It seems like a good time to review this killer classic, seeing as an album by the US band of the same name was recently reviewed here. I haven’t yet heard that X – but it should be pointed out that unknown to each other, a punk band called X also existed in Australia, and would turn out to be quite influential (mainly in Australia, but also elsewhere). Aztec Music has just reissued their second album, ‘At Home With You’, with a second disc full of awesome live stuff, but that’s some five years later and another story. Many folks regard ‘At Home With You’ as the band’s best album, and it was certainly more commercially successful [even though X were never very successful in business terms, probably because they almost actively avoided it]. From what I’d read about it previously, I expected it would be a tamer album, but it’s actually similarly ferocious as the debut, but more varied and with better production – a pretty killer album overall [though the sole X track on the ‘Inner City Sound’ 2‑CD of Aussie punk & post-punk, taken from ‘At Home With You’, doesn’t really demonstrate this]. But, there’s maybe an Unsung review to be written for that album some other time. So we look back to the beginning…

The story of X – which I don’t intend to tell fully here, as I’m not an expert and you can read about it elsewhere on the ‘net and in the ‘At Home With You’ reissue – revolves around bassist Ian Rilen, a legend of Australian rock who sadly died in 2006. He first made waves back in the early seventies, as a member of the popular Australian/New Zealand group Band Of Light in their first incarnation, recording the album ‘Total Union’ with them. This was a simple but addictive LP of extended plodding hypnotic blues/boogie rock jams with tasty electric slide guitar and incongruously spiritually-seeking lyrics, quite different to what would be heard on their next – and last – album, ‘The Archer’, following a near total change in line-up which saw Rilen leave the band. ‘The Archer’, by the way (and contrary to oft-repeated judgements), is still a great album in my opinion, even if it doesn’t sound like the same band (because it isn’t!), and is probably more original and antipodean-sounding (you can hear the seeds of later classic Aussie stuff here and there). But back to Mr Rilen. He next grasped our attention by helping to form Rose Tattoo, writing what would be a hit for them in ‘Bad Boy For Love’ but leaving before they recorded their first album, reputedly because he wanted to do something even harder and rawer, and the Tatts weren’t it. X were.
There were a few line-up shuffles – including the death of guitarist Ian Krahe – before X became the monster trio that would record this album, namely, Rilen on bass, Stephen Lucas on guitar and vocals, and Steve Cafiero on drums. Who should they get to produce their album but Lobby Loyde, who was an instant fan upon hearing them and couldn’t be happier to be involved. They entered the studio intending to do a demo with a view to making a single, but ended up just playing all their songs and recording and mixing them roughly in 5 hours. Lobby and engineer Ian Grey seem to have wisely used a more or less hands-off approach, keeping the raw excitement of the band by pretty much presenting them as is and in yer face, with practically nothing in the way of overdubbing and studio post-polishing. The result is perhaps what the Coloured Balls might have sounded like, had they emerged at this time and not in 1972, and I know one guy with good taste who thinks it’s the best Australian rock record ever, end of story. I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s up there mixing with the greats. However, if you class it only up against other Aussie stuff of the same general style of music, ie. raw punk rock, it comes out as a clear winner. That said, class it against stuff of this kind from any country and it still floats up around the top with the best.

