and its seven tracks split between four visceral eruptions and three rather more expansive explorations. Throughout, the band prove skilfully adept at marrying a surging, sinuous aggression with passages of haunting beauty. They flow between the two with an inventive, organic fluidity, most dramatically, perhaps, on Corpi Celesti (Heavenly Bodies) and Una Sottile Linea (A Thin Line).

Meanwhile, harsh Italian vocals are layered with more melodic backing and intertwined with powerfully effective spoken word interjections. The lyrics have a poetically allusive quality and look to explore themes around how our lives are becoming increasingly fractured by political opportunism and invasive technology, and how the resultant barriers frequently evolve as cages that sacrifice more than they protect.

Dark Myths, Venomous Realities

*Wreathe’s debut LP, The Land Is Not An Idle God, is based on ‘The Book Of Venym: An Egalitarian Demonology’ by Alex CF*

The Land Is Not An Idle God has landed. Featuring members of Fall of Efrafa, Morrow, and Arboricidio, this is the debut LP from London’s Wreathe. The band build vigorously on the foundations of those three bands – roared, sometimes layered, vocals entwine in raucous tandem with darkly lean melancholic riffage and a thunderous rhythm section. A palpable rage courses through the sonic onslaught, but it is matched with a defiant optimism that, if we act collectively, all is not yet lost.

‘But in the burgeoning fruit of democracy, we find a parasite that craves all, seizes all…it will spread that rot until all are consumed.’

Lyrically, the album follows the path of Fall of Efrafa and Morrow in also being a concept album, a theme I wrote about a little while back in A Pessimist In Search of Dystopia. This album’s source material is a work of fiction written by vocalist Alex CF, The Book of Venym: An Egalitarian Demonology, and I thought it would be interesting to explore its ideas in a little more detail. In some senses, it is a difficult book to categorise in that, while it creates its world in remarkable detail, not all of its philosophical thoughts are explicitly explained. Rather, it seeks to prime further reflection and interpretation around its central concepts. The language itself is a mixture of prose and verse (and sometimes something somewhere in-between), which positions the narrator as perhaps living in the late 19^th century. It is written almost as a stream of consciousness, as the narrator grapples with visions of humanity’s fate, conjuring images of the writer feverishly writing down their thoughts late at night by lamp, as if gripped by some spectral force.

‘To see the other as a foot stall to stand upon, to starve us of teaching so that our reasoning is impeded?’

The thrust of the narrator’s visions are focused on how humanity is becoming divorced from the natural word that gave birth to it, driven both by the consequences of human evolution and its own innate sense of superiority. These dreams introduce us to the philosophy and invocation of a pantheon of pagan nature deities, known as The Increscent, who represent the act of becoming greater than oneself, and who will be provoked to action by humanity’s behaviour. I will leave the specifics of the world of The Increscent for individual readers to dive into, but I would like to specifically explore the wider themes that the book seeks to address through the creation of this world. I can’t claim to be a huge reader of fantasy, but while it can often function as a form of escapism, mythologies can also be a powerful way of examining issues from alternative perspectives and escaping the strictures of polarised contemporary debates.

‘The Beast, the great Enemy knows no other course of action, and its tentacles wriggle where none are watching. They will grow, coil into new patterns, new interpretations of the same strategies. Divide and conquer, divide and conquer’.

On my reading, The Book of Venym has three overarching themes. The first we have already touched on, namely humanity’s increasing dislocation from the natural world. Traced through the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions to the future of the narrator’s visions and our present, the narrator maps how our interaction with nature has morphed from a form of mutual reciprocity into seeking to harness nature for purposes of exploitation and extraction. These processes irrevocably damage nature, inhibiting the necessary processes of renewal. This first theme feeds into the second, which is how just as greed has ruptured humanity’s relationship with nature, so it has corrupted its relationship with itself. An ideological hegemony has been forged that privileges a creed of rampant individualism over that of the collective, valorising the ‘free market’ at the expense of the social good. A society distorted to the benefit of corporate interests and profit. This in turn gives rise to the third theme, which is a culture that is fuelled by a distrust of the ‘other’. As economic inequality is exacerbated and public infrastructure degraded by these warped priorities, so people’s insecurity sows the need to blame someone, often the already most marginalised, to reconcile what is happening. So, this is a tale not of conspiracy, but of how governing rationalities saturate a society’s thinking and shape its perception of itself.

