Turning Round On the Turntable : Pinoreks, Teenage Hearts, TV's Daniel, Radioactivity

PINOREKS - Indifferent Topics LP - Self-released 2009/2019

The Warsaw goth/post-punk/cold-wave scene has been quite active since the Old Skull gigs’ organisation settled down there. While checking some of their scheduled bands last year, I deeply fell in love with this one : Pinoreks x. 

The four guys in this gang are from Potsdam, Germany, they released three awesome LP : There Is Hope (2005), Indifferent Topics (2009) and Behind & Beyond (2015). It wasn’t really easy to get their first and third vinyl LP, but the second one was just a long out-of-print CD. What a wonderful idea they had when they self-re-released it this year on vinyl, for their fans’ delight !

A catchy violent guitar play on a cold-punk tempo and an onward loud, sometimes jumpy, bass shape this awesome background that allows the singer to place his distinctive voice. The variations in his tone alternately echoes the harsh one in the Damned, the energetic one in Shellac and of course the specific one of Ian Curtis. Add to this the wonderful sing-along refrains, you’ve got here a perfect cold/punk band. Somewhere, a German brother of the French band Frustration, with a similar musical universe, a high quality sound, garanteed tastes and a large panel of hard-working tones in the voice. Looking forward to listening the next release !

The lyrics, included in a beautiful cardboard package - Deutsch Qualität !, mostly deal with an end-is-coming atmosphere, the organic & dusty aspect of life & death and the continuous search for some hope in this world (There Is Hope, title of the first LP by the way) - or how to try to remain positive and not to fall into negative depression, when you’re a real pessimist. My daily bread indeed...

TEENAGE HEARTS - Stupid Life 7" - PRIMATOR CREW & TOUGH AIN’T ENOUGH - 2019

Glad that Bertel has kept on going his own way and has become the boss of a consistent skinhead label, Primator Crew Records x, with a nice list of releases that explore International Oi (Ultra Razzia, Doubling Boys...) and the uprising French street-punk/Oi scene (Squelette, Syndrome 81, the Sultans…).

He co-released this vinyl ep with the Spanish Tough Ain’t Enough  x team: three well-produced efficient songs (the Lo’Spider touch on mastering?), an early-Oi agressive voice, disillusioned lyrics, a rock’n’Oi tempo, devastating British-punk-sounding guitar riffs, energetic Oi bass lines, catchy hooligans choirs and an enthusiastic feeling in the whole stuff... Good job! 

Teenage Hearts x comes from Nantes, French West Coast, and the 4 guys in the band aren’t any novices. They are/were involved in many bands such as the Pneunomias, the Janitors, the Daltonz, Puissance Cube, The Mean Things and dozen of garage punk combos… They released previously two nice raw-sounding demo-tapes on High Castle Records.

By the way, the singer is the boss of Juvenile Delinquent Records x, the guitarist/songwriter runs Frantic City Records x : two leading labels for any addicts of froggy garage punk bands and the current Frenchy Pulp punk scene - when singing the daily loose becomes a lovely degenerated art, kind of a long-lasting tradition, from Bulldozer to Périphérique Est, of this confidential but far most interesting side of the French punk scene.

TV’S DANIEL - Maybe We’ll All Die SP- WILD HONEY RECORDS - 2019

Daniel Fried willfully steps onward in the limelight with this band! A bit fed up of always playing the so-gifted side guitarist with the Texans Wax Museums, Bad Sports or Radioactivity ? This little ego crisis was fully welcomed at home !

A British lead-guitar play in The Only Ones/The Boys vein, a second guitar, a bass and the drums for the American power-pop shape (think of Knaughty Knights, Hunx & His Punx…) and the same voice as Michel Hutchence when Daniel sings, without forgetting his primitive additional punk screamings in the break of the Maybe We’ll All Die hit, here comes the first marvelous single of TV’s Daniel x ! 

The discrete clock strike on this A-side, the Bontempi little solo on Better Than It’s Been, and the self-mockery front cover picture - featuring a lonesome Daniel wearing a smart disused dressing coat and arising with an outgoing standing position from a bright gift-paper, something like I’m the surprise, guys ! - bring many nice touches of happy kitsch to the record.

Wild Honey Records, the outstanding Italian label, released a thing (100 issues) that radiates happiness and positive thoughts.

RADIOACTIVITY - Erased SP - WILD HONEY RECORS - 2019

I couldn’t not talk of this one of course ! Check my previous bullshits for the review on this above-all band, the rise of the creature with the Mark Ryan's Marked Men and the so-tasty Wild Honey label x ! 

Two killer tracks x here again for my fav’ ones : Erased is a brilliant punk/melodic hxc song with the highly emotional, gripping voice of Jeff Burke and the catchy guitar play of the previous Daniel Fried. The beat slows down on Fear B-side with a haunting, melancholic powerpop song and moving lyrics linked to the Fukushima events. The front cover artwork features the rear-view mirror’s picture of a willful man driving his own route in a call for the sweety liberty. 200 issues with a green or red transparent vinyl.

Four years have gone since their second LP... Such a long lasting wait , it’s high time for the next one (please)!