Reviews

Tough Ain't Enough

Aggressive Combat Aggressive Combat LP

Spanish Oi! stalwarts AGGRESSIVE COMBAT return, and if you like your Euro Oi! to sound like Euro Oi!, then hold onto yer Sambas and camo shorts, because do I have the band for you! More on the hard rockin’ end of the Oi! spectrum, with a few guitar solo flourishes to dance across the factory-rhythmic drums, it’s a bit too polished for me. Some classic silly vox, with matey on vocals sounding like he’s doing his best impression of a scary monster rather than expressing working class solidarity, talking about drinking beer, inexplicably finding Andy Capp endearing, or any number of Euro skin activities.

Agur Garena Gara LP

The Bandcamp info tells me these guys are from Spain. All the Zs and Xs in the song titles lead me to believe they might be Basque. A little internet research confirms that. Not all, but lots of Spanish punk really lands with me. This one is extremely catchy, with lots of “whoaaa, whoaaa” backing vocals, but also some snarling lead vocals, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s one that I like a lot. At times very mid-tempo and other times quite a bit faster, but it maintains that catchiness, even when the mood is somewhat frantic. Only six cuts, but they’re all winners for me.

An Slua How Ya Gettin’ On​?​ EP

Irish fockin’ Oi! Enough said! This EP has everything you can ask for in an Oi! record: memorable hooks, melodic “feel-good” guitar licks, and a steady groove. What sets this band apart is their political views, particularly when it comes to veganism, which is an integral part of punk (or it should be). As someone who cares about animal rights, it’s really appealing when a band comes up with such views. Also, these four lads add a bit of post-punk influences here and there, making it even more special. Remember to eat your veggies!

Atturri Atturri LP

Having first been exposed to Euskaran rockers ATTURRI on the fantastic Kaosa Euskal Herrian LP, it’s nice to see a full-length from the Basque bruisers. Short but sweet, with seven tracks of thunderous bass lines, soaring guitars, and righteous anger courtesy of perfectly orchestrated gang vox. Hoping to see more!

Golpe De Gracia Ustela LP

Absolute beast of a debut LP from this Spanish band that sings comfortably in Spanish and Basque. This band arrives with a fully-formed sound reminiscent of Oi! and Basque radical rock, but that also reflects ’80s influences like NEGATIVE APPROACH. This is an aesthetic exercise around hatred. Hatred directed towards a decadent society, and in particular, towards the rotten cities of Europe, sold out to capital. An exercise of hatred that vindicates the angry dignity and the vital vehemence of knowing oneself in constant opposition to everything, but which also finds transcendence in the haughtiness of resistance, in the opportunities generated by the city streets at night.

Golpe De Gracia Cementerio Interior EP

Seems to be a skins ’n’ punks affair, but the snotty lead vocal carries it more toward the punk side, which works better for me. The two definitive Oi! clues are the gang choruses and a couple skinhead guys pictured on the lyric sheet. Overall, more scrappy vibes than tough. Not much else to report about this Madrid band outside of a few likeable guitar and vocal hooks. Could just have easily emerged out of L.A. from Silenzio Statico or Verdugo Discos.

Hotza Demo EP

Once again I find myself researching the mineral content of the water supply in Euskara, because this region has once again produced a near-instant classic. Eight minutes of heat over four blistering tracks from Bilbao with this release, which doesn’t let up for the entire time. Scratching that traditional French Oi! itch you didn’t think you had, ticking the same boxes that RIXE and IENA did, this is just the tonic for those tired of milquetoast, by-the-numbers Euro bollocks. Rumbling bass that sounds like tank warfare, over tight and taught guitar lines giving you that brickwall sound that is sorely lacking these days. A suitably raucous 4 SKINS cover rounds it off, and back on repeat it goes. Excellent stuff.

Kaleko Urdangak Bizirik LP

Those who have had the misfortune to read any of my missives here in previous editions know how fond I am of boot boys from the Basque country, and it’s a genuine mystery and delight to me why this particular corner of Europe generates so many great skinhead bands. Here’s another one for you; KALEKO URDANGAK makes anthemic, skinhead rock‘n’roll. Sadly not blessed with a working knowledge of Euskera, I can’t vouch for lyrical content, but in dedicating their record to Basque political prisoners, and releasing an unashamedly Basque record, it’s at least small-p political in nature. Musically, it has a bit more studio polish than I prefer, but the tunes are uplifting enough to penetrate even the most cynical of dickheads (me). Really great stuff.

