Review - Urban Guerillas “Made In Australia”

independent EP

 

Urban Guerillas have been playing around the Sydney pub scene for many years; doubtless many nights were spent at the Sydney Trade or the Lansdowne! And through those years the sound and line-up of the band have changed around Ken Stewart (in much the same way as The Whitlams around Tim Freedman) and all of those sounds are represented here on the new 5-track EP “Made In Australia”.

 

No Way To Live opens proceedings with a punk/folk rock anthem, while Equation of Life comes over all Paul Kelly To Her Door until the “...A is what you want...” middle-8. Farewell is introduced by The Workers United (will never be defeated) chorus, as “sung” by the 7000 voice Phillips (sic) Street Choir outside John Howard’s Sydney office last year. The song itself is a “salute” to the end of the old-aus welfare-state order and hello to Little Johnnie’s New World Order. Fall to Pieces brings back the aus-rock tradition, while Claustrophobia closes the record with a John Lydon-fronts-Violent Femmes ditty.

 

“Made In Australia” is a step backward from the band’s last outing - the full-length Just A Lifetime from 1996, but maintains the Labor Party rage with a new musical outlook. Contact Ken Stewart at his e-mail address [email protected] or check out the Urban Guerillas website http://arch.su.edu.au/stewa_k to find out for yourself where they’ve been, where they’re going, and how to get “Made In Australia” ««

PG (Jacky) Gleeson

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