One of the greatest aspects, musically speaking, of hardcore, is the build-up before the drop: writing about it any further and trying to couch it in literary terms, or trying to quantify it, is impossible.
It’s there in Strike Anywhere’s ‘We Amplify’ into ‘Blaze’, in A Wilhelm Scream’s ‘The Kids Can Eat A Bag Of Dick’ and in the late, great Fireapple Red’s ‘Intro’ into ‘Appointing Sympathy’. It’s a classic musical motif but there’s something about putting it in a punk rock context that makes the tease even more unbearable and the eventual crash just… mega.
With that in mine, Southampton’s Our Time Down Here know exactly how to bring the noise.
Flick on their self-titled EP (out on Nothing To Prove) and the light chugs of ‘High Tides’ fill your ears. Wait a touch longer for the feedback to kick in and slowly build… and then ‘Revelations’ crashes in, all nuclear-force drums and exploding guitars and the irresistible call to arms: ‘WE ARE THE KIDS!’. Click on that video above and you’ll know the score.
Do you have a favourite bit in a punk rock song? The bit you wait for when they play live that makes you explode in a glory of pointed fingers and flailing limbs? Comment below, yo.