As mentioned in the first dispatch of Noise for Zero’s Best of 2023, I get a bit worried about looking backwards too much and missing out on what’s happening here and now. Age naturally builds an affinity for the music that’s been with you for years (or in my case decades), so it’s easy to dwell in the familiar and it takes some effort to seek out or be open to sounds you’re not familiar with. I may have copped this adage from somewhere, but definitely believe in it: People don’t know what they like; they like what they know. It’s so true and it reveals something about you, dear reader, simply by the act of being here and reading this, which is that you are a seeker of sound. Like anyone, there’s music that hits us because we’ve heard it so often that it becomes a known, nostalgic pleasure to hear it. But you and I also have hungry ears that crave the new sounds and give us the thrill of discovering music that catches our ears or blows our minds.
What you’ll find below caters to both the known and the unknown. Overall, these lean more into the known, as many nostalgia-driven classics were reissued in 2023, and in particular, many are from the 1990s when I was busy gobbling this stuff up as a fanzine nerd and seeker of new sounds. These reissues are perfectly ripe for the current vinyl trend that’s produced wave after wave of Record Store Day releases that aim straight for nostalgic oldsters or the youngsters seeking to get hip to what all the oldsters have been clamoring about for years. Yet there’s also a bit of the new and unknown represented here as well. There’s a compilation that brings a teeming pile of current bands to your attention; a long-lost, obscure album buried in time that’s brought to light an unheard, amazing take on early 1980s postpunk; and archival releases that bring rare tracks back from long out of print releases that may have been overlooked or snatched up before we were even aware of them.
Now please allow me to point you, fellow seeker of sound, towards a few feasts for hungry ears.
Come – Gently Down The Stream 2xLP (Fire)
I was especially grateful when Come’s debut 11:11 album got the full vinyl reissue treatment from Matador Records back in 2013 on its 20th anniversary, as well as when Fire Records’ did a deluxe reissue of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 2021, so I was particularly amped to learn about their final album, Gently Down The Stream, finally getting a vinyl reissue treatment in 2023. While this reissue is remastered, it’s a relatively bare bones version without any live tracks, outtakes or other goodies like other recent reissues, but that’s fine, as this double album has always been their perfect swansong on a 4-side set. Each side has 3 tracks of the band at its peak, masterfully pulling you in from the tangled intro through 12 tracks of sweeping indie blues guitar and Thalia Zedek’s distinctive croon. I’ve always had a soft spot for this album as it was the first one that really caught my ear and sent me digging for their previous releases, plus, I feel like people had taken for granted how fantastic Come was by this time so it’s never quite had the love that their earlier records received.
Come to Grief – Killed By Life (Translation Loss)
2022’s When The World Dies set a high watermark for the low-end sludge of these New England devastators, so Translation Loss thoughtfully gathered up their 2016-2020 output from split releases, EPs, and their epic track “Ignorance Must Surely Be Bliss” from The Weedian Vol. 4 compilation to compile all these magnificently lumbering, doom-crust metal missives onto one convenient 12″ slab of misery. Nicely packaged with more hellish cover artwork from Italian painter Paolo Girardi, Killed By Life is the best way to experience this band’s brutally harsh waves of negativity and bad vibes: coming at you relentlessly in long stretches versus flipping through smaller doses on their hard-to-find early releases. If you’re not on board for this type of punishment — and honestly, not many people are — then you definitely won’t be up for this, but for those few who are awed by the totality of Come to Grief will certainly need to seek this out.
