Hello and welcome to this week’s newsletter!  We’re back with another stacked edition, so no messing, let’s dive right in:

• Featured New Arrivals from BIB, Hubert Selby Jr Infants, Malcría, and Pi$$er
• Sweaty Smiles And Buzzing Ears, featuring As Friends Rust, Cloud Rat, Diploid, and Spirito Di Lupo
• Shows and Tours, including new dates for Buried Alive, Frail Body, Hygiene, and Unbroken
• Coming Soon, with stacks of great releases heading our way from Convulse, Feel It, Fight For Your Mind, Iron Lung, Not For The Weak, Persistent Vision, Sorry State, Static Shock, Three One G, and Toxic State!

Before 2024 gets into full swing, I wanted to take a quick look back at some of the live highlights from the second half of 2023.  The first six months of the year saw outstanding shows from the likes of Dawn Ray’d and Savageheads (From Black Flags to Corpse Paint), but the next six were not to be outdone…

Yet, if working backwards, we actually have to start off with the biggest disappointment of my gig going year – reaching Hackney in mid-December, looking forward to catching another fierce dose of Stiff Meds, only to find out that they were unable to make the show.  Now, Jesus Piece’s blend of beatdown meets death metal, as well executed as it is, is unfortunately not really my bag.  That said, I’ve always found watching waves of stage divers strangely soothing, so all was not lost!

A couple of months earlier in October, I had the unexpected pleasure of catching the return of As Friends Rust at The Boston Music Room.  I must confess to be being unreasonably excited as I headed to the gig, memories of brilliant previous shows, most recently in 2008, still surprisingly vivid in the memory, and further sharpened by the strength of their excellent new album, Any Joy, the band’s first new release in twenty years.  As I wrote at the time (Returning Ghosts And Determined Friends), there is something strangely primordial, almost instinctual, that grips you when you see the return of a band who have been intrinsic to your music listening over a long period of time – as you bellow lyrics thought long forgotten, and find yourself sucked inexorably into the swirling pit, you come to realise just how deeply ingrained their music has become.  Everyone left sweaty and smiling, which is as good a benchmark as any for a successful hardcore gig.

September brought the final ever Static Shock Weekend and Tom Ellis had pulled together quite the line-up to sign-off in style.  But there was one particular band that I was determined to see and that was Spirito Di Lupo (SDL), who released their debut LP Vedo La Tua Faccia Nei Giorni Di Pioggia earlier in the year, and it has proven a mainstay on my turntable ever since.  They did not disappoint.  The live setting surprisingly saw their guitars less scuzzy in tone, almost flirting with the psychedelic, while the rhythm section locked into its powerfully infectious groove.  At the heart of SDL’s sound is their duelling twin vocalists and their taut, almost chaotic, interplay brought a fierce vitality to their performance.  The more deadpan shouts of Francesco and the energetically impassioned yelps of Vittoria combined to pack a truly invigorating punch.

And talking of stacked line-ups, it took one of formidable depth for me to shake off tiredness and head out again after a long trek back from West Wales in mid-August.  Golpe opened proceedings at Studio 9294 with swaggering intent, before Bad Breeding literally stomped everyone into submission.  It was going to take quite the performance to bring the night to a suitably crushing crescendo.  That Cloud Rat would do just that, however, was never in any doubt.  The brutal intensity of the band’s musical onslaught is remarkable to behold, and Madison’s vocal performance becomes ever more visceral – aggression untempered, emotions stripped utterly bare.  A set that was as punishing as it was cleansing.

Finally, we arrive in mid-July.  And it was a week where every European tour seemed to be descending simultaneously on London.  But there was a show that kept quietly asserting itself – Diploid at New River Studios.  Diploid hail from Melbourne and this was their first ever European tour, despite having been prolifically active in the Australian DIY scene for the past decade.  Their new album and fourth full-length, I Am Yours. And I Am Here Again, had seen them take their fierce fusing of chaotic hardcore and grindcore to new levels of ferocious inventiveness.  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 breathless, so intense had it been.

So, not a bad six months at all and 2024 is shaping up to be just as exciting, with forthcoming shows from Fairytale, Deaf Club, and Unbroken already whetting the appetite!

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.

9^th February Catholic Block, Vanity Crystal, Shereen Elizabeth, Red Lady (New River Studios)

16^th February Malignant Methods, Layback, Blood Fury, Final Form plus more (Moor Beer Vaults)

16^th February Es, The Early Mornings, Garden Centre (The Waiting Room)

23^rd February Eel Men, Hygiene, Skinned (New River Studios)

24^th February Fiddlehead, MS Paint, Wrong Man (The Garage / UK Tour)

25^th February Pest Control, Demonstration of Power plus more (Black Heart / UK Tour)

29^th February Damage Is Done 4 – Fairytale, Take It In Blood, Bullsshit, Subdued, Ikhras, Violent Offence (New River Studios / Fairytale UK Tour)

1^st March Damage Is Done 4 – Fugitive, Illusion, Ninebar, Pest Control, Imposter, Instructor, Silver plus more (Colour Factory)

2^nd March Damage Is Done 4 – Framtid, Quarantine, The Flex, T.S. Warspite, Stingray, The Annihilated, Mazandaran  plus more (Colour Factory)

3^rd March Damage Is Done 4 – Visibly High, Rat Cage, Layback, Träume, Middleman, Turbo plus more (New River Studios)

4^th March Prey, Ritual Error, Higher Walls, Tethered (New Cross Inn)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Abism ‘LP 2023’ 12-inch (Toxic State)

Alienator ‘World Of Hate’ 7-inch (Convulse)

Angel Hair ‘Insect Mortality’ 12-inch (Three One G)

Ataque Zero ‘Ciudades’ 12-inch (Static Shock)

