Mass Movement #15 / $6 USD / A5 / 80 Pages / 12 West Street, Aberkenfig, Bridgend, CF32 9BB, South Wales, UK / [email protected] / http://wakeup.to/massmovement /
While most of the zines from the UK that I’ve had a chance to read have mainly been straightforward and actually just more like listings for up and coming shows, Mass Movement is definitely an all-encompassing zine. With a focus on some of the older punk bands in existence, including interviews with the Buzzcocks, D.O.A., G.B.H., and Circle Jerks, Mass Movement definitely tries to ground its readers in the tried past of the scene. Heartening is the inclusion of zine reviews in a type of zine that usually leaves out any references to other magazines. The review section may be a lad bit on the long side, but the albums reviewed really go through the gamut of genres, from Destiny’s Child type R&B to a number of death metal bands. The text and picture reproduction is sharp, without much in the way of the degradation common in mass-produced zines – the printing process is on very bright paper, and seems to be much more thorough than Maximum Rocknroll or Razorcake. What really drags this zine down are the extreme number of columns, many of which fall immediately on their face. While the interviews are on the whole entertaining, some of the columns could benefit from a discerning editor. Overall, the zine is a solid read, and while these interviews do something in the way to show some emotion from the editors, Mass Movement still seems a little bit lacking in any personality. While this is a music zine, perhaps a push towards more actively expanding on an anonymous entity in some of these pieces might help.