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 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Conflict - Statements Of Intent 1988-1994 [Mortarhate/ Cherry Red - 2021]

Years ago, when I finally and suddenly got into Crass, I remember telling a friend of mine, and he simply replied, “I prefer Conflict: they sound like a Crass who are actually going to do something about what they sing about.” It took about 30 seconds of hearing Conflict’s track ‘The Ungovernable Force’ to feel that.

This is the second of a pair of boxsets gathering up Conflict’s discography, presenting five discs in smart card wallets, combined with an informative little booklet, all in a cardboard case. Following on from the first boxset, Statements of Intent 1984-94 documents the later recordings of the anarcho-punk band; to be honest, my knowledge only really extends to the bands’s earlier material - and even then it’s really a case of playing The Ungovernable Force on repeat, because, why wouldn’t you? So I came to the albums in this set with virgin ears - and also with worries. It seems to me that many (earlier) punk bands who survived for a good length of time often became less raw, and less angry, during later albums - or even worse, adopted Heavy Metal sounds and productions. I’m pleased to see that despite moving with the times, Conflict rage throughout the boxset.

The first album here, The Final Conflict, released in 1988, is perhaps the most raging of the five. Starting with feedback and a noisy bass-line, ‘Countdown to Confrontation’ is an instrumental introduction that builds until the band explode into ‘Let The Battle Commence,’ a frenetic charge driven by passionate vocals (supplemented by the addition of Steve Ignorant of Crass), galloping drums, and surprisingly catchy guitar riffs. The rest of the album ploughs the same furrow into your head, essentially. In amidst the blazing ‘Barricades and Broken Dreams’ and ‘Do You Get The Picture,’ there are two tracks which made me open my ears: ‘These Things Take Time,’ and ‘Radio Trash.’ The former is an attempt at a dub track, normally the kind of thing that would make me reach for the off button, but actually, it works; ‘Radio Trash’ is an odd funky, dance-y thing which, again, shouldn’t work but… It does sound like something my first band would have done, which is the harshest criticism I can imagine, but it does have an odd charm. The album closes with the title track, which returns to the more recognisable skin-stripping Conflict barrage.

The dub and funk tracks on The Final Conflict pale in comparison to the experiments on the next album here, Against All Odds (1989). It begins with a quasi-classical introduction which just about gets away with unpleasant keyboard string sounds, sirens, and gunfire sound effects, after which it jolts into…the rest of the song: ‘Against All Odds,’ the title track, is in fact a 14 minute long epic, which really took me off guard. It moves through several sections, marked by strung out vocals, post-punk drone (with complimentary vocals), pastoral guitar, more dub, and of course gritty punk. After that, ‘Slaughter Of Innocence’ sounds somewhat melodic and traditional, but it’s catchy enough - not least due to the fact that it’s pulled along essentially by an extended guitar solo. ‘Assured Mutual Destruction’ is less memorable, sounding like a limp indie band, if truth be told. Pushing things even further, ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’ is a circus music jig which on paper is plain awful; however, it works through plain repetition, and the mocking vocals trying to sell you ‘anarchy tea-towels,’ ‘anarchy bikinis,’ and ‘anarchy dildos’ - I’m a sucker for punk bands singing about punks/etc. The album ends with ‘A State Of Mind,’ again on paper this is destined for disaster: a lumpy track constructed from beats and samples. It probably sounded lumpy in 1989 - this was around the same time of A Guy Called Gerald’s ‘Voodoo Ray,’ and 808 State’s ‘Pacific State’ after all - and hasn’t aged well, much like similar drum machine efforts from Celtic Frost and The Membranes; however, I feel it’s aged better than many of those similar efforts. I think this is down to good sample choices, and also no sense of the drums being used to merely, and unconvincingly, bludgeon.

The third album, Conclusion, has aged in a different way. I think if I had heard this at the time, in 1993, I would have shuddered at the awful keyboards; now, however, it actually reminds me of Black Metal. The opening track, ‘To Live On In Hearts,’ even adds passages of metal atmospherics to the consistent, furious punk assault. This might be partly explained by the fact that, by this point, Conflict had Ferenc Collins from the metal band Nightlord on guitar - but then they also had Marshall Penn from Back To The Planet playing guitar too, so… The best addition to the band, though, turns out to be Jackie Hanna - a.k.a. Jamiroquai’s sister - who atones for her sibling with storming vocals on ‘No More Excuses.’ ‘A Declaration Of Independence’ is a striking track which creates a compelling atmosphere through spoken, apocalyptic lyrics, whilst ‘Climbing The Stairs’ is yet another funky dubby track that I should hate, but instead I nod along as the groove builds, drops, and maintains its pulse throughout - perhaps I’m getting soft in my old age? I feel like Conclusion peters out after this, however the disc finishes with ‘These Colours Don’t Run,’ a 1993 single that returns to bludgeoning riffs and vocals delivered at machine gun speed.

In The Venue, the fourth disc, is a live album recorded at The Venue, London in January 1994; it documents Conflict rampaging through 24 songs, spanning their entire career to that point. I won’t lie, I’m not the biggest fan of live albums, especially when the band in question is essentially just playing through straight renditions of songs. However, the space and dynamics that the band creates are impressive, moving from expansive and articulate dub tracks like ‘These Things Take Time’ to suffocating blurs of white noise aggro like ‘Tough Shit Mickey.’ The sound and performances are raw, though well-captured sonically - perhaps they’re even too clean - but, for me personally, this is an album that will come out once in a while.

The final album of the boxset, It’s Time To See Who’s Who Now, is in fact a re-recording of Conflict’s first album; with Southern refusing to release the rights to the original recording, Derek Birkett (bassist of Flux of Pink Indians, and founder of the One Little Indian label) offered to re-record the album for nothing, and Conflict then released it in 1994. Vocalist Colin Jerwood reminisces in the booklet, ‘I don’t like it as much as the original recording. I like certain tracks but the [original recording] represents the time and it’s got that young feel’; he’s undoubtedly right in that the earlier recordings have a grit and youthful energy that It’s Time To See Who’s Who Now can’t match, but the songs remain, and they are strong. More importantly, Conflict still sound pissed off. The first track, ‘Berkshire Cunt,’ is a repeated fist in the face, followed by ’No Island Of Dreams’ which charges headlong and forceful, and, with the caveat that it doesn’t have the first album’s dirt, the album continues in that vein. There is a genuine nastiness to Conflict sometimes, the thuggishness of Oi without caring for the sing-alongs; whenever I think of the band, I often think of the spat out monologues buried in some tracks, as someone mutters threats violently and abusively. Re-recording a past album will always (obviously) create comparisons, and comparisons that the newer version will often struggle with, but there’s nothing ‘bad’ about It’s Time To See Who’s Who Now; it was a righteous solution to the Southern problem, highlighting the importance of Conflict as a political venture and not a punk museum artefact.

This is a great set, cheap and well-presented, though - as ever - a more comprehensive booklet would have been welcome. I have a feeling that the other boxset of earlier material will be more popular, due to a general belief that Conflict went off the boil in later years, but that’s unfair and unfounded. There are some great tracks here, and The Final Conflict and Against All Odds are solid albums. The rest of the discs are certainly patchy, but they still have definite high points, and are worthy of your time. They show a band remaining true to their beliefs, though burdened by the expectations and worship of their following, and still hurling shards of jagged, thuggish vitriol through the speakers. A great, and recommended, collection from a band vital to anarcho-punk not only because of their music and politics, but also the labels (Mortarhate Records and Fight Back Records) they founded.

Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

Martin P
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