Class ‘If You’ve Got Nothing’ 12-inch (Feel It)

Cress ‘Monuments’ 12-inch (Fight For Your Mind)

Destiny Bond ‘Be My Vengeance’ 12-inch (Convulse)

Entry ‘Exit Interview’ 7-inch (Convulse)

Flower ‘Heel Of The Next / Physical God’  7-inch (Fight For Your Mind)

Gel ‘Only Constant’ 12-inch (Convulse)

Gumm ‘Slogan Machine’ 12-inch (Convulse)

Hellnation ‘Colonized’ 12-inch (Fight For Your Mind)

Kinetic Orbital Storm ‘The True Disaster’ 7-inch (KOS)

Knowso ‘Pulsating Gore’ 12-inch (Sorry State)

Massa Nera / Quiet Fear ‘Quatro Vientos // Cinco Soles’ 12-inch (Persistent Vision)

Morwan ‘Svitaye, Palaye’ 12-inch (Feel It)

Nasti ‘People Problem’ 12-inch (Static Shock)

Nonexistent Night ‘In The Middle Of A Boiling Sea’ 12-inch (Three One G)

Planet B ‘Fiction Prediction’ 12-inch (Three One G)

Spine ‘Raices’ 12-inch (Convulse)

Stress Positions ‘Walang Hiya’ 12-inch (Iron Lung)

Yellowcake ‘Can You See The Future?’ 7-inch (Not For The Weak)

Hello and welcome to this week’s newsletter!  And we have something of a jam-packed edition to enjoy:

• Featured New Arrivals, including great new releases from Tozcos and Silver, plus a reissue of pageninetynine’s remarkable Document #8, and a restock of one of last year’s stand-out releases, the split LP from Lagrimas and Habak
• Sister Midnight Is Coming For You is an interview with Lenny Watson, one of the co-founders of a really exciting project to establish a new community-run DIY venue in South London
• Shows and Tours, including new dates for Deaf Club and Hygiene
• Coming Soon, with plenty of great releases heading our way from Feel It, Fight For Your Mind, Iron Lung, Not For The Weak, Persistent Vision, Scene Report, Sorry State, Static Shock, Three One G, and Toxic State amongst others!

Also, just a quick heads-up that there will be no newsletter next week, but it will be back during the latter-half of the following week.

‘DIY is the loophole in the system: it is the affordable, accessible alternative for those in need of creative sanctuary’.

(Virginia Easthope quoted in Speak in Tongues: An Oral History of Cleveland’s Infamous DIY Venue by Eric Sandy)

We all know that independent music venues are currently under a huge amount of pressure from soaring rents and the wider cost of living crisis.  The Music Venue Trust estimates that a further 120 community live spaces closed across the UK during 2023.  The situation in London, where the issue of rent bites particularly deeply, is especially challenging.  An interview with Chris Tipton of Upset The Rhythm in the summer issue of Alternative Strategies highlighted that of the 117 venues he had promoted gigs at over the past twenty years in London, some 55 are no longer venues.  In South London alone, recent casualties have included the DIY Space For London in Bermondsey, The Grosvenor in Stockwell, and The Montague Arms in Peckham.

But there is a project underway that is injecting some much-needed optimism into this rather bleak landscape, Sister Midnight.  Originally a Deptford record store / live venue that was forced to close permanently during the Covid lockdown, Sister Midnight has been reborn as a not-for-profit community co-operative.  This co-operative 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.  But there is still plenty of work to do, and plenty of support still required.

Lenny Watson, one of the founding members of the co-operative, very kindly agreed to answer a few questions from me regarding the project.  A big thank you to Lenny for making the time to do so in such a comprehensive and engaging manner, as I know that time and other resources are in very short supply at the moment.   As you will see, this is not only a hugely exciting project, but one that is tantalisingly close to being realised.  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. It is a project that thoroughly deserves to succeed!  And so, over to Lenny…

FV: What has inspired you to undertake this project?

LW: So, I think we’ve had a lot of different inspirations that have fed into this project. The initial catalyst really was that we had an existing venue and record shop in Deptford and the community around that, the music scene around that, it was just amazing. That was a huge source of inspiration. Just seeing all the incredible creativity that was happening in that space. And when that space closed during the pandemic, I just felt like a real sense of responsibility to the community that we built to continue that in some way and to be able to continue providing a space for the kind of culture and creativity that we’d housed previously. But we’ve also drawn a lot of other inspiration from venues across the country like Le Pub in Newport, The Exchange in Bristol, Future Yard in Birkenhead especially, and The Ivy House in Nunhead. There’s a long legacy of community and co-operative music venues and I feel like all of that shared learning and knowledge has really fed into what we’re doing.

FV: What are the attractions of the community benefit society model for a venture of this type?

LW: The community benefit society model really appealed to us for a couple of reasons. I think the first thing was that it would be a democratically run business, so it would be owned and controlled by its members. And that meant for us that we could put ownership of this venture directly into the hands of the community, which is really important to us because we want local people to play an active role in shaping the space and making it what it is. And I think also, the fact that it’s a not-for-profit model is really important. Partly, because we want to be able to utilise that not-for-profit status to help us get more funding to make this whole thing more sustainable in the long run. But also, because we really want to be very clear in the way that we demonstrate to the community that we are not here to make money off them, if that were even possible to do with the grassroots music venue, and that we are interested in using music to provide social community and cultural benefits for local people in Lewisham.

FV:  What are the most notable challenges facing the co-operative in realising its vision?

