Double LP with 76 page booklet
Ultra Eczema give the full retrospective treatment to Zyklome A, collecting together all known recorded material of the Belgium hardcore unit into a double LP set replete with 76 page booklet. Punk's last frontiers now lie only in places like this - ie English-as-second-language primitive-obscuro expressions that serve mostly to articulate the universality of punk aesthetic and ideology. The kind you've heard before but never quite like this. Their obscurity notwithstanding (and let's be real, that's always part of the appeal with something like this), Zyklome A are notable for their union of D-beat drive with a rare melodicism that makes me think they might have been listening to just as much Ramones and Wipers as they were Discharge. It aint the worst place to start. Mostly it's a thrilling marriage of crust, anarcho and HC into something that if not necessarily unique is definitely fully revved and spinning in the right direction. Best of all, perhaps, is the booklet itself, another window into a world (and sadly, its people) that's gone via associated iconography, imagery and lexicon. Punk history seems infinite, and its language forever enduring.
