Miscellaneous: Punk & Disorderly The Albums – revised box
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Miscellaneous – Punk And Disorderly Albums
3CD / DL
Release July 23, 2021
Set of three Punk And Disorderly compilation albums from the early 1980s. This trio of albums featured several of the leading punk bands of the time, including UK Decay, The Dead Kennedys, Angelic Upstarts, GBH and Newtown Neurotics⦠Ian Canty enters the city torn apart by riots and time …
Only a few years after being declared completely dead and gone, punk slowly but surely returned to the UK accounts by the dawn of the 1980s. The point is that a lot of people still loved the genre of music. fast and strong that was at the heart of the original punk blast. Pushed aside and ridiculed, maybe they were during the post punk / new romantic years, but they weren’t going to go away. Adam And The Ants pre-Kings Of The Wild Frontier, The Ruts, SLF and The UK Subs had kept things going during the lean times and Crass had sold thousands and thousands of their records from 1979 onwards. or Kings Road anarcho didn’t float your boat, there was soon a positive revival of more traditional-style punk acts coexisting with new bands forging a new hardcore path.
If one can put aside the prejudices about this 1980s punk wave, Punk And Disorderly’s debut album is a ton of fun and, on first listen after a while at least, appears to all intents and purposes like a excellent compilation LP. Listening several times lessens the impact a bit, but is far from extinguishing it. I have to admit on closer examination that not all of the contributions are quite so good and I do admit that the inevitable nostalgia issue may have played a part for me in this first hearing.
Nonetheless, while some of the tracks turn out to be not really out of the ordinary, the one thing they have in common is that they’re all fiery and compelling. Vice Squad’s Last Rockers is as good a way as any to get started, effectively drawing a line in the sand in what now feels like 2021 in a truly anthemic way. If The Adicts’ Straight Jacket released on Dining Out Records in late 1979 brings it closer to the original summer of punk like the Brave New World of 1982, being taken before their Clockwork Orange obsession took over. works well for them. Like many of the bands featured here, their contribution shows them in their best light.
The NI Outcasts were from that previous wave as well, but Mania comes with a fair amount of much needed thudding that proves they still have plenty left in the tank. Some of the bands here take the fundamental nature of their recording situations and turn it into an asset, like the invigorating crash of The Insane’s Last Day. Others use rough sound in an almost impressionistic way. Disorder’s Complete Disorder could almost be PIL’s first demo, but with a hardcore UK push and without Wobble’s distinctive bass. Some don’t fare as well on a more in-depth analysis, with The Disrupters’ Young Offender being a bit laborious to be blunt and while Chaos UK’s Four Minute Warning may be a classic example of hardcore UK82, it is. really not. a lot to stand out.
However, the spirited first single from the Partisans Police Story is a real riot of sound and energy, and Demob’s No Room For You hums in a bubbly and enjoyable r & b way. Jello Biafra’s Dead Kennedys always sounded like a punky Undertones cum the excellent and very catchy Kill The Poor and UK Decay highlight the more gothic element of 1980s punk on a For My Country epic.
Brum’s GBHs go through Race Against Time in a pleasantly manic style and coming from a similar direction, Blitz shows their first brick wall shard on Someone’s Gonna Die Tonight. Red Alert’s In Britain is well-done crowd-voiced punk and Abrasive Wheels’ Army Song succinctly demonstrates their winning method of splitting up some damn good tune into a hard-as-bonkers musical setting. Overall, Punk & Disorderly presents itself very well as a striking snapshot of early 1980s British punk action.
I’m less crazy about the bonus tracks on this record. State violence / Discharge State Control seems to have a place here and The Defects’ really good Dance Til You Drop is certainly coming from the right time. However, the choice of Punk Rocker, a 1983 single from Special Duties, over their 1981 debut album Violent Society is just odd. It would have made sense on the third disc, but here it feels out of place. I have to say the bonuses drop this set. They just seem bolted with little forethought, although some of the songs are pretty good.
The success of the debut album and the continued good performance of British punk bands in the independent charts naturally resulted in a follow-up collection. Punk & Disorderly Further Charges is not quite the equal of its predecessor, but manages to unearth a fair amount of pretty striking contributions. Some bands are returning to the series – The Insane sounds an entirely different proposition about a fiery El Salvador and The Abrasive Wheels’ Vicious Circle is another more than fair hardcore tear-up.
