UK84, the Noise Ain't Dead (part 6): Chaos UK "Just mere slaves" 12'', 1997

Like every year, Bloody Christmas is coming again and government twats loudly claim - assuming there are still people caring for what they have to say - that, in this time of distress, the country needs to celebrate merrily while respecting health safety measures. Christmas remains some sort of odd and painful traditional duty with an almost patriotic touch in our current situation, as this year you don't have to kiss your right-wing brother-in-law or your ass-grabbing great-aunt. So the pandemic is not totally without benefit, although you will still have to endure your nephew running berserk around the table and turning the living room into a battlefield. Thanks fuck no one cares for notorious punk-repellent Mariah Carey in my family, it's like garlic to us. But am I only here to whine about Christmas Eve? No indeed. For the last Terminal Sound Nuisance post of 2021, I would like to make you a present in the shape of a lossless rip of a Chaos UK classic. It is not something you will be able to put at the foot of the plastic Christmas tree because it really is a download file but I suppose that if you actually download and open it on the 25th it can count as a valid present. 

Who doesn't know Bristol's Chaos UK? And more importantly, who doesn't like Chaos UK? If you have people in your circle of friends who happen to dislike the band, then you are clearly hanging out with the wrong gang. There is no exception. Sort your life out. Chaos UK belong to this category of bands that everyone likes to some extent, or at least have a lot of respect for. I would include bands such as Discharge, The Mob or Subhumans in this category and many more but I don't want to spend time making lists of bands just to have a bitter geezer declare that, just for the sake of arguing on a monday, he never rated Why very highly nor enjoyed Mob 47. I love taking on that precise role but of course hate it when the situation is reversed. Human nature I guess. Chaos UK really are a bag of quality crisps. Some people have them on a daily basis, others just on the way home after a night-out, others on rare occasions because they want to be slim or eat healthily or whatever dieticians say, while there are also those that never allow themselves to eat crisps but secretly crave for them. Chaos UK work exactly like that. They have their devoted fans, freakish outcasts who can listen to live tapes from the mid-80's, and people who are fine with enjoying a bit of Burning Britain occasionally, on their grandmother's birthday for instance. I like to think that I belong to the first category, the one where the very best of heroes meet.

Claiming that I have a Chaos UK story to tell could be a little far-fetched. It's not like my mum revealed on my 15th birthday that she helped pen "No security" or something. But the band being something of a foundational, heuristic one for me in my teenage years, I inevitably remember well the first time I heard them and the context. It was in 1999. My school only had one real punk. There were also baggies-wearing "skatecore" types who were into Fat Wreck Chords and singers who sounded like ducks, and I know what I am talking about since I had a brief "skatecore" phase myself. But there was only one real punk. After meeting that one real punk, my life changed completely as I started to dress seriously with bleached trousers, boots and an oversized jacket with beer caps as badges. Proper class. I started to hang with the real punk and we became friends. She made real punk tapes for me with The Casualties and older British bands like Varukers, Abrasive Wheels, Cock Sparrer or GBH on it and my own conversion into a real punk was swift indeed, to the great disappointment of my parents who even started to miss my baggie trousers phase which is a saying a lot. 

 

The school we went to had little equipment to speak of but there was a "radio club". The name might be a little misleading though. It was a simple room with a basic hi-fi system - it had a broken turntable and an Out of Order poster for some reason which made us feel like rebels - located just at the entrance of the refectory. We could use the room once a week but he music we played was not broadcast in the whole building of course, the school was not at this level of high technology. We just installed a chair before the door of the room where we placed the speakers and played the music as loud as possible to our fellow students queuing to get into the refectory. The radio show, if you can call it that, took place during lunch breaks so that many unsuspecting, unprepared and, in most cases, unwilling students got exposed to 90's streetpunk and oi - a large portion of which was pretty shite in retrospect - as well as a tasteful assortment of 80's British punk-rock. The speakers' wire would often be removed by lads who did not enjoy our impeccable punk taste but amazingly enough we never got physically brutalized or too victimized, in spite of us playing Casualties' "For the punx" and "Riot" every week. There were threats of mob violence, pitchforks and torches, but, for once, the gods of punk seemed to be protecting us. My mate was heavily into Chaos UK's "Farmyard boogie" a song which she would play often. I did not particularly enjoy the number, although I did pretend to because I wanted to look like I knew my shit. It is after all a rather long comedy song that is difficult to understand if you are not aware of West Country's rural accent but it was my first encounter with Chaos UK and listening to that song always takes me back to the days when I considered a tartan flat cap and oversized bleached pants to be crucial parts of my identity. My friend assured me that Chaos UK were the punkest band of all and more than 20 years later I can say that she was right to some extent. 

The Chaos UK record my friend owned and off which she played "Farmyard boogie" was the 1998 Best of... Chaos UK cd. During a glorious weekend trip in London later that year I managed to find a copy of the very same cd in a record store which felt like a war medal. I had never actually heard the cd in its entirety, apart from "Farmyard boogie" that I knew by heart and "Kill your baby" because we tried to shock people with it, so that digesting the remaining 24 songs proved to be quite an experience. The selection is fine actually. You can find classic vintage Chaos UK numbers from their Riot City Years as well as songs from later records like The Morning After the Night Before (I can still along to "Little bastard with ease). Writing this review makes me realize that there is a lot of Chaos UK material from the 90's, basically the Chaos-as-singer era, that I am really not that familiar with and haven't played that much, but listening to the split Lp's with Raw Noise and Death Side while writing this piece shows me that I might have been - for once - wrong. Oh well, I shall correct the inconsistency. Let's get back to that "best of" cd, admittedly a terrible format but it was the late 90's so bear with me. On the whole, I really liked the record, the noisier hardcore songs as much as the singalong cider punk-rock ones. There was one track however that was truly horrendous and confused me to no end, a 1983 live version of "False prophets" take from Flogging the Horse. I have listened to many horrendous live recordings from the 80's since then, some of them deeply scarring, but this one may take the cake especially since it was released on a proper album by Anagram Records. As a teen, the song terrified me and the very first time I heard it I could not even make out what was happening. If you have never listened to that rubbish, give it a go if you think you are hard enough. It makes Confuse's 1984 live recording sound overproduced. It made Chaos UK even more extreme in my teenage eyes.

Alright, I digress as usual. For some reason, no song from Just Mere Slaves were included on the 1998 cd. Maybe it had to with not getting the original label's - Selfish - permission or maybe the curator just decided to leave the songs out (my guess as to why is as good as yours). As a result, I was unaware of the existence of Just Mere Slaves for quite a long time, until the explosion of music blogs in the late 00's. A real shame since Just Mere Slaves has become my favourite Chaos UK recording, along with the hardcore thrash masterpiece that is Short Sharp Shock Lp. I cannot claim to be a proper Chaos UK historian but let's have some basics right. At that time Mower was on vocals, Gabba had taken on guitar duties, Chaos was still on the bass guitar of course and Chuck on the drums (EDIT: although not being able to get into Japan because of a criminal record, Age, Lunatic Fringe's drummer, replaced Chuck on this Japanese tour). The studio side of Just Mere Slaves was recorded in Japan during the band's tour in November, 1985. Along with their fellow noise-making Bristolians Disorder, Chaos UK have been massively influential on Japanese punk music. In fact, it is widely argued that it was their impact on a certain section of the Japanese scene - let's say Confuse, 白 (Kuro) or Gai and their plentiful offspring, to be brief - that subsequently spawned a punk subgenre now called "noisepunk", a once confidential and obscure cult that has persisted in secret and which the internet has made accessible and very popular among the noise-inclined punks (the name was apparently coined by The Wankys but I feel the terminology is useful and meaningful enough to be liberally applied retroactively). So I suppose that the coming of noise heroes Chaos UK to Japan must have been a massive deal at that time and the shows cannot have been anything but short sharp shocks of punk chaos.