Fearless Veterans / Offensiva split EP

Tedious, apolitical “anti-PC” posturing aside (tell you what would actually shock me, would be this mob producing anything approaching original), this is your run-of-the-mill Euro Oi! which you have undoubtedly heard a thousand times before, and almost certainly done better. Miss it like it’s jury service.

Orreaga 778 Live and Loud!! 2xLP

A live(!) double LP(!!) (from Euskaran herberts ORREAGA 778 here, which with an eye-watering twenty-track length(!!!), is presumably the gift no one actually asked for. My natural resilience to live recordings aside (THIN LIZZY obviously the exception that proves the rule), it is, in spite of itself, a lot of fun, spanning their near two decades of existence. It’s mixed surprisingly well, although perhaps I would have enjoyed it sounding more like it was recorded in a bin. Probably not one for anyone but mega-fans and completists, though.

Reckless Upstarts We Walk Alone LP

Canadian flat cap botherers RECKLESS UPSTARTS land with their debut LP of meat-and-potatoes shorthaired rock’n’roll. Opening track nails their politics to the mast by clearly stating their unequivocal SHARP-ness, which I will always appreciate. As for the record itself, it’s more tuneful than I expected, clearly pitching at the more anthemic end of the Oi! spectrum. However, toward the arse end of the record, there’s a totally inexplicable and absolutely honking rendition of the MAXINE NIGHTINGALE classic “Back Where We Started” which made me pull a face that I last did when I accidentally trod in dog shit, and quite frankly, if I wasn’t a prison abolitionist, I’d be calling for a custodial sentence. That being said, while it’s certainly not going to be a bona fide classic by any stretch, it’s perfectly fine and I’m sure it’ll make some lads in sambas and West Ham scarves happy enough.

Reo Sobre Las Ruinas EP

Hard-stompin’ debut from these Spanish boot boys. Those familiar with the Tough Ain’t Enough catalog won’t be surprised by the four tunes on this EP. Big, meaty guitars with harmonizing leads lay the brickwork for gruff half-sung/half-shouted vocals, replete with anthemic choruses meant to incite a beer-drenched sing-along. The production is more polished than your oxblood Docs, which doesn’t exactly benefit the source material, but it doesn’t detract from the overall experience either. Do skinheads go to rodeos? If so, this certainly ain’t the first for the members of REO, having served in prior street rock acts like SHERRY SOLDIERS and SECOND DIVISION. “1880” is the standout for being the catchiest number, and would make a good candidate for inclusion on your next Oi! themed mixtape. Sobre Las Ruinas falls on the melodic side of the spectrum, but otherwise doesn’t stray far from the traditional sound of the genre.

Stalingrad 42 Skins’N’Punks LP

When I threw this on, the first thing that came to mind was that the vocals were vaguely reminiscent of Fuaim Catha-era OI POLLOI. That’s about the best thing that I can say about STALINGRAD 42, because it really goes downhill from there. While there are a plethora of Oi! bands currently pushing the boundaries of the genre, STALINGRAD 42 is taking a far less innovative approach. Skins’N’Punks is replete with overproduced, under-inspired songs that are so phoned-in, they should be charged for collect calls. The guitar lines sound like they were lifted from your dad’s butt-rock cover band. Oh, and there’s a ska song. This gets a hard pass from me.

Sympos More Sympos EP

What an absolute joy this was to discover. From the most un-Oi!-like choppy, angular guitar stabs to the distinctly Waterfordian accent, I was immediately shaken from the malaise that a thousand crappy “Oi! in name alone” releases that are farted out by labels that should know better will sink you into. As indebted to the first-wave ’77 mob and anorak-clad post-punkers as traditional skinhead fare, it’s undoubtedly more musically complex than one might expect. However, the lyrical content, with tongue embedded firmly in cheek, covers topics as broad as “fighting down the pub,” “drinking down the pub,” and “car insurance”—it’s a lot of fun crammed into its all-too-brief runtime.

Sympos Hard as Nail Punts EP

This EP paints itself into a corner pretty early into the first track. Tough guys singing about tough shit amongst the “Oi! Oi! Oi!”s, and bellyachings. The EP comes off as a satire (maybe that’s the point?) before we hit the halfway mark, and it is hard to take any of it with a straight face. Why does it all come off as antagonizing? Hope I don’t get beat up now.

