HaaSL Grindcore Radio 7/26/12

As some of you may know, I host an indie rock radio show at my alma mater for the last time this summer before my girlfriend and I move down to Delaware. While I love doing the indie rock broadcasts, this blog and my general obsession with grindcore have had me constantly wishing I'd picked up an extra slot for a grind show. So, since these shows might be the last radio shows I host (and will definitely be the last radio shows on which I get to play music that I actually like) I put together an all-grindcore radio show with a fairly gigantic tracklist as a kind of last-hurrah extreme music show. I always think I sound dumb when I listen to my broadcasts (and admittedly, these aren't my favorite on-air segments I've ever done) but overall it came out kind of sick, so I figured that anyone who reads this blog might like a listen. You can find the full tracklist (broken into two parts) and Soundcloud links to the show below (feel free to download if you like it or to listen to it if streaming is acting weird).


Part 1

Cloud Rat- “Parachute” from their forthcoming split with Republic of Dreams
Suffering Mind- “Dystopicarus” from their split with Phobia
Death Toll 80K- “Profiting on Fear” from Harsh Realities
Wormrot- “Perpetual Extinction” from the Noise EP
Rise Above- “Collect” from I Love to Relax
Priapus- “$12.50” from their split with Old Painless
Sakatat- “Ne Değişti?/Onlara İhtiyacımız Yok” from Bir Devrin Sonu
Ablach- “Christie of the Cleek” from Dha
The Oily Menace- “Fluid Privacy” [Unreleased]
Amputee- “Barren Fields” from their split with Nimbus Terrifix
Cellgraft- “Aphasia” from Deception Schematic
Bloody Phoenix- “Damned Since Birth” from their split with Black Hole of Calcutta
Kill the Client- “The Rest is Over (Nasum cover)” from A Tribute to Nasum

Break

Syntax- “Shape Shifter” from Syntax 2012
thedowngoing- “the economic relationship between productivity & suffering” from ATHOUSANDYEARSOFDARKNESS
Self Deconstruction- “The Anger Which I Wait For” from the Self Deconstruction EP
The Afternoon Gentlemen- “Kill a Banker” from their split with Suffering Mind
The Kill- “Trolley Pushing Zombies” from the Shower of Bricks EP
Chiens- “Automat Kalashnikova 1947” from their Self-Titled LP
Psudoku- “Possible UniveRSZ” from Space Grind
KiKurachiyo [鞠螺千世]- “Lilith [Shoegrindz]” from Sketchgrind
Three Faces of Eve- “The Culling” from Demo 2007
Cyness- “Preussenpower” from their self-titled LP
Defeatist- “Funeral Loathing” from Tyranny of Decay
Noisear- “Nada” [Unreleased]
Sete Star Sept- “Meltdown” from their split with Penis Geyser
Republic of Dreams- “An Enlightened Macho is Still a Macho” from a forthcoming split with Cloud Rat
Morphic Lapse- “Inundation of Cerebral Error” from Morphic Lapse Demo

Break

Femtekolonnare- “Och bilen går bra” from Välkommen till Växjö
Shaken Baby- “Shades” from Phantasmagoria
False Light- “Rotting Teeth” from their selt-titled LP
Idiots Parade- “Tma” from their split with Abortion
Torch Runner- “Feeding” from Committed to the Ground
Psychic Limb- “Untitled 7” from Queens
Lycanthrophy- “Tighten Your Belts” from their self-titled LP
Gripe- “Go For the Throat” from The Future Doesn’t Need You
Past Tense- “The Dangers of Excessive Marijuana Use” from Demonstration
Iron Lung- “Stone Hands” from Sexless//No Sex
Backslider- “Idiot Hymns” from the Maladapted EP
Robocop- “Room 641A” from the Dead Language, Foreign Bodies split with Detroit
Cannabass- “Bury the Hatchet… Neck Deep” from Gravitational Pull A Rip in Time-Space

Break

Excruciating Terror- “Ignorance is Bliss” from Divided We Fall
Catheter- “Brink of Extinction” from Dimension 303
In Disgust- “I Can’t Forget” from Reality Choke
Black Hole of Calcutta- “Genetic Control” from Black Hole of Calcutta S/T #2
Evisorax- “Generation Control” from Isle of Dogs
Carcass Grinder- “Pansy” from their split with Insect Warfare
Buried at Birth- “Tear My Face Off” from their Discography LP
Nemesis Complex- “Relentless Grinding Eradication” from Enemy
Super Fun Happy Slide- “Gastrological Ventriloquist” from The Undislodgable Nugget Scenario
Black Army Jacket- “Pathogen” from Closed Casket
S.O.B.- “I’m a Dreamer” from Don’t Be Swindle
Red- “Maximum Terror” from Demo
Slight Slappers- “Tokyo Power Violence” from A Selfish World Called Freedom

