Featuring members of great North East bands such as Tide Of Iron, Grace, Jinn, OZO and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaind, BALLPEEN burst onto the Newcastle scene in 2017. Their debut show at Little Buildings was a low-key affair, but their opening performance at the inaugural Brave Exhibitions festival in the same year was a stand-out of the weekend and led them to becoming the festivalβs perennial favourite.
With roots in post-hardcore and the dynamism of greats such as Melvins and Unwound, BALLPEEN have looked to capture the energy of their live performances through releases on premier DIY punk label, Serial Bowl Records. 2018βs βLoose Knotβ with itβs wry nod to Black Flag in title and excellent artwork, rapped five across the listenerβs brow from the get-go, with its attention-grabbing power and undulating groove, coursing through the 6 tracks, leaving you thirsty β but not miserable β for more.
And now you can have more. βPachinkoβ (again with mind-blowing artwork from James Watts) is an 8 tracker that blisters along like a wide-eyed frenetic whoβs had all the speedballs. With quality production that brilliantly captures the urgency of their live performances, βPachinkoβ will delight old and new fans alike. Hardcore will never die.
To celebrate this amazing ear-wrencher, we have teamed up with the band to give you its full stream and first-hand track by track breakdown below!
Pachinko is released by Cruel Nature Records on 19 th June 2020; available as limited edition cassette and digital download.
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Graham Thompson. Recorded at the Lockup in Hartlepool; Shoe Tree Cafe and Off Quay Buildings in Newcastle upon Tyne. Art and Design by James Watts.
Track by track commentary
1. One Manβs Narrative
RORY: Both this song and All Salt, No Slug came about while I was listening to a lot of Neurosis Souls at Zero and Through Silver in Blood after Adam and Graham turned me on to them. The rest of the song was all done at practice after trying to figure out where it was going. I think Graham came up with the ending chord progression.
GRAHAM: When mixing and sequencing this release I always had this song in mind for the first song, Iβd thought of producing the intro in that way from the get go. Iβm happy with ow it came out.
2. Flipper
RORY: This was one of the earlier songs we wrote for this recording, guitar wise for some reason I know I had just been listening to Assfactor 4 for the first time in ages, think I just wanted to do a riff like that. The break part was all Graham then we improvised the whole second half. Actually, come to think of it, it’s pretty good example of what a different direction things can go once everyone’s on it.
ADAM: Flipper was one of the first songs we came up in writing this record, the middle section with me and Graham playing the same riff/beat with Rory improvising over the top was set the first time we’d explored that way of writing.
GRAHAM: Although I really like this song, I think itβs one of our better songs, I hate doing the vocals for it. For some reason, it drains the life out of me, I always try and position it in the set next to some more easy-going songs. Thereβs one line in particular in the middle that after Iβve sung it Iβm always light headed.
3. Ornate Coalmen
GRAHAM: This was the last one we wrote of this bunch of songs, we finished it just before recording. We werenβt sure how it would come out but decided to record it and see how it sounded. Iβm glad we did as I think it came out great. Weβve only played it live once or twice but itβs a fun one to play. I donβt particularly like talking about my lyrics, but broadly speaking this song is about other peopleβs perceptions of people in the North East and how some people in the North East perpetuate certain behaviours or attitudes, for one reason or another, often to the determent of those in the region as it reinforces exaggerated stereotypes.
RORY: No idea where the music came from for this one, all I know is that a few days later I was trying to record that scene with the Vietnamese hooker asking if that dude from Full Metal Jacket had a girlfriend in Vietnam.
4. Clocked Out
ADAM: Clocked Out came from a practice where Graham was ill and cancelled, so me and Rory decided to have a go at writing without him. I’d been listening to a lot of High on Fire at the time.
RORY: Like Adam said, think we played it one night when Graham was ill. Checked and that last Slayer gig was on 18th Nov 2018, I’d probably been listening to a lot of that for the previous month. I have another recording from Christmas Day where I can hear someone doing the dishes in the background, sounds like this is where the idea was ‘finalised’ in my head before bringing it to practice. The short stop that we put in halfway through was an absolute nightmare for me timing wise. The end riff was something we came up with in practice I think.
5. All Salt, No Slug
RORY: The first incarnation of this song was written around December 2017, the riff for the guitar break didn’t come about βtil March 2018 when I was still on the same Neurosis trip as I was when writing One Manβs Narrative, so took a while before figuring out that there were two that would fit together. The part where we all come back in after the guitar break is actually my favourite thing on all these tracks, think it works really well together.
