The Formative Years – Raw Power

Italian hardcore punk from the 1980s is something to savour and Raw Power is just one example of how much of a trailblazing scene it was.

My first exposure to Raw Power was via the Maximum Rock’n Roll’s fantastic international punk and hardcore compilation, Welcome to 1984, but it was not until I heard their debut album Screams from the Gutter that I fell for them hook, line and sinker.

Released by Toxic Shock Records after extensive tours of the US, where the album was also recorded, Screams from the Gutter is not only graced with artwork depicting a melting mutant courtesy of Vince Rancid but was imbued with an unrivalled and unhinged venomous spirit, which reflected the disgust for the uglier sides of this earthround.

The album kicks off with State Oppression and catapults one into an unbridled crossover whirlwind, which with its energy, powerful double-time drumming, dual guitars and deranged Lemmy-esque vocals upped the ante a year before bands like Corrosion of Conformity and Suicidal Tendencies releases their respective first albums. The album peaks with the song Raw Power, which is an anthem that combines all the elements I love about hardcore punk from Italy.

Crazy to think that Screams from the Gutter was sold more than 40,000 times through independent distribution alone and that Guns’n Roses opened for Raw Power in 1986.

Thus Let Us Drink Beer – Modus Operandi + The Mill Brewery

With its credo “Beer first, no shortcuts”, Modus Operandi has over the last seven years made waves by not merely being accolade decorated for literally all of their core releases, but by supplementing them with a diverse range of experimental releases, each of which being an homage to the joys of craft beer.

Having raved about Modus Operandi’s ode to the former devil’s lettuce growing tenant of their site before as part of this series, i.e. the formidable marriage of Galaxy and Mosaic hops crowned by a caramelly sweetness that is the Red Tenant Red IPA, I was looking forward to sampling the most recent emissions of the brewery that is now proudly run on 100% Green Energy.

The triple hazy, dry hopped Neon Nectar Hazy IPA is not only a name that just rolls off the tongue, but is one that both in terms of hoppyness and appearance is exactly as bright and vibrant as the telling name would have you think. 

The nectar component takes centre stage with a fruity melange of peachy apricots dancing with citrussy melon flavours, with just the right amount of tarty bitterness cutting through, rounding out a lip-smacking fulminant experience. 

Clocking in at 6.5%, an extremely sessionable little number.

Modus Operandi’s Future Factory IV is the latest instalment of their series. I vividly remember that a previous incarnation proved to be a monster of a IIIPA ten percenter, compared to which the IV lands us in relatively tame territory. 

With an ABV of 8%, this hop forward Double IPA, which showcases pineapple, citrus, and piney aromas against a backdrop of grapefruit and tangerine, proves to be the ideal piquant companion to a dram of the excellent John Paul Peated Cask Strength. 

Despite being a hop head and IPA aficionado, Modus Operandi’s Imperial Sour Acid Januar took me by surprise. 
Pink in appearance, I was in for a berry ride through bright, sweet-tart territory, pervaded by just the right amount of acidity. 

With an ABV of 8%, a delightful combination of sour beer and raspberries that is super refreshing and strangely satisfying.

THE MILL BREWERY 

In the coastal capital of the south-eastern Australian state of Victoria, Collingwood has established itself over the last five years on the forefront of hotbeds for mushrooming craft breweries, partly due to the fantastic brews emanating from The Mill Brewery.

With founder and head brewer Mirek Aldridge having honed his craft via experimenting with homebrewing,  his hobbyhorse eventually became his vocation with the brewery starting its operations in 2017.

What originally started with a trio of beers, has evolved to a fulminant line-up of both core classics and new, experimental beers that push the envelope as far as taste nuances are concerned.

My first exposure to The Mill Brewery was via their El Toro IPA and unlike the name suggests and the bullishly bitter kick it delivers, I find it to be an immensely enjoyable, well-calibrated hop forward West Coast styled IPA.

Orangey in appearance, tropical fruity notes are married with piney, resinous nuances, set against a dominant bitter backbone and by masterfully catering to seemingly opposing flavour profiles, the complex whole accumulates to much more than the sum of the individual constituents suggests.

With its dry and clean finish and clocking in at an ABV of 6.7%, it is a borderline ideal IPA to be paired with a smoky Islay whisky, in my case a dram of the recently released Octomore 13 series. 

Delicious.

With the classic US IPA styles mastered, I was intrigued when I learned about Mill Brewery’s endeavour to channel its alchemy in exploring hops native to the Southern hemisphere:

Mill’s Southern Lights expression is, as the telling name suggests, based on the quartet of Nelson Sauvin,  Nectaron hops from New Zealand as well as Idaho 7 and Citra Cryo hops from the US. 

What tickles the nostrils upon approach is that classic, sweet and sharp lawn smell.

Flavour- and ABV-wise, the result is a bit more tame than the aforementioned El Toro with the melange of the hop profiles informing what materializes on the palate in terms of sweet-tarty wine, grapelike flavours, shadowed by degrees of peachy mango and a distinct tinge of bitterness.

If the two IPAs and the excellent merch range, which artfully pays homage and signifies the designs of Black Metal bands, are anything to go by, I cannot wait for The Mill Brewery to create IIPAs as they are bound to take things to the next level.

