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English Reviews Part 2 Butcher's Bill – Butcher's Bill, cass (Slušaj najglasnije!) Like a number of others on this proud eastern block underground label, Butcher's Bill is most probably from America. Raw, balls to the wall punk a la Johnny Thunders. Snarled vocals about what macho sexist punks they are. "Mad About Pussy", "Go Bitch" and "Chicken Shit" set the tone. Crude and stupid but a cut above eighty percent of the slick pap I wade through. "Go Bitch, Go". Running Party – Miner's Rain, cass (Slušaj najglasnije!) Although this is on Croatia's premier punk label, I think this must be a band from somewhere else who got a distribution deal with Zdenko. Natural English is the giveaway. Droney, melancholy tinged music that could have been an early example of post punk, pre goth material. Yeah, it sounds like a poor man's Joy Division. Vulkanizer – Vulkanizer, cass (Slušaj najglasnije!) Time warp! This is authentic western damaged music played by locals in this war torn hot spot. Strong flashes of early Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin mark this garage metal mutation. Some songs are crosses of the two, like Zep's "You're Gonna Miss Me" mixed with Deep Purple's "Child In Time". Down and dirty with native lyrics delivered with Jon Lord intensity. Gosh! Zadruga – Zadruga je to, cass (Slušaj najglasnije!) Modern hippies from a distant land. According to the bio "Zadruga (The Union) is an organization raised by the influence of the Croatian Zagorje hills, wine, rock'n'roll, the old tradition of Zagorje, peasants rebellion, beer, philosophy, automobilism, agriculture and idiotism". The music is a mixture of 70`s, 80`s punk and 60`s, 70`s guitar boogie. No English lyrics. Rope – Rope, cass (Slušaj najglasnije!) Techno rant and roll. Drum machine and machine generated musings couple with a treated vocal assault on such tunes as "Motherfucker", and "No name", which features a chorus of "Take a shit...take a shit..." etc. Fast paced end disconcerting. Presing – Priča o totemu, duhu koji hoda, psu i zaboravljenoj ženi, cass (Slušaj najglasnije!) Quick, funky boogie in a foreign tongue. Some of this is quite similar to rap. Mile a minute words and walking bass lines over shrill git fiddle noodling and slides. Then they throw in some Hendrix inspired lead breaks. The sound quality is par for the course here. Good enough but not too clean. W Flat – W Flat, cass (Slušaj najglasnije!) Pleasant poppy rock with a strong folk background and probably rooted in traditional music of eastern Europe. They can also play the same sing song stuff at a heart quckening pace and almost sound like the Clash in their bile days. On half the songs they sing in phoneticaly approximated English. Spotty but listenable production. Satan panonski – Kako je panker branio Hrvatsku, cass (Slušaj najglasnije!) This certified fruitcake was a recent casualty of all the fighting in what was once Yugoslavia. I believe this is a collage of odds and ends from basement cassette recordings, live shows, and unused outtakes. It`s all sung in a foreign language and pays no heed to any conventions of what songs should be. Totally out there noise that Humpers Scott Drake will attest to is way cool trash. The Cardinals - Corto Maltese, cass & CD (Slušaj najglasnije!) Another side of music coming out of war torn eastern Europe. This trio goes for an almost psychedelic approach. There is a phase shift wash over everything and the bass is treated so heavily it almost sounds completely disembodied. A few songs are probably stabs at capturing the sound of the Cars. Between each song you can hear the effects being turned on and off. Sappy new wave songs and more hard edged poppers. Demo quality. SCH – White music(2 Ways 2 German Art & Work Discipline) cass (Slušaj najglasnije!) Bloody hell!! What a bunch of racket. Art-industrial-minimalistic recordings. Side one opens with a piece that is about 20 minutes long. I have no idea. It starts out sounding like someone blowing across the top of a bottle to get that deep whistle tone. The piece ends sounding more like a large pipe being dragged on a freeway. In the middle the tone changes ever so slowly. The other 3 pieces on this full length cassette feature a little more variation what with drum machine, feedback, synths, and spare guitar noodling being added. Nepopravljivi – Damaged, cass (Slušaj najglasnije!) Dirty guitar? Filthy, nasty guitar. Hard driving rock with shouted vocals. The lyrics are in broken English that is amusing when comprehensible. The song titles tell the tale: "It's Long Way", "Devilish Destiny", "If You Knocking Of My Door","She's Got Eyes That Speaks". At times the guitar player gets so crazed he forgets what he's doing but it sounds honest. The cover says that this is 100% boogie. OK, I'll giv'em that. The above reviews by Debi Dip – Real Life In The Big City, L.A., CA, USA The Goblins The local band the Goblins played and did a Thanksgiving/Halloween styled show. All their shows have a theme or two. And they played songs off of their newest album called Missing Fits on My Pal God Records. According the legend, this band of masked bandits (literally!) came into Touch and Go to visit with mainman Corey Rusk, and while they were here digging around, they came across the old MISFITS coffin that that band used to use as a stage prop. Corey has it because Corey's