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The Bon Voyage recordings sound far more mature than the band's earlier music, whilst losing some of the playful insouciance that ran through the first two albums. Strains of ska and chanson complement the latter-day NDW (German new wave) flavoured power pop. After four successful years of extensive touring, new perspectives presented themselves to Carambolage. Having outgrown the somewhat languid Scherben scene and label life at David Volksmund Produktion, the trio upped sticks and headed for Berlin, curious to see what the big city had to offer, namely a close-up view of the pop business. Manne Praeker, former Spliff bass player and Nina Hagen's producer, offered to produce their third record, anticipating a shot at success with a major label. Bon Voyage was recorded in 1984 in Praeker's Mad-Mix studio in Berlin with various guest musicians. Even the pop mag Bravo took note, featuring the punkish North Frisians in a home story. Alas, any aspirations of becoming stars quickly dissipated during the recording process as aesthetic differences came to the fore. In one corner, Britta and Angie were determined to follow the DIY principles of the two preceding albums. In the opposite corner, Manne Praeker and Elfie felt compelled to introduce a stronger element of professionalism and Praeker increasingly weighed into the creative process. "You might say our story practically came to an end with a collision**, just to match our name," Britta Neander recalled in an interview with Tine Plesch. We're happy to report that the girls renewed their friendship after a while. The third record is well worth a listen, a divergent coda to the band's history. Bon Voyage spent 34 years under lock and key before the Fuego label released a digital version in the year 2019. (Tapete Records)
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Originally released 1982. On their sophomore album Eilzustellung-Expres, Carambolage's ranks were bolstered by the arrival of Janett Lemmen, who had deputized for the pregnant Angie on a recent tour. Like its predecessor Carambolage (1980), the record was produced in Fresenhagen by R.P.S. Lanrue and released on the Scherben label David Volksmund Produktion. Like a whirlwind girl gang on the road, the LP revs up with dynamic guitar riffs, indulging their "turned on to the max" sexual desires, before the mood shifts to the deeper realms of life on the Eilzustellung-Expres (express delivery): melancholy musings on dismaying love affairs, a song about contradictory feelings experienced in childbirth, culminating in a declaration of love for Angie's new daughter Lisa. The baby was always on board when Carambolage went on tour. The idea of her father Kai Sichtermann (Scherben bass player) taking her on tour would have been too much even for the left-leaning alternative Ton Steine Scherben. Making a mockery of male privilege, Carambolage delivered an album orbiting punk and pop in a classic line-up: Britta on drums, Elfie's snotty vocals and effects-drenched guitar and keyboards, Angie on bass. The trio is augmented by Janett's screeching saxophone on the instrumental track Maschine and a squeaky baby sample (Lisa?). I Remember You brings proceedings to a close in something approaching Schlager. (Tapete Records)
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Out of stockOriginally released 1980. Carambolage never set out to be a "girl band" but they were one of the first German new wave bands whose members were all female. The punk alliance comprising Britta Neander, Elfie-Esther Steitz and Angie Olbrich emerged organically from the environs of Ton Steine Scherben, friends united by a common interest in musical experimentation. With the first demo tapes in circulation, Burkhardt " Zensor" Seiler organized a gig for Carambolage in the hip Kreuzberg club SO36. At a time when anything that could be labelled "Neuen Deutschen Welle" (German New Wave) was stamped accordingly, the trio played by their own rules. The eponymous debut album Carambolage, produced by Rio Reiser and R.P.S. Lanrue in the summer of 1980 and released on the Scherben label David Volksmund Produktion, could not be constrained by NDW marketing concepts. Instead, the disc was defined by its "colossal, inventive sound" which fed on Elfie's curiously autodidactic "Fantasiegriffen" guitar style and her "Fresenhagen sparrow" voice, counter-balanced by Angie's organ and inimitable basslines and energized by Britta's relentless drumming. Backed by quirky organ and ragged drums, Elfie spits her lyrics with emphatic simplicity. Once her words are in your head, they stay there. Tracks like Die Farbe war Mord hint at a