Gang of Four Album: “100 Flowers Bloom: Anthology”

Description :

Gang Of Four: Andy Gill (vocals, guitar, bass, drums); Jon King (vocals, melodica); Dave Allen, Sara Lee (vocals, bass); Hugo Burnham (vocals, drums, percussion); Steve Goulding (drums). Additional personnel: Jon Astrop, Dean Garcia, Phil Butcher (bass); Martin Ford, Frank Tontoh, Steve Monti, Dave Alford (drums). Producers: Andy Gill, Gang Of Four. Compilation producer: Rick Brodey. Recorded between 1977 and 1995. Includes liner notes by Rick Brodey and Jon Savage. One of the most acutely politically aware bands to arrive in the wake of punk rock, Gang of Four made consistently challenging and confrontational music. 100 FLOWERS BLOOM is a two-disc distillation of a career that always amounted to more than just a collection of recordings. Gang of Four's catalog is both a manifesto and a call to arms. Spread over this compilation's 40 tracks are all the classics--"To Hell With Poverty," "Damaged Goods," "At Home, He's a Tourist," and "I Found That Essence Rare"--along with live versions of "Anthrax," "He'd Send in the Army," "Call Me Up," and other favorites. Also present are several remixes, including an almost surreal disco mix of the brilliant anti-military statement, "I Love a Man in Uniform." The accompanying booklet features a 20-page history of the band written by respected journalist Jon Savage. Certainly, political punk rock is no longer as cutting as the music found on 100 FLOWERS BLOOM. Rarely, if ever, has it been done better than this.

The basic problem for any discerning Gang of Four fan is resolving the difference between the astonishing music they recorded from 1978 to 1982 with the virtually unrelenting dreck they put out from 1983 to 1995. The inclusion of most of the later product dooms a project like "100 Flowers Bloom". For a much better idea of what Gang of Four meant to a post-punk fan in the early eighties, or what their legacy is, the compilation to have is 1990's "A Brief History of the Twentieth Century". While everyone lamented the misguided attempt at R&B on 1983's "Hard", the unspoken reality is that the last two albums ("Mall" and "Shrinkwrapped") are soaked in ugly American-style rock that owes as much to Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine as the original sound owed to James Brown. What is especially puzzling is the compilers' failure to include the only redeeming songs from "Hard" and "Mall", namely "A Man With A Good Car", and "Cadillac". And why include an inferior remix of the best "Shrinkwrapped" track, "I Parade Myself"? And while I'm at it, this would have been a great place to give a real release to the enigmatic flexi-disc track "Lord Make Me a Cowboy" from 1982. The book and packaging are nice, but this box is too out of focus to be a deserving Go4 memorial.

Brilliant. Provocative. And damned funky. This is darkly energetic, edgy music to clean the commodity culture plaque out of your veins. Sure, the early stuff like "Damaged Goods" and "At Home He's a Tourist" can't be topped, but a more recent track like "FMUSA" still packs a punch to wherever you keep your ideology. It's also very well put together by Rhino, which is rapidly becoming my favourite label. Enjoy.

I can always fully support these 'best of ' collections,specially sometimes EVEN if they are of a band that I'm not all that familiar with.Because it serves as a great introduction to the artist.2-CD box set with forty songs to cover Gang Of Four's heyday from 1980-84.After which they had disbanded.To best describe GOF is incredible hard pop with an edge to it.With forty tunes intact,it might be tough to list the best.But here it goes,I took notice of "I Parade Myself",the somewhat eerie "Paralysed","Natural's Not In It",the powerful "Anthrax"(probably one of the best of the entire set),a great live 1981 cut of "What We All Want" and "Everybody Wants To Come".I also liked "At Home He's A Tourist","Why Theory" and the well written "Armalite Rifle"(a great sounding demo).Comes with a nicely assembled 50 page booklet that tells GOF's life story and includes many cool photos and rare memorabilia.