All reviews (so far) by Richard Johnson and Steve Pescott (SP). If you want Adverse Effect to review anything of yours please note we only accept physical formats sent to the address noted elsewhere. No time for unsolicited links and downloads, plus they get lost in the daily deluge of emails. Vinyl, CDs and cassettes at least get placed in the review stack and (eventually) get listened to. Tastes/interests are broad here as well.

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MUSIC

Felicity Mangan String Figures LP (Elevator Bath, USA, 2025)

This excellent label once again proves itself as one of the best dedicated to that iridescent pool where ambient wafts of sound converge with more abstract inflections, occasionally deeper drones and electroacoustic composition. String Figures, by this Australian artist who relocated to Berlin in 2008, is both her latest release, following many low profile cassettes and suchlike over the years, and another strong addition to the Elevator Bath discography. Featuring six pieces neatly embedded on clear vinyl, it warmly embraces a combination of wheezing tones, vacillating hum, hazy rasps apparently tempered by the morning sun, perfectly glazed electronics and, somewhere along the way, the sound of frogs. It all adds up to an evocative setting that both invites repeated listens and reveals another layer of hidden beauty each time. I hope we’ll hear more of Mangan’s work on vinyl or CD in the near future. (RJ)

Rapoon & Pas Musique Knowledge Has No Enemies But the Ignorant 2CD (Zoharum, Poland, 2025)

While I remain generally sceptical of double albums by groups furrowing those more, um, experimental realms of music, the rather delightfully titled collab here at least has the common courtesy to keep both discs to a respectable length. Comprising thirteen cuts in total, these works catch longstanding hypno-ambient boffin Robin Storey actually detouring with partner-in-sonics Robert L. Pepper of NYC’s Pas Musique to a time when his former group :zoviet*france: chiselled glorious compositions from clunking electronics, coarse textures and so on to considerable effect. Each of these pieces manages to successfully merge a neat array of ideas and sounds to something resembling a coherent whole that at once sidesteps predictability and is immersive. I don’t know how this compares to other Pas Musique work, but it’s a refreshing angle on what Rapoon is largely known for (and I’m not complaining – I like Rapoon!) and proves there’s still plenty of scope in it to explore. Wonderful stuff. (RJ)

RG Rough 80 LP (Bam Balam, France, 2025)

Following the previous two albums of his built around the same concept, namely 60 and 70, arrives this recent entry that’s this time only sourcing sounds and snippets from releases from the ‘80s as a starting point to these ten compositions (one for each year, natch!) then melded into two side-long pieces. Over their course, we are helplessly tugged along a rhythmic setting drenched in corrugated psychedelia and electronic swirl that at once recalls the spirit of kosmische music whilst feeling utterly contemporary and not unlike the muffled thuds of a club’s back room blasting out brain-rearranging tech-house at 3am. More simply, this is another remarkable album from Robert G Rough, who appears to have been honing his craft for well over a decade now and has collaborations with both Makoto Kawabata and Richard Pinhas behind him I still very much need to get. The cover artwork also features the sleeves of the many albums 80 is sourced from, plus there’s also a postcard inside featuring Robert surrounded by a number of them (I recognised Coil and JAMC amongst them). Am only surprised more are not picking up on this work. (RJ)

RLW Fading Pictures CD (Black Rose Recordings, 2025)

Ralf Wehowsky’s longstanding alias, RLW, has always been devoted to his own stamp on musique concrete and electroacoustic composition and never once compromised the notion of exploring sonic forms that pay scant regard to easy digestibility. While this all makes sense given his background as a member of Frankfurt’s premier post-industrial outfit P16.D4 during the ’80s, one has to admire the stoicism at work when considering the sheer adversity or indifference such music tends to face. Fading Pictures, however, is somewhat surprising for its being less impenetrable than usual. By that, I don’t mean to infer that it wouldn’t still clear a room full of K-pop fans but, rather, that many of the sounds teased into the shapes forming the nine compositions here often feel refined to the point they wouldn’t be out of place on a more interesting ambient album. Ultimately, though, Fading Pictures slots alongside Wehowsky’s general remit pretty well in that it’s head music requiring full engagement in order to get to the chewy nuances, subtleties and tiny fragments that appear to assume new lives as they career in multiple directions. If one listens hard enough, there’s even a vague musicality to be found breaking away from the miasma of glazed tones, contorted banks of digital drizzle and serrated slivers of noise at certain junctures. The last few tracks, between them, twist steadily from a dramatic slur of almost modern classical proportions to a setting of near-ambient ringing and chiming before being escorted to foggy waters punctuated by moody horn swells. An utterly compelling album from start to finish, plus there are some nice liner notes from the man himself concerning his techniques and approach to his electroacoustic works, as well as the concept behind this album. (RJ)

