Urban's Never-ending A to Z
 

Lately i've been incredibly busy and not really had any time to be able to write or review stuff like I would normally want to and it's incredibly frustrating coming here knowing I don't really have time to sit down , listen to a whole album and then spend an hour or 2 writing up something about it. And I miss not being able to do that.

So this is my solution.

I shall be going through my entire list of albums .. yes ALL of them from A to Z . and writing a few sentences about each. It's pretty straight forward. I listen to a couple of albums at work , come home. and then spend 10/15 mins writing a few words about each.... simple.

According to my Rateyourmusic page I have 3200 albums on my HD , I know it's more than that , with bootlegs and CDs not on my HD the total is nearer 4000 so it should keep me going for a while.

According to the list the first album up is Let's Get Professional by The 012

Ok, now this is epic.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/376973.jpg
The 012 - Let's Get Professional - 1984

"The 012 would like it to be generally known that they have now sold out completely, but will be doing all they can to maintain that urban guerilla pop star image in the future."
So says the album sleeve

I know very little about this band but some digging around I discovered it was recorded in 1981 but not released until 1984 on some obscure label called Flicknife Records.
Their lead singer is the wonderfully named Kif Kif Le Batter. Playing on bass on some of the tracks on this album is a guy called Granto Showbiz , and i'm wondering if this is the same guy as Fall producer Grant Showbiz.

At first this album sounds like your typical post punk album with A Certain Ratio basslines , JAMC type guitars and Fall like vocals. But it's when the covers kick in where things either really get started or totally fall apart depending on your point of view.

There's a brilliant cover of Bob Marley's Three Little Birds which sounds like it's done by an English Captain Beefheart and with no melody whatsoever. After that Funky Town by Lipps INC is massacred with vocalist Le Batter proclaiming how shit the song is at regular intervals.

The band's own material stands up very well and a lot better than you'd expect if you'd only heard the covers. There's a couple of throwaway tracks but if abrasive post punk is your thing (And it is mine) then this is well worth a listen.

Rating 6/10

Favourite Songs - Let's Get Professional , Asbestos Lead Asbestos , Live Fast Die Young , Meltdown Situation

that sounds awesome... i really want to hear that funky town cover

Hurry, somebody bend over, I'm going to COME.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/42296.jpg
1000 Homo Djs - Supernaut EP - 1990

I used to own this on vinyl and I loved it, But that was 10/12 years ago.

1000 Homo Dj's is yet another Al Jourgensen side project. Jello Biafra is also involved in there somewhere although everybody involved used aliases, not all of which have ever been revealed.
It was rumored that Trent Reznor sung on this but it's not true. His record company refused clearance and in the end Jourgensen recorded the vocals himself. Reznor's version has seen the light of day since but i've never heard it.
The version of Supernaut here is my favourite Sabbath cover i've heard. It takes all the good things from the original and just cranks it up to borderline noise.
Hey Asshole is a novelty , an 8 minute long song about getting pulled over by the police , but it's far too repetetive to sustain the length on repeated listens and just gets boring.
The EP finishes with 2 songs originally recorded for Ministry's The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste album. Releasing these two songs were originally the reason this EP was conceived , and they're not bad. Apathy is pretty decent with it's stomping drums and it's off kilter horns wailing away in the background.
The final song Better Ways is just your typical slow 80s industrial metal dirge and really does nothing for me.
A mixed bag really , two good songs , one song thats OK the first time you hear it , and one boring song. Only the Sabbath cover could really be considered essential.

Rating 5/10

I like the sound of that 012 album. ;)

Well I won't give you a hard copy , you might damage something with it when you hear the Bob Marley cover ;)

So, where might we go to listen to a sample of these???

I want to change my name to Urban Guerilla Pop Star now :D