Short Circuit: Live at The Electric Circus isn’t for those obsessed with studio mastery. Every band sounds ragged, raw, rugged, roaring, the notion of groove sod-off for cheap, fast thrills.
Any compilation containing a Joy Division track — “At a Later Date” — this raw is reason for alarm on its own. When combined with cuts from The Fall, Buzzcocks, Drones, John Cooper Clarke and Steel Pulse (who?), however, we see how legends are made and, often, debunked.
In this case count on the former. Steel Pulse’s “Makka Splaff” and its bong for a reggae cock is only the beginning — and what a beginning it is, replete with “Layla”-style outro — of the beer-soaked revelry you can hear congealing around the enthusiastic crowd.
The Fall, always good for a yippety-yap, a synth twirl, a fuzz-bass and a drop or two of jangle juice, bring the NOISE with one of the best I’ve heard of theirs, “Last Orders.” The Stranglers, The Clash are contemporaries, but Mark Smith and his troupe gird a style all their own, harness it, then unleash it on stage in a torrent of simple-stupid energy.
From there you have the Obviously Good (The Drone), The Obviously Great (The Buzzcocks) and the obviously British (John Cooper Clarke), but when it’s time to play live all those subtle qualities you’ve come to love tend to drown out (hell, to hear John Lennon tell it we’re lucky if bands even sing the right words).
What sticks with me is the power of The Fall in their prime, something NOT to be trifled with lest you get billeted by Smith’s super-sharp lizard tongue, and those harsh shouts from Joy Division, who were called Warsaw when their cut was recorded.
Any way you slice it, one hell of a 10-inch.
I have this album! In New Zealand! How the hell it got over here I don’t know, I bought it at a second hand record store for about 8 bucks in the mid nineties.
that, my friend, was a good find. i paid $20.
it’s worth it though, there’s some stuff on here that’s pretty hard to find
don’t know if i’ve mentioned this on the blog before but one-half of my family is kiwi! also, i wrote a piece for the magazine Pavement once. familiar with that publication? it’s supposed to be an NZ tastemaker but who knows …
take care!