Warsaw - An Ideal For Killing (1977-79 - Icy cold minimilist punk: Joy Divison, Crime)

Pre-Joy Division, pre-pre-New Order band featuring guitarist Bernard Albrecht, bassist Peter Hook, drummer Steve Brotherdale, and of course lost soul vocalist Ian Curtis.

Admittedly, I'm not much a fan Joy Division or and less of New Order, but these earlier dirt-raw demo made before the band would change its name (another band called Warsaw Pakt would force the name change) are pretty exciting.

Not at all hi-fi but for this sound, the desperate grit and grim of sounding like it were recorded in a post-apocalyptic fall out shelter often benefits the band sounding colder and crueler than most of their contemporaries.

Yes this low-fi aesthetic also means that at other times the sound it irritating and grating but that is usually on the more melodic tracks like "At A Later Date," while the more atonal tracks like "The Kill" or the paranoid-schizophrenic tracks with a jittery one-line guitar lead like "Novelty" push the bands sound into a harsh avant-guard territory.

Formed in Manchester, England following the performance of The Sex Pistols (the Buzzcocks come from the same scene) Warsaw's basement level unforgiving sound show how much fun The Sex Pistols were having kicking up their racket. Warsaw, by contrast, don't sound like their having fun at all, but are instead compelled by a possession of fuck-it worthlessness.

Stand out tacks are easily "Walked In Line," "Ice Age," and "Warsaw." Once again I'm not a big enough fan of their later bands to know if many of these songs appear on their later releases but at least some of them do, albeit in significantly less raw punk skinned-knees form.

Seriously if you like first wave punk at all then this is worth owning simply for the track "Walked In Line" alone.

- overview by denez
Tracklist:

1. Inside The Line
2. Gutz
3. At A Later Date
4. The Kill
5. You're No Good For Me
6. At A Later Date (live)
7. Novelty
8. Warsaw
9. No Love Lost
10. Leaders of Men
11. Failures
12. Ice Age
13. Walked In Line
14. The Kill (2)
    

168 kbps, ripped from vinyl.

You can't really buy this anywhere easily 'cuz its a bootleg from 2002 released in Spanish Galaor Records SK 92037. There was an (I believe) official release of much of this material available here.

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