Description
Apostles / Anathema – “Fight Back” split LP (plus Negative Insight zine)
A long lost gem, recorded in 1986, and hauled back from the obscurity of the void that was Mortarhate Records. Contrarian anarcho punkers from the London Burrough of Squatney, the Apostles were a perplexing band, and thankfully, these four songs are from one of the better periods/line-ups in their ‘career’, (not long after the albums, Punk Obituary and Life And Times Of...). It catches them lyrically at their best – witty and sarcastic – and even the studio production is suprisingly decent. I don’t recall Anathema from back in the day (aside from a mysterious track listed on the cover of a Mortarhate compilation LP, but with no song included on the actual disc!), turns out they played an upbeat version of anarcho punk, somewhere between Omega Tribe and Subhumans, with an end result similar to Thatcher On Acid. Leaves me wondering how Mortarhate ballsed-up such a fine record, leaving it lost and unreleased – until now thanks to Inflammable Material, who have done a fine job in compiling this project, and true to the spirit of the old Apostles’ combined-media packages: with a fold out poster, featuring some of the original artwork (all that could be found and salvaged), plus a new copy of Negative Insight zine – dedicated to the lost and unheard Mortarhate recordings, of which, tragically, there were many (Antisect, Chaos, Avskum, Varukers, City Indians etc.), a fine piece of journalistic investigation!