Alcatraz was a 1990s hardcore/punk band from Niort, France who were active for a few years in the late 1990s. They are often described as "emo" today along with many other similar bands, but I will neglect to call them that because in the insert in one of their 7"s, member of the band, Thierry Rambaud says not "mistake in labelling Alcatraz as 'emo'" as it would "irritate" him. The band released two 7"s, one self titled and the other a split with Italian band Tempo Zero. Then in 2000 they released a discography CD.
Alcatraz has a really interesting sound, a mix of the emotionally driven French hardcore of the early 90s and the more groovy, jazzy and experimental sound of European hardcore going into the late 90s/early 2000s. I absolutely love the use of horns in their music, similar feel to the use of horns in Ivich but Alcatraz takes a more ambitious approach that seems to draw inspiration from the free jazz movement of the 1960s. They weren't afraid to try something relatively new different to hardcore music and I think I can always appreciate that in a band.
Alcatraz shared members with Peu Être, Rachel and Amanda Woodward and you can definitely hear the similarities in all of these bands. France had one of the most diverse and interesting hardcore scenes of the 90s, I don't think there's been many if any French hardcore bands from this time that I haven't loved.
Note: These scans are taken from Discogs, I plan to update them with my own higher quality scans when I have the time to do so.
S/T 7" 1997 (Opale Records/Le Brun Le Roux Corporation)
Alcatraz / Tempo Zero split 7" 1998 (Opale Records/Enphasys/Le Brun Le Roux Corporation)
Discography CD 2000 (Stonehenge)
No comments:
Post a Comment