LW: The biggest challenge for us has always been money. We’ve had so much success with fundraising. At the moment, we have raised a total of around £425,000 towards the cost of the renovation, on top of having success with a lot of grants and donations that have helped us to pay the ongoing costs of the campaign and the project throughout the last three years. But, that said, there never seems to be enough money to go around and we’ve really struggled with being just chronically under-funded and under-resourced, because although we’ve got all of this money saved up to pay for the renovation of the building, we’ve really struggled to get money just to pay wages for ourselves, which means that a lot of the work is voluntary. That makes it really difficult for us to do things in a timely manner because we just have to prioritise the bare essentials of the project day-to-day. So, yeah, unfortunately just getting access to big amounts of capital is the challenge and I think that is the same for a lot of start-up co-ops and cultural ventures.

FV: What do you think are the key characteristics that make for a successful music venue?  

LW: I think that’s a really tricky one to answer as I think it’s very different for each music venue because successful venues are almost always a response to the communities that they’re situated in. For us, I think the key characteristics that will make our venue successful are giving local people a voice because people in Lewisham, in our community, are generally very engaged and very willing to be a part of shaping the community infrastructure around them. And so, giving people that power is something that I think has historically won us a lot of support from the community and will help us to keep the community on board as the venue progresses throughout its lifetime.

I think also that a really strong commitment and engagement with inclusivity is incredibly important for a venue in our local area. We have an incredibly diverse community around us and it’s important to us that the venue reflects that, and we acknowledge that that’s going to be an ongoing process throughout the lifetime of the venue. It’s not as if we can just throw the doors open on day one and say that’s it, box ticked, we’re inclusive. That’s something that we need to really work with all demographics of our community on and I think that will be vital to our success.

And I think the third thing that will make us successful is being able to take creative risks.  That’s a real challenge for a lot of grassroots venues where there’s just not enough money to go around and because of that they do have to operate in a more commercially minded way. This often means not being able to take risks on newer, younger bands or some more avant-garde genres, but that’s something for us that is really, really important. So, throughout the life of the venue we will be specifically looking to get funding to subsidise putting on those riskier gigs, so that we can do it in a way that has relatively low financial risk and still allows us to support the breadth of culture that we have in the borough.

FV: What current (or former) venue do you think most clearly realises (realised) these values?

LW: I think, again, I’d say Future Yard in Birkenhead is a really, really great venue that we draw a lot of inspiration from. They are just absolutely killing it. They have a great high quality cultural offering and are really rooted in their local community. So, I think they’re a really great example. And I’d also shout out a lot of the venues that we have around South East London that kind of make up our existing music scene. So Matchstick Pie House, which is obviously under threat at the moment, but will hopefully be sticking around. Ivy House in Nunhead, Avalon Cafe. And then, you know, we’ve had some great venues around here that closed in recent years – The Montague Arms, Five Bells, DIY Space. I think all of those venues sort of held those values in one way or another. And, yeah, I think they were all just like a really important part of an ecosystem. And, yeah, without all of them, I think South London is really struggling now. So, we definitely need more spaces to come into existence that are going to uphold those values and to be really rooted in their communities and responsive to their communities.

FV: What factors do you anticipate shaping the venue’s programming?

LW: That’s a really good question. I think our approach to programming is going to be incredibly broad, like we’re not going to be specific to any genres. We’re not even going to be focusing purely on music as a discipline. We want to have multidisciplinary arts programming. So, we’ll be looking at, you know, cabaret and comedy and spoken word and film as well. I think generally what we want is for the programming to reflect the diversity of the music scenes that we have in Lewisham, to be incredibly locally focused and to be really championing local artists and giving a really vital platform to emerging talent from the local area. But at the same time, we do also want to bring in touring bands because we want to be able to put Catford on the map as a destination for live music. So I think, yeah, generally we envision it being a really collaborative effort where we work with local promoters, with the local community and with local artists, as well as with the venue team, to produce a programme that feels like it has a lot of breadth in terms of what it represents, but also really stays true to what Lewisham has to offer in terms of its cultural output.

FV: How do you envisage the venue contributing to local community life beyond being a music venue?

LW: We have got so many ideas about how we want this space to be so much more than just a music venue. We really see it being open through the day and into the evening. So having a daytime use as a cafe and a workspace, and a space for community events. Open in the evening as a bar and then having live music on and hopefully even maybe some nightclub activity as well. And also, we want to have rehearsal and recording studios on the first floor, as well as a space for our recently launched community radio stations, Midnight FM. So, there’s going to be so many opportunities for people to use this space in a lot of different ways. And we want to do all sorts of different community activities to bring people into the space. So, things like children’s music groups or matinee gigs for parents and babies, reading groups, meeting space for local activists, soup kitchens, being a distribution point for local food hubs, having breakfast clubs for school children. You name it, we want it there. We are really interested in how music and culture, and this space more broadly can offer a transformative opportunity for local people and really act as a lever for positive social change in the local area. So, we’re going to be looking to utilise the space in any way that we possibly can to make this a real hub of community life and creativity for local people.

FV: Why should someone become a member of Sister Midnight?

LW: Well, I think if you are someone who is local to Lewisham, or lives in the wider London area or anyone, anywhere really who is interested in setting a precedent for how communities can create the infrastructure they need, particularly creative infrastructure, and be genuinely democratic in running it, then I think this project is for you. As a member, you’ll be buying shares, and the money that you buy them with will be used to help us renovate this building that we’ve got in Catford and turn it into this incredible community and cultural hub. Those shares are repayable, so you’ll be able to get your money back once the business is turning a profit. And crucially, you’ll get a vote on how things are done. So, you will be able to have a voice in shaping this space and making it what it needs to be for our community. So yeah, I would encourage anyone who’s got an interest in what the future of live music could look like at a community and grassroots level to get involved.

