Hack

Growing up outside a major metropolitan area in my high school years, I frequently turned to mailordering records. There were a handful of record labels I generally regarded as consistent with their releases. In the early '90s, I considered Alternative Tentacles to be one of those labels. With bands like Victim's Family, Nomeansno, Neurosis, as well as all the Biafra related projects, I placed AT up there with SST and Dischord. I would generally order a handful of records I was really interested in, and then take a chance on a few records that just sorta looked mysterious or engaging. Sometimes this gamble paid off (Vagtazo Halottkemek? amazing!) and sometimes it didn't (White Trash Debutantes? ughh....). But occasionally it would yield something just straight up strange.

Case in point: catalogue number Virus99 - Hack's "Rawhead" seven inch single. I really knew absolutely nothing about the record other than that the album art in the AT catalogue was really intriguing: a close-up photo of a mom injecting something into her babies mouth with a syringe. Once the record came in the mail, I was met with very little extra information. The 7" is essentially a single for "Rawhead", a track off their full-length "The Rotten World Around Us". While the band hailed from Adelaide, Australia, the LP came out on a label Seaside Records based out of Sydney. This single was basically the only state-side release for the band. The music contained within that record was nothing short of disturbing. The three tracks all had a similar formula: they were comprised of one ominous doomy riff, distorted bass, buried growling vocals, and layer upon layer of noise. It was the kind of racket that even the most adventurous Alternative Tentacles fan would probably find virtually unlistenable. I was half terrified by the band, and half enthralled. This was 1992. The internet was not at my disposal. Zines weren't talking about this record. All that I knew of Hack was that they were from the other side of the planet and they made an hypnotic awful racket. No lyric sheet, no band photo. Today, even less info exists about the band. I know the band lasted from 1989 to 1993, and featured Michael Farkas (ex GRONG GRONG), Nathan Dale (from YOG SOTHOTH) and Harry Butler (ex FEAR AND LOATHING, RAW POWER and "DNA" fanzine). No information of the band exists on Alternative Tentacles' website. The record isn't even listed in the online AT discography. However, an interesting yet brief history of the band, as well as many other great Australian and New Zealand acts, is posted at www.antipodeanunderground.com. It appears that singer Michael Farkas was paralyzed from the waist down following a prolonged drug-induced coma prior to the band's inception. The idea of seeing this band perform with a singer relegated to a wheelchair makes the music seem all the more ominous.
I've never been able to track down the full-length album. And while I am certainly curious to hear the other tracks, I also enjoy the mystery about Hack, and am satisfied for them to exist in my imagination as some misanthropic league of drug casualties on the periphery of the arid Outback.