Sunday, July 20, 2008

Public Image Ltd - flowers of romance (1981)



Public Image Ltd's fusion is one of the most huge in the post-punk canon.

We find African percussion/ Middle-Eastern litanies/ horror electronics ("Four Enclosed Walls"), atonal folk set on irregular rhythms and acid Eastern strings ("Track 8"), horror mantras/ exotic funereal percussion/ hallucinogenic atmosphere/ Arabic psalmody ("Phenagen"), subliminal fear/ voodoo drums/ Eastern invocations/ accordion cadence ("Flowers Of Romance"), African rituals/ tape manipulation/ oriental dance ("Under The House"), symphonic march ("Hymie's Him"), drone dance-punk ("Banging The Door"), catastrophic funk on amphetamines played by a free-jazz band ("Francis Massacre").

And all underlined by Lydon's lyrics, a sort of manifesto for post-industrial alienation. Essential.

EDIT: Dead link because of complaints to Rapidshare.

2 comments:

RESET reset RESET said...

Thanks... classic album...!!!

Art Simon said...

Love it, I bought it when it came out, but lost it since. Thanks!