The Revolting Cocks as EBM Binge

Well, it started innocently enough, the root of all this was a Front 242 track that slipped into the Shuffle Mode a few weeks back and then coincidentally I got my first cease and desist notice about another Front 242 track I'd posted (alongside a cutting stolen from Gutter) and now, well, now I'm in the middle a of one of those periodic binges of re-listening to stuff I've long since discarded

...and this time it's perhaps the least cool and least salvageable (we'll see) of all genres - EBM, which is quite possibly still going very strong in all kinds of dark holes, which probably isn't called EBM (and never really was) and which, assuredly, isn't New Beat or anything like that (a more loved cousin genre which did get a little reinvention a few years back by that Dunlop-wearing Caretaker guy) although it's Belgian by inclination and there are times, in a dark room, with a badass PA system, where the two have been known to slide around in the mud together, like all good cousins...

Which brings me to Revolting Cocks.

I'll probably be chugging my way through the likes of a:GRUMH and A Split Second and FLA and the Klinik/Dive angle and maybe DAF which I loved since I heard Kebab Traume on the C81 tape (and which was perhaps a bigger gateway band for me than almost any other) but for now, this 12" single is as good a place to start as any...

Revolting Cocks - No Devotion

Leeched from here

I went to see them at The Astoria in 1990 and, while they were predictably fantastic and gross and stupid (i.e. ideal 18 year old brain fodder), they were probably already on a downward spiral... we were already slightly annoyed that they didn't bring the herd of cattle onto the stage (we were expecting something to rival the Frank Tovey, Blixa Bargeld, Genesis P-Orridge ICA smashing) and I think, even then, we knew that The Cocks would morph into RevCo (Ugh!)... Beers, Steers and Queers was about to become an indie disco anthem and they were going to get over-excited at all the attention... even old ice-cream head Douglas Hurd had a crack at them before the UK gigs after Teddy Taylor brought them to the attention of the House of Commons EBM select committee (love to have been at that gig, DJ TT in da house...)

But the first few albums were good - the live album was brilliant and No Devotion was off it's time and perfect; the way it starts all sludgy and industrial and then pulls a light cord and - WHAM- it's disco-spastic. It's a fine line and they found it a difficult one to tread. When they eventually covered Let's Get Physical and Do Ya Think I'm Sexy, it was already too obvious. If they'd done That's The Way (Aha Aha) I Like It then maybe things would have turned out differently (actually, I always thought Laibach would have done that well; the way i hear it is with Laibach or The Cocks singing along) but I lost interest soon after that gig and they picked up more guitars and got sloppy with the drum programming and, well, drifted off...

Still, watching a crowd of indie kids all singing the lyrics (and samples) of Beers, Steers and Queers remains a very fond memory... especially since this was the same time period that people would sit fucking down when Sit Down came on or go spazzmental to The Mission. Seriously, The Mission. Butterfly On A Goddamn Wheel.

Punishing times...