THIS CHARGE

I was never a big fan of what's now usually called "UK82", those English studs-and-spikes bands on labels like No Future, Riot City and Secret that put out an endless row of similar-looking EP's in the early 80's. I mean, I tried to like them, didn't have much of a choice because these records where often all I could find in my hometown, as there wasn't any distribution network for Dutch DIY punk yet, and American hardcore was just around the corner. Some of those records were alright; Vice Squad, Blitz, Partisans had a couple of decent tunes, and I had a weak spot for Chaos UK/ Disorder for being really noisy, but mostly it was just this tiresome churning out of sloppy, unimaginative noise with interchangable song titles ("Fallen Hero", "It's Corruption", "Vicious Circle") by interchangable bands (most of them named Anti-this, Anti-that, prize winner for most original name being Anti-Pasti!) with interchangable "leaning-against-a-wall-in-full-punk-regalia" cover photos. People talked about U.S. hardcore being "generic" but this stuff was much worse. Although these records were on independent labels, I think there was a very cynical "low cost - maximum profit" marketing scheme going on here. These labels would press up some demo recordings paid for by the band, quickly slap together a black/white sleeve, and without much promotion easily sell between 10,000 and 50,000 each. At least the major labels had hopes for their punk signings to "make it big"; independents like No Future and Secret only seemed to be interested in a status quo in which every record would look and sound the same.
(Here I gotta make an exception for Mike Stone's Clay label, who only signed a couple of bands - Discharge, GBH - and took care in putting out great, and great-sounding, records.)
Later I found out I dismissed some great bands before I had the chance to hear them, because I figured they'd be just like all the rest of them. UK Decay was one; generic name, great band (as I found out 20 years later!). So were Charge; I mean, with Discharge, who in hell would call themselves Charge? Actually, Charge were already around before Discharge, and made some great, imaginative records during 1981-82. When a friend of mine played this to me years ago, I mistook the band name to be "Charts", that's how out of step with "UK82" this sounds. "King's Cross" on the same-titled EP sounds like a faster Stiff Little Fingers with Dick Subhumans singing. Rhythmically, it's closer to the syncopation of Americans like Jeff Nelson/Minor Threat and Grant Hart/Husker Du than to standard-fare Britpunk. "Brave New World" sounds even more like SLF, but a great tune nonetheless, and once again all over by 1 minute 20 (always the hallmark of a great band!). Their 1982 Destroy the youth EP is a mixed bag; the title track is remarkable for being extremely fast for its day (for the UK), and "No One Knows" is slower and has some beautiful intricate chord changes going on. Oh yeah, the sleeve is an early work by famous designer Neville Brody. I've heard Charge got more into a glam/wave thing later on. I've also heard they did another EP before these two, does anyone out there have it??

King's Cross
Brave New World (From King's Cross EP, 1981)
Destroy The Youth
No One Knows (from Destroy the youth EP, 1982)