Squelette, Lenders, Ultra Razzia and others: Record Reviews

Italy, where half of us are now based, is a country where everything closes down for August. The cities are deserted as sub-tropical temperatures take their toll and everyone’s off to the beaches: the most popular holiday destination for Italians is Italy. We indulged as well, spending a fair few afernoons sizzling in the sand and cooling down in the waves. Apart from gaining new insights into crab migration – we encountered king-sized ‘blue crabs’ from Asia that have recently hit our shores – we delighted fellow beach bums with our portable record player and a selection of Oi vinyl. Finally we had a bit of time to review a bunch of records passed on to us! So here’s some thoughts on fairly recent (and some not-so-recent) releases, handed to us largely by the good people from Hellnation and Primator Crew.

All reviews by Matt Crombieboy (MC), Francesca Chiari and Karol Nieumarły (of Poland’s Bad Look Records)

Squelette: Fin de partie LP
(Primator Crew)

A few years ago, when Tchernobyl were still sounding very much like Brutal Combat and other new French bands were mirroring other 80s progenitors, I had Squelette down as the ones who most closely resembled Evil Skins (though thankfully minus the pseudo-nazi crap). Squelette’s music also contained quite a bit of Blitz-via-Combat 84 palm muted guitar riffing. It was straightforward Oi with simple but trenchant lyrics about heritage and passion vs fashion and superficial branchouilles (trendies). From what I think I understood at least, their songs also addressed manifestations of decadence rampant in our money-driven societies.

That latter theme is continued in some songs on the new album (e.g. ‘Le vrai ennemi’), whose artwork is a thing of beauty: the basic black & white back cover with mugshots echoes 80s Rock-O-Rama releases, whereas the post-apocalyptic imagery on the front sleeve embraces the cheap sub-metal vibe of classics such as Attak’s Zombies and The Exploited’s Troops of Tomorrow – a niche within ‘82 punk aesthetics well worth revisiting.

‘Nouveau depart’, the instrumental opener on this new album, sounds like something that Cult of Youth might have written for Final Days, and there are two other tracks, ‘Ronde de nuit’ and ‘Oraison finale’, where Squelette approximate a post-punk/cold wave sound – no longer a particularly original idea, but by now something like part of the Parisian skinhead identity. Apart from these, the basic musical structure of Fin de Partie isn’t radically different from Squelette’s earlier outings, but it’s riddled with odd little touches, e.g. unusal guitar solos and occasional sparse keyboards. The overall delivery is somewhat reserved, which gives the album a strange feel. It isn’t that Squelette’s music has become any more complex, but something that is hard to pinpoint makes these new songs less instantly accessible.

The general view in my circles is that this album simply isn’t as good as Squelette’s earlier releases, i.e. the songs aren’t as well-written and don’t kick as hard – and I initially agreed with this. Now though, on my third or fourth listen, I’m finding Fin de Partie more and more rewarding. I’ve grown fond of the curious grey haze that seems to curtain the music, and I’m starting to believe that I’ve been sitting on the band’s most accomplished recordings to date. Clearly the album is a slow grower, and I suspect the growth process will continue. Extra credit must go to the bassist, whose lines bear much responsibility for the atmosphere exuded in these grooves.
MC

Lenders: Sul filo del tempo LP
(Hellnation)

European capitals have a reputation for arrogance: whether London, Paris, Berlin or even my humble birth town of Warsaw, the rest of the country thinks we’re cunts. Not so Rome – in Italy, it’s Milan whose denizens are seen as twats looking down on everyone else. The natives of the eternal city, by contrast, have a reputation as down-to-earth, cheerful and sociable folk. Surely this character also informs the Roman scene. And so, the Lenders album – their second after the 2018 debut, Da che parte stai? – offers unpretentious, sometimes overexcited and always typically Italian street punk with loadsa gang choruses and a matching Vanilla Muffins cover to boot. If you think the Lenders’ sound oozes close proximity to the football stadium, you aren’t wrong – in Italy Oi isn’t a museum piece, but is still authentically linked to the terraces and to all that goes on there, including the odd forceful exchange of views. The key adjective that springs to mind here is ‘lively’, and the same goes for the Lenders’ live shows, which you must witness if you get the chance: their singer is something like the Stiv Bators of Italian Oi.
MC

Ultra Razzia: Jusqu’Au Bout De La Nuit LP
(Primator Crew)

This is the second LP by Montreal denizens Ultra Razzia, though ‘full-length’ is a relative term when albums are as fashionably short as this one. You’d be forgiven for mistaking them for a D-Beat band if the intro track, ‘En perdition’ and ‘Finir en enfer ‘, were all you had to go by – but in between they continue in a mid-tempo Syndrome 81 with a dash of Violators vein. The music isn’t very fast, but it’s hard and dark, sometimes resembling Tchernobyl (‘Barricade Camouflée’), other times a gloomier Camera Silens or what Ass Cobra-era Turbonegro might have sounded like on No Future Records in 1983. A translation of some of the song titles will give you an idea of the misery invoked in these grooves: ‘In distress’, ‘Shattered’, ‘In the mortuary’, ‘The last beer’, ‘Six feet under’, ‘End up in hell’. It doesn’t quite feel like hell, though – more like purgatory, and if music had colours this one would be dark grey rather than black. The bass is very dominant throughout, which is something that Oi and post-punk had in common in the eighties. I can’t deny that eventually a certain monotony sets in, but maybe that’s part of the idea – Jusqu’Au Bout De La Nuit is about atmospherics rather than hits. Like the new Squelette release, the album has been growing on me.

