X [Australia 1979]- Aspirations [SPLATTER or BLACK VINYL] - New LP

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Green Noise label (Exploding Hearts...) resurrected in 2024 with this Green Noise / Dirt Cult release: a new pressing of this Australian cracker recorded in 1979.

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The band coming at the songs with focused menace and animal abandonment, spitting on a bare wire and feet stomping, cemented in the rhythm and busting out, getting the sound down with something that could only come from just doing it up instead of planning it out, the band kicking it out from the get go, kicking open a door with the opener.  Where it goes from there is nonstop punk rock, and where this comes from is anybody’s guess, sounding like they're fighting off those birds of madness with everything they’ve got, lifted on a boulder of rhythm and pushed down a hill, coming at you with a raised fist and sounding like nothing else from this era, maybe coming out of the charge of UK punk outfits sparking in the darkness of post-punk (The Clash, Sex Pistols, Joy Division), some cuts maybe showing some influence coming from American bands like The Wipers, Pere Ubu, Television or Ramones...with Steve just learning the guitar, his playing is punk in its true form and completely its own, angle iron and barbed wire, razor and mallet, focused on feeling rather than proficiency, with much of his strength focused on the throat, unchained with the freedom of punk, coming from the gut, biting at the bit, Ian Rilen’s bassline as pronounced as anything on the proceedings, thick as a hawser on tugboat hauling, primitive guitar and drums chopping at the rope, the band pulling everything into the rhythm with clenched-teeth abandonment, pulling it in tight and ripping it loose.  Crank it.  -- winch

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL: "Recorded in 1979, utilizing just a few hours of remnant studio time, X forever scarred the tough-as-all-hell history of Aussie rock ’n’ roll with Aspirations. Boasting ROSE TATTOO’s Ian Rilen and the roaring, he-man punk legend Steve Lucas up front, the LP begins with the classic pummeling of “Suck Suck” and only gets more severe from there. “Good On Ya Baby” out-struts a band like THE SAINTS — no easy feat. “Batman” is steroid-bolstered art punk that has rarely, if ever, been equaled. “I Don’t Wanna Go Out”is completely past-it and genius. Fourteen vicious, out-for-blood punk tunes, all of which are steeped in some supremely heavy, dark and daring shit. It’s a legit classic and one of the best punk rock albums ever made. Should any doubt linger in your mind, or if for some reason you have no clue what the fuck this LP is, there’s not a single record in these pages more deserving of your immediate attention."

Formed in 1977 with Ian Rilen (Rose Tattoo) on bass; Steve Lucas, vocals; Ian Krahe, guitar; and Steve Cafiero, drums; X recorded four songs with this original 4-piece lineup in 1978 (see the "Hate City" 7" we're also reissuing as a Dirt Cult/Green Noise release!)  After the death of guitarist Ian Krahe, the band pushed on with other guitar players but struggled to find their footing.  Then sometime during the last months of the decade, just a few months after vocalist Steve Lucas had first picked up the guitar, “the band that couldn’t be killed” entered Trafalgar Studios in Sydney as a 3-piece, and in five hours recorded this album: X-Aspirations, their debut LP, named one of the best Australian albums ever by Rolling Stone and one of the best punk albums ever made by Maximum Rock'n'roll.  While it's rare that those two publications ever agree, in this case it would be hard not to.

X-Aspirations Review by Nathan Bush

Following unsuccessful attempts to replace original guitarist Ian Krahe, who died six months after the group's live debut, X reverted to the trio lineup of original members Stephan Lucas (lead vocals, guitar), Ian Rilen (bass, vocals), and Steve Cafiero (drums) for the recording of the band's debut album. At the helm was Australian rock guru Lobby Loyde, who oversaw the five-hour session. That the album only took that long to record is evidenced by the crude nature of the performances, but Aspirations is one example where such guerrilla-style studio tactics pay off. Punk rock had caught fire, establishing strongholds in England and America, and eventually reaching X's native Australia. Drawing on its predecessors for inspiration, this music is burning with a primal intensity that is vintage 1979. The group combines the revolution rock of the Clash, the bitter new wave of Elvis Costello & the Attractions, the mindless punkisms of the Ramones, and the no-future deadpan of the Sex Pistols. This punk collision could be a recipe for disaster, yet X somehow manages to walk the razor's edge while avoiding the collapse the band seems perpetually headed for. Rilen's basslines amount to a rollicking sludge which, along with the weighty pummel of Cafiero's attack, provides the stark underbelly for Lucas' desperate guitar shards. Krahe's guitar playing was, sadly, never documented on record, but it could hardly be rawer than this. Unfortunately, X didn't enter the studio again for another five years. Continued attempts to fill Krahe's vacancy also hindered X, meaning that the group probably never got the attention it deserved...an underrated punk gem."

