- One Minute Silence (Speak Out)
- Wake Up
- Shut Up And Swallow (ft Andreas Diemann)
- Take This Flag And Shove It
- Bleeding Obvious
- Upright Citizen
- Lock Down
All tracks written, produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Neil O'Brien, except "Upright Citizen" written by Crass and "Shut Up And Swallow", vocal and live guitar by Andreas Diemann.
Cover art by Neil O'Brien.
Now this EP is absolutely crying out for a remake. After a couple of self-indulgent albums, this EP was supposed to be picking up where AgitProp left off, but with an even greater emphasis on punk. Hearing it now, it's honestly kind of cringe: I think the most fundamental problem with it is that the influences are still too obvious, and hadn't yet been properly chewed and digested. "Shut Up And Swallow" has Subhumans written all over it (in fact, I remember sending Andreas "Mickey Mouse Is Dead" as a reference for what I was trying to do and his vocal really reflects that). The screeching noise on "Bleeding Obvious" (there was an edit that omitted the long intro) is clearly drawn from Atari Teenage Riot, and of course, "Upright Citizen" is a Crass cover (though the bass is actually a sample from it). Again, I like that I was trying to expand my musical range, but I couldn't pull it off properly. My vocal on "Upright Citizen" is buried in distortion and reverb to the point of being unintelligible, and it's just cos I still wasn't comfortable on the mic.
Probably the thing that I found most jarring with this EP though is "Take This Flag..." which is just so minimalist, it sounds unlike me, and coming after a hardcore punk track and immediately before a burst of harsh noise, it just sounds really misjudged and out of place. It sounds bland and unfinished, and totally de-rails the vibe and energy of the EP.
I think there are still worthwhile things about the EP: "Lock Down" is still a pretty decent tune, and there were a couple of tracks remixed by Nuff X and Omnisine. I do actually like the noise on "Bleeding Obvious" and it was cool to be able to collaborate with Andreas. Overall though, I don't think it's aged well. It was a necessary first-step, but little more. Curiously, it seems I never did a re-mix of this EP, so the version I'll be making available will have to be the original.