Handrail, Fossil (Unreleased)

When I was at the High School/Secondary School (or whatever it is called, I'll never learn) back in the 90's, there were 3 different papers, which for some reasons I constantly looked through more than anything else:

° the Italian vocabulary

° the atlas

° the Greenrecords mailorder catalogue, year 1999

The latter, according to universal awareness, was something more than a simple catalogue.

To me it has been the abc of the hc, the ancestor wikipedia of punk, my personal trainer into the world of indipendent music and most of all the best means to discover new bands and make safe purchases. (Not true: I have to admit that without a sneak preview of a record - read: the Internet- was very easy to waste your money in something which you hoped was better).

However the reviews were short and brief, with no annoying stately language, no circumlocutions, just a simple and handy definition with links to similar bands. Sometimes those writings were so sincere that they seemed to question any laws of marketing.

And so was in there that I spent days and days just by reading it, studying it, and then highlighting with three different colours the records that I might have liked the most, in order to make a savvy and sensible choice. Then after the final decision, the letter was ready to be sent via ordinary mail and after weeks of eager waiting finally the parcel was able to reach your house.

There was one record in that catalogue which I had waited with hope and anxiety for years. It was advertised as a coming new release for Green Rec and it featured members of my beloved Burning Defeat playing some kind of (old school) emo: Handrail.

After postponing the releasing date tons of times, eventually the record never came out.

Those 8 tracks can finally see the light.

click to enlarge

This is a short biography written by Andrea X Ferraris (long life to him!) one of its members, as well as of Burning Defeat.

Handrail had been active since 1998 to 1999 and after several line-up changes the only permanent members were me on guitar/vocals and Tony on drums. Fossil was recorded by Daniele Giordana at One Voice Studio in Chivasso, the final line-up was Tony on drums, Fulvio (from Permanent Scar/Jilted) on bass (who replaced Ilo), Daria on guitar and me on guitar/vocals. This recording should have been released by Green Rec/Genet Rec, but we called it quits right after the recording because I was more absorbed by OneFineDay and Tony was deeply involved with his medical studies to become a doctor.

Karate, Idaho and The Van Pelt were our cup of tea back in the days...

Band: Handrail
Title: Fossil
Label: Unreleased (Supposedly Green Records / Genet Records)
Year: 1998
Genre: Indie/emocore
Location: Alessandria- Piemonte
Related Bands: Burning Defeat, One Fine Day, Deep End and many more

1. Russian Roulette With A Bon Bon
2. Sleeping Bag
3. Fossil
4. Fader
5. End Of A Season
6. Supernova Burner
7. Glory Box
8. Ilo

Handrail, Fossil (unreleased) . zip

Negazione - Sempre In Bilico

Elder brothers have several different functions in the family context. Elements of comparison, bad babysitters, perpetrators of your psycological abuse, playmates and so on. If you are lucky enough though they might own a few records which, actively o passively you are keen on/compelled to listen to.

I spent years and years of my childhood being forced to listen to those James Brown's 300db shrieks (forgive me, King of Soul, this is what a white 8 year-old-girl can think of you if put through an extended and unwanted listening of your music. I will later understand), or heavy metal tunes I didnt want to know (exasperated eventually even my father once was obliged to admit he didn't mind the Slayer. Hilarious). Some other times things went better and I ended up, ages later, finding out that I loved bands I couldnt think I would have loved. The power of passive listening.

In other words the access to your brothers' record collection can be a considerable victory if you bump into a Negazione lp in the very moment you are discovering the joy(s) of punk.

That's what actually happened a few years ago (15? a few? uh?) when someone living under my same roof told me to listen to Sempre in Bilico 7" from Negazione.

Given for granted that everybody knows them and they don't need any further introduction.

Straight from Torino in the 80's they are literally a piece of history of (the middle age of) italian punk.

Band: Negazione
Title: Sempre in Bilico
Label: We Bite Rec.
Year: 1989
Genre: punk
Location: Torino - Piemonte

1. Sempre in bilico
2. La nostra vita

Negazione - Sempre In Bilico 7"