Man's Hate - Suffer in Silence (1984) C60

Man's Hate was a one-man band comprising Andi Xport, also of the APF Brigade whom you may recall as appearing on this compilation, and also this one; and he was also behind the International Sound Communication compilations, of which you'll find one here.

This was the first of two tapes he recorded as Man's Hate, according to Discogs. There's a blog entry about it here, or there was, but I'm reposting the material just in case it disappears, as I suspect the download may have done due to Mr. Xport no longer being with us. Anyway, here's what he said:

Suffer in Silence was my first solo cassette album. I used the sound on sound method using the new-fangled tape decks that had just come out with two tapes being able to be placed in one machine at the same time, recording onto one tape deck then playing that back through speakers and recording onto the next tape deck whilst playing live over the top. The only problem with this method was that if you made a mistake then the whole song had to be redone and the tape quality soon deteriorated.

This was a review of Suffer in Silence from Cause and Effect, a US zine done by Hal McGee and Debbie Jaffe.

Man's Hate is Andi, an Englishman with strong convictions who plays guitar and sings songs with a directness and energy that incites the listener to get up off her/his ass and act. Andi was a member of the seminal early eighties punk-folk protest group APF Brigade. The ten tracks here are highly charged dramatic rock anthems decrying man's cruelty and stupidity towards other beings, human and animal alike. The lyrics are of a political nature (personal politics with a conscientious bent)... The main thing here is the sound. You will hear a voice, a voice of conviction and desperation. This is the music of a man who will not shut up and passively accept what he hates.

Okay - last time I nosed around on the internet, I'd swear I read that Andi Xport is no longer with us, but now, although he seems to have remained conspicuously silent for a while, I can no longer find any reference to his supposed passing, so if you're reading this, Andi - or anyone who knows him - and I've got it wrong, please excuse my succumbing to fake news.

Anyway, as you'll hear, Suffer in Silence is somewhat didactic, but helpfully tuneful, and enough so as to negate any whining about Mr. Xport's failure to have recorded it at Abbey Road. Actually, I sort of miss things being this didactic, as opposed to just - well... you know... The thing which has surprised me most about this after all this time is that this guy was a genuinely inventive songwriter, slipping all sorts of weird jazzy chords and changes in there. Would have loved to have heard this stuff played by a full, well-rehearsed band, but never mind.

...and that nice Mr. Zchivago seems to have the second tape, if anyone's interested.

Download the ten tracks and cover by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - Overdose
2 - Burn the Flag
3 - No Money, No Rights
4 - Work Experience
5 - A Gun! For a Toy?
6 - Animal Farming
7 - Meat Means Money
8 - Workers Playtime
9 - Not a Minority Anymore
10 - Suffer in Silence

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v/a - The Best of Italian Opera (1982) C60

Runaway Rhinoceros was a generally wonderful fanzine done by a bloke in Kenilworth, Warwickshire - and was thus representative of the local scene for me seeing as that's where my grandparents lived and I spent a lot of time there as a kid - although actually now I think on I've a feeling it may have been some bloke and his brother who did it. Anyway, the amusingly and misleadingly named Best of Italian Opera was their compilation tape. The cover is a bit underwhelming so I've used a picture of the mag instead - one of many which I flogged whilst raising funds for my relocation to America. I wish I still had a copy but never mind, I suppose at least it went to a good cause.

The tape is mostly punky new wave with some representative anarchopunk and a couple of tracks from local avant garde heroes Attrition - just a mile down the road in Coventry. APF Brigade, as I've only just realised, featured the late Andi Xport of Man's Hate. You may recall Andy T from a million anarchopunk gigs and should probably note that he's still in existence today, and I Still Hate Thatcher is a fucking great title. Attrition you most likely already know about. Shrinkwrap was on Onslaught, their Third Mind tape, and if it's a remix, I can't tell the difference. I've a sneaky feeling that The Shadow Dance is actually Vigil from the same tape, but I can't be arsed to check. I don't know anything about Steve Ainsworth except that Warrior is fucking amazing, and I love it so much that I covered it on one of Stan Batcow's Godspunk compilations (volume two if you can be bothered). The remainder of what little I know about these artists can be gleaned by reading the information sheet which came with the tape, and which I've scanned for this download.

1982 is just a guess by the way. My gut tells me this came out in 1981, but the presence of these Attrition tracks suggests it may have been a little later.

Finally, by way of advanced warning, my copy of this came on a slightly shitty tape, so although most of it digitised okay, there's some serious wow and flutter on the last two Kevin Akitt tracks, plus some kind of weird intermittent distortion on Death of a Nation and at the start of Warrior - which I'm pretty sure is the tape rather than my digitisation, from what I can tell. Sorry. I did my best.

