It's Been A Rowdy Hour b/w Smoking Indoors Is Back

Hello everyone,

Once again, a show. Starts with a rave brain navigating their long lost Gran Turismo saves and only goes up from there. We have some events and some thoughts.

Sometimes You End Up In A Warehouse That Charges £4 For A Coca Cola b/w VIDA VIDA VIDA VIDA

V: Had a couple of weeks of restoratively sick and ehh how you say “Largely Not Approved By A Local Council” events. First of all, big ups to the Roca crew who pulled off the latest instalment of their Rock Music events, free experimental electronic music outdoors! I posted up early and spent the whole day there, especially taken with Excel DJ’s “ghost performance” DJ drops, Friend Of The Show piggybankshoe and getting to see one of my favourite current producers - Lisbon’s usof - perform 10 minutes from my house.

Legal but unorthodox, I went to see Dublin’s Dressing unravel cassette tape and my head in the basement of Hundred Years Gallery as part of EARWORM’s latest run of wild noise shows in the city. A bunch coming up, see you at some maybe.

I don’t generally assume everyone who listens to the show is as brain damaged by 20 years of dedication to raw DIY hardcore punk as me and Ben are, but we would be remiss to not mention the huge success of the inaugural Oh, What Fun? Fest this weekend just gone. Doing a fest of any kind outside of the circuit of major “legitimate” venues in this city is difficult in of itself, let alone introducing shows under a bridge, and this popped off. Thanks to John for allowing me to DJ frenetic gay disco on the Thursday evening, very cute.

My personal highlights were being at a hardcore punk fest full of trans people (both on AND off the bill), the sheer euphoria of PIÑEN performing for the first time since their London 2016 shows with Los Crudos, and the full-throttle intensity of LAME’s performance at Saturday’s afters. Impossible to describe Saturday’s aftershow venue in words without blowing up their (frankly incredible) Google Maps listing, but my partner walked up to me at one point and delivered the line “I’ve counted over ten textures on the walls”. I paid £4 for a coke repeatedly because they refused to give me any water, everyone smoked inside and when discussing the venue yesterday my friend told me she’d been to a sex party there. London has collapsed entirely and it is back, baby.

More formal, still sick: Saw The Body & Dis Fig tear my most hated venue in London apart (supported by Fitnesss + Lung completely dismantling the crowd for an hour - ending in them playing Born Slippy in full), Eris Drew & Octo Octa went deep surrounded by a front row of t-girlies (always a masterclass), and I attended Waste!’s recent exhibition by Emmy Aull’s 3 MONSTER TRUCK PAINTINGS. I recently discovered Em is also the head behind GOAT Punk Zine of the 2010s Cretins of Distortion. What a talent! Em is interviewed in the new issue of DEMYSTIFICATION ZINE which we can only give the biggest “RS APPROVED” stamp possible.

Repetitive Strain on Balamii • September 2024

B: I’ve settled into a pattern of selecting half “new earworms in my Bandcamp wishlist page” and half “what heaters are hidden in the mess that is my iTunes libary,” and I’d like to think there’s enough there to react to Vic’s selections. Always a good idea to keep an eye on what Lost Wisdom and Brainrotter Records are doing - the former putting out solo tapes from the hardcore set’s best and brightest, before coming out with Deep Bleak and the sort of gothic electro that occupied the edges of the Top of the Pops studio, the latter providing a record of rectangle music in UK ‘24. In particular, the UK release of 鏡 KAGAMI’s EP is extremely welcome, a band who I would spend five years of supermarket airmiles to go see. (The only English lyrics on that tape are ‘END APARTHEID NOW’.)

V: I’ve been stacking up way more music than I can play recently on the show, so this is a collection of new and my backlog. Long-term fans of the show should be well accustomed to my love of On-U Sound, but I had a recently fruitful digging trip and picked up a killer compilation of theirs by the name of Science Fiction Dancehall Classics with some great unreleased stuff. I’ll happily state in print that Trevor Jackson is a paper-thin bellend and failed edgelord, but don’t let that dissuade you. Japanese psych, evil ambient and submerged jungle - who is surprised, eh.

You don’t get much of it, but I closed out with Simon Fisher Turner’s score for Derek Jarman’s The Last of England. I’m a huge fan, but still working through his films slowly and had never seen this one (or Edward II, which I also just watched). Amazing gay chaos. Highly recommended. If you’re unfamiliar with Jarman’s work, go watch Jubilee immediately. Yes I have a Letterboxd account, no you can’t see it.

B: Should also mention, Billiam is once again on the show as he’s bringing over his Split Bills to Europe and performing at least four songs that centre around Sonic Adventure 2, I am sure of it. They play the Water Rats on October 25th.

01. Start Up - Demo Disc 02. ZWAARD 10 - Beans 03. Alive to Feel - Deep Bleak 04. Metal Boys - Hobbies of Today 05. Stebeni’s Theme - African Head Charge 06. Wrenched808 - Gavelman 07. Sunken Sleeper - Assyouti 08. Em Campo Aberto - Carlos Maria Trindade 09. Real Estate - Total Control 10. Azabache Necklace Bought to Protect My Daughter - Horoscope 11. Genetic Transmission - SPK 12. Bombs of Peace - Total Con 13. Like Insects - Malignant Order 14. ¡Viva la Palestina! - 鏡 KAGAMI 15. 今、立ち現われる (Appear Now) - Overhang Party 16. Heimweg - Brannten Schnüre 17. Boys With Plants - Soup Activists 18. Maid Dress - Billiam 19. Tonala - Simon Fisher Turner

All our Balamii shows can be found on Mixcloud, Soundcloud or Balamii’s website. Links to tracks available on Bandcamp can be found on our Buy Music Club.

We Are Attempting Something

A couple of in-universe events for you to consider: first of all, Ben has taken the plunge and is putting on Attempting Something, a weekend of gigs in South London across the last weekend of November. Mixed bills, familiar venues (Spanners, Avalon Cafe, the Ivy House) and karaoke booked, with all profits going to Free Kitchen Gaza and Medical Aid for Palestinians. Expect to hear some R S favourites in the between band playlists; it will be a Fine Time.

Come down: £30 (or £15 for unwaged/Universal Credit recipients) weekend tickets are on sale until the end of September.

The house band is back in business; our band Rubber are playing this suddenly-organised evening, with Barcelona’s BAIT and Shooting Daggers. Sebright Arms (down the road from Crypt of the Wizard), next Wednesday, see you there.

Finally, Bristol heads may also be interested to know that we’re supporting Uranium Club and psycho-post-everything clean-guitar hardcore freaks Gimic. I have been reliably informed it is “very close to selling out” so grip it if you wanna riff it! Ciao!

Ⓐ Oi! from South London Ⓔ

Repetitive Strain is free every month, both in audio and writing. However, supporting helps us along with radio fees, technical stuff, non-alcoholic beers. Feel free to throw us a little if you wish.

Free The Filton 18