Contra are a band I know little about other than they mostly play in Aberdeen and are highly-rated among their peers and the Kidz. Thus, being relative newcomers, they are still making those initial steps into the big, bad world and thus you probably haven’t heard of them yet but oooh yes you soon will. Y’see, this young three-piece make firey and veryveryfast, takenoprisoners punk music, and we all know that the GOOD bands who make firey, veryveryfast, takenoprisoners punk (or skapunk) music – eg Capdown, Gold Blade – generate big underground followings. Contra are really, really fucking good and the world will soon be their clam. Or oyster. One of the two.

Anyhoo, there are four tracks here of mostly the speedpunk style, with only ‘Red Beret’ straying into skapunk territory. Contra seem to stick to a few key ingredients: very fast drums, very fast riffs and solos, nearly incomprehensible lyrics, all played as tight as a gnat’s chuff. In the middle eight of ‘Dead Wrong’ they sound a little like The Clash, as any punk band should at some point in their career.

All very good stuff. Highly recommended.

Email: contra_band@hotmail.com