Search - Biting Tongues :: After the Click-Retrospective 1980-89

At last, Biting Tongues on cd...

Bazarov | Amsterdam, Holland | 11/05/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In the eighties (or at least my eightees), Biting Tongues were a music lover's dream. They were entirely original, claiming their very own place between loud and exciting punk-funk bands like Pigbag and A Certain Ratio, existentialist rockers like The Fall and Gang of Four, and pre-post-rock experimentalists like Throbbing Gristle and This Heat. Thumping, hypnotic songs with unforgettable hooks and intriguing 'lyrics' (prose poems, really) that were spoken, or sometimes yelled, rather than sung by BT mastermind Ken Hollings.

And perhaps the best thing about Biting Tongues: hardly anyone knew them (at least over here in Amsterdam), which made them a sure-fire band to impress your friends with and make a few conversions along the way, always a gratifying experience.



As a rule, people who make retrospectives have no feel for coherence and seem to find a perverse pleasure in leaving out an artist's or band's best stuff. The people who put this disc together are no exception. There's too much emphasis on the years after 1984, when Hollings left the band, and the lack of attention for Biting Tongues' first and best LP, Don't Heal, is particularly annoying. Still, this compilation is an awful lot better than its counterpart Compressed, half of which is taken up by the 'Feverhouse' soundtrack, a hodgepodge of rythms and noise that may have worked for the film but is a tedious listen on its own.

All in all, After the Click is not to be missed by those who remember the eightees as a black-and-white, angst-ridden but oh so invigorating period in the history of rock. And for younger generations: If you ever wondered where genres like Industrial or acts like Nine Inch Nails sprang from, this disc should be a revelation.

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