 

The four songs from the first side of Just Mere Slaves were recorded during that tour which probably means that they recorded the thing on November, 12th in Tokyo since they had a day-off. I imagine the band basically entering the studio, unleashing the fucking fury, getting pissed with local punks and being done with it in just one day. The brilliant result is highly impressive. The first time I listened to Just Mere Slaves I immediately thought that it did not quite sound like a typical mid-80's Bristol recording. Of course the songwriting, the raw snotty vocals, the demented atmosphere and the pissed-and-proud vibe were unmistakably mid-80's Chaos UK manic hardcore thrash (there is a new version of "4 minute warning" to help listeners know what they are dealing with) but the frontal layers of highly distorted guitar and the piercing feedback, the extremity of it all, had that Japanese punk texture. There is something of a Japanese hardcore energy to Just Mere Slaves. The four studio songs retain that Chaos UK essence, an energy-driven, hardened, primal and mad-sounding take on the UK82 but at the same time they sound like noizy, triumphant and hyperbolic Japanese hardcore. Were Chaos UK aware of the wave of Bristol-influenced Japanese bands? It would be mere conjecture but they must have been familiar with some Japanese hardcore through the tape-trading network so could it be that they actually decided to emulate or experiment with that Japanese distorted, blown-out sound? Or was it the engineer's idea? Both? Just an epic piss-up in the studio? In any case, this circulation and circularity of influences is fascinating indeed, from Bristol to Japan, from Japan to Bristol, and Chaos UK got to play with Japanese hardcore legends like Gauze, Outo, The Execute, Lip Cream, Goul and Gastank (that is what I deduce from the thank list on the backcover, there could have been more). The studio side of Just Mere Slaves included a crazy and lightning fast rerecording of "4 minute warning" and three new songs: the loud and aggressive one-minute long hardcore scorcher "Rise from the rubble" which they will rerecord for the Chipping Sodbury Bonfire Tapes 1989 album; "City of dreams" a mid-paced wonder with hypnotic tribal drums and demented vocals and feedback; and "Just mere slaves", a fast, anthemic and emphatic song which is actually not unlike epic and direct Japanese hardcore, especially on the introduction and some of the transitions. 

I feel Just Mere Slaves is a crucial record, maybe not a masterpiece per se, but what is commonly called a minor classic. The energy and intensity level on the studio side is breathtaking and relentless. The blistering side might only be eight-minute long and make you crave for more but it does not get much better in terms of "noise ain't dead" UK punk. It was Chaos UK at their noisiest but I do think Short Sharp Shock sounded more threatening and savage and therefore groundbreaking. The other side of Just Mere Slaves is a live recording from their Osaka gig on November, 16th. The sound is surprisingly good considering the sonic chaos - it must have been taken directly from the mixing desk or something - and the daring listener will be exposed to nasty rendering of early Chaos UK classics, "Control", "Victimised", "No security", "Senseless conflict" and, of course, "Farmyard boogie", the Chaos UK song of my youth. This is punk-as-fuck as you can expect but still very much discernible (even the guitar solo is good) and enjoyable. Another live recording from the Japanese tour, from their opening Tokyo gig, can be listened to on the B side of the Stunned to Silence 1985 tape (my friend Erik from the always great Negative Insight wrote an article about this little-known tape that comes recommended, especially since everyone at the Negative Insight HQ soundly thinks that everybody loves Chaos UK). As hard to estimate as it might be, this short Chaos UK tour must have left a mark on the collective psyche of Japanese punks at the time. To this day, Chaos UK, along with Doom and of course Discharge, remain one of the most liked UK punk bands over there with still many bands working on their legacy so it is a safe bet to assume that Japanese punks really never stopped connecting with their music and attitude. And of course the band, Mower especially, helped consolidate the fashion of terminal crust pants and utility belt in Japan which are now only worn by the most elite crusties. 

The record was originally released on Selfish Records in 1986, a label that put out far too many classic mid-late 80's Japanese hardcore records to mention. My copy is however a 1997 reissue (or is it actually a bootleg? It looks like one so you tell me) from Sewage Records, a short-lived that also released Varukers Ep's. Black Konflik Records from Malaysia reissued last year Just Mere Slaves on cd so support the scene and get it.  

I would like to dedicate this writeup to my dear friend from school who I mentioned at the beginning and who tragically passed away in 2019. Without her, I would have never discovered real punk music and gigs. It changed my life forever and more than 20 years after, I am still grateful and feel quite lucky. So may you rest in peace, in punk, in power and let's farmyard boogie. 

Just Mere Slaves             

                     

UK84, the Noise Ain't Dead (part 5): Solvent Abuse "Last salute" Lp, 2007

According to me - and my fine perception of punk is of the highest standard and therefore bound to get you some punk points if you abide by it - Demo Tapes has been one of the best punk labels specialized in reissues - if not the best although I also a lot of respect for Antisociety - in recent years. After checking, I realized A Touch of Hysteria's one-sided Lp - Demo Tapes' first undertaking - was actually released in 2006, which is really not that recent and some hairlines certainly receded since then, but you know what I mean by "in recnet years". I have already touched upon the label's work in my old review of the Passion Killers' Lp but I decided that the idea to write about Demo Tapes again was a marvellous one indeed that should be followed through with my customary determination - and since I haven't had that many great ideas this year, I am hoping this might make up for the inconsistency. Beside Demo Tapes' work is easy to get excited about and hopefully it will bring some joy to all the miserable bastards reading this. You're welcome.  

The past 15 years have seen an insane number of reissues, in all subgenres of the big dysfunctional family that is "the punk scene". New labels started to devote much of their efforts toward making old and classic - by which I mean almost always from the 80's - bands available to the next generations and to experienced - by which I mean almost always hoarding - record collectors, modern Sisyphuses craving to complete their collection at the expense of an adequate diet and often of a working marriage. Labels like Radiation and Vomitopunk with UK82 punk for example. Other established labels like F.O.A.D and Mad Butcher also started resurrecting vintage and rare records, with the former, whatever one thinks about the highly productive fellow, displaying a truly remarkable passion and attention to very diverse reissues (from Svart Parad, Brigada do Odio, Human Gas or Industrial Suicide to name but a few). There have been far too many punk reissues - on vinyl for the most part - since the mid noughties to even consider making an exhaustive list of them all. Let's not be silly. But had anyone predicted ten years ago that I would be able to get hold top releases of old recordings from Bed Boys, Ψύχωση, Disattack, Post Mortem or Kalashnikov, I would have diagnosed a case of severe marble-losing or registered the prophet into a rehab center for deluded punks. But here we are in 2021 and there are just too many desirable reissues of canonical bands around, so many in fact that keeping up with them has become a time-consuming, expensive and at times even fastidious, task. While at first, I was annoyingly overexcited and probably insufferably enthusiastic about reissues of once-unattainable seductive records, the novelty of affordable nostalgia on vinyl slowly started to wear out. Today, I have a hard time feeling the same eagerness for most reissues, even from bands I genuinely love. Even the Chaotic Youth Lp barely made the ole heart beat and I consider them as one of the most underrated bands under the UK82 umbrella. 