old band the NECROS toured with the MISFITS and they were rather tight friends, so when they ended the tour, the MISFITS gave it ti Corey... Well, the GOBLINS unearthed the Coffin from a back room here at Touch and Go, and in it was the coffin. Needles to say, they were freakin' out, and when they opened it, out fell these secret papers!! It turns out these papers contained old Misfits songs that the band never recorded!! So, yes, you guesed it, the Goblins on the new album do all those old never recorded Misfits songs!! You will not believe your ears when you hear such songs like, "Blood Drinkers", "Final Message" or "Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein!". Well their shows never fail to disappoint, what with the band members being masked and mysterious and many a prop on stage, like horses, turkey, loaded weapons, dwarves, you name it... Mr. Scott Giampino – Dop columne: from the buzzy U.S.A. indiependent mekka Satan panonski - "Ljuljajmo ljubljeni ljubicasti ljulj" "Kako je punker branio Hrvatsku", cass (Slusaj najglasnije!) It's raw, crude, badly recorded and I can't understand a word, but this is some of the most exciting and inspired music I've ever heard. The first tape is mostly voice, bass and drums. The second features some live material and has guitar. This group sounds like Croatian version of The Pagans. A few songs have the singer wailing abstractly with an acoustic guitar like a punk rock Son House. Nothing sounds contrived or derivative. The band moves me in a very deep way. I sense a blues feeling in what they do - the kind of metaphysical blues that comes from struggle, and brings hope and despair together to create a new monster. This is majestic music. The group's leader Ivica Culjak, was killed in the fighting going on over there (the initial civil war a few years ago), but the band has other releases out, so if you're the wordly, risk-taking punk you think you are, fuck that NOFX CD you were gonna buy and praise Satan Panonski. Tony Fate - Flipside (band - Grey Spikes), L.A.,CA,USA Skol - Uzmi i reži, 7"EP (Slušaj najglasnije!) Croatian punk, similar in sound to the early L.A. bands The Skulls and The Middle Class. Minimalism is the key here, with no pop overtones. Don't let the language barrier stop you, this is a strong release. Tony Fate - Flipside Various artists - The Great Grunge Swindle, 7"EP (Slušaj najglasnije!) Really strong compilation with four German bands: Krysa, Bates Motel (There was a pre-Masque era L.A. band of this name - Shane), Hibernation and Spacecase, all singing in English. The groups play mid-tempo punk, and write good songs. No throwaways. I encourage you all to suport this label and the bands on it. Tony Fate - Flipside Zadruga - Od blata do neba, cass & CD (Slušaj najglasnije!) Heavy hard rock punk. Good songs (a few could use some spice) and good playing that takes on many different approaches and does them well. If you don't speak Croatian, the 45 minute length may seem a bit long, but his is a solid efort. Tony Fate - Flipside Rizol - Grassichi Karrichi, 7"EP (Slušaj najglasnije!) 4 mid-tempo songs, sung in English. As in most Croatian punk, and early punk, this band takes its cue from all rock music, rather than quoting from the insulated surroundings of strictly punk rock. Rizol understand that punk rock is basically hard rock - something more US bands should re-learn. This is another strong, hard release from "Listen Loudest!" Tony Fate - Flipside Morlocks - Wake Me When I'm Dead, cass & LP (Slušaj najglasnije!) Listen Loudest! provides a vehicle for bands from all over the world who meet their standards for loud, raucous records and tapes. This band is probably from California cuz all the cuts were taken from live gigs or studio recordings from Berkeley, L.A. or San Diego. My guess is that these Jegger obsessed, snotty attitude relics of the class of '66 hail from San Diego. They play the same "Girl You Better Straighten Up" brand of hairy brute music as the Untold Fables and Gravedigger V. The sound quality varies because it's taken from clubs with good mixes and clubs with bad mixes. Debi Dip - Real Life In The Big City The Humpers - War Is Hell, CD (Slušaj najglasnije!) If you know anything about cool rock 'n' roll from the last ten years, then I don't need to tell you about the Humpers, do I? Okay, maybe I do, so a little history here: back in 1990, I began a correspondence with the then-Yugoslavian label Listen Loudest!, and owner Zdenko sent me a bunch of cassette and vinyl releases. One was by a band called the Suicide Kings, who'd already morphed into the Humpers and he'd also released their first LP, "My Machine" as well. To put it mildly, I went apeshit over these guys, who soon enough began garnering attention and signed to Epitaph later on. This release is culled from a Spring '91 session and features a great selection of raw and rougher versions of tunes that would show up on later Humpers albums in slightly more polished sound. There are a few that I don't think they ever recorded, like their kickass cover of "19th Nervous Breakdown," for example. Also, I don't think they ever redid "Cast 100 Shadows," "Love Ain't Blind" and "It's A Crime." There are really energetic takes of songs like "Zombie," "Up Your Heart," the MC5's "Rocket Reducer # 62 and the title track. This is really rockin' stuff! Alan Wright Bambi Molesters - Play Out of Tune, CD (Slušaj najglasnije!) Originally released as a cassette in 1995, this was the debut release from a cool instro act out of Croatia. Well, actually, they do some singing on this release, but I believe their later releases are all instro. That said, this is a good selection of punk, garage, R&B and surf songs, including covers of "Good Times" (Nobody's Children), "I Can't Believe It" (Pere Ubu) and "Little Beach Bunny" (The Sunsets a.k.a. Gary Usher). Their own songs are quite cool, with some catchy riffs permeating tunes like "She's So Soft inside" and "I Can't Believe It." Special mention should also go to "Charles Brown Manson" for it's hilarious song title! Alan Wright Various - Bombardiranje New Yorka, Vols 2 & 3, CD (Slušaj najglasnije!) Interesting compilations here. Vol. 2 starts off with some guy named Satan Panonski howling like a banshee to no musical accompaniment. Kinda horrible, really. Messerschmitt play sort of bluesy barband rock, they're one of those bands who I've heard some stuff I like by them and some I don't. The singer sounds too much like Ian Astbury for my liking on this stuff. Gnjevni Crv play pretty cool punk stuff, sung in Croatian. The Spoons do a cool live version of The Wheels' "Bad Little Woman" with lotsa organ going on. Cool version of "Get Out Of My Life, Woman," too, with some nice fuzz-wah guitar. Kaoticne Duse, Losi Decki, Mlinski Kamen and Dik O'Braz all sing in Croatian and all the bands contribute some burning punk /hardcore stuff. O'Braz in particular have a great early Motorhead t! ype sound. The Bambi Molesters do a couple of cool surf instros. Even though `I have no idea what Zadruga ,Nepravljivi and Avlijaneri are singing about, they all have a cool garagey rock n' roll sound. Vol. 3 is much more diverse. Some basic rock 'n' roll, in bands like SRZ and Svinjsko Korito, some blues stuff from the Rattleheads, some punkeir stuff from bands like Motor City Bar, Recyklisti, and a whole lot of inbetween stuff running the gamut from jazz-fusion to bad alternative rock and electronic crap. Alan Wright LOU PROFA - Soul Music, CD (Slušaj najglasnije!) If you've been looking high and low for some a capella scat music from Croatia, your search is over. There is some guitar and hand clap accompaniment on some of the tracks, but even then such moderncontrivances can't crowd out the pure tones of Lou's pristine warble, which stands alone on many of these nonsensical tracks. This is the kind of stripped down, bare bones, tribal roots music that folks like Billy Childish have been known to include on records as an example of what is possible with the naked human voice. About half of the tracks that actually have lyrics are not sung in English. If you are from Croatia, "Za Tebe," "Svaki Put Kad Odes" and "Moja Domovina" will make a lot more sense to you than they do to the average GAB! reader. Edwin Letcher VARIOUS ARTISTS - Bombardiaranje New Yorka Vol 6, CD (Slušaj najglasnije!) Wow, this is a blast from the past! I used to review LPs and cassette tapes from Zdenko and his Listen Loudest label back in the mid '80s to early '90s. Even then the compilation package was known as "Bombs Over New York" or "Bombing New York" or whatever that 14-letter word and New Yorka translates as. If you are curious about what the counter culture in Croatia is doing, musically, I heartily recommend this label. The 16 artists presented here offer up their own unique spin on the modernworld filtered through their rather guttural language, a technological time delay and a different political climate. There is also an anything goes mentality that is allowed to flourish, whereby '60s punk becomes discofied, the blues are given a new accent and any genre you can name is game for a fresh exploration and tonal adjustment. If you are looking for something off the wall, hunt out this maverick label and see what kinds of sounds are emanating from what used to be Yugoslavia. Revolucija u slasticarni!! Edwin Letcher The following reviews by Jake Austen Diplomatz - Od trnja do zaoka (Slušaj najglasnije!) I'll be diplomatic and just say this ROCKS! Neven Duzevic - Plaza prema nebu/Ne spavaj mala moja muzika dok svira (Slušaj najglasnije!) The first record is a Duzy! And the second is Neven Heaven! Kiba - Bluz šansona (Slušaj najglasnije!) Bob Dylan look out! Napuknuti dj Zdena - Zadnja luknja na svirali (Slušaj najglasnije!) Napuknuti made me bust a nuti! Dub-balicous! Osnovna škola "Sulud III" - Zlo i naopako (Slušaj najglasnije!) A rock wolf tearing off my skin! Lou Profa - Prava dama (Slušaj najglasnije!) This is Blues Rock from the golden age of big hair and the croatian lyrics just make it better. Lou's best CD yet! Various artists - Rege rege rege rege (Slušaj najglasnije!) Regerific! Various artist - Zamisli zivot drugaciji od ovog (Slušaj najglasnije!) Super dramatic music that made me ponder my existence. XXX - 9mm (Slušaj najglasnije!) Dub prog robo future music - the most progressive record I've ever heard from this very fruitful label. Rated triple AWESOME! Zero Child - Live in Mexico City (Slušaj najglasnije!) Bob urh gets Urh-gonomic below the border (but with his vocals mixed above the fray) for some genuine party bar rocking that made me bust a pinata, which unfortunately turned out to be ceiling light, so I'm typing in the dark now. Jake Austen, Roctober mag, issue 39, Chicago
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