L’Ordurier (“the filthy/obscene”) was the zine that a correspondent of mine, Guillaume Dumoulin from Grenoble, did during the second half of the 80s. In the 90s he released some tape-compilations and vinyl under the name Spock productions (also a distribution) and Strong Vision recs. After this he did a zine called Was? and before he had done Graffiti. Later (1992-93) he was the bassist of the Californian band ‘Less Miserables’ when he lived there.
Issues #2 & 3 (from 1985) are made available by the Fanzinothèque in Poitiers. In the 2nd issue there were presentations of ‘M.D.C.’, ‘Les Gnomes’ & Radio Mouvance (both from Paris); (sometimes rather brief) interviews with ‘Komintern Sect’ (Orléans), ‘Human Being’ (Dunkerque), ‘Annie Anxiety’, ‘Karnage’ (Clermont-Ferrand), ‘Inqu!etude’; cartoons and more. In the 3rd Guillaume talks with the ‘Bloody Fuckers’ (Mondeville), the Parisian label Jungle Hop International & ‘Verdun’ (Argentan); besides that: an article on police-torture, reviews, a presentation of ‘Butcher’ (Pantin), cartoons, etc.
Brob
I did several zines: one issue of Graffiti (1985; I was 13), three issues of L’Ordurier. Then came WAS? (aged 15): three issues (I hadn’t managed to print #3 in 1990 but I did in 2020.) There was also The Silver Frog (3 issues [early 90s]), S.P.O.C.K. (not a zine but more like an infosheet; 7 issues) and 2 issues of Le Chien Galeux [“the scabby dog”; 2nd half of the 90s].
My motivation to do my first zine was meeting Bruno Vincendon [Sucub association] who did 3 issues of his zine Noire Vision [“back/dark vision”] followed by 3 issues of Noire Inquietude [“black concern/worry”]. It was him who did me discover anarcho-punk, bands such as ‘Crass’, etc. My first zine, Graffiti, was blatantly copying Noire Vision, because I had no other references. It was all a real discovery, an opportunity to get out of this uptight and pre-formatted world, a bourgeois world and somewhat shallow as far as I’m concerned.
From WAS? to Le Chien Galeux (when I was 22), the real motivation was the interaction and the correspondences with people from all over the world. The search for punk-bands that I had never heard of was important. The moment when I opened my mailbox and discovered letters from Poland, the U.S. and even Belgium, was an incredible moment, because we were a community beyond borders and nations. Doing zines (and cecoming actively involved in the punk-scene) allowed me to meet people from diferent countries, to forge friendly and even romantic relations, to travel, to discover all sorts of bands and individuals, to find about politics and practicing some form of anarchism.
It has also led me to produce tapes/records, to organise concerts and have some experiences with squatting in Grenoble. So that thaught me that it’s possible to do things off the beaten track, outside the pseudo-normal, away from confrmism and perhaps to develop some thoughts free from all dogma.
Guillaume Dumoulin
Guillaume recently released the issue of Was? that was planned 30 years ago! I worked with him to translate and double-check Joey Shithead’s book A life In Punk for Rytrut Éditions [small independent association publishing books for music-lovers and music-history enthusiasts].
Raf ‘DIY’
Jungle Hop International was the label founded by Hervé Lagille (R.I.P.) & Stéphane Cressend; based in Nogent-sur-Marne (Paris) that released material of French (‘Heimat-los’, ‘Kromozom 4’, ‘M.S.T.’, ‘Flitox’, etc.) and intertnational bands.
[Translation below]
HISTORY
DO YOU KNOW WHAT JUNGLE HOP INTERNATIONAL IS? IT’S A CASSETTE-LABEL, A DISTRIBUTION/MAILORDER FOR RECORDS AND TAPES, AND PERHAPS A RECORD WILL BE RELEASD BEFORE THE END OF ‘85. SINCE APRIL ‘85 WE’VE RELEASED 3 TAPES.
