This was done by Marga & Fausto, two young people from Zaragoza [Arrabal is an area in Zaragoza]. Two issues were made available by Luis Andrades (VLC Hardcore/Punk: material gráfico, 1980-2000).
#1 (’89): interviews with ‘2 Bad’, ‘Dark Age’ (Zürich, Swi), ‘Seein’Red’, ‘Youth Of Today’ (Ray Cappo); bios of ‘Prophets For Profit’ (Northern Ireland), ‘SoulSide’, ‘Filthy Christians’ (Falun, Swe), ‘H.D.Q.’; an artícle on vegetarianism, columns, etc. #2 (’91): conversations with ‘Seven Sioux’ (Linz, Öst), ‘Life But How To Live It’, ‘Matraka’ (Pamplona, Spa), ‘Man Lifting Banner’, ‘Shelter’, ‘Gorilla Biscuits’; bios of ‘Contropotere’, ‘Nations On Fire’, ‘Rat Patrol’; columns, letters, reviews, news and more.
Brob
Arrabal is normally an area on the outskirts of a city. In the past, the word had the connotation of being coarse/vulgar and we liked it, so it stayed with us.
A.H.C. ‘zine started as a means to share our political views and our stance on animal-liberation combined with our passion towards HC/punk music. We were strongly influenced by American and European publications from the European D.I.Y. scene. We thought that we really wanted to give it a try, and do a fanzine in which our influences and interests were reflected and shared. We only published two issues in the 90s and people can clearly see what our influences were. We also ran an alternative distribution [records & T-shirts], organised some shows and later on started a small record-label.
We learned a lot from making a fanzine. A huge amount of skills were needed to be really D.I.Y.; the whole process of editing and publishing a ‘zine was in your hands, we didn’t use computers or the internet, almost everything was done by hand and the budget was very low. Being able to get in touch with people who lived far away (to get things like the answers to an interview, a photo or a record) was also a challenge.
I can say that it was a great experience that proved that anybody could contribute to the scene as long as there was an idea and the will. Money was a secundary thing since, for example, the printing-quality was not a must; the important thing was the content and creativity.
The best thing about it was getting in touch with people from all over the world. We had the opportunity to get to know people who lived nearby or others who lived far away. I remember going to the post-office every week and coming home with lots of letters/parcels, mainly from people we didn’t know in person and that was amazing. We still have friends from that time and the bond is really special.
The idea behind the ‘zine was that of including bands that we liked musically and also had something interesting to say. We wanted to know more about political bands such as Seein’Red or Manliftingbanner, also about bands that we listened to on a daily basis like Gorilla Biscuits or Youth Of Today, or about bands that come to our town to do a show. Taking the chance to convey the message of animal-liberation to a scene in which it wasn’t as widespread as it was later on, was very important too.
Both Fausto and I teach English to adults at state-schools. We mainly learnt it by listening to punk-records and exchanging letters with other punk/hardcore kids from around the world…
Marga
‘Dark Age’ was a Swiss anarcho punk band with Markus ‘Mäge’ Sulger (vocals; later ‘Böppel’), ‘Dambi’ Claudio D’Ambrosio (guitar), Fabian ‘Fäbe’ Gasser (bass) & Frank Scheier (drums; R.I.P.). They rose from the ashes of Zürich punk bands ‘The Decay’ (these included guitarist/singer Andy ‘Riot’ Bürkli & drummer ‘Pablo Resistance’) and ‘Victims Of Society’. ‘Dambi’ & ‘Fäbe’ were in ‘Mona Lisa Overdrive’ later…
[Translation below]
We’re a HardCore band from Zürich, the largest city in Switzerland. All of us came from other bands before playing in ‘Dark Age’. Our band exists since March ‘87. In May of that year and after only 7 weeks of rehearsal, we recorded an EP called Kali-Yuga. The record sold out but to be honest I should tell you it wasn’t that good. We played several times since then with bands such as: ‘Social.Unrest’, ‘Inferno’, ‘Kina’, ‘M.D.C.’, ‘Heibel’, ‘The Accüsed’, ‘Original Disease’ [France]. For some time we didn’t play since we concentrated on making new songs. Our style has changed a lot since the EP. Now we play faster, songs are longer and more complicated. We’re convinced that we have our own style and we try to introduce other styles in our songs besides HardCore; such as jazz, funk or even classical structures, but it’s still HardCore or at least that’s what we believe. We try to play how we feel. Some bands that we like and influence us are: ‘C.C.M.’, ‘Toxic Reassons’, ‘R.K.L.’, ‘Social Unrest’, ‘Blast’, ‘Metallica’, ‘Negative Approach’, ‘Gorilla Biscuits’, ‘Gore’…
Perhaps now people can get a clearer idea of our sound. You can also listen to some of our songs on 2 compilation-LPs (on Co-Exist recs and on Sick recs [Andi Bürkli’s label].) from France and Switzerland. We also appeared on several compilation-tapes.
