Shit-Fi Mixtape #1
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Here is the first Shit-Fi virtual mixtape. Please give us your feedback on what you hear, including if there are any technical glitches (we’re new to this—and certainly prefer proper mixtapes to virtual ones). If you’d like to submit your own virtual mixtape, get in touch.
One of Switzerland’s few early ‘80s hardcore bands, GKH pack quite a punch; “Zensur” made it to vinyl in 2006 on the awesome “fanclub” compilation LP “Earsplitting Noise.” Plasmid’s EP, released at the end of 2005 by Shortfuse Records is, in my opinion, the finest archival hardcore/punk release ever; “Lust for Power (ii),” whose original title is lost to time, was previously unreleased, though it was recorded at the same time as the four tracks on the 1984 “Lust for Power” demo. Psycho Faction, whose sound varied between ultra-simple “Realities of War” rip and typical “Bullshit Detector” style anarcho-punk: “Last Hours of Peace,” recorded in 1982, is in the former style and appears on a 7" released last year. The 1981(!) single by Rhode Island’s Joe Hebert Band is likely one of the absolute rarest US punk records—only two known copies of this teen slime in collections (and Joe’s apparently isn’t one of them!); the fuzz attack “I Don’t Want to Be a Preppy” appeared on the “Hooked on Junk” bootleg compilation, which never made it past the test pressing stage due to fears of a lawsuit. Yet another Disorder, this time from Holland circa 1981, play scrubbed-down slightly late-for-the-trend political punk in the classic Dutch style; “Civilization” is particularly powerful, with lyrics that do not oversimplify and remain appropriate to today’s imperial moment plus one of those guitar sounds that makes us grown record collectors weep. The Avant Gardeners must be one of the most enigmatic bands I’ve ever encountered: quasi-Christian UK DIY meets swamp-rock with rather suggestive lyrics (“I wanna dunk my biscuit in her tea”), released on Virgin Records in ‘77; this head-scratcher is called “Strange Gurl in Clothes.” “Suburban Kid” is rudimentary Swedish thugpunk c/o your friends PF Commando—preteen slime. Ataque de Sonido, from Medellín, released an EP and appeared on the shit-fi cornerstone v/a “La Ciudad Podrida vol. 1” LP; this eponymous compilation appearance is more “proto-grind” than the grindy, and hence less interesting, EP. Believe it or not, this is far from the most primitive tune on that LP. Here are some lyrics, translated on the insert: “Sound pollution, industrial noise / Bombs, motors, human beings / Sound attack is progress, is dementia / present and future pollution, attack.” That’s what I’ve been saying for years. “The Night of the Holocaust,” from the unreleased second Shitlickers EP, is a masterpiece; it is difficult not reach for terms like “the hand of God” when explaining this recording. “War Machine” is one of the mysteriously unplace-able Genocide Association tracks (see my review here). Schleim Keim were the most important East German hardcore punk band, and the desperate “Ende” appeared on a split LP, with them under the pseudonym Saukerle, released in the West by Aggressive Rock Productions in 1983. Sieg Heil, a Kyushu noise-core band released two demos, and the scorcher “Anti Nuclear War” appeared on the “Nazism” tape, reissued on LP by Overthrow Records last year. To close this mixtape, here is a very rare and obscure live version of “E.D.P.S.” from Tsunematsu Masatoshi from a Pass Records compilation 2xCD, recorded on New Year’s Eve as 1981 blossomed into 1982; this industrial noise (uh, way more noise-laden than the previous noise-core song!) does not call to mind Tsunematsu-san’s untouchable early solo punk material nor Friction, but I find it to be killer nonetheless.