Tatxers Tatxers LP

In the last warm days of summer, I love listening to a record like this. There is a shimmering sadness, like dappled light on a body of water while the sun goes down and you didn’t think you’d need a sweater. These songs have a yearning core to them, melody and longing being the driving themes perfectly suited to the clean guitar tones that drive home lovely, mopey pop songs. With the stabbing guitar of the stunning second track “Labanak,” I realize it might well have just been called “Pamplona Calling.” There are even traces of what we used to call “college rock” in songs like “Iruñea,” with a staccato jangliness I’m always thirsting for. Song to song, though, this isn’t a band retreading old ground, but rather bringing a bright vitality to melodic punk rock with an old-school cool. I feel like there are plenty of bands right now that bring out this feeling of nostalgia for an era that never really existed. Or nostalgia for the now? TATXERS is exactly the kind of band I reach for to rebuke someone telling me they “stopped listening to rock music” a long time ago. The good times are still here (musically anyway), and they’re fleeting as always and full of joy and sadness, just like good rock music should be. A tender little record I’ll be spinning for a long time.

Tatxers Hiruzpalau Amets Larri EP

TATXERS sound like a melancholy, rainy afternoon drinking beer at a pub in old downtown Iruña. Hiruzpalau Amets Larri was a breath of fresh air that hit every squat party in Spain last year. They follow in the tradition of the solid Basque Country scene, but with a brand new approach. The band is more influenced by the sense of melody and arrangements of the early records of punk pioneers ZARAMA than by the cornerstone of the genre in the region, ESKORBUTO—who were coincidentally named by ZARAMA’s singer, Roberto Moso. The guitars are playful and clean, with almost no distortion, snailing through repetitive riffs. You can see the trademark of Julen Urzaiz, engineer at Sound of Sirens studios and godfather to a handful of the new Oi! and Basque punk bands: KALEKO URDANGAK, STREETWISE, AGAINST YOU, HERDOIL. The four songs on this EP have that certain feeling of nostalgia in their own subtle ways, but without turning their backs on a powerful chorus and a fair share of rage. When I listened to Hiruzpalau Amets Larri, thoughts of green and mountainous valleys, old cobbled towns, and endless drizzle, but also riots and pub shows, came to my mind. It’s one of the most outstanding punk records I’ve heard in a long time.

Teenage Hearts Want More! LP

Oi! from France. Oui? There’s some kind of wordplay to be worked out here. Regardless, this Nantes-based crew fully brings it with seven tracks of rough-and-tumble working class rumblers. This feels cozy alongside contemporaries from across the channel CHUBBY & THE GANG and the CHISEL, hitting the same sweet spot of bluesy stomp with beer hall shout-along anthems that are properly pissed-off and world-weary. The guitars cut really nicely here, just the right amount of sharpness on the ear. The vocals have that rock-gargling quality to them as well, exactly what you’re looking for in proper fookin’ Oi! If you’ll pardon my incorrect French: this is très bonne merde, indeed.

V/A Chaos in Basque Country LP

Another dip into the thriving Euskaran punk ‘n’ Oi! scene, taking inspiration from the classic Chaos En France series this time. Those who are already familiar with bona fide Basque hit factory Mendeku Diskak will know luminaries like the mighty STA. CRUZ, IRMO, and REVERTT who are all stand-outs, but the rousing gang vocal choruses of TAXTERS (like REICH ORGASM in their pomp) and the feral stylings of ATTURRI are also a treat. Not much to discover if you’ve already heard the excellent Kaosa Euskal Herrian LP from a while back, but a great intro to one of the more interesting scenes going at the minute.

V/A Kaosa Euskal Herrian 2xLP

Taking inspiration from the classique Chaos En France series, this compilation of some of the leading lights in the incredibly healthy Basque Oi! and punk scene is a genuine joy to explore. Sung mostly in Euskara with a few potted exceptions, it’s a truly unique document of a clearly vibrant and overlooked community. Some of the names such as CUERO and REVERTT may be familiar to those of you who, like me, think the sun shines out of the fantastic Mendeku Diskak’s arse, but perhaps the most rewarding part is uncovering some of the lesser-known bands, too. BLESSURE has the speed and sneer of RIXE, whereas TEARS & BEERS can craft an ale-spilling chorus to rival BATTLE RUINS any day of the week. It’s not all boots and braces for any of you long-haired scruffs out there, though; GADAFISTE BROTHERS are pure bubblegum RAMONES-worship power pop as well. Extremely worth your time!