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Hello and thanks for reading. This week I wanted to write about the recent DEEF reissues on General Speech. I think it's safe to say DEEF is obscure as fuck. While they are obscure in my mind, they were credited as "the first Sapporo hardcore band" by Doll Magazine in 1982. Regardless, I'm guessing outside of Japan that some cult tape traders would be the only ones to know the band, until maybe the G-GAS reissue that General Speech did in 2015 where DEEF was mentioned. G-GAS was from Sapporo, just like DEEF. While they existed at the same time and have some similarities in sound, DEEF existed before G-GAS did. I learned from the Nou reissue that DEEF had begun as early as 1979. However, they were just school kids and far from a punk band in these early days. On the Nou LP reissue we can find DEEF's 1982 debut also entitled Nou, which was originally released on cassette, and is in fact hardcore. The A side of the LP also features their tracks from a hyper rare cassette entitled Nouten Records, which compiled tracks from three early and obscure Sapporo hardcore bands including 2.26 and PROBLEMS. To finish off the A side, General Speech unleashed 3 completely unreleased studio songs recorded in 1982! While the B side of the LP is totally unreleased recording as well, I think those 1982 studio tracks really set this LP off for me.
I knew virtually nothing about DEEF before these reissues. The only stuff I knew from them came from a bootleg of Real Control on cassette I have. Real Control originally came out in 1983, and I think it absolutely rules. When I heard General Speech was reissuing it I got super excited. I was actually under the impression this tape came out in 1984 until this reissue, and that makes DEEF even more significant in my mind. The B side of the LP features another unreleased session from 1983! With all this unreleased material and killer packaging, it is like a record nerd's wet dream. I feel lucky to have a label like General Speech here in the USA. He's reissuing killer shit from overseas, and he does it with a serious passion and knowledge about what he's dealing with. Inside these reissues I discovered things about Japanese punk history that I had no idea about. I learned that punk was essentially banned in Sapporo by the mid-'80s. It looks like the gigs would start at 1PM in the afternoon. They would also be private, and sometimes people would be seated. That is nuts! Each of these DEEF LPs comes with a foldout insert completely loaded up with color photos, flyers, and scans of the original jcards. These LPs are super well-done, and I think they deserve a place in every collection. I understand it can be overwhelming to have two LPs of obscure shit drop on you and it's hard to know where to start or digest. I mean, that's exactly what's happened to me with the other two General Speech reissues he dropped at the same time! Haha. I better check those out before it's too late. Alright I think that's all for the week. Thanks for reading and thanks for your support!