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Various

Pangaea Volume 1 (2002)
Sterile

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: Adam
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on January 17th 2003

I love compilations that have some a cohesive vision and more planning than the run-of-the-mill sampler. The first volume of the Pangaea series, assembled by the webzine Punk International, accomplishes its task of collecting punk music from across the globe quite admirably. For all intents and purposes, most of this material is likely completely unheard by the North American audience.

“Pangaea” offers up 26 bands from 21 countries across the world. Canada’s Belvedere and Glasshead along with The Gamits and The Fonzarellies from the US are the sole North American representation on the disc. Highlights include France’s Burning Heads laying down a reggae track, Tastes Like Chicken’s finely crafted punk rock from Switzerland and the Netherland’s ever entertaining Travoltas validating all the international acclaim they get. My favorite track is a trade-up between the driving punk’n’roll of Italy’s Peawees and the unique sounding horns of South Africa’s Leek and the Bouncing Uptones. The rest of the disc covers every continent with the exception of Australia and Antarctica including the Dominican Republic, Brazil, England, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Austria, Israel, Turkey, Singapore, Indonesia, Korea and Japan.

What surprised me most was how little you can actually pick out the nationality of the bands here. While the styles vary from punk to power-pop to ska to metal, very little in the music links the bands with their home countries. It’s a testament to the global influence of a few select genres… quite evident when you have an album with Dutch surf harmonies, French reggae, Japanese Oi and Turkish metalcore.

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Tim-PunkInternational (January 21, 2003)

There is no Aussie band on this comp, because the one I offered failed to meet the deadline. It's not like I have a vendetta against Australia or anything...

Anonymous (January 21, 2003)

theres a lot of great aussie bands out there..how the fuck none of them managed to get onto this cd i dont know..

one of my favourite is plonker theyre from the middle of know where (croc dundee country) and they play a mix of old school punk and oi.. they are crazy live...

someone needs to sign this band..the singer is mental

they have a dodgy website up at www.plonkerpunk.com

Dubar (January 19, 2003)

does the same go for australia? They've got quite a few really great bands down there worth checking out

Tim-PunkInternational (January 18, 2003)

El Vaquero: You make a valid point. The lack of coverage on Japanese and Korean music is not a decision I made, it's just the lack of contacts I have in the Japanese scene. Some of my favorite bands are Japanese (SOBUT, Husking Bee, Spoiller, Kemuri, Indian-hi) but I have no communication with them or any labels over there.

Smash Raid is one band I knew pretty well, since I met them in Japan, but they broke up. Pangaea is one place where their legacy can live on.

In order for more coverage and representation of Asian bands, I need more communication. Same with Eastern Europe, Latin America, etc. Much room for improvement.

Anonymous (January 17, 2003)

The coolest would be if they mixed Aussie Digeridoo with some of that post-punk/no wave/noise rock stuff like the Birthday Party.

ElVaquero (January 17, 2003)

I like the concept but, there is a small problem I have with the site and the comp. I get the feeling that the emphasis is more on european bands. Yes, there are bands from japan, and even korea, I just don't think the japanese scene is done enough justice, cosidering how fucking huge and rich it is. I'm still waiting for a place online where I can actually read and talk about bands like Mongol 800, Highway 61, and Kuroyume... in english. Kinda stupid-american of me, but I don't think people really recognize how much japanes punk there really is. Blah.

-El Vaquero

Anonymous (January 17, 2003)

Hey Tim - Nice job with this compilation, I can only imagine how hard this was to put together, mine took seven months, and it was all domestic bands! I'll have my review up soon. So yeah - support Tim and punkinternational.com - Jordan Pastepunk.

Tim-PunkInternational (January 17, 2003)

The closest I have heard to band that resembles that description is Indian-hi. They mix the traditional sounds of Okinawa (islands located between Japan and Taiwan) with punk, hardcore, and even some hip hop. They released a bunch of albums on http://www.measure-label.com before signing to Warner Japan.

Anonymous (January 17, 2003)

I want to see a band that mixes Japanese instrumental music and hardcore/punk....now THAT would be cool, if done correctly.