Given the state of the world economy and the fear that the next recession is just around the corner, I decided to pull out this oldie from the shelf and give it a spin.
If all our financial woes are caused by the free market economy, capitalism, exploitation and greed, let's blast some socialist hardcore to remind us of all the mistakes we have made - comrade!
Manliftingbanner - 10 Inches That Shook The World.
It seems almost silly now looking back on how I reacted or felt when I first heard this record. Musically, it is pretty much by the numbers hardcore . Youth crew type sound with lots of speed and not a hint of heavy or metal.
Lyrically and image-wise though, this was "controversial". Manliftingbanner was the first band I ever heard that expressed blatent socialist, Marxist and communist political ideologies.
It was very different from the Dead Kennedys, MDC or Crass "smash the state" anarchy lyrics that you almost expected from punk bands. On the other side of the spectrum, 80's hardcore always seemed to lean to the right if it got political with Agnostic Front, YDL or Murphy's Law.
This record was 100% Communist. That was pretty shocking to me. The Berlin Wall had only been down for a couple years, but it wasn't like we were embracing the old Soviet Union. I grew up being terrified of the Soviet Union. It took five Dutch kids to bring the ideology out of the tv set and into my music world. Ahhh, The Dutch.
Ten Inches That Shook The World was released on Crucial Response Records in 1992. I think it was back when it was a European only label and way before the internet or ebay. I wasn't going to find this record at the local record store. I just waited until my friend Geoff was ready to sell his copy. I waited a long time!
The layout has a lot going on not only with lyrics, but quotes from people such as Lenin and Trotsky to accompany the messages of the songs.
All in all, a pretty cool record that threw a lot of ideas at you including the positivity of straight edge, environmental issues, sexism, the exploitation of the weak and poor, along with radical violent communism. Heady stuff.
try living in a communist country and maybe you'd think twice. I would never support this band for those reasons. I've lost so many loved ones for a bullshit ideology. I guess if it hit a little closer to home you would also think twice.
ReplyDeleteI think you never read ourlyrics nor our statements on stalinism. But just a question, from your line of reasoning, do you oppose democracy as well? It would be entirely logical to do so, the Vietnam war, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Columbia, Guatemala, the carpet bombings, the slaughtering of civilians on a mass scale were all done in the name of freedom and democracy.
DeleteI as a communist am a firm believer in democracy (no i'm no a stalinist) in a world in which normal people determine their own destiny. I however do not condone the violence committed in the name of democracy for it's a scam, it's a different type of democracy that produced this mass violence.
Never judge a book by its cover, judge us for our content. For I mourn to those killed by stalinist butchers.
Pretty cool write-up---this was one of those records I'd always heard about but didn't think I'd ever see...I liked all the incarnations of this band: Larm, Seein' Red---another weird combination was Monster X--straight edge-grindcore--cool blog keep it up
ReplyDeletethey actually have a new album out! https://www.facebook.com/manliftingbanner
ReplyDeleteAnd to the people complaining about their communist ideology and comparning it to the so called "communist countries" those countries weren't communist, and also manliftingbanner says so, just read some of their interviews.
Ah the old that wasn't real communism argument.
Delete"Ah the old that wasn't real communism argument." according to the definition of the word they weren't, nor did they even claim to achieve communism
DeleteHi we have the vinyl of this, bought many years ago, but no way of playing/listening to anymore. Would anyone please have a link to any download, thanks very much :) please email to coughcool72@hotmail.com
ReplyDelete