Messthetics Greatest Hits

Though in the UK punk was often initially talked up as a grassroots music for the people, in ways it was down to many others – not all punk-as-such – that either took direct inspiration from the idea or recalibrated what they were already doing to fully kick in that promise in what was termed a do-it-yourself or D.I.Y. scene, with an explosion of releases soon following in the country in the late seventies. Twenty years later, collector and fan Chuck Warner, following an initial series of eight Messthetics CDRs starting in 1999, the title referencing an early song by famed D.I.Y. avatars Scritti Politti, started a formally-released series on the time and place with the archly titled 2006 overview Messthetics Greatest Hits. Warner’s sharp choices and excellent liner notes make the case for songs, however amateurish or cheaply recorded – notably what drum sounds there are are mostly early drum machines or very lightly miked – that escaped wider attention at the time. The engaging “We Love Malcolm” (as in McDowell) by O Level, by future underground/Creation Records stalwarts Dan Treacy, Ed Ball and Joe Foster, kicks it off, and the engaging, loopily snarky and enjoyably catchy oddness from acts like the Digital Dinosaurs and Instant Automatons among many others make it a crucial listen.