sense of feminist awareness. Carambolage may not have coined the phrase, but "lipstick feminism" became a thing, consciously playing with feminine clichÈs and hammering them home in performative fashion, rather than boxing them off. Towards the end of the record, vocals and sound are transcended in the monotone shimmer of 22 rue Chenoise. Their sound was not the only aspect of the group which resulted from experimental tinkering. Keen to have their own space, away from a male-dominated environment, they used cardboard and carpets to build their own practice room inside an old grain silo. Strictly out of reach of the Scherben. It's fair to say that Carambolage helped to shape the DIY approach which the Riot Grrrls of the 1990s would emulate. Forty years later, it's still mostly men standing on festival stages, but the Carambolage story ought not be consigned to the shelves marked nostalgia. On the contrary, it is a thread which most definitely needs to be picked up. (Tapete Records)
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Out of stockOriginally issued on Thirteen Records from Sao Paulo in 1997, ‘Back To Basics’ is the second album by Rio De Janeiro punk legends Carbona. Widely considered the peak of the whole Ramones-core made in Brasil movement, this groundbreaking album is released on vinyl for the first time ever. Featuring one bonus track and double sided lyrics insert included. (Hey Suburbia Records)
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Out of stockWrithing, sneering, tight cornered, "Machine Response" the only acceptable follow up to the blistering and landmark "Attempted Suicide." Nearly ten years of beating around the bush, casually playing around the world and drip releasing music along the way, Career Suicide is backed by their best lineup ever, ready to break back through themselves with this new full length. Machine Response veers in and out of pure speed, bursts of melody, and chunky tempo shifts, indenting the long standing influence of early 80s USHC, late 70s punk, and a peppering of 60s swagger, with their own clearly developed style. Dallas Good (Sadies, Andre Williams, John Doe, Half Japanese, Elevator and a million more) presents a magnificently essential 2nd guitar and lead presence; a screaming contribution by great friend and long time supporter of the band, Souichi Hisatake, (Forward, GISM, Insane Youth, Gudon etc) to crack your brain up; artwork in collaboration with Ryan Tong of S.H.I.T. and Toronto's life-giving Faith/Void; and a thundering recording, once again helmed by the decorated and limitless in his pursuit of smooth hearing loss, Jon Drew, provide the most damaging clarity Career Suicide have been able to capture to date. (Statick Shock Records)
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Neo-Mod act the Carpettes began as a Stones-influenced school band, formed in the small northeast Norman town of Houghton-le-Spring in the mid-l97Os, the trio of frontman Neil Thompson, bassist George Maddison, and drummer Kevin Heard shifting to punk before signing to Small Wonder as a Mod revival act. By the time they joined the Beggar’s Banquet roster in 1978, Heard was replaced by Tim Wilder (with Simon Smith of the Merton Parkas briefly in the fold). Sophomore album Fight Amongst Yourselves is arguably their best, the appealing material ranging from the socially-relevant power-pop of the title track and the pop-punk of ‘The Reason I’m Lonely’ to the reggae cadences of ‘The Last Lone Ranger’. Label: Radiation Records Barcode: 8055515232677
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Caspar Brötzmann is one of the most unique and innovative guitarists of the last 40 years. With his Berlin- based trio Massaker, he evolved a whole new autonomous approach to writing rock songs, starting from sounds that were widely considered ornamental if not detrimental ‘sonic waste’, such as shrieking feedbackand droning overtones. This plethora of sounds were arranged into tracks to sound like breaking concrete, grinding metal, or bursting glass, at once monumental and threatening, impenetrable and hermetic, yet also archaically tender and loving. Even today, as the art of noise has reached a level of sophistication that no one could have imagined 30 years ago, Caspar Brötzmann Massaker’s music is resoundingly singular. Ultra heavy riffs and beats, ominous tribal chants and a raw physical force is conjured up by these three sinister and proud minds of their era. Their unhinged, unified stream of energy is captured on these remastered reissues and the results are thrilling. Originally released in 1992, Der Abend der Schwarzen Folklore is the third Massaker album, released byRough Trade