Cruciflys – They Became What They Beheld

Not terribly hard to describe what this Atlanta group is doing on their debut LP as it’s basically yet another Crass Discharge of Rudimentary Peni unspooling right in front of us, yet for somthing this straight and specific, they pull this shit off in a thoroughly convincing fashion with plenty of intelligence and variation to their compositions, staying reasonybly close within the expected boundaries of their chosen early hardcore, 1st gen anarcho and death rock frameworks while never repeating themselves and drawing a good deal of fresh energy and surprising turns from the decades-old genre tropes in an effort that strikes me as leagues ahead of your average oldschool genre excercise.

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Fantasma – Quase

Their brilliant demo in 2023 and an equally rippin’ digital 2-track single in 2024 already had me hyped up good for this group revolving around two Brazilians in New York with further participation of, among others, Margaret Chardiet of Dollhouse and Pharmakon. So finally here’s their first longplayer out on UK powerhouse label Drunken Sailor Records and who would’ve guessed… it’s yet another freakin’ great record! I’ve previously compared their sound to Straw Man Army and partly that still holds true here but there’s also plenty of evidence of the group expanding their musical horizon way beyond that and most noticeably, leaning in on their more melodic tendencies and some kinda ethereal, meditative, almost psychedelic undercurrents most notably in tunes like Lugares Mais Altos. The bandcamp blurb also mentions both old UK anarcho punk and Wire as influences, a pair of shoes that i’m gonna say also fits them quite perfectly and concerning Wire in particular, y’all know i’m always gonna approve of that!

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Worker – Demo

Brilliantly simple anarcho-flavored post punk is what we get on this Demo by a group from Perth, Australia, working a decidedly rough, unpolished aesthetic of minimal means towards maximum impact, along the way reminding me of a bunch groups ranging from more obvious references like Institute, Impotentie and early Rank/Xerox to a significantly slowed-down variant of either Nag or recent Pyrex.

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Parliament Ruins – Piss Take

The newest EP by this bunch of british kids from the wider London and Buckinghamshire area delivers a number of delightfully primitive blasts of raw and oldschool hardcore- and anarcho punk which altogether feel like they’ve been around forever, seemingly haven’t learned anything new after ~’82 and i’d just say there’s absolutely no need to fix what isn’t broken on here. These tunes rip, plain and simple!

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Subdued – Abattoir

Furious anarcho punk from London that refuses to be neatly filed away in a single genre crate, which is always the most thrilling kind of punk shit anyway. Recorded at New York’s D4MT Labs, this does indeed share some of the hallmarks of that particular place’s most well known export Kaleidoscope and, to a lesser extent, Straw Man Army, while also exposing some overtones of the wider left-field ambitious hardcore spectrum with the likes of early Bad Breeding, Acrylics and Daydream being some of the names coming to mind at first glance.

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Unknown Liberty – Chain Of Madness

Curious mixture of hardcore-, anarcho- and post punk on this Kingston, NY group’s debut tape, assembling a distinct style out of gritty KBD-drenched vibes à la Launcher, a hint of UK82 energy, plenty of Rudimentary Peni and the occasional bit of Crass.

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