 

Why why why but why? I would hypothesize that this overabundance of reissues of 80's bands has a lot to do with the internet. I know it can be easy and convenient to put the blame on "the internet" but I feel the growing reliance on streaming platforms, that have now turned into near monopolies, has changed the way we listen to punk and how we reflect on old punk music. The internet and its corollary, the incentive of overconsumption of readily available cultural artifacts that are decontextualised in order to be lazily absorbed, have contributed to radically broaden our knowledge and speed up considerably the reissuing process. We all want and need a piece of history in order to feel like we belong. I do believe that this process was inevitable and is very positive in some respect. After all, knowing the culture and history of punk music is indeed important and enlightening - I remember getting quite emotional whenever I bought a Captain Oi reissue in the very early 00's, even the shit ones, so I completely relate to this idea - and the possibility for discovery is limitless with the internet. However it has also created a juicy market for nostalgia which, combined with the great equalizing effect of the internet, has profoundly changed the way we engage with the past. But then, I also think that reissuing some bands, and not only that but also the reasons why it is done and the way it is done, can be necessary and crucial. I have regularly touched upon such fascinating topics on the blog and, while it makes me look clever and scholarly (and possibly a bit boringly self-admiring), they are not really fun to read and a series called The Noise Ain't Dead has to be fun so let's bloody 'ave it. But if you long for more bitter whining, I suggest you buy my brand new book entitled Things were not quite as dreadful before: a punk's mid-life crisis in the age of Spotify. 

 

So yes, Solvent Abuse. Brilliant punk name in the context of widespread glue sniffing, an activity I would not recommend, especially when over 20. I got this Lp when it came out in 2007 (or was it really early 2008?). I had thoroughly enjoyed DT's first release, the demo of A Touch of Hysteria, and it was one of those records that got a lot of airplay at the squat I was living in at the time - golden days when a shower every fortnight was deemed acceptable - especially the song "Death cart", a miracle of tuneful darkly poppy anarchopunk. I had also acquired the second DT's production, Extended Play by The Mental (Dick Lucas' first band) but to this very day I have never really managed to get into it, connect with it, although I very much expected myself to, what with the band sounding sloppy, snotty, unashamedly punk and having a song called "God for a day" about the giro. Both Lp's were well done with accurate details about recordings but nothing out of the ordinary. Just serious enough reissues and the opportunity to discover bands I did not know the existence of so I could brag about them afterwards, just standard punk behaviour really. So it made sense to buy DT's third record as Solvent Abuse were another band that was completely unknown to me - and to anyone I knew as far as I could tell - and the cover had a circled A and a studded belt so it could clearly not disappoint. Little did I know that Last Salute would be the best Lp reissue - by a good deal - I had ever seen at that point in time. Even before playing the record, looking at the massive booklet that included so many band pictures, letters from classic labels, all original artwork, fanzine reviews, gig posters... The object in itself and the amount of work that went with it were breathtaking indeed. I had always been a sucker for records accompanied by thick booklets so it felt truly awe-inspiring and made some other records at the time - and today still - look a bit tepid and half-arsed. I am aware it might sound a little harsh, and I suppose it is. Last Salute carried an irrefutable admirableness, or, as modern bellends too lazy to form actual sentences would say, it had a "wow factor".  

Solvent Abuse - which will be referred to as SA from now on, which feels somewhat uncomfortable - were from the Nottingham area, existed for three years, from 1981 to 1984, and only enjoyed the one vinyl appearance, one song on 1983's compilation Lp (I've got those...) Demo-Lition Blues! on Insane Records, a label unsurprisingly run by members of The Insane. Apparently the band formed on the glamorous bus from Notts to Alfreton, where future members bumped into each other by chance. They were all from Watnall, a place I have never been to but sounds like a town out of The League of Gentlemen. SA played with quite a few established 80's bands at the time like The Adicts or Peter so I suppose they must have been a significant act locally, although there were so many band then that it must have been hard to get noticed at all. They are the epitome of an obscure band, pretty much known and genuinely appreciated by people who were either there or people into punk archaeology. The 2007 Lp amazingly managed to give SA a second life and spread their name around, certainly much further than when they were still around as a local band. I don't suppose they have retrospectively really become "a classic 80's band" - as the formation of this category, of the canon, has become shaky and somewhat meaningless with the hegemony of youtube. Yet the fact that a contemporary Paris band proudly covered "Heroin girls" definitely proves that the reissue achieved what it meant to: bringing SA in the conversation about UK82. And I, for one, am both thankful and grateful for that. 

 

But what about the music then? Last Salute is made up of SA's three demos, the first two both recorded in 1982 - in June and October respectively - and the third one in early 1984. The first five songs of Last Salute are part of the band's first endeavour into the Nottingham-based studio and illustrates what those young punks were originally all about. Before I go any further into primitive 80's UK punk territories, not unlike a hound following a scent, let me warn you that the sound is raw, if not rough, on the first demo (and on the second one as well actually) but with a series called The Noise Ain't Dead precisely dedicated to raw, fast and noisy mid-80's British punk, you are expected to know what you're in for. SA's music is interesting and worth investigating for two main reasons. First, the band had both a male and a female singer. They did not sing together, in the trade-off style for instance, as each of them had their own numbers to angrily shout to, kinda like The Violators' vocal structures. Still I would venture that SA are primarily remembered and enjoyed as a "female-fronted punk band" which is both true and incorrect, especially since only the bloke remained for the last 1984 demo. The second reason why a basic knowledge of SA might come handy during punk trivia night is that a significant number of their songs fit the early Discharge-influenced template, raw and direct proto-hardcore punk with a pure form of d-beat. "Vigilante" (top singalong chorus on this one) and "Last salute" - which ended up being picked for inclusion on the aforementioned compilation Lp Demo-Lition Blues - are great examples of the rawest kind of proto d-beat Discharge-loving anthems, like The Varukers, Anti-System or Antisect - not quite as dark and furious as the former though. The other three songs (two of which are fronted by Jar) are your classic dynamic and snotty anarchopunk songs somewhere between Action Pact and A-Heads and they work well enough. 

 

Hurray, acceptation letters!

 

The second demo certainly showed some improvements, albeit rather limited ones, with the two primitive, primal Discharge-y songs were sung (well, you know what I mean) by Jar thus making "60 seconds" and both versions of "Chant" - two were included although they sound very similar - the first examples of female-fronted proto d-beat thrash music, along with Potential Threat as we saw in the first part of the series. There should be some sort of music award for that. The remaining four songs are of the mid-paced snotty punk variety again, with a vibe reminiscent of The Defects or Picture Frame Seduction because of Shelley's vocals. The last demo saw SA develop that more rocking GBH-infused heavy and catchy punk-rock to great effect - the songs "They've got guns" is really good - thanks to a noticeable progression in terms of production and musicianship, but it does go a little beyond the Noise ain't Dead template. 

