Going Through the Motions
is a slight reconfiguration of
Amateur Wankers
, released 14 years earlier by the missed
Acute
label. Like the first compilation, this contains the flippant art-punk band's two sessions for
John Peel
's BBC program, transmitted in August 1978 and January 1979. One song from each set -- the droning, skronking title track and "Things in General," a more conventional rama-lama racket -- was selected for release on 7" in 1980. Most extraordinary, however, is "Bristol Road Leads to Dachau," a ferocious and tightly coiled ten-minute number regarding the 1974 pub bombings in the band's native Birmingham. Had it been pressed immediately after its broadcast, it could have become
the Prefects
' "Little Johnny Jewel." The rest of the BBC material is short, sharp, and fun, prevailing qualities that also characterize the live material. Two songs are taken from a 1977 gig at Manchester's Electric Circus: "625 Lines" appeared first on
and is joined by "She Cracked," a disheveled, high-energy rumble not far off from
Swell Maps
. Last is a bootleg-quality segment of
,
Buzzcocks
Slits
, and
Subway Sect
blurting out a messy variation on
the Velvet Underground
's "Sister Ray," recorded on the last night of
the Clash
's White Riot tour. It's more an amusing historical artefact than anything else. What precedes it is on a much higher plane. ~ Andy Kellman