A couple of classic London rock & roll icons (with apologies to Mike Coles)
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Showing posts with label Killing Joke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Killing Joke. Show all posts
Saturday
Monday
12 for 2012
Top albums of the year lists... is it just me or does it get progressively more difficult as the years blur together?
Handily, Killing Joke have anticipated the problem for me with 2012. So that’s on the list then.
Let’s see
1. Killing Joke – 2012
It sounded like it might be a bit close to concept album territory from the publicity and all the usual corruption and ecological collapse themes are well to the fore here, on one of KJ’s most coherent sets. Like a fine wine KJ just get better with age.
2. Jim Jones Revue – Savage Heart
Brilliantly delivered manical rock ‘n’ roll. Perhaps not quite the equal of ‘Burning Your House Down’, but let’s face it, that was some act to follow.
3. Guile – Alone On The West
Marvellous dark psychedelic debut trip from the criminally under-rated Staffordshire band.
4. Stranglers - Giants
At its best, as good as anything from the band this side of the millennium.
5. Mark Lanegan Band – Blues Funeral
Most rounded effort yet from the man most likely to appear on someone else’s album.
6. Barry Adamson – I Will Set You Free
Uneven, but when it’s good, it’s far more satisfying that Magazine’s own 'Know Thyself' return.
7. Brian James Grand Cru – Chateau Brian
The other side of the 35th anniversary of ‘Damned, Damned, Damned’ – the man who wrote those riffs in reflective mood, with little more that an acoustic guitar and piano. Somewhat erratic, but worth it for 'Crawlin' My Way Back Home'.
8. Peaking Lights – Lucifer Dub
After two pleasingly blissed out bass driven pop albums this venture into dub territory, was the logical next step and with it Peaking Lights appear to have made the album that's been lurking within them all along.
9. Iggy Pop – Apres
Iggy Pop sounding far more comfortable rumbling through a set of easy listening standards, that being a Stooge and following up some of the finer moments from 'Avenue B'.
10. Jah Wobble & Keith Levine – Ying & Yang
It’s difficult not to like anything with that internal organ shaking bass, and here Wobble & Levine have come up with a far more interesting album than PiL’s ‘This Is PiL’.
11. Meteors – Doing The Lords Work
You know what you’re getting with The Meteors. That doesn’t make it any less welcome. When you can play a guitar like Paul Fenech, this is what you should be doing. Not sure about their cover of ‘Paranoid’ but time spent listening to Fenech play guitar is never wasted.
12. The Orb and Lee Perry
Worth a mention, just for the wonderfully bizarre partnership. Working with The Orb makes Lee Perry look like a regular guy. Well, almost...
13. Joy Division – Warsaw
Not new. Not from 2012 and not even an official release. But inspired by catching Peter Hook’s The Light, I went back to this album, one I probably hadn’t heard in years, and found it stands up rather well.
Bubbling under;
Stan Ridgeway – Mr. Trouble; clearly being indulged in the hope he turns into Tom Waits,
Brian Jonestown Massacre – Aufheben; more drone rock par excellence.
Push comes to shove, Killing Joke, Mark Lanegan Band and Guile make the top three, in no particular order.
But overall I'm going with 'Blues Funeral' as the stand out album of 2012.
Handily, Killing Joke have anticipated the problem for me with 2012. So that’s on the list then.
Let’s see
1. Killing Joke – 2012
It sounded like it might be a bit close to concept album territory from the publicity and all the usual corruption and ecological collapse themes are well to the fore here, on one of KJ’s most coherent sets. Like a fine wine KJ just get better with age.
2. Jim Jones Revue – Savage Heart
Brilliantly delivered manical rock ‘n’ roll. Perhaps not quite the equal of ‘Burning Your House Down’, but let’s face it, that was some act to follow.
3. Guile – Alone On The West
Marvellous dark psychedelic debut trip from the criminally under-rated Staffordshire band.
4. Stranglers - Giants
At its best, as good as anything from the band this side of the millennium.
5. Mark Lanegan Band – Blues Funeral
Most rounded effort yet from the man most likely to appear on someone else’s album.
6. Barry Adamson – I Will Set You Free
Uneven, but when it’s good, it’s far more satisfying that Magazine’s own 'Know Thyself' return.
7. Brian James Grand Cru – Chateau Brian
The other side of the 35th anniversary of ‘Damned, Damned, Damned’ – the man who wrote those riffs in reflective mood, with little more that an acoustic guitar and piano. Somewhat erratic, but worth it for 'Crawlin' My Way Back Home'.
8. Peaking Lights – Lucifer Dub
After two pleasingly blissed out bass driven pop albums this venture into dub territory, was the logical next step and with it Peaking Lights appear to have made the album that's been lurking within them all along.
