Mau Maus: Society's Rejects 12"

Mau Maus: Society's Rejects 12"


Tags: · 80s · hardcore · punk · recommended · reissues · spo-default · spo-disabled · UK · UK82
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21 track singles round up from one of the UK`s first wave of Hardcore Punk bands, the Mau Maus. They were formed in Sheffield and in the early 80`s they released a string of hard hitting EP`s on the Pax and Rebellion labels. Including Society’s Rejects, No Concern, Facts Of War and Tear Down The Walls, all of which hit the UK Indie Top 10. This set includes all the tracks from those four singles plus Give Us a Future from the Punk Dead – Nah Mate, The Smell Is Jus Summink In Yer Underpants Innit Compilation on Pax. Each track is a prime example of fury delivered with intensity and passion. The LP comes with a A4 Booklet of lyrics, reviews and archive.



Our take: Sealed Records is a new label dedicated to well-executed official reissues of punk classics, and after kicking things off with Omega Tribe and Zounds they keep things top-notch for this third release, a small vinyl discography from Mau Maus. Before checking this out I was familiar with Mau Maus first EP, Society’s Rejects. According to the (informative and awesome) insert, Mau Maus took inspiration from US hardcore bands like the Dils and the Middle Class, and when you combine this with inevitable influence from their contemporary British punk scene, you get some of the hardest-hitting, most hardcore-sounding vintage UK82 punk, of a piece with standouts like Ultra Violent and the Partisans. I can’t recall hearing the Mau Maus singles after Society’s Rejects, but in this context I like them even better than the first one. While Society’s Rejects isn’t all that primitive, with each successive record the playing gets tighter and the production gets stronger. By the third and fourth EPs they also move past the more basic riffing of their earlier stuff, incorporating some UK Subs influence without dialing back the intensity. Like the Zounds singles discography Sealed released a few months back, this also functions well as a full-length album without the choppiness that can plague compilation releases.