Germany. According to Caspar Brötzmann, the title track and Bass Totem are the band’s most accomplished songs. It’s certainly the most sonicly refined of their albums, recorded during a residencyover several weeks at the pastoral site of Conny Plank’s studio near Cologne, and produced by Ingo Kraussand Bruno Gebhard, who had worked with the famed Krautrock producer until his death in 1987. Not least, ...Schwarzen Folklore also features their new drummer Danny Lommen, whom Caspar and bassist Eduardo Delgado had headhunted at a concert with Lommen’s Dutch prog-core band Gore. Lommen shared their tastes in sheer volume and presence, and “has a completely unique sound to his drumming“, as Caspar marvels, “he plays ultrahard and clear, with authority and no compromise, nothing, not even the mostturbulent and speedy beats, sound fuzzy - a statement.“ This, he adds with a smile, would sometimes lead tointense moods during rehearsals, when he overpowered - no small feat - competing with the sounds of Caspar’s guitar. The Tribe and Black Axis were still if very loosely rooted in some kind of heavy rock. Der Abend der Schwarzen Folklore erases these residues from their genetic make-up - evolving into a free-form noise, strangely motionless like an earthquake rumble, that sounded like nothing else at the time. The opening title song gives the best example with its densely shifting chunk of howling and screaming guitar shreds and grimly determined rumbles from the bass, accented by heavy single beats or massively rattling, yet transparent outbursts from the drums. An impenetrable sense of threat fills the sound, interrupted only by breaks of skinny brooding, giving way to Caspar’s throaty growl evoking a lonely march through hostilewastelands under flaming sunsets. Culminating in an archaic choir chanting about black walls rising - a monstrous cloud of thick high-voltage tension. Label: Southern Lord Records Barcode: 808720026214
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Originally recorded in 1994 and released in 1995, Home is characterised by Massaker’s ultra-refined riffs of shrieking, screeching feedback and rattling machine gun staccatos. Exuding confidence, authority and a natural rapport that the musicians clearly had with one another. Certain songs from earlier records were revisited on Home including “The Tribe” and “Massaker” from The Tribe, and “Templehof”, “Hunter Song” and “Böhmen” from Black Axis. These particular pieces had evolved following years of rethinking, rehearsing and reshaping them on stage, as well as playing with Danny Lommen, who had replaced Frank Neumeier on drums after Black Axis. These refined versions on Home raise the level of density and tension, the ominous evocations of impending doom, booming threat, and the grim determination that’s always driven Massaker. The 1994 recording of Home at the Steinschlag Studio (of FM Einheit) features the following musicians, Caspar Brötzmann (guitar), Danny Mommen (drums) and Eduardo Delgado Lopez (bass). (Southern Lord Records)
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Caspar Brötzmann is one of the most unique and innovative guitarists of the last 40 years. With his Berlin- based trio Massaker, he evolved a whole new autonomous approach to writing rock songs, starting fromsounds that were widely considered ornamental if not detrimental ‘sonic waste’, such as shrieking feedback and droning overtones. This plethora of sounds were arranged into tracks to sound like breaking concrete, grinding metal, or bursting glass, at once monumental and threatening, impenetrable and hermetic, yet also archaically tender and loving. Even today, as the art of noise has reached a level of sophistication that no one could have imagined 30 years ago, Caspar Brötzmann Massaker’s music is resoundingly singular. Ultra heavy riffs and beats,ominous tribal chants and a raw physical force is conjured up by these three sinister and proud minds of their era. Their unhinged, unified stream of energy is captured on these remastered reissues and the results are thrilling. Koksofen (which translates as blast furnace), originally released in 1993, has become one of Massaker’s most popular albums. Like it’s predecessor, ...Schwarzen Folklore, the album took shape in Massaker’s rehearsal room below the Berlin subway station Schlesisches Tor, and was recorded at Conny Plank’s studio near Cologne, with Plank’s former associates Ingo Krauss and Bruno Gephard producing. There’s a different kind of intensity to Koksofen. The features of Massaker’s sound are in full bloom. Mountainous noises tower up and crash down, and tormented sounds rise from ominously seething grounds, haunting the entire