X - Aspirations LP

Green Noise Records / Dirt Cult Records

The band coming at the songs with focused menace and animal abandonment, spitting on a bare wire and feet stomping, cemented in the rhythm and busting out, getting the sound down with something that could only come from just doing it up instead of planning it out, the band kicking it out from the get go, kicking open a door with the opener. Where it goes from there is nonstop punk rock, and where this comes from is anybody’s guess, sounding like they're fighting off those birds of madness with everything they’ve got, lifted on a boulder of rhythm and pushed down a hill, coming at you with a raised fist and sounding like nothing else from this era, maybe coming out of the charge of UK punk outfits sparking in the darkness of post-punk (The Clash, Sex Pistols, Joy Division), some cuts maybe showing some influence coming from American bands like The Wipers, Pere Ubu, Television or Ramones...with Steve just learning the guitar, his playing is punk in its true form and completely its own, angle iron and barbed wire, razor and mallet, focused on feeling rather than proficiency, with much of his strength focused on the throat, unchained with the freedom of punk, coming from the gut, biting at the bit, Ian Rilen’s bassline as pronounced as anything on the proceedings, thick as a hawser on tugboat hauling, primitive guitar and drums chopping at the rope, the band pulling everything into the rhythm with clenched-teeth abandonment, pulling it in tight and ripping it loose. Crank it. -- winch

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL: "Recorded in 1979, utilizing just a few hours of remnant studio time, X forever scarred the tough-as-all-hell history of Aussie rock ’n’ roll with Aspirations. Boasting ROSE TATTOO’s Ian Rilen and the roaring, he-man punk legend Steve Lucas up front, the LP begins with the classic pummeling of “Suck Suck” and only gets more severe from there. “Good On Ya Baby” out-struts a band like THE SAINTS — no easy feat. “Batman” is steroid-bolstered art punk that has rarely, if ever, been equaled. “I Don’t Wanna Go Out”is completely past-it and genius. Fourteen vicious, out-for-blood punk tunes, all of which are steeped in some supremely heavy, dark and daring shit. It’s a legit classic and one of the best punk rock albums ever made. Should any doubt linger in your mind, or if for some reason you have no clue what the fuck this LP is, there’s not a single record in these pages more deserving of your immediate attention."

Formed in 1977 with Ian Rilen (Rose Tattoo) on bass; Steve Lucas, vocals; Ian Krahe, guitar; and Steve Cafiero, drums; X recorded four songs with this original 4-piece lineup in 1978 (see the "Hate City" 7" we're also reissuing as a Dirt Cult/Green Noise release!) After the death of guitarist Ian Krahe, the band pushed on with other guitar players but struggled to find their footing. Then sometime during the last months of the decade, just a few months after vocalist Steve Lucas had first picked up the guitar, “the band that couldn’t be killed” entered Trafalgar Studios in Sydney as a 3-piece, and in five hours recorded this album: X-Aspirations, their debut LP, named one of the best Australian albums ever by Rolling Stone and one of the best punk albums ever made by Maximum Rock'n'roll. While it's rare that those two publications ever agree, in this case it would be hard not to.