‘Sing a song of violence and listen for the sound, Of all the little soldiers start to come around, Start it with a rumour, a whisper in an ear, Suspicion don’t take very long before it turns to fear’ (Fear)

Zounds were initially active between 1977 and 1982 and were at the forefront of the UK’s nascent anarcho-punk community.  The Reading band released a solitary album, 1981’s Curse Of The Zounds, together with five 7-inch EPs during this period.  It is these EPs that have been collated together for this reissue.

The trio’s debut release was the three-track 7-inch after which the compilation is named.  Released in 1980, it represents what we would think of as being the classic anarcho-punk sound of this era – nasally, rasping vocals, bright, almost jangle adjacent guitar, and a loosely fluid rhythm section.  The fiercely agitated yet beguilingly melodic Subvert is a particular stand out.

From that point on, their repertoire takes many an unexpected stylistic turn, speaking vividly to the restless inventiveness that characterised this emerging scene.  It sweeps from the darkly tense, post-punk inclinations of 1981’s Demystification and 1982’s Dancing, to the more indie-pop sensibilities of More Trouble Coming Every Day in the same year.  The closing tracks come from the band’s final 7-inch, La Vache Qui Rit, which was also released in 1982 and saw the band return to a more raucously combative mode.

The album explores themes of war, social conflict, colonial legacies, and the power of collectivism, the lyrics typically steering clear of sloganeering in favour of more allusively layered constructions.  This is the second pressing of the reissue that Sealed Records first released in 2019.  As always, Sealed have pulled things together with a sensitive hand – the recording quality is excellent and the packaging neatly reimagines the aesthetics of the original releases.