We have an affordable share scheme where people can become members from £25 or our standard share scheme is £100 per share and up. I just think this is a really great opportunity for all of us to come together. And in a particularly challenging time when you know, in 2023, we had one grassroots music venue close per week. This is a chance for us to show that it doesn’t have to be like that. And if we can really harness the power of communities and work together, we can create new things and we can create venues that are going to be sustainable and long lasting. So, in a way yes, this project is about creating a great music venue for Lewisham and for Catford, and it should appeal to local people in that sense. But it’s more than that. It’s us being able to demonstrate that there is a way to save grassroots music culture in a broader sense. And so, there’s an appeal for everyone there I feel who has an interest in that.

All photos are taken from www.sistermidnight.org

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.

17^th January Restraining Order, Layback, Prey , Dynamite, Tethered (New Cross Inn)

18^th January Samiam, Sam Russo, Uzumaki (New Cross Inn / SOLD OUT)

26^th January Can Kicker, The Pinch, SOP, Shade (The George Tavern)

27^th January Wimp, Ikhras, Strazio, Abso, Affray (The George Tavern)

27^th January Pizzatramp, Rash Decision, Rank plus more (New Cross Inn)

4^th February Käpprätt, Migraines, Catastrophe, Scab  (New River Studios)

5^th February Mutually Assured Destruction, Allfather, King Street, Peacekeeper (New Cross Inn)

16^th February Malignant Methods, Layback, Blood Fury, Final Form plus more (Moor Beer Vaults)

16^th February Es, The Early Mornings, Garden Centre (The Waiting Room)

23^rd February Eel Men, Hygiene, Skinned (New River Studios)

24^th February Fiddlehead, MS Paint, Wrong Man (The Garage / UK Tour)

25^th February Pest Control, Demonstration of Power plus more (Black Heart / UK Tour)

29^th February Damage Is Done 4 – Fairytale, Take It In Blood, Bullsshit, Subdued, Ikhras, Violent Offence (New River Studios / Fairytale UK Tour)

1^st March Damage Is Done 4 – Fugitive, Illusion, Ninebar, Pest Control, Imposter, Instructor plus more (Colour Factory)

2^nd March Damage Is Done 4 – Framtid, Quarantine, The Flex, T.S. Warspite, Stingray, The Annihilated, Mazandaran  plus more (Colour Factory)

3^rd March Damage Is Done 4 – Visibly High, Rat Cage, Layback, Träume, Middleman, Turbo plus more (New River Studios)

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

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

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

Probably January…

Atague Zero ‘Ciudades’ 12-inch (Static Shock)

Cress ‘Monuments’ 12-inch (Fight For Your Mind)

Flower ‘Heel Of The Next / Physical God’  7-inch (Fight For Your Mind)

Hellnation ‘Colonized’ 12-inch (Fight For Your Mind)

Hubert Selby Jr Infants ‘Have You Ever Seen A Crow?…Or An Eel?’  12-inch (Scene Report)

Malcría ‘Fantas​í​as Hist​é​ricas’ 12-inch (Iron Lung)

Nasti ‘People Problem’ 12-inch (Static Shock)

Pi$$er ‘Too Busy Eating Gruel…’ 12-inch (Scene Report)

More Likely February…

Abism ‘LP 2023’ 12-inch (Toxic State)

Angel Hair ‘Insect Mortality’ 12-inch (Three One G)

Class ‘If You’ve Got Nothing’ 12-inch (Feel It)

Kinetic Orbital Storm ‘The True Disaster’ 7-inch (KOS)

Knowso ‘Pulsating Gore’ 12-inch (Sorry State)

Massa Nera / Quiet Fear ‘Quatro Vientos // Cinco Soles’ 12-inch (Persistent Vision)

Morwan ‘Svitaye, Palaye’ 12-inch (Feel It)

Nonexistent Night ‘In The Middle Of A Boiling Sea’ 12-inch (Three One G)

Paint It Black ‘Famine’ 12-inch (Revelation)

Planet B ‘Fiction Prediction’ 12-inch (Three One G)

Stress Positions ‘Walang Hiya’ 12-inch (Iron Lung)

Yellowcake ‘Can You See The Future?’ 7-inch (Not For The Weak)

Hello and welcome to this week’s newsletter!  We’ve got plenty to get stuck into:

• Featured New Arrivals, including great new releases from Daydream and Cut Piece, plus a new European pressing of Long Knife’s Curb Stomp Earth, and I couldn’t resist also picking up one of the absolute standout releases from 2022, Syndrome 81’s Prisons Imaginaires
• Short, Anything But Sweet is a review of some of my favourite 7-inch releases from last year
• Shows and Tours
• Coming Soon, with an array of fine new releases on their way, including Malcría, Pageninetynine, Silver, and Tozcos

Just before Christmas, I had a little run through some of my favourite 12-inch releases from 2023 (A Rage Undiminished) – but what about last year’s 7-inch releases?  I know that a lot of people will consider both alongside one another, but for me the art of delivering a stand-out full-length versus a belter of an EP is rather different.

Typically, to craft a successful album demands a set of a songs that create both a cohesive mood but are also sufficiently dynamic to embrace the listener in a manner that engages them throughout and, on occasion, surprises them.  By definition, a 7-inch offers less scope for such differentiation and evolution – the urgency of delivering your statement as a band is both amplified and, to a certain extent, simplified.

So, what characterises a great EP release?  Broadly speaking, I think there are two routes to the memorable 7-inch.  Route one is to embrace the brevity of the format and use it as an opportunity to distil your sound to its very essence.  Intensity is the key, an unrelenting vehemency that people might find overwhelming across an album, can be unleashed without any such concerns and, indeed, if well executed will leave people actively gasping for more.

