BLACK TIME - Greatest Hits (self released)

Not many bands can pull off wearing shades at night, in a dark room. So far the only proponents of this phenomena i dig are The Blues Brothers and Black Time. My introduction to watching Lemmy Caution, Janie Too Bad and Mr. Stix pogo n' shuffle was in a North London warehouse where they slammed through a blur of garage power pop punk but unlike alot of the current set of bands who ape the Americanisms of 60's garage punk revival, they seemed refreshingly English.

This Greatest Hits tape is 28 songs culled from their back catalogue of songs charting 7"s & Lp's spanning 2003-2008 and even though they cover a wide variety of recording sessions, it sounds like a layer of scuzz was laid on top of it all at the compiling stage to add some noise continuity to the proceedings. Some of the songs even sound like they are recorded live, meaning live in front of an audience armed with pints and apathy, not pressing record whilst in the same room, but then again it could be the overall dirt and tape hiss which i really like on here.

From their In The Red Garage tones to Ramones downstrokes or Mark E. Smith drawls and British Invasion, this tape is pretty mean! Contact them to see if they have any of these left at www.myspace.com/blacktimemutant77

Side A

1. Beat Of The Traps
2. Human Pinball
3. Made In USA
4. Capital Of Pain
5. Fever (Version)
6. Shadows
7. Scary People
8. Caution's Camera
9. Feel So Bad
10. (I'm In The) Fascist Bathroom
11. The Mummy
12. Public Information Film
13. Little Death
14. Mother/Whore
15. Secret

Side B

1. Crawlin'
2. Young professionals
3. The Days Are Too Long & The Nights Are Too Short
4. Rocket Rumble
5. Consumers
6. I Hate The World & The World Hates Me
7. Downtown
8. Girls In The Garage
9. Mystery Shopper
10. White Heat Returned
11. I'm Gonna Hurt You When I'm Gone
12. This Is A Curse
13. Sirens