Daniel Kemp's Album Reviews
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Killing Joke
 
They ARE a joke *awaits flames*
Albums
 
Killing Joke (1980)
 
 
6/10
 
Producer: Killing Joke
  1. Requiem
  2. Wardance
  3. Tomorrow’s World
  4. Bloodsport
  5. The Wait
  6. Complications
  7. Change
  8. SO36
  9. Primitive

Killing Joke is a post-punk band hailing from London, England.  They formed in the late 1970s and this self-titled album is their debut effort, released in the August of 1980. To call Killing Joke strictly a post-punk band would do them a great disservice, as the members of the band have obviously feasted on a whole host of varying influences, including dance and funk music.  In particular, it is funk music which carries the majority of songs on this record, Martin Glover always leaping forwards with his strapping, groovy bass lines.

 

I have to get this out of the way immediately or else I might explode - I hate the opening track on the album, Requiem.  It was the second single that Killing Joke released and it is a disorganised muddle of chaos.  First of all, you have the horrible introduction, which sounds like an obese man farting down a hospital corridor and the sound embarrassingly echoes around.  But it doesn’t stop there, as it insists on forcing upon you this sound of a bum belching for the entirety of the song.  I am really unimpressed.

 
The good news is that Wardance rocks my socks off each and every time.  It has a great electric guitar hook slap bang in the middle of the routine bass and drum playing, which reoccurs at regular intervals and provides the main showpiece of the song.  Ignore the distorted vocals and irritating lyrics. This is punk music after all ;) !  The instrumental Bloodsport is also rocking.  Tailor-made for outdoor arenas and large crowds, it shows you a good time.  Sure, all the instruments sound ugly as hell, but that is half of the appeal.  I’m not a big fan of the vocals of Jaz Coleman, so I’m glad that he is kept hidden throughout the song.  The Wait follows in much the same manner, but this time includes vocals.  Coleman’s vocals remind me a hell of a lot of Joe Strummer’s from the Clash’s debut album.  I’m not a huge fan of that record, so this isn’t necessarily a good thing, you see?
 

Obscure name titles aren’t anything unusual for punk bands, so it is no surprise to find a song named SO36.  The good news is that it just so happens to be one of the stronger moments on this very unpredictable record.  It’s extremely slow, perhaps too slow at times, but it makes a welcome change after all of the explosive riffs which have just been and gone.  I like change, I welcome it, and so should you.
 

The best song on the album, however, wasn’t actually issued on UK pressings of the album.    I am talking about Change, which is included as a bonus track on my copy of the album.  It has far more character than those soulless, perhaps even carelessly applied moments on the first half of the record (Requiem – I’m looking at you).  Coleman shouts, “You see, you feel!”  And for the first time, you actually do.
 

I have an on-off relationship with Killing Joke.  This record has plenty of good ideas, but it carries out a needlessly reckless execution of the ideas.  It reeks of a quality which screams ‘half-baked debut effort’.  But maybe that’s your thing?
 
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