A5, 36
pages
£3.23 (+
£4.03 p&p)
I’ve got
a soft spot for Break the Chain.
Nothing in its pages is relatable to my life – my knowledge of post-hardcore
and post-punk music is shaky, I rarely share my political views and the closest
I’ve ever gotten to Jacksonville, Florida is Canada. I am firmly outside of the
target demographic.
I think
the thing about this zine which resonates with me the most is its earnestness.
Its cut-and-paste aesthetic is reminiscent of the early zines of the sixties
and seventies, hastily photocopied, stapled and distributed while the pages
were still warm. There’s a lot of heart in its pages.
The third
issue offers more psychedelic artwork from Stacey Matchett, an intriguing
artist who appears to have almost no online presence. Her drawings are as
detailed and hypnotic as always, and they seem to be composed with a more
definite sense of purpose than the pieces that have been included in previous
issues.
There’s
also work from an artist whose name I hadn’t heard before – Austin Redwood. His
art is in total contrast to Matchett’s; serene paintings of trees and
landscapes. This type of artwork in this type of zine is a surprise, but a
welcome one.
In
general, the band interviews are a fun read. Matt Sessions (creator of Break the Chain) has scored interviews
with bands from across the Unite States, including Big Ups, Priests, UV-TV and
Profit Prison. Each of the interviews are sufficiently engaging, but I can’t
help but notice that most of the musicians’ answers to Sessions’ questions are
astonishingly articulate, almost as if they’d had quite a lot of time to
compose each response. It’s fair to say that the interviews are probably
conducted long-distance, but I think this is an understandable trade-off for
reaching bands outside of Jacksonville.
Sessions
poses his trademark question to each of the bands: “What are you reading at the
moment? Are there any books you’d recommend?” I’m still waiting for the day somebody
reels off a reading list full of Andy McNab thrillers or Marian Keyes
paperbacks, but the selection was as distinguished as always – titles by Joan
Didion, Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf and Arundhati Roy, amongst others. I guess
artists appreciate art, no matter what the medium.
This
volume is a solid instalment in the Break
the Chain zine and it will be a pleasing read for fans of the first two
volumes. It is interesting, impactful and illuminating – everything I’ve come
to expect from this zine.
You can
buy your copy of Volume Three of Break
the Chain here.
Review by J.L. Corbett
