What's THIS For...!

What's THIS For...! is the second studio album by Killing Joke. It was released in June 1981 on EG Music. A remastered version with three bonus tracks was released in 2005.^[4]

Recording

One single was taken from the album. The 7" vinyl version had "Follow The Leaders" b/w "Tension". The 10" version included "Follow The Leaders (Dub)".^[5] It was the first single of Killing Joke to be on the UK Singles Chart, in May, 1981. It reached number fifty-five on the charts.

Hugh Padgham engineered and produced "Follow the Leader" including the Dub version. Nick Launay, Padgham's assistant at that time, finished the album after an altercation resulting in damage to mixing desk caused Padgam to leave before the album was mixed. Launay continued to work under band's direction.

The small studio was later re-fitted but at that time had a sound deficiency in the high frequency range, which could only be fixed by Padgham, as demonstrated on the single, which lacks this problem.

Track listing

All songs written by Killing Joke.

Side one

1. "The Fall of Because" – 5:12
2. "Tension" – 4:33
3. "Unspeakable" – 5:20
4. "Butcher" – 6:11

Side two

1. "Follow the Leaders" – 5:37
2. "Madness" – 7:43
3. "Who Told You How?" – 3:37
4. "Exit" – 3:42

Cassette version

Side one

1. "The Fall of Because" – 5:11
2. "Tension" – 4:31
3. "Unspeakable" – 5:18
4. "Butcher" – 6:09

Side two

1. "Follow the Leaders" – 5:32
2. "Madness" – 7:41
3. "Who Told You How?" – 3:37
4. "Exit" – 3:40

2005 CD reissue bonus tracks

9. "Follow the leaders" (Dub) – 4:06
10. "Madness" (Dub) – 7:28
11. "Brilliant" – 3:58

Lyrics

The 1981 cassette of what’s THIS for...! includes the lyrics for six tracks, with the titles quoted as "Follow The Leaders", "This Is Madness", "Exit", "Tension", "It’s Very Nice (Unspeakable!)" and "Butcher".

Personnel

• Jaz Coleman - vocals, synthesizer
• Kevin "Geordie" Walker - guitar
• Martin "Youth" Glover - bass guitar
• Paul Ferguson - drums, vocals

Charts

Legacy

"Not of this Earth" by Prong from their album Cleansing bears a similar riff to "Madness". Paul Raven was bassist for Prong at that point.

Paz Lenchantin listened to the album during the recording of Zwan's Mary Star of the Sea in 2003. She is seen holding up the CD in the accompanying DVD footage.

References

External links