Three standout 7-inchs that followed this route for me last year were from Sial, Drill Sergeant, and Consolation.  Singapore’s Sial were back, as visceral as ever, with Sangkar, a follow-up to 2021’s vividly experimental, at times almost psychedelic, Zaman Eden.  This release saw the band fold those experimental urges back into the strictures of their tense, raw hardcore origins to utterly devastating effect.  A record that is abrasive and uncompromising to its very core – relentless, dense riffage, leavened with moments of arresting sonic invention.  Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s Drill Sergeant unleashed Grim New War, by way of a follow-up to their 2021 full-length, Vile Ebb.  The band skilfully marry a rapid-fire US hardcore stomp with swaggering breakdowns as venomous vocals explore the cognitive dissonance that fuels authoritarian populism and climate change denial.  And while Sial and Drill Sergeant continued to rigorously refine their sound, Consolation debuted theirs on Repulsive Reflections.  Noise-infused hardcore punk that sees desperation-soaked vocals roared across discordant, groove-laden guitars and a thunderous yet fluid rhythm section. Lyrically, the EP examines how our current political and economic system has driven hope and optimism from people’s lives – a ‘spiritual theft’.

The second route, and perhaps the inherently more challenging one, is to ensure that you have one song that is so insanely infectious that you simply can’t help replacing the needle back to the start as soon as the side finishes, again and again and again.

For me, there were two leading examples of this, well I suppose it is more of an outcome than an actual approach, last year.  First up, was the very welcome return of Hygiene with their EP, 15 Minute City.  The title track, which dissects the alt-right’s bizarre interpretation of the urban planning concept, is a wonderfully boisterous three-minute harmonised eruption, the very embodiment of Hygiene at their jauntily sardonic best.  And as a great as the flipside tracks LTN and Petrol are, you can’t help but keep repeatedly returning to it.  An added side benefit has been the encouragement to dust off the band’s cracking earlier works and the restoration of the chant of Bring Back British Rail (from 2019’s Private Sector) to our kitchen table was long overdue.   Also forging this route was Madrid’s Rata Negra on their latest release, Bien Triste.  Now the title track inevitably grabs attention being an intriguing departure for the band in its plaintively sombre layering.  But it is the perhaps more archetypal track, Ella Está En Fiestas, that I can’t resist.  It captures almost perfectly that sense of the unrequited at the heart of the band’s darkly melancholic melodic punk and the way it builds irresistibly to its rattling, raucous climax keeps me coming back.

And, as it turns out, there is also a third option, which is to unleash a fearsome combination of both intensity and unadulterated catchiness – step forward, JJ And The A’s with their debut self-titled EP.  Just as the band’s pedigree (former members of Khiis and Cesspool) does little to inform their execution beyond the fiercely crafted songwriting, equally their sound is an incredibly difficult one to pin-down, blending as it does a high-octane hardcore velocity with a wonderfully unrestrained pop sensibility.  In many respects, it brings to mind Slow Ends similarly inventive full-length, Obsolete Bodies, in its intrinsic ability to seamlessly fuse and intertwine a myriad of quite distinct influences to the point where they feel organically as one, as if you were mad to even consider that they should ever have been apart.

And so there were we have it.  Short, sharp but never to be underestimated, the art of the hardcore punk 7-inch is alive and well.

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.

12^th-14^th January Reality Unfolds Fest (New Cross Inn / including Fuming Mouth, Genocide Pact, Iron Deficiency, Wreathe plus many more)

17^th January Restraining Order, Layback, Prey , Dynamite, Tethered (New Cross Inn)

18^th January Samiam, Sam Russo, Uzumaki (New Cross Inn / SOLD OUT)

26^th January Can Kicker, The Pinch, SOP, Shade (The George Tavern)

27^th January Wimp, Ikhras, Strazio, Abso, Affray (The George Tavern)

27^th January Pizzatramp, Rash Decision, Rank plus more (New Cross Inn)

5^th February Mutually Assured Destruction, Allfather, King Street, Peacekeeper (New Cross Inn)

16^th February Es, The Early Mornings, Garden Centre (The Waiting Room)

24^th February Fiddlehead, MS Paint, Wrong Man (The Garage / UK Tour)

25^th February Pest Control, Demonstration of Power plus more (Black Heart / UK Tour)

29^th February Damage Is Done 4 – Fairytale, Take It In Blood, Bullsshit, Subdued, Ikhras, Violent Offence (New River Studios / Fairytale UK Tour)

1^st March Damage Is Done 4 – Fugitive, Illusion, Ninebar, Pest Control, Imposter, Instructor plus more (Colour Factory)

2^nd March Damage Is Done 4 – Framtid, Quarantine, The Flex, T.S. Warspite, Stingray, The Annihilated, Mazandaran  plus more (Colour Factory)

3^rd March Damage Is Done 4 – Visibly High, Rat Cage, Layback, Träume, Middleman, Turbo plus more (New River Studios)

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

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

Abism ‘LP 2023’ 12-inch (Toxic State)

Hubert Selby Jr Infants ‘Have You Ever Seen A Crow?…Or An Eel?’  12-inch (Scene Report)

Kinetic Orbital Storm ‘The True Disaster’ 7-inch (KOS)

Knowso ‘Pulsating Gore’ 12-inch (Sorry State)

Malcría ‘Fantas​í​as Hist​é​ricas’ 12-inch (Iron Lung)

Pageninetynine ‘Document #8’ 12-inch (Persistent Vision)

Paint It Black ‘Famine’ 12-inch (Revelation)

Pi$$er ‘Too Busy Eating Gruel…’ 12-inch (Scene Report)

Silver ‘Bullet Ballet’ 12-inch (Quality Control HQ)

Tozcos ‘Infernal’ 12-inch (Quality Control HQ)

Yellowcake ‘Can You See The Future?’ 7-inch (Not For The Weak)

Happy New Year and all that!  Welcome to the first newsletter of the year and we’re off with a bang:

• Featured New Arrivals are cracking new releases from Stress Positions, False Fed, Hygiene, and Racetraitor
• A Future Foretold, A Warning Ignored, a look at the latest issue of Alternative Strategies and how hardcore bands have tackled themes of policing and prisons
• Shows and Tours, including new shows from Can Kicker and Es
• Coming Soon, with an array of fine new releases on their way, including Cut Piece, Daydream, Silver, and Tozcos

Just before Christmas, the latest issue of Alternative Strategies was published and, as ever, it provides a thoroughly thought provoking read.  This edition includes a great interview with Tom Ellis looking back over the history of the Static Shock Weekend, which was of course held for the last time back in September after over a decade at the heart of London’s hardcore scene.  Check out Elegant Moshing, Ethereal Aggression and Optimistic Daisies And Gothic Lullabies for our take.

