Horizons #4
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
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
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
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
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
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
Another one of Ripping Thrash's split issues, this time with Why. Each of the zines
got 24 pages.
An atrophied preface, wouldn't you ? '96
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.
Ripping Thrash #14
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 :)
Fast Connection #3
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.
Hickey
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 !
(Winter 97, größtenteils deutsch, A5, 48 Seiten)
(???, English, full size, 64 p)
(???, English, half size, 56 p)
(Fall 96, English, full, 64)
(Winter 96/97, A4, 68 Seiten)
(Mai 97, A5, 28 Seiten)
(April 97, English, half, 48)
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.
(Sommer 96, A5, 104 Seiten)
Maximum Voice Production, Andre Sieg, Postfach 26, 04521 Leipzig
(Autumn 97, English, half, 44)
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
(August 96, English, A4, 64 p)
(Feb 10, 1998)
Fast Connection, PO BOX 54 HEATON, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE 65 YW, UK
(???, English, A6, 30)
(Mar 6, 1998)
Jane Shagstamp, PO BOX 298, Sheffield, S10 1YU, UK