Killing Joke -
Pure unadultered hard driving punk rock, post punk, dub, true heavy metal. So many varied descriptions can be used when describing Killing Jokes music. To be honest they are everything mentioned above and a whole lot more. With Killing Joke at the age of 12(about 1984) I was aware of them then but hadnt really listened to them , just sort of seen the artwork to the album covers but very little else. In an ideal world I would sday yes I first heard them when they on John peel in the 70s but I would be lying , I dicovered them more in 1985. I was blown away at the time by the Nightime album, just its pure power. As an album it was wonderfully produced very crisp sounding with guitars full up front in the mix. What suprised me was that 'Love Like Blood' was an excellent song, but there were so many other songs on that album that were brilliant.
As you are prone to do when your younger you get sidetracked by other bands and musics, Killing Joke I remember appearing ona radio show in 1986 to promote the album 'Brighter than a 1000 suns', rather than promote it Jaz Coleman was sort of like talking in statements, I remember his interviewer Terry Christian sort of laughing in the course of the interview. I always remember two things about it, Jaz Coleman was going on about buying property being the next thing, he was proved right. Sort of predicting things but not coming across as mad but putting forward informative discussions around the subject.
The History of KillIng Joke well there are lots of gaps. Killing Joke were formed in 1978 by Jaz Coleman and Paul ferguson, Youth and Geordie. Killing Joke released 'Turn to red' and numerous other singles at this time. Killing joke the album that came out in 1980 was really doomy sounding, not in a Joy Division way. Just such aggressive songs, the album was of that time in that in a post punk era, the artwork and the sound all came together at once to provide a real atrentaive to the post punk followers. Sort of pushing the boudnries that Public Image Limited had started two years earlier.
For me my favourite album is their 1981 album 'Whats this for'. Such a brilliant record, bass lines to the fore in this album. Youth's influence and some cutting guitar lines from Geordie. The album had a real energy. At this time Killing joke were building up a real following and this was built upon for the album 'revelations'. The album was a success and the band looked poised to move on still further, but at the very hieght of their immentent fame the band split into two with Jaz Coleman and Geordie left and stayed in Iceland. The outcome a year later was Youth had left and They recruited Raven on bass. They released a album called Firedances, which was a good album the songs were not as strong as previous albums but still a good progression on from what they had released before. I think their singles at this time were getting better, 'Blue feather ' and 'Lets all go firedances' and 'A new day' were brilliant songs, Eighties was such a powerful song, shame it instantly became dated once the new decade started.
'Brighter than a 1000 suns that came out in 1986 was in the press described as progressive, at that time the term was unflattering but listening to it now it still sounds good, if you can listen to the Chris Kimsey mix of the album which is available on spotify.
I have included some extra tracks on this page to show the diffrence in mixes, more driving and guitars were more soaring.
From about 1987 onwards Killing joke were somewhat quiet and released the rather poorly recived 'Outside the gate'. You can look back with hindsight and realise that Killing Joke were under record company pressure to release better produced records, for example Chris kimseys production on Brighter. Also worth noting is that lyrics and songs were put together seperately, so the Outside the gate project was very disjointed.
At this time in about 1989/90 Paul ferguson left the band and the return to their roots and on a indie label and released ' Extremeites and dirt and various repressed' which was a very good al.bum and featured highlights such as 'Money is not our god'. In 1994 they released Pandemoinum which was another return to form and this was followed by 'Democracy'. In the 90s Killing Joke were influencing everyone from Nirvana to Nine Inch Nails, as their seem nto be an increase in industrial dance acts like Ministry. There were increased collabarations between Killing Joke and other artists at this time. In the last 10 years killing Joke have released about 4 albums and various compilations and live concerts.
The thing with Killing Joke is which is good for a band is that they released their best recorded moments at the time, but obviously alot of recordings were made and various alternative mixes have surficed, so for those of us who grew up with Killing Joke its like discovering new sounds on an old song. Although they actively dont encoruage bootlegging they have released some bootleg archives which are fascinating time pieces which show Killing Joke in transititon.
To the unconverted Jaz Colemans stage presence can be a bit disturbing as is the case on 1981 clips shown on italian Tv, where Jaz Coleman just stands their emotionless. But Killing Joke provide such brilliant music and Colemans performances are always memorable.
It is worth noting the sad loss of Paul Raven bass player of Killing Joke who sadly passed away in his sleep about 3+ years ago, to be honest I thought that was the end of the band at this time but Youth who was the original bass player has stepped in and the band has become more prolific , which is brilliant.