Tape4 eponymous LP (no label, Poland)

One might be forgiven for thinking that the idea of getting four sound recordists together who each usually splice field recordings, ambient-noise and snippets snatched from abandoned tapes might not seem that enticing initially. However, the four works here, assembled by Maciek Olewniczak, Marcin Barski, Marcin Dymite and Patryk Daszkiewicz in different configurations, counter such misgivings immediately as they churn through neatly collaged and sometimes looped meshes of dialogue, penumbral hiss, found sounds and suchlike to create a whole that wavers steadfastly between the atmospheric, hypnotic and mischievous. Let’s hope Tape4 can pull a few more tricks out of their collective sleeve for another release.

Uton Unusual Suggestions LP (L’eau Des Fleurs, France, 2025)

Since this Finnish guy started his sonic journey at the beginning of the century they’ve produced countless releases, some physical but mostly digital, and don’t appear to be letting up any time soon. This is just as well as they plough a space somewhere between abstract electronic music of a ragged ’n’ jagged nature and a molten pot of heady swirl just about formed from, presumably, whatever instruments and sound-making devices they can lay their hands on. The two side-long pieces pull you in, throw you about over the course of their respective durations and leave you bewildered yet hankering for more. Somewhere, in a distant corner of the known universe, this might well be considered pop music. In the context of our reality, however, it just sounds like all the clanking, clicking and squiggling components were put together wrong yet is all the better for it. Only 150 of these were pressed. Yet another future oddity in the making.  (RJ)

BOOK(S)

Anarcho-Punk Was Always Destined to (Generally) Fail: A Review of Beyond the Monochrome, a book by Chris Low

My introduction to anarcho-punk arrived courtesy of two Crass singles being kindly given to me by somebody at school in the year below me when I was around 14 or 15-years-old due to my being the only person he knew who still liked punk. These 7”s were ‘Reality Asylum’ and the split single with Poison Girls, ‘Bloody Revolutions’/‘Persons Unknown’. Excited, I took them home and could not stop playing both over and over again on my cheap hi-fi whilst completely transfixed by the artwork, the slogans and what ultimately proved to be my introduction to the world of anarcho-punk (even if I was oblivious to this at the time). While I was not quite ready for the sprawling tape collage-backed spoken word of ‘Reality Asylum’, I vividly recall playing its more immediate flipside track, ‘Shaved Women’, countless times before moving on to ‘Bloody Revolutions’ and its acerbic critique of violence used as a tool for revolution or protest. 

Not long after obtaining these two singles, I started to explore Crass’ world a little more and began to expand my collection of singles with releases by Zounds, Flux of Pink Indians, The Snipers, Annie Anxiety, The Mob and Rudimentary Peni over the course of the next couple of years. Like many of the other punk/post-punk records I already owned, I got more from these singles than just the music. Drawn to their fold-out sleeves, the thought-provoking montages and stencilled typography, the experimentation underpinning the often otherwise ferocious music and the mostly black-clad image of the groups, there was this overriding feeling that they each represented something completely against the grey and oppressive future it seemed like we were all facing. Of course, the text and sloganeering against war, the government and the rich, as well as that concerning animal rights, individualism, autonomy and existentialism, amongst others, was also perfect for my tender age to begin prodding at topics I’d barely considered before. As I waded through this heady mix I couldn’t deny its appeal even if I didn’t wholly subscribe to everything proffered. Rather, it was mostly the music that grabbed me, followed by the packaging and the stew of ideas bubbling within.