"this X operate(d) in Australia, inventing late-’80s NYC-style post-punk in the waning years of the ’70s. X-Aspirations couples deep riff repetitive rhythms with scattershot guitar and anguished vocals for a “punk” LP unlike any other, appropriate for a band as distant and isolated from the media focus as one could conceivably get without leaving the planet. In later years, Feedtime made a point of acknowledging their debt to early X; the band’s influence is still readily apparent in Australia’s Red Eye and Aberrant stables." -- Trouser Press

X-Aspirations, the debut LP by the Australian band X (not to be confused with the American band with the same name) was named one of the best Australian albums ever by Rolling Stone and one of the best punk albums ever made by Maximum Rock'n'roll. While it's rare that those two publications ever agree, in this case it would be hard not to.

X was formed in 1977 as a four-piece with no knowledge of the US band who they shared a name with. They recorded just four songs with this lineup in 1978 (see the "Hate City" 7" we're also reissuing!). After the sudden death of their guitarist Ian Krahe, the band pushed on with a few other guitar players but struggled to find their footing.

The in late 1979, just a few months after singer Steve Lucas first picked up a guitar, the band recorded what would become X-Aspirations as a three-piece in 5 hours at Trafalgar Studios in Sydney.

Legend has it that the band went into the studio expecting to record a single, but decided to record every song they knew how to play the pick the single. Most of the songs on the album are first takes, and they figured the final result was good enough to release as an LP. X-Aspirations was released on the band's own label in early 1980.

Its hard to imagine that this almost perfect record that went out to inspire a legion of bands in Australia and beyond almost never happened and only really exists as some sort of happy accident. I'd venture to guess that, without this record, with it's tight rhythm section and angular guitars 

