Inner City Unit - The Maximum Effect
#199
May 1981 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY
Inner City Unit
The Maximum Effect
Genre: Post-Punk
4.25 out of 5
Highlights:
The Bones of Elvis
Beer Baccy Bingo & Benidorn
Night Life
Skinheads in Leningrad
Anticipating the pounding, driving anti-war post-rock of Big Audio Dynamite by a few years, the opener, “Bones of Elvis” is a scathing, scabrous indictment of war and it also bears repeat listens. It’s catchy in a way that The Clash kept trying with differing results. It’s a win for the Space Rockers.
They aren’t reinventing the wheel here. Just writing and playing solid rock songs with inspirations from reggae to post-rock and there isn’t a bad track on it. Nothing comes close to that first one but the retro 50s redux of “Remember (Walking in the Sand)” is a weird treat that mixes theater rock and reggae with elements of…is it “FBI”? Some other 60s tv show. It’s familiar but I can’t recall exactly.
But then it pours into a madcap Oi track “Skinheads in Leningrad” which is nifty.
Since this is from the Hawkwind guys I have to say, I am quite surprised. I had avoided this record for most of the last few weeks because of that but, in light of the strength of the weirdness therein, I’m inclined to list it as a “Discovery”.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKJuiKPLhIw&list=PLlvn8uktX5Lvc4B71NKRsv06N3Z2KW82N
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