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From: ellis@flairvax.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Anarchy Peace Freedom
Message-ID: <405@flairvax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 18-Mar-84 10:33:30 EST
Article-I.D.: flairvax.405
Posted: Sun Mar 18 10:33:30 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Mar-84 08:01:54 EST
Organization: Fairchild AI Lab, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 81

My ability to describe is very happily quite inferior to the quality of the
new music I've heard this past year. 1983 was, in fact, the best year I've
ever known for new music. 

Here is the music that struck deep this past year

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*Learning to Cope with Cowardice - Mark Stewart 
*Yes Sir, I Will - Crass
 Check It - Mutabaruka 
 Horrible - Half Japanese (and Everyone knew... but me - Jad Fair)
 Mohnomishe - Soviet France
 DRI - Dirty Rotten Imbeciles
 Suite en sous Sol - TuxedoMoon
 Golden Palominos - Fier, Lindsay, Frith, Miller, Noyes, Laswell, Tacuma
 Flies Like Holidays - Smegma, Rancid Vat, Faulty Denial Mechanism
 Earth vs Shockabilly - Shockabilly
 My War - Black Flag

Old music, still new...

 Winter songs - Art Bears
 DOA, Mission of Lost Souls - Throbbing Gristle

*=described in this, the 1st article of a series of six.

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Learning to Cope with Cowardice - Mark Stewart (On-U Sound)

Anarchy distilled from a mash of Beefheart, experimental dub, industrial,
and postpunk/dirge push matters entirely beyond the bounds of rational
music --  majestic animalistic vocals ala van Vliet alternating between
`yowzah' and `no sir, I think I'm learning to cope with cowardice', hi-tech
rhythms repeatedly broken up with violent, distorted reggae echos, white
church anthems sliced thru by black gospel, always accompanied by a driving
dub rhythm that gradually disintegrates into total chaos most closely
resembling the space between radio stations on LSD -- wildly experimental,
destructive dub with ferocious purpose. Perhaps the noblest record since
Troutmask

Sample lyrics:	I'd rather die for a noble cause
		than live and die as a slave

Mark Stewart comes from the `Pop Group', a new wave(!) band that
specialized in thirdworld human-rights tunes like `We are all Prostitutes'
and `For how much longer will we tolerate Mass Murder', one of the most
underplayed masterpieces of recent times (try to find this record -- I
dare you).

On-U Sound is a new label that specializes in British dub. Their artists
are primarily transplanted Jamaicans and British working class with
industrial orientation. Prince Fari worked with them before he was
assassinated in October last year.

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Yes Sir, I Will - Crass (Crass records)

Perhaps the noisiest record ever made -- my vote for hardcore equivalent to
John Coltrane's magnificent `Ascension' (1964) goes to this 45 minute
composition that consists of belligerent antiwar lyrics, adrenalin
producing rhythms, and curiously sophisticated harmonies that often
resemble avant-garde jazz or classical more than the Sex Pistols. Good
introduction to modern hardcore for those who are sick of the older,
decadent, nihilistic punk, though not for the weak-at-heart.

The music overflows with wondrous human experience, and is undescribable

This band has continually defied convention since its inception in 1978
by getting more energetic and political with each album. Crass's label
records many other bands who represent the last and healthiest of the
British punk-derived bands, such as Dirt (featuring Shit & Vomit), the
Poison Girls (with Vi Subversa, world's only middle aged punk vocalist),
and Crucifix (whose reputedly excellent 1983 album I cannot locate).
The sentiment is usually anti-{establishment,drugs,violence} and
pro-{peace,anarchy,freedom}.


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