Funking up your politics- the mind and body-shaking Gang of Four

Of a part with the willfully abrasive and obscure art-rock scene that encompassed fellow Brits Wire and American eggheads Pere Ubu and Mission of Burma, Gang of Four rocked as hard as any of them, but brought a slinky, groovy brand of forward-thinking dance and funk into their dark vision of capitalist society. Their impact reaches farther than many other post-punk or art rock bands because, simply put, they rocked, and rocked hard. They brought clear-eyed analysis and scathing rhetoric into their music, but before shouting slogans and between sneering at love songs and cheeseburgers, they had the good sense to bring a hard groove. Countless British and American bands who now bear the torch of twitchy, atonal dance rock music owe, either knowingly or not, a huge debt to their forefathers.

In their original line-up, Andy Gill, Jon King, Hugo Burnham, and Dave Allen recorded their highly regarded debut, "Entertainment!", and its follow-up, "Solid Gold". Both records put forth a blueprint that many bands were better able to commercially exploit- the politically-motivated funk rock of Rage Against the Machine and early Red Hot Chili Peppers in particular were successful at rounding out the many edges in the Gang's music and making a radio-friendly facsimile that would not threaten listeners of pop music. Today the same goes for indie-rock darlings of all stripes; to name just a few, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Liars, and the Rapture. What set the Gang apart is that they questioned their audience without hectoring them, forming anthems and not puerile slogans. Their music demanded elemental movement, their lyrics fostered fierce cogitations.

"Entertainment!" stands as a debut of great note, powerful in the cogency of its ideas and breathless in its savage mauling of conventional punk, funk, and disco music. In any typical song, Burnham would set out a churning disco groove, throwing in just enough high-energy fills and breaks to remind listeners of his chops; bassist Allen reportedly restrained himself when playing Gang's songs, which is hard to believe considering the sheer technical ability of his lines and their overwhelming power. Guitarist Andy Gill never settled for conventional riffs or vanilla solos, chucking out technical wizardry for supremely effective volleys of twitchy, scratching, scabrous guitar gesticulations. Driven by pure rawk energy, he chopped out a mess of both rhythmic and arrhythmic feedback squalls, even opting for (gasp) silence when needed. Jon King ranted and chanted with the best of sardonic Brits, lamenting the state of the working classes, historical revisionism, any idea that would offend the sensibilities of a good leftist.

For a great prototypical GO4 song, look no further than 5.45, from "Entertainment!". A tiny drum and harmonica intro, sounding like some small still voice protesting tragedy to a martial beat. Jon King waxes piteous-
"How can I sit and eat my tea, With all that blood flowing from the television, At a quarter to six, I watch the news, Eating, eating all my food as I sit, Watching the red spot in the egg, Which looks like all the blood you don't see on the television..."
With just this short lyric, King takes to task the news media that glorifies war coverage, the apathetic citizens that can sit and eat whilst others die, and even manages to snipe the news media again for sanitizing reports while simultaneously venerating atrocity. Throughout all this rhetoric, ringing guitar lines cut through a thick and moody bass that cries of the helplessness and hopelessness of the oppressed.

"Down on the street, Assassinate!, All of them look so desperate, Declare blood war on the bourgeois state, ooooooh..." No other band could make such a chorus work; it is intensely politically incisive and revolutionary in nature, and yet perversely catchy.

The mid-song chant lends the album its title, a pronouncement on the sick state of voyeuristic cultural debasement that is the evening news fodder in wartime- "Guerrilla war struggle is the new entertainment!"- that rails angrily at those comfortable upper-to-middle class citizens that can stare at a war-torn country through the lens of a news program and, being desensitized to the suffering of those so many miles and class divisions away, can only shake their heads as they lament the world with a mouthful of microwaved food. The result is a powerful song that, while satiric, doesn't hector its audience, but urges them to think.

Some of their best tracks deal with interpersonal connections in much the same fashion, looking at love with a gimlet eye, rendering relationships into balances and handshake deals, commodities bought and sold, interest not shown by a seductive gaze, but accrued by debt. The commodification of sex and the role of the media in public life surface again and again throughout their discography, giving thematic strength to much of their work. Alienation and the wanderlust of man for interpersonal connection feature heavily as well.

The trajectory of their career fell sadly short of their ambitions, however. After "Solid Gold", bassist Allen left and was replaced by Sara Lee, and a shift in their sound occurred over the course of several albums, moving them decisively toward less edgy and more poppy disco and funk music. The music that followed wasn't necessarily bad, but did not sit well with their original fans, and won them few new ones. Drummer Hugo Burnham left after "Songs of the Free" in 1982, and after only Jon King and Andy Gill remained from the original line-up, they called it quits in after 1983's abysmal "Hard". They reformed twice in the nineties, once for the underwhelming "Mall" and again in 95 for their currently last full-length, "Shrinkwrapped".

In a near-miraculous move, the original line-up of GO4 re-united in 2004, recording an album of new versions of old songs. It's not absolutely essential, but is certainly good listening. Though Burnham and Allen have left again recently, there is still talk of a new album with a new line-up. Their newest single, "Second Life", is a classic. Please support this band and if they tour anywhere near you, make it a priority to see them live. Thanks for reading.