This is the nineteenth issue of Mass Movement, but this one’s all gussied up: thick paper, perfect binding, adept graphic design. So, in a way, it’s also the first issue. And it’s backed by an honest guy, Mike Beer (of Beer City Skateboards and the Beer City label). All this background stuff’s important because it’s the almost-invisible-to-the-naked-eye stuff that tips Mass Movement into the good category. Like, you know they’re not reaching for the brass ring. They just want to have great-looking zine about punk music; it is, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That said, it also has some earmarks of a first issue. The size of the text (I notice because, uhh, I read a lot) jumps all over the place and some of it’s a real strain. Even things (like Al Quint’s column) I wanted to read became a little painful through the squinting—and the fact that Al opens about talking about a photo that he thinks is in the column but it’s a picture of a panther instead—was a bit disorienting. Musically, Mass Movement is a fan of crossover—Municipal Waste, Napalm Death, Excel—and knows their shit. My quibble is that many of the intros say something to the effect, “If you haven’t heard these guys, you’ve been living under a rock.” I may be wrong here, but part of the reason of interviewing folks is to introduce them to a wider audience. A little handshake of words at the beginning may lead me, and others, to bands I’d otherwise flip through. Quibbles aside, cheers to getting this out and hopes that there’s many more. –Todd Taylor (Mass Movement, PO Box 193, Bridgend, CF31 9BN, U.K.)