Vintage music press reviews
INFA-RIOT ‘Still Out Of Order’ (Secret pre-release)***** A PLEASURE. A privilege. It had to happen, and now it has; this is the one. All you cynics and fainthearted bores, all you fashionable fops who continually sound the deathknell of punk and passion, listen to this album and KNOW that Infa-Riot have come up with the goods.
So you thought that the seething mass of energy, rhythm, noise and protest labelled ‘new punk’ was one long tuneless, mindless thrash endlessly reliving the past? I say you’re the ones stuck in the past, and with ‘Still Out Of Order’ I rest my case.
This album is unstoppable all round. Songs, production, lyrics, energy — it has the lot. It’s well put together (scotching the old farts’ myth that punks can’t play), intelligent (proving that punks can THINK) and varied (more than you can say for the majority of the synthesiser set).
Infa-Riot | Still Out Of Order | (Secret) 1982
Twelve tracks, each one with its own distinctive character; no turkeys fly here, Marcus. There isn’t a low moment from start to finish but if I was to pick out the highest of the highs then I’d take the following:
‘Power’ is an even more powerful version of Infa-Riot‘s contribution to the ‘Wargasm’ LP; a vintage singalong anthem, ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ has absolutely nothing to do with Bachman Turner Overdrive and everything to do with the reality of life in Thatcher Britain ’82.
“Under the carpet they go, the young, the weak and the old/Under the carpet they’re swept, but YOU HAVEN’T SEEN NOTHING YET!”
OK, so we won the war, but there’s still the three million. They haven’t gone away. The last single, ‘The Winner’, is as strong and powerful as ever but to these ears it isn’t the best track on the album which just goes to show what a classic the whole thing is.
Infa-Riot | Still Out Of Order | (Secret) 1982
That distinction goes to the incredible ‘Friday Oh Friday’, a real rival to ‘Smash The Discos’ in the anti-disco stakes.
“We hate your soppy music, we love to sing some punk/So stuff your f***ing discos right where they belong.”
Too right! Play it at Tiffany’s! Saturday night beneath the plastic palm trees — with Infa-Riot!
The whole album is BRILLIANT and if you think the 1982 punk scene is sterile and boring, I dare you to listen to this. Some people think 1982 is cocktail year. I KNOW it’s Infa-Riot’s year. (Sounds, 26/06/82)
THIS PACKAGE comes branded — a band with the wrong name, a sleeve with the wrong artwork, a record with the wrong production . . . What better recommendation is there?
Try this: Infa-Riot are radically different, too good to be wasted, too sharp to be ignored, a long way clear of all this dross, all this aimless, hopeless, reactionary schtick. The good ‘uns are everywhere — ‘Still Out Of Order’ and ‘Five Minute Fashion’ heckle with conviction and even ‘Friday Oh Friday’, Infa-Riot’s attack on discos, does at least attack with humour (they ridicule with neat observation, not crude generalisation) —but the toughest gem is the last on the list.
‘In For A Riot’ is big and brash and boastful, an anthem that chides and brags and has the two crucial ingredients: the vocals soar and the guitar soars too. These are moments to savour—when Lee spits his words and Barry plays climbing guitar, sad and tingling like inane Shelley lead lines. The pity is that Infa-Riot don’t capitalise on their strengths more. Side one shines bright, but side two, ideas sound tired and the production’s jarring and, jeez, Infa-Riot could be so much stronger . . .
They need to break clean of all the complacent lameness that surrounds them and exploit Barry Damery‘s inspiring lead lines and Lee Wilson‘s cocky West Country brashness to the full. The details are important — the fact that these rebels aren’t ashamed to use their brains, the fact that half the band comes from Plymouth, not stale old London, means that they think differently from all the sham punk bands around them. The attitudes that keep them apart are the qualities that set them apart. (NME, 07/08/82)
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