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• Otras Voces - Flores Negras
• Quarto Mundo - Quase Na Estrada
• Sumo - Estallando Desde El Océano
• El Pecho De Andy - En La Red (Concierto)
• Enjambre - Manía Cardíaca 
• Hermana Mary - La Chica De Las Nieves
• El Pecho De Andy - Megalópolis 
• Fundición Odessa - No Perderé La Cabeza Por Ti
• Size - Tonight
• Doctor Deseo - Gotas De Dolor
• Hermana Mary & Javier Corcobado - Turbia Ciudad 
• Luca Prodan - Lament

Well, that I’m reviewing an EP today doesn’t mean that I’ve run out of albums to talk about – it’s just that I’m posting this as a quick review because I’ll be doing a bigger one on The Death of CDs today, and as it will concern a book, I’ll have to be more careful in writing it than usual – but that’s beside the point. Still, “Spiral Scratch” by Buzzcocks is one of the best EPs of all time (if not THE best) and deserves a separate review all to its own.

“Spiral Scratch” was recorded while Buzzcocks’ original singer, Howard Devoto, was still in the band. After he left, the guitarist Pete Shelley took over the vocals and made Buzzcocks the blueprint for all pop punk on the airwaves today – culminating with, similarly, one of the best compilations ever released, “Singles Going Steady”. But while Devoto was in the band, Buzzcocks were straightforward, unabashedly aggressive punkers, and this EP chronicles this period wonderfully. With 4 tracks just under 10 minutes, “Spiral Scratch” gets its point across without becoming boring at any given moment.

The universally recognized best song off the album is “Boredom”, that contains a parody of the guitar solos that were prevalent in the progressive rock of the day – just two notes repeated over 60 times. Also present are the lyrics satirizing the “very humdrum” punk scene – no small wonder that after leaving Buzzcocks, Devoto outright stated that punk became restrictive and stereotyped and formed one of the first post-punk bands, Magazine.

But that was after Devoto left. The other tracks on the EP, however, not only manage to live up to the level of “Boredom”, but sometimes even outshine it – “Breakdown”, for example, was an explosive opener unlike any other, and “Time’s Up” has a hilarious call-and-response section between Devoto and Shelley (“seen the back of forty king size cigarattes… STOOD UP!.. if you’d just come along I’d have no regrets… GIVE UP!” and so forth.) “Friends of Mine” also has some plain hilarious lyrics. (Random lyric of choice: “Norman’s sobbing cos his make-up’s running away with itself, he’s heading for an early grave, scared to death about the state of his health”.)

And, of course, I’ll have to mention the production and the players. The production was handled by one Martin Hannett (then known just as Martin Zero), who went on to become the producer for Joy Division and The Durutti Column – and, in fact, was one of the main sound architects for Ian Curtis and company. As Devoto recalled, “it took three hours, with another two for mixing”, so the speed of the recording added to the urgence of the sound. The drummer John Maher is simply going wild at his drumkit and shows some impressive skills – the fact that was pointed out by many reviewers.

To summarize: “Spiral Scratch”, in terms of importance, is far more important than Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the UK”. While Londoners proved that anyone can be in a band, Buzzcocks, the Mancunians, proved that anyone can make a record and sell it – defictionalizing the record making in the process.

...en este mundo personajes con serios problemas psiquiátricos han llegado muy alto y muy lejos en su afán destructivo, iniciando con Nerón, pasando por Hitler y continuando probablemente con Obama. 

There are some people who believe that the most important day in British musical history was June 4th 1976 when The Sex Pistols played their first gig outside of London at The Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall. Only about 40 people actually attended the gig, but among their number were Tony Wilson, Steven Patrick Morrissey, Mark E Smith, 3 future members of The Buzzcocks and two impressionable teenage boys named Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner. The next day these 2 boys went out, bought a guitar and a bass and formed Warsaw. Later on that summer, on July 20th, The Pistols played a far bigger gig in Manchester, a notable attendee was one Ian Kevin Curtis. After joining Warsaw Curtis changed the name of the band to “Joy Division” and the rest, to be a clichéd bastard, is history.

