Sealed Schallplatten & CDs

Review: A lot of bands have mystery and mythology surrounding them. Few can command the same level of interest as Rudimentary Peni. The British anarcho-punks have been going since 1980, and in that time put out just four albums and a handful of EPs. Oh, and a live recording from a gig in Derby, England, in 1993, released 12 years later by Sheffield Tape Archive.

All of which is besides the point when you realise how hard it is to find any photos of any band member, and how little they've courted press or anything tied to the music industry at any point in the past 40 years. Cacophony is their second LP, landing in 1988, and straddles nosebleed metal, tough garage rock, mind-melting punk, and some stuff we can't really think of words for. Frantic, fun, and more than a little mad.

Review: Recorded in 1992 but not officially released until 1995, Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric would serve as the third full-length album from London anarcho-punk underground legends Rudimentary Peni, and their first since 1988's acclaimed and unhinged Cacophony. With the majority of the material penned by primary songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Nick Blinko while sectioned in a psychiatric hospital under the Mental Health Act 1983, much of the lyrical subject matter details Blinko's delusions including the idea that he was "Pope Adrian 37th" - a reference to Pope Adrian IV. Pushing their chaotic abrasion even further leftfield than ever before with art-punk experiments into trance-inducing use of unsettling repetitions including the pseudo-Latinised phrase "Papas Adrianus" (Pope Adrian) looped continuously throughout the runtime, this macabre masterpiece has become a holy grail of outsider art and avant-punk, whilst being out of print for years. Remastered from the original tapes by Arthur Rizk and reissued by the committed souls at Sealed Records, who slowly appear to be repressing the entire RP back catalogue, make no mistake that with evident eagerness and hype within the core fanbase, these twisted beauties won't stay around long.