NEWSLETTER 029
02/16/24
SCHEME REPORT:
COLLATERAL - WE STILL KNOW AVAILABLE ON LIMITED (POSSIBLY SOLD OUT COLOR VINYL FROM SCHEME AND OR FORTRESS) BLACK VINYL AVAILABLE EVERYWHEREEEEEEEEE
I’m inside of a Gran Turismo game right now…I’m levitating at 120 MPH…drifting into the turn and suddenly the song ends and I’m writing the Scheme newsletter at 10:44 PM. Which by all internal metrics is late for me but early for the formulation of this sacred and divine text. As of some hours ago COLLATERAL - WE STILL KNOW is blaring through your car speakers, your Dewalt jobsite radio … or the ever more likely Airpod maxes at your work from home set up where you’re emailing about spread sheets, invoices and other fabricated totems to human misery. Fear not and rejoice; hardcore has returned…
By no easy feat, the sweat of the Scheme institute for hardcore advancement in explicit and direct partnership with Fortress have done the heavy work and offered up the fruits to you and you alone. Partnership in a “business” space is always rife with pitfalls and parody but when the 2 entities working in harmony aren’t out to bilk the customer for their lunch money it’s actually a lot easier.. go figure. Were not cutting each others throats behind the scenes so in turn were not taking it out on you, were doing this for the love of hardcore music and the prolonged preservation of a collected vision..so take our word for this seven inch being worth every cent you graciously pay up…and thank you for the support you undoubtedly will give after reading this sales pitch.
Collaterals got a show in SFL tonight if you’re in the area, congratulate them in person..SHOW INFO AND COLLATERAL INFO ALWAYS AVAILABLE FROM FORTRESS
Wreckage is also playing a show in Raleigh North Carolina with Magnitude this coming Saturday for all Southern Schemers. It’s sold out but its okay to sneak in then.
If today wasn’t all about Collateral I would share some incredibly exciting news fresh off the wire of from Deutschland but there’s always next week OR THE WEEK AFTER
SCENE REPORT:
As per the last paragraph you can see Wreckage in Raleigh on Saturday, Collateral playing a hand full of local gigs followed up by an east coast excursion with DIZTORT and Lockin Out NORTHS Mil Spec, flyer to follow
There’s some Mindforce shows in 2 of the 5 Boroughs this weekend, Scheme is rumored to be in attendance for at least one. Come, discuss, plot. ALSO new from Streets of Hate … memz of MF/Scrarab/Simmy .. for fans of money moves and confusing skits.
Also worth consider checking the Think I Care reissues from BBB / REBIRTH in the next hour, I worked on the layouts and listened to the records back to back for 2 days just to make sure they’re some of the most disgusting snarling hc joints in the modern history. Tell them we sent you.. maybe they’ll give us money? idk
KYLE’S PLAYLIST
THE STUFF THAT POPS UP WHEN YOU SEARCH BEST JUNGLE AND DRUM & BASS ON YOUTUBE
THE DOCUMENT COMPILATION (LOYAL TO THE GRAVE / NOVEMBER MOON / THE TEN COMMANDMENTS)
DESPIZE - SNIPER / ROLL CAGE
PRIZE HORSE - KNOW BETTER
SILVER
LIKE BATS - MIDWEST NOTHING
WORLD COLLAPSE (MADE A PLAYLIST OF ALL THE SPOTIFY SONGS BECAUSE I LISTEN EVERY DAY ON REPEAT)
ALBIN’S PLAYLIST
LIFETIME
LEONARD COHEN
ALAN PARSONS PROJECT
HOME FRONT
SUPERTOUCH - WNYU Set
GLITTERER
7” FEATURE (NEEDS NEW NAME)
I’m less interested in the amateur rankings of hardcore ephemera as the days go on, in the flat circle that is time were doomed to repeat the same contests. Today I tell you the Life’s Blood 7” is the #1 best piece of tiny plastic that god ever touched and some people agree with me, tomorrow a new prophet declares the Ensign 7” the reigning GOAT and here we are back again.. with a new perspective and we’re all dumber for it. So in that deluded spirit, I try to provide more content / context / reasoning when I’m talking about the things I enjoy enough to speak on them at length. I think it lends more credence to the work and a due respect … with all that being said here are some 7” hardcore record with an absolutely impenetrable vibe …
CONFRONT - PAY DAY
POSTED BY IRC_FOR_REPLY
It’s got it all…a Cleveland butcher shop floor level of grit, a closed fist approach to straight edge music, and shadowy lore you would need to be inspector fucking gadget to get to the bottom of. I think the on going line about Confront is that this 7” was more of a post Mortem project and the REAL Confront was never captured in the way it was intended. This obviously sounds like your classic Clevo smoke and mirror carnival effect but its that kind of mystique that’ll keep you coming back and keep me bidding exactly $110 every time this perfect slab of midwest hc rears its shitty ugly head on Ebay.
