General Speech dig hard with this unearthing of some especially vital second wave Japanese punk from the Hirakata-based teenage trio, Die Öwan. Active between 1979-83 and releasing via their own XA Record imprint, the band existed in that sweet spot of febrile, autodidactic post-punk energy that was both internationally resonant and regionally specific, reminiscent of Desperate Bicycles, Metal Urbain, DEVO, yet very obviously in possession of their mutated idioms and impressions. For context, you might look to Vanity Records for some guidance, a similar radical rendering of punk minimalism but played in double time. Their youthful brio is a big shaping factor, pummeling away with such faint regard for anything like decorum, expectation or accepted form, while also clearly displaying fond affection for the punk forebearers. Teenage devotion and iconoclasm in loving symbiosis. There are many, many songs here, where one ends and another starts not always clear, and the distinction mostly unnecessary anyway. Öwannibalism is quite the data dump, a compilation of sorts that gathers together recordings from various sources, previously released or otherwise, breathless, preternatural and addictive in classic "1!2!3!4! Let's go!" style. 美川憲 is a straight reproduction of their final recordings from 1983, important because if those first releases emerged as part of a lineage, then these songs now sound like a template for what came many decades later - you can detect the DNA of Jay Reatard or any number of mid-west egg punk pranksters in here. Loads of printed matter also included, revealing of the entire self-generated ecosystem in which they existed. Positive Action Forever! And more of that Eternal Music.
Note: more also in from General Speech, covering Japanese hardcore, older and never, and some deepcut UK anarcho. Full listing here.
