Labels: Boss Tuneage
Review by: Alex Hannan
SUBVERSE were a Canadian band who existed from 1986 to 1991, spent a lot of time gigging and visiting in the UK and put out their only vinyl, a 7″ and split 12″, on UK labels Looney Tunes and Manic Ears in the late eighties. I’ve had their “Give Jesus back to the Martians” 7″ in my collection for a while, and it’s survived scrutiny in a couple of purges despite the fact that I knew little about them… “Aural regurgitations”, their discography, fills out the picture. It falls into three sections – the 7″, recorded in 1989, the split 12″, recorded in 1987, and their demo from 1986/7, each with a few outtakes or rehearsals added. It’s presented on the CD in reverse chronological order, from studio recordings to practice room four-track tapes. I prefer the reverse, so here goes:
The “Chaos and destruction” demo has the intensity of a band always pushing the speed a notch or two beyond their limits – its punky thrash is sloppy in a way which suits the lo-fi recording and untamed feel, keeping the needle in the red through most of its ten tracks, usually with enough variation in the songwriting to keep things memorable. “Ded Heads” blazes through double-picked thrashy verses and metallic solos in the slower parts and sounds unhinged and great. There are slight hints of anarcho chantiness in “Religious lies” and “What about the children?”. The second half is loaded with the more basic songwriting attempts – “Iconoclast” goes from a slapdash intro to a minute and a half fast part with little variation, and “Seeds of violence” and “No more violence”, the only two songs not to be recycled on later releases, are pretty undistinguished. The rhythmic interest of their best songs is missing.
The demo found its way to the UK and got played at a party for the founder of Manic Ears records, leading to a professional studio recording and their first vinyl release. The band are upfront about their dislike of the production on what would become the split 12″ – it seems they were persuaded to record clean and have distortion added later. Suddenly it’s as though the band have gone from standing on each others’ faces in a basement to waving at each other from opposite ends of a concert hall stage and they do sound uncomfortable. Six of the demo songs are re-recorded here, but in contrast with the demo, the production pinpoints every unflattering lack of rhythmic sync. The bass has way too much string noise, which turns the start of “Give us what we want” into a bizarre mechanical flailing: the separation on the kick / snare at the start of “Ded Heads” just sounds weird, and the guitar overdubs are extremely obvious. The best takes overcome the sound limitations, but you can understand the disappointment the band must have felt.
And then there’s “Give Jesus Back To The Martians”, which gives the band its highest fidelity recordings, and the only document of their two-guitar line-up. This is really a different phase of the band to the rest of the disc – the songs are longer and contain more mid-paced elements. Here they show the most successful integration of crossover style, like the descending chugged riff and metallic lead guitar of opener “So rich, so wise, so what” or the guitar interplay of “A poisoned mind”. Other songs are surprisingly bland, like “Armchair hero”, which falls into the same trap as the second half of the demo. “Give Jesus back…” makes a better impression than the split 12″, but after the burst of energy SUBVERSE started with, this feels a little like treading water – three years of songwriting and not of a hell of a lot of an advance. Meanwhile NO COMMENT, INFEST and CAPITALIST CASUALTIES are busting their arses taking fast and heavy into new directions…
I’m happy to have access to those demo tracks on CD. The disc as a whole shows a band who had some unlucky breaks and never quite carved out their own identity after a promising start – but who are worth a listen in their own right and add another thread to the weave of the smelly ole tapestry of punk…