Last Salute can sound a little too long at times primarily because some of the songs could probably have been shorter and because discography often feels a bit lengthy.  The Lp is, however, a magnificent work of passion and loving dedication and, from that point on, Demo Tapes has always delivered the very best in terms of research, context development and packaging. Their records makes you feel like you get to know the bands in a meaningful fashion, almost intimately so (alright, maybe it is just me). DT is run by the very knowledgeable Sean Forbes, who used to take care of Rugger Bugger, so that you know you are going to be offered the most exhaustive and accurate details and comprehensive pieces of archaeologic evidences about unfairly little-known punk bands that reinforce that sense of punk's collective history and remembering. It could not be better. In SA's case, polite but firm - in that typical English way - rejection letters from Clay Records and Riot City Records - who must have been receiving hundreds of such requests at that time - are even included. You will also find a short article about solvent abuse and how this dangerous pastime was tied to the worsening living conditions under Maggie's rule original reviews of the band's tape and live performances. And dozens of pictures of teenage punks with spiky hair and questionable sense of fashion of course. Time-traveling to the days when punk was fresh and at its peak from your sofa. Last Salute was actually a collaboration with Pure Punk Records, an Italian label that reissued the very underrated Soldier Dolls - they too had stellar Discharge-loving numbers - and catchy Brummies Drongos For Europe. 

 

Demo Tapes would keep releasing top notch early obscure Discharge-y bands (like Violent Uprising or very recently Disattack) as well as amazing tuneful anarchopunk (Passion Killers and No Defences) and even some classic early crust (Pro Patria Mori), three of the things I love best in the world. They are all works of love and the process of gathering the many pieces of information and getting hold of all the original master tapes is a long one so that DT has "only" released eleven records so far, but with Asylum's Is this the Price? being just out, the serious punk who cares about legacy and being bollocked by noise just knows that quality requires time. The passion has not been killed.           

                                                                         Solvent Abuse

UK84, the Noise Ain't Dead (part 2): Dead Meat "Demo 1984" Ep, 2011

To be perfectly honest with you, finding titles for the full series I have been inflicting on the punk scene for five years now is becoming harder and harder. When I initially started Terminal Sound Nuisance in 2012, the thought of undertaking proper series structured coherently around specific tropes and prism (subgenres, areas, eras or random personal fancies) had not struck me as being particularly relevant to a blog. Of course, I was wrong - I rarely am but I don't mind admitting shortcomings when I reluctantly have to - series are more relevant indeed and about five years ago I realized that, not only does the series format allows me to develop my analysis further and progressively, but it also provides a framework reflecting global collective dynamics in punk rock rather than isolated items just happening to gravitate together. Beside, everyone is pissing about watching actual series on Shitflix so that it made sense to jump on the bandwagon and write eight, ten or twelve part online conferences to reach out to the Gen Z. I haven't quite caught up to the famous platform and tragically had to let some of TSN staff go, some genuinely deserving loyal workers had to be put down in order to avoid dishonour, but I remain quite optimistic about the future. Netflix, if you're reading me, you know what to do.

There are significant drawbacks, of course, to series format. You actually have to make relevant selections that highlight both the binding similarities and the diversity of context and content (or on the contrary, the significance of non-diversity like in the case of "just-like Discharge" d-beat) and this process involves more thinking and reflection. A series literally has to make more sense. And you have to plan a precise writing schedule in advance so that you do not end up leaving long gaps between the entries which, because of our narrowing attention span, would lose my modern fellow sapients always eager for novelties. One of the drawbacks I had not predicted at all has to do with titles. I have often prided myself on my skill to easily find top punk puns that make me look both knowledgeable, witty and self-aware, which might be akin to being a punchable twat in some illiterate quarters but is a sensible stance given the polishedness of my readership. A series' title has to sound good, otherwise the modern sapient will not even bother to click on the link and hours of hard work will just be swiped away like the average selfie of a vaguely attractive and muscular wanker. We sadly live in a world where one has to bait innocent punks into reading, as opposed to heary a bloody podcast, what could be a revelation, a redemption, a way out of shoegaze or Casualties cosplay. I am like a missionary promoting Anarcho Crustianity. But for conversions to work, you need a good pun that grabs the readers' fragile attention and sometimes I feel I have run out of them. It's not like I am going to test my jokes on random passersby because I don't think they would quite understand why "let's not discard Discard" is side-splittinh. So if I don't at least giggle at my own jokes, it means they are rubbish and do not make the cut. Simple as that. For this series however I just chose the name of a Dead Meat song for the title. 

 

As I immersed myself into 1984/1985 British hardcore punk for the series, I listened to many raw recordings, drank a lot of white cider and sniffed some glue - an organic brand, I'm not an animal - to get myself in the right mood. When I finally got to Dead Meat and played the demo, I immediately knew upon hearing the first song that the title of this series would have to be "Noise ain't dead". Dead Meat was one of the bands I was almost certain to include in the series as they ideally reflected the core principle of the series: typically British mid-80's raw and noisy hardcore punk. Not necessarily the harshest or meanest bands, just recordings illustrating what was being done and created with the Discharge and Bristol sound - which I call early UK hardcore punk in the context of that series - at that time and place. And to me Dead Meat were a great example of that and because they do not get much attention nowadays - which I have always found odd especially since the UK82 resurgence in the past decade led everyone and their mum to be superficially conversant in obscure acts without even mentioning that No Dead Meat (the continuation of Dead Meat) were actually briefly tackled in Glasper's Burning Britain in the chapter about Septic Psychos - it felt like a noble task to write about them.

 

Let's have a bit of context first. Though it is not completely clear, this being a demo recorded in 1984 and given the rather rudimentary musicianship of the band - not a criticism, it is exactly how that style should sound like - I guess DM started out sometime in early 1984 in the Chesterfield area (Derbyshire). As it is pointed out in Burning Britain and alluded to on the insert coming with the Ep, the members of the band had already played in other punk bands prior to the noise not being dead. Vocalist Chiz used to sing in Septic Psychos, a band that also had his twin brother Mick who would eventually join the No Dead Meat version of the band. If you have never heard Septic Psychos and are able to go past or learn to appreciate the silly moniker, which you should, they were a primal and raw UK82 band with angry snotty vocals that had two songs (recorded at Stockport's legendary Hologram Studios) on Pax compilation Lp Punk Dead - Nah Mate the Smell is jus Summink in yer Underpants innit in 1983 (how did they tell their parents the name of that record they were included on remains a mystery) and will have you shout "No you're not wanted!" in no time. DM's guitar player John and original bass player Rich used to play in Society's Victims (hallowed be Discharge's name), a local band whose rough primitive punk sound was even cruder than Septic Psychos' (the dodgy, if not completely haphazard, tuning cannot have helped). Finally, the drummer played in a band called The Corpse, not to be confused with the anarchopunk band Corpse (I think?). One could think that the boys, upon the split of their respective bands, would have chosen to go for a more polished, refined, mature style, but did they fuck! Dead Meat is even rawer, snottier, angrier and blatantly PUNK. 

