Thursday 12 July 2018

APF Brigade ‎– "Live Brigade" (Self-Released Cassette) 1980


Charming is not normally an adjective I would use in relation to any Anarcho-Punk recording or Band,but, The APF are really rather sweet and, yes, charming.
Their teenage soap boxing is almost adorable, like Lena Zavoroni was on 'Opportunity Knocks'.Then she grew up and became a haunted shell of a woman who starved herself to death.(See 'grown up' Lena singing 'Going Nowhere HERE!)
I'm not sure this is what happened to Andi Export and his mate from the inner city hell-hole of Peterborough Cambridgeshire......did any Anarcho-Punk bands actually come out of areas where life was actually really as terrible as the music????
Ah Bless, Andy's adolescent Didactic* (*thanks Laurence) charm, patronises us with info about those same subjects these rather self-righteous groups bang on about ALL the time,...yep...fox hunting Nuclear War etc....all are admittedly relevant, but....change the record for fucks sake!
At least ADF Brigade pre-emmpted the latest fad on single use plastic waste 38 years before Sky News.
The music is a melange of UK DIY and less shouty Crass, a drum machine replacing Penny Rimbaud is an added bonus. Andi Export's voice does have a nassaly middle aged quality about it, that belies the naivety of the music.
Whats also impressive, is that all tracks recorded live specially for each copy, therefore every tape is unique and has different sequencing of songs. All the tapes sent in to the band were recorded in this way, so the tapes themselves were all different in order of tracks and the quality of the ‘performance’. Of course this made each tape completely individual. I suppose this was before they could afford a dubbing cassette deck. As far as I know this is quite unique in cassette culture...except maybe  Organum's Pulp cassette?
Andi, himself, actually went on to be 'Man's Hate' and produce the renowned "International Sound Communication" or ISC cassette series. 
The first Man's Hate cassette can be found HERE, thanks to that nice Mr Burton of Ferric Archaeology fame.

(*Didactic: designed or intended to teach people something
  • —used to describe someone or something that tries to teach something (such as proper or moral behavior) in a way that is annoying or unwanted)......if that doesn't sum Anarcho-pop up I dunno what does?
Track Listing:

01 Anarchist attack-plastic crap-religious dictator
02 The professional
03 Ban The Bomb
04 No Effect
05 Disease
06 Truth
07 I'll have the last war with you
08 Revolt
09 Waste Away
10 Syndrome
11 Bloody mad
12 We're not your Tools.

DOWNLOAD an-achy ear achy HERE!

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