Black Freighter/Crowskin Split

Black Freighter/Crowskin Split (Vendetta, 2009)

I picked this up on a visit to Berlin. Lu and I walked from our Hotel in Rosenthaler Platz all away long Karl Marx Allee to Stefan's record shop on Marchlewskistraße. We thought this would be a short stroll, but it took over an hour and we got a bit lost as well. Once we arrived we were met by Robert of Zann and told that the Sinaloa 12 inch I had pre-ordered would arrive the next day and that Stefan wasn't at work. Arrrg!

We returned the next day, Stefan cautiously greeted me, I now understand that it is as enthusiastic as he gets, and I asked him to choose 100 euros worth of records from his label/shop for me to take home. To say that Stefan is DIY and not much of a salesman would be to put things mildly. After about twenty minutes of cajoling and explaining that I had no ulterior motives other than wanting to support his enterprise I was reluctantly given a package of lovely fresh vinyl. Being a lovely gent he threw quite few freebies in too, which was very nice.

Splits cause a bit of an issue with the old alphabetical storage and Crowskin have top billing on the cover although Black Freighter feature on side one so this is stored under 'B'. Vendetta records specialise in bleak, brutal, doom laced sludge releases and this one is no exception.

This type of stuff needs to be extra special to really grab my attention and Black Freighter are not quite in the same league as some of the big hitters of the genre. They have a hardcore feel when they pull themselves out of mire and remind me a bit of Perth Express played at the wrong speed. I think they would be much better live than on record. If I'd seen them in 2002 in the 13th Note whilst under the influence of the bullet and five ?ywiec then their doom laden take on Tragedy would have definitely impressed me. Not so much now, although I do love their uniquely German use of the word 'zip' in the lyrics to 'Luger and Liquor'. Unfortunately, they split up in 2010 so I will never be able to catch them live.

Much to my disappointment Crowskin are not an Oi band with an unhealthy obsession with 'The Birds'. I was looking forward to tracks such as 'Bad Crow', 'Plastic Crows' and 'Violence in our Crows', but no such luck. More doomy sludge is what you get with a few more changes in tempo and feel than their disc sharing compatriots.

If you like your music slow and horrible you cannot find a better purveyor of the style than Vendetta. This is worth picking up just to support a great independent label and for the typically excellent quality of the packaging and vinyl.

Peace