I love me a good regional comp, all the more so if it feels like there’s a strong disconnect between the genre and location, the sense that just performing this type of music in a specific time and place was a transgressive, or even dangerous, act. Punk is certainly a genre that has rankled the powers that be. Punks have always faced resistance, both from the authorities and from the rest of society, often resulting in violence. It was hard enough being a punk in the US or Europe… but can you imagine being a punk in, say, South America in the 1980s when military dictatorships were still de rigueur, or behind the Iron Curtain? It takes courage to stand outside the mainstream when the police wouldn’t think twice about cracking your skull and your fellow citizens would nod approvingly as they watched.
The London, UK label Death Is Not The End is bringing us some of this subversive music. I recently ordered three punk comps from them: Crumbling Concrete And Rusted Iron: A Soviet Punk Cassette, 1985-1992, South American Punk 81-90, and Punk From Medellin, Columbia 1987-1992. All are in fact re-releases, the originals put out about 7-8 years ago by Philadelphia-based label World Gone Mad. The originals are long sold out, so we’re fortunate our friends from Death Is Not The End stepped in to bring us these punk time capsules.
I’m not going to provide track-by-track breakdowns, but I can speak to the quality of the recordings. Obviously the source material is of varying, at times marginal, caliber, but the label mastered the tapes well. Punk From Medellin consists of a range of extreme music – hardcore, crust, death metal, and black metal all co-exist in their shared outsider-ness and subcultural glory. Some tracks are rawer than others, feeling very much like demos, but overall the quality remains more than acceptable throughout. Crumbling Concrete And Rusted Iron is primarily punk, with a hint of Soviet folk stylings, with some songs are closer to hard rock. Of the three tapes this one has perhaps the flattest sound, but it’s still way better than a lot of demo tapes I hear even today – so I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. South American Punk 81-90 blends straight-ahead punk, hardcore, and post-punk, the tracks sounding much cleaner and more polished than those of their Medellin and Soviet brethren. This is my favorite of the three, both stylistically and in terms of sonic richness – there are a number of very interesting artists, and I may explore some of them more deeply. The only criticism I have overall is the lack of tracklists on the J-cards. However, the original World Gone Mad versions are all listed on Discogs, so you can find the artist names there and go down rabbit holes to your heart’s content.
A wide range of intriguing tapes are available on the Death Is Not The End Bandcamp Page HERE. For those of us in the US, I know the shipping from the UK can be onerous… but these cassettes sound so good that I can promise you won’t regret your purchase. I picked up the two Japanese Post-Punk, Goth & New Wave, 1980-1991 cassettes as well and look forward to pressing play on them soon.