‘Realise our potential, our own capabilities, And the time will soon arrive, When we’ll consider each other, the hero’s of our daily life’ (The Package)

Karma Sutra were an anarcho-punk from Luton who were active from 1982 until the late 1980s.  A few years back, Sealed Records released an excellent compilation, Be Cruel To Your Past And All Who To Seek To Keep You There, which brought together the band’s various demo recordings and captured the band’s evolution from their heavier initial sound to its more melodically inventive expressions as the decade played out.

Now, the band’s sole 1987 full-length, The Daydreams Of A Production Line Worker, receives an equally welcome reissue.  By this stage in the band’s evolution, their more experimental inclinations were firmly established – their songwriting was still firmly rooted in anarcho-punk, but there was a greater confidence to give rein to increasingly fluid song structures and more expansive melodic passages.

The rhythmic intensity of the opener, Roleplay, flows into the unaccompanied vocals and then strumming acoustic guitar of Pillow Talk, before haunting flute is braided through the infectiously escalating The Package.  Meanwhile, the ethereal When The Music Stops and the darkly rollicking Indifference Kills ensure that the album’s restless dynamism never dissipates.

The duelling, layered vocals, together with the accompanying booklet of short essays, apply an anarchist framing to exploring themes of economic exploitation, sexual freedom, the ever-expanding penal state, and the power of collectivism, as well as reworking the tale of A Christmas Carol.  The fact that these themes are still as relevant now, if not in many respects even more so, speaks volumes to not only society’s regression, but also serve to remind us of just how forward-thinking the debate was that bands such as Karma Sutra were seeking to ignite at the time.