Audio CD review:
Killing Joke - The Unperverted Pantomine?

Killing Joke - The Unperverted Pantomine?

Band: Killing Joke Title: The Unperverted Pantomine? Rating: Release Date: 24 June, 2003 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Nervous System [Malicious Single] 2: Pssyche [Malicious Single] 3: Follow the Leaders [Original Version] 4: Change [Capital Radio 30.1.80] 5: Are You Receiving? [Capital Radio 30.1.80] 6: Complications [Capital Radio 30.1.80] 7: Wardance [Malicious Single] 8: Wait [Basting Street Demo] 9: Nervous System [Live] 10: Animal [Live] 11: Change [Live] 12: Nuclear Boy [Live] 13: Malicious Boogie [Live] 14: Wardance [Live] 15: Are You Receiving? [Live] 16: You're Being Followed [Live]

Customer Reviews Amazing unreleased material from the band's early days. The material is all lovingly done, sounds great (clean sound, finally on a KJ record!), and is well chosen. "The Unperverted Pantomine" is a compilation of rarities from the band's early period-- single mixes, a radio show, and several live tracks. The studio material is certainly nice to have-- "Nervous System" is a funky dance piece, "Pssyche" is essential Killing Joke, rolling dance beat, thrashy guitar, and funky bass with a shouted vocal-- absolutely brilliant, "Follow the Leaders" with its original lyrics is more an oddity than anything else-- musically its no different. Ditto for the "Wardance" single version, which sounds like the album version with a different vocal take (or perhaps vocal production). "The Wait" demo is somewhat more interesting, but still doesn't significantly deviate from the original, although teh vocal is somewhat obnoxious. The Capitol Radio show tracks are well performed, but beyond "Change", I'm not particularly impressed with the track selection-- they appeared to be going for an upbeat, dancey feel in the material, but neither "Are You Receiving" nor "Complications" are among the great KJ songs in my book. The live show is superb-- lots of great stuff, topped off by a vicious "Wardance"-- the band is in full force on this one, just a monster. Most importantly, it sounds great-- one of my fears with an unreleased live recording from several years ago would be poor recording quality. If you're a fan, get this, its a killer disc, but its not a good starting point, stick with the first two albums for that. Lots of rare songs -- amazing Hence I won't tell you why you should buy it, just describe what you're gonna get on it-- there are three songs from malicious damage singles, Nervous System, Wardance, and Pssyche. If you are an old KJ fan then you have to buy this (no arguing). Nervous System is a great song, the version of Wardance here is great (different than on the début), and Pssyche is a good song that they always play live, so having the original on CD is good and now possible. Then, there is a 3-song capitol radio broadcast with Change, Are You Receiving?, and Complications. There is an old version of Follow the Leaders and an old demo of The Wait. Then there are 8 live tracks, the first seven Nervous System / Animal / Change / Nuclear Boy / Malicious Boogie / Wardance / Are You Receiving? sound like they're from the same concert, somewhere in northern england 1980. the final live song You're Being Followed sounds a little different. but notice there are 4 songs you probably haven't heard elsewhere. total over 60 minutes. wow! the whole thing was put together by carlton p sandercock (at Alchemy) and geordie walker, mike coles does the layout and most of the photos. there is an 8-panel fold out color insert filled with old photos! overall this release is just amazing for fans of old KJ. The only problem is the capitol broadcast of "complications" seems both flat and slow, something went wrong i think, but it is definitely listenable. also, apparently the live material here is not the whole show that "they" have, it is just select tracks. this is sort of annoying. all recordings are 1979 or 1980, with the original line-up (Coleman / Walker / Youth / Ferguson). Jems from the Vault But to get us started, out came this release, full of jems from their early days. 2003 seems to be a busy year for the Joke, with a new album out in July. The tracks from the capitol radio broadcast are the meatiest, full of raw energy of a band ready to take on the world. Impressive stuff! The live tracks are part of the fan-club only release, which has been widely bootlegged over the years. These tracks are a little muddied with age, and the show is unfortunately incomplete. But the beauty is that for new Killing Joke fans you get your hands on previously unreleased tracks such as Nuclear Boy and Malicious Boogie, which really only appear on live bootlegs or BBC recordings. Overall it is a great early representation of a band that is now going on 24 years old. They may never gain the commercial or critical success that they probably deserve, but to their fans the fact that they still put out relevant music in today's static age is all that really matters. PS: Buy their new album at the end of July. Early reviews say that it is a monster!. . You can see a complete list of all Killing Joke discography, or go back to the Killing Joke tabs