Chaos UK - Short Sharp Shock

Short Sharp Shock by Chaos UK is a highly-regarded 1984 hardcore punk album, described as a landmark recording that is fast, loud, and angry. Reviews praise its raw and unrelenting sound, noting its significance as a pivotal release that bridged the gap between political punk and the emerging skater-punk scene. The album is considered a masterpiece by many, often compared favorably to other British punk classics like Discharge and Disorder.

State of the nation circa 1984. The UK’s punk scene was starting to wobble: aside from Conflict and the other Mortarhate bands, the anarcho punk movement was running out of steam; while hardcore was a new, imported style that was still waiting to cast it’s omnipotent influence this kind of chaos hardcore would soon be fairly widespread in the US at the time… In the meantime, step forward the scruffbags of Bristol and take a bow (woah, steady now – too much cider, yeah? Up ya get). This is a vast leap above stuff happening in the UK at the time, worlds punchier than the class-of-77 stuff and significantly faster and wilder (if not heavier) than Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing. 

Some great fuzzed to the max divebombing on the guitars which are often a little out of tune and sound like the amplifier they're being played through might be malfunctioning. The riffs are retarded, so simple they're sublime. The vocals often start out coherent and then degenerate into a tuneless squall. The drummer bashes on whatever's closest to his hands without care. And the songs...well they're one more angry pissed off rant after another, and it's hard to see where the verses end and the choruses might begin. 

Acting as a midway conduit between the two halves of the 1980’s: ranting political-punk in a spiked leather jacket, meet speed obsessed skater-punk in squelchy army surplus cast-offs. Short Sharp Shock is a riotous landmark recording from Chaos UK, following-up their debut album from the previous year with something faster, wilder, angrier and noisier than (anyone else) before. If the Sex Pistols had started with this record, they'd have been laughed off the planet. In other words, Chaos UK were and are what punk always should have been. A complete fucking anarchic mess with no regard for anything but having a total blast while banging as hard as you could on yer guitar. 

Excellent.

Ripped to MP3

01 - Lawless Britain

02 - Living in Fear

03 - Detention

04 - Support

05 - Control

06 - People at the Top

07 - Global Domination

08 - No One Seems to Really Care

09 - Farmyard Stomp (Again)