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"[Rilen] next grasped our attention by helping to form Rose Tattoo, writing what would be a hit for them in ‘Bad Boy For Love’ but leaving before they recorded their first album, reputedly because he wanted to do something even harder and rawer, and the Tatts weren’t it. X were. There were a few line-up shuffles – including the death of guitarist Ian Krahe – before X became the monster trio that would record this album, namely, Rilen on bass, Stephen Lucas on guitar and vocals, and Steve Cafiero on drums. Who should they get to produce their album but Lobby Loyde, who was an instant fan upon hearing them and couldn’t be happier to be involved. They entered the studio intending to do a demo with a view to making a single, but ended up just playing all their songs and recording and mixing them roughly in 5 hours. Lobby and engineer Ian Grey seem to have wisely used a more or less hands-off approach, keeping the raw excitement of the band by pretty much presenting them as is and in yer face, with practically nothing in the way of overdubbing and studio post-polishing. The result is perhaps what the Coloured Balls might have sounded like, had they emerged at this time and not in 1972, and I know one guy with good taste who thinks it’s the best Australian rock record ever, end of story. I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s up there mixing with the greats. However, if you class it only up against other Aussie stuff of the same general style of music, ie. raw punk rock, it comes out as a clear winner. That said, class it against stuff of this kind from any country and it still floats up around the top with the best. You can’t over-analyze stuff like this, you really have to just listen to it and jump around, but I’ll try to give you a general idea of what’s on offer. The things that stand about about the sound are firstly Rilen’s bass – he plays it really hard, making every note drive the whole thing along rhythmically and melodically. It’s said he used to string his bass with piano wire for the sound and increased strength, and it doesn’t surprise me given the way he played, ie. with gusto. The next thing is Lucas’s vocals, which are just so right for this kind of raw punk rock, and without pretensions or adopted accents [as so many Australian musicians sing with an American accent, because that’s just the done thing]. The guy sounds like he’s gargling cement half the time, and not to any detriment, as well as being so unhinged I can imagine him half-crazed and gyrating deliriously with a toilet roll on his head, no clothes on bar some filthy y-fronts, and a six-pack of beer in one hand while sings into the microphone with the other, and enjoying every second of it. The last thing that stands out is Lucas’s guitar style, which makes the most out of simplicity, and is both direct and raw with the chords, as well as having a more angular, experimental tendency that comes out here and there in place of conventional guitar solos. ‘Suck Suck’ begins the album with furiously strummed bass, simple razor guitar slashes, and pounding, relentless drums. It’s about what you gotta do to “suck suck suck suck-seed”, a venomous punk splatter that’s very clear about not wanting to do any of those things. ‘Present’ follows a similar fast’n’furious tack, whereas ‘Simulated Lovers’ has more of a mid-tempo bounce with a catchy chorus line that all reminds me of some of the songs on the first Swell Maps album [minus the Faustian experimentalism]. ‘Police’ has a funky bass riff that gives it an almost reggae feel, but this is still more of a punk thing than The Clash’s ‘Police and Thieves’, which was more reggae than punk. Yet again, very cool stuff, and it’s clear these guys had a great knack for songwriting, turning something that’s pretty simple on paper into something that’s deceptively multi-faceted and creative. This segues – nay, slams – straight into ‘Revolution’, a barnstorming fast’n’hard burst of ferocity that’s like a cross between the MC5 and the Stooges. “Stick it up your revolution, don’t you know the time is near – rock’n’roll may be no solution, but that’s what I wanna hear” goes the roaring chorus, and fuck yeah is all I can say! ‘Turn My Head’ is yet another ripper, but hard to describe – actually, reminds me a bit of very early Pere Ubu with it’s jerky guitar and ropey bass riff. ‘Good On Ya Baby’ that follows is for me and my wife THE X song, and it’s just so strutting and balls-out – well, dick out as well, pants around your ankles while you’re at it, and pump your fist in the air – and eminently lovable, not only for it’s very Aussie punk pummelling riffage that really swings both punches and hips but also for Lucas’ totally snotty but unpretentious couldn’t-give-a-fuck gravel-gargling vocals.
‘Delinquent Cars’ is a little pedestrian and plodding, but still a good track, with interesting guitar wrenching going on in the background from Lucas. ‘I Don’t Wanna Go Out’ features a wicked lurching off-kilter funky bass riff underpinning a song that’s about just wanting to stay in and not go to the disco or the pool hall, with weird tape-warpings being used on some of the vocals to great comic and musical effect.
‘Lipstick’ is like a punk hangover of a 50’s rock and roll ballad, nothing much special until the chorus bits, both lyrically and musically; it features an amusing relationship insight in the lines “I know what I am to you... I’m your dipstick, I’m not your lipstick, I’m your dipstick... and I don’t mind.”
‘It Must Be Me’ swings between an uptight metronomic beat with angular guitar and speedy gonzales punk blowouts, before segueing straight into ‘Coat Of Green’ without notice, again a number with traces of 50’s rock and roll and r&b, like Bo Diddley flattened through a punk rock pressing machine to create something quite different from its roots. ‘Waiting’ is a slow, grinding death dirge that makes me think of some Black Flag and maybe Killing Joke [have to re-visit Killing Joke, my comparison may be way off there]. ‘Batman’ finishes the album with a fast, jangly injection of something more ‘fun’, like a blast of Ramones done by Aussie cavemen – and no, it’s not the Batman theme, it’s just about him.
The only complaint I have with this album is that it’s a bit short at 33 minutes, but at the same time it’s a great compact album, and with 14 great songs you could also say the length is just right.

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 recorded in 1979...not to be confused with the American group of the same name, this is the Australian outfit, lifted up with a monster bottom, this just completely kicks ass from go to whoa, absolutely essential for fans of Australian (or Detroit) punk. - winch  

Musicians\

• Steve Lucas – guitar, vocals
• Ian Rilen – bass
• Steve Cafiero – drums