Zine reviews (1. quarter 1998)

Horizons #4
(Winter 97, größtenteils deutsch, A5, 48 Seiten)

The zine is mainly made by Gonzo, the singer of the band Lebensreform from Hamburg. He and some of his pals write about the things going on in their minds. Of course music is involved, but the review pages, which are a little bit annoying in other zines, are reduced to a minimum. The writing is good, easy reading on the one hand, but informative and reflecting the writer's personality on the other hand. I liked the fact that there was no advertisement. All in all this zine is honest, straight and breathes the power of hardcore. A good one.

No Labels #4
(???, English, full size, 64 p)

Didn't like this one. Lots of advertisement, including ads of Revelation, Epitaph and Victory. 64 pages, of which are 24 pages ads and 10 pages record reviews. Too much of any of them. The rest of the zine contains interviews with Neurosis, Bloodlet, Orange 9mm, Metroschifter, Iceburn. Some not very in depth columns. No, I don't like the direction this thing takes. I wouldn't say they're doing for the money, but hell, it's all so normal and in line. Naa, for me one of the decent zines.

Simba #10
(???, English, half size, 56 p)

Vique's egozine. After I read this issue, I went out and got me some other Simbas. She writes about the things that move her, and I can relate to a lot of it. This personal stuff is divided into lots of small paragraphs, which are only loosely connected, but very intense (to me). Often one paragraph was all I could take, I had to take a break then and let things settle down a bit. But it was well worth the effort. Good and personal interviews with Split Lip and Texas Is The Reason also included. Five of five lions to the lady.

Muddle #9
(Fall 96, English, full, 64)

A cool one. Attitude and ad/writing relation is good. Most of the zine consists of band interviews, of which the larger ones (Lifetime, Project Kate, Dave Smalley and Silent Majority) are well done and pretty informative, whils the smaller ones should have been left aside, cause they looked like fillers too much. Also I didn't like the music reviews. All in all, this is a good zine, mostly music oriented with one or two thoughts on social issues. I'm missing critical distance to the Krishna stuff, though.

Wasted Paper #7
(Winter 96/97, A4, 68 Seiten)

Punk as fuck. Schnippel-Layout mit viel zum Lesen und einigem zum Denken. Auch wenn ich mit der alles-Scheisse Stimmung von Nagel und Wiesmann nicht unbedingt immer übereinstimme, ist das Heft doch verdammt intensiv und auf jeden Fall lesenswert. Absolute Oberliga. Ach ja, und keine Werbung !!!

Remember who you are #2
(Mai 97, A5, 28 Seiten)

Irgendwie sind Zines von Frauen oft anders als die von Männern. Persönlicher, direkter und mehr aus dem Bauch, weniger theoretisch und meistens nicht so Musik-(oder Politik-)zentriert. Bandinterviews sind zwar ganz nett, ich les' sie auch manchmal ganz gerne, besonders wenn's mir selbst nicht so prall geht und ich keinen Bock habe, mich von den Problemen/Gedanken anderer Leute zustzlich aufwühlen zu lassen, im allgemeinen sind mir aber die persönlichen Sachen lieber. Dies hier ist von Andrea aus Bremen, die sich selbst als Punk-Lesbe bezeichnet. Die beiden 'Szenen' scheinen (zumindestens in Bremen) recht streng voneinander getrennt zu sein, und Andrea erzählt von den Schwierigkeiten (Anfeindungen!), mit denen sie zu kämpfen hat, wenn sie versucht sowohl Punk als auch Lesbe zu sein. Außerdem gibt's noch : Gedanken zu L7, (lesbischer) Separation, schwulen/lesbenfeindlichen Äußerungen in der Punkszene und zu einem Typen, der mal mit ihr befreundet war und sie vergewaltigt hat. Alles sehr persönlich gehalten. Mein Respekt vor soviel Offenheit und Ehrlichkeit. Meine Gesamteinschätzung: lesenswert, besonders wenn mann sich noch nicht so oft mit diesen Themen auseinandergesetzt hat.

Ripping Thrash #13 / Why #4
(April 97, English, half, 48)

Another one of Ripping Thrash's split issues, this time with Why. Each of the zines got 24 pages.
Ripping Thrash :
Some of the stuff was originally done to use them in "Problem Child" zine (RIP) and was taken over by Steve for Ripping Thrash, including a Spite interview. Intention and ad/writing relation is good and very DIY oriented, but there are too much reviews (11 of the 24 pages). Maybe in the next issue this will change again, because space was obviously very limited.
Why :
I liked the Why part more than Ripping Thrash. More writing and two interesting interviews, one with Mel Hughes, one with ex Napalm Death singer Barney Greenway. John left all the ads out due to space shortage, which is a cool preference. A good one.

