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No Security / Crocodile Skink: Split 7” (1995, D.I.Y. Records)
Last week work was kind of getting me down… too much to do, too little time, which meant that every night when I got home I was exhausted and grumpy. Sometimes when I feel like that, I try to pull my mood in the other direction with music that’s on the gentler side (for me, at least), but often I just want to blast hardcore, having it overwhelm me to the point where I can’t think about anything else. I was on one of those kicks the other night, and pulling 7”s to listen to, I ended up spinning a whole bunch of Swedish stuff. I thought about writing about several of the records I played, but this is the one I landed on, both because it rips and because I think it’s a little more under-the-radar than some of the other slabs I jammed.
Even though it’s side B according to the labels, I’ll start with No Security, since their side is the reason I bought this record. None of No Security’s records have been in print for many years (as far as I know), so I’m not sure how well-known they are nowadays. They started in 1985, and I’m not clear on when they split up. Discogs says this EP came out in 1995, but No Security’s tracks were recorded in 1990. I wonder if perhaps the record just took a long time to come out, because on the insert No Security refer to themselves in the present and even tease an upcoming LP on which these three tracks were slated to appear. Unfortunately, that LP never happened. I haven’t heard it, but it looks like No Security recorded six songs for this session and the other three are available on the Lost and Found Records compilation CD When The Gist Is Sucked From The Fruit Of Welfare (The Ugly Faces Of Truth Show). I may have to track that down.
As for the music, No Security contributes three rippers that any fan of early Totalitär is bound to love. No Security featured Jallo on drums, who went on to play for Totalitär on Sin Egen Motståndare and all the records after that. It’s interesting that these tracks, while they have a similar grooviness to that Totalitär stuff (which makes sense as it’s the same drummer), they’re also rougher-sounding, with a loose, chaotic edge to them that makes them even more exciting.
It would be cool if there were an easily-available No Security collection (aside from the Lost and Found CD, there was also a 2019 collection CD on a Peruvian label), but I think there’s something cool about the way their discography is spread across all these split records. I could be wrong, but I think an EP’s dose of No Security is the right amount. Plus, if you track down all these splits, you get to hear a bunch of other interesting bands. Case in point, Japan’s Crocodile Skink.
While they slightly interrupted the flow of my Swedish hardcore night, Crocodile Skink is a great match for No Security, as their two contributions here are similarly blazing and riff-oriented, but with a crustier, more bottom-heavy sound. The vocalist is great too, with a mean-ass bark that sounds a little like Tokurow from Bastard, but with a freer (or maybe just worse) sense of rhythm. The lyrics are in English and they’re inscrutable in a really interesting way, though the animal rights message behind the line “you wear the steak” certainly comes through. Oh, and like No Security (and a lot of 90s bands, I suppose), Crocodile Skink has a very split-forward discography.
So yeah, pretty cool record if you can find it. If anyone has a spare complete collection of No Security and Crocodile Skink splits, get at me.