Seminal post-punk band who have gone through numerous internal conflicts and line-up changes,
as well as a variety of different styles and sounds.Formed in Notting Hill in 1978 by Jaz Coleman,
Geordie Walker, Youth and Paul Ferguson, their dark experimental style provided one of the main
steps on from punk rock. Massively influential on a range of different styles of music, they pioneered
the industrial metal style with 1990's Extremities, Dirt And Various Repressed Emotions.
Album Reviews (c/o amazon)
While many consider that at this point KJ had lost their way and decided that money
was needed to fund the wagon, I disagree. The music shows a massive desire to change, to finally
stretch the intellectual muscles, away from the tribal moevments that helped establish them. Such tracks
as Love Like Blood and Eighties may have been specifically penned/chosen for their sole purpose as
money spinners, with their catchy lines and hard to resist melodies, there are real gems such as
Darkness Before Dawn, Multitudes and the hideous and dark Europe (which will be the first part of the
CD to fade at this rate!), these on their own hint at the promise of later works like Democracy and Millenium.
The music remnicinant of the sharp, multi-layered, crisp eighties guitar sound, but used to devaststating
effect by one of the greatest unsung guitar heroes of modern rock music. The whole band made a decision
to try something different and make it work, this album might have shocked fans at the time but when held
in context with the rest of the collection, sets a milestone. I would advise anyone who appreciates the
mid/late eighties guitar orientated music of bands like Sisters and Spear of Destiny to ensure that this is in
their collection. Anyway, the cover shot of the band, trying very hard to look like Spandau Ballet, is a classic!
By 1984-1985 the, Killing Joke's 'mad years' were behind them, the impending apocalypse
had'nt happened and their collective trips to Iceland (to escape the coming of Armageddon) were perhaps
becoming a tad expensive.Nevertheless, with all this going on, they still managed to produce some fine
albums in the form of Revelations (1982) and Fire Dances (1983). Thus 1984 saw a change of direction in
terms of their music and the introduction of a tighter production team. Their 1984 track A New Day produced
a more accessable, even commercial sound whilst not letting-up on the quality control. The outcome was their
classic Night Time album, and their biggest hit single to date. It was a Top 10 album (peaking at #9) and the
classic Love Like Blood single (a Top 20 hit) flooded the club scene across the world as it's riff was,
incredibly, 'danceable'. It was the album that people bought in (relative) droves and brought the
Joke to the attention of the dreaded 'mainstream'.
However, Night Time is perhaps the Joke's darkest album in terms of lyrical content. There are some classic
cuts here. The fabulous, breakneck and cutting opening of the title track is the perfect intro, Darkness Before
Dawn is bleak and deadly and Europe is the hit single that never was. The closing track, the brilliant Eighties,
was the song that characterised the anti-establisment generation in Thatcher's 'Me First' Britain, yet amazingly
it was not a big hit, and only just made the Top 60. There's not a dud track in sight although eight tracks is
perhaps a little lazy, and the inclusion of A New Day etc may have been a good idea (although perhaps it was
deemded a little out of sync with the rest of the album). Overall, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more brooding,
exciting album emanating from the mid-1980's, and this album has been much-copied but never bettered.
The success of Night Time led to their era-defining Brighter Than a Thousand Suns album the following year.
Buy these two albums and you have bought-into two of the finest British albums ever made.
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Killing Joke - Night Time
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Artist..............................: Killing Joke
Album.................................: Night Time
Genre...................................: New Wave
Source........................................: CD
Year........................................: 1985
Ripper: Exact Audio Copy V1.0 b1 & HP DVD RW AD-7701H
Codec...........: Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)
Version.........: reference libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917
Quality.......: Lossless, (avg. compression: 62 %)
Channels..............: Stereo / 44100 HZ / 16 Bit
Tags...............................: VorbisComment
Information..: Original 1985 European Pressing
Ripped by..............: BSW on 7/2/2011
Posted by..............: BSW on 7/2/2011
News Server..........: news.astraweb.com
News Group(s).: alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.metal.full.albums
Included....: NFO, SFV, M3U, LOG, CUE
Covers................: Front Back CD
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Tracklisting
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1. [color=Blue]Night Time [04:57]
2. Darkness Before Dawn [05:21]
3. Love Like Blood [06:50]
4. Kings And Queens [04:40]
5. Tabazan [04:36]
6. Multitudes [04:59]
7. Europe [04:37]
8. Eighties [03:51]
Playing Time............: 39:55
Total Size..........: 250.83 MB
NFO generated on.....: 7/2/2011 10:43:24 PM
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Cat No: EGCD 61
Marketed by Virgin
Barcode: 5 012985 306126
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:: Generated by Music NFO Builder v1.21a - www.nfobuilder.com ::