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If you’ve ever been to a punk show where there was someone with patches on their pants or jacket, you’ve probably seen a Rudimentary Peni logo. I’m not quite sure how a band that hardly has played any shows in 25 years, and as such dense and unfriendly recordings can appear on the backs of so many teen’s garments, but I guess it’s probably because they had a Crass endorsement during a certain period of time, and are thus linked to the early anarcho/punk activist scene.  Rudimentary Peni, despite some members personal politics aren’t really a political band though, at least not in the way that most people think of a politically minded band, with giant slogans and rallying cries. To them, Zach De La Rocha owes nothing. It’s true a lot of their songs even on their first single, which is pre-Crass affiliation, address political issues and themes, but these issues are addressed in personal ways from behind a wall of isolation and obliqueness, it’s like you’re hearing a man’s conversation with himself on issues like religion, or political candidates. The idea that it might be impenetrable isn’t an issue because why would a conversation with yourself need to be? What’s most surprising about that fact is that the lyrics are actually written by two different members in the band, bassist Grant Mathews, and guitarist/vocalist/visual artist, Nick Blinko, but they seem to all flow from the same source.

Both of Rudimentary Peni’s first E.P. offerings, 1981’s s/t 7″, and 1982’s “Farce” 7″, are early hardcore classics, but it’s their outsider sound, and also look, that set them in their own little world. The artwork found on these records is a perfect match for the creepy and hypnotic sounds on the vinyl. Thin lined, highly detailed, black and white chicken scratched drawings of deformed people and distorted objects, often made of hundreds of tiny dots or scratches that were obviously the result of hours of hypnotic repetition. This too is a good match for the sound of the records. While a lot of the songs begin as seemingly ordinary early hardcore numbers, most eventually erode (if they last much longer than 40 seconds) into trance-like circular patterns. The vocal delivery is constant and rhythmic, and as Rudimentary Peni’s records progress song to song, they tend to become increasingly oppressive because of these qualities on the listener.  The songs do blend together as one, but I think in this case that’s a benefit. Occasionally there are breaks in the madness with songs like The Gardener on their first 7″ which crawls along like a psychotic nursery rhyme. If anything it sounds more isolated and nightmarish than the more straight forward numbers. Many punk bands make a lot of noise about being close to the audience, being one with the audience. On the contrary I think Rudimentary Peni build a wall between themselves and the listener, and for that matter the entire outside world. If you use these songs to look at the world through their eyes, it’s something like looking out through a black shroud. It’s cold, it’s lonely, and I personally find it affecting.

Shortly after these records were releases Mathews began a battle with cancer (eventually he won), and a few years later Blinko was diagnosed as “delusional” and institutionalized. Some people might theorize that the blackness they immersed themselves in brought on these horrible episodes. Some other people might say that they were born into that blackness though, and that Rudimentary Peni was just their way of making sense of their own world, where they felt like outsiders. When not stricken with debilitating mental and physical illness, Rudimentary Peni continues to sporadically release records. They just had a new album come out and the first half, if not quite as sublime as their early stuff, is still pretty good 3 chord punk, though by the second act it begins to meander with itself.

If all this is maybe too much, and you just want a fist pumping hardcore song, check out the song Sacrifice off the Farce E.P. (it’s the first song). It should give you the fix you need.

oh, and please CLICK

Rudimentay Peni - s/t 7″