A few days ago, I got a short message from Jason Flower: The NEOS “Hassibah” mastertapes have finally surfaced. From what I remember, they had been lost for years and years. Looks like a proper re-issue is about to be released soon.
I think I first heard NEOS on the legendary “Beating the Meat” comp. It was fucking unbelievable. I didn’t hesitate and ordered what at that time I thought to be the first NEOS EP (a little later, I learned that the band had released another one already, the hard to find “End all Discrimination” EP). It was the more commonly seen pressing of “Hassibah gets the Martian Brain Squeeze” on the Rat Cage label from NY. It wasn’t until the days of serious collecting (you know, with MRR and Flipside ads and those endlessly long lists you’d send around the globe) before I managed to find me a first press of “Hassibah”. 500 made of this and probably a couple thousand of the Rat Cage press. Collector scum.
14 songs of relentless thrash, recorded on September 18 in the year of 1982 (!). The EP is packed with info: The incredible song book with lyrics and notes, short explanations to every song etc. I like the first NEOS EP, but it doesn’t come close to what Hassibah meant and means to me. I’m sure, privately the three guys were funny blokes, but this record sounds extremely SERIOUS and DEDICATED and that’s what I always liked about Hardcore. Although it’s much the case like with POISON IDEA, DRI, URBAN WASTE, NEGATIVE APPROACH, KORO, FIX or DEEP WOUND’s EPs (and yes, that’s the league of NEOS!), these classics are entities, I still would say there are two tracks that stick out a bit for me: “(Almost) Typical, obligatory Anti-Government Song” (or “Russian Folk Song”) and “Opposition to all Violence” (or “Triplet Beg.”). The lyrics of the latter song used to piss me off massively, though.
Still a bit ill, so I’ll leave it at that, although I would have liked to go a bit deeper into the song comments and lyrics and had some anecdotes and bits and pieces.
Destruct.mp3 & They’ll destroy themselves.mp3
(Almost) Typical, obligatory Anti-Government Song.mp3
Ambitious.mp3
Where did you go wrong?.mp3
Just like all the Rest.mp3
Look around in Despair.mp3
Conscripts.mp3
Jungle Beat – so it seems.mp3
Other World.mp3
Opposition to all Violence, even if commited in Self-Defense.mp3
Die for the Cause.mp3
Ripped off.mp3
Sexual Revolution.mp3
PS: Since the latest WordPress update, thumbnails don’t enlarge when clicked on anymore. I have no idea why this doesn’t work. Suggestions?
23 Comments
You can right click and choose view image to view the full size. I picked up a CD about 7 years ago with both ep’s. From what your saying, it must have been mastered from the vinyl.
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TOTAL LOVE TO YOU
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hi erich,
thanks for this neos post!!!
been following your blog since quite time ago, and of course it is always amazing, but this post stands out.
i do love the neos, so it’s great to know about these glorious good news!! and thanks god to jason for this (and of course, for all the projects he does, i.e. the underground music in victoria compilation, that is simply awesome!). let’s see some proper reissue of neos stuff soon!!!
by the way, still wanting to listen to that carillo single. any chance?
best regards,
edu “jove moix”
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Too much man. A contender for greatest hardcore 7″ from the discussion we had a while back. I had to put the rips I got from somewhere else in the recycle bin. I couldn’t get “(Almost) Typical, obligatory Anti-Government Song” to work for me. I still use wordpress 2.3.3. Thanx yet again sir.
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erich, there seems to be a problem with the Typical Anti-Gov’t Song file. Great post. Thanks also for mentioning my hometown heroes, Poison Idea, in the same breath as these Cheesehead Killers. I recently sold my lesser Rat Cage pressing of this record to feed my collector scum needs and have regretted it ever since.
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OK I’m fucking blown away. Definitely my revelation for this week, thanks!
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Link fixed!
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My favorite was always “Where Did You Go Wrong”. I owned TWO of these (Ratcage press) over the years, and I don’t think I payed more than 25 bucks for either. The first ep has a much much cleaner production and the songs feel like they’re “rolling” over you.
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Oh, man!!
This one deserved the better-than-the-original rip treatment you do, ha ha.
As for the scans, if you right-click on the picture and choose “save as”, you get the big one, so i think it’s no problem.. live and learn.
Some ex-neos guy went to form a band called “mexican power authority”, cool band if you ask me, there’s some stuff floating around the web i think (or slsk), of course they’re no NEOS but it’s better than the average 90′s hardcore you see around.
cheers Erich!
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This is another classic 7″ & is SO much better than their first one, which I thought was just crap. I have a Mexican Power Authority CD called “Haiku…Gesundheit” which I can’t even remember listening to, so I will have to give it a listen…Just had a look at it & it has 99 tracks!
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The Neos drummer was a big inspiration to me back in the 80s. Listening to it now I can still see why. Long time since I spun this and of course it have aged with grace! KILLER!
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Gave this one away. Still does nothing for me. Thanks for letting me hear it again.
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I haven´t had the time to listen t this so much yet and now I´m off for the holidays and I just wanted to wish mr Admin and everybody else a good holidays free from work and such boring things.
And Mötley Crüe? A big no-no.
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the quality of these rips is astonishing! how do you do that? is it only the 320 kb/s setting or is some sort of magic you use?
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@ Cheers Pär. Enjoy yourself and get back well.
@ Andi Anti: It’s magic, but magic of the buyable sort. I will one day post a manual since so many people keep asking the same question.
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Amazing site…thank you for all the great records…finding a lot of shit I REALLY regret having sold at various low points over the years. If I remember correctly this came w/ a booklet of how to play all the songs complete w/ hand drawn pictures of where to put yr fingers on the neck of yr gitter etc. VERY cool. Any chance you could post any Stickmen W/ Rayguns? Thanks again!
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YES!! Always been one of my favorite records, so over the top! Unlike anything else, it seemed like alien beings landed, recorded and then were gone…
!!!
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One of the greatest hardcore records, unfortunately I only had this on tape (a friend of mine was the lucky scum with the first pressing record). If I had this on vinyl it would surely be one of my first posts. Thanks for one more quality rip.
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my all time favorite thrash hardcore record PERIOD– this fits my drunk/manic personality just fine–thanks for this superb rip- -the sound quality is amazing
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awesome post.. sick fuckin record dude.. even better site. keep it up.. nuf respect
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In The “shitty” Concept 7″ by NOFX
the song “stupid canadians” is sort of a rendition of Anti – Government
check it out its pretty funny.
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the “Hassibah” master tape was indeed lost for 23 years and I now have it in my hands. it plays at double the industry standard tape speed at a whopping 30IPS, so once successfully transferred it’ll be the biggest sound ever reproduced/heard of these songs.
the discog has taken YEARS longer than planned but we now have unreleased songs from ’83, Hassibah outtakes, t-shirt art to use on the cover, and the Hassibah master! hang on everyone, it is coming!
j
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Has this thing come out yet???? we neeed to know !
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