Special Duties
77 One More Time
Volume I
Jailhouse Records
Review by hutch
I spend time around a lot of younger kids. No, not “lurking
in playgrounds” style around kids. And when I say “kids”, I mean early
twenties. One place is work. Plus, the scene and pubs. Another is my hobby of
film making, littered with embellished kids dreaming of being famous (not good
at acting and respected for their craft; but being famous). These young people sensationalize and idealize the
19080’s, saying how ‘awesome’ it must have been. I am often reminded the line
in Dazed and Confused, “The seventies obviously sucked so the eighties are
gonna rule!”. Well, I hated the friggin 80’s. Despite all the great music
produced, much of my favorite sub-cultures suffer from piss poor production and
over aiming for a big sound of the arena bands. Both styles acted as detriments
to bands recording in the eighties.
Special Duties kicked onto the scene in 1980, with the distilled
spirit of punk. Two years later, they personified this ethos in their album
title, 77 in 82. They had had a few
45’s, in 1980, 1981. But their first full length was released and spat with a
simplistic rage. Fast and harsh was Special Duties’ formula and it worked well.
These founding songs are being remastered with the grit and low end punch which
they deserve in 77 One More Time (Volume
I).
These songs capture the urgency of the UK scene in 1982.
There is no catchiness here, no pop hooks; just anger and riffs. Even the “ohhh’s” in “Delayed Reaction” are
undercut with the blistering tempo and chainsaw guitars. The remastering
filters out the null space of ‘80s sound and fill in the gaps with charge and
spite.
While more raucous and chaotic, Special Duties’ riffs
certainly have some songs that sound like The Business. Judge and Jury sound
like Suburban Rebels on steroids. Which is fine with me. Funny enough, even
with the Business reference, the thing that Mickey and the boys bug me is when
they get too slow. Special Duties rarely invoke the reduced tempo. “Britain in ‘81”
slows it down for the first time at track eight. But the mastering, as would
have been common at the time, does not overdo the drums to render the song
mired in obnoxious production. It is slow, but still snarls like Anti Nowhere
League would even at a slower pace. And well, that is the only slower song of
the seventeen included here.
Notorious alchemists of hubris and rigid liberalism, Maximum
Rock and Roll wanted to love this album for its encompassing “everything: ripping
guitars, amphetamine speed, sandpaper vocals, catchy choruses”. Alas, they
could only recommend it if the “imbecility quotient wasn't so high”; pointing
to Special Duties’ “asserting with jingoistic passion that they don't want to
die for a weak England!” *(Maximum
Rocknroll #3, November/December 1982 – killfromtheheart.com) You certainly
may heed that word. But, maybe 1982 British politics do not necessarily impact
your current life that frequently.
The lyrics, however chagrinned by Max RnR, still resonate
with me in a general application of working class struggles. As the drudgery of
my soulless job bothers me, and its disconnected owners, I certainly can blast
“They Don’t Care About Me”:
“And still they don't care about me/
Yet I'm not earning no free money
And I don't get no press sympathy/ But
I won't take no charity
I go to bed late every night/ I have
to get up early it just ain't right
I've gotta be at work by 8am/ For
another eight hours of us and them”
Certainly these are lyrics that anyone can relate who would
be listening to punk, regardless of era.
And to contrast the negativity of MRNR, KFTH.com also lists
this review: “Ah yeah, I think this is probably one of the best records to come
out of Britain in a long time. Special Duties put their hearts into their
music.” (from Paranoia #6, Spring 1983) Hearts are certainly there. And when
you put that much honesty out for others to hear – you are going to piss
someone off. Especially when they troll records looking to be offended.
Song titles like “Government Policies”, “Violent Youth”,
“Rise and Fight”, “Depression” and “Violent Society” “Police State” should
indicate what you are getting into if you are unfamiliar. Special Duties’ boots
kick in doors of the system with a disgusted perspective of the working class
as they look up to the aristocracy trapping them. The palpable hate and the
rebellion are wrenched into each spewed cynical syllable.
77 One More Time
has been remastered to capture the fury. This release strengthens the lost bits
without compromising the integrity or the heart of Special Duties. Every drop
of enraged sweat and spewed disdain is left intact. This should whet your
tongue for 77 One More Time Volume II and an LP of new material in 2015.
RIYL: Red Alert, Discharge, Partisans, Abrassive Wheels,
Blitz, The Ejected, Cockney Rejects
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