D&V - The Nearest Door

Format: 12” Vinyl
Catalogue No.: 1219842
Barcode: 5016958102913
Release Date: 21 Jun 2024
Genre: Punk/Hardcore

 “D&V brought out one of the most original and exciting releases I’ve heard on Crass Records in ages” - Expletive Undeleted Zine
 D&V were a duo formed in Sheffield by Andy Leach on drums and Jef Antcliffe on vocals. The group released their first EP, ‘The Nearest Door’, on Crass Records. With Penny Rimbaud as producer, their musical simplicity was combined with uncompromising avant-gardism to achieve new heights. The group would go on to release a second album in 1984 entitled ‘Inspiration Gave Them Motivation To Move On Out Of Their Isolation’ with a more refined sound and additional vocals by Crass’s Eve Libertine and Joy de Vivre.
 Penny Rimbaud tells us, “D&V are so named because they turned up to play at the now legendary squat gig of 1982 at the Zig Zag Club in North London. At that time, they didn’t have a moniker, so they were chalked up on the day’s order of play as D&V (drums and vocals) because that’s what they were and that’s how they remained. Simple and to the point, they were precursors to rap which later both rhythmically and vocally came to mirror their fierce rhetoric. A northern band with streetwise sentiments, they spoke loud and clear of disenfranchisement (call it slavery) and the vicious class system which created it. From street to stormy skies, D&V were on the up, and hard rains began to fall.”
 Penny finally notes that “Our [Crass’s] interest was never in personalities, profits or power, and neither did we have time for reformist liberals. Our position was solidly revolutionary; we took no prisoners. Ours wasn’t a show, it was a battle, not a living, but a lifestyle, a lifestyle with a difference - rather than looking only to ourselves, we sought to share our gains. I feel that this willingness added great strength to the form of anarchism that we practiced both on stage and out on the street.”
 In giving a platform to an impressive array of other bands, Crass Records broadened the front of what popularly became known as anarcho-punk. Not, it must be said, a moniker that Crass themselves much favoured. In this respect, Crass’s classic line, ‘There is no authority but yourself’, makes its point. Crass sought to empower others, and the output of Crass Records does much to confirm this, while ‘2 By 2 And Back Again’ seems to nail it - ‘get out of your own way, we’re all in this together’.

Tracklisting
Jekyll and Hyde
Wake Up
High Above
Today’s Conclusion
Step Inside
Dignity
S21PN