An atrophied preface, wouldn't you ? '96
(Sommer 96, A5, 104 Seiten)

Sommer steht drauf, bloß hab ich keine Ahnung, welcher Sommer gemeint ist. Könnte sein, daß das Ding schon ueber ein Jahr bei mir rumliegt, aber sicher bin ich mir da nicht. Ich vermute mal, daß es Sommer 96 war (Ich hatte recht! Ich hab' 'ne neuere Nummer in die Hand bekommen, wo wieder Sommer drauf steht, das ist dann wohl der letzte gewesen :) ). Das Zine ist gleichzeitig der Gesamtkatalog vom Maximum Voice Mailorder (mensch kann sich also schon denken, daß das Ganze recht Krusten/DIY zentriert ist), hat aber auch viele Interviews (Autonomy, Los Crudos, Nabate und mehr) und viel Persönliches. Wie gesagt, sehr DIY geprägt und von daher sowieso klasse. Und dazu dann das Angebot von ca. einer Million Platten (und ein paar CDs) zu sehr fairen Preisen. Runde Sache.
Maximum Voice Production, Andre Sieg, Postfach 26, 04521 Leipzig

Ripping Thrash #14
(Autumn 97, English, half, 44)

Dedicated to DIY and anarchopunk/hardcore. Contains two Slovenian and a Turkish scene reports and short interviews with Disorganized, Assert, Global Holocaust and Rot. Also included a longer interview with Forca Macabra and some advices for releasing a benefit tape, some stuff about poverty in Canada and some good thoughts about the self claimed (or assumed) superiority of people involved in punk/hardcore. And of course there are some reviews :)
I've seen only split issues of Ripping Thrash before and found them a bit patchworked. Very short articles and interviews, which often are not very in-depth. This (single) issue is somehow similar, but not THAT condensed. Don't get me wrong, this is a good zine with great attitude and interesting articles, but most of them are so damn short, and it's very difficult to do really intersting stuff on two pages. The exception is the very interesting
text about superiority by Andreas Milward, which I just stole ;) and put in the WWW because I liked it. After all a good zine which sometimes tends to be mediocre, but Andreas' text is worth a look (and thought).
(Feb 10, 1998)
Ripping Thrash Zine, c/o Steve, PO BOX 152, Burton on Trent, STAFFS DE 14 1XX, UK

Fast Connection #3
(August 96, English, A4, 64 p)

Very interesting zine. Somehow connected to the Slampt "Empire", but i didn't exactly figure out how. FC is not just limited to the musical context of punk/hardcore, but also touches "indie" music style. Far too often these days the label "indie" has lost most of its original meaning, has sometimes even perverted to describe industry related pseudo-indies. Luckily, FC / Slampt are different, and I'm really enjoying it when terms like DIY are applied to non-punk stuff. Btw., the Slampt people consider themselves as punk, and even if they're not completely fitting the punk description by musical taste (there's a long Alternative TV article, which is not exactly what I personally regard as punk - on the other hand there's the Ebola tour diary), they certainly do by attitude. Also inside FC : Very interesting columns, an "internal" discourse on riot girlism (in the UK), interviews with Andru Clare, Curll, and Lonely, how to release a 7", some comics and some reviews. Nearly no advertising at all, which alltogether makes an extraordinary zine for me.
(Feb 10, 1998)
Fast Connection, PO BOX 54 HEATON, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE 65 YW, UK

Hickey
(???, English, A6, 30)

This is a bit difficult to review. It's fuckin' great, but doesn't fit in the 'classic' zine scheme. No record reviews, no band interviews, not even ads I could complain about ;) It's just Jane Shagstamp and her experiences with and thoughts about the sex business. Very inspiring, very careful done, very different and so damned beautiful. It's arty, in a good sense, it's how art should be. Damn, can't exactly express my feelings - I think I just fell in love with this "zine". Extraordinary !
(Mar 6, 1998)
Jane Shagstamp, PO BOX 298, Sheffield, S10 1YU, UK



Boris Wirtz, page last modified on Thu May 20,1999