Chain and the Gang Down With Liberty... Up With Chains! (K Records)
4/5
By: Steve Rose
The legendary K Records, founded by Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening, was started to 'make his friends music available to the world. Their call to arms was and still is "exploding the teenage underground into passionate revolt against the corporate ogre since 1982". It works perfectly with 'sassy' Ian Svenonius (previously singer of Nation of Ulyses, The Make Up and Weird War) and his new anti-establishment -centric, creative output Chain and the Gang and their first release- Down With Liberty...Up With Chains.
Trading in 'purple rhetoric' and irony, Chain and the Gang use the vernacular and lexicons of soul, gospel and garage, carried out with the rotund gusto of a party of football hooligans. With dint intuition and loquacity Chain (Svenonius), brought ideas to the table (Dub Narcotic Studio) which were 'fully expressed' by The Gang (Calvin Johnson and members of Finally Punk amongst others). The record was then recorded in one or two takes, with next to no overdubs, entirely on analogue equiptment.
Thus an enthralling, rhythmic soul/garage cacophany is born.
Artists in this article: Chain and the Gang
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