Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material [Remastered and Expanded]

Posted By: Toxxy

Date: Dec. 6, 2009

Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material [Remastered and Expanded]
Year/Label: 1979, 2001 EMI Records | CD#: 7243 5 35886 2 5
FLAC-5 (image) | Mp3 VBR-0 (tracks) | Artwork (JPG, 400 dpi) | File-hosts: HF, FF & RS
Punk-Rock | FLAC: 414 MB | Mp3: 123 MB | Artwork: 10 MB | 5% WinRAR Recovery

EAC Secure-rip with LOG+CUE+COVERS | Source: My CD-collection

***

"INFLAMMABLE MATERIAL" is among the most powerful political albums in punk rock history. Besides the government and military, the band tackles record company shenanigans on "Rough Trade," and the difficulty in loving someone from the wrong side of the fence, as in "Barbed Wire Love." Either way, Stiff Little Fingers managed to make even the worst scenarios come alive with black humor and gleefully guttural vocals. An often neglected punk classic and a must for all serious students of the genre.

***

"The genuine voice of youthful outrage" –-Q

Originally released in 1979, this digitally remastered reissue of Stiff Little Fingers' Inflammable Material comes complete with two bonus tracks, including the original single version of "Suspect Device", plus the first part of a Jake Burns interview. Taking their cue from the Clash's politicised attitude, SLF' self-penned (inflammable) material, articulated their frustrations with "the troubles" in Northern Ireland. Unlike many punk debuts, Inflammable Material manages to meld high-octane potency, with a varied musical palette. Thanks partly to the influence of Don Letts, the regular DJ at the Roxy, the punk fraternity had embraced reggae, identifying strongly with its spirit of protest and, like the Clash, SLF included a reggae cover on their debut LP. Their eight-minute-plus raggedy version of Bob Marley's "Johnny Was" transports Johnny to Northern Ireland, "A single shot rings out in a Belfast night and I said oh Johnny was a good man". Equally eclectic, though slightly less serious, is the doo-wop surf pastiche "Barbed Wire Love", a warped tale of love in Belfast's No Man's Land. Of course, as the rest of the tracks readily attest, SLF are principally purveyors of furious fusillades of guitar-snorting punk rock. And let's face it, any album that includes "Alternative Ulster" and "Suspect Device" has to be considered a bona fide classic. –-Chris King, Amazon-co-uk

Stiff Little Fingers:

Jake Burns (vocals, guitar)
Henry Cluney (vocals)
Ali McMordie (bass guitar)
Brian Faloon (drums)

Audio Remixers: Doug Bennett; Rough Trade.Rolling Stone (No. 975, p.79) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[T]he Fingers' potent 1979 debut, teems with harsh, desperate commentary on 'the Troubles' in Northern Ireland…"

Q (5/02 SE, p.142) - Included in Q's "100 Best Punk Albums".
Q (12/01, p.165) - 4 stars out of 5 - "…The genuine voice of youthful outrage…"

Mojo (Publisher) (3/03, p.76) - Ranked #12 in Mojo's "Top 50 Punk Albums" - "The Belfast quartet's inspired debut was the first independent album to make the Top 20…"

Toxxy sez: Easily an album that deserves 5 stars out of 5. In my personal top 20 of ALL albums!

SLF official homepage
SLF at Wikipedia
SLF at MySpace

Track List:

01. Suspect Device
02. State Of Emergency
03. Here We Are Nowhere
04. Wasted Life
05. No More Of That
06. Barbed Wire Love
07. White Noise
08. Breakout
09. Law And Order
10. Rough Trade
11. Johnny Was
12. Alternative Ulster
13. Closed Groove
14. Suspect Device (single version) [Bonus track]
15. 78 RPM [Bonus track]
16. Jake Burns Interview, 13. June 2001, Part 1 [Bonus track]

EAC FLAC LOG

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 30. November 2009, 10:16

Stiff Little Fingers / Inflammable Material [Remastered and Expanded]

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Read mode : Secure
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Additional command line options : -V -5 -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

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Superb angry politicized punk.

Recorded in 1978 and released in 1979 Inflammable Material actually came in on the coat-tails of the punk movement, a relatively short lived entity anyway. You could legitimately call it post punk except for the fact that this album is pure punk in sound, attitude and thematically. It is classed as a classic punk album and quite right too.

Jake Burns, he of the rasping incandescent vocals and the searing starchy guitar, gives an impressively committed performance spitting out sagacious lyrics about the political situation in Northern Ireland (it would have been incredible if they hadn't) and by proxy alienation, ennui and just generally being extremely ticked off about the way things are/were. Guitarist Henry Cluney chips in with a couple of songs -"Here We Are Nowhere" and "No More Of That" and for the most part the album is an invigorating blast of short pacy angular punk songs.

The exceptions are the original closing track the jerky staccato "Closed Groove" and a rather superfluous cover of Bob Marley's "Johnny Was" which if nothing else further cemented the link between the anti-establishment mien of punk and reggae. Aided by no less than three producers - Geoff Travis (who also formed "Rough Trade " records in 1978) Mayo Thompson and Doug Bennett - the sound is a dense coagulation of bramble sharp guitars but with the lead riffs - especially on the memorable singles "Alternative Ulster" and "Suspect Device" as clear and crisp as Alpine air.

Inflammable Material is one of the great punk albums. It has all the prerequisite requirements for the genre. Palpable anger and frustration channeled through a seething on the surface discordant racket but not quite camouflaging tunes that could make a Golem pogo. It's right up there with Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols, London Calling, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables and if you want angry politicized rock Easterhouses brilliant Contenders. Recommendations do not come any higher as far as I'm concerned. [Amazon user review]