From
the pages of 'The Wire'....KNIGHTS
LAUNCH DEBUT ALBUM!....
I turned into the remotest set of breeze blocks and corrigated
iron of a long forgotten industrial site in Wythenshawe, itself a seemingly
abandoned experiment in post war housing. This was the home of Jam Factory
records, pioneers of the proto punk house movement. Instead of the prime
industrial architecture converted into state of the art business complex
I expected, I now stood before a fully operational food processing plant.
As I parked up I was approached by a bearded gentleman who introduced
himself as the Bursar. He led me up a rusty fire escape, through a green
door and into what appeared to be a staff canteen; where Journalists,
Jam Factory executives, punk house players and hangers-on were struggling
to make themselves heard above the plant machinery.
I had followed
Jam Factory output since the Firepower days, but was intrigued by their
choice of signing a band that was working on a KISS based concept album.
Firstly, why KISS? The Kettlecup Corp's Lee Cabinet told me "KISS
is unfinished business. The idea that Gene originally had for the band
went far beyond rock and roll. KISS is a state of consiousness where
the music forms only part of a transportation device. KISS is a destination
that no other band has attempted to reach. They came closest to the
plateau with Dynasty and (music from) The Elder, but the band became
corrupted. Some members by fame and the material world, others by chemicals
and drink. Lack of critical recognition and decline in record sales,
led to a crippling loss of self belief. They began to follow trends
rather than set them. They invested unwisely in a coal mine. They ran
out of money. They sold their entire back catalogue."
A loud rumbling
came from the corridor as a fork lift truck crashed through the door
and deposited two control decks and a large diesel generator . Each
an electromechanical mess of wires, dials, tubes and oscilloscopes.
A sense of confusion verging on panic prevailed as the generator kicked
in and the room filled with smoke. The Knights In Satans Service marched
in and with a scream of "Ahoy!" launched into a performance
of their new album. Some danced awkwardly, others just didn't know how
to react and a few gave up and went home.
Beginning with
the shear sonic confusion of This Kiss Planet, they jouneyed through
the detective rock of Satan's Service, the anthemic stadium house of
Numbing Themselves, the spaceport departure lounge sound of Kiss Radio
and the electro funk of Kill the Power and Drooling Blood. At this point
the speakers began to overload and Chris Cola began to vigorously flap
his arms around to cool the amplifier. Unfazed they continued through
the ethereal Like a Tree, the raunchy Phantom 2000 and my favourite,
the wild acid rock of Heavy Metal Beatles. A futuristic cover of the
KISS standard Sure Know Something proved a hit with the crowd and the
information house of 75 million albums provided a rare moment to relax
before the high octane techno juggernaught Take The Cake.
I don't know if
it was the music, the acrid smoke or the earthquake like effect of the
volume, but I had witnessed a bonfire on the senses. Had the band taken
the spirit KISS to a new level? It was how KISS might have sounded had
they lived in the 25th Century. As the band left the room and the fork
lift truck returned to remove their equipment, no one knew what to do
next other than to stare blankly. I sneaked out, slipped on the fire
escape and then accedentally reversed into a factory wall.
© K Claudius, August 2003