Because of the songs and the lyric-sheet of our album, we have what could be called a political image. Indeed we are a political band but we want to sing about something more than South-Africa, pollution or wars. Our most recent lyrics have a more personal nuance. What happens in our hearts is more important, because war and injustice are just symptoms. Real effort comes from your heart. The real force is the fight unleashed in our hearts. First look at yourself, try to be different from the system, not just in appearance. You have to change your way of life, your way of thinking and feeling before trying to change the world. This is what we try to teach. Of course it’s difficult since most people are very attached to their old ways of life, thinking and feeling taught by the system (whatever that may be).
We don’t think we’re any better or that we’ve found a new path. We have to face our own daily conformity. It’s a fact that the majority of anarchists, communists and alternative people are not capable of changing themselves. If they had to rule the world, their system would wear different clothes but basically it would be the same as the current one. Real change comes from your heart.
Myself (Frank), I do a radio-show. It’s a monthly programme, every 4 weeks, on a completely independent station called Local Radio (LoRa radio). That show is called HardCore Hour.
The station began as a pirate radio during the Zürich youth-revolts that occurred in the early 1980s and obtained its license in 1983. LoRa doesn’t broadcast any propaganda, nor does it receive subsidies; it’s totally free of capitalist influences. The money comes from contributions from its supporters and, of course, there are a lot of financial problems. At the end of 1986, the station suffered an attack perpetrated by the extreme right; because of that the programming had to stop: everything was destroyed and it took a lot of time, energy and money to rebuild everything. Forming the technical team, getting new material, records, etc. Fortunately, now, after 5 years of programming, it has improved a lot.
A principle of the station is that any minority – such as political refugees from Chile, Sri Lanka, Turkey, etc.; and of course the HardCore-punk movement – can have its own programme. They’re alos trying to achieve 50% participation of women in radio-activities, which is something truly unique.
In our HardCore programme we promote a lot of new material (demos, 7”s, …) which we intersperse with already well-known bands. Sometimes we also play classical stuff such as ‘Laibach’, ‘Foetus’, ‘Pink Floyd’, Hazel O’Connor and others we really like. We do it to show people involved in HardCore who’re stuck in their trends, that there are good albums outside the scene.
We need promotional material for the radio since it’s impossible for us to buy a lot of material. I’m sure there are good bands around in your area but send us some material to feature on our radio. We guarantee you a free copy of the programme if you send something. If possible include some information about your band. Regarding the release of the tapes: these are distributed by authorized people. If you’re interested, contact the address of the fanzine you are reading. If you prefer, you can buy them directly from Switzerland by sending 4 dollars and something for the mail.
You’re going to record a split-EP with ‘Kaoz’ from Peru on a label in Los Angeles called Headtrip recs. How did that project come about and why exactly with a Peruvian band?
As you said, the label is called Headtrip recs and it’s also the name of a good fanzine. It’s done by a guy named Gamiel [Benitez]; he’s one of the best people I’ve ever contacted. He asked me for an interview for his fanzine some time ago and we also sent him a tape with the band’s music and it seems that he liked it. He told me that he wanted to start his own record-label. I talked to him about how he had to proceed, about how the technical matters work and everything else. So he came up with the idea of producing something for ‘Dark Age’, a 7” or a split-7”. After some time he definitely asked us to record for which would be a 7” shared with ‘Kaoz’. Even though we’d never heard this band, we accepted because they can’t be bad people if he wants to produce something for them. There will be 2 songs of ours: Cityepidemie and No Alternative [appeared on the 1990 Red Rage LP]. Now we’re working on the cover, the lyrics-sheet, etc. We hope it will be ready soon.
One of the songs you planned to include on the record was Roots Of Life, which talks a little about religious beliefs. Could you tell us about the song and its meaning?
That song is written by ‘Mäge’ and talks about some of his beliefs, which can be a bit ‘religious’ if you want to call it that… It talks about reincarnation: the theory of life after the death of the body and when your soul goes to another body (be it human, animal or plant). “It’s a never-ending process”, meaning that a person is eternally reincarnated, over and over again unless (s)he tries to go beyond this materialistic way of life (in which we’re all immersed) and we concentrates on one life; spiritual and things like that. Too complex to explain here.
You’re all vegetarians. What are the reasons that prompted you to get serious about it?
That’s a very complex question. I can’t give a complete explanation here, it’s too complex a topic… Well, the main reason was (when we started) that we didn’t want to support the perverted, horrible, murderous, brutal meat-industry. Over time, we saw that there are dozens of good reasons to stop eating the dead flesh of innocent creatures. For example: meat-production is to blame for the people dying in the third world. We feed our animals with grain that we import from them, so they have nothing to eat and we give this food to the creatures that we kill shortly after. Meat is therefore completely anti-ecological, it’s indirect food. There are studies that prove that when we reduce meat-consumption by 20% there will be enough food for everyone. This is the political reason.
