ΔΙΑΤΆΡΑΞΗ ΚΟΙΝΉΣ ΗΣΥΧΊΑΣ CS (1984)

I'm too tired and have too much work to do to get around to any of the new releases clogging my mailbox, and anyway lots of y'all prefer old music over new music, so here ya go.

The title translates as, roughly, "Disturbing the Common Peace." Enigma (no, not the US/UK label) Records dropped this one back in 1984, and showcases what the Athens scene sounded like back then. Most of the bands straddle the line between punk and new wave, especially  the two tracks by Γενιά Του Χάους ("Chaotic Generation"/"Chaos Generation"), which are probably the best: dark, plodding punk that should appeal to all you kiddies jizzing your pant/ies over the dark/deathpunk revival.

Panx Romana and Ex-Humans are the other well-known (relatively speaking, anyways) bands here, but Γκρόβερ and Stress are pretty good too.

Dig it, creeps. I think I found this on Robert's Terminal Escape blog a long time ago; you should follow TE if you don't already, fool.

Social Unrest-Making Room for Youth 7" (1979)

Raging it too hard last night=vicious hangover today, so nothin' new, just an '80s classic....

Social Unrest was one of the early East Bay (i.e. the cities just across the San Francisco Bay from SF, for non-American readers) punk bands. Their "Their Mistakes" was featured on the infamous MRR comp "Not So Quiet on the Western Front," and this is one of the best products of first-wave American hardcore.

 Social Unrest's work was incredibly economical: no pointless intros, wasted chords or unnecessary flash. "Rush Hour" is a moronically simple guitar pattern and stutter-step drumming, with Creetin K-OS (dontcha love those first-wave punk names?) hollering about....rush hour. The bridge features a sweet, lazy riff that veers into surf territory.

"Making Room for Youth" is a lot faster, closer to the Middle Class' first 7" than contemporary East Bay punk.  Danny Radio Shack and Doug Logic's guitar playing winds up and speeds through a typically naive punk call to arms for American youth: "The future of the world is up to us/but the older generation will only fuck it up..." Creetin chants, screeches, and lectures his way through the song. "Join the People that Join the Army" doesn't count as a song, really, more an afterthought-clocking in at 22 seconds, it flies by in a rush of stupidity and inspired succinctness.

MAKING ROOM FOR YOUTH. Social Unrest released a slew of albums throughout the '80s; read an interesting interview with a later member, not featured on this 7", here.

Metro Decay-Ypervasi LP (1984)

The computer I'm typing this entry on is from 1995, and I'm frankly amazed I was able to upload an image of the cover, so there ain't no verbal or lyrical fireworks in this entry, folks.

Anyways, Metro Decay's 1984 LP Υπέρβαση is a classic of Greek new/cold/whateverwave. Dudes gigged around Athens a lot in the '80s, opened for The Fall, Birthday PArty, etc.
"Εισαγογν στην κίνηση" is probably my favest track on heer: they totally steal the structure from Joy Div, but throw in some Greek instruments to give it a MD-unique feel.

The version I'm posting butchers the Greek-script track titles; they're posted below.

Merry Xmas, folks.

*EDIT, 10.31.12: I reup'd the file. DOWNLOAD HERE. *

"Υπερβασν" was recently re-released; check out an interview with the band from last year here.

1. Μαύρος Κύκνος
2. Ανάμεσα Σε Δύο Κρεσσεντα
3. Το Ταξίδι
4. Εισαγωγή Στην Κίνηση
5. Απειλή
6. Παιχνίδια Στην Επιφάνεια
7. Το Πάγωμα Του Πάθους
8. 'Έβενος
9. Υπέρβαση
10. Λίμπιντο

Punk, que punk? Y Ahora que? Compilation (1983)

The older I get, the less I understand how I was able to imbibe such  heroic amounts of booze as a young'n....I feel about as lively as a wet ferret hung out to dry by a fur trapper, and half as smart.

So, dear reader, I'm dumping this on you: a 27-track compilation of early '80s Spanish (Catalan, Murcian, Galician et. al.) punk...there ain't a dud among them. It sounds like all the bands recorded live into a boom box, but whatevs.

I'm re-posting this from Robert's original on Terminal Escape. Hopefully this is justified (hangover aside) by how good the music is, first of all. Also, I re-formatted the tracks so that the individual bands appear as the "artist," which should make it easier to find more information on each band, for those who want to.

Ahora que!

Carol-Breakdown 7" (1981)

Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances arising from a real humdinger of a Monday night, your humble narrator is feeling about as garrulous as a bog toad on bad acid.
 To accompany my null-node nebbishness, I present you with a 2-song synth EP, with vocals from some Belgian girl Carol.
 There's a scene in that awful movie, Fellowship of the Ring, where Galadriel becomes a she-Sauron before Frodo's hobbity eyes-this 7" might be the perfect accompaniment to a she-Sauron's snow castle. Crystalline, sparkling, Belgian-what's not to love, right?

...had a heart of glass....

Sorry kiddies, no clue where you could buy this thing. But Minimal Wave Records has a whole buncha sweet, like-minded gems to whet your whistle while you're suckin' down your poison.

Svart Framtid-1984 EP (take a wild guess)

"hey man, it's quality not quantity..."-Slater, Dazed & Confused
 If you could boil punk down to a DNA strand, Svart Framtid's 1984 might be the product. This is the only thing SF recorded before dissolving. Yet it contains all the virtues of punk as a musical form, and lacks its downsides, which are legion.

  Many years ago one of my friends was critiquing a band that another friend had just started, saying that "these dudes don't know how to write songs, they only know how to write hardcore songs. A good hardcore song isn't the same thing as a good song." Substitute "punk" for "hardcore" there, and you've got Svart Framtid.
  Every moment on this EP is essential to the band's majestic coherence: the guitar lead on "Religious Terror"; the perfectly paired drum-bass intro to "Disiplin"; the intro to "Milliarder," which puts a dozen Dead Kennedys bass leads to shame;  the singer's fucking urgency.
   I don't speak Norwegian. I don't know shit about Norway. Except that Vikings and Knut Hamsun were in part or whole from there. But I do know that this guy MEANT every fuckin' word he sang! How many punks, this 'un included, could ever say that without lying?
  I remember hearing SF for the first time on the Red Line,  headin' down to Boystown for another teen blooz New Year's Eve party in 2008. It was about 6 in the evening, I was already wasted, and the Navy Pier-bound yuppie revelers were clearly disgusted as I started slam-dancing in my seat to this slab of nordic brilliance.
  Please don't be waiting for me. Shit is ~30 years outta print, but all you spiky-haired punx should peeps the blog I stole this sweet wax from, here!