Well, actually we’re going to put all these releases on tapes with or without Cassette Store Day. For those who accuse us glorifying novelty item in new millennium can save their breath and their anti-hipster rants for the next man. Tapes are the only option for us to release albums in short-run since we can not press certain albums in large numbers and CD-R sucks big time. Even if we do, we can’t sell load of those shits either. We’re a gang of muffukkin boombox mongers, and we’ve been putting out tapes since the day one, and will keep releasing them even when all these kitsch-appeal hips faded and gone, until our duplication machine breaks the fuck down.
These are our first three tape releases. We pressed all of them at our workers-owned KONSERVATAPES cassette duplication. We work really hard to make sure we don’t produce awful piles of shit. We might set up a small table somewhere in Bandung street next Saturday, we will inform you the details later. Again, always thanks for the support
The Brutalist School – “1st EP”
C-30 Cassette. 100 Hand-numbered copies
The Brutalist School is the project consists of the Brooklyn, NY duo; turntablist/producer Hsi-Chang Lin (ex-dälek) and vocalist Xander Duell (ex-Inouk, Ambulance Ltd.) disregard conventional genres as they make music for films that don’t exist; exploring a sound world made up of equal parts Merzbow, Massive Attack, Philip Glass and Scott Walker. Eerie and soothing, melodic and dissonant, The Brutalist School are a study in contrasts.
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Balcony – “Reunion EP”
C-30 Cassette. 100 Hand-numbered copies
In October 2011, after 8 years hiatus, Balcony revisited their collective memory and decided to make a reunion show on a small venue. The show was amazing. They succeeded in bringing the energy and the ruckus back to the pit and made everyone wrecked shit even for only 45 minutes. The show also inspired and empowered them to write new music again. They decided to make an EP, re-recorded three of their classics and three new compositions including one song collaboration with their long time brothers; Morgue Vanguard, Sarkasz and DJ-E from now-defunct Homicide.
Picking up their imprint where ‘Metafora Komposisi Imajinar’ left off, they recaptured the spirit and wrapped it with a new twist; this is the Balcony as we know it, straight-forward hardcore with a touch of metal and punk heaviness and urgency. No less. This album is, perhaps, merely a side note for their 2011 reunion, but it’s important as their previous releases and marked the days of what they might become.
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Hark! It’s A Crawling Tar-Tar – “Dorr Darr Gelap Communique”
C-60 Cassette. 200 Hand-numbered copies
Hark! It’s A Crawling Tar-Tar is a hardcore punk collective from Bandung, Indonesia, consists of Ari (vocals), Dede (guitar), Kenji (drums), Uep (bass) and Billy (guitar). Rise from the ashes of Domestik Doktrin, this band picked up where DD’s second album left off. Basically they construct D-Beat punk with a twist of dark-epic vibe, youth-crew sing alongs, cutthroat vocals, gang choruses, well-tuned super-catchy Scandinavian hardcore riff, blackened metal parts and mixed them with fast thrash fury, obscure samples and even hybrid folk. It’s quite obvious they were influenced by the likes of His Hero His Gone, Anti-Cimex, Diskonto, Uranus, From Ashes Rise and Tragedy, but these five men unit offer more than just Asian version of the bandwagon-riding. From intentional catchiness to abrupt chaos, every track on this album stands out, even in the post-2007-Tragedy/From Ashes Rise era. When their sound is top notch, their lyrics are one of a kind. The urgency of cultural revolution they advocate was unmatched among the Indonesian HC scene. The mash up between Gramscian freestyle shoot-out with dark humor and politically-incorrect HC school of thought. Forcing people to question their own mind-set about things considered common and rise up against the slave mentality. They didn’t make it easy for everyone, (read their manifesto and you can see how they constructed their perspectives on hegemony using Tar-tar and toothpaste metaphor), but their catchy-as-fuck music makes everyone sing-along passionately during their mosh-pit existence. In short, Hark! is one of the greatest band ever came out from Indonesian HC scene. They left a footprint but unfortunately, did not last long. Their short-lived existence leaves a monumental mark that we decide to spread their legacy by putting out their one and only album for the first time in Indonesia. (Ironically, their debut CD was released by Singapore label, Thrash Steady Syndicate in 2006, and honestly, we thank them for doing that). Hark! is one of the bands that really were gone before you ever knew they existed but nevertheless left us with this amazing masterpiece. Behold! Tempe mendoan governs your ass.
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