Rites Of Hadda – Inevitable Machete

(Grow Your Own)

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Psychedelic saxophone driven protest punk meets music hall head on as Rites Of Hadda celebrate animal rights, human rights, environmentalism and the right to party.  Nathan Brown writes.

Is Ross Woodward A Faggot? starts off with a decidedly X-ray Spex sounding saxophone melody but then as the whole ensemble kicks in we are more in the land of the avant-garde punk pranksters The Cravats. The drums, chunky bass and guitar all sound frantic which, combined with that sax, is what gives it that hectic Cravats-ness and then there are Wasperella’s vocals, which are unique. They float above the mix with the enunciation of so many first wave punk bands, but the projection is really more in the tradition of old music hall performance and at times almost operatic.  On the use of the F word, it’s being reclaimed by someone who might usually be on the receiving end of such abuse.

Listen to Is Ross Woodward A Faggot? by Rites of Hadda

Next up Racist Bassist adopts a motorik beat and the heavy approach of Hawkwind, with just a touch of early ATV evident. It’s a witty take down of a small number of bands that still inhabit the punk scene who “bleat about free speech and then drop the ‘N’ bomb”. Speaking of ATV, the following song Middle England, Mate has the sleazy sound of Here and Now (with whom ATV released a wonderful 12” after the hippies and punks embarked on a tour together in a bus). It’s kinda fitting that this one is about landowners and cops cracking down on free parties.

A twiddly guitar and suitably mournful sax provide the backing for Killer Profits (Tokitae), an Orca imprisoned in Miami. As the chorus repeats ad infinitum “Fifty years in a tank”. The inhumanity. Daemon Of Hate is an upbeat chuggy number that, thanks to the sax, sounds like a mix of X-ray Spex and Inner City Unit (with Wasperella over the top of course, and Over The Top is probably the right description for the Rites of Hadda live experience, meant in a good way). The song speaks of growing up without fitting gender stereotypes and facing “queer soul-letting” from church and state.

Fuck Them is a slow rhythmic number that rises to the chaotic refrain of the title. 3 minutes in and they are for a second round. It all gets very chaotic as the song reaches its conclusion. Once the closer Lament gets going there is some additional keyboard which gives this a new wave kind of sound lurking behind the always frantic guitar. The truth of a world made of plastic sounds would have been taken as the ravings of someone who’d taken too much acid in the 60s or 70s. Now it is just at statement of fact that “The squirrels are eating the trees made of plastic, the fishes try hard to swim through the slick”. Once more, Rites of Hadda hold up a mirror to the inhumanity.

As with their last album, the band have teamed up with John Youens of SLPC to record with a very DIY approach at Overdrive Studios. This gives the album very much a live feel, like hearing them at a festival. Seeing them is another thing entirely and once seen they ain’t forgotten.

The album title is a line from Daemon Of Hate, not the missing sequel from Danny Trejo’s Machete franchise, what with Rites of Hadda to be found in the “Latex and sax driven psychedelic Witchpunk” section of your local record shop. The download contains an additional secret un-named 8th track which is a “stay up forever” dance remix of their cover of Everything Stops For Baby by The Astronauts for anyone who’s accidentally taken too many chemicals while listening to the rest of the album.

Hats off to Grow Your Own and Rites Of Hadda for showing the diversity that exists in the DIY anarcho-punk scene.

Available from Grow Your Own

Rites of Hadda on Facebook

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Words by Nathan Brown. You can read more from Nathan on his Louder Than War archive over here.