Halloween Mixtape #4 – Various Artists (Dirtbag Distro)
For the fourth year in a row now, Kansas City’s prime purveyor of raw in-the-red punk has filled trick-or-treat buckets with a slime-caked cassette chock full of punk, hardcore, metal and other assorted weirdness. And for the fourth year in a row, it’s been much better than a (mostly) local comp with 21 bands has right to be. I mean, statistically, with that many bands within one scene you’re likely to end up with a handful of stinkers, or in Halloween terms, a few of those nasty peanut butter chews in wax paper that no one wants or ever asked for. But here, while there may be some tracks that teeter on mediocrity, there aren’t any that have me slapping that fast forward button. (You may, however, want to have the volume control handy though as it does suffer from various volume levels from track to track) True, there are a few out of town ringers in the mix, like the hyperactive opening track from Melbourne’s Billiam that almost trips over itself with a jagged punk riff on “It’s Spooky 4”, or Maui’s Paradise Tax ripping a killer surf tune called “Stay On Your Honu”. But for the most part the KC area’s finest do take center stage here, as Lawrence’s Jack Offs continue to blow wads of insanely tight, speedy hardcore with their song “Phantom Strangler”, while Strzyyga’s sinister “Sacrament” takes a hellish detour with their blistering blackened crust and Strontium’s dark ambient drift “90 Wardrobe Carcass” adds a menacing chill to the party. One of the best features of this compilation are the outstanding and seasonally-appropriate cover songs, like Sarin Reaper’s throat-shredding black metalcore rendition of The Sonics’ “The Witch”, The Dumpster Rats’ nitro-jacked version of Beat Happening’s “Black Candy”, or Tenant’s black metal take on Bauhaus’ “Dark Entries”. Dilettante’s take on Wire’s “Strange” is surprisingly faithful and worth a listen as a budget rock version of the iconic postpunk classic with a bit of a downer vibe, reminding us that with all that eerie droning in the background, it’s a rather unsettling song. Halloween Mixtape #4, the fourth in Dirtbag’s series of Halloween tapes, statistically shouldn’t be as solid as it is, but it is, so accept it for the treat it is. You can even name your own price to grab this killer creepy comp from Bandcamp, so you know it ain’t a trick!
Inu – Don’t Eat Food! LP (Mesh-Key)
One of the most inspiring things about being a music nerd is how consistently a mindblowing unknown record gets plucked from obscurity to shake away the persistent, cynical notion that you’ve heard it all before. This 1981 debut from the Japanese group Inu is a great example, as it was mostly unknown to audiences outside of Japan and was finally brought to light in 2023. While the first couple tracks deliver what you might expect from the timeframe and geography — a bouncing version of new wavey punk — by the third track you start to see the creative twists these Osaka outsiders brought to the table, like the playful studio tricks in the angular “Old Man, Old Woman” or the chilling percussive pound of “Dumdum Bullet”, which conjures up the tranced-out bliss of Killing Joke at their best. The title track is a lumbering heap of Birthday Party postpunk mangle, with a minimalist, seesawing bass riff and guitar squall that tosses in and out of psychotic echo chambers, taking the vibe quite far from the initial songs before popping back into pop tones with the first track on side B, “Light Cider/Right Sider B (The Refreshing Road To Hell)” that inexplicably maneuvers into some Nonmeansno-style bass-led postpunk funk. “Gonna Crack” sounds a bit like the stomping racket feedtime would kick up a few years later and there’s even a passage that veers into ska territory. Plus, the cover photo is so badass. Overall, all these elements somehow work to elevate this record beyond mere novelty and into the realm of essential punk documents.
Laibach – Nova Akropola LP (Cherry Red)
This long-running Slovenian group has been a mysterious force since the early 1980s with a series of severe industrial records that morphed into more neo-classical and eventually pop and techno music through the 1990s and beyond. They were hard to peg down as their various releases were quite diverse in mood and execution, sometimes thrilling, sometimes dull, and most often just confusing, especially with the a neo-fascist aesthetic that seemed to align them with some of the uglier power electronics and experimental noise outfits of the ’80s who were nihilistically controversial for the sake of being controversial. Nova Akropola was the one record that really struck a discordant chord with me, as it was avant garde, experimental, dark, and as punishing as anything I’d heard when their records could be found cheaply in cutout bins across the U.S. After hearing the commanding baritone vocals on the title track, or interspersed between the buried screams on “Krvava Gruda – Plodna Zemlja” you’ll never take Rammstein seriously again, as Laibach invented their schtick and perfected it a solid decade before the German band churned out albums of relatively tiresome tracks that only almost approach the impact of this monstrous album. Sampling, horns, string sections, and even haunting cabaret songs and spoken passages keep you on your toes and awaiting the next mechanical beat to overtake and pound each song into oblivion. Added to this reissue is a second disc of live versions of the songs done over the decades since Nova Akropola was released, often adding some new electronica-tinged elements that give the tracks a modern shine. It’s beautifully packaged in a gatefold sleeve with a booklet and updated, dimensional type on the cover, although it loses some of the graphic starkness of the original, as the now highly detailed photo of the stag looks more like a museum piece than the harshly contrasted treatment on the original sleeve that better fits the sound of the record. That’s a small grievance though, as it’s great to have this remastered with fine details like the volume of the samples pushed up in the mix for their maximum cutup effect, and the live tracks are entirely new beasts themselves, taking the songs into even more chilling and unsettling places.
