Starts – We Win, We Lose, We Stay Together

Contra Records

 

Nearly ten years after the Starts’ last attack – the album “The Next Attack” on Asphalt Records – the Ost Punks from Torgau, Germany are back with a brand new release! Entitled “We Win, We Lose, We Stay Together”, the Eastside powerhouse just delivered their first EP for Contra Records, a single-sided 12” with an etched B-side!

 

Despite that the etch looks great, it’s obviously the music that counts most and I got no complaints on that department either! Charged with a little GBH, the band kicks off with “Eastside Division” a fast, hard-hitting opener, while the following track – “Never Ends” – is a tight, mid-tempo scorcher – just the way I like it!

 

It pretty much sums “We Win, We Lose, We Stay Together” up though. Fast attacks, mid-tempo tracks and lyrics in either German or English interchange in a rapid pace, but in the end it’s all tough and powerful, concrete punk from the East of Germany! Besides five all new tracks, Starts also re-recorded – perhaps their first ever song – “Wahre Gesellschaft Part 1” for this 12”, sounding better than ever before!

 

Starts mixes a whole lot of styles, basically everything from hardcore-punk to Oi!-punk and from UK82 to Deutschpunk goes! But if you liked the variety of those “Schlachtrufe BRD” compilations of the 90’s and early 00’s, I am pretty sure you will like the Starts and “We Win, We Lose, We Stay Together” as well!