Three Reissues for your listening amusement this time, the ‘seminal Oi band’ Cock Sparrer, the ‘Frenetic, coarse and frequently atonal’ Bl’ast! and the seminal first album from [SUB][HUM][ANS] who were definetely ‘not the usual early eighties punk rock band’. Read about them below.
Cock Sparrer
The Decca Years
Captain Oi
I’ll tell you what this isn’t. It’s not Shock Troops. Cock Sparrer’s definitive statement and an untouchable slice of street punk. This is before that, this is when Cock Sparrer were signed to Decca and made a record only to see it shelved and the band dropped. Their feelings about this betrayal are summed up on Shock Troops as ‘Take Em All’. It’s a decent album. Glam stomps and punk whines coupled with distorted guitar and rock hard bass. It’s very polished and sounds a bit naive but then, they were kids when they made this. There are glimpses of the brilliance to come, Taken For A Ride and Chip On My Shoulder are attitude ridden blasts. Sunday Stripper is a glimpse of an almost gone weekend pastime set to a raunchy glam beat.
But then there’s Runnin’ Riot, which is a white hot adrenaline fuelled attack. Brilliant punk straight from the street. What a song. But is it enough. I imagine most Cock Sparrer fans will have the majority of the stuff on here on various releases but possibly not on vinyl so I guess that’s why you’d get it. When you’re looking at at least a ton for the Runnin’ Riot seven inch single this is a possibly welcome addition to the collection if, like me, you haven’t got it. As an idea of what they would become it’s a decent record with a few outstanding songs.
BL’AST!
Manic Ride
Southern Lord
This is filthy, encrusted with rust and grime. You can smell the dirt and feel the heat in the grooves of this record. It’s a distorted, fuzzy broken boned hell of a ride. They play like there’s nothing left and sound like they really really don’t give a shit. Hardcore tripped over it’s braces, chipped it’s teeth on the kerb and grew it’s crop out to give us this grungy, nasty mess of a sound.
Recorded by Black Flag’s soundman GOAT: Dave Rat (RATSOUND) and you can see the parallels between the bands. But the band weren’t happy with the sound so this version was destroyed. So where exactly this came from I am baffled but it’s here and it’s brilliant.
[SUB][HUM][ANS]
The Day The Country Died
Pirates Press Records
[SUB][HUM][ANS] are just simply one of the best punk bands to come out of the UK. I don’t give a toss if they’re year zero punk, anarcho punk, clay records shouting or whatever. It’s taken me forty years to finally be able to grab this album on record and it’s worth the wait. You see, when we were kids we taped each others records and bought something that everyone else taped. That’s how we shared music. So I had a tape of this. I bought the seven inch singles but couldn’t afford the album. Anyway, enough of that, what about the music? It’s scathing hilarious, mocking, angry and furiously played. Dick’s vocal is accented, gravely and rough and is also absolutely perfect for this. It’s not all out thrash but it’s fast. Just stick it on. Seriously, one of the best punk bands to ever come out of the UK and this may well be their finest moment recorded way back in 1983. Time flies..
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Cock Sparrer’s website is cocksparrer.co.uk, they are on Facebook and Instagram.
Bl’ast! are on Facebook, Instagram and have a Bandcamp page.
[SUB][HUM][ANS] are on Bandcamp, Facebook and Instagram.
All words by Adrian Bloxham