The main points of interest here for me are newcomers though. The Violators were for me the group that should have made a big splash on the stage. Listening to Gangland’s imagination and verve, I feel like they easily compare to most of the first wave British punk contenders. The Wall, another band with roots going back to the original punk blast, contribute an atmospheric Hobby For A Day and The Dark weaves a magical spell with The Masque.
From this distance, Erazerhead’s Shellshock feels like he painstakingly recast The Ramones for an ’80s landscape rather than being a direct copy, as some tended to see them at the time. On the less positive side, the court martial is like a parody of Not The Nine O’Clock News on Gotta Get Out, Riot / Clone’s Death To Humanity is standard hardcore gallop and although One Way System does give Stab The Judge musical backing. meaty, the song itself is a bit silly.
Those doubts aside, Channel 3’s I’ve Got A Gun still comes across as a turbocharged firecracker with an air and Action Pact was a gem of a group that gave UK82, an overwhelming majority of men, a very welcome female perspective. They are represented here by their first classic bouncers from London. The Enemy would improve as they progressed, but their Fallen Hero is still quite good and the Leeds group The Expelled’s Dreaming is a solid number and far from being considered a mere Nordic version of Vice Squad.
For me again on this record the pet peeve is that three of the bonuses are from 1983 – Further Charges came out in 1982 and the idea was to capture the sound of British punk from the previous months. Dead Wretched’s No Hope For Anybody is an extra on the third Punk & Disorderly III The Final Solution record, but I think it would have more naturally sat on that set or even the first one. But I should have a harder heart than I currently have so as not to give a boost to Dead Man’s Shadow’s cool and inventive Toleration Street or the gnarled energy of No Sign Of Life from Merseyside’s Instant Agony. Last Rites’ arrogant return to 1970s punk We Don’t Care is also fun and The Varukers sounds like the wary little brothers of the UK Subs on Don’t Wanna Be A Victim.
The last collection Punk & Disorderly Punk & Disorderly III The Final Solution arrived in 1983, just as the British punk scene was reaching its saturation point. Even so, it was a one-off investigation into the best of what was going on. After the typically crisp Burn ‘Em Down by The Abrasive Wheels, we get an urgent Give Us A Future by One Way System and The Newtown Neurotics’ timeless anthem, Kick Out The Tories.
It’s ironic that the UK Subs Police State’s best single came out right after their career ended on the UK pop charts. This number has it all, including an excellent guitar solo and Charlie Harper with Knox from The Vibrators weigh in with another beaty New Barbarians release like The Urban Dogs. Former punk statesmen The Angelic Upstarts got a second wind after their disastrous Still From The Heart LP on the excellent score of Woman In Disguise and Action Pact with Suicide Bag, lyrics truly appropriate in a time when punk Briton was plagued by the glue snorting craze.
It’s so sad that The Violators were set to go their separate ways after their brilliant single Summer Of ’81, and The Samples’ Dead Hero is also full of untapped potential. There are a few efforts here that haven’t aged well (for starters, The Destructors’ Jailbait and Computers Don’t Blunder from The Exploited), but Chron Gen’s single Outlaw is a true underrated classic and I had to. hard not to smile upon hearing the minimalist fun of The Ejected’s Have You Got 10p ?. Again on that last drive ends with a mixed bag of extras. It was good to hear Fight To Win and Some Day from External Menace from Major Accident again.
As a cheap and cheerful set, Punk And Disorderly – The Albums works quite well. The first LP was a historic compilation that made an impact both at home and abroad and you can still feel how much it captured the music of the time today. This LP fully deserves to be listened to in good working order. The other two collections weren’t quite the same weight, but what they do have is a dollop of touching material. Yes, there are some unusual choices among the bonuses – I couldn’t help but wish they had made this a four-disc set and kept the original LPs separate, with those extra chances and all these little things presented on a separate disc. This is a small problem though, as they are easily ignored. In conclusion, if you’ve come to early 1980s British punk from a standing start, this 3CD does a very reasonable job of setting the scene and much of it still rings true.
All of Ian Canty’s words – see his author profile here
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