CRISIS - The Guilty Have A Past 2004

This unofficial compilation by State Laughter Records is full with fourteen nuggets and we talkin' about Crisis, a band which was formed 1977 in Guildford, a large town in Surrey, with the lineup of Phrazer (vocals), Lester Jones (lead guitar), Douglas Pearce (guitar), Tony Wakeford (bass) and Insect Robin (drums) and they released in their short lifetime three great singles and a mini-LP. "Crisis adopted slower tempos and concentrated more on the atmosphere and tension of the music rather than just making a loud, generic thrash.In many ways, by 1978 they were already dabbling in a style which, much later on, would be referred to as Post-Punk, not a million miles away from early Joy Division or The Ruts’ moodier moments." In early 1979, the band underwent a major change in personnel when Phrazer and Insect Robin were replaced by Dexter (a longtime fan and roadie) and Luke Rendle. After performing their last show, supporting Magazine and Bauhaus in their hometown of Guildford @ Surrey University 10.05.1980, the band broke up.

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THE ESTRANGED - Static Thoughts 2008

Yesterday I was at a gig from The Outcasts and it was a damn cool evening. Superb action and I want to post a record from them but I have nothing, haha....what a disgrace! Well, instead this great one: The Estranged are a post-punk band from Portland, Oregon. They started out in 2006. They play dark and foreboding guitar driven music with a relentless sense of urgency in a similar vein to The Wipers, Wire, Joy Division and The Cure. With their 1st album Static Thoughts, The Estranged attempt to combine the volatile combination of post-punk and punk with positive results on the whole. The album could have been a disaster on the scale of the Hindenburg, but instead is a balanced combination of contemporary post-punk songs that rely on traditional punk rock’s finer cornerstones - two to three minute numbers that are fast, simple, catchy, and - in this case - bleak. Indeed, Static Thoughts is more than a throwback to a deceased genre; The Estranged cultivate their bleak post-punk sound with a heavy lean on punk rock giving the often angsty music a much needed rainy day. Crossing musical genre’s is a risky but this album is clever, quick and done with so much gusto so that the crossover is not even felt. (Justin) Great record!

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V/A - British Underground 1977-1982

Subtitled as the Best of the UK Punk New Wave. Well, this lies in the eye of the beholder or? Anyway, this small flame is the first Volume of this Mini-Serie and this unofficial release was comin' out on Chaos Wrecords in 1982 and it's full with a decent mix of both music styles. I realize there are a lot of UK comps and this is of course for me great, I love the early UK sound and I'm always fascinate when I get a copy of a record which is brand new, even when I know the songs. Minus points for the loveless design, no inserts, no info. So check the following orange button for details. Was bleibt?, a decent platte with cool and varied stuff. But € 50,- I wouldn't pay for. Have fun with this, Aloha!!

1.Instant Tunes - XTC

2.Cold Beat - THE SOUND

3.Whatever Happened To The West? - ANOTHER PRETTY FACE

4.Adult/ery - THE SCARS

5.Where Were You? - THE MEKONS

6.Damaged Goods - GANG OF FOUR

7.The Missionary - JOSEF K.

8.Let's Submerge (Live 1977) - X-RAY SPEX

9.Drums Over London - DISCO ZOMBIES

10.Looking At You - THE CIGARETTES

11.Spend The Night Alone - FATAL CHARM

12.Firing Squad (Live 1979) - PENETRATION

13.Novelty (Live 1979) - JOY DIVISION

14.Blue Boy - ORANGE JUICE

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BRÄNDA BARN - s/t EP 1980

Brända Barn (Burned Children) was a punk band from Sundsvall and singer Anders "Brodde" Brodin was previously active in Massmedia and released with them a couple of singles in 1979. Then he formed in summer of 1979 Brända Barn who loan their name from a novel by Stig Dagerman. The band started as a punk band but then evolved in another direction, clearly influenced by Joy Division and other post-punk bands. They played as support act for Sham 69 when the group appeared in Sundsvall, 30 January 1980. The band recorded a series of singles in the early eighties plus a few compilation track (Sveriges Största Singel) and their debut, Allt Står I Lågor (Everything Is In Flames) on Mistlur in 1983 and become a lot of attention, polarized criticism and listeners, but overall an extatic audience at their concerts during a tour in the winter 1983-84. In February 1984 the band split up, Brodin said he can’t coping with the intense pressure from the fans during & after the concerts. Teens in the audience had repeatedly stormed the stage to touch him. In late 1984 the band made a comeback under the name The Wild Bunch, which later was changed to The Bunch. After this, the band had a number of reunions: 1987, 1991 (two concerts), 1999 (two concerts) & 2003 (three concerts).

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