Volume Three
Christmas is a time for giving and sharing and sometimes rowing with your family, but for the last two years London’s Holy Roar Records have given the world a reflection of the past year and a outlook of what they have in store for us over the next twelve months.
Holy Roar is at the forefront of what is right about the British underground music scene right now. Staying truly DIY and independent, and still being run out of a flat, Alex Fitzpatrick and Ellen Goodwin have been encouraging hardworking bands and bringing them to our attention since 2006. In such a short time they have worked with bands early in their careers who have gone on to even better things. Bands such Gallows, The Ghost of a Thousand and Rolo Tomassi to name but a few.
The reason why the label is different to most of the ones out there, is that it is not about having your fingers in pies that the kids think are particularly “cool” at a given moment in time. But about the development and nurturing of bands worthy of the Holy Roar treatment.
For these reasons, Happy Holy Roar 3 shouldn’t be viewed as a “label sampler” but as a way of being introduced to bands that are at the top of their game who just happen to be signed to this label. Oh and did I mention that this compilation is a tape, limited to 100, in recycled chipboard packaging and in ten different colours?
Side A contains cover versions of bands that have quite clearly influenced the performers. These aren’t your run of the mill covers that sound exactly like the original but in some instances completely reworked. Take Esquilax’s cover of every bodies past but certainly not forgotten art punkers The Murder Of Rosa Luxemburg. And their choice of “The Beard Is Immortal” is quite fitting if you have ever seen these pair of brothers! Their version contains all the electronics and drum machines that has become synonymous with Esquilax and given the track an alternate take which is ten times the speed and aggressive in its sound.
If Metal is more your thing, then it’s well represented by Hang the Bastard and Betty Pariso who cover Pentagram and Eyehategod respectively reminding us of the old days when the genre was all about good fucking riffs and heavy bass lines, not about how tight your jeans were.
Run Walk give us a distressed and distorted and surprisingly catchy version of Bloc Party’s “Hunting For Witches” which works extremely well. While Nottingham’s newest signings to Holy Roar, Guilty Parents treat us to a slice of what they have in store for us in 2010 by covering the Fearless Iranians From Hell, a band whose style that isn’t very far from their own. With their old school brand of lo fi punky/thrashness, only good things will come from this three piece.
Flip over to side B and it contains ten tracks by bands we will be hearing much of in 2010 scene. These tracks are all rare and exclusive which makes owning one of these tapes even more special. It kicks off with a tongue in cheek, thrashorfic collaboration between promising new bands Easy Hips and Le Swing. Singing about Turkey and Christmas has never been so fun.
Nuneaton‘s Youves are certainly no newcomers but only recently getting the recognition they deserve, having released their impressive cowbell filled debut EP “Cardio-Vascular” on Holy Roar last year. The new track on this tape, “Casino No, No” is a progression from the dancey and dance floor filling nature of those songs but with a darker and more adventurous edge.
The sense of impending doom and misery served up by Livimorket in “Black Alkymi” is oddly beautiful and striking and nothing like this reviewer has heard. Definitely the label’s most unique and mysterious artists as we are told it is “a solo project of an unnamed musician from another Holy Roar band, yet he wishes to exist under a grim cloak of mystery and darkness.”
The next band has earned my respect from me over the years and a band that I have not really been sure about till now. Seemingly playing almost every Hardcore show going over the last couple of years, their work ethic and solid live performances cannot be disputed. The Welsh boys of Brutality Will Prevail have challenged people’s preconceptions of them being a scene kid’s wet dream, to a band being able to combine their love mutual love of Doom and Hardcore to a great effect. If their new full length due in 2010 builds upon the sounds shown in the track “life” it truly will be one of the releases of the year.
The potential shown by all bands on this tape, whether established or fresh faced is more than enough to get you excited about the year ahead and all the fantastic music that will blast out of this country of ours. How lucky are we?
LISTEN TO HAPPY HOLY ROAR VOLUME THREE HERE
Manoj Koeri
Never Say 