Traitre - S/T EP's (double review)

LADA Records

 

Recently I picked up Traitre’s self-titled demo cassette to get myself introduced to these guys and these French men managed to impress me with their raw and rowdy punk and hardcore influenced Oi! music. Surprisingly I found out that prior to this cassette the band released two EP’s already, easy pick-ups after hearing the tape and it only took me several days to get both  45’s in my possession. Time for a double review!

 

Both EP’s are, as far as I can tell, untitled and both got released by French LADA Records, that you might know from the 2012 7” release of “Salome 1900” by Paris Violence. Luckily enough both records got a different cover, plus different songs obviously, because all these self-titled, or untitled as you like, releases might get a bit confusing (the tape didn’t have a title either) in the end. So to get the record straight (pun intended), the cover with the drawing of a needle is ‘LADA 002’ and the cover with the dead mouse on the street is ‘LADA 003’.

 

‘LADA 002’ contains a total of three tracks, jam-packed with raw energy, lots of melody and great back-up vocals. “Descente” is a great opener, “Akathisie” is a 45 seconds banger and “U.M.D.” is most likely the best thing I have heard by Traitre until date. That chorus, with the lead vocals being melodically backed by the rest of the gang, is sublime and how I like my French Oi! and punk best! Raw, in your face, but still catchy as hell!

 

On ‘LADA 003’ the production appears  to be a bit less ‘demo-ish’, read better, but the songs are from the same top quality as Traitre’s other releases. This 7” contains two songs, “La Mort” and “Suicide”, and especially “La Mort” is yet another killer track where they use the same power of vocal melody in the chorus as on “U.M.D.”, while “Suicide” is killing it with punk influences and a fantastic end.

 

Think of French bands like Komintern Sect, Reich Orgasm and Trotskids mashing up with Negative Approach and that is Traitre in a nutshell, fuckin’ great! ‘LADA 002’ is limited to 300 copies and ‘LADA 003’ to 500 copies and my guess is that there are still plenty around, so pick these suckers up in you are into the French stuff!