Moonshake – Eva Luna Deluxe Edition 2xLP (Too Pure)
Eva Luna was in heavy rotation in 1992 after I’d heard a track on the legendary The Truth About UFOs radio show on Kansas City’s community radio station, KKFI 90.1 FM. I always got a kick from UK bands that actually sang with a British accent, and David Callahan’s vocals were particularly snarling and on the verge of outright screaming, so Moonshake’s debut made it to the top of my wantlist that very night. It’s been a favorite for now over twenty years, so when I learned that a deluxe reissue was coming, I made sure to secure a copy even though I’ve still got that CD, with its jewel case well-scuffed and booklet worn from years of use, yet still sounding great. I certainly don’t regret the high price tag as it has been a great investment into an album I’m already highly invested in. Sides A and B are the original album tracks, sounding as bright and inventive as ever, while Side C includes the 3 bonus tracks from the original CD release, which are all core classics, plus the tracks “Beeside” and “Home Survival Kit” from the 1992 Beautiful Pigeon 12″ EP. The experimental dub of “Drop In The Ocean” really comes to life with thick subwoofer-soothing bass, discordant guitar shards and just enough space for some clean piano plucks that create an enveloping tunnel of sound that’s both cool and wild at the same time and ends in a masterfully placed lock groove. And just check out the sweeping, clipped guitar riff on “Secondhand Clothes” as it definitely could be one of the indie rock highlights of the decade, an absolutely essential ’90s track sounding better than ever on this mix that lets it positively roar. The icing on the cake for this expanded edition is Side D, which includes 4 tracks from a 1992 Peel Session. I’m huge fan of Peel Sessions as they typically catch a band during a tour cycle when they’re at their peak and include some road-tested nuances that are perfectly captured in studio. The standout example here would have to be a slightly slower and more syncopated version of “Beautiful Pigeon” that crawls and defines more of the details that are awash in reverb from the original Eva Luna recording. “Coming” from their first release, the 5-song EP appropriately titled First, comes off like an exotic version of shoegaze mashed up with a polyrhymthic churn, perfectly capturing a textured guitar attack that’s fun to get lost in, and the version of “Mugshot Heroine” here is also fantastic, with pronounced samples that evoke the swirling sinister majesty The Pain Teens were perfecting at around the same time. All four sides are stellar, so consider this the highest recommendation for fans or the curious to this essential post-rock group of the early 1990s.
Pain Teens – Obliviated (Self-Released)
2023 saw a steady stream of Pain Teens remasters popping up on their Bandcamp page, giving a fresh polish to their stellar run of Trance Syndicate albums as well as a 2012 live set from a reunion show in Austin. Those, of course, are all essential releases worth your time and relatively easy to seek out, so the real treasures are the remastered version of their first album, nearly impossible to find on its original cassette format or even the long gone Charnel House reissue on CD from 1998, and this, their 1990 Obliviated cassette release with 18 tracks from the pre-Case Histories and Born in Blood era that earned the band wide acclaim outside of Houston. A few songs like “World of Destruction” and “My Desire” would be found on later releases with better production, but these earlier recordings offer fresh takes on Pain Teen classics, such as the version of “Lady of Flame” here where the samples are more pronounced, the guitar has thicker reverb, the drums are a bit funkier, and Bliss Blood’s vocals further up in the mix to give the track an in-your-face intensity that differs from the version that ended up on the Born in Blood album. While their later recordings would be more fully captured and realized for maximum impact, you can’t deny the rare treats here like “Cage”, which sound like a horror movie soundtrack being replayed in a nightmare, or the steamrolling cover of Iggy Pop’s “I Got A Right” that adds menacing heft to the punk classic. As a longtime fan, it’s been a gift to dig into a whole slew of unheard tracks from this remarkable band’s early output.