 

What I particularly enjoy in that recording is how the songs instantly sound familiar. Take "Noise ain't dead" for instance. If you are keen on second wave UK punk-rock or any sort of 80's spiky and pogoable punk-rock really, you just know what the song is going to sound like upon hearing the first riff. Classic raucous singalong shouted chorus, fast pogopunk 1-2-1-2 beat, raw as fuck guitar sound with sloppy solos, pissed meancing vocals, this is exactly the sound of the Saturday nights of my teenage years where you get ready for a night out on the piss or for a squat gig (I used to listen to the Dutch Antidote on those occasions and the feel in DM is very similar). This shit could raise the dead. Is it really a wonder that the band also had a promotion agency called... Noiz Ain't Dead? I don't think I need to describe the band further but let's say that it sounds like a friendly but chaotic speed-fueled brawl between Instant Agony, Disorder, Last Rites and Ad'Nauseam. A lot of people today posit that the heritage of the Bristol sound of Chaos UK and Disorder is to be found in distorted, noise-drenched hardcore punk but I would argue that bands like DM, for their attitude and obnoxious primal approach to fast punk, can also be considered as belonging to that punk-as-fuck tradition. The six songs included on the Ep (there is a reworking of a Society's Victims' song, "Takin over") were originally released on an excellent tape compilation in 1985 entitled The Final Decay where you can find other UK82 pogopunk gems from the aforementioned Ad'Nauseam, the little-known but ace Reprisal or Death Zone. It is a solid tape that deserves to be revisited if you are interested in proper raw and primitive 1984 British punk-rock. Real deal here. The reissue of the 1984 recording was made possible thanks to Fear of War Records, an American label also responsible for reissue of The Mad Are Sane, Italy's Impact, Tom & the Boot Boys and, of course, Septic Psychos. It is a safe bet that the person behind Fear of War must be something of a pogo expert.

Shortly after this recording, the band changed its name to No Dead Meat (because two members went vegetarian) and Mick from Septic Psychos eventually joined them on the bass guitar and took part in their second offering, a 14-song demo in 1987 which saw them delivering the same exact blend of fast and loud direct UK pogopunk with "new" versions of old Dead Meat numbers. The sound might be a little better and the band tighter but it's pretty much similar and it is precisely why it is perfect. Noise ain't dead and noise will never die, innit?

Noise ain't dead!!! 

Who Needs Wacky Titles Anyways!?! (part 4): The Fits "Tears of a Nation" Ep, 1983

Last week, we saw that a band majoring in anarchopunk, No Choice, got to be released on the prime UK82 punk label, Riot City Records. Well, today will be the exact opposite, a band closely associated with the UK82 wave that had a record on a classic anarchopunk label: The Fits' Tears of a Nation released on Corpus Christi. 

It only really hit me a few years ago as I was taking a closer look at Corpus Christi's discography. For the ignoramuses among you, Corpus Christi Records was an offshoot of Crass Records, run by owner of Southern Studios, John Loder, and some members of Crass. The original idea was that, if you already had a release on Crass, you couldn't have a second one (it was one of the label's principles), but you could always go to Corpus Christi, which was the route taken by Rudimentary Peni, Lack of Knowledge, Alternative, Conflict or Omega Tribe. It also meant that you did not have to have Penny Rimbaud as a sound engineer, which gave more freedom to the recording bands (though I personally really like his work and his influence in the shaping of what has come to be known as "the typical anarchopunk sound"). Some bands on Corpus Christi, however, had never released anything on Crass Records before, which was the case for The Fits, a band that had previously been tied with labels like Beat the System!! or Rondelet Records. It is often said that there was more variety on Corpus Christi than on Crass but I tend to think that this impression has more to do with a superior flexibility and diversity in terms of production and sound (and of course, aesthetics) rather than style or songwriting strictly speaking. But I digress.

I first came across The Fits the same way I did many other second-wave UK punk bands in my teenage years: through a colossal Captain Oi discography. To be honest, I did not really like them at first and for a long time I would see this Blackpool band as a bit of an average act that had a couple of good songs but wrote too many fillers. If The Fits were a wrestler, in my mind, they would have been a mid carder like the Big Boss Man or Rick Martel (to give you some perspective, Abrasive Wheels would have definitely been Bret Hart). I think this had a lot to do with the way The Fits Punk Collection was curated. Arranging the songs in chronological order is usually the best choice you can make when dealing with such 80's punk bands since they almost always start great and then progressively turn pop-rock or New Romantic or whatever. But with The Fits, it was pretty much the other way around, since their first records were pretty bad but they eventually got better. It still meant that you had to listen to their whole first Lp before reaching the good stuff and it often proved too much for me at that age, especially since there were cd's with great songs from the beginning (I am aware it sounds a little silly but that was my listening practice back then). 

But let's talk about the band a little. Formed in Blackpool in 1979, their first Ep was the very shambolic and remarkably out-of-tune You Said we'd Never Make it. Of course, these three tracks opened the aforementioned cd compilation so it is little wonder that I was left unimpressed. I suppose it is enjoyable if you are into badly played, obnoxious snotty punk. It almost sounds experimental at times, though unintentionally. This first Ep was pretty successful and even got a repress on Beat the System Records, a Blackpool-based label that released very strong UK82 records, and although it doesn't get mentioned as often as the two mammoths Riot City and No Future, Beat the System was still responsible for putting out materials from Death Sentence, External Menace, Chaotic Youth, Uproar and One Way System (and Antisocial, but they sucked). The Fits then signed to Rondelet Records in 1981, a bigger indie label that had released records for Anti-Pasti (and later on for The Membranes, Special Duties and The Threats). Their 1982 Think for Yourself Ep was much better and showed what The Fits were actually good at, intense mid-paced punk-rock songs with loud aggressive vocals. The You're Nothing, You're Nowhere Lp recorded the same year had a very cool cover (but then The Fits often had a particular visual taste) but was pretty boring. I guess they were trying to build on the previous Ep but forgot that you actually had to write good songs for the formula to work well (for some reason the Lp got reissued in 2017 which shows once again that nostalgia is directionless). After some lineup changes (members from One Way System and the cruelly overlooked Chaotic Youth joined), The Fits recorded the convincing The Last Laugh Ep in 1982 (yes, that's three records in only one year, talk about productivity). The sound may not have been perfect but the songs were very catchy and energetic and you had some lovely hooks which showed that The Fits could actually write tuneful punk music without losing their angry vibe. I think it would not be far-fetched to claim that this Ep paved the way for the band's classic Ep, Tears of a Nation.

Not even one quid!

