Back catalogue: Punk/Hardcore

Review: First popping up on our radar in 2020 - or rather hurling itself onto it with all the subtlety punk can muster - Common Sense gets a reissue and not before time. Outspoken but never outgunned, Swedes Viagra Boys rightly courted some serious praise with 2022's album, Cave World, so it makes sense to revisit this epic EP in a bid to get newcomers acquainted with what came before. Opening on the title number, things may not sound quite as you'd expect. While known for their ability to wield bloody-lipped chargers, 'Common Sense' owes as much to shoegaze and synth rock as it does punk variants, immediately marking the outfit out as something not quite so easy to define. Nevertheless, 'Lick the Bang' is straight up topless sweatbox material, and 'Sentinel Island' centres our brains on wonderfully distorted and frayed riffs. Closing on the slow, nostalgia-hued 'Blue', it's quite the collection.

Review: After their first round was such a success, Gary Crowley and Jim Lahat have been tasked with pulling together another essential collection of punk and new wave from the 70s and 80s, and you can rest assured they've done it again. There are some major, familiar names here like The Clash, The Slits and Ramones, but there's also a hell of a lot of rare delights from the likes of The Limit, The Art Attacks and The Newtown Neurotics. Musically, there's plenty of range too from spiky three-chord pub rock and punk through to Linton Kewsi Johnson and Dennis Bovell's crossover dub as Poet & The Roots. That's just a tiny overview of this mammoth six-disc set, which takes you deep into the heart of a vital, thrilling period in alternative music.

Review: Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs have more than proven their music knowledge across a stellar run of prior compilations, including The Daisy Age, Fell From The Sun and English Weather. This time around, they're tapping into the freeform climes of the late 70s and early 80s, as punk exploded and a myriad of bands channelled the unique, downcast mood of Britain into wildly creative, nervously urgent songs. Across four sides we take in all manner of cult selections and outer limits largely in the loose fit realm of post-punk. It's flawlessly selected and programmed - another reminder of how immersive a proper compilation can be.

Review: Vandals' seventh studio album, Hitler Bad Vandals Good, tells you everything you need to know from the word go. Originally released in 1998, the album was produced by Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, who notably appears as a backing vocalist (for a punk record - can you believe it?). Vandals' signature blend of humour and melody synchs nicely with their status as pop-punkers whom to find out about requires a little bit more digging than normal. This reissue celebrates the 25th anniversary of the album and comes with an alternate cover art and a white and blue splattered vinyl.

Review: Oi! The Album was the very first oi! music compilation album, originally released in 1980 via EMI. A definitive collection of that easily-missed fusion of punk and pub rock - the snarling punk rebellions of the late 1970s, melded (perhaps not so) seamlessly with the affective camaraderie of football casual culture - this definitive record marks the rough hundredth anniversary of an entire subcultural way of life, compiling all the best tavern-born transmissions by such legends as the Cockney Rejects, Terrible Twins, Angelic Upstarts, Postmen and The Exploited. As you're sure to hear, the oi! sound carries the repetitious, chanting, patterned-carpeted, nigh patriotic group dynamic to the early nascence of punk. And despite popular presumptions, this compilation pre-dates oi!'s later co-optation by skinheads, with many of the recordings here evidencing the band's retention of a pub rock originality.

Review: Women In Revolt! is a first of its kind exhibition that has been assembled to showcase the work of over 100 women artists who were active and working in the UK back throughout the 1970s and 80s. The exhibition has been put togther to explore how the women of those times changed the mood and direction of British culture then and forever more with their radical ideas and rebellious methods in the fields of music, painting, sculpture, photography, film, and performance. They helped to liberate women and this collection of punk and hardcore has been put together to reveal further layers of depth to this great cultural shift.

Review: Cleopatra gather together a whole host of freaks and ghouls to pay tribute to the psychobilly brilliance of the timeless rock 'n' roll deviants, The Cramps. The bands have been picked wisely, favouring people who will put their own spin on classics like 'Human Fly' and 'I Was A Teenage Werewolf'. Bat bring a chrome finish to 'Goo Goo Muck' and Blitzkid make 'Garbageman' into a sharply pointed strutter and The Brains pound out a driving version of 'I Can't Hardly Stand It'. Poison Ivy and Lux Interior's influence continues to ring out across the rock spectrum, which this collection proves with ease.

Review: The very next year after the original Oi! The Album compilation was released in 1980 saw the second instalment Strength Thru Oi! dropped onto the heads of the masses, and more than four decades on, it looks like folk might need another reminder. A topic of controversy upon initial release due to the use of an image of Nicky Crane, a British Movement activist who was serving a four-year sentence for racist violence at the time, on the cover art, original pressings are like gold dust these days as the release was withdrawn from publication by Decca Records. Now that the smoke has cleared, we can all wet shave our scalps, lace up our steel-toes, grab our dirtiest combat jacket and punch the ever loving shit out of the air to anthems from the seminal likes of The 4 Skins, Cock Sparrer, The Toy Dolls and The Last Resort (to name but a small handful), with little in the ways of reprimand.

Review: Always impeccably curated and sumptuously presented, the seemingly endless Soul Jazz compilation series turns its attention to first generation punk and post-punk, with the years 1997-1981 their relatively strict boundaries. A short space of time, perhaps, but one that witnessed a massive outpouring of original, fresh sounds as the independent record label movement really got going. As you'd expect, this collects the best of the stuff that went under the mainstream radar - no Pistols or Clash here - but the quality level remains high. Jonny Moped's 'Everything Stops For Baby' is speedy and thrilling and very punk, sample lyric: "walking down the road with my incendiary device / Looking for an ear to blow it up with gelignite". 'O' Levels, meanwhile, set fire to the Surrey suburbs with 'East Sheen', all wiry guitars and couldn't give a toss backing vocals, but the double vinyl set also showcases the experimental advances that followed after punk, with 23 Skidoo's 'Last Words' proving to be the kind of gritty British funk that Section 25 and A Certain Ratio would be making their own shortly afterwards.

