NASTI - "LIFE IS NASTI" LP

LULU'S:

New on Iron Lung, a label so prolific we're constantly catching up to ensure we've richly stocked, and for this public service we have been nominated as un-Australians of the year. Gratitude, accolades and award ceremonies disgust us, so we plow on through the shadows with records like Nasti to give us purpose. Fearing this one is gonna fall into the racks without mention, we've got to shine a little light on it and call the heads to attention: Nasti is worth at least a couple dozen listens today, and a couple dozen tomorrow.

Iron Lung's own Jensen Ward plays bass on this record, but it's his tenure in Washington's Cold Sweat that can be heard echoed through the heavy agro in Nasti. Cold Sweat are one of few bands who dragged mid-period Black Flag into modern hardcore without sounding like a retro cos-play routine. Nasti seem cut from similar cloth. 

This is mostly a mid-paced, gruelling ride, characterised by dual guitarists who each seem committed to write the perfect hardcore riff and outplay their partner, whereas all the other members appear in perfect agreement as they slam and creepy crawl their way through 8 malevolent tracks. Hardcore is Nasti music, oppositional music, full of contrarians, misanthropes and nihilists, and that members of hardcore bands can co-operate and agree on anything is as miraculous and wonderful as any functional family. Nasti is a miracle, like rain on a drought stricken landscape, like a mother lifting a 747 plane to pull children from underneath it, like edible styrofoam packaging. Nasti is life.