LIFE’S BLOOD - DEFIANCE
This could stand as the hardcore music 101 litmus test, liking Life’s Blood or NOT liking Life’s Blood says more about a persons hardcore character then a thousand order confirmations from all the biggest names in da scene. To be fair I’m building a straw man here.. I don’t know anyone who has heard Life’s Blood and doesn’t like it, I know plenty of people that this wouldn’t make sense to.. and yea I think less of them.
Life’s Blood was a New York City Hardcore band…exactly like that, they didn’t play that many shows, it wasn’t a career, and demographically they’re probably more like the kids of today then any other hardcore band back then. I won’t speak on their impact on a scene I was about 20 years late too, but the lasting impact is a band who didn’t come from the same places as their peers, they spoke up, and some of the absolute most goated hc tracks of all time.
MENTAL - GET AN OXYGEN TANK
It’s no secret that the Mental wolf that inhabits my brain is PLANET MENTAL from stem to stern but for one that’s a 12” record and also it isn’t really in the spirit of the day (COLLATERAL). Get an Oxygen Tank set a thousand terrible ships to sea with its LOOSE approach to hardcore and its “FUN” colorful Saturday morning cartoon cover, Let me say being a goofball in a hardcore band but having no chops is a recipe for disaster and the same goes for trying to get Sean Taggert results from some jobber.
LUCKILY Mental are all fucking shooters on the strings and behind the kit..and most enduring of all the charismatic microphone champion GREG. These guys made Underdog and Supertouch a household name for people from everywhere but New York and Connecticut (CT is notoriously 10 years behind so they were still sweat Into Another and in turn UD in 2003), I’ll say for this alone these guys deserve our highest praise. On the meat and ‘tados of this 7” you’ve got a real deal Sean Taggert piece of artwork, In the folly of my youth I thought this art was a crime against the scene but with the ripening of age you realize that you gotta let legends do what they’re gunna do and not white knuckle your nostalgia dopamine drip. New things..done tastefully..are the only way well live on and give people something thats not 30 years by gone to appericate and enjoy the same way you look at Cause for Alarm.
All of this poetic wax aside, you get 6 hard charging tracks of STRAIGHT up hardcore…DFJ murdering the skins… every song the equivalent of smashing your head through the front window of Spikes on a busy Fraturday night in Allston.
DEPTHS OF REALITY 7”
Inspired by my brother by way of Deutschland YANNICK (ECHO CHAMBER , REFLEX) I dug this slab of forbidden wax out of the long box and its lived rent free on my desk for weeks.. at point in time this band and record were the center of my hc universe (at this point..my whole universe). It was some of my first experiences traveling with a band, being around the buzz of making a record, hearing raw mixes etc etc. First of all its got one of the most incredible pieces of art confined to a 7 x 7 square that will ever grace your eyes, Is it depicting exploring the deep expanses of new galaxies or escaping from your current one? A grandmaster piece of Jaybo art truly. This record could EASILY be described as CrucifixWarzoneAbsolutionComputahsNOISE …
“SHACKLED BY LANGUAGE / BETWEEN TWO POLES / THE LIMITES OF HUMAN IMAGINATION”
THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT; MORE SCHEME COMING SOONER THAN WE CAN HANDLE…