‘We must reclaim our sense of egalitarianism…We cannot rest until all are seen, all are listened to, and all are heard’.

And the book’s rallying cry to address this cycle is for a rebirth of egalitarianism. In other words, a recognition of the power of community and the realisation that working together for the collective good has the potential to be far more powerful than the forces arrayed against. Importantly, this notion of egalitarianism appears cognisant of the need to recognise the intersections of both economic and social identities, which have become increasingly disconnected in the public discourse. As such, exploring, in rather different ways, some of the ideas examined when discussing the brilliant new Habak / Lagrimas split LP in Hardcore Is Where The Home Is.

The Book of Venym is a beautifully illustrated, relatively slender book. But it is a work rich in detail and layers that I suspect will reveal themselves in new ways as it is revisited. So, I hope my initial reading does justice to some of the ideas and concepts that are being teased out. Anyway, for those of you who like your crushing riffs partnered with lyrical ideas of equivalent heft, The Land Is Not An Idle God should hit that sweet spot very nicely indeed.

The Land Is Not An Idle God is in store now at www.foundationvinyl.com. You can find The Book of Venym: An Egalitarian Demonology at www.artofalexcf.com. All quotes are taken from The Book of Venym. This is an updated version of an article first published on 15th November 2023.

Shows And Tours

*Morrow play the New Cross Inn on Saturday 28th September (and Brighton the night before)*

31^st March Fundraiser For Milo featuring The Chisel, Chubby And The Gang, Powerplant, Stingray, Middleman, Rifle, Micromoon, Hellscape plus more (Oslo)

2^nd April Spaced, Going Off, Shooting Daggers, Ikhras (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

4^th April Ancient Emblem, Wreathe, Fox Strikes, State Sanctioned Violence (Strongroom)

6^th April Wren, Wreathe, Healing Wound, Mortar (Moor Beer Vaults)

6^th April Enemic Interior, Rifle, Zeropolis (Waiting Room / UK Tour)

6^th April Hell Is For Heroes plus support (Electric Ballroom / UK Tour)

13^th April Frail Body, Chalk Hands plus more (Downstairs at The Dome / UK Tour)

17^th April Deaf Club, Fuck Money, Mister Lizard (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

29^th April The Drin, Tommy Cassock And The Degenerators plus more (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

2^nd May New York Hounds, Stingray, Fulmine (New River Studios)

7^th May Moloch, Remote Viewing, Healing Wound, Torpid State (Black Heart)

11^th May Soulside and Scream (The Lexington)

18^th May Snuff plus support (Downstairs at The Dome / UK Tour)

20^th May World Peace, Flesh Creeper, Asbo (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

28^th May One Step Closer, Arm’s Length plus more (The Dome)

1^st June Long Knife plus support (New River Studios / UK Tour)

2^nd June Harrowed, Wreathe, Mister Lizard, Komarov, Grim Harvest (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

12^th June Judy & The Jerks, Gimic plus more (Shacklewell Arms / UK Tour)

17^th June Gel plus support (The Garage / UK Tour)

20^th August Horror Vacui plus support (Helgi’s)

28^th September Morrow, Śmierć, Cady, Hemiptera (New Cross Inn / Brighton on 27th September)

22^nd November Unbroken, Shooting Daggers, Rifle, Eyeteeth (The Dome)

Coming Soon

*A Self-Portrait At The Stage Of Totalitarian Domination Of All Aspects Of Human Life by Industry*

April (First Half)