One of my main misgivings about everything presented was the idea that all the hyperbole over ‘anarchy’ ultimately pointed to a conviction that humanity could somehow overcome all of its failings and live in a utopian state. Between reading Lord of the Flies at school and my own early childhood being discoloured by (sometimes physically) fighting parents as they crashed towards divorce, plus just witnessing how those around me behaved towards each other, the little faith I might have had in our species began to dissipate as I crawled through my teens. The idea that ‘freedom’ implied having no government, military or police, etc. just seemed faintly ludicrous. Such lofty idealism was not only the domain of fantasy, but also reminded me of the naive and patchouli-scented hopes and dreams of the hippies. 

All the same, there was more to anarcho-punk than myopic utopianism, which brings us neatly on to Chris Low’s Beyond the Monochrome book, itself collecting photographs and graphics from this vibrant area of the 1980s underground all taken or gathered by Chris himself. Having once been the drummer in wild anarcho-experimentalists The Apostles, as well as later performing the same duties in both Political Asylum and Oi Polloi, who themselves had strong ties to anarcho-punk, places Chris as something of an authority on the subject. However, more than this, he was actively involved with the early ‘80s squatting scene in London, produced ‘zines, participated in Class War protests and others, maintained a viable presence through his writing and photography, and ultimately must be amongst a tiny minority who documented so much of it so well. 

The foreword and introduction to the book by Napalm Death founding member Nick Bullen and Chris himself highlight the appeal of anarcho-punk while simultaneously illustrating exactly why it happened when it did. The UK of the late ’70s and early ’80s looked bleak due to the threat of nuclear war, mass unemployment, strikes, the closing down of industry, political unrest, race riots and a future being shaped by globalisation and a pop culture that began embracing an escapism far beyond the reach of the average person. Given this context, it is easy to see how a thriving segment of the underground, driven by punk’s anger, frustration and energy, reacted so vehemently. It was a time of unrest and uncertainty, so the melding of anger to an array of causes and beliefs one could get behind if desired inadvertently offered a sense of unity and hope. At the very least, the thought that change was possible didn’t appear so unrealistic for many in this somewhat desolate environment.

The 68 photos reproduced here, ranging from groups such as Conflict, Crass, Omega Tribe, DIRT, The Alternative to those Chris was also involved with, as well as snaps of the Punx Picnic in Edinburgh, protesters and the obligatory shots of punks making a stand against cops, certainly provide vivid insight into a period that went on to influence many in the form of poltical awareness, activism, a DIY approach to organising concerts, publishing and all creative pursuits, or even lifestyle choices. Along with each of these photos there’s text and plenty of (sometimes humourous) anecdotes by Chris and others, such as members of Oi Polloi, Riot/Clone and Omega Tribe, which not only provide a backstory to them where possible, but also form a narrative further compounding what anarcho-punk meant to those involved. For some, it galvanised a lifelong commitment to a facet of it that continues to this very day, such as embarking on a vegan or vegetarian diet, while others fell by the wayside due to addiction problems or simply not taking care of themselves (the recounting of squatters succumbing to Trench Foot and scurvy, besides other diseases no doubt, only compounding my belief such people hardly represented a fantastic alternative future when they couldn’t even take care of personal hygiene).

Due to my own background, a lot of this material was already familiar to me, of course, but what shines alongside Chris’ own knowledge and passion for an area of underground culture that clearly informed him is the idea that such a document was needed. And as much as the photos, in all their grainy glory, capture the spirit of it all, there’s probably room for a far more expansive book on the subject.

While I still wholeheartedly stand by my old position on most of this amounting to little more than the domain of blindsided idealism, I would also surmise there was something of value at the heart of anarcho-punk. Chris himself acknowledges the former with the occasional wry comment on how things seemed when he was so much younger. However, he and his colleagues succeed in painting a picture that’s easy to understand as having been exciting, attractive and an aid to one navigating their way through their youth and into adulthood. Anarcho-punk, replete with the iconography, sloganeering, cool jet black image and, indeed, sometimes incredible music that still holds up today, formed an important part of the landscape to those of us seeking music and ideas outside the mainstream at the time.

To that end, this book comes recommended to all who grew up with this or who, like myself, either dabbled with it or remain interested in everything that happened culturally from the late ‘70s to early/mid-’80s. It’s an excellent document that I’d like to think Chris made a neat little profit from for all his hard work. Even anarcho-punks need money.

NB: The first edition of this book has sold out but a second is underway and should be available to pre-order soon.

(Richard Johnson)