The rattle-punk of Wanda's first few years transformed into decent rock music, as can be heard on A State Of No Mercy, a statement of freedom and tolerance. The band changed line-up several times with a core of three women and on these recordings men are playing in Wanda’s as well and the studio line-up on this brilliant album were Joseé (vocals), Frank (guitar), Jan (bass), Christiaan (sax), Arie (drums) and this is their second and final full-length. The sound has gone from a rougher dirty fuzz sound to a much slicker Siouxsie influenced feel. What hasn’t changed is the lyrical radicalism, still inspirational. The Punk roots, however, remained unmistakable. "And we mean Punk as it was played as a music movement in the first years of its existence: straight forward, with a lot of melancholy humor, full of energy and nicely heavy. The sound of the early days was given a fat layer of metal and crossover: low flying guitars, solid woodcutter drums, driving bass and the menacingly low vocals. The first album (The Ideal, 1979) was about the ideal woman, the cover was phenomenal: all the members' faces had been shuffled & taped together, the music is definitely rammelpunk. Beautifully adolescent and recorded on a four-track recorder in the legendary Joke's Koeienverhuurbedrijf".
There are combos where the change from "amateurish" sound to melodic & powerful vibes works and in my opinion, the ladies and gentlemen from the Netherlands did it excellently. Wanda's was often described as 'Girl Punk'. A strange title, because what does that sound like? Music is always described in terms of style; each style has its own niche. But when it comes to female musicians, you're suddenly classified based on your gender instead of your music. In 1989 the band performed for the last time with a grandiose farewell concert at the Korsakoff in Amsterdam. Well, I like this record and I highly recommend the download, my dear visitors.