Aihotz ‘Niebla Total’ 12-inch (Discos Enfermos)

Argh ‘Se Pudrio Todo…Adios’ 12-inch (Discos Enfermos)

Aus ‘Der Schöne Schein’ 7-inch (Static Age)

Cosey Mueller ‘Irrational Habits’ 12-inch (Static Age)

Deaf Club ‘Productive Disruption’ 12-inch (Three One G)

Desintegración Violenta ‘La Bestia’ 7-inch (Static Age)

Diploid ‘I Am Yours. And I am Here Again’ 12-inch (Rope Or Guillotine)

Frail Body ‘Artificial Bouquet’ 12-inch (Deathwish)

Grisaille ‘Entre Deux Averses’ 7-inch (Symphony Of Destruction)

Gurs ‘Gerran Bizi Gara’ 12-inch (Symphony Of Destruction)

Industry ‘A Self-Portrait At The Stage Of Totalitarian Domination Of All Aspects Of Human Life’ 12-inch (Static Age)

JJ And The A’s ‘Eyeballer’ 7-inch (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Juventud Podrida ‘Control/Encierro’ 7-inch (Discos Enfermos)

Mirage ‘Immagini Postume’ 7-inch (Discos Enfermos)

Noj ‘Waxing Moon’ 12-inch (Static Age)

No Man ‘Glitter And Spit’ 12-inch (Iodine)

Pettersson ‘Ashen Plain’ 12-inch (I Corrupt)

Rotura ‘Al Otro Lado’ 12-inch (Discos Enfermos)

Sectarian Bloom ‘Strategies Of Tension’ 12-inch (Rope Or Guillotine)

Sweat ‘Love Child’ 12-inch (Vitriol)

Traumatizer ‘Self Titled’ 7-inch (Discos Enfermos / Neon Taste)

Twelve Cubic Feet ‘Straight Out The Fridge’ 12-inch (Sealed)

Unsufferable ‘Unsufferable’ 7-inch (Iodine)

Uranium Club ‘Infants Under The Bulb’ 12-inch (Static Shock)

Vaxine ‘Frontal Lobotomy’ 12-inch (Discos Enfermos / Toxic State)

April (Second Half)

Gouge Away ‘Deep Sage’ 12-inch (Deathwish)

Heavenly Blue ‘We Have The Answer’ 12-inch (Secret Voice)

Infant Island ‘Obsidian Wreath’ 12-inch (Secret Voice)

Modern Life Is War ‘Tribulation Worksongs’ 12-inch (Deathwish)

Planet B ‘Split With N8NOFACE And Ms Boan’ 7-inch (Three One G)

Prisoner ‘Putrid / Obsolete’ 12-inch (Persistent Vision)

Squid Pisser ‘My Tadpole Legion’ 12-inch (Three One G / Restock)

Foundation Vinyl Newsletter

12 March 2024

Welcome

Hello and welcome to this week’s newsletter! And what have we got lined-up?

Our four Featured New Arrivals this week are absolute belters from Canal Irreal, Public Acid, and Hackers plus a cracking split LP from Accidente and Nighwatchers.
Hardcore Histories, provides a quick round-up of recently landed and restocked reissues from Cress, Hellnation, and pageninetynine.
Shows And Tours, including newly announced shows from Enemic Interior and Grazia.
Coming Soon, highlighting new arrivals on their way to us from Alerta Antifascista, Discos Enfermos, La Vida Es Un Mus Discos, Static Age, and Vitriol.

Also, just a quick heads up that Planet B’s Fiction Prediction and Stress Positions’ Harsh Reality are both now back in stock for anyone who missed out first time round!