But, perhaps, the stand-out feature is a fascinating interview with Michael Molcher, author of I Am The Law: How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future.  In an ambitious study that calls on the work of cultural theorist, Stuart Hall, Molcher blends comic book history with a wide-ranging deconstruction of the ‘law and order’ myth that has shaped policing for the past forty-years, most notably in the UK and US, and has seen the police militarise and prison populations soar.  Spanning themes of ‘zero tolerance’, protest suppression, and the surveillance state, Molcher succeeds in skilfully illustrating how the comic not only satirised contemporary politics, but also foresaw how the direction of travel would evolve.   I was only an occasional reader of the comic back in my early teens, but it is intriguing to see that intangible sense that the authors were exploring themes you couldn’t quite put your finger on, brought fully into view.

If I had to flag any critiques, I did feel that the book’s thinking in terms of the intersection of policing and class was less developed than other areas of Molcher’s analysis and his brief foray into the politics of urban planning was surprisingly superficial.  For a book that so astutely disassembles the fallacies of the ‘law and order’ agenda, it was unexpected to see it seemingly lulled into so readily accepting the myths of the ‘sink estate’, the story of the UK’s post-war social housing being much more positive and nuanced than Molcher’s short account allows.  Those modest gripes aside though, it is a thoroughly engaging read.

Policing and prisons have long formed a lyrical theme for many hardcore punk bands, and, if anything, this focus has intensified in recent years, with greater scrutiny of the authoritarian shift in policing and of the levels of police violence.  Lyrically, this examination can broadly be split into two broad categories – the penal system itself and the militarisation of the police.  My earliest recollection of a band tackling the inequity of the penal system was Exodus on the opening track, The Last Act Of Defiance, of their 1989 album, Fabulous Disaster (this track followed by the title track, and then Toxic Waltz is quite an opening salvo). Having opened with a quote from Jessica Mitford’s Kind And Usual Punishment: The Prison Business, the song takes the 1980 riot at the New Mexico State Penitentiary as its starting point, exploring the horrific conditions and overcrowding that culminated in one of the most violent prison riots in US history.

Agnostic Front’s Roger Miret wrote the lyrics to the band’s 1992 LP, One Voice, following his own incarceration, with songs tackling both the inherent inequities of the justice system (The Tombs) and the dehumanising experience of prison itself (New Jack, Force Feed) as well as reflecting on how he found himself there (Now & Then).  I have always felt this to be the stand-out release in Agnostic Front’s discography, so I’m glad to see that it has enjoyed something of a rehabilitation in recent years as its reception at the time was very mixed – I remember catching the band touring the album at Edwards No 8 in Birmingham, where a good portion of the crowd greeted the older material with rabid enthusiasm only to stand absolutely stock still to the new songs.  A rather surreal evening!  A similarly personal perspective is brought to bear by Regional Justice Centre, a one-man project by Ian Shelton (also of Militarie Gun), on full-lengths World Of Inconvenience (2018) and Crime And Punishment (2021) through which he explores his experience of the judicial system following the imprisonment of his brother.

A more systematic perspective can be found on The Proletariat’s 2018 album, Move, where they explore the Incarceration Incentive, which is also addressed on ICD10’s excellent 2022 release, Faith In Institutions, which engages in a wide-ranging critique of neoliberal governance, including a fierce denunciation of the US industrial-prison complex on Carceral Cult: ‘Unbroken chain, the punishment that fills no need, we’re all found guilty by the carceral cult’.

The ongoing militarisation of the police has been a similarly consistent theme.  Stephen Graham’s book, Cities Under Siege, explores how US and European cities have seen an insidious militarisation of public spaces and the rampant expansion of the surveillance state, the function of a ‘boomerang effect’ whereby security techniques refined in overseas wars are retrenched to domestic urban environments.  Intriguingly, this was a trend identified as early as the title track to Hellnation’s debut 1993 full-length, Colonized: ‘Police occupation, internal colonisation, inner cities are colonies’.  More latterly, Moses Brown’s debut solo album as Peace De Résistance, Bits And Pieces, opens with Boston Dynamics, which explores the continued deployment of military technology and techniques for domestic policing: ‘The police will like to call this policing, buying a robotic dog made for the Marine Corps, unless their budget start decreasing, they’ll blow it all on domestic war’.  The wider trends of police brutality and violence that are intrinsically linked to this militarisation have unsurprisingly proven an important theme for a wide range of bands in recent years from Savageheads (Line Of Duty) and Stress Positions (No Sympathy) to Dawn Ray’d (A Colony Of Fevers) and Enemy (Barricade Bridge).

At the root of these dual processes of disproportionate reliance on incarceration and police militarisation is the driving need of our current economic system for ever-amplifying socio-economic inequality and the need to exert social control on the inevitable marginalisation that this inflicts.  Sociologist Loïc Wacquant cogently argues that it is fuelled by an imperative to liberate the wealthy while catstigating the poor, in essence a criminalisation of poverty.  This is a theme viscerally explored by Raw Breed on Government In Grip, from their 2022 full-length Universal Paranoia: ‘Economic levels used as judgement tools, Protect the rich, death to the poor’.