GOTH 1: ‘THE BRISTLES’ – BAN THE PUNKSHOPS
THERE ARE 15 TRACKS ON THIS ONE. ALL ARE WELL PRODUCED WITH GREAT SOUND-QUALITY BUT DESCRIBING THEM MUSICALLY IS QUITE DIFFICULT. TRY TO IMAGINE A HUGE MELODIC SOUND, PLAYED VERY FAST WITH ‘SHAM 69’ SINGALONGS. SO FAR ‘THE BRISTLES’ HAVE RELEASED 2 EPs (THE FIRST IS TOTALLY SOLD OUT) AND THEY APPEARED ON A RANGE OF COMPILATIONS, INCLUDING THE FAMOUS WELCOME TO 1984, RELEASED JUST A YEAR AGO.
GOTH 2: LIHATUOTANTO 003 (COMPILATION)
THERE’S 6 BANDS ON THAT ONE: ‘ATROX’ (ENGLAND), ‘MENTAL CRISIS’ (U.S.A.), ‘W.D.M.’, ‘KLIMAX’, ‘CHINAPPI’, ‘LAPSILTA KIELLETTY’ (ALL 4 FROM FINLAND). THE SOUND-QUALITY RANGES FROM VERY GOOD TO NOT BAD. SOME OF THE TRACKS ARE HARDCORE PEARLS, OTHERS ARE MORE IN THE ‘77 STYLE. THERE’S SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE.
GOTH 3: RAPSODIE EN FRANCE (COMPILATION)
8 FRENCH HARDCORE BANDS. WE BELIEVE THE SOUND IS VERY GOOD FOR A COMPILATION. AND THE BANDS REALLY GIVE YOU VALUE FOR YOUR MONEY. FOR YEARS PEOPLE BELIEVED THE FRENCH HARDCORE-THRASH SCENE WAS A MIRAGE. LISTEN TO THIS ON A WALKMAN AND YOU WILL HAVE THE IMPRESSION TO BE SURROUNDED BY PERSHINGs (THE READER CAN ADAPT THE NAME OF THE MISSILE AT THEIR WISH). THE BANDS INCLUDED ARE: ‘LES VANDALES’, ‘RAPT’, ‘FINAL BLAST’, ‘KROMOZOM 4’, ‘BUTCHER’, ‘HEIMAT-LOS’, ‘BLOODY FUCKERS’ AND ‘GONOCOKE’. SOME OF THESE ALREADY APPEARED ON FOREIGN COMPILATIONS, OTHERS ARE PREPARING A RECORD (‘HEIMAT-LOS’ HAS ALREADY RELEASED A 7”). IN BRIEF YOU’LL DEFINITELY HEAR BACK FROM THEM.
IN SEPTEMBER WE SHOULD RELEASE OUR 4th CASSETTE WHICH WILL BE A C46 WITH A THRASH BAND (WORSE THAN HARCORE) CALLED ‘FOTTUTISSIMA PELLICCERIA ELSA’ [Italy]. THEIR LYRICS ARE QUITE POLITICAL AND THEREFORE WILL BE TRANSLATED TO 3 LANGUAGES. NEXT SHOULD BE THE RELEASE OF AN INTERNATIONAL COMPILATION, THEN A SERIES OF SPLIT-TAPES (2 BANDS FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, 1 PER SIDE); BUT YOU’LL LEARN MORE VERY SOON.
FOR NOW I’LD LIKE TO ADD THAT OUR TAPES ALL COME WITH BEAUTIFUL COVERS, INSIDE THERE ARE PHOTOS, INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTS ABOUT THE BANDS. MOREOVER ALL THE CASSETTES ARE OF GOOD QUALITY. IF YOU WANT TO RECEIVE THEM, IT WILL COST YOU 30 FF FOR ‘THE BRISTLES’ TAPE, 30 FF [4,50 Euro] FOR LIHATUOTANTO, 25 FF FOR RAPSODIE EN FRANCE. SHIPPING IS 5 FF FOR THE 1st TAPE, 2 FF FOR EACH OF THE FOLLOWING. MEMBERS OF OUR ASSOCIATION CAN BENEFIT FROM REDUCTIONS. WRITE TO US FOR MORE DETAILS. CHECKS, MONEY ORDERS, TO JUNGLE HOP INTERNATIONAL.