While listening to Joy Divisions album “Closer” it’s hard to recall the origins of the group at those two gigs in 1976. Any remnants of Punk are buried under echoing drums, synthesisers and Curtis’s suicidal writing. With “Les Bains Douches 18 December 1979” the influence is plain to see. The Joy Division were a completely different experience live than on record. This album is faster and messier than anything heard from the studio. The Track listing is basically a greatest hits for all things Joy Division apart from the omission of some of the better tracks from “Closer”, “Colony” would have worked fantastically in the style of the songs on this album. Nevertheless there are a few gems for fans here such as “Autosuggestion” and “Passover”

Frantic Drumming, distorted bass and Curtis with a growl, it all starts with “Disorder” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart” sounding so much better than ever before. At this breakneck pace even “Shadowplay” is a fast and sharp song. The songs are kept short, the first five tracks rush by in about 16 minutes and there is no real interaction with the crowd to break up the experience. 

On this album, almost every song could be considered a highlight, each one fantastically written and each one given a new hitherto unexperienced lease of life. I would rate “24 Hours” as one of Joy Divisions most depressing songs, but on this record it’s as well driven as any of the others, with that classic bass line pushing Curtis’s best writing onward. The three best songs on the album are “New Dawn Fades”, “Atrocity Exhibition” and “Digital” and they are all played one after the other. They showcase the band at their absolute peak in a live setting. Perfectly in sync, with each instrument getting just the right amount of attention in brilliantly written songs. 

There are a few downsides however, I never liked “A Means To An End” and I don’t like it here, the vocals are uncharacteristically weak at times but for the most part it is an improvement on the original. There’s also an early version of “Passover”, one of the best songs ever released by the band, but it quite simply doesn’t work in this form and is by far the worst song on the album.

This album is probably the best live album I’ve ever listened to, the overwhelming majority of songs work perfectly, showing a different side to the band. You get the sense that some of the songs are more rounded than they were originally on record, most notably “Atmosphere”. The Joy Division were never the most technically talented band in the world, but here they find fantastic sounds in their instruments that could stand beside the best. This album should stand behind “Closer” and “Unknown Pleasures” as the highlights of the best band to grace the Post-Punk movement. 

Exclusive For Ergô Felix Culpa

• Antón Jodra - Fragmento 3
• Trisomie 21 - The Last Song
• Craft Spells - For The Ages
• Abecedarians - They Said Tomorrow
• Die Sturmschäden - Glasplatten
• L'Éponge Synthétique - Collection D'Ombes Subtiles
• Flue - Some-Times
• Intensive Care Unit - ICU
• Suicide - Be Bop Kid
• Fjose - Nobody is Like You
• Secession - Betrayal
• Cultural Decay - End Of Corridor

Vasconcelos, J. (1957). La Raza Cósmica. México: Porrua.

Nos negamos los unos a los otros. La derrota nos ha envilecido a tal punto, que, sin darnos cuenta, servimos los fines de la política enemiga, de batirnos en detalle, de ofrecer ventajas particulares a cada uno de nuestros hermanos, mientras al otro se le sacrifica en intereses vitales. No sólo nos derrotaron en el combate, ideológicamente también, nos siguen venciendo

This is the original support single for the danish activist movement BZ (not the bootleg also present on discogs.com).
The single was released in 1982 - the same year that the now evicted Ungdomshuset (the Youth House) at Jagtvej 69 was given to the young activists of Copenhagen called the BZ-brigade (BZ-brigaden/BZ-bevægelsen in Danish).
The single was initiated by MUSIKPRESS and released in coorporation with the danish independent record company "Irmgardz..." on BZ-Recordz.
The music was produced by the bands and Irmgardz... and was recorded at Hookfarm in april 1982.
The front cover photo was taken by Søren Svendsen (who also on other occasions worked with Irmgardz...). Other photographers were Gert Jensen and Søren Kirkegaard (household ADS photographer).
The lyrics for the three songs are printed on the backside of the cover.

By definition, a cult band is a band with a (very) small but (very) loyal following. With the audience at several concerts barely outnumbering the band and usually including the same faces, The Cultural Decay certainly was exactly that . Still is, I suppose, as (much to our surprise) these last couple of years have seen a renewed interest in this long defunct combo with just a single, a 12” EP and a grand total of fifteen local gigs to its name.