Part 2

God’s America- “Latter Day/Fickle” from their God’s Junk split with Human Junk
Warsore- “Six Million Slaughtered” from Open Wound
Gore Beyond Necropsy- “Raw Grinding Filth” from Go! Filth Go!!!!
Arsedestroyer- “Untitled 27” from Teenass Revolt
Entrails Massacre- “Hillbilly Rockers” from Crucial Strikes With Attitude
Regurgitate- “Drenched in Cattleblood” from Carnivorous Erection
Narayama- “Manipulado” from Split Tracks
Archagathus- “Insanity Dog” from Canadian Horse
DxIxE- “Sick Stink Hours of Torture” from their split with Realized
Chulo- “Hombre vs. Tombo” from their split with Gripe
+HIRS+- “Gay Magic” from The First 100 Songs
Cogs & Sprockets- “Parades of Greed” from Black Friday EP
Unholy Grave- “Suicide Bombers” from their split LP with Mass Separation

Break

Assück- “October Revolution” from Anticapital
Discordance Axis- “Information Sniper” from their split with Melt-Banana
Insect Warfare- “Digital Target” from their split with Agoraphobic Nosebleed
Retaliation- “Sweden With Burn to the Ground” from The Cost of Redemption
Dephosphorus- “Stargazing and Violence” from their split 7” with Great Falls
yacøpsæ- “Antagonismus” from Tanz Grosny Tanz

Break

C.S.S.O.- “Cosmic Super Strong Ordure” from Are You Excrements?
Asterisk- “Syntax of Limbo” from Dogma
Swarrrm- “Sky” from Black Bong 

Agathocles- Peel Sessions 1997

John Peel kinda ruled. He basically served as the main media force in promotion of grindcore as a fledgling genre*, giving Napalm Death, Carcass, S.O.B., Extreme Noise Terror, Bolt Thrower and myriad others radio support that, let's face it, wasn't going to come from anywhere else any time soon. For many of these groups, their Peel Sessions serve as a priceless artifact of a level of energy and ferocity soon forgone for other goals (most of the above-mentioned grinders' next stop was by-and-large something akin to death metal, although the exact definition of that term varied by group) and by some not matched on other studio releases.

Enter Agathocles. After 25 years, it hardly even seems fair to bother with an introduction. For almost the whole of that time period, they've been faithfully producing socially and politically targeted grindcore LPs, splits and 7”s with varying degrees of punk, death metal and experimentation mixed among them, characteristically recorded in varying degrees of low fidelity.

This session, as Peel's almost always do, finds the band riding an energy and songwriting peak. Two years prior, the group had released what I consider their career statement in terms of LPs, the diverse, 44-song lo-fi grind opus Razor Sharp Daggers. Thus, many of the cuts come from that record, along with 1997's Thanks for Your Hostility, whose “Be Your Own God” offers the highlight performance from Peel Sessions 1997.

While Peel's Sessions were all exclusive performances for radio, they were less live performances than exclusive demos, since the bands took most of a full day to record them. For that reason, this album offers the best-recorded performance we've ever heard from Agathocles. Coupled with the fact that these songs were performed and largely written during a portion of the band's most creative period, it makes this record perfect for everyone from the die-hard completist Agathocles acolyte, the sometimes Agatho-fan who feels like there's always been something missing in their understanding of the group, and the newcomer who's always been too daunted by the pages-long discography to even know where to start.

What truly makes this album, beyond even the prowess and cult status of the band, is Peel himself. His banter opens and closes the album, and though both are brief, it lends a certain magical, 25th-hour quality to the record that says, “This is a moment in time. This will never happen again, so enjoy it.” Peel's sheer enthusiasm for grindcore, coupled with his refined, British radio voice, give an authenticity to radio broadcasting that seems unable to be matched anywhere, in any country today. Take, for instance, the professional, NPR-announcer way in which he introduces the band on the album's first track.

“And uh, finally tonight we have a session for you from AGATH-ocles, as they must be called, rather than Aga-THO-cles. Brief pieces, by and large. This is --”

And instantly, the Belgians finish Peel's sentence, spewing forth the beginning of Razor Sharp Daggers' “A Start at Least” with characteristic vitriol and in blissfully uncharacteristic fidelity. That instant when the refined form of Peel's announcing voice and the pure form of grindcore meet rockets the listen forward, and Peel lets the band carry that momentum from there. Carry it they do, offering a tight, rewarding set whose recording and mix leaves the requisite grit and riverbed-muddy distortion intact, but ensure that nothing ever cuts out or gets buried, and that the drums are mic'd well enough to actually be discernible, instead of being the wall of kick drum and flailing cymbals some of their recordings are reduced to. The band is a ball of energy throughout the set, and even the rare moment where they actually slow down a bit, the 4:10 “Kill Your Fucking Idols,” the pacing and volatility of the other songs is maintained admirably.

Neither credentials from the Agathocles or John Peel fanclubs are required to enjoy this offering, but filling out applications for one or both by your first couple listens wouldn't be unusual, either. In either case, Agathocles' Peel Sessions 1997 is best taken as an artifact, a passport to a time before Peel's tragic passing in 2004 and a time when Agathocles were still receiving recognition as a grindcore band, rather than the record-churning, LP/7”/split machine many genre lifers have reduced them to.

*[Ed.: Not to mention countless other amazing groups of disparate genres, the names of which I can't even begin to enumerate here; the show's raw guest list includes every letter of the alphabet, plus numerals, most entries in double digits.]