Protocol - Blood Sport 12" (11PM Records)

Debut one-sided 12'' of this Tallahassee, Florida hardcore outfit. There's nothing nice about Blood Sport. It is ugly, in your face and blunt. The recording is a bit muddy, which adds to the stomp of the 5 songs delivered here. I never understood what noise punk means nor what the appeal of Lebenden Toten is, but Protocol's style of hardcore sure is noisy. There is a lot of feedback. The opening chords of this record actually had me think of Drunkdriver. Sonically that's not a bad comparison. The instruments, microphones and amps all sound damaged beyond repair on Blood Sport. Everything is in the red and the distorted vocals nearly get drowned out by the violence produced by the musicians. Ahmad is struggling to make his low barking heard. Always a good thing. All of this is deliberate. These 5 songs have the rawness of a demo tape, a practice room recording. Everything is straight from the gut. Protocol sounds like a mess either because they want to sound like that or because they actually are a mess. Hey, they might be a mess and like it. Why not? These are desperate times indeed.

I've seen Protocol mentioned on quite a few thank you lists over the last couple of years so I guess they are making a positive contribution to US hardcore and are probably torch bearers and crowd pleasers in their local scene. If you've been enjoying Black Dog and similar bands Roachleg Records has released over the last couple of years, chances are you'll be into Protocol too. This is music to mosh to and get punched to. The artwork is rather non-descript with the skulls, torture devices and blood, the images a bit blurry, but all of that fits the overall aesthetic. The record comes with an insert with the lyrics to the songs, no needless luxury, because it's hard to make out what Ahmad is saying. The lyrics are mostly bleak and focus on violence although there is a Poison Idea-esque excursion embracing destruction as something to be celebrated at the end of Divinity: 'Beat my chest/ grab a gun/ hurt somebody just for fun/ smoke dope and kill some time/ all on Uncle Sammy's dime'. The first two songs equate modern life to blood sport. Best lines here to me are: 'Change at these speeds/ is life on my knees/ picking the scraps off the plates of elites/So why crave for peace/and live life unfed/when equality could be getting even instead.' No rewriting the books here, but plenty of urgency, violence and anger to make that completely irrelevant.

  You can hear Blood Sport here: https://protocolbrownbois.bandcamp.com/album/bloodsport 

Brandy - The Gift of Repetition Lp (Total Punk)

After a 12'' on the obscure and now demised Monofonus Press, New York's Brandy got on board with Total Punk Records doing a single back in 2019. Now Brandy returns with The Gift of Repetition, an 8-song 12" that's over all too soon. New York is a big city containing what seem to be many small punk scenes all covering their very own segment of the (hardcore) punk spectrum. The guys in Brandy have all been doing time in mulitple other bands you might know, Pampers probably being the most note worthy and close to what Brandy is about.

Richie, Total Punk's big cheese, compares Brandy to greats such as the A-Frames, Lamps and Mayyors. In respect to the sound those comparisons are not too far off. Some of the songs on The Gift of Repetition have a really dense sound. The bass sound is heavy and somewhat burly, the guitar has that static sound that creates a bleak futuristic atmosphere not unlike the bands refered to and the vocals are delivered without much melody and with a lot of reverb adding to the overall coldness of the music. There are short spacy interludes in between songs that make the record feel like more of an album than just a bunch of songs. What is worth mentioning furthermore is that all three musicians sing, which I think is cool. Both the bass player and guitar player also play keys here and there, adding a layer of melody that gives the songs a little extra. Ultimately I feel like Brandy is a punk band at heart though. There is a playfulness and bounce to most songs on The Gift of Repetition - B-side opener Christmas Colors being an exception - that the A-Frames, Mayyors and for example Pop.1280 in which Brandy's bass player Matthew Hord also plays, lack. I can imagine people shoving each other around in front of the stage when Brandy plays a set. These guys are as old if not older than your truly and alhough no Charlie Harpers, they are punk veterans in their own right. The Gift of Repetition sounds mature. However the song do not. This is a good thing, because ultimately maturity is no fun. Don't let the adds fool you, These songs on the other hand are. So despite the post-punk atmosphere to me Brandy is 'just' a punk band. That is lovely. Unlike some of my contemporaries I am not bend on hearing the genre expand in areas yet unexplored and uncovered. Don't fix what isn't broken as they say. The new is not always better. In fact, in general it is not.

The Gift of Repetition is a short record. I wouldn't have minded a couple of songs extra. At the same time it's pretty diverse. It has a consistent sound and aesthetic, but every song is an unit of its own. You can tell these guys have worked their craft of songwriting. One needs more than a single listen to have this record fully sink in, no small feat in a culture in which everything seems to have become disposable, including ourselves. All these songs are catchy and, like I said, fun. I really dig the artwork. The cover shows a collage of broken smartphones, which in combination with the title seems a critical note about mass consumption culture and technology, but maybe I'm trying to read to deep into things. Either way the Luddite and vandal in me loves staring at smashed screens as I love daydreaming about smashing some of my own. Regardless of the idea behind the artwork I like how this record looks. I like how this record sounds. I bet these guys are solid on stage. I doubt they'll ever make it to Europe, but I'd make sure to catch them live if they did. As for now I'll be playing their songs.

Hear The Gift of Repetition here: https://brandynewyorkcity.bandcamp.com/album/the-gift-of-repetition