Harkonen vinyl giveaway

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Nearly a decade after its 2002 release, Harkonen’s Shake Harder Boy is getting the vinyl treatment. Good thing, too: it’s screaming for a rediscovery.

It’s fun. Remember fun? It used to come between work and sleep before we invented the Internet. Shake Harder Boy completely bucked the early ’00s hardcore trend of records that got stuck up their own asses halfway through. The album opens with a scream and grins-then-spits for a half hour of surprisingly danceable music. Other Hydra Head artists from that time were more ambitious, but Harkonen had a winning personality. If Shake Harder Boy were a partygoer, it would do keg stands while its friends mope in a corner.

The watchword is “referential”; Harkonen are named after Frank Herbert’s Dune, and named the album after The Simpsons. The music is referential, too. “Introducing the Creeker Sneaker” and “Baristas Get Stalked” flirt with friendly rock riffs in between more “conventional” guitar and bass sections (when did liaisons with the mainstream become unusual?). Anyone head over heels for Coalesce needs to hear this. Actually, so does anyone who needs to cut loose.

HEAR SHAKE HARDER BOY

“Baristas Get Stalked”
[audio: HARKONEN_BARISTAS.mp3]

“Bargains Only”
[audio: HARKONEN_BARGAINS.mp3]

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BUY SHAKE HARDER BOY

Blue & clear vinyl @ Brutal Panda

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HARKONEN VINYL GIVEAWAY

Brutal Panda is giving away an LP (clear or blue vinyl, their choice) of Shake Harder Boy. For a chance to win, simply leave in the comments (1) the name of a “surprisingly danceable” album, and (2) how it is so. The most convincing case for the most surprising example wins. North American entrants only, please. Entries close at midnight a week from today, Friday, September 23.

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