GRAHAM: For some reason I had a real mental block when it came to fitting vocals to this song, apart from the line in the breaks between choruses which I had from really early on. I just couldnβt work out where to fit vocals around it, and musically I didnβt think it could stand alone as an instrumental. This was the last track with vocals written for it, finished right before I went in to record.
6. Dairy Queen
RORY: Think this was relatively early in that batch of songs. I remember thinking the bridge part reminding me of Harkonen, and the end part sounding like Unwound, think bar the opening riff it pretty much came about all though practice.
GRAHAM: I like the way this song builds and builds without losing the energy, this was a set closer for a good while when we first wrote it. I wasnβt sure if this or No Mark should be the last song on the release but No Mark won out. Itβs also replaced this song as the set closer in recent months too.
7. Kancho
ADAM: Kancho is a song me and Graham brought across from a short lived previous band, Zealots. One of Zealots first gigs was with Future of the Left at the Cluny, the only reason we got the gig was our bass player Pete is he is the brother of Andy in FOTL. I don’t think we played this song at the gig, we might have went down better if we did!
As Zealots never recorded or released that song, and it was one of Grahamβs ideas, we thought it fair game to bring across as we both really liked it. Might be interesting if Pete or Bruce ever try to use it.
GRAHAM: The working title for this was Pissed Geordie Jeans. Glad we changed it.
8. No Mark
RORY: I think Graham wanted to do a D-beat song? Definitely starts like that, then like Flipper it then develops into something way off from the starting point.
GRAHAM: The D-beat part of the song is another Zealots leftover from very late on before we broke up. It may have been after Iβd been on tour with War All The Time and was inspired by them, but I wanted to try and write a simple but interesting D-beat song. The rest of the song was worked out by us in practice. I really like this song, one of my favourite on the release. Always fun to play live too. Thereβs a line in this song, βdrive the 555, worst job in townβ, that relates to a bus service near me that is about a quarter of a mile loop. The driver picks people up at a metro station and drops them off at a nearby business park, then again in reverse, ad-infinitum. I just thought it must be a mindless, soul destroying job to do that I donβt think Iβd last a week in.
Review by Aural Aggravation:
βCruel Natureβs roster is reason alone, and this latest offering from full-throttle noisemakers Ballpeen is exemplary. Three years on from their first live show and, the band have established themselves, βthrough releases on premier DIY punk label, Serial Bowl Recordsβ. As the press release recounts, β2018βs βLoose Knotβ with its wry nod to Black Flag in title and excellent artwork, rapped five across the listenerβs brow from the get-go, with its attention-grabbing power and undulating groove, coursing through the 6 tracks, leaving you thirsty β but not miserable β for moreβ.
In attempting to capture the energy of their live performances, Pachinko is a relentlessly balls-out, up front amalgamation of all things post-hardcore, with a big, bold 90s slant that evokes the spirit of Touch & Go and Amphetamine Reptile, as well as contemporaneous little UK labels like Eve Recordings and Jackass.
At times, it feels like weβre wading through endless indie sameness, and even so much alternative music, spanning metal, hardcore, post-hardcore and whatever else youβve got simply fails to hit the spot, and Iβve felt listless, uninspired many evenings while reviewing these last few weeks. And then Pachinko slams in with a proper smack to the chops and Iβm instantly reinvigorated and reminded of all of the reasons for music. Pachinko is distilled excitement. The albumβs eight tracks are packed back-to-back and are all the guitars, spasmodic, jolting, big distortion. The fact itβs a mere twenty-one minutes in duration indicates the density and hell-for-leather pace of the album, which last less time than it takes some bands to tune up, or in the case of Sunn O))), to strike the first chord.
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Blending Trail of Dead and Blacklisters at their most attacking, or to pluck lesser-known but perhaps more accurate reference points, Tar, Guzzard, and Hora Douse all spin into Ballpeenβs sonic blast.
βKanchoβ goes full-on Bleach era Nirvana with a driving, circular riff and sprays of feedback bursting from the halts in the crushing percussion. Itβs heavy in a relentless, churning way. Some songs, like the closer, βNo Markβ are straight-ahead hardcore punishers that are Black Flag and all the hardcore releases Southern Lord have released in the last five years rolled together and deep-fried in breadcrumbs that stick in the throat simply to choke you.
No prisoners. No respite. Just full-on fury. The best.β