Chaos UK - Chaos UK LP

Released in 1983 on Riot City Records, the self-titled debut LP by Bristol-based band Chaos UK is a definitive pillar of the "UK82" hardcore punk movement. Characterised by its blisteringly fast tempos, raw political rage, and a distortion-heavy sound that embraced a "noise, not music" ethos, the 11-track record left an indelible mark on the global punk scene and laid the foundational groundwork for the emergence of crust punk. Acclaimed for its unvarnished, feedback-driven chaos on essential tracks like "Selfish Few" and "No Security," the album remains a highly influential, anti-establishment classic that cemented the band's legendary status alongside contemporaries like Discharge and Disorder.

 

Ahhh it’s still 1982 tonight, the year in which Channel 4 was launched, the ZX Spectrum 'home computer' was everyone's favourite new gadget and Henry VIII's warship the Mary Rose was successfully raised after 500 years at the bottom of the Solent – why would anyone think that Britain might be burning? Oh yes, nearly forgot…the Falklands War, a former TV/film personality (Ronald Reagan) was the U.S president, all-women protests at the Greenham Common Nuclear base, an I.R.A. bombing campaign on the British mainland and unemployment topped three million for the first time since the 1930's…..Chaos U.K indeed! Although the band formed in 1979, they would spend the next three years furiously gigging and learning their punk chops in and around their native Bristol and the South West, with their first release, the 'Burning Britain E.P.', not emerging until 1982. From a 2023 perspective the band formed part of that huge wave of 'second wave punk', not a pejorative term, but rather an accurate description of all the disaffected 'yoof' up and down the land that were intent on honouring thy punk maxim: “This is a chord. This is another. This is a third. Now form a band”.

So what's the record like? Super feedback/fuzzed guitars a' la Crass set the 'nuclear-mise en scene' before drummer Richard Potts unleashes the hammer-blow tempo and you're off – as with much of the 'second wave Brit-punk' this is no angular thesis set to music like some of their 'trendy' big-city contemporaries, instead it's a full-on angry assault that's positively progressive. It is unrestrained maniac convulsions of savage feedback, chaotic harmonies with raw unequalled strength, monstrously screeching frantic fury, and unrelenting full frontal hardcore thrashings. And there you have it, highly charged second wave punk, all over in the blink of an eye, and a pretty accurate reflection on life in “Thatcher’s Britain” (as Rik the people’s poet might have it).

Ripped to MP3 @ 320kbps

A1. Selfish Few

A2. Fashion Change

A3. You'll Never Own Me

A4. The End Is Nigh

A5. Victimised (Piss (Dub) Take)

B1. Parental Love

B2. Leech

B3. Chaos

B4. Mentaly Insane (Why)

B5. Urban Guerilla

B6. Farmyard