Generally, second-wave punk bands' defining moment could be located at their second or third records, but The Fits had to wait until their fifth one to reach that point (granted, they were so prolific in so short a time that lines became a bit blurry). After a meeting with the people from Crass (a rather funny recollection of the encounter is included in Glasper's Burning Britain), The Fits got a deal for an Ep on Corpus Christi which was recorded in June, 1983. Tears of a Nation is one of the strongest Ep's of the so-called UK82 wave and it sold well for good reasons. The Fits were at the top of their game in terms of focused songwriting and the sound is perfect, heavy, with a punky rawness, dark and powerful (it was produced by Barry Sage who also did the Test Tubes' celebrated Mating Sounds Lp). The title track was a threatening, desperate-sounding slow-paced number with rather depressive lyrics and a massive chorus that embodied the social despair of the times. Heavy stuff. "Bravado" was an angry, anthemic mid-paced song while "Breaking point" was a fast hardcore-ish one which showed that The Fits could also sound good when speeding up (the previous Ep pointed in that direction I suppose). The three songs were reminiscent of vintage One Way System (I suppose comparisons with Uproar, The Underdogs or Icons of Filth are relevant too here) in terms of boisterous intensity and gloomy songwriting, but still had The Fits' imprint. I am aware that we, collectively, have created a classifying discourse revolving around specific genres and aesthetics that comforts our modern way of looking at punk-rock. Like we need hashtags and keywords in order to comprehend music, we often try to retroactively force our analytical templates on cultural moments at the expense of relevance. What I mean is that Tears of a Nation may not fit (lol) perfectly the UK82 mould that the internet age has consecrated and it may be for the best. It is just a great record of raucous 80's punk-rock and in the end, that's all that matters. Besides, I am pretty sure that bands like No Hope for the Kids and all the other so-called "dark punk" bands around have been playing The Fits a lot (maybe even before it was cool again to be into UK82... the vicissitude of punk trends...). As for the cover, it may be The Fits' least original, with brooding pictures of the boys, looking half-way between cheesy heavy metal and mid-80's postpunk (ironically, this once corny look is more fashionable than ever... oh well). Unfortunately there is no insert, which is a bit of a shame, especially for a Corpus Christi record. 

Following this gem, The Fits released a split 12'' with Peter and the Test Tube Babies (an unlikely pairing but there you go) and two more Ep's, the rather good and melodic Action and the much less inspired Fact or Fiction. To tell you the truth, the songs included on those records were all at the end of the cd and I seldom listened as far. I do like the chorus on "Action" though. Obviously, it is not the end of The Fits' story since the band reformed and released a new cd single in 2013 and a full live album in 2015, but I haven't found the courage to listen to them yet. 

Fits of a nation

   

Who Needs Wacky Titles Anyways!?! (part 3): No Choice "Sadist dream" Ep, 1983

Last time, I tackled a sadly overlooked record released on Riot City Records in 1982. Today's post will be something else entirely since we will be dealing with a sadly overlooked record released on Riot City Records in 1983. You see, that is exactly where the strength of Terminal Sound Nuisance lies: variety and constant reinvention. 

Undead's Violent Visions was Bristol label's Riot 15 while No Choice's Sadist Dream was Riot 20 and if not much time had passed between both releases, the years 1982 and 1983 were so prolific for Riot City (and many other punk labels at the time) that it is no wonder that records that did not sound exactly like the fashion of the day could have gone relatively unnoticed. As we have seen, Undead were both typical and yet quite original with their darker, gloomier take on the UK82 blueprint, No Choice however were unlike anything Riot City had released at that point and it stands as a bit of an anomaly - albeit a brilliant one - in the label's full catalogue, much more so than the label's subsequent Ep, Emergency's very Buzzcocks-influenced Points of View. No Choice, in terms of sound and lyrics, were basically an anarchopunk band (Ian Glasper was right to include them in The Day the Country Died), and you could definitely picture Sadist Dream being released on Bluurg or Spiderleg at the time. But punk-rock is full of little surprises and things are not always as clear-cut as we imagined them to be, especially from a point of view distorted by 35 years of storytelling and mythification regarding the collective fantasy that the 1980's have turned into.

But back to No Choice, a band unlucky enough to hail from Wales. Now, I have nothing against Welsh punk-rock, on the contrary, but you have to admit that many amazing 80's punk bands from Wales unfairly remain largely ignored, like Shrapnel, Soldier Dolls, Symbol of Freedom or indeed No Choice themselves. Therefore I cannot recommend Antisociety's grand 2012 compilation Bullsheep Detector (Wales is supposed to have a lot of sheep and the Google search "Wales sheep to human ratio" is apparently widespread) which offers a great and thoroughly enjoyable overview of early 80's Welsh punk music including a classic No Choice number. The band formed in Cardiff in 1982 and settled for the "No Choice" moniker in order to reflect the pervasive feeling of powerlessness inherent in the working-class life of teenagers during Thatcher's rule and the need to do something about it. I have never been a fan of band names starting with a "No" because they always remind of jumpy U$ hardcore from the 90's for some reason. To be fair, No Choice could not be further from 80's hardcore though. 

Their first demo was recorded in 1982. It was a collection of 13 songs which, despite a very raw, trebly sound and some really sloppy bits (to play in time or in tune was not always a priority), showcased what No Choice really excelled at: crafting tuneful anthemic punk songs with a strong Beat vibe. I would be lying if I claimed that this first demo was flawless. However, songs like "Wotswar", "Hard life", "Sale on" or "YOP" are instant winners blending the poppy, melancholy side of anarchopunk with gritty singalong punk-rock. A bit like a lo-fi jam between Zounds, Omega Tribe, Demob, Menace and Passion Killers. Though by no means a ground-breaking recording, it sounds very promising and fresh and after a gig with Chaos UK in Cardiff (they also got to play with local anarcho heroes Icons of Filth, Conflict and Omega Tribe), Chaos took a copy of the demo to Simon from Riot City who then offered No Choice a deal for an Ep which Sadist Dream would materialize.  

Sadist Dream is certainly not your average Riot City Ep and the cover, a mushroom cloud with the shadows of a mother and her child in the foreground (the latter weirdly resembling the creature in the movie E.T.), was already a clue that No Choice's pacifist imagery and politics were closer to those of Crass than Vice Squad's. And indeed, I can imagine how baffled some of the listeners must have been when playing the A-side of the Ep: it is an almost five minute long pensive spoken word piece - done by the band's second singer Cid - about war with melancholy melodies in the background. If I am a sucker for such anarcho cheese and therefore gladly enjoy it, one has to admit that it had much to do with Flux of Pink Indians' praxis and had no antecedent in what Riot City would usually put out. The two songs on the B-side are fantastic slices of anthemic melodic political punk-rock. "Nuclear disaster" starts out deceptively with a slow eerie, Zounds-like introduction before exploding into an intense bass-driven punk number with a dark, hypnotic guitar tune and very passionate vocals about the - then - impending threat of nuclear annihilation (not unlike Kulturkampf I guess). The second song, "Cream of the crop", is a massive working-class (and proud) hymn with a crispy Beat vibe and a chorus of the catchiest order, a bit like a mix between Demob and the Upstarts or something. On the whole, the production is still quite raw, with an organic sound that confers warmth and authenticity to the songs and even though there are a couple of sloppy bits here and there, the energy and the ambition to play non-generic catchy punk-rock are remarkable. I love Sadist Dream and I apologize for the skips on the rip but I have played that fucker a lot. 

Following the Ep, the band split up (of course they would) but reformed shortly after with a new drummer. This lineup recorded the magnificent Question Time? demo in 1984, a six song effort that was, by far, their most powerful in terms of sound and saw No Choice at the peak of their songwriting ability as they blended seamlessly catchy melodic poppy tunes and anthemic working-class punk-rock with sensible political lyrics from the heart. If you like your anarchopunk with grit and tunes, it just doesn't get much better than this demo (that no one thought of reissuing it on vinyl yet is unexplainable although Grand Theft Audio released a cd that compiled the band's 80's recordings in 2001) and four songs from it got included on two Rot Records compilations (the Have a Rotten Christmas ones). 

