Commitment Records was started in July 1995 with two goals in mind: to be a means to distribute 7" records of small American and European labels and beginning Straight Edge bands in Europe and to release records of Straight Edge bands with a positive attitude.
The Straight Edge movement was at its height in the beginning of the Eighties (1980-1983) and a second boom took place at the end of the decade (1987-1989) with a lot of new bands, labels and fanzines. In the beginning of the Nineties the Straight Edge trend was over.
Later in the Nineties a new style of Straight Edge developed, with bands that were more
militant than most of the bands of the '80's and with a music-style that became more and more
influenced by metal. The attitude of a lot of these socalled 'new school Straight Edge
hardcore'-bands was not positive at all: this was reflected in their lyrics (sometimes really
apocalyptical), the artwork of the records (dark, with a lot of demons and images from the
Middle-ages) and even in the dancing style (violent). From 1995 on, some new young Straight Edge bands came up, both in the USA (Halfmast, Envy, Plagued With Rage) and Europe (Mainstrike, Rectify) that got their inspiration, both musically and lyrically, from the 80s bands. Inspired by this development Commitment Records was started.
Commitment Records wants to provide an opportunity for new or unknown bands, who combine the Straight Edge message with a positive attitude, to release (7") records. As a start (and this policy is still in force in 1999) Commitment Records is only doing 7"'s records. The 7" is the cheapest format to make (or buy) records, and that's the reason we think it needs to be supported.
Ideology
Commitment Records considers itself a Straight Edge label and will limit itself to releasing records by Straight Edge bands, at reasonable prices.
For the people involved in Commitment Records Straight Edge means more than just not drinking, not smoking and not using drugs. In our eyes these are just necessary conditions to be able to strife for the really important things: creating a society, based on mutual respect, without prejudice, hate and ignorance; working for a world without the big differences in welfare which exist nowadays, a world where humans, animals and the environment have priority, and not economic growth and monetary considerations.
There is no place for hardline attitudes, racism, sexism, homophobia, nationalism, satanism and machoism (including violent dancing !) in Straight Edge.
Releases up to now
In 1996 Commitment released its first record, a live-EP of Youth Of Today , with recordings made during their show in Amsterdam, in 1989. We released this 7" for three reasons. In the first place because we had a live-recording of Youth Of Today at our disposal, which perfectly captured the atmosphere existing in the European hardcore scene at the end of the Eighties, at a time when the Straight Edge scene in Holland, Belgium and Germany was at its peak. In the second place the ideology of the band Youth Of Today has a lot in common with the ideology from which Commitment Records was started: Straight Edge, positive thinking and awareness of the wrongs of this world. In the third place, by releasing a record of a very popular band, we were able to bring Commitment Records to the attention of a lot of people.
In 1997 Commitment Records organized a positive sXe-festival in Amsterdam, and as part of this festival,
a double-7" was released with the 8 bands that played on the festival (among those By The Grace Of God from
the USA, Mainstrike from Holland and Spawn from Germany). The festival was the first hardcore-show in
Holland with a non-smoking policy and besides that, was a benefit for a refugee aid organisation. The
festival was a big succes - including the bands, more than 200 people visited the festival. Since the end of 1997, Commitment released 7"'s by a bunch of young sXe-bands from Holland and Belgium: Oil, Vitamin X, GuidingLine, Soberesponse, X-Men, One X More, Reaching Forward and Product X.
After a short break, Commitment Records released three new records in the Summer of 1999: the debut-7" of Kids Like Us from Norway and new 7"'s by Vitamin X from Amsterdam and One X More from Belgium.
In the autumn of 1999, these three releases were followed by two other releases: the "Hit The Line Hard"-compilation featuring four positive HxC/sXe-bands from Northern Carolina and Atlanta: Reinforce, Until Today, No Comply and One Way and the new 7" of Product X from The Netherlands.
The first release in the new Millenium was the debut-7" of Fairfight, positive sXe-HxC from Utrecht, The Netherlands. Around the same time, the re-release on The Return Of The X-Men compilation was also finally done - on one 7" now, featuring different songs of Oil and GuidingLine and without the Spawn-song. The record starts with an intro by Rob Pennington of By The Grace Of God. The layout was done by Robin of Oil, and features many photos taken on the festival.
