V/A Compulsive Agitation EP
While there are only six songs and five bands on this EP, there’s a lot to unpack here. All of the bands feature members with musical ties dating back to the ’80s, some of whom have taken substantial leave from playing; a renaissance at hand, if you will. KRUST WORTHY, from Basingstoke, UK, gets tracks A1 (“Protect & Serve”) and A4 (“Sab the Hunters”), and features the songwriting and guitar of Neil Duncan, chief editor of IssuePunkZine. Both songs have sort of a krautrock thing going on: syncopated, in-your-face, heavy, politically offended. RHI & THE RELICS get the closing track “Urban Disease”—I mention this one next because they are also from Basingstoke, and also have Neil Duncan behind the songwriting and guitar. This closer is definitely my favorite; Rhian Gove’s vocals are reminiscent of Steve Ignorant, and the song has that flavor of late ’70s UK punk in general. In the middle are some bands connected from the southern Netherlands, first up WASTE with their track “Everything is Grey”, which—maybe the titles are just similar—reminds me of the atmosphere of “Everything Turns Grey” by AGENT ORANGE (without the surf guitars), I don’t mean to say that as a slight, as it’s a great track. WASTE originally put out their first EP History Repeats in 1982, and came up touring with (next on the EP) the SCOUNDRELS, who formed in 1979. SCOUNDRELS contribute the track “Reptile Brain,” a fast and chaotic ’80s hardcore sound penned by guitarist Patrick Delabie, like early DAMNED mashed up with the mind of the CRAMPS. “A Messed Up Situation” is last to be mentioned here, played by FORD’S FUZZ INFERNO, featuring guitarist and songwriter Hans F. Ford, also amongst the founding members of aforementioned WASTE. “A Messed Up Situation” plays at the general milieu of the state of things here on Earth, which I’m sure they thought was dire in the 1980s, and what do they think now? Listen and find out. If all these musicians, who were at the bedrock of the movement in the late ’70s/early ’80s are still coming out with new music, and have reinvested their time and energy into it, then I’d take a look at the collection on offer here.