Cleopatra 2024
Punk Floyd
Another few bricks in the windows of classic rock edifice won’t shatter its foundation but will keep its legacy livelier.
PINK FLOYD were so anathema to original punks that covering a piece by this bloated behemoth of a band amounted to an unthinkable crime for them; no matter how hard Roger Waters tried to blend in by spitting in the face of fans, reimagining a David Gilmour solo went way beyond the anarchy-peddlers’ prerogative, although they used to see Syd Barrett as a fellow outcast. Much wiser now, the old guard and their descendants don’t have any qualms, possibly perceiving such a tribute as the ultimate “fuck you” to prog giants but still paying their respects to the loathed lore which, by the very nature of the nihilistically inclined genre, none of the acts present here are able to try and imitate even if they wanted to. And some of them do want to.
This bunch’s frantic, frenetic, febrile approach should only emphasize the classics’ feverish core – perhaps, never more so than on the least apparent choice on offer, as U.K. SUBS speed up “Comfortably Numb” yet preserve its effects-enhanced depth, while JFA’s ska-slanted reading of “Money” ventures off the faithful route by attaching to it a garage organ riff from a Barrett Strong hit of the same title. Next to them, CHROME’s motorik take on “Interstellar Overdrive” and Jah Wobble and Jon Klein’s neurotic treatment of “Time” might seem less impressive – but only because they introduce post-punk templates to the collection where cuts like EATER’s blistering romp through “Eclipse” and ANGRY SAMOANS’s unhinged “Another Brick In The Wall (Part Two)” fare much better. Which is why DEAD BOYS’s attempt to elevate “Pigs On The Wing” into sarcastic skies courtesy of Cheetah Chrome’s soaring guitars, and FEAR’s sinister charge of “Astronomy Domine” slightly pale in comparison to D.I.’s endeavor to cure “Brain Damage” of somnambulism or PETER AND THE TEST TUBE BABIES’ turning “Bike” into a heavy rave.
However, what most of the perps on display do with a lot of gusto is bring to the surface rock ‘n’ roll licks concealed in the familiar numbers and, thus, shine a genuinely crazy light on the perennials. As a result, there’s fresh sharpness to “Breathe” which SKIDS spike with lysergic lines, and to “See Emily Play” which THE QUEERS render as a “no future” anthem, whereas ANTI-NOWHERE LEAGUE increase the hymnal heft of “Hey You” and MDC give “Lucifer Sam” unstoppably madcap momentum, something that “The Nile Song” doesn’t have – yet this was THE MEMBERS’ very intent. And if THE VIBRATORS barely stress the groove which “Arnold Layne” always possessed, Knox’s bonus revival of “Gigolo Aunt” has as much vivid glory as a certain hole.
On the whole, listening to PINK FLOYD’s evergreens, done with irreverent reverence, has never been so funny. The more similar homages are paid, the less thought control there is.
*****
