Eight-X (46)

Hello, Eight-X again somehow i always note yet another week here. Ok vinyl rules today and for starters Killing Joke, their debut album made a big impact..though sales at the time were moderate, a real rollercoaster career was to follow, one that tonight has them on stage in a worldtour...Allez Allez on the other hand didnt last too long on account of their producers Heaven 17 's collegue marrying their singer and that was basicly that for them. Still specially the preceding minialbum here was Belgiums answer to Pig Bag....C Cat Trance come forth from Medium Medium and turned out to become another trendsetting and intense band that never really got past the incrowds eye..they should have.

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Killing Joke - Killing Joke (80 ^ 88mb)

Paul Ferguson was drumming for the Matt Stagger Band when he met Jaz Coleman (vocals, keyboards) in the late '70s. Coleman joined the band briefly, but soon he and Ferguson split to form Killing Joke in late 1978. The duo recruited bassist Youth (born Martin Glover Youth), who had previously played with the punk group the Rage, and guitarist Geordie (born Kevin Walker) to complete the Killing Joke's lineup.

They recorded their debut EP, Almost Red, with money borrowed from Coleman's girlfriend of the time. John Peel was impressed by the EP and offered the group a session on his show. In late 1979, they began the Malicious Damage record label with graphic artist Mike Coles as a way to press and sell their music, Island Records distributed the records, until Malicious Damage switched to E.G. Records in 1980. The songs on Killing Joke's early singles were primitive punk rock sometimes mixed with electronic ("Nervous System") and ("Turn to Red"). They quickly progressed this sound into something denser, more aggressive, and more akin to heavy metal, as heard on their first two albums, Killing Joke (1980) and the more abrasive What's THIS For...! (1981) The group began playing shows regularly throughout England and gained a reputation for being controversial. Their artwork often featured repulsive or inflammatory images, and after one of their concert posters pictured the Pope blessing legions of Nazis, the group was banned from performing a concert in Glasgow. Despite the controversy, the group began amassing a following of both punk and disco fans with hard-edged but danceable singles like "Psyche" and "Follow the Leader." The band released its second album, What's THIS For...!, in 1981.

After recording and releasing the group's third album, 1982's Revelations, Jaz Coleman -- who had developed an obsession with the occult -- decided that the apocalypse was near, so he left the group and ran away to Iceland with Geordie. Youth followed Coleman to Iceland shortly after his departure. After a few months with no sign of the end of the world, Youth returned to England and formed Brilliant with Ferguson. However, Ferguson left shortly after the group's formation and moved to Iceland with Killing Joke's new bassist, Paul Raven. Killing Joke's new lineup -- featuring Coleman, Geordie, Ferguson, and Raven -- worked in Iceland for a brief period. Soon, the group returned to England and recorded Fire Dances, which was released in 1983. It demonstrated a calmer, more straightforward band than the one showcased on the group's earlier records.

Killing Joke had developed a variation of new wave on their fifth album, Night Time (1985). They achieved mainstream success with the single "Love Like Blood", which peaked at #16 in the UK. The album itself reached #11 in the UK The music on Killing Joke's sixth album, Brighter than a Thousand Suns (1986), was mostly similar in sound and mood to "Love like Blood". While no less aggressive and heavy than their older work, Brighter than a Thousand Suns diverged musically in ways that lead to controversy among the public. In 1987, Coleman began plans for a solo record of unusual music, and he made demos of his songs, on which he performed with Geordie's assistance. The project ran way over budget and so, despite Coleman's objections, the record company decided that the music would be released under the name "Killing Joke" in order to best recoup the costs. The resulting album, Outside the Gate (1988), is Killing Joke's most controversial album, with opinion ranging from admiration to total disgust, owing to its synth-led sonics (experimentally, and disagreement over the quality of the material. It is not signature-sound Killing Joke, being built around Coleman's orchestral keyboards instead of Geordie's distinctive guitar riffs.

With Martin Atkins (drums ex PIL) and Paul Raven aboard Coleman/Geordie recorded Killing Joke's eighth album, the ferocious Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions, released on the German Noise International label in 1990. It included some of the heaviest, noisiest and harshest music ever to appear on a Killing Joke record, although the progressive musical spirit of the previous two albums remained as well. Once again, the band toured Europe and North America, but by the middle of 1991 this promising new line up had imploded. Coleman emigrated to New Zealand to live on a remote Pacific island, and it looked as though Killing Joke was over for good.

3 years later...The reactivated Killing Joke released two strong and well-received albums on Youth's Butterfly Recordings label, Pandemonium and Democracy, which saw the band shift back to the simpler arrangements of their early albums. Pandemonium (1994) wove a metallesque ritualistic sound with mosh beats and loops After the Democracy tour, the band went on an extended hiatus. Coleman became Composer-in-Residence for New Zealand and Czech symphony orchestras. He starred in a czechfilm Rok ďábla (Year of the Devil). Coleman, Geordie and Youth reformed Killing Joke in 2002, and recorded their second self-titled album with producer Andy Gill, released to much acclaim in 2003 . Opting for simplicity and raw energy, the band recorded the new album in its basement rehearsal studio, going for live takes with the minimum of overdubs. The result was Hosannas from the Basements of Hell, released in April 2006 on Cooking Vinyl.