And here in the UK, one of the most surveilled and disproportionally incarcerated populations in the world, perhaps, we should have paid a little more attention to the comic that saw it all coming.  As Molcher observes, ‘For Judge Dredd is – and always has been – a warning, not a manual’.

Check out www.anothersubculture.co.uk for the autumn issue of Alternative Strategies.

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.

12^th-14^th January Reality Unfolds Fest (New Cross Inn / including Fuming Mouth, Genocide Pact, Iron Deficiency, Wreathe plus many more)

17^th January Restraining Order, Layback, Prey , Dynamite, Tethered (New Cross Inn)

18^th January Samiam, Sam Russo, Uzumaki (New Cross Inn)

26^th January Can Kicker, The Pinch, SOP, Shade (The George Tavern)

27^th January Wimp, Ikhras, Strazio, Abso, Affray (The George Tavern)

27^th January Pizzatramp, Rash Decision, Rank plus more (New Cross Inn)

5^th February Mutually Assured Destruction, Allfather, King Street, Peacekeeper (New Cross Inn)

16^th February Es, The Early Mornings, Garden Centre (The Waiting Room)

24^th February Fiddlehead, MS Paint, Wrong Man (The Garage / UK Tour)

25^th February Pest Control, Demonstration of Power plus more (Black Heart / UK Tour)

29^th February Damage Is Done 4 – Fairytale, Take It In Blood, Bullsshit, Subdued, Ikhras, Violent Offence (New River Studios / Fairytale UK Tour)

1^st March Damage Is Done 4 – Fugitive, Illusion, Ninebar, Pest Control, Imposter, Instructor plus more (Colour Factory)

2^nd March Damage Is Done 4 – Framtid, Quarantine, The Flex, T.S. Warspite, Stingray, The Annihilated, Mazandaran  plus more (Colour Factory)

3^rd March Damage Is Done 4 – Visibly High, Rat Cage, Layback, Träume, Middleman, Turbo plus more (New River Studios)

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

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

Cut Piece ‘Self-Titled’ 7-inch (Sabotage/Dirt Cult)

Daydream ‘Reaching For Eternity’ 12-inch (Sabotage/Black Water)

Hubert Selby Jr Infants ‘Have You Ever Seen A Crow?…Or An Eel?’ 12-inch (Scene Report)

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

Pageninetynine ‘Document #8’ 12-inch (Persistent Vision)

Paint It Black ‘Famine’ 12-inch (Revelation)

Pi$$er ‘Too Busy Eating Gruel…’ 12-inch (Scene Report)

Silver ‘Bullet Ballet’ 12-inch (Quality Control HQ)

Syndrome 81 ‘Prisons Imaginaires’ 12-inch (Sabotage/Black Water)

Tozcos ‘Infernal’ 12-inch (Quality Control HQ)

Hello and welcome to this week’s Foundation Vinyl newsletter! And it is another packed edition to get stuck into:

• Featured New Arrivals from Screensaver and Vintage Crop
• A Rage Undiminished, a look back over some of our favourite releases in 2023
• Shows and Tours, including full details of Damage Is Done 4
• Coming Soon, with a slew of cracking new releases landing in the near future

Our shop will be open as normal over the Christmas period, but this will be our last newsletter of the year.  Thanks for reading and have a great festive break.  We will be back first thing in the New Year!

So, it’s that time of year when we get bombarded with many things, not least with lists that definitively identify the best records of the year.  Now, while I must admit that I find the notion of listing cultural achievements in league tables a touch reductive, it can certainly be productive to collect your thoughts on the music you have enjoyed through the year.  In that spirit, here is my review of 2023 and ten records that helped to define my year.

Musically, things kicked off in a much more restrained manner than would typically be the case as I was entranced by the shimmering austerity of A Culture Of Killing’s (ACOK) third full-length, Dissipation Of Clouds, The Barrier.  Here, languidly beautiful instrumentation is juxta positioned with energetic call-and-response vocals, resulting in a captivating reinterpretation of anarcho-punk, and one imbued with a healthy pop sensibility, with nods to Billy Bragg and The Cure along the way.

Intriguingly, fellow Italians, Spirito Di Lupo (Wolf Spirit / SDL) emerged several months later with their equally transfixing debut LP, Vedo La Tua Foccia Nei Giorni Di Pioggia (I See Your Face On A Rainy Day).  Taking similar kernels of inspirations as ACOK, SDL take them in a very different, but equally successful, direction.  Brilliantly layered dual vocalists clash and complement in tandem with scuzzy, distorted anarcho-punk to fashion a highly effective ethereal aggression that was a stand-out of the final-ever Static Shock Weekend in September.

And, in the spirit of innovation, a third LP that continues to surprise with its unexpected twists and inspirations is Obsolete Bodies by Slow Ends.  Featuring members of Archivist, Slow Ends brilliantly fuse bristling, industrial-tinged hardcore with darkly melodic shoegaze which erupts into soaring choruses and achingly beautiful melodic hooks as the band explore the commodification of modern life.  The breadth of influences that the band integrate without losing even a sliver of coherency is an impressive and undeniably infectious feat.

Things then took a rather more metallic turn.  First up was the arrival of Dawn Rayd’s fourth and, it turns out, final album, To Know The Light.  And while I had always been a huge fan, they reached new heights with this LP.  Every aspect of their sound was taken to new levels of intensity as they deftly intertwined blast-beat fuelled black metal and haunting violin-driven folk. The result is an album that sweeps seamlessly from brutal rage to mournful melancholy as it lays down a fierce lyrical challenge to the engrained socio-economic inequality that defines modern Britain.

