Reviews
The Department-S Email
I'd
just like to congratulate you chaps on your cover of "Is Vic
There?". I never guessed that people would be recording cover
versions of it 23 years after I wrote it! lol. I'll get the person
who runs our web site in Chicago to add it to the news page.
www.department-s.net
Good luck, Mike Herbage
Wide Open Road Fanzine #9
Words
Will Never Be Actions LP - Departure Records - An honest-to-goodness
Punk Rock compilation like what it was in the old days with some pretty
snotty song titles - 'Dissassemblement of Reality', 'Stinkin Rich
Parasite', 'Corporate War' - by some typically snotty artistes - Quankmeyer
Faergoalzia, Dogshit Sandwich, Kosmik Overdrive.
Ah the whiff of a stale veggie burger, stood outside the labour exchange
in the rain, cursing like a navvy, brick through the window of the
local Tory club, donkey jackets and drainpipes. It could almost be
1981 again......
Rant Fanzine #4
Words
Will Never Be Actions LP - Departure Records - The concept behind this
being based around the similar idea of the CRASS Bullshit Detector albums,
only this is loads better. Good varied selection of bands on offer with
the obvious stand-outs being Dogshit Sandwich, Kosmik Overdrive,
The Anoraks, Hatework and Les Paraliticos all venting their anger plus
plenty of other interesting stuff to blow the fluff out yer ears. One
nil to the angry brigade, comes complete with flashy impressive fold
out poster sleeve containing all the lyrics and band contacts.......RECOMMENDED
Gig Review - 07-10-02 - Supporting Cheltenham Rockers DUM
Snippet nicked from DUM's write up of a gig at the Two Pigs in Cheltenham.
Good
old Kosmik Overdrive provided support, as requested
by us, and they were as manic and entertaining as last time. Especially
liked 'Is Vic There'.
Review of an old demo of original material "Destruction" from Steve Juxta
Put
simply this is old-skool punk rock at its very best, and how just
how it should be. I came to hear of this Gloucester-based 3-piece
because their 'Corporate War' jolt features alongside one of my songs
on a vinyl-only compilation album - 'Words Will Never Be Actions'
- of 20 underground bands and artists, and this 7-track demo they
say they recorded all in one knackering afternoon is more of the same
politically-charged mayhem with a penchant for bit-part melody and
even snatches of poetic narrative that opens 'H-Bomb', yet the Electro-punk
poetry of 'Urban Dream' '(Urban degradation is the curse of all nations')
is the most interesting. These Kosmik lads prove that good old punk's
still alive' and I'm loving it. 'Eastern Front' has a cracking beat
and an angularly ard-assed chug, set alight by its sneering chant
chorus, and re-iterates this band is anti-evil yet addresses us as
comrades as in 'Big Brother' which conversely suggests conformity.
Whatever, their energy is relentless and they view the bigger punk
picture with a great deal of originality and hint that they're willing
to experiment with pop undertones if as 'Urban Dream' benchmarks a
stand-out punk song. And if they're half as good live as they are
on record, then they're fucking awesome' (SR)
Two Reviews of a gig at The Old Bell Inn, Dursley.....oooh ages ago...
The
Kosmiks have no drummer instead a battering ram of sequenced drum and
bass career out of the speakers. The two guitarists slam into
pogo friendly riffage while singer Rik Kosmik rants along almost out of control. This relentless barrage
of sonic trash, disturbingly possessing the front man,
climaxes with the willfull destruction of their own equipment. In a
wall of feedback Kosmik Overdrive step over pieces of splintered guitar
and disappear to the bar for a quick pint before bed.
The few like minded punkmen from past and present that faced Kosmik
Overdrive almost saw the mutual inertia of precision cider drinking and energy
spiral out of control.
