��Not too sure what the story is on this LP, as it came out on an Italian label that has become somewhat notorious for releasing bootlegs of classic hardcore albums, but as rare and sought after the music of legendary Japanese noise-punks Confuse has become, we'll take what we can get. And like the last Confuse LP that we picked up from NNM, this is fairly well put together, using artwork from the original releases and offering a pretty high quality of sound, all things considered.

�� Hate War No War Fuckin' War is a compilation of various EPs that Confuse released throughout the 1980s, all of which have been out of print for at least a couple of decades: the Nuclear Adicts EP from 1984, the Contempt The Authority And Take Off The Lie EP and tracks from the Sexual Confuse compilation from 1985, 1987's Spending Loud Night 7", and the 1989 12" Stupid Life are all included here. Listening to this stuff now, it's pretty easy to make out where Napalm Death and some of those other primordial UK grindcore bands picked up some of their inspiration. Just one listen to Confuse's seminal early 7's reveals just where many of those bands got the idea for their blower-bass assault and distortion-drenched chaos attack; the rabid, ultra-noisy violence of those initial Confuse records without a doubt helped to form the nucleus of what would soon evolve into grindcore. At the time those EPs were released, they no doubt blew the minds of more than a few hardcore fans. Coming out of Kyushu, Japan in the early 1980s, Confuse immediately caught the attention of sonic extremists with their crazed sound, a mess of driving, speed-fuelled bass and blown-out guitars, a total cacophony of screaming atonal solos and ear-shredding feedback noise, at times more like something off of some No Wave album than a typical drunken pogo attack, the songs often slipping into a crazed pandemonium of scraped strings and discordant chords, atonal shredding and ringing harmonics. The singer's gruff, barbaric vocals puke up an endless tirade of anti-war and class warfare vitriol through a thick haze of blood and phlegm, and the drumming on these recordings is some of the most batshit punk drumming I have ever heard; the drummer only plays a straightforward thrash beat half the time, with the rest an assault of seemingly endless tom rolls that bring a weird, speeded-up, almost tribal feel to Confuse's music.

�� Even by today's standards, this stuff is pretty extreme. The songs are rooted in the formula of classic early 80's UK hardcore, but those freaks in Confuse twisted that sound into something far noisier and more abrasive, yet intensely catchy at times. The songs off of the Nuclear Adicts EP are a prime example, each one a blistering anarchic anthem with savage sing-along parts erupting out of their chaotic thrash. As the band progressed, they started to employ more effects and noise, blasts of echoplex insanity and extreme wind-tunnel effects that would suddenly rip through the churning hardcore of songs like "Fight Against The Plutocrats" and "All Things Change Into Fashion (Media)", bringing a bizarre, quasi-psychedelic feel to their barbaric pogo pummel. By the time you get to their later work on the Stupid Life 12" from 1989, Confuse had begun to incorporate more melody into their songs, mainly through the guitarist's newfound love of soaring, almost Floydian guitar solos; there is a moment at the end of that EP where the band's frantic distorted hardcore suddenly gives way to a surprisingly atmospheric bit of low-fi space rock that seriously melted my head the first time I heard it. Definitely one of the more unique and extreme punk bands from this era, and essential listening for anyone into the more recent spate of noise-punk bands like Death Dust Extractor and Zyanose.