Review: Punk Que Punk? offers up a nasty, raw, jagged batch of old school punk rock ripped right out of early 1980s Spain. Featuring a plethora of mostly forgotten bands that burned out in record time by channelling the true punk ethos, this collection boasts rippers from vital unknowns such as Espasmodicos, N-634, Urgente and Seguridad Social (before they rebranded as a reggae/rumba fusion act, which you won't find much of here).

Review: The first in a series of three compilations aiming to take a look at the post-punk movement that sprung out of the punk and DIY revolution almost immediately after it happened. No obvious names here though - this is an array of tracks from bands from both sides of the Atlantic that in most cases didn't even make it beyond producing singles, making for a fascinating snapshot of a turbulent but ultra-productive and creative time in music.

Review: Limited to 1000 copies, Just Want To Be Myself serves as the ultimate compilation of British punk, celebrating the vast array of exceptional acts the scene bore back in the glory days. A vinyl-only release, this double LP features cuts from the likes of The Boys, Cockney Rejects, The Valves, U.K. Subs, The Fall, Angelic Upstarts and The Ruts, to name but a small handful. With a mix of both classic tracks and rarer 45s pressed to new wax for the first time in decades (or ever in some instances), this is a vital and nigh on perfect introduction to the true first wave of British punk for the unfamiliar and a victory lap of anthemic, historical greatness for lifers.

Review: This is literally the Best Collection of original tracks from the Japanese anime series Hajime No Ippo, which was first born as a manga series by George Morikaw. It's since gone down in time as one of the genre's greatest, after it was adapted in 1989 into a series of films and video games. We follow the obscurity-to-greatness story of Makunouchi Ippo, a high school student who becomes a professional boxer. The anime's soundtrack artists Tsuneo Imahori, Shocking Lemon, Last Alliance, Wasureranneyo and Coldrain all do well to nail the series' themes of prevailing against the odds and teen angst.

Review: Hot on the heels of their exceptional new third full-length, 'Cave World', Stockholm's post-punk prodigies, Viagra Boys, have unveiled a deluxe edition of last year's fence swinging sophomore triumph, 'Welfare Jazz'. With big name production help from the likes of Matt Sweeney (whose helmed releases from the likes of Iggy Pop and Queens of the Stone Age), as well as Yves Tumor/Charli XCX collaborator Justin Raisen, the band manage the seemingly impossible feat of combining their jagged edged anthems with a lush, serene approach that has bolstered their profile in the scene immensely. The final full-length to feature guitarist Benjamin Valle before his untimely passing, this expanded edition features seven new tracks, brimming with the unhinged sultry dynamics that continues to make their punk moniker more commonplace with each mention.

Review: Take a detective's journey into some of the earliest and most secretive demos from one of the undeniably quintessential UK punk acts The Vibrators. Covered by everyone from Stiff Little Fingers to The Exploited to even Polish death metal legends Vader, the band's early material is still heralded as some of the most vital punk blueprints ever recorded and this Automatic Demos 1977 compilation dusts off a myriad of early, raw versions of cuts from their acclaimed sophomore LP V2, including 'Automatic Lover', 'War Zone', and '24 Hour People', as well as a bevvy of tracks that never even materialised on any official album.

Review: Many months on, Record Store Day Black Friday 2023 continues to serve up treasures and the latest is
VIRULENCE's If This Isn't A Dream album. It's a wild ride through atmospheric soundscapes and haunting melodies that immerse you in a dreamscape of ethereal textures and pulsating rhythms, blending elements of ambient, electronic, and experimental music. Each track unfolds like a surreal exploration of the subconscious, inviting introspection and contemplation with intricate layering of synths, evocative vocals, and intricate percussion. Both hypnotic and transcendent, If This Isn't A Dream is a captivating trip that is well worth hearing for fans and newcomers alike as it transports to a realm where reality blurs with imagination.

Review: Grime-inflected hardcore punk duo Bob Vylan follow up 2022's phenomenal The Price Of Life with yet another batch of scathing, witty, sardonic and severely pissed off bangers that distil elements from hip-hop, post-punk and metal into one cacophonous rallying cry for the working class. Touching on themes of racism, xenophobia, mental health and fatherhood, the hefty subject matter is balanced with energetic, banging compositions and a tongue-firmly-in-cheek delivery that falls somewhere between the smirking shitheaded-ry of IDLES and the intellectual fury of Rage Against The Machine.

Review: Socio-political hardcore punk meets the authenticity of grime by way of the dynamic duo that is Bob Vylan. Following on from 2022's much lauded sophomore effort The Price Of Life, the two Bobs (not their real names nor do they cite their namesake as a primary influence) return with their most direct, succinct and instantaneous collection of bangers to date. Drawing on motifs of hip-hop, nu-metal, post-punk and rap-rock, yet all restrained beneath a banner of venomous hardcore bite and London-centric wit, the material touches on the pressures of fatherhood in an especially unjust system, while tossing around uncomfortable topics of poverty, gentrification, racism, classism, and knife-crime like they're volleyed footballs rather than hot-button issues, challenging listeners to ruminate for a little longer than it usually takes to peruse through another desensitised news article.