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’).