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What’s up Sorry Staters?
A newsletter coming out on my birthday, who woulda thought? What a cause for celebration! This time last week, all I would have wished to get for my birthday would be a Shop-Vac and a boat haha. I’m so happy it’s not raining today. Not much to report on the personal front this round. I’ve got pizza to eat and margaritas to drink later, so I’ll keep this one brief:
If you remember last week, I gave some love and attention to that Ayucaba LP. I hope as a result, some of you readers gave that ripper a listen. But along with Ayucaba, we stocked several other releases on Metadona Records. The other record that really stood out to me is this 12” by Lakra. Big thanks to Lakra for wearing party hats to celebrate my birthday.
When I first saw the cover of this record, I thought maybe it was a reissue of an old band. Like, seriously. Everything about it: the way the band is dressed, the graininess of the photo, even the way the band’s logo is placed. The graphic design honestly looks like something Puke N Vomit would throw together on one of their Finnish reissues haha. Of course, I come to find out that Lakra is a new band, and this 12” is their very first release. I don’t want to assume, but based on photos I’ve seen it looks like this band might be pretty young, which is rad. Also very interesting, this band is based out of Mallorca. Now honestly, before reading about this band, I didn’t even know where the hell Mallorca was! I’ve learned now that it’s an island off the coast of Spain, southeast of Barcelona. It makes me wonder what the punk scene is like considering the isolation of playing punk in a place that’s completely waterlocked. Pretty wild.
Anyways, I’ll talk about the record. It’s actually a single-sided 12”, and only has 5 songs. So yeah, it’s basically an EP. The first song, “Desconocimiento General,” starts off with this incredibly gnarly, gritty sounding guitar tone. The band kicks in, and we’re off to the races. This first song chugs along at that sorta in-between fast tempo, almost what I call a UK82-style pace. But then right at the end, the bass rips into this all-over-the-place riff and explodes into this loose and chaotic double-time fast beat. I dunno man, my first impression hearing this band is that style of hardcore Lakra plays is just so fuckin’ mean-sounding. Like gritty, grimy, primitive and intense. Not unlike the way I described the appearance of the record, the sound of the record being so raw and immediate that Lakra also feels like an old band playing classic, super aggressive hardcore. No frills, just fury. So lively and powerful. The singer’s voice is super loud in the mix, which I’m a huge fan of. He sounds ferocious as hell, like a barking dog. It’s almost like you can hear the scraping texture of his vocal cords along with all the mucus glooping inside his throat. Then there’s backup vocals too, which sound like “non-dude” vocals to me. I don’t know what pronouns this person uses, so I won’t assume. But the contrast in their voices sounds really cool together.
The label description mentions a few more contemporary bands that Lakra sounds like. I’m pretty sure Orden Mundial is mentioned. Personally, I think Lakra sounds more classic, and I was having a difficult time thinking of older hardcore bands that sing in Spanish that Lakra kinda reminds me of. But if I had to throw out one band as reference, they kinda remind of IV Reich. IV Reich has the aggression of thrashy hardcore, but sort of the bounciness and catchiness of Oi! and UK82. And then also IV Reich is an interesting comparison because they had a woman in the band who did vocals along with the main singer dude. Pretty cool. But whatever old band Lakra may or may not sound like doesn’t really matter. They’re introducing a grimy, intense, yet anthemic take on hardcore, and it feels totally fresh and vital to my ears. Give it a listen if you’re so inclined.
That’s all I’ve got. As always, thanks for reading.
‘Til next week,
-Jeff