Disco de Gang of Four: “Return the Gift [UK]”

Just got this yesterday after hearing several songs on KCRW 89.9 FM in Santa Monica. While I've been a fan of the band since about 1989, after seeing their classic 1979 debut "Entertainment!" listed as one of the 100 best albums of all time, it's been a little difficult for me to get into their later work post 1982, as they gradually lost bassist Dave Allen, and then drummer Hugo Burnham. I think many fans will agree their best work came between 1979-1982, with a handful of gems here and there in their later works. So, fortunately, the bulk of the work on this record is from that early period. (By the way, serious fans should try to pick up a copy of their 2(?) disc "anthology" called "100 Broken Flowers" - lots of new and old album songs along with live tracks, etc. spanning their career through about 1995).

To me this recording almost resembles a live album. The sound is full, rich and clear. The version of "I Love A Man In Uniform" seems even more danceable and funky now. "To Hell With Poverty" gains a bit in its ferocity. "Damaged Goods" still sounds as good as ever especially when the drums first come in like machine gun fire and Dave Allen's bass seems even more potent. "Ether" still sounds like a final warning, so cool and urgent as frontman Jon King and guitarist Andy Gill sing about the "dirt behind the daydream" and "white noise in a white room".

The production (by Andy Gill), mixing and engineering are flawless. My only nitpick (and it's very slight) is that in a couple of spots the vocals by King sound a little tired, but they are very few and far between. Besides he's been doing it for over 25 years so I should cut him some slack.

I saw them in concert several months ago and they were phenomenal, one show, in recent memory, I was hoping would never end.

Rating? Please....it's Go4, *****. Absolutely essential. Enjoy.

Rerecording the best tracks of their first three albums and the "Another Day/Another Dollar" EP is a stroke of genius! The fact that these tracks sound better than ever is testament to the musicianship of the four origional members. Most bands would fall on their collective faces if they attempted a concept like this, but the Gang of Four were never afraid of risk. This disk would be a great place to start, if you do not own any of this bands amazing music. Speaking of music, Andy Gill"s guitar playing never sounded better. Melodic and abrasive at the same time. Angular grind, fake funk, and dissidant linear grooves are all part of the mix. Go4's sarcastic and socially aware lyrical stance is more relevent than ever . "One day old and living on credit." Indeed.

Curious fans of Bloc Party, Interpol, and the other bands that Go4 influenced will find this CD a revelation. It's the best single sample of the music that continues to inspire so many of the best bands around today.

But why would anyone bother with updated recordings of songs that were done so well on original albums that remain classics? The original recordings don't reproduce the furious energy that the Gang of Four unleash live. This CD does a much better job of that. And the songs have been refined.

On this upgrade, Andy Gill brings tremendous additional experience as a producer, having mentored The Futureheads and others after the Gang of Four dissolved. And, of course, audio technology has improved considerably.

So on this CD, you can hear all of the lyrics! You can hear every pop of the crackling energy from Andy Gill's guitar. When the feedback rips through the air like a serrated knife, you can hear every serration make its cut. Nearly everything sounds edgier, more urgent and more dramatic.

And beyond the music, can anyone deny that this is, substantively, as relevant as ever? Example: They wrote "I Love a Man in a Uniform" for Britain's war in the Falklands. But doesn't it apply even more to Bush's journey from Arbusto to that disgraceful charade with the flight suit and the "Mission Accomplished" nonsense?

Obviously this "self-tribute" release isn't a replacement for "Entertainment!" and "Solid Gold" (and if you don't already own those two albums, stop reading this and buy them right now), but "Return the Gift" is an awesome album in its own right. The modernized production adds new depth and heft to the guitars and drums; it's a decidedly different (and, frankly, more Franz Ferdinand-esque) sound than the dry, wiry original recordings, but it works just as well.

The band plays with just as much power as they did 25 years ago, if not quite as much agility. Consequently, a couple of the jumpier songs from "Entertainment!" (namely "Damaged Goods" and "Natural's Not in It") sound a little too restrained when held up to the live-wire originals. On the other hand, songs like "Paralysed" and "Anthrax" sound like they were born for this kind of treatment.

As for the tracklist: To my mind, the only truly regrettable exclusions are "Cheeseburger" and "I Found That Essence Rare." But it's impossible to find fault with the tracks that did make it; all of these songs are simply great no matter what year it is. The second disc of remixes is an interesting add-on, worth a couple of spins. I wanted to hear Karen O's vocals on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' version of "I Love a Man in Uniform."

Once again, "Return the Gift" does not replace the original masterpieces, but it does stand alongside them as a different but equally valid take on the same material.

More like three-and-a-half stars

And the Party goes on . . . when we think of Gang of Four, though, the Socialist Party comes to mind as readily as the all-night kind. This is what largely sets them above the recent slew of bands like the Killers and Franz Ferdinand who have made platinum by drawing heavily on the quarter-century old sound of these post-punk pioneers. Go4 show right from the beginning of Return the Gift that they still rock harder than their fresher counterparts even if grey is beginning to show. The CD starts with danceable thumping and the echoing yelps of Jon King; instead of containing the lyrical trappings of pop anthems, though, their refrain is "To Hell with Poverty," a song from their landmark Entertainment.

Return the Gift is comprised of remakes from their first three albums. They did this to update the thin drum sound of their original releases; the guitars become fuller in the mix, as well. The crisp engineering makes several of these songs more exhilarating than ever. They remain almost completely faithful to the originals, though change is evident, little of it for the worse: Andy Gill's wry intonations on "Paralysed" are dropped an octave or so from the earlier piece, likely because he has put on weight, making his diatribe more baritone than tenor these days. The political barbs sound a bit less urgent than they did half a life ago for Gill and King. The melodica, an instrument like a toy piano one blows into, is missing from the bridge of the provocative "Ether"; though Go4's music thrives off of minimal elements, the absent repetitive figure of the original cries to be replaced by something. Some of the thick tension of the original is lost.

But you still want to take on the Man. It has been said that ideological content doesn't make for good art, but if done well, it seems far better and more enduring than rehashed tales of the jet-set. These veterans seem to symbolically return the gift of false flattery that the younger generation has given them through near-plagiarism, making the ironic mantra from "Natural's Not in It" seem even more prescient now: "Repackaged sex keeps your interest"-in other words, sex only keeps the consumer's interest for the time while he dances to the latest alterna-disco hit, more likely boosting the financial interests of those with the means of production. A little Marxist materialism with your dissonant funk seems one way to develop staying power. Even though Go4 demur to their less substantial pupils, the new, more financially successful pack of musicians would be wise to pay attention and pepper their skronky riffs with something more engagé, like the content of these formidable standards.