This album is a mixture of previously released singles, a John Peel session, and contains previously unreleased demos and outtakes. ‘Dark World’ collects together choice material from Normil Hawaiians’ formative early years of 1979-1981.
It’s an interesting snapshot in time although it hasn’t dated all that well. It covers the group’s punk origins and the more experimental direction that led to the album ‘More Wealth Than Money’. I Wanna is an example of 3-chord rock at its rawest while a generalised non-specific objection to blind Obedience is about as political as it gets
Founding member Guy Smith is accompanied by guitarist Kev Armstrong, Jim Lusted on saxophones, violins, synths, pianos. There are also a range of female singers including 15-year old Janet Armstrong who later sang on David Bowie’s ‘Absolute Beginners’.
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The first single The Beat Goes On appears in three versions, there’s a restrained reading of the David Lynch’s In Heaven from ‘Eraserhead’ and, from a John Peel session there’s a cover of Frank Zappa’s Uncle Green Genes which, somewhat superfluously, adds vocals to the original
Smith’s emotionally detached vocal style has a defiant working class edge but contains none of the power, rage or energy of early PIL or Gang of Four, two bands who explored a similar dubbed up territory with significantly greater panache.
Normil Hawaiians’ website
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