Featured New Arrivals

*Some Else’s Dance by Canal Irreal / Split by Accidente and Nightwatchers / Deadly Struggle by Public Acid / Psy Wi-FI by Hacker (clockwise)*

Canal IrrealSomeone Else's Dance

12 Inch

‘Crawl in ash, Mirage of who we were, Have we forgotten ourselves? We’ve gone mad, Are we fearing death? Or just afraid to live?’ (Mirage)

Featuring members of Los Crudos / Limp Wrist and Sin Orden, Canal Irreal took their bow with 2021’s excellent self-titled full-length and they have returned with a certified belter of a follow-up that infuses their darkly melodic post-punk with a bristling hardcore energy. There is no clutter, but rather a sonic palette that affords each element the space to fully breathe. A wonderfully supple rhythm section provides the grounding for the gruff, melodic vocals (which are primarily in English this time round) as they explore themes of being true to oneself (I Failed), not surrendering to nostalgia to avoid the challenges of today (Mirage), and creating space within a world predicated around conflict (Tranquility).

And in between, the utterly propulsive guitar weaves its bewitching, melancholic spell, on one hand writhing sinuously, on the other betraying an almost crystalline brittleness, yet always dangerously enticing. And I love the brass flourish on 40 Chairs before it flows into a jaggedly raw guitar solo. The result is the insidiously sing-along catchiness of Withdrawal and I Failed, jousting alongside the surging, spiky Mirage and Tranquility, before the stomping, discordant spoken word ode to their home city on Chicago. Make no mistake though, this is undoubtedly Canal Irreal’s dance and once that needle is dropped, you will have very little choice but to join in with unrestrained gusto.

Accidente, NightwatchersSplit

12 Inch

Accidente and Nightwatchers both deal in politically charged melodic punk. And it is these shared inspirations that provide the perfect starting point for them to create a split LP that is as musically engaging as it is thought-provoking, with each band vividly realising their own distinctive take.

Accidente hail from Madrid, and this is their first release since 2020’s Canibal. Their four tracks, which close out with a cover of 1980s’ Spanish band Alarma, are characteristically high-octane contributions, fuelled by upbeat, energetically layered Spanish language vocals, and brightly infectious guitars. This uplifting tone disguises the darker lyrical concerns.

Opener Lxs Invisibles (‘The fire brought heat, To The invisible ones because, What the eye doesn’t see, The heart doesn’t feel’) explores themes of protest and oppression based on Nanni Balestrini’s 1987 novel, Gli Invisibili (The Unseen). The next two tracks focus on how society is becoming increasingly atomised on Atajos (‘We live so fast, We cry so lonely, Looking for a thousand excuses’), but also dissect how current perceptions that somehow everything starts with ourselves, and our own well-being, serve to undermine our collective needs on Interdependencia (‘Don’t tell me about my inner world, The conflict is out there, My problems are not just me’).

In contrast, the six tracks from Toulouse’s Nightwatchers, which also include a cover version J’ai Peur (I Am Scared) by 1980s French punks Bérurier Noir, display a decidedly more sombre hue. Their surging hardcore punk has a harder edge, and one that is immersed in a deep-seated, melancholic melodicism as clean guitars interplay with semi-shouted, anarcho-punk leaning vocals in a vein akin to Red Dons.

Lyrically, their songs examine the Algerian War of Independence and, specifically, the Battle of Algiers in 1957 through the writings of Yves Courrière’s second volume on the conflict, Le Temps des Léopards (The Time of Leopards). The band skilfully evoke the uneasy atmosphere that gripped the city on 2 Temps, 3 Mouvements (‘It doesn’t take much, A movement of impatience, A little bit of pride, In the way you walk, A burst of defiance in the eyes’), the fear that ensued with the arrival of French paratroopers on Casbah D’Hiver (‘Confident gestures, Clean-shaven faces, Menacing moves, Chilling eyes’), and the bleak horrors of torture and disappearance that later emerged on 4,000 Morts (‘Methods that go beyond the reason, 4,000 dead are missing from the cemetery’).

