Perhaps no single man encapsulates the worship of Discharge more than Fafao - Kawakami from Disclose might have been a suitable contender to the throne - the prolific one man army behind Besthöven. There’s something a bit more credible about a truly poor punk from an underdeveloped part of the world, putting out this kind of music out of true love and worship for the genre, cranking out tons of EPs, splits and the odd LP since 1994. There’s no cosplaying of living under a regime of authoritarianism, facing desperate poverty and exposure to violence on the regular - the other well-known bands who play this style of worship tend to be from rich and stable nations (Japan, Sweden, Finland, England, US). Being a punk in Brazil in the 90s might have been actually dangerous to your health, although I won’t pretend to know anything about Brazilian history or the punk scene there in general.
Musically, this is what you would expect - Discharge worship, with a Swedish bent. Each song sounds like another song by another band; derived from the original Discharge template, which is the whole point here. The production less raw than I expected, the earliest recordings of Besthöven from the mid 90’s sound like they were recorded with a Fischer Price machine. The musicianship is not perfect, but that’s not really the point - it’s more about the tone and energy. Includes a punkier cover of Born To Die In The Gutter (pronounced "gooter" here) for those who had given up on Discharge by that point in their career. The last track, “Midnight And Ten”, has some melodic synth interludes, and is raw but pretty good.
Nice use of silver foil on the front cover. 900 pressed on black.