GANG OF FOUR

Rather like another band on this page Gang of Four were a British punk band fresh out of university with a sterile, minimalist sound complete with an uninterested and undistinctive vocalist. Indeed, it isn't hard to imagine this album as the follow-up to Wire's Pink Flag (the cat's out the bag there) and, if so, they'd be one hell of a band (although it is worth noting that, at the time of writing, I haven't heard Chairs Missing). I did just resist the temptation to give this album 10* but, after an admittedly shaky start, I have really come to love this album (paradoxically perhaps even more than Pink Flag). The satirical lyrics are both biting and pertinent, Jon King's detached vocals adding to rather than subtracting from the situation, and, as Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers points out in the sleeve-notes, the grooves weaved by Allen (bass), Burnham (drums) and Andy Gill (guitar) are absolutely mesmerising. Probably due to my increased interest in Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band I've started paying greater attention and respect to unpredictable and spasmodic musical interplay and this album is nothing short of a delight in that respect. The river rapid currents of "Natural's Not in it" could drown a man and the jerky, spasmodic see-sawing of "Return the Gift" (complete with the record's catchiest hook) is utterly hypnotic. In a way, the reason it did take me so long to get into this album was because it needs so much time to sink in. Due to the brilliantly complex nature of the arrangements the grooves and rhythms do not immediately stand out but once you're hooked... well, you're hooked alright. The testimonies in the sleeve-notes provide adequate evidence of the influence of this album with Michael Stipe and Flea waxing lyrical, as well as that fat lad from TAD 'cause Kurt Cobain had declined from contributing in a rather extreme manner (this remaster came out in 1995). Certainly, although I'm no great fan of the band, "Not Great Men" does account for the majority of the RHCP's career (although at least Flea admits it). My two favourite tracks on the album, and I love the pair of them, are "Damaged Goods" and "At Home He's a Tourist". It probably goes without saying but the groove generated on "Damaged Goods" is bitterly beguiling with King spitting out his slurs on capitalist society (effectively the theme for the whole album) which includes the brilliant bile of "sometimes I'm thinking that I love you but I know it's only lust". "At Home He's a Tourist" is a somewhat less frenetic affair, or least less consistently frenetic, with superlative dynamics between the ominously plodding verse and the vicious explosion of a chorus (Kurt Cobain must have been listening after all). Again, it is King's biting lyrics that elevate the song yet further with the memorable attack on the clubbing mentality of seeking casual sex, promoted by the sleazy companies ("down on the disco floors they make their profit... and the rubbers you hide in your top left pocket"). Although the aforementioned pair occupy the favourite position at the moment it is entirely possible my mind will be swayed in the future. Certainly "Guns Before Butter" (someone did Economics A-Level) and the witty satire of "I Found that Essence Rare" are not far behind the five tracks that receive the best tracks treatment at the moment. Like I said, I was in half a mind to give this 10* but I've never gotten into the ponderous "Ether" (a strange choice to open the album), the feedback-generated intro to "Anthrax" (non-retro psychedelia, according to Flea) fails to produce much of a song, and "5.45" (the longest track on the album) takes a while to build up. Furthermore, the three bonus tracks, apparently from a subsequent EP, suggest that Go4 were already starting to pay too much mind to the political lyrics (including the condescending "It's Her Factory") at the expense of energetic, punk-funk numbers. Still, who gives a fuck, really, when you've got a proper album jam-packed with brilliant and innovative groove-based rock'n'roll songs, with a musical interplay to match Captain Beefheart's very own Magic Band? If I danced at night clubs rest assured I'd be dancing to this. Yeah, that or looking for casual sex with my expensive aftershave, deodorant, hair gel and the like.

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Email me at: jackfeeny@yahoo.co.uk