Sunday, January 11, 2009

Reframe The Concept

Regret (off their No Hatred 7", Windmill Records # 3, 1998)

Senfedge is all about records from the 1990s, as you may have noticed. Emo, Hardcore, Crustpunk, Garage and everything else that doesn't fit any category but somehow falls into the DIY-category nonetheless.

Another crucial commitment of senfedge is to document the Austrian hardcore-scene from the time. There is a chance, but it is perhaps rather unlikely that any of my international readers will have heard of Konstrukt, Manface, Kobayashi, Prohaska or H-Street, to name only a few. Well, the first and the latter stand the highest chances.

I already posted a few songs from Austrian bands before, and you know what, now it is the perfect time for another installment because my good friend Thomas Hoffer celebrated his birthday last night and a whole crew of beautiful people came out to dance cunningly to swedish metal and to drink white whine spritzers like there's no tomorrow. Perhaps even some hearts were broken? Good ol' Lord only knows. Loads of people came out to party, including almost the entire line-up of this band...

Reframe The Concept were an odd little outfit from Vienna. I am sure they'll agree that they never really fitted in with any of the other bands in Austria at the time, bands that were either playing fast and spazzy hardcore in the vein of Charles Bronson, or others that couldn't really be defined either, like Konstrukt or (sorry for tooting my own horn) Manface.

And that's a good thing.

Reframe had a bit of a reputation as being the only emo band from Vienna because they looked like they jumped straight off the Jade Tree or Doghouse catalogues. But nothing could be further from the truth; Reframe The Concept were actually the first ones to really take real metal seriously, and who would lace Maiden-esque harmonies into their songs. Yes, other bands at the time did that too, but not in Vienna (Falltime went metal much later). Reframe's sound is perhaps most closely linked to Unbroken, but that's about as far as I will go to compare them with other bands.

This 7" came out in 1998 on Windmill Records, and it's already their final release. Still they made it onto SRA, perhaps one of the only Austrian punkhardcoreemowhatever bands to have their own entry up there.

They would later go on to form The Atlantic Monthly, which were indeed more emo and quieter altogether. Thomas also sang in another band I had, called Heisenberg, but that's another story for another time.




Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Thomas!


Click for bigger. Guess who shot that pic for the label, uncredited ;)

mp3: Reframe The Concept - Regret

previous posts in the Austria-Series:
10 years of DIY / Exhibition
Manface pt. 1
Und Keiner Weint Uns Nach compilation 7"

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Destroy

Remote Control (off Necropolis LP, Sound Pollution # 19, 1995)

I won't even apologise for not having posted anything for nearly half a year, because no one likes apologisers. But I will say thank you to everyone who keeps checking back, who subscribes to the RSS-feed, who downloads from here, who links to this site; in short, everyone who makes the internet great. That means YOU! Thank you!

Let me kick-off the year with a really bleak little number, is that OK? We keep hearing about how bad 2009 will be economically, and we actually know it will be. Uh-oh. But you know what? 2010 will be worse, so 2009 will actually be the best year yet. Makes sense, doesn't it?

-----------------

For the first post in the new year I've chosen Destroy from Minneapolis, it's a little nod towards my buddy Dave who is from Minnesota, and who misses the place from time to time. I'm not sure what listening to Destroy will do to him, whether it will make him teary eyed or whether he'll actually super glad he's not there anymore - who knows!

Destroy were a loud and angry crust band from the early 90s, and Necroplis was their final record. They didn't take themselves too seriously though, which is always a bonus. You will probably know some of the members even now: Felix von Havoc was on vocals, Dan from Profane Existance also sang (did I get that right?) and Mark Wilcox went on to play in one of my favorite bands of all time, Impetus Inter. I had a column in Profane Existance once, perhaps I should dig that one out and scan it. Until that I'll send a big hello to Dan.



mp3: Destroy - Remote Control

(Yes, the sample is that cut-off at the beginning. Hey, this is crust-punk, what do you expect? A vanilla soya latte? If the answer is yes, then please get me one, too, please.)