Another reason is that man is not a natural carnivore. We don’t have the body made for processing meat. Natural carnivores, such as lions for example, have intestines the length of 3 times their body. The human intestines are 10 or 12 times the length of our body. Thus: meat that begins to produce acid during decomposition can quickly escape into the stomachs of carnivores but not from human ones. Just look at the following table.
PHYSIOLOGICAL COMPARISONS
[…]
It’s hard to explain all our reasons in a language I’m not really good at so I’m not going to try anymore. Just one more thing: if anyone can give me a single reason why I should eat meat and support torture, or a single good reason against vegetarianism. Tell me! I know there is no reason. I have asked dozens of ‘carnivores’ already, and none of them have given me an answer. Eating meat is totally unnecessary, useless and wrong. After 4 years of living without eating meat, I feel better than ever!!! There’s no physiological need for humans to eat meat, so stop eating it. Nowadays everyone should know that meat is not healthy for the body because of cholesterol, purines, etc. Any doctor will tell you. I’m sorry I haven’t given all the reasons we have, I’ve only mentioned 2 or 3, but if you’re really interested in vegetarianism or if you need more reasons to stop eating meat, go to the Hare Krshna centre in your area and ask them for teh whole argumentation.
We know that you participate in the alternative movement, occupations, fanzines, demonstrations… Do you think it’s something that is growing or is it the opposite?
Yes, we’re very active in the political movement, especially during the last few years when a new movement has begun to grow here: protesting against the system and its profiteers who, for example, make us pay incredible rents. We’ve organised demonstrations, occupations and we also support direct violent actions, but never against people.
I can’t tell everything that has happened here for security-reasons: ‘activist’ people in the political scene are being monitored. Some have been arrested, only because they weren’t careful with what they said or wrote.
This movement began when some 100 people received an eviction-order from their homes in February of this year. They met and took to the streets for the first time on February 23rd. Around 600 people demonstrated their support and solidarity. Since then, there have been and still are weekly demonstrations against the incredible housing-shortage and against speculation: every Thursday night. Police have attacked protests week after week, firing rubber-bullets and smoke-canisters at people. Many were injured, women were beaten at the police-station and there’s a long list of aggressions. It’s really incredible, especially for those who believed that this was really a democracy with a right to express one’s opinion. 93% of the population of Zürich rent and pay a lot of money for their apartments. After 30 demonstrations, of which almost 20 ended in street-fights, some of us are tired of being beaten every week and a lack of solidarity from the population. At the moment it seems that the police have won (again) but primarily there will be more demonstrations… We’ll see what happens. For more information: you can expect a report in an upcoming Maximum RocknRoll. There will be a detailed report on the events that occurred here.
You were preparing a fanzine-project with Erich [Keller] (Megawimp) previously but it didn’t materialise. What happened?
We left it for different reasons: the first thing was that we don’t have time to do a regularly published fanzine, as we intended. It was a lot of work in addition to what we already had on our plates. We work on several projects, such as Stahl or Der Stachel. Stahl was supposed to be a fanzine mixed with political reports, a lot of music and other more materials contributed by Erich, the former editor of Megawimp. But as you already know: he has left the scene. So we looked for other people to do the fanzine with. We met 2 guys who participated in the political movement and who also belonged to the HardCore-underground scene. We wanted to give preference to political articles but of course we also wanted to include more normal things like interviews, etc.
Unfortunately we had to abandon without publishing a single issue but the material we collected went to other fanzines, so the work hasn’t gone lost. We will continue doing this, that is: writing for other fanzines.
What can you tell us about your record-label?
Our label is called Far Out recs. It used to be called Sick recs. That was started by Andy [Bürkli a.k.a. ‘Riot’ ] back in 1987. At that time he released our first 7” called Kali-Yuga. He also produced the first LP of ‘Gnä Gnä’ [Basel, Swi] and a 12” of the ‘Wicked’ [Zürich, Swi]. Except for the ‘Dark Age’ album, the others can still be obtained. Later, in the summer of ’88, we talked to him about releasing a Swiss compilation [Avalanche Swiss Underground] that we wanted to do. We had heard that he had similar plans and we decided to do the work together. After a lot of effort we finally finished this and when you read this, the album will already be out (or so we hope). There are 10 bands (including ours) and it contains a large booklet with all the lyrics and information. The album has a duration of 60 minutes. You can get it for 15 Swiss francs or 9 dollars (postage-paid for Spain). A 7” of ‘Fleisch’ [Oberrieden, Swi] (previously ‘The Grumpfurts’) has also appeared on Far Out recs. There are only 500 copies but a second pressing will follow if it sells well… So hurry up and get your copy for 6 Swiss francs or 4 dollars postage-paid.
