HAEST – Distrusted Uniforms CD EP (self-released)

Here’s the blurb for this three track release by the Hastings ‘supergroup’ featuring members of MATHILDAS SCOUNDRELS, THE BARRACKS, WIZARD FIGHT and THE DEAD ANYWAYS:

We are living through a time of extremes. A time in which the true criminals are those who hold all the power. These songs were written just before George Floyd was brutally murdered by the police. They were intended as a personal and philosophical discussion about the policing of outdated societal expectations placed upon us all through race, class, gender and lifestyle. But, whilst we were recording, (and with the black lives matter protests still ringing in our ears), it increasingly became clear that there is no time for the personal or the philosophical when murderers in blue are walking free on our streets. Sometimes there is only time to say fuck the cops, fuck the patriarchy and fuck the capitalist system that empowers them both. Please know; we are only allies. If you’re hearing this message without listening to black voices, to women’s voices, to trans voices or to queer voices then use this as a platform to find them and actively listen to their words and their songs. Haest cannot convey the truth from a place of privilege, we can only try to spread the message and support those who are truly affected. With that in mind, all proceeds from the sale of this EP will go to Sisters Uncut. ACAB always.

A powerful message and a welcome one, in an increasingly polarised world in which those who seek justice and equality are denigrated. Solidarity feels good. Being reminded that not everyone is disappearing down a rabbithole of poisonous bullshit helps to ward off despair.

Describing themselves as punk/hardcore/doom/sludge, the ghost of British emo creeps around these tracks. The haunting Morrissey Makes me Want To Eat Meat, with it’s distant-vocal effect and muted slow build serves as an aperitif to the main course. How many Plums Is Normal For A Mouth? is an intense, pounding experience which, along with the message, feels weighty and serious. This is not a fast hardcore song but is no less incensed. A twenty second joke song at the end, though I am ordinarily a fan of such things, seems a little jarring in the context of the overall sentiment.

Short but hugely effective, Distrusted Uniforms nails it. Fucking go, HAEST.

Limited to 100, with hand-numbered card wallet featuring lyric insert. Check it out here:

https://haest.bandcamp.com/album/distrusted-uniforms