song-scape. The feel of doom and dread hangs heavily over the five songs, and the title song rumbles, shrieks and wails, plagued by Caspar’s guttural growls of war, suffering and death. Caspar recalls one anecdote from shortly after the original release whereby Bassist Edu Delgado called him asking to turn on the TV, thus discovering that Hymne was being used as background music to a reportabout the death penalty in the US. A different kind of intensity indeed. Reflecting on the album to this day Caspar remarks “Koksofen is still a mystery to me,'' he continues “I can still feel the troubled times in these songs.” - the effects are certainly potent for the listener too. And the album undoubtedly affirms Massaker as the fiercely original and compellingly raw musicians that they are. Label: Southern Lord Records Barcode: 808720026313
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Caspar Brötzmann Massaker’s masterful debut album from 1988 – remastered. The power trio’s blunt force execution is directed by Brötzmann’s explosive and exquisite six string conjuration. Channeling Hendrixian vibrations mixed with hard German industrial atmosphere Label: Southern Lord Records Barcode: 808720025910
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CASTILLO is back new killer material!! Last summer we released a promo/teaser/advance cassette with 2 tracks that now are accompanied of 5 more new songs of their fine melodic yet agressive Punk OI! , 7 tracks in total where gruffy meets tuneful, melody meets rough and epic meets raw. The songwriting is excelent as always, with special attention to detail and guitar work. Great riffs and memorable sing-a-longs. All wraped up the best art again by Andoni De La Cruz. Label: Mendeku Diskak
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The musical influences on the debut album are as diverse as the artists themselves. The melancholic song Cataphiles harks back to The Cure at the beginning of their pop phase in the mid-80s. A River pays tribute to early Californian death rock à la Voodoo Church. Rubbish Kids and Days of Despair forge a link to the current Goth Punk like Christ vs Warhol or Pawns. Furthermore, there are recurring elements of classic English goth rock and post-punk. This broad spectrum is one of the strengths of the album. The band brings the dark flair of the 80s into the modern age without sounding antiquated creating their very own style. The lyrics are empowering and encourage us to think about things, such as friendship with our own inner emptiness, about the punk in our hearts or unknown worlds under our feet. The album was recorded live in January 2022 at Sunsetter Recording Studio Bremen. (Sabotage Records)
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Out of stockThe Catatonics were Syracuse and Central New York’s first harcore punk band. Besides pioneering the original 1981/1982 Syracuse Hardcore scene, their classic Hunted Down ep is considered one of the first hardcore thrash/metal crossover releases, right up there with COC or DRI and remains a sought after (and pricey) collectors item 30+ years after it's release. Often compared to Jerry's Kids, SSD, Negative Approach and even Slayer, The Catatonics weren't followers or imitators, more like period contemporaries. A crucial collection of all known recordings from Syracuse's legendary punk/hardcore pioneers: The Catatonics! Blistering, intense, raging 80's American Hardcore Power! Includes: the holy grail “Hunted Down” 7-inch, compilation tracks, early demos and live recordings remastered from original tapes. Comprehensive 12-page booklet with liner notes, photos, and more! (Southern Lord Records)
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Out of stock“Kill ‘Em All”, what a name for a record, isn’t it? Here is finally the first long awaited CATISFACTION vinyl release. The band took everyone by surprise with the spontaneity and the electrical energy they give off. They have kept writing hits after hits since their demo released in 2019. Above all, we love the way the trio embodies its music. Three voices blend in both french and english and make CATISFACTION such a unique band. These hyperactvists play also play in an impressive number of bands : MARY BELL, BITPART, NEUF VOLTS, GOING AWAY PARTY, BETTER OFF DEAD... (Destructure Records)
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Out of stockAvailable for the first time all the studio recordings of UK Punk band The Cause, the LP includes their rare and collectable 1984 7inch ‘Silent Cry’ along with both of their unreleased rare studio demos ‘Violence’ and ‘Solider Boy’. For Fans Of: Abrasive Wheels Infa-Riot Bltz Chron Gen UK Subs (Queer Pills Records)