An LP by ‘Infected’, a good thrashcore band from Zürich, should also be released soon. It contains 10 songs and lasts 40 minutes. Its price is 15 Swiss francs or 9 dollars.
Far Out recs has no relationship with major record-companies, we sell the records ourselves, which is a lot of work like (writing to distributors, recor- companies…). We also depend on people who sell copies in their area. This means that if you can help us, contact us. Special prices for distributors!
FACE OF DEATH
I can’t see, my eyes are closed with safety-pins. I can’t scream, my tongue is too swollen from being kicked in the face. I can’t move, my legs have been nailed to the ground. I hear them walking, I hear their footsteps on the ground. I can hear their whispers and laughter but I can’t see my killers. I only feel fear, nothing but pain and fear. I see the face of death. I don’t even know why I’m here. I can’t remember what I could have done. I begin to ask myself if it’s right or wrong to be tortured, because I can’t imagine that there couldn’t be a reason to look into the face of death. I’m always terrified of what the next second might bring. I can’t remember there was a time when I didn’t feel pain. I have lost the images of the sun and the trees, and of my previous life. I have lost everything, the images have been lost.
You’ve organised some concerts and on some occasions you’ve performed there. What opinion do you have about these bands as people (aside from their music), people like ‘The Accüsed’, etc.?
We’ve organised concerts with bands suh as ‘The Accüsed’, ‘R.K.L’, ‘M.D.C.’; and the first outdoor HardCore concert. Most of the bands were good people, really. At ‘The Accüsed’ concert there were a lot of people (more than 300), so we didn’t have much time to talk to the band… The ones that did surprise me because of how good and how friendly they are, were ‘Youth Of Today’. That concert was organised by Robi Zollinger, who does Speed Air Play (LoRa radio’s other HardCore show) so he did all the work and we had all the time to talk to the band. Honestly: I was expecting something different.
You’ve organised several concerts or at least you have seen a number of bands… Which ones did you like the best?
We’ve established contact with bands that have played here, even though the concert wasn’t organised by us. They have been especially cool people. ‘Social Unrest’, ‘R.K.L.’, ‘M.D.C.’, ‘Target Of Demand’ [Linz, Öst], ‘Distortion X’ [Bad Schwalbach, Ger], ‘Youth Of Today’, ‘Heibel’, ‘Verbal Assault’, ‘President Fetch’ and many more.
You toured Europe with the band and you also did so with ‘Heibel’. Which European scene do you think is the biggest, regarding cooperation, organisation or whatever?
Well, we didn’t really tour Europe. We only played in Germany… We have a lot of offers to play in Greece, Germany and France, but we’re not ready for that since we’ve been without a singer for a while. From what I know, Germany seems to have a great HardCore movement, one of the strongest and best organised, or at least that’s what I think. It’s hard to say which country has the best scene overall. I think you can only talk about areas or cities.
Which Swiss bands would you highlight?
I think that one of the best Swiss bands at the moment is ‘JayWalker’, who play a mix of HardCore and industrial punk (you already know ‘Gore’ and ‘Rollins Band’). Another good band is ‘Infected’. Also ‘Fleisch’ are really good and ‘Exxor’, ‘Profax’, ‘Frances Zorn’ and more…
Are there problems with drugs at concerts? What do you think about the use of alcohol, tobacco, hash…?
Sometimes there are a lot of drunks in the activities that are happening and they are really bad, but it’s not like a few years ago… Personally I’m against the use of drugs. They’re very destructive, anyone can figure that out. They try to cancel out the youth and that’s exactly what they’re doing. We saw this clearly in the events that occurred in Zürich in the early 1980s, where young people fought to defend an autonomous youthcentre, where there were lots of concerts and other alternative activities. People were oppressed by the state everywhere. In the streets, in demonstrations and anywhere. People began to take heroin in bigger and bigger quantities. After a while the youthcentre became a house for junkies. Everything was destroyed, less and less things were organised until it was all over. In this case drugs and especially heroin were used to weaken a combatant mass and destroy the movement. Zürich has one of the highest drug-addiction statistics in the world. It’s not fun at all to see how people have to live. Most people use drugs to try to forget their problems. They distance themselves from reality and will never face their problems, nor do they pose a danger to the system because drugs, and in this case especially hash, make everything superficial and in the end make you go through all this.
Is ‘Dark Age’ a “happy family”?
Yes, we’re good friends, we even live together. Of course, sometimes there are problems, but they’re not so big that it keeps us from living together or have to stop playing.
Do you want to add something else?
Thank you for giving us a place in your fanzine. If anyone can help us with some of our projects, either distributing material or our radio-programme: feel free to write! We love mail. We answer all letters. Take care, greetings; Frank ‘Dark Age’.
Brob Tilt's zine-world 2 