Friday, January 13, 2012

Bad Brains - ROIR cassette

Bad Brains

Generally these days cassette tapes are thought of as no good and only really useful if you happen to driving long haul and own an antiquated car stereo that plays tapes.  ROIR was a music label specializing in cassette releases who just happened to release a demo from a band who had traded in playing jazz fusion in favor of hardcore fused with reggae.  Short bursts of adrenalin filled raging punk with H.R.’s Jamacian Rastafarian accent jab straight to the cranium on “I”, “Sailin On and “Attitude”.    The short slow fraction of “Banned In DC’ only serves to highlight the crushing speed of the rest of the song.  The dub of “Leaving Babylon” simmers the mood with reflectful Jah worshipping reggae.    There’s franticness that rivals the most manic bo-polar stage.  No amount of Ritalin could capably sedate“The Big Take Over” or “Pay to Cum”.    This cassette was pressed into vinyl in 1989 after Bad Brains had a few albums under their belt.  “Rock for Light” is a continuation of this album with more polished versions of a few of the songs from the tape release.   In comparison to early works, “I Against I” slowly grooves and stirs metal, funk and soul into the mixture.   The metallic edge continued on  “Quickness”.   Later albums were patchy affairs with the band’s live performance reflecting their studio efforts.  However in 2007 the band climbed back on board with taking the vocal reigns after an on-off working relationship as Bad Brains’ frontman.  Whilst the format may have changed over time, the intensity has not.  Believe it or not, Mr Ripley, after all these years it’s still possible to get this release on cassette.

5/5

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Killing Joke - Killing Joke 1980

Killing Joke [1980] [Remaster]

Flying in the face of the skinny tied new romantics and the easy listening pleasantness new wave bands were dishing out.    Taking the synthesizer sound from their contemporaries “Requiem” and “Tomorrow’s World” gently lull a listener in.  Precision-steady factory worker repetitiveness bangs in “Bloodsport”.   But Killing Joke also marries the sound with primitive tribal rythms soundtracking an oncoming apocalyptical disaster in “The Wait” Warning of impending doom is “The Wait” “Wardance” is bouncy bass driven abrasive affair completed with Jaz’s grizzle-grunt vocals.   Synthesizers drive “Complications”and “Primitive” hiding a dark undercurrent in the driving industrial rythm. The synthesizers nearly vanished completely on the next album album “What’s this for?”.  Killing Joke flirted with commercialism and had a couple of successful singles with the “NightTime” album in the mid-eighties.  This was followed with the synthesizer heavy but poppier “Brighter Than A Thousand Suns”.     Despite threats of lawsuits against Nirvana  for copping a few riffs from one of their mid-eighties tunes,  Killing Joke’s second self-titled is a turbulent attack to the senses featuring Dave Grohl, who proves that he is best placed on a stool behind a drum kit pummeling the complete shit out of it.

5/5

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

DEAD KENNEDYS “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables”, 1980


Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables


The first wave of UK punk was at its tail end with anarchist politics often considered more important than producing interesting music.  In the US the first wave of heavily political punk bands “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables” a provocative edge that messed with heads and lead to ongoing debates with right wing organizations.   Due to the speed the band play at some listeners could have been convinced that the record they were playing on 33 was mistakenly pressed and meant to be played at a slower pace.   As punk albums should the recording quality sounds like it was all done in one take using a walkman placed a safe distance away from Dead Kennedys explosiveness.   Jello Biafra’s distinctive nasally voice carries more than a side of biting sarcasm over East Bay Ray’s surf guitar tones and clenched fist tight rhythm section. A natural organicness punches through in the catchy choruses and breakneck speed of “Kill The Poor” and “Chemical Warfare”.  “Drug Me” mows along like a loud lawnmower as it cuts through the air with absolutely no messing around.  A nasty metallic raw edge throws razor blade spikes in “California Uber Alles” and the rapid rollicking classic “Holiday in Cambodia”.    After the similar “Plastic Surgery Disasters”, the band experimented more with speed in later albums whilst pointing fingers at authority figures and mindless sheep in the punk scene.  Short spastic blurs are barely contained within “In God We Trust”.   Despite being mostly filled with short and fast songs, “Plastic Surgery Disasters” feels bloated under a weighty grand total of 21 songs.   Jello kept busy with many musical and spoken word projects after Dead Kennedys split.  When the band reformed this century to do reunion shows Biafra was not involved due to ongoing legal battles with his former band members and many fans viewed this as a farce because the complete package wasn’t up for grabs.  

Monday, January 9, 2012

The Stooges - The Stooges


THE STOOGES “The Stooges” , 1969

The Stooges

The late sixties was a time period were rock was full of drug-taking hippy psychedelic bands who were accomplished musicians due to years spent practicing before forming a band.   A band that couldn’t play their instruments who recorded a full album in less than week would have been sneered at by many of their counterparts.
After much begging while producing the album, Velvet Underground member, John Cale, successful managed to compromise with The Stooges to turn their amps down from full volume to nine.  “Psychedelic” may have been dropped from the full band moniker however there was no escaping the lingering in the lengthy slow-burning “We Will Fall” and “1969”’s wah-wah effects.   The stripped to the bone rawness and punk energy of  “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and “No Fun” delivers an unbridled simple swift but shattering kick to the teeth.    The crude unrefined rock would continue into their follow up albums “Raw Power” and “Fun House”.  Despite the enlisting of bass player extraodinaire, Mike Watt, like many recent comeback albums, 2007’s “The Weirdness” suffers from a lack of song-writing chemistry and an incoherent flow that makes the effort misplaced.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks


Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols [PA]

Conversations abound that the Sex Pistols were nothing more than a manufactured pop group from Malcolm McClaren’s manipulating mind.  The debates about who kickstarted punk and perhaps saved rock from overbloated pompousness in the UK without fail include the debut album as the band courted media controversy wherever they were presented with the opportunity and because the opening chords of “Holiday In The Sun” are more than just a warning of an impending ass kicking.  Contrary to popular belief most of the core band members actually knew how to play their instruments but Johnny Rotten’s technical singing ability is dubious but the enraged sneeered vocals.  “Bodies”  is a wondeful distorted noisy abortion of a song with Steve Jones’ solid guitar playing and Rotten spitting out more disgust than a nun scolding a Catholic school boy for reading a porn mag.  “God Save The Queen” “Anarchy In the UK” and “E.M.I.” are anthems with the requisite punk spitting contempt at authority.  Later albums were some of the same songs with a few tacked on extras

Beastwars - IV

After over a year off for various reasons, we have returned solely because we wanted to review the new Beastwars album. I really w...