Download the twenty-one tracks, cover and info sheet by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - APF Brigade - Syndrome 
2 - APF Brigade - El Dorado
3 - APF Brigade - The Crow Lives Nowhere
4 - Andy T - Frozen North
5 - Andy T - Man's Life
6 - Andy T - Vivisection
7 - Andy T - Exploitation
8 - Andy T - Big Boys
9 - Andy T - Progressive Destruction
10 - Kevin Akitt - No Music
11 - Kevin Akitt - Transmission
12 - Kevin Akitt - American Dreams
13 - Kevin Akitt - Soldier Soldier
14 - No Label - The Truth Is
15 - No Label - Oh Well - It's Over
16 - No Label - Something's Gotta Be Done
17 - Attrition - Shrinkwrap
18 - Attrition - The Shadow Dance
19 - Tears of Destruction - Death of a Nation
20 - Steve Ainsworth - Warrior
21 - Steve Ainsworth - Twilight Zone

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v/a - Paranoia is Awareness (1982) C90

Regardless of anything else, it really has to be said that Larry Peterson knew how to put a compilation together. A Sudden Surge of Power, which he released on his own Cause for Concern label, remains pretty much my favourite of its kind, and frankly it still pisses over better publicised tapes from the same era, notably the undoubtedly decent but somewhat overrated Red Sand. I'll put A Sudden Surge of Power up here at some point in the not too distant future, but in the meantime, here's Paranoia is Awareness - Larry's first compilation, maybe not the classic that was the later collection, but a fucking good showing nevertheless.

Because I'm a generous old fucker, I've scanned the A4 booklet which came with the tape, so that's included as a series of JPEG files in the folder which comes with the download. My copy was customised by various members of the Apostles and the Assassins of Hope, adding sarcastic commentary to their own respective pages before Larry got the thing to the safety of an envelope with my name and address written on it, so although I've cleaned up all the scans as much as I could so as to get rid of yellowing, coffee stains and so on, I left the thoughts of Chairman Martin as they were because it seemed right to do so.

The inclusion of the booklet also means I don't need to spend too much time telling you about these artists. You should be familiar with the Apostles, Matfield & the Pond and We Be Echo if you've been following this blog, and Third Door from the Left were the group of which Kevin Thorne was a part before he started recording as We Be Echo. The track here is actually an excerpt from a Third Door from the Left live tape released by Cause for Concern, one which I might put up here providing it hasn't been reissued by Vinyl on Demand (I still haven't got around to checking, although I know Frank did Face the Firing Squad on vinyl). You will no doubt recognise the Nocturnal Emissions tracks which first appeared on their classic Fruiting Body album which you own, or you should own, and if you don't, get the fuck away from me. I think Plastic Bag were pals of Nigel from Nocturnal Emissions as they had a mailing address around the corner in Camberwell and used to put out a zine called Apocalypso a Go Go, of which one issue was full of extremely naughty pictures and another was a special on Nocturnal Emissions. They also recorded some great harsh electronics as Brides of Christ II. Finally, I seem to recall seeing Nervous Legion mentioned in the cassette column in Sounds a good year before Dave Henderson started the whole Wild Planet thing, so I have the impression they were something significant which vanished off the radar just as I was becoming aware of this sort of stuff. I'm sure Larry told me that the guy behind Nervous Legion committed suicide, but I could be getting my wires crossed. Terrorist, as it appears on the tape, seems to end with the sort of repetitive scratches which suggest it may have been taped from a 7" single (can't be heard here due to my cleaning up process), which is intriguing; so if anyone knows anything about Nervous Legion, I'd love to know more. I've always thought those two Nervous Legion tracks were the bollocks.

Download all thirty-five tracks, cover and twenty-page booklet by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - The Apostles - Redifusion Refugee
2 - The Apostles - Escaping Again
3 - Matfield & the Pond - Toxteth
4 - Matfield & the Pond - Paem Wyrd (theme)
5 - Matfield & the Pond - All My Toys
6 - Nervous Legion - Terrorist
7 - Nervous Legion - Gas
8 - NCP - Wild Thing / Johnny B. Goode / Standard Punk Song
9 - Assassins of Hope - Prisoner of Law
10 - Assassins of Hope - Rejection
11 - The Cause for Concern - Some Suffer
12 - Tom Castle - Adric
13 - Red Herring - Newman's New Trees I (advertisement)
14 - Red Herring - EZ Chew (advertisement)
15 - Tom Castle - This Place is So Rewarding
16 - Red Herring - Extranose (advertisement)
17 - Red Herring - Newman's New Trees II (advertisement)
18 - Tom Castle - You Stop Me (Doing What I Want)
19 - Red Herring - Newman's New Trees III (advertisement)
20 - APF Brigade - Dreaming
21 - APF Brigade - Burnt Offering
22 - APF Brigade - 1805-1945
23 - Third Door from the Left - Live at the Ship
24 - Nocturnal Emissions - LD50
25 - Nocturnal Emissions - Routine Surveillance Exercise
26 - The Event Group - Seward Rap
27 - Michael Jones - Uncle & Auntie Bastard
28 - Michael Jones - Delicious Enemy
29 - Michael Jones - Dance of the Wild Brains
30 - Michael Jones - Drinking Like Mad
31 - Plastic Bag - In the Corridors of a Train
32 - Swinging 3-Man Junta - Untitled
33 - Swinging 3-Man Junta - Larry is a Rock Star
34 - Alien Kulture - The Burden
35 - Tom Castle - Doors of the Mind

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