So round about Christmas this year I was sat in the house feeling sorry for myself and I did what I usually do in such situations: go to my record collection. I was digging through a shoebox of 7"s and came across Confuse - "Nuclear Addicts": a more raging, raw, PUNK record you will not find! Anyway, it set me on a path of spending about a week listening to nothing but Japanese punk and hardcore, and the result was I had a fucking great Christmas holiday, spending many a loud night with damaged lugholes. So, it got me thinking how cool these records were....I don't know what the reason for it was, but many of them came as flexi discs rather than hard vinyl records; as a format it's totally bizarre but also kinda cool. I'd seen a few people put out flexis recently and thought "fuck it, I'm gonna do a series of one-offs, make them live recordings so that bands might be up for trading off against the potential pitfalls of the format, maybe get some bigger bands who otherwise wouldn't do a record on a shit wee label like mine". So, anyway, here's the result!
Paranoid are the current best hardcore band around. They've released a bunch of records, attracted attention and got an LP out on hip barometer Southern Lord, and gained huge plaudits from all corners for their ace sound which takes in raw scandi-punk, early 80s-Japanese hardcore, UK82 and d-beat, whilst never sounding like a rip-off of any of the above.
This 7" sees them firing through three tracks rapid, and it is RAW. If you want a well-recorded hifi experience, go to another label pal, that's not what I'm all about! The sound of this record perfectly captures the absolute untethered violence and caustic rage of a Paranoid gig: feedback, spit, ripping vocals, savage riffs rising from the cacophony. Fucking brilliant punk rock, nuff said.
250 copies, pro foldover sleeve and OBI strip, blue flexi.
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