This was not the end of the No Choice story however. Along with Tim from Icons of Filth, three members of No Choice formed SAND in the 90's before reforming No Choice in 2001 for good. The band didn't try to live on their past and wrote a new songs with a different sound, though they did not give up on tunefulness, quite close to UK melodic hardcore like Leatherface, HDQ or Snuff. Their 2003 album on Newest Industry Records, Dry River Fishing, is very good if you are into that sound. I got to see them in 2013 and they were energetic and only played songs from their 00's albums which was both a bit of a disappointment since I wanted to sing along to "Cream of the crop" and also a sign that they did not want to be just an old reformed band from the 80's. Truly punk this lot.    

Sadist Choice

           

Who Needs Wacky Titles Anyways!?! (part 2): Undead "Violent visions" Ep, 1982

No label conjures up the UK82 wave as much as Riot City Records and No Future Records. And not just in terms of sound. To mention those labels is an evocation of a specific look, of a very short but very dense and influential time period and, in the case of Riot City, of Bristol, a town that has taken an almost biblical dimension in punk mythology. Even - and probably especially - for someone who has never visited Bristol, it immediately brings Disorder, Chaos UK, Amebix, Vice Squad, cider, glue and Riot City Records to mind. There is no exception, the punk brain just works this way, it is a scientific law. No British town has historically been tied up to punk-rock as closely as Bristol in the collective punk psyche and, in retrospect, it is difficult to gauge how objective or rational the story really is. But in the end, it doesn't really matter. After all, every subcultural group need to create their own canonical myths and the idea of a lost punk Eden (punk Bristol in the 80's here, but you can replace it with New York, Stockholm or wherever your obsessive loyalty lies) is strong, albeit not necessarily very healthy.

Like many a young punk, I was fascinated with the second wave of British punk-rock in my teenage years (it wasn't called "UK82" yet to my knowledge) and I would try to buy as many Captain Oi cd reissues as possible since they were readily available and life was very much internet-free then. More often than not, these cd's were a bit hard to swallow as they included full discographies but then it was at least comprehensive. Basic band histories were provided, rarely the lyrics, but it was difficult to get the bigger picture or the interconnections of it all and I remember not understanding why a lot of punk bands started to get a bit shit toward the end of their run (usually around '83 or '84). Still, I have kept all these cd's (out of a Proustian mindset I suppose) and apart from a couple of genuine classics, I have never felt the need to hunt for original copies. As of 2019, the vinyl format has superseded the cd (Captain Oi released very few vinyls), but the trend of reissuing second wave UK punk bands is still going strong and I am still as interested and starry-eyed as ever. Some things never change, do they?

One band's discography that Captain Oi never got around to reissue at the time was Undead's, from Bristol, which is a bit of an oddity since they released two Ep's and one full Lp and were therefore completely cd-compatible (Step-1 Music eventually did release such an object in 2007 under the very imaginative title The Riot City Years - the only years Undead ever had). For some reason, Undead seem to be largely underappreciated when they are not casually ignored, which is strange for a Bristol band that had three records on legendary Riot City. Indeed, I have often seen some of their contemporaries that weren't even half as good receive high praises. So why the discrepancy?

I suppose the name "Undead" never really helped since it is a bit corny (I am sure it already was when they formed in 1981 and the addition of a crucifix after the prefix is questionable) and there were already two bands called The Undead in the $tates at the time (one from San Francisco and the other, much more famous, with an ex-Misfits member, neither I really care about). It might not have been the most clever idea for a moniker, especially since it brings psychobilly or horror punk to mind more than spiky punk-rock, but it is not the worst idea either. Apparently, Undead did not play much outside Bristol which did not help bolster their profile amidst the dozens of bands of the time. But the great equalizer of our time (aka da internet) usually renders such very concrete, contextualized facts meaningless, so there should be as many enthusiastic fans of Undead as there are of Ultra Violent. Right? I have a feeling that lack of "punk as fuck" photo shoots at the time also plays a role in the band's status. But then, how could they have known that they were not instammagrable enough?

Gasp

As I said Undead started in mid-1981 and the boys look really young on the few pictures I have seen so it is safe to say that they must have been influenced not only by the first wave, but also by the beginning of the second wave itself. The legend has it (well, I got it from Burning Britain) that they lived close to Beki's from Vice Squad who then gave their first demo (recorded in December, 1981) to Simon from Riot City (the label was also managed by Dave and Shane from Vice Squad which accounted for many of their side projects releasing records on Riot City...not always for the best). He decided to include the song "Sanctuary" on the classic Riotous Assembly compilation Lp and offered a deal to Undead which would materialize into their first Ep, It's corruption, in April, 1982. Of course that year saw the release of a tremendous amount of amazing punk records in Britain so I am not sure how it was perceived at the time (it made the Indie Charts though). It's corruption is a lovely punk-rock single with the eponymous song being a simple but really catchy number which gave a glimpse at what would be become the band's trademark, namely pounding mid-paced tribal drum beats with a dark vibe which It weren't really your typical Bristol punk style. That first record was Riot City's seventh Ep, released between The Ejected's Have you got 10p? and Abrasive Wheels' Burn'em down (two of the records that best typified the quintessential UK82 sound) which is not a bad spot at all.

Undead's second Ep, Violent visions, was released only three months after, in July. Despite the very short period of time between the two, it was a massive improvement. If It's corruption sounded a bit sloppy and raw, Violent visions was a more powerful and focused effort that kept the characteristic snotty teenage urgency of the delivery while maintaining a high level of tunefulness. A darker vibe also started to permeate the band's sound, the heavy mid-tempo tribal beats taking an almost hypnotic dimension, leading the listener into a sort of angry despair. This Ep, for its apparent simplicity, is just incredible. The chorus are remarkably catchy and roaring at the same time, uplifting and yet quite grim, and they can remain stuck in your head for days. The music has a primitive, urban feel that is authentically threatening and the vocals are brilliant, aggressive and snotty, but expressive and rather melodic in a spiky punk way. The riffs are fairly basic but work well since they rely on bleak repetitiveness (there are moody guitar leads here and there to break the monotony) and as such they convey perfectly the feeling of angry powerlessness that made the genre so potent. Violent visions can be seen as a perfect UK82 record although it was certainly darker and moodier than a lot of its contemporaries. However, it does retain that punk snottiness and singalong chorus so that it sounds both typical and atypical. Know what I mean? You shouldn't really need points of comparison but let's say that it is a near perfect blend of The Enemy, The Insane and Cult Maniax with a touch of dark punk, maybe like The Pact or Screaming Dead. The only bad thing about this Ep is the artwork. I am not sure who did it but it looks horrible and reminds me of embarrassingly cheesy heavy metal covers. This is exactly how a fantastic punk record shouldn't look like.

