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WAX: Punk Och Kärlek cassette / 7” (1983, self-released / 2016, Smutstvättrekårds)
Usman could probably tell you more about my staff pick this week than I can, since he’s the one who showed this band to me, but I’ve been spinning this record a bunch since I got it, so I’ll give it a go. WAX was from the small city of Gävle in Sweden and existed from 1982 until 1983, when they released this cassette, Punk Och Kärlek, themselves. Aside from contributions to a couple of obscure cassette comps (to which I assume they simply contributed tracks from this session), Punk Och Kärlek was WAX’s only release, though Discogs notes some members went on to the group Los Bohemos. I gave Los Bohemos a listen and their hard rock-adjacent melodic punk didn’t do much for me, but it’s not terrible.
I think it was 3 or 4 years ago when Usman played WAX for me. Maniac collector that he is, he had just gotten an original copy of the cassette, so my first impression of WAX was probably as strong as it could have been in terms of sound quality. WAX’s music struck me right away. Rather than the Discharge-influenced hardcore so many of their Swedish peers were honing at the time, WAX’s songs are quite punky, with particularly strong vocal melodies. While they weren’t after the same heaviness as the early Swedish d-beat bands, they were clearly pushing themselves to play at super fast tempos, and Punk Och Kärlek is blazing, just as fast and agile as anything on seminal early hardcore comps like P.E.A.C.E. or Party or Go Home. That combination of a US hardcore-style rhythm section with a woman who could carry a tune on vocals makes me think of Denmark’s Electric Deads, and if you like that band’s first couple of EPs, you’re probably going to dig Punk Och Kärlek too.
When Usman played the tape for me, he also told me about this 2016 7” reissue, which I quickly added to my want list. There were only 300 copies of the reissue, and Usman warned me they rarely pop up. That’s OK… I’m patient. In the meantime, a decent rip of the original cassette someone posted to YouTube could tide me over. Finally, a few weeks ago a copy of the 7” popped up on Discogs and I bought it immediately. It turned out the seller was my buddy Nicky Rat, who handed it off to Paco at La Vida Es Un Mus to include in one of the many shipments he sends to Sorry State. Oddly enough, while I was waiting for the 7” to arrive, I finally started perusing the recent Råpunk book, where the WAX cassette was featured as a key early Swedish hardcore release.
Now that the 7” is in my hands and I’ve been playing it a bunch. Honestly, I think the rip of the tape on YouTube sounds a little better than the 7” version… there are 12 tracks crammed onto this 45rpm 7”, so it’s cut rather quiet, and there’s a noticeable amount of surface noise when you crank it. However, I love that the 7” package reproduces the entire cassette j-card layout, and it also adds an insert with an interview and some other info. It’s all in Swedish, and maybe one day I’ll run it through a translator, but I haven’t done that yet.
So yeah, that’s my pick. I wish I had more info to share with you, but if you’re intrigued, dial up that YouTube rip.