Reviews

Optic Nerve

Chin-Chin Stop! Your Crying EP reissue

Had CHIN-CHIN hailed from the UK rather than Switzerland, maybe their 1986 Stop! Your Crying EP would have gained more status as one of the high water marks of the C86 sound, alongside the jangling and/or fuzzed-out likes of TALULAH GOSH, the PASTELS, and the SHOP ASSISTANTS—an expanded version of the record even came out the following year on 53rd & 3rd (the label started by David Keegan from the SHOP ASSISTANTS and Stephen Pastel) as one of their few non-Scottish releases, if that isn’t telling. This is pure punky pop perfection, just an unadulterated rush of wild BUZZCOCKS/RAMONES energy with sped-up ’60s girl group harmonies, like the Stiff Records-era GO-GO’S given a full Creation Records treatment. The mid-tempo, horn-spiked “Revolution” swaps CHIN-CHIN’s usual sugar-rush hooks for more of a mod strut, but “Stop! Your Crying” and “Cry in Vain” are both anthemic buzzsaw bangers for the ages. Legit femme-punk godhead.

Disco Zombies South London Stinks 2xLP

The DISCO ZOMBIES were cult heroes of the late ’70s heyday of John Peel-backed UK punk, and like so many other Class of ’77 acts that actually survived to the dawn of the ’80s, their modus operandi gradually shifted from buzzsaw three-chord anthems to more offbeat and moodier post-punk strokes over the course of those few years. South London Stinks is essentially an expanded version of Acute Records’ Drums Over London anthology LP from 2011 (now out-of-print and not cheap)—you get the three 7″s that the DISCO ZOMBIES released during their original run and some scrapped recordings from that same era, with the addition of a handful of songs recorded when the band was later rekindled in our current millennium, all chronologically sequenced for a tidy linear narrative. “Top of the Pops” and “Disco Zombies” from 1979’s The Invisible EP  have all of the melodic velocity and acerbic, tongue-in-cheek humor of the BUZZCOCKS at their prime, and there’s a whole set of outtakes like “The Year of the Sex Olympics” and “Greenland” exhibiting the sort of fractured avant-pop smarts that made UK DIY darlings of the HOMOSEXUALS and SWELL MAPS, but things really get interesting with the arrival of a primitive drum machine in 1980, guiding the DISCO ZOMBIES to sparse art-punk glory with “Mary Millington” and “Here Comes the Buts”—think a more sardonic, Messthetics-ready take on WIRE circa 154. Worth shaking off any lingering archival punk fatigue if you missed this the first go-round.

Girls at Our Best! Getting Nowhere Fast / Warm Girls 7″ reissue

The GIRLS AT OUR BEST! origin story mirrors the genesis of an entire wave of early ’80s UK post-punk—meet at art school (in Leeds!), start a band, self-release a 45 with a helping hand from Rough Trade’s distribution network, put out a few more records in quick succession, and then flame out well before reaching the decade’s mid-point. Their first (and best) single recently resurfaced on the reissue label Optic Nerve, whose output generally skews toward a very particular strain of C86-adjacent jangle, and GIRLS AT OUR BEST! definitely represent one of the most obvious (wanna buy a) bridges between post-punk and indie pop outside of the not entirely dissimilar DOLLY MIXTURE. A-side “Getting Nowhere Fast” is a perfect example of the genius of simplicity, with a nagging, serrated guitar riff repeating over bobbing bass and buttoned-up drums while Judy Evans’s defiant delivery and lyrics denounce consumption-as-culture mentality, before the whole track abruptly stops short at the two-minute mark as if the tape had just cut out. On “Warm Girls,” Evans pitches up her vocals closer to the airy, angelic register she’d adopt on later records, eventually joined by a quick-fire disco beat and some noisy wind-up guitar before the song breaks into an anthemic outro chant of the band’s name, up there with the AU PAIRS or DELTA 5 in the ’80s femme-punk pantheon. Total twin classic, but you knew that already.

Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters Smashed Full of Wonder LP

Smashed Full of Wonder collects the complete recordings of London’s HANGMAN’S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS, who represented the platonic ideal of the ’80s psychedelic garage revival as well as anyone from the era—if a static image of any random group of humans sporting teardrop Vox guitars and mop-top fringes against an op art background was capable of producing a sound, this would be it, and the fifteen tracks here are certainly caught between a Girls in the Garage rock and a Paisley Underground place. On the wilder side, “Out of My Head” paints a day-glo picture of a Grace Slick-fronted PANDORAS, the fuzzed-out stomp of “Pushing Me Too Far” delivers on the promise of the SEEDS nod in its title, and “Don’t Ask My Name (Just Call Me Jack)” is a frantic twelve-string jangle rave-up made for scuffing up one’s ankle boots. That particular trip gets mellowed out by the likes of the swirling psych-lite slowburner “Love is Blue” and the C86-to-the-max “Something About Today” and “Call Her Name,” with the latter pair being especially apt reminders that Dan Treacy of the TELEVISION PERSONALITIES was first responsible for making some of these songs available to the record-buying public (and don’t the kids just love it).

Josef K Sorry for Laughing / Revelation 7″ reissue

In tandem their Glaswegian contemporaries ORANGE JUICE, Edinburgh’s JOSEF K stitched together scratchy funk and nervous, angular jangle to help shape of the Sound of Young Scotland in the early ’80s, leaving behind a breadcrumb trail for the danceable and debonair likes of FRANZ FERDINAND, the STROKES, et al. to pick up at the turn of the century (don’t hold that against them). This 1981 pairing was one in a string of great, spiky singles from JOSEF K’s brief reign—both songs resurfaced just a few months later on the band’s sole LP The Only Fun in Town (which got its own reissue back in 2020), but the 45 was always the true post-punk people’s format, and Optic Nerve’s reissue campaign of crucial ’80s DIY short-takes can only be viewed as a labor of love in the 7”-hostile hellscape of 2022. On the A-side “Sorry for Laughing,” taut, disco-fixated rhythms (check that hopscotch bass line!) are blurred at the edges by a flurry of restless post-FEELIES/pre-WEDDING PRESENT guitar strumming as Paul Haig’s deadpan croon seals the deal with suave sophistication, while B-side “Revelation” strikes anxious art-punk poses like a more JOY DIVISION-damaged FIRE ENGINES, all wiry, treble-heavy guitar slash and bob-and-weave bass to give GANG OF FOUR a run for their money. Absolute class.

Meat Whiplash Here It Comes / Don’t Slip Up 7″ reissue

Super deluxe reissue of one of the greatest Scottish post-punk singles of all time that isn’t the first 7″ by the FIRE ENGINES (from whom MEAT WHIPLASH swiped their name)! Originally released on Creation in 1985, the band’s one and only record reflected an almost exact sonic intersection of the dual ruling scenes of Scotland’s 80s underground, with the more scratchy and angular faction on one side, and wall-of-sound melodic noise-pop on the other. “Here it Comes” kicks up a cloud of feedback squeal and pinned-in-the-red distortion not entirely dissimilar to the controlled chaos of the JESUS AND MARY CHAIN’s “Upside Down” from just a year earlier, although MEAT WHIPLASH trade the Reid brothers’ shimmering ’60s-inspired pop tendencies (however buried) for something far more panicked and desperate. Equally obscured by fuzz but far less abrasive, the flipside “Don’t Slip Up” brings things in line with the shambolic sound of young Scotland centered around C86 bands like the SHOP ASSISTANTS, whose singer actually wound up joining MEAT WHIPLASH when they changed their name to MOTORCYCLE BOY in the late ’80s. Completely essential purchase if you don’t already own a well-loved original copy of this one!