Public AcidDeadly Struggle

12 Inch

‘Phoney fascists, trendy hate, better learn some dialectics, before it’s too late’ (Slow Bleed)

North Carolina’s Public Acid are back and further ratchet up the intensity on this follow-up to their very fine 2020 EP, Condemnation. And have no doubt, this is an utterly fierce record. The band continue to meld a hardcore punk base with their searing metallic instincts to scabrous effect. Buzzsaw guitars lay down a blistering assault that segues into crunching mid-paced Entombed-style gallops (Slow Bleed, End Of Pain) and truly crushing slower paced grooves (Ignorance, Deadly Struggle), with equally unrestrained relish.

Meanwhile, demonically frenzied solos are unleashed with reckless abandon, with those on Ignorance and End Of Pain, perhaps, the stand outs. A merciless, yet nuanced, rhythm section ensures that a semblance of grip is maintained, while rabidly raw vocals explore the causes and consequences of America’s continued political polarisation and social dislocation. And, as soon as it is over, you will want to dive back into its darkly dissonant embrace all over again.

HackerPsy Wi-FI

7 Inch

‘I am a cop for the forms that you will fill, for the lease that you take, the commission I make, I am a snitch with a line to the rich, I develop / destroy for my slice of the cake’ (Scammer)

Melbourne’s Hacker return to the fray with an utterly ferocious four-track EP follow-up to 2021’s explosive Pick Your Path debut. A thunderously resonant bass and brutally intense drumming supply the perfect footing for the slab-like riffage as the band stomp from mid-paced groove to pit mayhem inducing breakdowns with an irresistible, relentless compulsion. Rasping, growled vocals are delivered with a visceral, rhythmic hostility that is not immune to a killer chorus, as the band tackles themes of parasitical capitalism (Scammer), the exploitation inherent to the gig economy (Deliverator), and our likely dystopian future born of natural resource scarcity (Three Quarter Dead).

Hardcore Histories

*Colonized by Hellnation / Document #8 by pageninetynine / Monuments by Cress (left to right)*

So, to a quick round-up of recently released and restocked reissues. First up, and just in, is the remastered reissue of Cress’ 1997 full-length, Monuments. The Lancastrian band render an almost timeless blend of doom inflected anarcho-crust punk, which boasts some intriguingly off-kilter turns courtesy of otherworldly passages of spaced-out synthesisers and flourishes of blues-tinged guitar The highlight though is the duelling twin vocalists – one raw, guttural, the other cleaner, sneering – as they tackle themes of environmental catastrophe and social control. This is a co-release from Fight For Your Mind, Ruin Nation, and Profane Existence.

Also on Fight For Your Mind, we have restocked the 30-year anniversary reissue of Hellnation’s 1993 debut album, Colonized. Hailing from Kentucky, Hellnation dealt in blistering blast beats and swaggering sludge-fuelled breakdowns, while harshly raw vocals explored themes of economic exploitation, police militarisation, and misogyny through the band’s explicitly anarchist framing.

And last, but certainly by no means least, we have also restocked Persistent Vision’s recent reissue of pageninetynine’s 2001 full-length, Document #8. Comprising eight members, (twin vocalists, three guitarists, two bassists, and a drummer), the Virginian band revelled in producing tense, raw emotional hardcore, its unhinged quality belying an intense technicality. The chaos erupts into repetition of cathartic clarity (In Love With An Apparition), and segues into passages of haunting, uneasy beauty (The Hollowed Out Chest Of A Dead Horse) with almost equal relish. This reissue includes the band’s two tracks from their 2001 A Split Personality split EP with City Of Caterpillar.

