Bless the General Speech label for doing a second edition of this instantly-sold-out EP of previously unreleased Stalin blasts from 1983. You don’t need to know anything about The Stalin, or the Mushi LP that immediately preceded these recordings, or really anything about the breadth of Japanese punk to get fully on board with this (I speak from experience when I say that). The songs are perfectly thrashy, at times atonal and art-punky, catchy as hell. I have no idea what’s happening lyrically, but I can live with that. Even without specifics, Kubi Dake Atsureki seems to communicate everything that needs to be said in a matter of minutes, or seconds. Early ’80s rage and gnarliness and simplicity—truly compact and eternally satisfying. – Matt Werts, RAZORCAKE