In October 2006, it was announced that Coleman had been chosen as Composer in Residence for the European Union. As Composer in Residence he will be commissioned to write music for special occasions. On October 20th 2007, Paul Raven died of heart failure prior to a recording session in Geneva, Switzerland. Killing Joke have announced a world tour commencing in September 2008. The band will be reuniting with their original lineup and they will be playing two nights per venue. The first night they will play their first two albums 'Killing Joke' and 'What's THIS For...!' in their entirety. The second night will feature the whole of 'Pandemonium' plus their early singles released on Island records. The tour will begin on September 11 in Tokyo and conclude in Chicago on October 14

At the time the cold metallic throb of Killing Joke was exciting and fresh. The harshly sung vocals riding over the pulsating synth lines of the opener "Requiem" have a vigor and passion that few imitators have managed to match. The precise riffs and tight rhythms found in songs like "Wardance" would influence a generation of hardcore musicians That such a bleak and furious album could have such a widespread influence is a testament to its importance, and becoming an underground classic



01 - Requiem (3:46)
02 - Wardance (3:48)
03 - Tomorrow's World (5:30)
04 - Bloodsport (4:46)

05 - The Wait (3:42)
06 - Complications (3:07)
07 - S.O.36 (6:51)
08 - Primitive (3:32)


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Allez Allez - African Queen (81 ^ 58mb)

Allez Allez is the funky follow-up of the Brussels-based collective Marine. The more experimental part of Marine also continued to make music, under the flag of the wild and wonderful La Muerte (see La Muerte). Although Allez Allez (which means "well, well" or, with a different intonation "Go! Go!") was very successful, it - unfortunately - lasted only a few years. Only from 1982 to 1983 in fact. The trademark of Allez Allez were highly danceable and catchy rhythms, African influences and high quality singing. Together, this formed a powerful and funky mixture. Their motto was "wrap your legs around your head".

The group was headed by the American singer Sarah Osbourne, who came to Belgium with her group Repetition that was signed by the Belgian record label "Les Disques du Crépuscule", where Marine also had their contract. In the slipstream of the successful debut-single "She's stirring up", the mini-album "African Queen" arouses a lot of interest and becomes a gold record. It even earns them a place at the famous Torhout-Werchter festival that year. The song "African Queen (pour la grâce)" is a tribute to Grace Jones.


In November they record a full album in the Garden-studio of John Foxx in a production of Heaven17-mastermind Martin Ware. This time it's a more refined funk-album with some soul-influences. The road for an international breakthrough seemed open, but then singer Sarah Osbourne left the groups and married the singer of Heaven 17, Glenn Gregory (they divorced three years later). A replacement was found in the Afro-American Jackie Irwin of New York. She never managed to truly replace the sensual and flexible Sarah. The 12 '' "Boom boom" flopped, although it was produced by the discoverer of Madonna, Mark Kamins. That sealed the fate, no more Allez Allez



01 - Turn Up The Meter (4:45)
02 - Marathon Dance (3:09)
03 - She's Stirring Up (3:35)

04 - Allez Allez (5:32)
05 - African Queen (Pour La Grace) (7:16)

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C Cat Trance - Zouave (86 ^ 86mb)

In the mid eighties, after the release of anthem 'Hungry, So Angry' and album 'The Glitterhouse', Rees Lewis, the distinctive element (voice and sax) of currently obscure but hip funksters Medium Medium, left and with drummer Nigel Stone started C-Cat Trance to extend the avant dance forms of Medium Medium in a more art-pop-world direction, diminishing guitar noise, using anxious synth layers, dark pop atmospheres, traditional instruments, middle eastern influences. They were ahead of their time & albums like Khamu(1985) & Zouve(1986) presage the ethno/dance/electronic styles that was to dominate the music planet late 80`s & beyond. C Cat Trance songs express a nocturnal evocation, an anxiety proceeding from the different, the unexplored.

C-Cat Trance produced world and dance sounds ahead of their time and, with a floating membership varying between two and eight, they played infrequent gigs, beginning at Pandora's Musicbox in Rotterdam in September 1984, and more often in Europe (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Holland) than the UK. They released a series of records through the late eighties, and received consistent acclaim. Lewis' sax playing was described in the press as "lung emptying sax", "striking sax", "sax breaks that wail like a maitresse in nipple clamps", "and many more creative descrptions. In 2005 Cherry red released a compilation on CD, Karadara.



01 - Wind Howl (3:39)
02 - Betty (2:59)
03 - He's Crazy (4:25)
04 - Taksim (4:53)
05 - Ishta Bil Habul (4:04)

06 - If You Steal (3:43)
07 - Take Me To The Beach (3:48)
08 - You've Lost That Loving Feeling (4:07)
09 - Shake The Mind (5:26)

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