Shows And Tours

*Zeropolis and Hygiene at New River Studios this Friday*

15^th March Zeropolis, Hygiene, Turbo, Johnny Throttle (New River Studios)

16^th March Prey, T.R.E.S.T, Ashes Of Death plus more (Helgi’s)

17^th March Grazia, Music Room, Shade, Morreadoras (New River Studios)

20^th March Ignite, False Reality, Hell Can Wait (Black Heart)

23^rd March Botch, Bad Breeding, Great Falls (Electric Ballroom / SOLD OUT / UK Tour)

31^st March Fundraiser For Milo featuring The Chisel, Chubby And The Gang, Powerplant, Stingray, Middleman, Rifle, Micromoon, Hellscape plus more (Oslo)

2^nd April Spaced, Going Off, Shooting Daggers, Ikhras (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

4^th April Ancient Emblem, Wreathe, Fox Strikes, State Sanctioned Violence (Strongroom)

6^th April Wren, Wreathe, Healing Wound, Mortar (Moor Beer Vaults)

6^th April Enemic Interior, Rifle, Zeropolis (Waiting Room / UK Tour)

6^th April Hell Is For Heroes plus support (Electric Ballroom / UK Tour)

13^th April Frail Body, Chalk Hands plus more (Downstairs at The Dome / UK Tour)

17^th April Deaf Club, Fuck Money plus more (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

29^th April The Drin, Tommy Cassock And The Degenerators plus more (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

7^th May Moloch, Remote Viewing, Healing Wound, Torpid State (Black Heart)

11^th May Soulside and Scream (The Lexington)

18^th May Snuff plus support (Downstairs at The Dome / UK Tour)

20^th May World Peace, Flesh Creeper, Asbo (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

1^st June Long Knife plus support (New River Studios / UK Tour)

12^th June Judy & The Jerks, Gimic plus more (Shacklewell Arms / UK Tour)

17^th June Gel plus support (The Garage / UK Tour)

22^nd November Unbroken, Shooting Daggers, Rifle, Eyeteeth (The Dome)

Coming Soon

March

Aihotz ‘Niebla Total’ 12-inch (Discos Enfermos)

Aus ‘Der Schöne Schein’ 7-inch (Static Age)

Cosey Mueller ‘Irrational Habits’ 12-inch (Static Age)

Desintegración Violenta ‘La Bestia’ 7-inch (Static Age)

Industry ‘A Self-Portrait At The Stage Of Totalitarian Domination Of All Aspects Of Human Life’ 12-inch (Static Age)

JJ And The A’s ‘Eyeballer’ 7-inch (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Mirage ‘Immagini Postume’ 7-inch (Discos Enfermos)

No Sun Rises ‘Harmisod’ 12-inch (Alerta Antifascista)

Noj ‘Waxing Moon’ 12-inch (Static Age)

Sweat ‘Love Child’ 12-inch (Vitriol)

Wreathe ‘The Land Is Not An Idle God’ 12-inch (Alerta Antifascista / Pre-Order)

April

Deaf Club, Diploid, Frail Body, Gouge Away, Heavenly Blue, Infant Island, Modern Life Is War, No Man, Prisoner, Sectarian Bloom, Squid Pisser (restock), and Unsufferable.

Foundation Vinyl Newsletter

5 March 2024

Welcome

Hello and welcome to this week’s newsletter! There is a lot to get stuck into this week, so let’s get straight on it:

Featured New Arrivals from Public Interest, Vaguess, Morwan, and Stress Positions
And Damage Was Done, featuring Division Of Mind and Fairytale
Sister Midnight Update: South London’s community music venue co-operative hits 1,000 members!
Shows And Tours, including newly announced shows from Judy & The Jerks and Moloch
Coming Soon, including new arrivals next week from Accidente / Nightwatchers, Canal Irreal, Hacker, and Public Acid

Featured New Arrivals

*Walang Hiya by Stress Positions / Thanks // No Thanks by Vaguess / Svitaye, Palaye by Morwan / Spiritual Pollution by Public Interest (clockwise)*

Public InterestSpiritual Pollution

12 Inch

‘Working harder, Break your back, Appease the master’s neutral stance, Look away and they’ll skim the fat, While you’re left standing still’ (Spiritual Pollution)