INTERVIEW
What was the purpose of founding the association?
For the pleasure of making music that we like to be more known, to allow bands to get known both in France and in the rest of the world. We have a lot of contacts; for the bands that means contacts with foreign countries for compilations and (why not) concerts. The fact of founding an association proves that in France, the big record-companies absolutely don’t want to take risks; and that’s the reason for the musical backwardness of France for all kinds of music: jazz, rock, reggae, hardrock, punkrock, hardcore. For our part, we try to develop punkrock, hardcore but it may be that we’ll release industrial bands. We want to organise concerts and above all to get a maximum of bands that are on the label known. But attention: we have no monopoly on these bands, we just help them out.
Do you think mailorder is a better way for bands than dropping off their vinyl in stores?
We believe it’s complementary. There’s no [distributions/stores] New Rose or Vinyl or Bunker in all the cities of France; while letters are arriving to us from all over France. This allows everyone to be able to get records regardless of where they live. This is the advantage of mailorder. Moreover, in general the price of records distributed by mailorder is often less expensive than those in the stores. Since 5 years mailorder has become very important in France and we should recognise that New Wave [Parisian zine/label] has something to do with it.
What kind of products do you plan to distribute in the future?
As much punkrock and hardcore as possible, industrial too. We don’t want to become a hardcore label. We’ld like to distribute Japanese, Australian, Greek, Polish records, from all countries of the world. We’re also waiting for French bands to write to us because they’re the ones who have written to us the least. That’s why there are so few French bands in our catalog. If French bands want to get distributed, they have to agree to donate some of their productions (record, tape) to send to the distribution-label; that’s very important. We receive press-books from all over the world but not from France.
Is a band’s anarchist ideology important as a criterium for distribution? If yes; is it the only one?
Absolutely not. The only thing we do not allow is nationalism. That’s a dangerous thing and most of the time this is what causes conflict. You shouldn’t be too passive either, you have to get the balance right. The bands we distribute can be fun, political, anarchist. Most bands are anarchist because they challenge power and its repression, strictly enforced laws and the stupidity of bureaucracy. So, at this time, practically all were anarchist. But I prefer to live in France rather than in Poland, the U.S.S.R. or Nicaragua or Chile.
Do your sales only cover France?
We try to sell our products all over the world. Currently Rapsodie En France is sold in Germany, the U.S., Italy, Finland and soon, I hope, in the U.K., Japan, Poland, The Netherlands. We want to be distributed all over the world to get the bands on the label known.
Don’t you think that all the distribution-labels will end up destroying each other and destroying the spirit of solidarity by selling the same records?
No, it gives the bands the opportunity to get themselves better known, moreover, we don’t necessarily have the same subscribers, the same contacts, the same people who order the records. It’s true that, at the beginning, we were afraid of distributing records of New Wave. We sometimes distribute some and we sell them without problems, mainly abroad because they’re not listed in our catalog. Moreover, all these labels are smart enough to understand that destroying the solidarity would mean destroying each other.
Do you have a lot of subscribers and people who order products from you?
For the moment the number of members is satisfying for us, we’ve only been around for six months and everything isn’t running perfectly yet. We made a lot of mistakes. The big problem concerns the stocks: we could sell more records but we don’t have enough money to purchase everything. The records of the first catalog sold very well; I hope the same will happen for the second.
“without censorship?”
“Cadáver Esquisito has no leader, nor sponsors, censorship-committees or support
U.P.S. (Underground Punk Support) – the zine done by Richard de Mos a.k.a. Rich Mosh or Richard U.P.S. (Rups) – was “totally dedicated to non-commercial D.I.Y. underground punk and HardCore”. It was written in English and sold all over Europe. Rich was based in Soesterberg (The Netherlands; between Utrecht & Amersfoort). He started in 1997 and soon distro-activities and a tape-label (e.g. Fuck The Copyrights & Proud To Be Gay compilations) followed. That turn into a ‘real’ record-label in 1999.
Brob Tilt's zine-world 2 