You can’t over-analyze stuff like this, you really have to just listen to it and jump around, but I’ll try to give you a general idea of what’s on offer. The things that stand about about the sound are firstly Rilen’s bass – he plays it really hard, making every note drive the whole thing along rhythmically and melodically. It’s said he used to string his bass with piano wire for the sound and increased strength, and it doesn’t surprise me given the way he played, ie. with gusto. The next thing is Lucas’s vocals, which are just so right for this kind of raw punk rock, and without pretensions or adopted accents [as so many Australian musicians sing with an American accent, because that’s just the done thing]. The guy sounds like he’s gargling cement half the time, and not to any detriment, as well as being so unhinged I can imagine him half-crazed and gyrating deliriously with a toilet roll on his head, no clothes on bar some filthy y‑fronts, and a six-pack of beer in one hand while sings into the microphone with the other, and enjoying every second of it. The last thing that stands out is Lucas’s guitar style, which makes the most out of simplicity, and is both direct and raw with the chords, as well as having a more angular, experimental tendency that comes out here and there in place of conventional guitar solos.
‘Suck Suck’ begins the album with furiously strummed bass, simple razor guitar slashes, and pounding, relentless drums. It’s about what you gotta do to “suck suck suck suck-seed”, a venomous punk splatter that’s very clear about not wanting to do any of those things. ‘Present’ follows a similar fast’n’furious tack, whereas ‘Simulated Lovers’ has more of a mid-tempo bounce with a catchy chorus line that all reminds me of some of the songs on the first Swell Maps album [minus the Faustian experimentalism].
‘Police’ has a funky bass riff that gives it an almost reggae feel, but this is still more of a punk thing than The Clash’s ‘Police and Thieves’, which was more reggae than punk. Yet again, very cool stuff, and it’s clear these guys had a great knack for songwriting, turning something that’s pretty simple on paper into something that’s deceptively multi-faceted and creative. This segues – nay, slams – straight into ‘Revolution’, a barnstorming fast’n’hard burst of ferocity that’s like a cross between the MC5 and the Stooges. “Stick it up your revolution, don’t you know the time is near – rock’n’roll may be no solution, but that’s what I wanna hear” goes the roaring chorus, and fuck yeah is all I can say!
‘Turn My Head’ is yet another ripper, but hard to describe – actually, reminds me a bit of very early Pere Ubu with it’s jerky guitar and ropey bass riff. ‘Good On Ya Baby’ that follows is for me and my wife THE X song, and it’s just so strutting and balls-out – well, dick out as well, pants around your ankles while you’re at it, and pump your fist in the air – and eminently lovable, not only for it’s very Aussie punk pummelling riffage that really swings both punches and hips but also for Lucas’ totally snotty but unpretentious couldn’t‑give-a-fuck gravel-gargling vocals.
‘Delinquent Cars’ is a little pedestrian and plodding, but still a good track, with interesting guitar wrenching going on in the background from Lucas. ‘I Don’t Wanna Go Out’ features a wicked lurching off-kilter funky bass riff underpinning a song that’s about just wanting to stay in and not go to the disco or the pool hall, with weird tape-warpings being used on some of the vocals to great comic and musical effect.
‘Lipstick’ is like a punk hangover of a 50’s rock and roll ballad, nothing much special until the chorus bits, both lyrically and musically; it features an amusing relationship insight in the lines “I know what I am to you… I’m your dipstick, I’m not your lipstick, I’m your dipstick… and I don’t mind.”
‘It Must Be Me’ swings between an uptight metronomic beat with angular guitar and speedy gonzales punk blowouts, before segueing straight into ‘Coat Of Green’ without notice, again a number with traces of 50’s rock and roll and r&b, like Bo Diddley flattened through a punk rock pressing machine to create something quite different from its roots. ‘Waiting’ is a slow, grinding death dirge that makes me think of some Black Flag and maybe Killing Joke [have to re-visit Killing Joke, my comparison may be way off there]. ‘Batman’ finishes the album with a fast, jangly injection of something more ‘fun’, like a blast of Ramones done by Aussie cavemen – and no, it’s not the Batman theme, it’s just about him.
The only complaint I have with this album is that it’s a bit short at 33 minutes, but at the same time it’s a great compact album, and with 14 great songs you could also say the length is just right.

Mention should be made of a live recording that pre-dates the album, and includes the 4‑piece line-up of Rilen, Lucas, Cafiero and Peter Coutanche – ‘Live At The Civic ‘79’ [Dropkick, 2001]. The CD contains a gig that was recorded for radio broadcast on 2JJ youth radio, as well as two studio demos of songs not on the album – ‘Runaway’ and ‘Slash Ya Wrists’ [featuring Krahe in place of Coutanche]. It’s all pretty good stuff, even if not quite up to the calibre of the performances on ‘X‑Aspirations’. The later live stuff that comes as a bonus with the Aztec reissue of ‘At Home With You’ has much better sound and really captures the band sounding their best and heaviest. There’s also another early live one I haven’t heard, ‘Live 8 July 1978’ [Spiral Scratch, 1997], featuring the line-up of Rilen, Lucas, Cafiero and Geoff Holmes.
‘X‑Aspirations’ has been reissued on LP, and also on CD by Amphetamine Reptile, though the CD is out of print and now very hard to get. The guy I mentioned above who thinks it’s the best ever Australian rock album runs a music shop, and he didn’t even know it had ever been out on CD; the guys at Vicious Sloth also told me it’d never been on CD, and they were surprised to hear otherwise. That’s what happens I guess, when Australian stuff gets put out on a fairly small US label without really putting the word out. It seems likely, though, that Aztec may reissue it one day, having done the second album.