Morrow were also reaching a milestone of their own as The Quiet Earth completed their trilogy of albums exploring a future born of environmental and technological catastrophe.  As with Dawn Ray’d, Morrow forge a genuinely organic interplay between melancholic cello and violin with their core sound of furious d-beat fired crust.  Dual vocals, with multiple guest vocalists partnering with Alex CF, complete the sonic onslaught and one that burns with a palpable defiance.

Now, death metal is a genre that I have only skirted in recent years – the technical excesses and lyrical preoccupation of many contemporary exponents do little for me.  But there does seem to be a renaissance underway of bands seeking to harness the hardcore intensity that defined the pioneers of the genre.  And the stand-out for me in this regard is Neolithic’s Shattering Vessels.  With a keen eye for pacing dynamics, roared vocals, down-tuned guitars, and slab-like riffage are deployed to impressive effect on this, their debut full-length.  A thoroughly modern reimagining of the legacies of Bolt Thrower and Entombed.

Reinvention was also a theme shaping Parallel Worlds’ first LP, In The Comet’s Path.  Emerging from the ashes of the Young Conservatives saw the band broaden their musical palette while retaining an undiluted political vehemence.  Still very much hardcore punk but with fuzzed-out yet burly guitars and chunkier bass lines as gruff, semi-shouted vocals astutely dissect issues ranging from social conflict born of precarity and the myth of Britain’s meritocracy, to the desolation of the deindustrialised cityscape.

Less expansive, but certainly no less effective, were two bands honing hardcore down to its absolute core essentials, albeit at very differing stages of their lives as bands.  Stingray landed the first of these shattering blows with their debut full-length, Fortress Britain.  Savagely roared vocals are in barbarous synchronicity with metallic guitars (the opening riff to Trench Demon is utterly immense), while searingly heavy groove-laden breakdowns and wildly surging solos ensure that the ferocity never relents.  This is not empty, performative anger, but rather a ferocious denunciation of the malformed priorities that are hollowing out our city.

And while Famine may herald Paint It Black’s twenty-first year, their rage is just as tangible.  At this stage you think you know what to expect from the band but on this release, they have succeeded in distilling what feels like their very essence, whether the lingering, dissonant feedback, the resonant bass tone, or Dan Yemin roaring in impassioned solitude.  It is such a lean and tightly wound record that every surge in pace, every flourish of melody, lands with a ferociously amplified intensity.

And last, but absolutely not least, in our review of the year is the split LP from Habak and Lagrimas.  The key to the success of this release is that while both bands deal in politically charged emotional hardcore they harness their core attributes of viscerally cathartic explosions and passages of haunting melody, of harsh, roared vocals and sombrely engaging spoken word, in quite distinctive ways.  Lagrimas deal in fiercely crafted, tightly honed eruptions, while Habak are more expansive in allowing the ebbs and flows of ambient melody to shape their songs.  The result is an album of remarkable musical and lyrical coherency.

Every year, I am surprised by the sheer volume of high quality hardcore that is released, whether taking us in unexpected new directions or revitalising sonic expressions of the past.  And at the same time, consistently exploring ideas and themes that help us to better understand and engage with the world around us.  By any metric, 2023 has proven quite the musical year.

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.

14^th December Jesus Piece, Stiff Meds plus more (Oslo / UK Tour)

16^th December Knuckledust, Last Orders, Living Martyr plus more (Black Heart)

12^th-14^th January Reality Unfolds Fest (New Cross Inn / including Fuming Mouth, Genocide Pact, Iron Deficiency, Wreathe plus many more)

17^th January Restraining Order, Layback, Prey , Dynamite, Tethered (New Cross Inn)

18^th January Samiam, Sam Russo, Uzumaki (New Cross Inn)

27^th January Pizzatramp, Rash Decision, Rank plus more (New Cross Inn)

5^th February Mutually Assured Destruction, Allfather, King Street, Peacekeeper (New Cross Inn)

24^th February Fiddlehead, MS Paint, Wrong Man (The Garage / UK Tour)

25^th February Pest Control, Demonstration of Power plus more (Black Heart / UK Tour)

29^th February Damage Is Done 4 – Fairytale, Take It In Blood, Bullsshit, Subdued, Ikhras, Violent Offence (New River Studios)

1^st March Damage Is Done 4 – Fugitive, Illusion, Ninebar, Pest Control, Imposter, Instructor plus more (Colour Factory)

2^nd March Damage Is Done 4 – Framtid, Quarantine, The Flex, T.S. Warspite, Stingray, The Annihilated, Mazandaran  plus more (Colour Factory)

3^rd March Damage Is Done 4 – Visibly High, Rat Cage, Layback, Träume, Middleman, Turbo plus more (New River Studios)

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

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

Cut Piece ‘Self-Titled’ 7-inch (Sabotage/Dirt Cult)

Daydream ‘Reaching For Eternity’ 12-inch (Sabotage/Black Water)

False Fed ‘Let Them Eat Fake’ 12-inch (Neurot)

Hubert Selby Jr Infants ‘Have You Ever Seen A Crow?…Or An Eel?’ 12-inch (Scene Report)

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

Pageninetynine ‘Document #8’ 12-inch (Persistent Vision)

Paint It Black ‘Famine’ 12-inch (Revelation)

Pi$$er ‘Too Busy Eating Gruel…’ 12-inch (Scene Report)

Racetraitor ‘Creation And The Timeless Order Of Things’ 12-inch (Good Fight)

Stress Positions ‘Harsh Reality’ 12-inch (Three One G)

Syndrome 81 ‘Prisons Imaginaires’ 12-inch (Sabotage/Black Water)

Tozcos ‘Infernal’ 12-inch (Quality Control HQ)