Friday 22 December 2017

The New Blockaders ‎– "Live At Morden Tower Newcastle-Upon-Tyne" (Self-released C-46) ‎1983


This cassette should have carried the following disclaimer: 'No Instruments were hurt during the making of this album'.Which is easily adhered to, as NO instruments were even used to make this complete racket.To quote a contributor to "The Wire" magazine who really should get out more:
’The Crackle of broken amplifiers precipitates a whole new order of independently morphing soundforms, all giving shape via flashes of metallic lightening, smashed glass, trashed microphone feedback and acoustic low-end pellets that scale the walls like slugs. Gradually accruing hypnotic significance, they birth spontaneous form in the shape of textures and recur with such accumulative force, they threaten to collapse the performance under its own weight.’ This unrelenting brutal noise attack could be the Rosetta stone of modern Noise as we know it,and are now bored of.Back in 1983 this was about as sonicly shocking and offensive as you could get without swearing or nudity.Those laughable councils who banned the Sex Pistols for playing standard Rock would have had kittens had the Pistols sounded like this as well as wearing designer clothing;but then again if they really did sound like this the kids wouldn't have bought the records.This is what 'Punk Rock' should have been.Shunning commerciality,shunning performance,shunning celebrity,shunning 'shunning'.
But of course, the word I should be using is TNB's favourite prefix, "Anti". They are "Anti" Art, "Anti" Music, "Anti" Performance etc.They are even uncomfortable with their own nihilistic terms, correctly identifying "Anti-Art" as something that could suggest the very opposite of what it says......and they'd be right.
In fact the only way of being "Anti" anything is to NOT do it.So merely by making a noise,recording the event,and creating an object with some obvious thought behind it, they contradict themselves.
Of course this is "Art" you silly boys.
As Don Van Vliet said, "You've had too much to think".

Tracklist:

A –Live At Morden Tower 13th July 1983
B –With Sir Ashleigh Grove Live At Morden Tower 12th Oct. 1983


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