On the face on it Disorder were the 80s Punks that made GBH look like a minor misdemeanour and Anti-Pasti like a mere starter dish (er but that’s what it means….). But time and your ears can play terrible tricks on you, so it pays to approach these things with a fresh mind. Maybe this is a sign we should look again at Disorder for a moment disregarding the Cider quaffing UK82 clichés that they no doubt played up to a bit? Perhaps, just perhaps, Disorder were not quite the heads down, one-dimensional hell for leather merchants once supposed? Let us remember Bristol has a long and brilliant history of Post Punk and musical experimentation, starting with the Pop Group and working through from the huge and talented Reggae scene right up to artists like Tricky and Portishead. Now who is to say that Disorder don’t belong in there somewhere along the line? Ok so for the most part they were the straight-ahead but not straight edge (not with their cider intake) Hardcore Punks they appeared and I’m not trying to reposition Disorder as some kind of idiot savant Post Punk saviours, but let us give them the benefit of the doubt for a while that there was something to their art lurking below the surface.
I remember reading an interview with Disorder way back in 1981 and I think it was in “Flexipop” of all places. Anyway the point is I seem to recall that Disorder guitarist Steve Allen was very much in the thrall of John Lydon and the words used were something along the line of “I still think he can do no wrong” (remember this was in 1981 and the butter ads and “I’m A Celebrity” were still decades away). Now it isn’t too big a leap of faith to suggest some of the Public Image attitude may have seeped into the band and had a result on their sound (hang in there with me on this one). If we take the song “Complete Disorder” (from that first EP) in isolation, on one level superficially you could see it as just another fast Punk rant, but it’s so distorted it isn’t really that different in appearance from “The Cowboy Song” by PIL for example. Whether it is by accident or design, by cheapo production or forethought (and I can’t really say for certain myself which it is, but veer on the side of a “happy accident”), Disorder to begin with didn’t actually sound that much like the sort of standard speed Punk that was all the rage at that time. Having said that this first EP is a thrilling high speed and lo-fi ride and the following extended play “Distortion To Deafness” also has its moments too, “More Than Fights” stop-start psychosis and the actually quite catchy “Daily Life” being chief among them.
Just to note here that “Complete Disorder” featured on the first “Punk And Disorderly” compilation LP, an essential document of 80s Punk and “More Than Fights”, the key track from their next EP was on the “Further Charges” follow-up. Disorder at this point of time were carving their own niche of super speed mayhem and as things solidified perhaps a little something was lost. For the while though they continued apace. “Mental Disorder”, the final EP featured here, seems to have the track “Maternal Obsession” missing, but elsewhere touches on Chaotic Dischord-style self-parody in “Buy I Gurt Pint” and one of their best known efforts, the hyper-speed “Rampton Song”. After this Disorder went onto to have a long career with a revolving door line-up, but this compilation sums up their early years well and sometimes gives us a picture a little different than what we may have expected.