Concrete – Ghoulish Practices 7" (1981)
“Concrete once got yanked off an Xmal Deutschland bill for showing up to play with four Sony Walkmans and a banjo…” Chuck Warner (Hyped to Death)
Not sure if they considered themselves a minimal band, but one thing I am sure of: they got attitude and they must had been fun lads to hang out with.
Originally posted June 27, 2008
Hose was the first band by now legendary cult figure Rick Rubin. What got my attention was the fact that Rubin was a really huge Flipper fan, and also that both releases made by Hose were not so well known. Maybe were those records not so great? Was Hose just a bad copy of Flipper? I couldn't disagree more! Hose was great noisy artcore – or call it as you want – at its best. Because let's face it… how can you go wrong with slow bass intros and feedbacks?
Rick Rubin
“A chubby NYU student from Long Island wearing tight leather pants and bullet belts, Rick was quick to throw dad's money around. His first Rock Biz foray – an uptown/downtown fusion gig with Heart Attack, Liquid Liquid and Treacherous Three at the Hotel Diplomat – was a total flop. Before he got involved with the Beasties, Rubin played in THE PRICKS and in HOSE – a funny Flipper-style act who'd do ultra-slow versions of Rick James' Superfreak and Black Sabbath's Sweet Leaf.” Steven Blush (American Hardcore)
Rick Rubin and Mike Espindle performing at Maxwells around 1985. The Mystical Beast
“Flipper was a conceptual art project masterminded by a group of (relatively) old San Francisco punk hippies. No doubt, the first few singles and the Generic Flipper LP are crucial records, among my favorites. And Hose desperately wanted to make records that sounded like Flipper. But Hose were an uncalculated, reckless and downright foolish band, just happy to be there, pissing off their neighbors. Flipper is smart, Hose is dumb. And dumb usually wins in rock.” James Barber (Reckless Country Soul)
“Released in the same year as their other record, but unlike on the 12", their NYC adaption of the Flipper sound works pretty well here. Mobo and Zoo are extremely noisy mid-tempo hardcore songs with really evil feedbacs, similar to Flipper but not as weird; Girls is a fast simple thrasher. Cool EP.” Burkhard Järisch (Flex! #3)
Six Minute War – 33.3 EP (1980)
Six Minute War – More Short Songs EP (1980)
Six Minute War – Slightly Longer Songs 7" (1981)
“Six Minute War arrived on the scene a bit late (1980), exploring minimal lengths as well as minimal lyrics and instrumentation. It'd be a stretch to call them England's answer to the Urinals, but you get the concept: their 11-song debut (…) was called 33.3; the next was More Short Songs (though there were only 5 of them). Their 4-track swansong was (naturally) Slightly Longer Songs. After that a couple of them morphed into Fallout, and Rob Taylor later joined Andrew Beer in Concrete and 400 Blows.” Chuck Warner (Hyped to Death)
Six Minute War. Messthetics #107
“One fanzine gave us a right panning because we never looked 'punk' enough – Charlie, Steve and I all had long hair… Another review said 'I know appearances aren't supposed to matter but the singer is a fat Angus Young clone and the rest aren't much better.” Rob Taylor (Six Minute War)
Anne Bean & P. D. Burwell – Low Flying Aircraft 7" (1979)
“Pulp: ‘Low Flying Aircraft’ is what happens when avant-garde meets punk on neutral ground, a wonderfully delirious disaster area. I love it.” New Musical Express
