Audio CD review:
Killing Joke - Chaos for Breakfast

Killing Joke - Chaos for Breakfast

Band: Killing Joke Title: Chaos for Breakfast Rating: Release Date: 21 June, 2004 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Nervous System 2: Turn to Red 3: Are You Receiving 4: Almost Red 5: Wardance 6: Pssyche 7: Requiem 8: Change 9: Requiem [Malicious Demo] 10: Follow the Leaders 11: Tension 12: Follow the Leaders [Dub] 13: Follow the Leaders [Original Lyrics] 14: Requiem [Malicious Demo] 15: Wardance [Malicious Demo] 16: Bloodsport [Malicious Demo] 17: Wait [Malicious Demo] 18: Complications [Malicious Demo] 19: Change [Malicious Demo] 20: Madness [Malicious Demo] 21: Killer Dub (AKA Bread & Jam) 22: Bloodsport [Malicious Demo 2]

Customer Reviews Great material, but a high price tag Each of the early singles ("Nervous System", "Wardance", "Requiem" and "Follow the Leaders") are presented on their own disc with the demos on a bonus disc, this is packaged together with a number of photos and brief liner notes. "Chaos for Breakfast" gathers early singles from Killing Joke's career together with a disc of unreleased demos. The music sounds brilliant and in your face, remastering is done to assure it sounds fresh and crisp, in your face like it was recorded yesterday (certainly better than the unremastered releases for the albums sound). The music itself-- the "Nervous System" single is actually very unique sounding, even Killing Joke would largely abandon this sound-- its very open, with funky, dub rhythms and really non-dense guitar playing. The material itself is essential, in particular "Turn to Red" and "Are You Receiving" (the latter being a bit more punky than the rest of the material). Two singles are included from their first album-- "Wardance" and "Requiem". "Wardance" is a different mix than appeared on the album, though I much prefer the album version-- this is more the classic KJ sound, the dub bass, tribal drums, and dense, punky guitars. Its B-side, "Pssyche", is one of the really great Killing Joke features, a live favorite certainly, with its dance beat and tossed off vocal, its full of the sort of energy and power that made the first Killing Joke album so amazing. The third disc, "Requiem", is largely extraneous-- its not that the material isn't great, the dark, churning, "Requiem" and the dance beats driving "Change" are among the best Killing Joke material, its just that these two tracks are available in this form on the band's first album, albiet not sounding as good as this. The demo of "Requiem" on the end of this is really not substantially different from the released version until the ending, where it suffers from some bizarre production choices thankfully not used on the album. From the second Killing Joke album comes "Follow the Leaders"-- a dub/punk song presented here in its original version and with a dub mix and the original lyrics intact. While the album version (and the b-side "Tension") are both available on "what's THIS for. . . !" (although again, they're both great songs-- in particular the rhythm section is on fire on "Follow the Leaders"), the two mixes are nice to have. THe dub mix is more or less an instrumental take on the song, smartly shortened in length to prevent its repetitive nature from getting annoying. The original lyrics are largely unnoticable-- the piece itself is nearly identical, but its nice to have from a collector's standpoint. The fifth disc is probably the most interesting for collectors, its nearly an hour's worth of demos from the first two albums. While this sounds interesting, much of it is just the album versions minus a few overdubs, and the 19 minute dub piece gets really irritating after a while. In the final analysis, this set is a bit expensive for what it is-- just under two hours of music-- the presentation is beautiful, but its really for collectors only. greasepaint and danceable terror This truly is some of the best work Killing Joke did and any fan of theirs definitely needs to hear these songs. I had drooled over these singles in the past, but between scarcity and cost I had been unable to pick up many of them. That being said, someone mentioned that the price was too steep, and I agree. If you go on amazon's uk site however, you can order it for the equivalent of about $22, which is only a fraction of the $70 something they charge on this site. Don't ask me why their system works that way, but it did and I saved a whole lot of money. Too bad more cd reissues of singles aren't like this! In it are faithful reproductions of the singles as they came out on vinyl. I have to say, this set is just awesome. You even get little stickers and things with most of the singles. The quality is great and you also get a little folder with a bunch of vintage pix of the band. The only thing I wish it included was some commentary from the band about each single and maybe some lyrics, but thats minor compared to the overall set. I would like to point out the one reviewer that ignorantly stated that this was a set of remixes. It is not! He obviously has not seen nor heard this set and placed his review purely on ignorance and bias towards box sets. Anywho. . . This is truly a must have item for those fans of The Joke! I know I don't regret making this investment in fine music :). . You can see a complete list of all Killing Joke discography, or go back to the Killing Joke tabs