What a year! A lot has happened in 2017. We discovered hundreds of amazing artists, interviewed about 130 and offered exclusive streams and premieres presentation for 170 of them, and it’s literally impossible to build our own Best Of 2017 List. Fortunately, there are loads of great labels, DIY supporters, and independent artists that can bail us out with their personal selections of best records for this year. Today’s round is being presented by Manchester DIY benefit punk label Prejudice Me Records!
If you have followed IDIOTEQ this year, this will be partly the opportunity to share good memories as the label’s Fran and Zoe checked in a couple of months back with an insightful interview on their amazing, inspiring work. Prejudice Me Records‘ sales supports various charities, and its owners go way beyond music, but this time they’re here to share their favourite picks of 2017.
2017 in Manchester has been an amazing year! We have a new DIY social centre in the form of Partisan which is going full steam ahead, there’s a new ALL-VEGAN pizza place that delivers to our flat, plus there have been loads of great shows and new bands. Music wise and personally, we’re really happy that we’ve managed to put out a ton of great music by some of the best bands on the planet. Loads of amazing festivals including Manchester Punk Festival, 0161 Festival & Common Ground are becoming better and better each year and a massive shout out to the awesome promoters who keep putting on the best shows in Manchester.
2018 is so far looking to be a great one too. We’re going to be helping out the fantastic Autonomads with their new EP which we’re really excited about, as well as a brand new Rivers Run Dry record that’s going to be a split with Zerum (who are doubly amazing because they feature members of Biała Gorączka!). Anyway, thanks for letting us do our little review of the year. Hope everyone has an amazing 2018. Cheers, F&Z. x
Child Meadow – It Hurts 12”
In January we helped release the last in what was meant to be a trilogy of split records between ChildMeadow, Remek and Paperplanecrash. Unfortunately Paperplanecrash had split up by the time the last split between themselves and Child Meadow was supposed to come out, so they released it as a record by themselves. We were really glad they asked us to help out with the release as they’ve been one of our favourite bands for ages.
This Ends Here / Conqueror Worm – Split 12”
This Ends Here are by far one of the best bands in the UK right now. This record took ages to come out (through no-one’s fault, it was just one of those things) so by the time it was released in February this year they had totally changed their sound into the political epic crust behemoth they’ve now become. It’s such a great record though and the fact they teamed up with Conqueror Worm for it just makes it even more awesome!
Holiday – California Steamin’ 12”
Holiday are one of those bands that keep getting better and better the more they play. We were really happy that they asked us to help put out their first 12”which came out in March following a couple of EP’s and a split 7” with Epic Problem. Hopefully they didn’t mind that we opted not to call the colour ‘Ganja green’ and went for the more family friendly ‘Oregano green’ instead!
Burnt Cross – Wheels Of Misfortune 12”
Burnt Cross are like a UK institution of anarcho punk. It feels like they’ve been around forever and even though they never play live they are one of the most popular UK anarcho bands of the last ten years. Sadly though, this will likely be their last ever record but the legacy they’ve left is outstanding.
Tout Suite – Self Titled 7”
Manchester’s finest DIY D-beat fuzzcore duo managed to get their first ever release on vinyl in July this year. It was amazing too because it was a real effort through loads of friends that helped get it all together. We’ve known Tom and Adam for ages (they even played our wedding and managed to clear out all of Fran’s relatives!) and we jumped at the chance to help release the record. It was even better the fact that Matt from Pumpkin/MOA Studios recorded and mixed it, it was co-released by our mates Pumpkin and the sleeves were printed by (friend of a friend) Jake of Claw The Thin Ice / Minno and cut and glued by the lovely Sacha from Glarus / Hammers / Minno.
This Ends Here / Wolfbeast Destroyer – Split Tape
Two This Ends Here records in one year! Amazing! This is This Ends Here doing what they do best, a ridiculously long 20 minute song of brutal epic crust of the Fall Of Efrafa / Downfall Of Gaia persuasion but incredibly DIY and not at all overproduced as some records of that genre tend to be. There are loads of bands doing this kind of music at the moment but nowhere near as politically charged as this lot. Really cool to be helping Wolfbeast out on this one too – who knew the Lincolnshire scene was still going strong? Great work!
70cm³ Of Your Chest – At First Chaos Came To Be 12”
Words really can’t describe how amazing this record is. The band got in touch through Facebook and we’d never heard them, but after hearing their music we knew we had to help put it out. 3 piece “post-something” from Lithuania but now based in Berlin, playing a gloomy type of hardcore but sound really upbeat. Anyone who loves hardcore or emo needs to own this record!
