Although it’s not exactly the case that I didn’t do anything the week of March 26-April 1, the main thing I was gonna review (my friend Nicki’s birthday party where Irie Society and Indica Roots performed), my memory of that event is so hazy that it just wouldn’t be worth it. So instead I’m taking the route once again of reviewing a musical release from the past. This time it’s the “Black and White” EP by late 80s hardcore band Reflex From Pain, released in 1991.
Reflex From Pain was a Connecticut hardcore band from the late 80s that played at the same time as the pre-Youth Of Today band Violent Children. From the first song on the EP, however, you would think they were from Southern California because “Media Control” and “Urban Decay” both sound just like simplistic versions of Agent Orange or The Adolescent’s style, the former with a Nardcore-type guitar solo over it. A lot of the songs on this EP are so short as to easily not be taken notice of, but they aren’t shitty songs just kind of non-descript by 80s hardcore standards. “Rednecks,” for example has a chanty fast part that sounds very similar to Agression’s “No Mercy” followed by a mid-tempo punk part ended by the beginning fast part that all just sounds extremely familiar. “Hangover” has a chorus that sounds like something the 90s California punk band Smut Peddlers would play, and the fast part from “The Scream” (which falls into a really generic mid-tempo part again) sounds like something Das Klown would do. It’s hard to believe they’re from the East Coast because they just sound like an Orange County band or a Long Beach band or a Nardcore band without really sounding much like the scenes they were closer to geographically like the DC or Boston straight edge sounds or even the Midwestern hardcore sound of the time.
The production on the album is a bit odd for the style of music they’re playing; the guitars almost sound like distorted Bauhaus guitars, like there’s a chorus effect on it or it’s being played in a big room with lots of echo or something. The vocalist has a rather tame voice, again somewhat akin to the vocalist from Agression’s vocalist but without that guy’s tendency for WTF-inspiring screeches; instead this Reflex From Pain guy ends up like the guy from Agent Orange trying to be tough. The slowest song on the album, “American Express,” finds him putting on almost a faux-British accent with the result sounding a bit like Yuppicide. The final song, called “Dino,” is a send-up lounge/swing type song with a high-pitched effect put on the vocals somewhat like the effect put on the vocals for Void’s song “Organized Sports.”
On the whole, despite this release’s generic stylings, if you like US82 type hardcore, especially the West Coast more bands, this is a cool listen. Apparently the musical section of this band went on to join the bands 76% Uncertain (who I forgot about!) and the seminal 90’s Krishna-core band Shelter. I did not know that. I can hear it in Uncertain’s sound, which is pretty rock-ish in the same vein as Gang Green and have cool solos like Agression; but the Shelter revelation is a surprise.
they were actually an early '80s band... the EP came out in '83 and Ray Cappo was their second vocalist, around the same time he played drums in Violent Children and before Youth of Today. Members of this band and CIA went on to form 76% Uncertain in the mid-80s.
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