Strength Approach – All The Plans We Made Are Going To Fail

[ad]

(c) 2009 Pee Records
[rating:3/5]

strength_approach_300Up until recently, and by that I mean when this disc hit my door, I hadn’t ever heard of Strenght Approach. This is, of course, too bad for me. It is also too bad for fans (who also haven’t heard them) of anthemic hardcore punk in the vein of H2O and Sick Of It All (albeit more of the former than the later) Despite my shallow knowledge pool of all things international hardcore, Italy’s own Strength Approach has a new disc out on Pee Records. (at least for Aussie distribution) “All The Plans We Made Are Going To Fail” packs 15 original musical numbers, 1 obnoxious noise track and 2 covers (Black Flag and the aforementioned Sick Of It All) 18 tracks in just under 35 minutes. I like the sound of that. By that I mean that I like the sound of this disk. Now that I’m thinking about it, the vox remind my ever-so-slightly of John Connely of Nuclear Assault. You? … Here’s the important bits though: Good disk, action packed. There is some interesting guitar work and the music is tight and a piece of listening advice, this disc sounds good loud. Tell your neighbors that I said it was ok to crank the stereo.

-Jerry Actually

Talco – Tutti Assalti

[ad]

© 2005 Black Butcher / KOB Records

I tried to translate “Tutti Assalti” from Italian into English with the Google Tranlslator. It came out something like “All You Onslaught” I’m not sure exactly what they mean, but if you want me to make the attempt, it means sweet freakin’ ska from Italy. Talco sounds to me like part Streetlight Manifesto, part Potshot. It works well, resulting in fast paced upbeat ska and ska/punk.

I don’t speak Italian, but I get the sense that the music is motivated and politically aware. Something important to mention, from the bio sheet, “Talco are a highly antifascist and against racism ska-punk band. They believe in music independence and in the massage it has to send against every kind of discrimination.” I say bravo! Keep up the damn fine ska. I hope to hear more from Talco. Maybe someday I’ll even know what they are singing about.

–Jerry Actually