Party Day Sorted! 2xLP

A gloomy and atmospheric post-punk/goth-adjacent group from Barnsley, England, PARTY DAY won the affection of John Peel with their 1983 debut single “Row the Boat Ashore.” Their dour countenance and bass-led rhythms slot comfortably aside more recognizable contemporary acts like the SOUND and JOY DIVISION. Sorted! is a double-LP compilation representing the whole of their recorded history: two full-length albums and a handful of singles and EP tracks. The track “Glasshouse” (there are two versions included here) stands out as a highlight, a shimmering and sweet melancholic strum that brings to mind what the CHURCH was doing at the time. Other highlights include the propulsive “Rabbit Pie,”  the sullen six-minute epic “Atoms,” and “Career,” the last of which channels early KILLING JOKE. Proof positive that there is still interesting, even transcendent material to be unearthed from the milieu of forgotten ’80s post-punk.

The Cigarettes You Were So Young 2xLP

Finally, all the material from this lovely post-punk band from Lincoln, England has been compiled into one release. Despite the CIGARETTES only being around for a few years between 1978-81, they explored an impressive range of sounds and influences. There’s the harder, rougher songs like the opener “They’re Back Again Here They Come” and of course the banger “You Were So Young”’ that remind me of ’70s Aussie punk like RAZAR and the VICTIMS. Then there’s the more pop-punk tracks that sound like they could be love songs if it weren’t for the scathing lyrics that wittily poke fun at Capitalist ideals like the nuclear family and the rise of consumerism. A couple of the tracks really don’t need to be there but perhaps there are some fans out there who would appreciate them. Listening to their discography it’s obvious they were a smart band, dedicated to a DIY approach similar to DESPERATE BICYCLES and ART ATTACKS. The release is made up of the band’s two singles, unreleased tracks they had planned for their third single, tracks from a local compilation and the recordings from their John Peel session. Packaged up nicely with a poster, badge and sticker—what a treat!

The Crazies A Simple Vision LP

A strange reissue for the true Adrian Borland completists out there who are hungry for more than the SOUND and the OUTSIDERS. That isn’t to say it sounds like either of those bands, but it’s a curio nonetheless.The record is culled from a single 1978 recording session of the OUTSIDERS backing their friend Pete Williams in noisy, one-take improvi-punk weirdness. The nearest I can lodge this is maybe somewhere between the FUCKIN’ FLYIN’ A-HEADS, the AFFLICTED MAN, or the SMEGMA side project JUNGLE NAUSEA. I’ve got a certain tolerance for this type of bugged-out freaknik splatter, but while it’s an interesting document, it mostly seems like an inside joke between friends that was probably more fun to record than it actually is to listen to.

The Wake On Our Honeymoon / Give Up 7″ reissue

Before they were Factory-backed, joyless JOY DIVISION/NEW ORDER adherents, and later saccharinely sweet Sarah Records twee-poppers, the 1982 debut recorded offering from Glasgow’s the WAKE was an exercise in anxious art-punk with a streak of youthful naivety, almost like a schoolboy-fronted JOSEF K. “On Our Honeymoon” launches straight into a deliriously loping bassline caught in a gravitational pull somewhere between Peter Hook and Three Imaginary Boys-era CURE, with skittering, disco-flecked drums and scratchy guitar running at odds against paper-thin wallflower vocals; it’s a two-minute rush of spiky, minimalist brilliance that immediately set the bar at a height the band would fail to ever hit again (hot take). On the flip, “Give Up” sinks into monochrome post-punk malaise as if NEW ORDER had never discovered the dancefloor, with wavering, saturnine keys and a tenuous edge of despair in vocalist Caesar’s delivery, all set into motion again by that darkly melodic bobbing bass. A single that’s been given a new life as a reissue once already this century and thus far from a lost-to-time obscurity, but that all-timer of an A-side makes a pretty strong case for yet another revisit.