Public Interest is essentially a solo project for Marble Eye’s Chris Natividad, with fellow Marble Eye member Andrew Oswald handling drums and production. The connection between the two bands is soon clear, with the infectious riffs that define Marble Eye to the fore but shaded in a decidedly more sombre hue. Darkly rumbling bass-lines provide a resonant underpinning to Natividad’s melancholic, baritone vocals as he explores themes of economic exploitation (Spiritual Pollution), social inequality (Undone), and, at times, our own complicity in accepting the status quo (Slow Burn). Memorable flourishes are liberally laced through the album, including the unshakeable riff that propels Undone, the rousing chorus of Why Bother?, and the haunting guitar that washes over the New Order inspired bass that opens Falling Ash.

VaguessThanks // No Thanks

12 Inch

Los Angeles’ Vaguess is the prolific and longstanding solo project of Vinny Earley, a genre-melding exploration of lo-fi punk inventiveness that fizzes with an arresting off-kilter energy.

The album boasts a myriad of stylistic interpretations from the jagged post-punk energy of Cease To Grieve and Carryon, to the more meditative reflections of Texas Clouds and Traffic 2, by way of the spikey synth punk of WKND Shadows. And yet, there remains an impressive coherency to the album that is shaped by the well-crafted song writing and unerring ear for an irresistible underlying rhythm. But, perhaps, the key is Earley’s semi-spoken vocal delivery, which brings a powerfully consistent voice to bear as he sardonically unpicks the inequities and contradictions of modern life.

MorwanSvitaye, Palaye

12 Inch

Morwan is the solo project of Kyiv’s Alex Ashtaui. Svitaye, Palaye (Dawning, Burning) is his third full-length release, and follow-up to 2020’s Zola-Zemlya (Grey Earth). It was recorded during the most challenging of contexts, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The album does not explicitly address the specifics of the attack on his homeland, but rather evokes the emotional responses to the war in all their oscillating forms – the pain, the grief, the anger, the frustration. This backdrop infuses Morwan’s intensely rhythmic post-punk with an even more powerfully charged heft. The surf-tinged guitars and pounding percussion form a tightly woven, darkly melancholic sonic tapestry, while chanted vocals lend an almost tribal aura. Images of a bleakly dystopian future are conjured, but importantly not a future without hope – a fierce defiance burns at the very heart of this record.

Stress PositionsWalang Hiya

12 Inch

‘A thirst never quenched, a belly full but never content…Lust for pleasure at our expense, your decadence will be our death’ (Lust For Pleasure)

Chicago’s Stress Positions boast three former members of C.H.E.W. plus a new vocalist, Stephanie Brooks. Iron Lung have brought the band’s demo, Walang Hiya (No Shame in Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines), to vinyl on this single-side 12-inch. The essence of the band remains the politically charged, rapid fire hardcore that defined their first incarnation, but with an even fiercer delivery. There are also emerging signs of the more experimental flourishes that are subtly woven into their subsequent debut full-length, Harsh Reality.

From the moment the drums erupt through the squalling feedback opening, the intensity never drops for even a moment, as the rabid vocals explore themes of economic excess (Lust For Pleasure, Failed State), misogyny (Interloper), and imperial legacies (This Land). The title track is, perhaps, the stand-out – a slow-burn build that ignites into a crushing stomp, and a cathartic crescendo, as it examines the oppression of the Indigenous cultures of the Philippines by the Catholic Church.

And Damage Was Done

*Division Of Mind by Division Of Mind / Shooting Star by Fairytale*

Well, what a weekend that was. I topped and tailed Damage Is Done 4 on the Thursday and Sunday at New River Studios. Both were excellent shows and, by the sounds of it, the days in between weren’t bad either!

One of the beauties of London’s longer running hardcore festivals is how well they complemented one another. Both Static Shock and Damage Is Done obviously took / take a hardcore punk starting point, but then their line-ups would ripple out in contrasting fashions – Static simultaneously entertained both the rawer and more experimental, whereas Damage is, perhaps, happiest when indulging its more metallic instincts.