The best was still to come for Undead and their outstanding album The killing of reality is an unsung UK punk classic. Released on Riot City in early 1984 when the second wave already had one foot in the grave, it is one of the strongest UK82 Lp's. If the Ep format fitted the genre well, the same could not be said about the full Lp treatment. A lot of them sounded a little tedious or included forgettable fillers so that, while the wave produced many cracking Ep's, brilliant Lp's were much rarer (and actually, many bands never recorded one and many others shouldn't have). The killing of reality is a top-shelf dark UK82 punk Lp with a lot of personality and you can tell the band worked hard on their strong points and stressed the dark element of their songwriting with more martial mid-paced tribal drumming and more variety of tunes overall (they even wrote a seven minute song!). Still, it is undeniably and essentially a UK punk record back when a lot of bands were turning into mediocre postpunk/new wave parodies. This Lp got reissued by Radiation Records in 2014 so that you have got no excuse. Apparently the original version had a sticker saying "Guaranteed: no fuzz boxes" on the back cover because Bristol had more to offer indeed.

On the plus side, Undead had the decency not to reform in order to make a quick buck at some overpriced festivals.     

Undead visions

         

Who Needs Wacky Titles Anyways!?! (part 1): Total Chaos "There are no Russians in Afghanistan" Ep, 1982

First, I have to tell you the truth. I was unable to find a decent pun to name this new series. Not a single one. I did try, really, but nothing came apart from uninspired, humourless dross. So I safely resorted to an ironically bookish reference that would make me look knowledgeable and save appearances and my reputation. But you could also say that such metafictional revelations have become cheap tricks to circumvent any potential questioning and conceal the absence of substance. But then, punk in 2019 is all about metafictions so I suppose I am just running with the postmodern pack. It is a tough business.

Anyway, let's forget about the constructedness of self-conscious writing for the moment and focus on the object: good punk records. This mini series will be about some second wave British punk bands (yes, again) whose productions sounded, looked and read a bit different from your typical record of the era. I have nothing against typical, highly contextualized punk records, on the contrary, I really enjoy archetypal productions that aptly capture the mood of a specific time and place. The Ep's I selected (the iconic 80's format) cannot be said to be groundbreaking masterpieces that changed the face of punk forever, but they display something unusual or surprising, something worth remembering for a punk trivia night. Therefore you could say that they both represented the typical sound of UK punk-rock from the early 80's (in the best way possible), and yet, were not that typical as records, for various reasons - some of which have a lot to do with modern expectations that were shaped retrospectively by our epoch's obsession with classifications. But that's just a lot of fancy words to state a simple truth: the series is about five cool British punk records from the 80's. That's more tweetable I guess.

Let's start with Total Chaos. Yes, Total bloody Chaos. Now, when a punk hears the name Total Chaos, there is a high chance he or she is going to think right away about the famous LA-based punk band, which makes sense since they have been playing since 1990 (with Rob as the sole original member), recorded three albums for Epitaph and seem to be playing at big punk festivals every summer. I don't dislike the band, I think their early demos are enjoyable in a (very) raw, noizy, Disorder-y way and even Pledge of Defiance has some good songs (however, the best thing about LA Total Chaos is that they used to tour with Resist and Exist and Media Children in their early days, something that "streetpunx" vastly ignore). As a moniker, "Total Chaos" definitely conveys the idea of fast, aggressive, distorted, punker than punk punk-rock for the true punx. But in this case, this preconception is proven wrong since the Total Chaos we're dealing with today were actually highly tuneful, and much closer to bands like Chron Gen or The Epileptics than Chaos UK or Disorder. It is probable that when the band formed in 1979, the term "Total Chaos" didn't have quite the same connotations as a few years afterwards when the so-called UK82 wave was at full speed and mentions of chaos in a name immediately conjured up images of studs, spikes and cider.

Total Chaos were from Gateshead (close to Newcastle, aka up north) and were active in the creation of The Garage, an important independent venue locally run by the Gateshead Gig Collective, who would open The Station a few years after, a legendary venue which hosted many great gigs and played a crucial role in the making of the punk scene in the area. The band recorded their first demo in early 1981, a rather rough seven-song tape which included primitive versions of songs that would end up on their first two Ep's. In 1982, they re-recorded two songs off the demo (their anthem "There are no Russians in Afghanistan" and "Primitive feeling") and a new one ("Revolution part 10") for their first vinyl output, There are no Russians in Afghanistan (this Cold War conflict really inspired punks it seems), released on their very own Slam records, although it would be repressed by Volume Records later on with a different backcover (that's the version posted here). The title track of this humble Ep, despite its minimal production, raw sound and limited musicianship, is an absolute winner with a contagious energy, snotty vocals and a catchy singalong chorus that only angry, angst-ridden teens can write properly. The song is rather basic in itself but the sense of tunes, the overall dynamics and the urgent delivery turn it into a genuine punk-rock hit, the very essence of punk. TC were a musically ambitious bunch in the sense that they did not want to sound too formulaic and were keen on trying different things, even on their first Ep. The second song has a darker, more melancholy mood and has a slower pace with an ominous postpunk guitar melody popping up. It still is fairly simple but, again, it works very well, probably because of the directness and spontaneity of the songwriting. They did not try to do, they just did. "Revolution part 10" is even more surprising since it is a drums and vocals number, which reminds me of D & V (though they actually came a little after). Fueled with political, anarcho-tinged lyrics, this song would have fitted just right on an anarchopunk compilation at the time  and it eventually landed on the 1982 Ep Papi, Queens, Reichkanzlers & Presidennti, a comp released on Attack Punk records from Italy that also included 5° Braccio and Kaaos (the label would become very successful with CCCP in the mid-80's).

Although often mentioned as a "UK82 band", TC appeared on the second volume of Bullshit Detector and had the "pay no more than" tag on their records. The boundaries between the anarchopunk scene and the so-called second wave of punk (often referred to as UK82 since the rise of the internet age) in the UK could evidently be quite porous according to your area. Whatever the box you want to force TC into, they believed in the value of creating a DIY punk scene for themselves and their lyrics were of a political variety, albeit always from a working-class perspective, with songs about media manipulation and distortions of facts (still very much relevant), the constant betrayals of political leaders, prisons, nuclear disarmament and so on. Their second Ep, Factory Man, was released the same year (1982) and showcased again the band's will to experiment, with two songs of catchy, energetic, tuneful punk-rock while the two others, much longer numbers, blended folk music, pop and Stiff Little Fingers (or something). It was the second release of Volume Records, a label which would become highly successful with another local band, The Toy Dolls. The band's final record would be the Fields & Bombs 12'' in 1983, a work that saw them experiment further with some new wave, glam and pop rock thrown in while keeping a catchy punk-rock backbone. It is not a great record, but it still makes for a good listen I guess.

The tuneful, snotty, catchy punk-rock songs that TC wrote were up there with what the second wave had the best to offer. Bands like Demob, Chron Gen, Reality or The Epileptics certainly come to mind and strangely enough there has never been a reissue of TC (yet?). Although it would be far-fetched to claim that everything they recorded was brilliant, they did pen a few unbeatable punk gems and just for that achievement, they should be properly considered. And come on, that chorus on "There are no Russians" is just punk magic and we all know it. And maybe they inspired other tune-oriented bands from the North like Reality Control, Famous Imposters or Blood Robots. I like to think so.

There are no Russians...