In an age where kids who claim to like punk rock haven't even heard the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, or the Clash, people who actually know and care about music seem to increasingly depend on interesting reissues like these... I'd heard of, but hadn't heard too much Chaos UK before this, and now I'm hooked.

The first eleven (of twenty two) tracks are from their debut LP. Most of these songs are thrashy, pre-Crust pogo-punk songs. The guitar is barely audible in spots, just a crackling static totally submerged behind the super fast rhythm section. The singer growls/shouts out oft-sarcastic rants about the government, society, and the threat of nuclear war that was hanging over their heads at the time.

The tempo is relentlessly fast on the first three tracks, interrupted by two slower songs, ("The End is Nigh"- guess what that's about... Nuclear war! "Victimised"- an attack on the police, of course.) which incorporate a Killing Joke drum style that keep things from becoming monotonous. These two tracks end, and thusly the riot runs uninterrupted until track 11, "Farmyard Boogie", a joke song of sorts... It has a brilliant line, though:

"You can keep yer Oi! for boneheads
Shove it up yer ass!
I don't want your bull shit,
And I ain't workin' class!"

The rest of the CD is a collection of earlier (?) demos and singles, including a faster version of "Victimised" and their catchiest ever song, "Kill Your Baby". The guitar on these tracks sounds much less subdued, and the vocalist sounds much more like Steve Ignorant.

Anyone who likes UK 82 probably already has this, as they should. Anyone who likes real hardcore (no wankfest solos or metal riffs) that they can pogo around to should pick this up.