The 1981 Listening Post - Killing Joke - What's THIS For...?

 Killing Joke - What's THIS For...?

#260

By MacArthur Antigua

June 1981

Killing Joke

What's This For...?

Genre:  Early Industrial?, Post-Punk

Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5

MacArthur’s Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Highlighteds:  

Tension

Follow The Leaders

Growing up in south suburban Chicago in the 80s meant that you knew about Wax Trax records and Ministry. Somewhere in a shoebox in my ol' bedroom closet are ticket stubs to see Front 242 at the Cabaret Metro back in the early 90s.  Being the team captain of my mediocre high school tennis team (GO AMOS ALONZO STAGG CHARGERS) - that meant I got to run the jambox for practices, and that meant we were gonna hit hundreds of groundstrokes to the unrelenting beat of Nitzer Ebb's "That Total Age."

All this to say, is that when I got the assignment of listening to Killing Joke's,, "What's This For...", I was intrigued to have the opportunity to listen to a forerunner of the industrial rock genre.  Comprised of 8 tracks, this follow-up to their self-titled debut shapes the playbook for this new musical flavor:  searing guitar riffs, war drums, yawping vocals, and repetition, repetition, repetition.  (Did I neglect to mention "repetition"?)  

Even after a few listens, it was hard to separate them.  However, "Tension" was a highlight with its "My Sharona" drum riff, hand claps and a careening guitar chop.  This could've easily been on the cutting room floor of the final draft of ESPN's Jock Jams.  

"Follow The Leaders" leads off side two of the album, (or at least I assume as it was track 5), and it holds off on the war drums for a few seconds, and allows more electronic beats to sear through the speakers.  To continue the ESPN feed, this would've been perfect background music for "Match of the Day" footie highlights as it sounds laced with testosterone and warm lager.

If there's a miss, perhaps it's "Madness" as it clocks in at 7:53.  This stuff works best in briefer bites, but perhaps at track 7 that was the time to take liberties.  Despite that, it's a solid entry in the electronica/yawp-rock canon.

https://open.spotify.com/album/3rw5vGk8j0Kd72T3KkrVmD?si=xp0kLsGqTfuGJ4UigXmdHA

The 1980 Listening Post - Killing Joke - Killing Joke

 Killing Joke - Killing Joke

#400

by Chris Roberts

October 5 1980

Killing Joke 

Killing Joke 

Genre: Industrial Rock 

Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Chris’ rating: 5.0 of 5.0 

Allen’s Highlights:

Requiem

Wardance

The Wait

Complication

Chris’ Highlights

Requiem

Bloodsport

Wardance

The Wait

$,O,36

Change

Killing Joke’s Killing Joke is the Blade Runner of rock albums. It is almost impossible to imagine that this music came out in not just “the eighties,” but 1980. Really. It drizzles post-apocalyptic texture all over raspy, snarling punk rock and broken robot disco. One of my all time favorite albums is A Brief History of Ambient Volume 1, a 1993 Virgin Records collection that introduced me to Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream. It also included Killing Joke’s “A Floating Leaf Always Reaches the Sea Dub Mix” of “Requiem,” the first song on their classic self-titled debut. It is not an ambient song here. On Killing Joke, it’s the band’s sing-a-long anthem, a Thunderdome chant amid swirling proto-shoegazer guitars. 

(Moment of truth: I knew about My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, Slowdive and Ride long before I discovered Killing Joke, but more on that later). 

We don’t look at our shoes long. “Wardance” picks up the pace, adding glitchy noise at punk pace. “Tomorrow’s World” slows it back down to a jagged little PiL. “Bloodsport!” This has a slick industrial dance groove. 

A decade later, Love & Rockets will have #1 hits with this same formula. Terry McGuiness will dance around futuristic Gotham City in his black and red batsuit to this song. 

“The Wait” is the snotty kid brother of “Wardance.” I think Metallica covered this. (Confirmed) “Complications” keeps it moving.

“SO36” we get some German radio and it the whole vibe is super bleak. We are living in the world portrayed in the great album cover photography.

“Primitive” is fine, but I got it mixed up with “Change,” trying to keep the songs in the original 1980 order. 

“Change” threw me for a loop with its groovy, bass, which reminded me of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and I made the connection that RHCP have bassist named Flea, and KJ have a bassist named Flood. So, hell yeah! 

It was great to listen to this again. I guess Killing Joke are now mostly known because Nirvana consciously ripped off the song “Eighties” for “Come As You Are.” I’m sure that’s when I discovered them. Now, I think every 90s band owes KJ a couple bucks. Pony up guys. I’m looking at you, Crash Test Dummies.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0FfpevxQr8EyNsjc24TbmI?si=h4oPZU0kQhegWfkxmW7_3g

The 1986 Listening Post - Killing Joke - Brighter Than a Thousand Suns

Killing Joke - Brighter Than a Thousand Suns

#517

November 1986

Killing Joke

Brighter Than a Thousand Suns

Genre: Rock

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Twilight of the Mortal

This album sounds exactly like what I might hope a Killing Joke sounds like in the mid 80s: Made by a band that had some high highs and some valleys and decided to pursue what worked in an attempt to grab some commercial cash and put out a very serviceable semblance of what sounds like a stadium Killing Joke record. It’s a wider sound that calls to mind an ominous…Echo & the Bunneymen. 

I like it, as I do most Killing Joke records I’ve heard on this but it’s no Killing Joke or What’s THIS For…? or Night Time, but it’s not terrible.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/brighter-than-a-thousand-suns-restored-mixes-version/714419838

The 1985 Listening Post - Killing Joke - Night Time

Killing Joke - Night Time

#102

March 1985

Killing Joke

Night Time

Genre: New Wave/Post Punk

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Darkness Before Dawn

Kings and Queens

Eighties

Boy, it’s been a while since I liked anything Killing Joke put out. But this…this is great. Moody, pounding, pulsing, intoxicating. 

It’s goth rock but it’s upbeat and energetic and reminds me of late 70s new Wave bands with the almost tribal drumming. This is a raw hedonistic fever dream of dance rock.

The best Killing Joke album since their debut. 

If you listen to just ONE track, make sure it’s “Eighties”, a song from which Kurt Cobain stole the entire riff for “Come As You Are” and his estate should have to pay royalties. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/night-time/714822155

The 1983 Listening Post - Killing Joke - Fire Dances

Killing Joke - Fire Dances

Killing Joke
Fire Dances
3.5 out of 5

Highlights:
The Gathering
Rejuvenation

Forget the earlier stuff, Fire Dances is where it really clicks in for Killing Joke. If Adam Ant had any sense of menace (and disdain for attention) + deep artistic integrity…well, I probably wouldn’t love him. And he would’ve sounded like Killing Joke.
If Swans didn’t take themselves so aggressively seriously, they might be Killing Joke.
If Yeast Infection had any musical sensibility, they might’ve been Killing Joke
Thankfully, none of those things happened and Killing Joke is Killing Joke.