It’s interesting how small differences in similar-sounding music can make the difference between like and love. Killing Joke have a lot of similarities to Joy Division, but I preferred this album a lot more. Perhaps it’s the infusion of a synthesiser sound, making them like a cross between Joy Division and Gary Numan, perhaps it’s elements to the tone of the guitars, I don’t know.
The band use the same kind of pulsing synth and hard beats that underlie a lot of New Wave music, bringing in krautrock elements from the likes of Neu! and Faust, especially on the instrumental noise/dance track Bloodsports. One track is titled SO36, sharing its name with a Berlin nightclub which further enhances the German influence. Although the cover image is actually a scene from Belfast (the second album cover inspired by the Troubles this year), it also brings to mind the Berlin Wall. Images of graffiti and urban decay sprinkled throughout the lyrics also bring to mind the idea of a crumbling, divided world.
The track Wardance uses a robotic effect on Jaz Coleman’s voice which despite the track name the lyrics tell us is “not music to dance to”. It isn’t, it’s music to inspire revolution. There’s a bit of dub reggae to the sounds, especially Change, but to me there’s also a feel of Hawkwind. The track Complication says “See the sun turn green from my penthouse window”, invoking alienation and alien worlds; compare the sound of the track The Wait with Hawkwind’s thrashing guitars on the Chronicle Of The Black Sword album (1985), or even the contemporaneous album Levitation (1980).
Maybe that’s why I liked this album, it reminded me of a lot of other music that I like, but at the same time is very much its own sound.
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