sound of the suburbs

I always liked the name but they were never one of my favorite bands, I did get to see them once, in the early eighties when I was living in northern Italy. This period was rather dry in terms of gigs for me as few bands came anywhere near where I lived during this period, but the Joke did they played an open air gig in a medieval square in the city of Bassano del Grappa, an excellent setting for this troupe of war painted new wave stompers.
Fast forward 25 years and I'm going through the review section of the latest Mojo where their twelfth album 'Hosannas From The Basements of Hell' is reviewed and it must be said a glowing four star review at that. A week or two later and I'm browsing through the new releases at emusic.com and see that they have the new Killing Joke, why not give it a try I think and so two clicks and a few hours later an the album is occupying space on my hard drive. To be honest I'm still not a big fan but must admit it's not half bad I especially like 'Invocation', which is very much in the vein of the Page/Plant classic 'Kashmir' being heavily dosed in Eastern Mysticism. I must say that I totally agree with the Mojo description of it being "a widescreen affair pitting lush orchestration against pernicious pounding. It's as close to a diabolical Bond theme as you're likely to get, marrying Coleman's twin musical interests of clattering rock and symphonic mischief" well worth a listen!

The album is with us grace of the UK label Cooking Vinyl who started out as a folk label though in later years seem to have become very much a refuge for the survivors of the new wave period. Their current catalog includes Blondie, Billy Bragg, Buzzcocks, Church, Cowboy Junkies, Echo & the Bunnymen, the excellent Jackie Leven, Tom Robinson, Soft Cell, They Might Be Giants, Wedding Present and XTC, rather impressive, and for those of you that like finger in your ears music they haven't forgotten their roots either.