Olho Seco "Botas, Fuzis, Capacetes" single (Punk Rock Discos 1983 / Brazil)

I've been neglecting making a few posts a week on here, but i assure you, it's all due to time management. This week the newest 45 on Sewercide (Genetic Angry) arrived, so i've been busy packing those up to get em out to distros and mailorder folks and there hasn't been a whole lot of time to rant and rave about some killer discs that i've been getting. Boo hoo, who really gives a fuck. But honestly, anyone who knows me will tell you that i'm quite the fanatic of international punk rock, particularly Scandinavian and Japanese though it's certainly not limited to that. I'm not going to pretend i know oodles and doodles about every country's punk rock history, but i'd like to think that i know at least a thing or two about most. One place that i'm not all that in the know about would be south america, spare a few killer bands from Brazil and Peru. One of said killer bands from the area would be at my number one though, that of course being Brazil's Olho Seco (which if i recall correctly means 'Dead Eyes'). Such an ultimate and brutal hardcore force, totally under appreciated by most and rarely talked about. Though later records take a turn for the worst with these guys, their Botas, Fuzis, Capacetes single from 1983 is the real masterpiece.

This had been on my want list for a while now. I downloaded Welcome To 1984 many years back and though i had heard what i deemed 'strange and weird' hardcore from various countries (at the time of the Y2K thrash BS, i was listening to strictly american hardcore/thrash and various OI for good measure), i really liked what i was hearing. This was probably my first exposure to these guys. Later, when i became more into collecting older records and had heard the rest of the single along with their second ep, i hoped that i'd cross paths with a copy someday. Released on Brazilian label Punk Rock Discos, it didn't seem highly likely that i was going to come across a copy here in the frozen north and with few copies surfacing on ebag (and also going for steep prices) and the rest being in hands of collectors, my search seemed long and pointless. However, i wasn't expecting that a friend across the country was going to email me recently in regards to trading for one. After a few emails back and forth ( i still don't know how he managed to get this in the first place) we settled on a deal that the two of us deemed fit and though i gave up two records that i would have liked to held on to, their combined musical/financial value and rarity was less than this monster hardcore beast. Obviously, i had to bite.

And what a monster this thing is. Sounds like these guys were highly influenced by Discharge and a mix of other UK82 greats, but they put their own spin on it (as opposed to some swedish bands who just did it faster, louder and more distorted) and helped create what i've heard some refer to as the 'Brazilian sound'. Low budget recording, those gruff snarled vocals and damn, is this thing heavy for it's time! One of the best things about this recording is the constant ride cymbal, which the drummer rarely leaves. Maybe they just didn't have a pair of high hats, but this whole single is done without them, something i've heard on very few hardcore records. Also, i'll make a note that the beginning of Muito Obrigado might just contain one of the earliest attempts at a blast beat that i know. Very cool stuff.

Copies of the single that were sent outside of Brazil contained an insert which has the english translations of the songs. It lists that each song was written at a different time over the period of 1980 - 1982. I imagine that by the time that this was released in 1983, the band had been trying to release a record for many years and probably picked the best of the best to go on it. Certainly, doing a punk rock record there and then was no easy feat. With all that was going on politically at the time in most of south america, few bands were able to release records and some were even censored by the government (ie Inocentes 7", this is on my want list by the way!) to the point where they were told which songs they could and couldn't release. The fact that Olho Seco were able to get this out there is pretty amazing. Some folks would like to debate the lyrics and story behind Nada, but for this post, i'll leave them up to everyone's own interpretation.

For those still in the dark, Peter has the entire single up for download at KBD records. http://www.kbdrecords.com/2008/07/15/ohlo-seco-st-ep-7/