Distort XXIII Vol. 1: Cult Hardcore

Are you familiar with Antidote? New York hardcore band, protein rich. Listen when I say this: Antidote was the antidote to communist childhood. Hardcore for me was a music and culture born out of experiences like this. Extremes. Brainwashing. Cult mentality. Crime and violence and mental turmoil. Hunger and hatred. Theft and vandalism, riot and affray. Running away from the cops. Running towards the cops.

“A penis squirts and I am doomed to a life on earth” – Wollongong folk saying.

Writing on the early years of Distort, including life in Wollongong and moving to Melbourne to play in Straightjacket Nation. Includes a concise history of cult hardcore, alongside extracts from the first 10 issues of Distort 2004-2006: Integrity, h100's, Left For Dead, Japanese Hardcore, Arms Reach.

Card cover with lino cut print, numbered individually /23.

Distort mag started in 2003 to document kvlt hardcore and World War III. The contents of Distort have been dominated by impulse, excess, insomnia, stimulation. No editor, no proofread, no nerd.

Out of the 2000+ pages published over the past couple of decades I am skimming the C.R.E.A.M. into an archival book.

I'm raising funds to print this by making backissues available again via PDF here.

I'm also kicking off a project called the XXIII Project, of which this is the eighth volume.

XXIII will publish 23 mags total. These will be available only in two editions of 23 copies each.

The first edition I will be selling via Prop, Lulu's and the Distort mailorder (here).

The second edition was a unique subscription edition to this project. Now sold out.