The Formative Years – Corrosion of Conformity

Corrosion of Conformity started out in 1982 as a classic hardcore punk band and eventually evolved to create their own brand of slowed down, blues influenced crossover metal.

COC’s debut full-length Eye for an Eye was released in 1984 and delivered twenty well-thought out trashers. 

Things got interesting in 1985 when Corrosion of Conformity released their second album Animosity, issued on Metal Blade’s Death Records and demonstrated how different they really were from all the other contemporary bands like D.R.I., Raw Power, Dr. Know that were lumped into the “crossover” genre.

While COC was clearly influenced by the same ground-breaking early-1980s metal bands, they were not merely inspired by first generation metal bands like frantic era Bad Brains and the more sinister elements of Black Sabbath, but lifted their riffs, played them in an accelerated manner to then add sludge and doom nuances in their brooding breakdowns and topped their hectic tantrums off with demented vocals.

Animosity created a wonderfully greasy, violent bass driven link between punk, thrash, crust core and metal in a way that was no longer about speed but heaviness. The fact that the cover artwork was created by Pushead did not hurt either.

A brutally effective album that was far ahead of its time, which is why it is not further wondrous that bands like Metallica and Mr. Bungle keep covering songs from it.

Let There Be Light

Musing on the Art of Illumination

Ever entered a space and felt immediately at ease? 

While there are a range of factors at play when it comes to interior design resulting in a sense of well-being, chances are that lighting has been addressed as an integral part of the collaborative design process to effectively distribute luminescence, eliminate harsh lighting and shadows within an area in a bid to shape and imbue a more impressive space with ambience - be it via employing techniques like layered lighting with multiple light sources to create a distinct atmosphere or other advancements in technology and lighting control to manage intensity and make adjustments to the mood of lighting throughout the day, 

Needless to say, light sources, their design and their nuances play a vital role and can not only accentuate the beauty of light but with the chosen materials and shapes bring underlying concepts to the fore.

The year is MMXXII and the design landscape is entirely occupied by mass produced lighting sources. Well not entirely! One small baroque, coastal town in Sweden still holds out against the soulless cool. 

For close to 150 years, Karlskrona Lampfabrik have resisted ever-increasing time constraints and wage differences by manufacturing their lamps true to their small-craft ethos. By adapting their production to the design of household appliances instead of the other way around and still using the same German machines from the 1880s, each and every lamp leaving Karlskrona is not merely unique but informed by designs that are infused with the architectural language of antiquity and further accentuated by a  firm belief in the fact that a quality, manufactured product crafted from quality materials is an investment that not only illuminates the confines of your abode but your soul and through its sustainable attributes also minimises the damaged done to the environment and the wallet. 

With Karlskrona Lampfabrik’s idiosyncratic holistic approach, which entails the consideration of design, product development and craftmanship in equal measure, they not only embody a renaissance for Swedish craftsmanship but demonstrate their expertise in how to cast a flattering light, stemming from their deep affection for the independent firm’s traditional paraffin-powered glass lanterns – and once one has been engulfed in the warm glow of their light sources, it will prove difficult to make do with less subtle offerings.

Another example par excellence for a conceptual endeavour in the realm of adding an intriguing facet to what light sources can be is the collaboration between London based Mathias Hahn and Marset: Informed through his background in Industrial Design, enabling him to work according to production and manufacturing processes and intrinsically driven by a natural desire for designing towards use and functionality, the creation of the Theia lamp for Marset was inspired by the impulse to create an everyday item and solve a particular problem without neglecting the narrative and playful side of the design process in a bid to form a layered and intertwined symbiosis.

Quintessentially the Theia lamp with its materials is a thinly veiled homage to duality of the yin and yang, the sun and moon, merging shadow and light in unison and of course, with its telling name, the Greek goddess and forebearer of the sol, the crescent and the aurora.

With its two-faced ability to manually swivel the sturdy fixture around its central axis, Theia’s opaque’s lampshade can either be positioned to be used as a reading light or to create a subtle, indirect light source, thereby shifting not only the distribution of light but beautifully marrying different spheres horizontally, vertically and intersectionally through projecting, reflecting and absorbing light.

The common denominator of Marset’s approach to designing lighting and its collaborations is not merely a passion for the complexity of light but the celebration of light as a multifaceted, thrilling and enduring experience to improve people’s quality of life, informed by a deep understanding of the role of darkness.

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image from company website

The Formative Years - Prong 

It was a pure coincidence that I came across Prong in the early 1990s via a tape a much older metalhead friend compiled for me and it took me a while to get into them.

While it felt like metal, there was something unique to their sound as they managed to create a melange of seemingly contrasting musical influences with their own idiosyncratic twist on it.

Prong’s full-length Beg to Differ did not only come with cover artwork courtesy of but was essentially one of the first recordings that was not only rooted in thrash metal but with its up-tempo, dissonant pumping riffage laid down what later on was to be classified as “groove metal”. It kicked open the doors and created a foundation and reference point for bands like Helmet, Pantera and White Zombie to base their sound on. 

By marrying the rawness of punk with subliminal stop and go rhythms of noise rock and thereby utilizing negative space to their advantage, Prong was one of the distinctive trailblazing pioneers of slick and accessible alternative metal 

While the sound production feels at times a tad sterile and clinical and could have benefitted from a bit of grime, Beg to Differ is a classic album that broadened my horizon and appreciation for experimentation and heaviness opposed to speed.