Various - Inner City Sound

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 6 / 2 / 2006

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Review

Issued as a companion piece to the recently reprinted cult book by Clinton Walker, ‘Inner City Sound’ is a 2CD set; 47 songs of Australian punk and post punk from the late 70's and early 80's. In his excellent liner notes Walker makes the valid point that Australian music from this (or maybe any) era never quite got the credit it deserved. The American and English bands always got more attention and on the evidence of these songs that was something of a crime. It’s only in recent years that Australian music has reached a wider audience. Labels like Laughing Outlaw have played a major part in this new awareness so it more than fitting that they now have the opportunity to right those wrongs and finally show the rest of the world that during the punk heyday Australia was producing music as raw, exciting and as different as that coming from other parts of the world and, a lot of the time, making a better job of it. There are few bands on this collection that would mean much to anyone who was not living in Australia during the late 70's / early 80's which makes this a much better set of songs than any compilation of music from that period coming from the US. or the UK; as most of the songs are being heard for the first time to those of us outside of Australia it’s like rediscovering punk all over again. Which is no bad thing. Actually it’s not just like rediscovering punk all over again. It’s simply discovering new, exciting music for the first time. There are bands which we now know and love represented here, even some of the songs; the Go Betweens , Hunters And Collectors, Apartments, Birthday Party, New Christs, Saints and the Triffids all make a showing. More familiar bands than I first thought actually but it’s still only a handful out of the 47 tracks. For the most part these bands and the songs chosen are making their first appearance to many ears, mine included. And for the most part it’s a pleasant and unexpected surprise that so much good music has remained a secret for so many years to those outside of Australia. The collection covers all bases of what was happening in music during that time of that era. It’s not just all loud guitars and sneering vocals. There’s the odd electro pop of Severed Heads and Machinations rubbing shoulders on the second CD with the almost Joy Division like Sardine before the mellower, more familiar sounds of the Apartments find their space towards the end of the disc. But the best thing about these 47 songs is just simply how bloody good they are. There’s not a dud song on offer here, of course we all knew that ‘Ghost Ships’ by The Saints was going to be great but a song called ‘Springtime’ by Lighthouse Keepers has just become my favourite new song and I never knew the band existed let alone the song until about a week ago. The first CD starts with ‘Pop Art’, a ska influenced instrumental which is the equal of anything the Specials or the Beat were playing at that time and from there on it just keeps getting better. It’s almost an embarrassment that so much good music could be kept a secret for so long. It’s impossible to mention every song here and also pointless as the songs cover so many bases,so look at it like this; when was the last time you could listen to a near 50 song compilation of songs you hadn’t heard before and be blown away by almost every song ? This is definitely one of the best compilations ever and one that it’s going to be impossible not to play at every opportunity.

Track Listing:-

1 ↑→↑- Pop Art
2 Sacred Cowboys- Hell Sucks
3 Wet Taxis- C'Mon
4 Seems Twice- Look At It
5 Saints- Wild About You
6 Leftovers- I Only Panic When There's Nothing To Do
7 Last Words- Animal World
8 Razar- Task Force
9 Thought Criminals- More Suicides Please
10 XL Capris- My City Of Sydney
11 Manikins- I Never Thought I'd Find
12 The Boys Next Door- Sex Crimes
13 Seems Twice- Column One
14 Young Charlatans- Shivers
15 Young Modern- She's Got The Money
16 Triffids- Family Name
17 Sekret Sekret- Girl With A White Stick
18 Surfside 6- Cool In The Tube
19 Voigt / 465- State
20 Tactics- Long Story
21 Whirlywirld- Red River
22 Primitive Calculators- Do That Dance
23 Systematics- Mmmm
24 Super-K- Recurring Nightmare
25 New Christs- No Way On Earth
26 *** ****- Study For Falling Apart
27 Black Assassins- Death Take Me Now
28 Lonely Hearts- Last Kiss
29 Equal Local- 12 Ways To Go
30 Laughing Clowns- Ghost Beat
31 Poles- Over & Beyond & Through
32 Scientists- Happy Hour
33 The Birthday Party- Release The Bats
34 The Go-Betweens- Darlinghurst Nights
35 Sunday Painters- Something To Do
36 Essendon Airport- Talking To Cleopatra
37 Severed Heads- Dead Eyes Opened
38 Machinations- Average Inadequacy
39 Sardine- Stuck On You
40 X - TV Glue
41 Hunters & Collectors- The Slab
42 End- My Confession
43 Plug Uglies- All Done In
44 Apartments- All You Wanted
45 Saints- Ghost Ships
46 Lighthouse Keepers- Springtime
47 David Chesworth- Making Waves