As the latest Damage Is Done approached, you inevitably began to think of stand-out performances from prior years. For me, that was undoubtedly Division Of Mind at Damage Is Done 3 in November 2022. The band, who hail from Richmond, Virginia, had released their self-titled debut LP back in 2019, and this was their first, and, to date, only foray outside of the US. And what a foray it was.

The New Cross Inn was packed to the rafters as the first ominous riffs were unfurled, and you at once sensed that we were in for something special. Their full-length brims with a darkly menacing intensity, but this was amplified well beyond anything that might have been realistically anticipated. As vocalist Tye Decker prowled the stage with demonic intent, the industrial-inflected rhythm section laid down a truly brutal groundwork for the relentless waves of sinister metallic riffage. It seemed as if the whole room was locked in synchronicity with the band’s remorseless groove. At the time, it felt to me very much like the legacy of Entombed being channelled through a hardcore prism by Foundation, and I think that’s still a pretty decent benchmark.

*The Friday of Damage Is Done 3 (18th November 2022)*

But what about this year? Sunday’s highlights for me were my first encounter with Warsaw’s Träume, who injected their rapid fire hardcore with flourishes of dark melodicism and a healthy dash of rock’n’roll swagger. And if ever there was a band designed to tap into the final energy reserves of a fourth day festival crowd, it is the rampaging Sheffield-forged sledgehammer that is Rat Cage.

Of course, Thursday night’s bands had the benefit of a crowd bursting with anticipation rather than one fighting through fatigue, and that was a crest that Subdued rode with quite some aplomb. My highlight though was that evening’s headliners, New York’s Fairytale. The band’s debut LP, Shooting Star, was undoubtedly one of last year’s highlight releases, but I was also intrigued to see how it would translate to the live setting.

The base tenets were amply in evidence – blistering, distortion drenched guitar and a furious, cymbal awash d-beat drumming assault. But the bass felt notably more forward in the mix, which lent their sonic battery a much burlier, muscular complexion. The album benefits from a truly virtuoso vocal performance from Lulu Landolfi that veers from rasping rage to sardonic observation to the almost ethereal, without a breath ever being taken. Live, this was taken to an even more impressive level. The performance was rawer, the stage presence utterly dominating – an invigorating blend of venom and disdain, leavened with a knowing humour. The rage that simmers throughout the album was now a full-on firestorm. In short, it was properly visceral.

As always, a big thanks to the Damage Is Done collective for pulling everything together. It’s hard to imagine just how much work must go into organising an event of this complexity in your spare time. But they can rest easy that it was certainly time well spent and that damage was, indeed, well and truly done.

*The Sunday of Damage Is Done 4 (3rd March 2024)*

Sister Midnight Update: 1,000 Members!

*Sister Midnight welcomes it’s 1,000th member*

As regular readers will know, Sister Midnight is a not-for-profit community co-operative that is working tirelessly to bring to life a new DIY venue in South London. The team has already secured a ten-year lease on the site of a former working men’s club, The Brookdale Club, in Catford at a peppercorn rate from Lewisham Council. In addition, they have also raised significant funds for the renovation of the derelict site. It is a thoroughly exciting project that is making significant headway.

Building a large and active community membership is key to the project’s long-term objectives, so it was great to hear that the co-operative secured its 1,000th member last week!

Back in January, Lenny Watson, one of the founding members, was kind enough to answer a few questions from me regarding the project, which you can check out here: Sister Midnight Is Coming For You.

If the aspirations of Sister Midnight strike a chord with you, please do check out becoming a member of the co-operative, if you can, at www.sistermidnight.org.

*Sister Midnight, a new community music venue for London*

Show And Tours

*Buried Alive at New Cross Inn on Wednesday 6th March*

6^th March Buried Alive, 50 Caliber, False Reality, Mindless (New Cross Inn)

9^th March Opium Lord, Torpor, Jotnarr, Harrowed (New Cross Inn)