9. Iggy Pop – Apres
Iggy Pop sounding far more comfortable rumbling through a set of easy listening standards, that being a Stooge and following up some of the finer moments from 'Avenue B'.
10. Jah Wobble & Keith Levine – Ying & Yang
It’s difficult not to like anything with that internal organ shaking bass, and here Wobble & Levine have come up with a far more interesting album than PiL’s ‘This Is PiL’.
11. Meteors – Doing The Lords Work
You know what you’re getting with The Meteors. That doesn’t make it any less welcome. When you can play a guitar like Paul Fenech, this is what you should be doing. Not sure about their cover of ‘Paranoid’ but time spent listening to Fenech play guitar is never wasted.
12. The Orb and Lee Perry
Worth a mention, just for the wonderfully bizarre partnership. Working with The Orb makes Lee Perry look like a regular guy. Well, almost...
13. Joy Division – Warsaw
Not new. Not from 2012 and not even an official release. But inspired by catching Peter Hook’s The Light, I went back to this album, one I probably hadn’t heard in years, and found it stands up rather well.
Bubbling under;
Stan Ridgeway – Mr. Trouble; clearly being indulged in the hope he turns into Tom Waits,
Brian Jonestown Massacre – Aufheben; more drone rock par excellence.
Push comes to shove, Killing Joke, Mark Lanegan Band and Guile make the top three, in no particular order.
But overall I'm going with 'Blues Funeral' as the stand out album of 2012.
Sunday
Killing Joke - MMXII
Is it possible for a band that's been together for over thirty years (give or take few line up meltdowns) to still be coming up with the goods?
On the evidence of 2010’s Absolute Dissent, which saw the first recordings with the original line up since Revelations (1982) then the answer has to be ‘yes’, as anyone whose witnessed the band live recently will already know.
But can they repeat the trick with MMXII?
Trailed as being their ‘end of times’ album, it could be argued it’s the album Killing Joke have been threatening to make since Jaz Coleman did a runner to Iceland back in 1982 precipitating the end of the original line up amid dark mutterings of an impending apocalypse.
Which is a theme Jaz has returned to on more than one occasion since then, although recently, seemingly calmer and more stable than in the past, he’s moderated his views claiming we stand on the edge of a new way of living, rather than the end, lights out.
Residents of Greece for example, might even think he’s on to something...
So what does all that mean for MMXII?
On the evidence of 2010’s Absolute Dissent, which saw the first recordings with the original line up since Revelations (1982) then the answer has to be ‘yes’, as anyone whose witnessed the band live recently will already know.
But can they repeat the trick with MMXII?
Trailed as being their ‘end of times’ album, it could be argued it’s the album Killing Joke have been threatening to make since Jaz Coleman did a runner to Iceland back in 1982 precipitating the end of the original line up amid dark mutterings of an impending apocalypse.
Which is a theme Jaz has returned to on more than one occasion since then, although recently, seemingly calmer and more stable than in the past, he’s moderated his views claiming we stand on the edge of a new way of living, rather than the end, lights out.
Residents of Greece for example, might even think he’s on to something...
So what does all that mean for MMXII?
Tuesday
Songs From The Last Century
But that would be the point of The Guardian's 'Old Music' feature.
Obviously it doesn't need to be re-blogged by me (if that is indeed what I am doing?), but I cannot resist mentioning today's entry:
Johnny Thunders 'You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory' is just a timeless classic.
Finding it by chance on my regular lunch hour footie gossip surf reminded me that this one song justified the whole of Thunders, notoriously uneven, career. And it was a more interesting read than why Andy Carroll's a bit of a numpty.
Read it here
It's also one of several excellent articles in the series, not all of which I agree with, but you could do worse than spend your lunch hour reading about gems from Killing Joke, Ramones, Magazine and Teenage Fanclub.
Sunday
Killing Joke - Manchester Academy
Manchester sees Killing Joke in fine form. As is becoming a habit with the rejuvenated Joke, early tour dates see various new songs road tested before the band settle on the ones that will become a fixture for the tour.
Perversely one of the songs that hasn't made the cut is new single 'In Cythera'. Played at Exeter and Bristol, but by Manchester it had been dropped. But as it is a more reflective song about love and loss, it did sit a little bit at odds with the majority of the new material which sees Jaz & co raging at the ecological and economic implosion of the world.
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| Manchester 10/03/12 setlist - lovely! |
A Nice Taster...
... for the return of the Joke.
This is a fan made unofficial video of 'Rapture' from the new album, 'MMXII' due for release in April.
Well done to those involved in putting this together, far better than the minimum effort Swinefarm version!
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