"...Never Mince His Words..."
Never given the genre credit they've always deserved - listen to just how Punk both Side 1's "Love Battery" and "16" are - never mind the Dr. Feelgood meets a deranged Bo Diddley driving beat in Side 2's "Fiction Romance" and "Welcome To The Pulsebeat" - all four leaping off the Buzzcocks blaster of a debut album.
As a musical-account opener, the sheer sonic attack of March 1978's "Another Music In A Different Kitchen" is equal to The Pistols and The Clash of the period - and somehow - the cocks always seemed lyrically smarter too in many ways.
Thankfully, this snotty 2008 transferred 2CD Remaster gives it all the welly we need. To the walls of guitars...and orgasm ramparts...
UK released 27 October 2008 - "Another Music In A Different Kitchen" by BUZZCOCKS on EMI Records 50999 725106 2 9 (Barcode 5099972510629) is a 2CD Special Edition Reissue and Remaster that plays out as follows:
CD1 (54:29 minutes):
Original Album
1. Fast Cars [Side 1]
2. No Reply
3. You Tear Me Up
4. Get On Your Own
5. Love Battery
6. 16
7. I Don't Mind [Side 2]
8. Fiction Romance
9. Autonomy
10. I Need
11. Moving Away From The Pulsebeat
Tracks 1 to 11 are their debut album "Another Music In A Different Kitchen" - released March 1978 in the UK on United Artists Records UAG 30159 (no US release).
BUZZCOCKS were:
PETE SHELLEY - Guitars and Lead Vocals
STEVE DIGGLE - Guitars and Vocals
STEVE GARVEY - Bass
JOHN MAHER - Drums and Vocals
Associated Singles
12. Orgasm Addict
13. Whatever Happened To...?
Tracks 12 and 13 and the A&B-sides of a Non-LP 45-single issued November 1977 in the UK on United Artists UP 36316
14. What Do I Get?
15. Oh Shit
Tracks 14 and 15 are the A&B-sides of a Non-LP 45-single issued January 1978 in the UK on United Artists UP 36348
John Peel Show 7 September 1977 (Broadcast 19 September 1977)
16. Fast Cars
17. Moving Away From The Pulsebeat
18. What Do I Get
CD2 (70:36 minutes):
Demo Recordings
1. Boredom
2. Fast Cars
3. No Reply
4. You Tear Me Up
5. Get On Your Own
6. Sixteen
7. I Don't Mind
8. Fiction Romance
9. Autonomy
10. I Need
11. Orgasm Addict
12. What Do I Get?
13. Whatever Happened To...?
14. Oh Shit
Tracks 4, 5, 7, 11 and 12 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
Live At The Electric Circus, 2 October 1977
15. Fast Cars
16. Fiction Romance
17. Boredom
18. Sixteen
19. You Tear Me Up
20. Orgasm Addict
21. Moving Away From The Pulsebeat
22. Love Battery
23. Time's Up
Tracks 16 to 22 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
Quite apart from the unseeable-unreadable colour/type fonts used on the rear inlay, I'd have to admit that I wish someone had repeated the track lists in the 12-page booklet somewhere. CD compiler (Ace Records) and noted writer JON SAVAGE does a typically good job of describing the band's first two years in 1976 and 1977 - but I still feel the inlay is a tad underwhelming. There's UK 45s pictured in small face and the 'Product' references, but no foreign sleeves, no posters or trade adverts from that brilliant period in English music. It all feels a teensey bit underwhelming if I'm honest.
That's thankfully offset by the punch-you-in-the-nether-regions Remastered Audio handled by PETER MEW. Done at Abbey Road in 1997 and 2008 for the newer stuff, Mew is a man who has seen his fair share of EMI mastertapes - Hawkwind, Kevin Ayers, Deep Purple, David Bowie, Donovan, Edgar Broughton Band, Dr. Feelgood and many more. Top job done...
I'm reminded of The Undertones, The Clash, The Damned - and not that they're all UK Punk and New Wave heroes - but how they grew so fast on the songwriting front - and the Buzzcocks were the same. I thought "Orgasm Addict" was only O.K. - but I remember hearing Side 1 of the album when it came out and the difference - the improvement in tunes and sound - was huge. They spell "16" on this reissue as "Sixteen" and I wish someone had thought to include the lyrics - but no mind - because it jumps out at you with an anger and passion that still makes the eyes water. The singles tagged on after the album feel like an extra EP that should have come with the original LP, and I'm shocked at how good the sound quality is for the 1977 Peel Sessions - kicking and alive and capturing them in a moment many will cherish.
As is to be expected, the Demos over on CD2 are in-yer-face raw - a wild hybrid of early Grunge meets oh no Punk. I suspect hardcore fans are gonna love these banging bass lines and guitars snarling as Sheeley sneers through the mike about how he hates "Fast Cars". There's even chatter before "You Tear Me Up" - with a sound that's less polished - so young and so handmade. Fab kicking audio for "Get Out On Your Own" and so on. The live set is part-proper - part-bootleg raucous starting with Sheeley sounding nervous as he introduces the Bass opening to "Fast Cars". Love that Feelgood power guitar type mode they go into for "Fiction Romance". And on it goes to a guitar-thrashing muddled-mike trash at "Time's Up" where you can literally feel the sweat rolling off the walls and that slight sense of fear...
I do wish it looked better for sure, but there's no doubt that this 2CD Reissue of the Buzzcock's great debut hits you where it hurts - kicking audio doing the album and its period peripherals the tiny-club sounding-good justice they both deserve...
