NIFTY-50

As promised, here's part two of this issue's feature on Nifty-50. This label is mostly about punk and adjacent genres, though label owner Colin has eclectic tastes, so there are a few more melodic surprises in amongst all the noisy bands. It's this more tuneful side of the label that interests me most as a rule, whether it's long-running familiar names like THE CONSPIRACY or newer bands I may not have heard of if Nifty-50 weren't putting their music out there.

One such new discovery for me is THE DIRECTION, an Americana duo comprising brothers Brian and Shayne Vargo from San Diego. Their album Angels in the Hours Before Dawn takes in a broad range of American music, from folk, blues and country through to melodic punk and alternative rock. The Accidental Marriage is American folk backed by mellow, meandering West Coast psych guitar work. Totem imbues blues with an underground spirit, with its scratchy noise guitar and skipping percussion rhythm. I Washed My Hands in Dirty Water is raw, dirty country-blues with a throaty guitar sound and impassioned vocals. Black Widow is an original take on Americana, arranged with woozy strings and analogue synths. The Dreams of Youth Give Way and Agree are fuzzed-up punky alt-rock, having closer ties with Nifty-50's usual output. The album has strong tunes aplenty, and an eclectic musical approach with very welcome forays into psychedelia and folk. I believe there's another album from them in the works too.

There are several bands called SATORI; this is the one from South Wales. Their self-titled CD on Nifty-50 is a collection of demos and live tracks showing two very different sides to the band. The demos, which are of good sound quality and probably studio recorded, sound somewhere between stoner rock and the more melodic end of 1990s grunge, having shades of bands such as Kyuss, Soundgarden, and Nirvana. The anarchistic lyrics also place them somewhere in the punk family tree, as does some of the music. The live recordings are very raw and lo-fi and tend towards experimental noise, grimy sludgy instrumental punk rock, raucous jam sessions and gruff shouty metal. Not really my thing sadly, but may be of interest to any grungers and punks who may be reading this.

Last issue I reviewed Another Deadly Virus, Another Wonder Drug by DROPPING LIKE FLIES. This album has now been reissued with five bonus tracks, which are good quality demos, rooted in punk but showing considerable musical variety, ranging from the aggressive rap-metal-punk crossover of Game Over Man to the acoustic punk-folk protest song of Papers Please. One to the Head features manic shouty sections amidst strongly melodic alt-rock, while Trigger 3391133 includes fast vocal sections, a stop-start choppy-changey song structure, and an arrangement that switches between punk and a tense cinematic atmosphere. This band shows that punk can be multi-dimensional, creative, eclectic, and way outside of 'punk by numbers' cliches.

Dropping Like Flies also have another album on the label, 5th Generation Propaganda Machine. The King's Shilling illustrates the blurred boundary between the heavier end of punk and metal, while also straying into darkly atmospheric alternative rock. Look at the Animals highlights the punk roots of gothic music. The intro of Beautiful Lies came as a pleasant surprise for me as someone whose musical history is steeped in indiepop. It has similarities with the melancholic side of that genre as well as the ethereal atmospheres of dreampop, and wouldn't have sounded out of place on a mid-to-late-era release on Sarah Records. With the rest of the track however, the band don't let us forget that they are Dropping Like Flies and not, say, Brighter or Secret Shine, as the introduction gives way to a mix of fierce screams, fast pummelling rhythms, and anthemic melodic punk choruses. We Are Not For Sale has a fast vocal style best described as punk-rap, punctuated with shouts of "Oi! Oi! Oi!", backed by a juxtaposition of forceful, heavy guitars and drums and a futuristic, dystopian cinematic synth sound. Whilst Dropping Like Flies are a much heavier band than I usually listen to, I appreciate their willingness to look far beyond the confines of standard punk for inspiration, incorporating atmospheric gothic and cinematic aspects and even, for a brief moment, the kind of indiepop that's central to my own tastes.

All the above CDs are factory-pressed CDRs in slim card wallets, some coming with inserts with info and lyrics. As well as the CDs in this format, Colin has been digitising some of the tapes from his previous label Sally & Kev, and converting them into homemade CDRs, which he sends out as freebies with orders. I have the CD version of WARSER GATE's Twisted Skyscraper, originally out on tape in 1999. This comes packaged in a photocopied wraparound sleeve in a plastic wallet, featuring the original tape art along with an interview with the band that was originally published in Colin's fanzine Cream of the Crop around the same time.

Warser Gate were a prolific underground name from the 90s with releases out on loads of DIY labels across multiple countries. Twisted Skyscraper is a 10-track album, though this CD version has been compiled as one long track. The band had a distinctive brand of angular, warped, lo-fi underground noise-rock, the vocals a mixture of manic rants and more melodic singing, the music taking in bits somewhat reminiscent of a less pop Boyracer, the angular nature of The Fall, and noisy psych jams that gained them positive attention from psychedelic outlets like Ptolemaic Terrascope and the Camera Obscura label as well as tiny labels and zines centred around experimental noise. The Boyracer and Fall references are really just vague ballpark comparisons, comparisons aren't much use with Warser Gate as they were undoubtedly doing their own thing. Once a fixture in the underground, the band seem to have slipped into obscurity, so it's great that Colin has resurrected this tape so that a new audience can now appreciate the twisted genius of Warser Gate.

Since receiving these CDs, another batch of new releases has arrived from Nifty-50, including the latest album from The Conspiracy, so expect a third article on the label later this issue. Visit the Nifty-50 Facebook page for news, and order the CDs from the creamcropzinelabel shop on Ebay UK.

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