At the end of the Summer of 2000, the world wide straight edge compilation, More Than The X On Our Hands, was released. This compilation, a box set with six 7"'s, contains 41 straight edge band from 41 different countries and a 52-page booklet with a short introduction on the history straight edge, a comment by Ian MacKaye on the start of straight edge, and lyrics, bands information, photos, etcetera. This compilation will also be put out on tape or CD or various other labels all over the world.
In April 2001 Cross Me, a German-France straight edge band, debuted with their first regular release on Commitment. Later that year, the debut-7" was released of Fight For Change, one of the many straight edge bands out of the active Portugese sXe scene.
In the first 2 years of the 2nd millenium, the number of releases on Commitment have not been as numerous as in the last 2 years of the 1st Millenium. But this will change in 2002. In March, the second 7" of Fairfight was released, and this was followed in June by the first South American band with a release of its own on Commitment: Infect from Brazil. This is also in other aspects an unique record: never before had a Commitment 7" so many songs (13). Besides, the Infect record is the first record that contains songs that already have been release before (in Brazil, to be precisely), and Infect is the first Commitment band with female members (after 5 years, it's about time...). In the second half of 2002 two more records were released: 7"'s of On A Solid Rock and Pointing Finger.
2003 gave Commitment one release: the debut-7" of North from Rotterdam.
The second half of 2004 brought two new releases: the compilation "Forever In Our Hearts", to celebrate the 25th release of Commitment, and 7" by The Age (formerly known as Second Age) from Poland.
In 2005, Commitment has released three records
First, in the beginning of January, the debut-7" of The Miracle 7", was released. The Miracle is a fairly new band from the Milan area, but with people that have been around for a long time, playing in bands like Fumbles In Life and Shotgun Foundation. The 7" contains the three songs of the promo they recorded in the Summer of 2004, and three new songs, that they have been recorded in the autumn of the same year. Six songs of powerful and heavy old school hardcore, with lyrics that deal with scene related, personal and political issues.
Second, there was the third and, unfortunately, final 7" of the Portugese vegan straight edge band Fight For Change. Due to all kind of misfortunes, it took the band very long to finish the recording and mixing of the songs of this 7", but the final results are for sure worth the wait. Fight For Change got the opportunity to record in a professional studio, as one of their members was working there, and that led to by far the best produced the stuff the band recorded so far. The 7" contains seven songs (around 15 minutes of music!) of fast youthcrew hardcore, with lyrics that reflect on straight edge, the hardcore scene and the larger world in general. The record is a benefit for the Animal Liberation Front. The 8 page booklet contains explanations of the lyrics and reflections of the band on the state of the world, and especially the animal rights issue.
Third, at July the 30th, the debut-7" of The Silver Shine was released as Commitment # 29. Although the members of The Silver Shine have their roots in the Hungarian hardcore scene (and are still an active part of it), this 7" is in fact the first non-hardcore Commitment release. The sound of this trio (vocals/guitar, upright bass and drums) can be described as a mixture of psychobilly and punkabilly, with some hardcore, country and punkrock influences thrown into the mix for good measure. The lyrics deal with the usual psychobilly stuff (you know, the same subjects that are handled in classic horror movies from the 1950s and 1960s), but also with the dangers of the addiction to drugs - which reflects the straight edge lifestyle of all members of the band. The record is a benefit for a local group that helps addicted people to give up their addiction and start a new life.
In 1999 Commitment Asia was started to give the people in Asia the opportunity to come into contact with the Commitment-bands without having to pay loads of money. Commitment Asia is run by XBoyX, singer of the Malaysian old school band Disaster Funhouse, who also does Unquestionable Distro/Zine. First release on Commitment Asia is a tape with all recordings of Vitamin X from the period 1997-1999. At this moment, Commitment Asia is on a hold, but hopefully the label will be active again soon.
Contact
Commitment Europe can be contacted at:
Commitment Records
Ridderspoor 42
1689 TG Zwaag
The Netherlands