By the way, as I mentioned in my recent Tchernobyl review, there was a host of German and Polish bands in the 80s doing similar things to hardcore punk as some French and Canadian bands are now doing to Oi. Today their music is sometimes dubbed ‘depro-punk’ (i.e. depressive punk), although that term is a retrospective social media invention. Bands such as Razzia, Chaos Z and Fliehende Stürme (West Germany), Armia (Poland), and Die Firma (East Germany) spring to mind. If I’m not mistaken, two thirds of Die Firma later turned out to have been ‘informal collaborators’ of the Stasi secret police, assigned with the task of spying on the punk scene and on each other… Say about the Stasi what you want, but it made some great punk music.
MC

Klaxon: Tutti contro tutti LP
(Hellnation)

Klaxon need no introduction on the Italian peninsula, but for those from other parts of the world: they’re a historic Roman band – along with Fun and Bloody Riot, a cornerstone of punk in the Italian capital. Formed in 1979, they called it quits in 1984 to embark on different musical projects. But ten years later they reunited and in 1996 gave us the album 100Celle City Rockers, paying homage to a cluster of street-punk bands they were part of that were playing the 100Celle neighbourhood (an important quarter for Roman punk and skinhead history). Four more albums followed, culminating in their latest effort ‘Tutti Contro Tutti’, produced by Hellnation. 10 tracks that reflect the band’s maturity, while maintaining their unmistakable ‘combat rock’ style (in Italy, ‘combat rock’ is basically a sub-genre of punk and Oi with politically militant lyrics and sometimes reggae and Latin music influences, named so after the Clash album Combat Rock).

Openly aligned to the left, Klaxon have 40 years of activity under their belt – 40 years of a life lived, reflected in lyrics that are never banal but imbued with social criticism and protest. Collaborations include ‘La Divisa’, co-written with the lead singer of the aforementioned Bloody Riot, Roberto Perciballi, who sadly passed away in 2016, and ‘Manifesto’, a song with a rhythm that takes you straight to the streets of Cuba, featuring another member of the ‘old guard’, Sergio OldBoy of the great Fun (an important early Roman skinhead band whose member Lorena we interviewed here).

In short, Klaxon once again fly the flag of Italian punk high. They prove that they’re capable of not getting bogged down in the usual cliches, but instead of evolving and growing, while always remaining true to their ideals and principles. I last saw them play live last year at the Solidarity Fest in Bologna and can confirm that they still have a thing or two to teach the new generation of bands.
Francesca Chiari

Contusion: s/t 12’’ EP
(Primator Crew/Shroom Records)

If French Oi has generally got too ‘post’, too ‘cold’, and too ‘interesting’ for your liking, there are still Paris denizens sticking to the old ways: Contusion, a band comprising ex-members of bands such as Toltshock, SBFC, Faction S, Outreau – some of these names are going two decades back – hark back to the days when the main idea was to sound as hard and intimidating as possible. They deliver adequately in that department, as they do in terms of roughness – but the six tracks, which often sound like a slower and rawer exaggeration of the Hard Times sound, are all delivered with the same mid-tempo beat and offer little in the way of hooks. While Contusion might be a powerful live proposition, I hope they’ve also worked on their songwriting since this debut EP was released last year – while I do like the basic idea, about halfway through my interest began to wane.
MC

Ad Vitam: s/t EP
(Primator Crew)

Like their fellow Montreal citizens, the highly-esteemed Force Majeure, Ad Vitam (feat. Beton Arme members) go for a Templars/Chiswick type sound, subjecting the fretboard to a lot of Chuck Berry style dinga-danga dinga-danga hammer-ons. The novelty here is that the singing is in Spanish, which is just as well. While I don’t think the EP will set this particular subgenre on fire, it’s enjoyable enough – especially for those who, like me, think that Stratocasters without artificial distortion are the best foundation for punk rock. You can download the EP for free on Primator Crew’s Bandcamp page.
MC

Cesoia: Whisky per noi EP
(Bandcamp self-release)

Cesoia are a new band from Italy who play skinhead rock ‘n’ roll, and I’d love to hear more from them. It’s great bovver rock, and both songs off their debut EP are very cool. The first one, ‘Whiskey per noi’, has an excellent bluesy intro, and it’s Steno of Nabat guesting on the harmonica there. All the time something’s happening in their music – great production, great vocals, great energy and interesting cover artwork too. Everything’s just right. Can’t wait for their debut album, which will no doubt be a 10/10.
Karol Nieumarły

