Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

GANG OF FOUR / CONTENT

"Content" has been a long, long, long time in the gestating. Now it's here I'm going to need to something pretty sharp and pretty pointed to puncture the big bladder of expectation that surrounds it. Otherwise "Content" is going to be nothing more than a big fat anti climax. I take a deep breath, swallow hard, exhale, take a toke on me Darjeeling and drift into a Zen like state. Somewhere in the blackness I begin to strip away the bullshit and the idiot heavy distortion that surrounds me. I reach out blindly, poke the cat in the eye, squint, and finally depress the play button. Thirty odd minutes later I'm scrubbed up and ready to start the dissection.

Appendages one and two then: "She Said" & "You Don't Have to be Mad". These are know knowns, the bass drum bludgeons, the bass lines are hammered home - no one does barbed jabbing staccato impaling guitar quite like Andy Gill, no one does plaintive uneasy claustrophobic, psychologically intense, and unravelling lyrics and vocals quite like Jon King - he freely admits, he's "off his tits"!

For appendages three and four "Who am I" and "I Can't Forget Your Lonely Face" a large infusion of funk is administered and the cap is doffed in the general direction of "Songs of the Free" and Scary Monsters? Guts, entrails and the wobbly bit next "You never pay for the Farm" and "I Party All the Time". The red mist descends, chaos reigns, there's one hell of a fist fight, the bass growls, the snare clatters, King rants till he's almost horse and Gill turns it up to 11. Just when you think Gang of Four have been consumed by their idiom, there's "A Fruitfly in the Beehive", which is certainly the HEART & SOUL of "Content". A much welcomed moment of suspension that begs the question, why hasn't there been more moments like this? A curate's curio next "It Was Never Gonna Turn Out Too Good" with pitch changing vocals, more Hawking than King. Finally "Do As I Say" and the reflective "I Can See from Far Away" round things off.

Dissection done, I've cut up "Content" into manageable chunks; what have I learnt? Well this, "Content" has some wonderful moments, and some perfectly formed constituent body parts. As a donor "Content" scores high, and after all we are living in the age of the donor download. In the end though it all comes down to HISTORY. If "Content" is a new beginning then it's definitely a glorious start. If "Content" is a final curtain call, then it's a vain glorious EXIT - Simple - Unless of course you believe that HISTORY is BUNK. Either way "Content" and Gang of Four are back and better than just about anything else around at the moment, so for that reason alone, may the Lord make us truly thankful. Gof4

PS: This REVIEW was written after listening to "CONTENT" on mp3. My opinion of the LP may be upgraded once the CD arrives.

PPS Review writ and I didn't mention Entertainment! once - phew.

Stop press: Comming soon "TAIL OF THE TAPE" once I've seen both bands play their new material live, we'll tell you who reigns supreme, stay tuned for GANG of FOUR versus WIRE!