ISRAFEL (V/A)

Another one of those comps you could hold upside down by its shoes and out from its pockets would spill a mess of white, green, yellow and red xeroxed inserts; each being the label's catalogue, or a wanky poem, or another wanky poem, or a list of animal rights orgs, or a vegan recipe, or messily hand- or type-written lyrics from each band featured. Consistently too much to keep up with.

But for a good cause, the Israfel 12" comp came out on Bloomington, Ind.'s Ape Records in 1997. It classed together a pretty decent list of the day's stars and lesser-sos, which for me, were of the genre's last era to care for. The class of 1998 and on were far less enchanting, save for members who footed onto slightly different tweaks, such as Party Of Helicopters and others so esteemed.

This comp's best pops are Panoply's opening track and the later-on Twenty Seven Hours screamer, a band which many of you have asked me for more of. Let's see, who else. Ah, Serotonin were always favorited in the south, as were Floridians Reversal of Man. But I gotta confess, my attitude toward ROM has always been summed up with a lethargic, "Eh, yeah. They're alright." Similarly metallic or harsh moments on this collection are even lesser enjoyed (although I should say I'm speaking of a very specific 'harsh,' not pertaining to the fantastics I've praised on this website in the past), but such is a minority of the content. Most of this is pretty darn alright.

Israfel was, as explained on one of the few thousand inserts this thing came with, a benefit LP that took "roughly two years" to assemble. Its proceeds were to offset medical expenses and otherwise for a family in Indianappolis with two little girls diagnosed with Werdnigg-Hoffman Disease, a degenerative of the spine, muscles and nerves, according to Ape Records. They didn't pull through, but the funds raised, however little, would've given a bit of help to their parents, who had two other kids to care for and a subsequent shortage of hand-ups.

Hehe, but might I also mention a few angered rants within the comp booklet rallying protest against bands that use grotesque imagery on their album covers or merch. Think of Drop Dead or something. "Don't let your favorite band do your thinking for you," the insert states. "Question the information they present to you, the sincerity of their message, and the medium they use."

Grab the LP right here.

TITLE: Israfel
LABEL: Ape
YEAR: 1997
TRACKS:
The Panoply Academy Glee Club- Lingo / Architects of the New Christ Rebellion - This Time Will Not Pass So Easily / Criswell - Utica Crib / Harriet The Spy - Barnyard Chase / Thenceforward - Care 2 Try / The Locust - Kill Roger Hedgecock / Inept - For Hand Outs / The Weak Link Breaks - Hea (???) / Old Hearts Club - Red Lipstick and Drama / Twenty Seven Hours - Coaxial / Serotonin - Multi-Faceted / Eurich - Odeta Myself / The Judas Iscariot - Cessation Talk, Madeline Murray O'Hair / Reversal of Man - (Unlisted)

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RESOL

How could the folks not request another Resol post? With sonic grains of Born Against, Eddy, Unherd and other peers, they splattered Raleigh, N.C., with one of the day's better catalogues, including but not limited to a great split 7" with Greensboro's Blownapart Bastards (search my archives).

I've gone through this before, but a little while back, Resol's Tom Corbitt got up with me and gave me a dish on the locale's incest:

"There's a lot of backstory and cross-pollination on the Raleigh scene back then. Charlie was also in Fragrant Cloud and John was in Stewface. The first incarnation was called Bored Beyond Belief and had a different drummer (we played with Colin Seven, but he hooked up with Tonie [Joy] and started Universal Order of Armageddon). Charlie and John went on to form Dart 360 with Chad from Mold (who was in Gnosis) and on and on."

And I highly advise you read an interview with Tom, in which he recalls Resol's show in Wilmington, N.C., with Silk and some "white funk bands." Really, read it.

Here's Resol's full-length, Sorry, Out Of Ervice.

TITLE: Sorry, Out of Ervice
LABEL: ?
YEAR: 199_
TRACKS:
Troff / Stardust Lounge / Turn Off the Fat Guy / Dick Street / Comet / Global Foodie / Fred Lobster / Mapped / Jaundice / Frustration

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MANDELA STRIKE FORCE

And since I took a week off--hey, sometimes you gotta--here's a supplement birthed by request!

The first time I wrote about Mandela, back in March, 2007, I said:

...on my last Assfactor 4-related post, a commenter described their day as a time "when we called bands 'emo,' and it wasn't a negative thing." Well hey, alright, fair enough, I dug those days. It was the early-to-mid '90s leg of the sound. There were "who is really emo?" arguments flying left and right between the purists and the liberals, and amidst it all was a roster of bands who were pretty unlistenable. But...

Bands like Harriet the Spy, Portraits of Past, Great Unraveling, Unwound, Salvo Rain, UOA and whoever else of bizarre, non-straightforwardness that may have acquired the "emo" tag, however arguable, made the process of sifting through the many bad bands darn well worth it.

Mandela Strike Force were among the day's good memories. They could be discordant without trying too hard, they employed blues-y chords with invention, they were melodic without the crybaby-ness, they layered eletronic noise-y-ness free of pretense, and they stuffed every song with intelligent subtlety. Mandela's members, which included Don Devore, were in other bands like Frail, Goodbye Blue Monday, with some Lilys interaction, and later, Ink & Dagger.

Here's their unsinkable 1995 7".

TITLE: The Sound of Revolution In Stereo
LABEL: Ladder
YEAR: 1995
TRACKS:
What? (Or How the Grapevine Works Sometimes)
Did You Need It Specially Engraved?
The Power of Posi-Thinking
The Mathematical Invasion of Everything