Battery March: Futur pour eux 7’’
(Primator Crew)

Point of trivia: Futur pour eux is one of only two English-language releases we’re reviewing this time, and even here we find a song in French. This lot are from Boston and offer a particularly tough, weather-worn American Oi sound, somewhere between the early 90s Jersey scene (of which I’m particularly fond) and latter-day stuff such as Death Ridge Boys. A lot of thought went into the song arrangements and it’s all paying off – the riffing is melodic, powerful and memorable. The real surprise here is their rendition of a song by Gil-Scott Heron, namely ‘We Almost Lost Detroit’ from his 1977 album Bridges. To speak of a ‘cover’ would probably be pushing it, though: only Heron’s words (about a partial nuclear meltdown that occurred outside Detroit in 1966) have remained intact. Musically, it’s an anthemic street-punk banger that has nothing to do with the original. Even so, it shows that Battery Merch have taste, class and probably brains too – and it indicates one of the uncharted directions into which this humble genre of ours could yet head in the future. One of my favourite releases this time around. Album please.
MC

Revanche: A jamais 7’’ EP
(Primator Crew)

Bass-heavy, straightforward French Oi in a slightly darker Chaos en France style, this time from Geneva. Hard and aggressive stuff with a bit of a tunnel vision: it’s hard to imagine this band even penning a major-key football athem like every Oi band had one in the 80s. The inevitable post-punk influences are confined to the bass intro of title track ‘A jamais’, otherwise it’s all brutal and relentless. Not for namby-pambies.
MC

Plakkaggio: Verso la vetta LP
(Hellnation)

Some may remember the Swiss band Regicide from the last batch of reviews, whom I described as “Oi infested not simply with metal, but epic power metal along the lines of Manowar, Blind Guardian et al. Unlike Battle Ruins, Regicide do not eschew the cornier components of that genre or try to make it sound more ‘straight’ – thus, we get harmonised eunuch choruses and melody lines as if lifted from the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack uneasily co-existing with more conventional Oi trappings”.

Much the same can be said about Plakkaggio, who are already on their second LP – arguably, then, we’re now dealing with a power metal/Oi subgenre. Someone has described this album to me as a “peak Hellnation release” in the sense that it offers pure insanity from Rome. Is it the kind of insanity you enjoy, though? I think it’s great fun, with well-written choruses that inadvertently veer into viking rock (except here you don’t have to sit through some gravelly-voiced Norse god talking bollocks for minutes on end before the music finally kicks in). Have a listen for yourself, though:

MC

Béton Armé: Second souffle 7’’ EP
(Primator Crew)

Béton Armé are a Montreal skinhead band who sound like an old-school French Oi combo, though compared to the bulk of latter-day Parisian acts their sound is more straightforward and their lyrics more class-conscious. I have no prejudice against the former aspect while the latter is a plus in my book. After a decent enough demo that was fairly popular when it came out in 2018, they picked up massively with the Au Bord Du Gouffre EP – same basic style, but far more powerful and perfectly produced. I don’t think that the new EP, Second souffle, is up there with the predecessor. While technically not a bad release, Béton Armé’s songwriting is starting to become rather formulaic – the songs all sound very much alike, while somehow lacking the spark that made Au Bord Du Gouffre such a punch in the nuts. I like Béton Armé, but I hope they’ll bring some fresh ideas to the table next time around.
MC

Barbera e Champagne: Essi Vero LP
(Hellnation)

Not a new release, but still an album that I’d like to recommend. Barbera e Champagne were an Oi/punk band from the province of Rome, formed from the ashes of Automatica Aggregazione and FAVL. Active from 2013 to 2018, they released their only vinyl album in the latter year. Before that, there was the EP Stato di Abbandono (2013) and the CD Sangue tra i denti (2014).

Barbera e Champagne took their name from a famous song by the Italian singer-songwriter Giorgio Gaber, who can be heard in the intro. Plus there’s a cover of 1973 song ‘Un giorno credi’ by another singer-songwriter, Edoardo Bennato: a hymn to the strength that we can and must find to go on with our heads held high, despite all difficulties. And I have to say that this track perfectly fits in with the whole. As they themselves say in the vinyl insert, the album is basically about four lads struggling with everyday reality in a provincial setting that has nothing to offer and allows little room for imagination:

You’ve built another supermarket
And another pharmacy
And I wonder where this life of mine will end up
Confined here to the other side of town
Here where the sun never shines
From where no one ever leaves

There are ten songs in total, one of which is dedicated to Federico Aldrovandi, an 18-year-old lad who was beaten and clubbed to death by four coppers in 2005. Essi Vero also contains a collaboration with Path, former member of Automatica Aggregazione, Divergenza and Gli Ultimi and now a singer-songwriter. Already today we can hear Barbera e Champagne influences in the work of young Italian skinhead and street-rock bands – you should check out this mini-classic.
Francesca Chiari

Foward Into War: Born And Bred CD
(Askania Productions)

“Foward?” Don’t Askania Productions proofread their CD covers before sending them to the printers?
MC