Six Finger Satellite – The Pigeon is the Most Popular Bird 2xLP (Sub Pop)
Like Eva Luna above, my CD copy compiling the Idiot and Savant versions of Six Finger Satellite’s classic 1993 EPs still hits the spot, so I have to admit that my purchase of this was mainly as a backup in case my CD player decides to give up the ghost for good or the streaming gods decide to make it disappear. The tracks have been remastered by Bob Weston, but I couldn’t really say if these are any better or worse — like I said, by CD copy still gets a lot of play and it still sounds great. So that out of the way, I can say that this package gives the 30th anniversary of this essential release a proper love note with updated 3D artwork, higher quality photos, and an amazing red and blue double vinyl pressing that gives this landmark release its due — and perhaps a way to view the cover in 3D. What makes The Pigeon Is The Most Popular Bird stand apart from the other documents of their ouvre are the untitled tracks inbetween songs that give the high-tension clash of their sci-fried Chrome covering Wire sound a fantastic flow that makes this release such an endlessly-thrilling thrill ride. If we’re lucky, Sub Pop will continue a reissue campaign for the rest of Six Finger Satellite’s catalog and perhaps include some of the outtakes and goodies the band’s been releasing on their Bandcamp page, properly stamped onto vinyl for the proper respect these Rhode Island sonic explorers deserve.
SS Decontrol – The Youth Will Have Their Say LP (Trust)
One of the most referenced and revered groups of the early ’80s wave of hardcore punk finally get a legit reissue more than 40 years after its original release. After a few lovingly assembled reissues of other west coast hardcore classics from bands like The Circle Jerks, Youth Brigade, and Aggression, Trust records turned its sights east to pay respect to the Boston band that’s influenced legions of hardcore, metalcore and straight-edge groups in spite of its infamously rare records commanding outrageous prices from collector scum. After being bootlegged for years and proliferating during the pirate MP3 era, it’s great to have these essential classics authentically reproduced on wax for a more permanent document of SSD’s muscular, chugging breakdowns and thrashy 1-2-1-2 hahdcowa. Springa’s brawny yelp and Al Barile’s roaring riffs rumble off this reissue, sounding as urgent and pure as the time period from when they were captured. Hopefully the success (limited edition versions sold out long before before I was even aware it) of this looooong overdue reissue will result in a remastered reissue of their 1982 Get It Away 7″ EP as well!
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 – These Things Remain Unassigned 2xLP (Bulbous Monocle)
A fantastic surprise in the Bulbous Monocle TFUL 282 reissue campaign, this double album pulls together singles, compilation tracks and unreleased material spanning the full gamut of the group’s colorful output. Nabbing a physical copy is well worth the coin, as it includes a full-color 12-page booklet chock full of explanations as to where these audio nuggets were sourced, with visuals, lyrics, photos, and loads of flyers and other ephemera. I was especially charmed to see a couple flyers from shows I attended at Gabe’s Oasis, where the Fellers first seared their grade-A weirdness onto my brain. First time explorers into the Thinking Fellers’ domain may want to start with the Admonishing The Bishops release to get acclimated to their brand of experimental rock genius, as These Things Remain Unassigned is an hour and 11 minute ride into some of the wildest transmissions from one of the wildest groups of the nineties. If you’re impatient and want to sample something now, check out track 7, a medley of Ennio Morricone passages from the Fistful of Dollars soundtrack, or the bouncing headnodder “Flames Up Yours” as a taste of the wild world of TFUL 282.
ALSO NOTEWORTHY
Bl’ast – Manic Ride LP (Southern Lord)
Essential Logic – Beat Rhythm News (Whaddle Ya Play?) LP (Hiss and Shake)
The Fall – Code : Selfish LP (Cog Sinister)
Koro – EP 7″ EP (Sorry State)
Legal Weapon – Death of Innocence LP (Radiation)
Living Links – Gathering The Forces LP (Riding Easy)
Miles Davis – Turnaround: Rare Miles From The Complete On The Corner Sessions LP (Columbia)
Teenage Jesus & The Jerks – Teenage Jesus & The Jerks LP (Radiation)
Thorr’s Hammer – Dommedagsnatt LP (Southern Lord)
The Vacant Lot – Living Underground 7″ EP (Iron Lung)