Discharge - Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing

DISCHARGE -

HEAR NOTHING, SEE NOTHING,
SAY NOTHING

Because the Falklands war was over so quickly very few artists (and Crass would include themselves in this) could react or respond to it properly at the time. The most well-known song regarding the war - Shipbuilding by Robert Wyatt - for example, wasn't even released until the following year. There could be few finer ripostes to war in general, however, than a Discharge record and as chance would have it their début album Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing was released right in the middle of the Falklands conflict.

Clocking in at just over 27 minutes and containing 14 tracks, as might well have been expected this was Discharge at the height of their powers. To the close-minded, of course, it was nothing more than a tuneless racket but if the truth be told it was even more than just a bona fide classic album - it was an experience.

From the first preliminary beat of the drums and the first full-throttle leap into the sonic inferno, the same relentless and intense pace is maintained throughout until without any frills it comes to a sudden halt leaving the listener in a void of silence.

In the hands of most other bands, a whole album like this may have proved to be boring in the extreme. Discharge, however, had created something quite remarkable that could be interpreted in a number of ways. Musically, each track was an almighty rush of absolute power, blasting through time and space at incredible speed. An unstoppable force moving ever forward into the future. The paradox being that according to Cal's lyrics there was no future, only "A smouldering wilderness, millions dead and dying, mass death and destruction."

Alternatively, each track was a tornado of noise, swirling at an incredible velocity through the firmament. A hurtling maelstrom of ferocious sound throwing out huge electric arcs in the form of breakneck guitar solos. At its eye, again Cal, screaming in anguish: "Lied to, threatened, cheated and deceived... For how long do we tolerate these fools drunk with power?... And still men and women drag out there lives in misery. The nightmare continues... Kept in line with rifle butts and truncheons. Beaten up behind closed doors..."

Or maybe each track was just an absolute storm of pure noise, fittingly apocalyptic, destroying itself through its own sheer force? Cal, raging against the dying light: "The savage mutilation of the human race is set on course. It's up to us to change that course. Protest and survive! Protest and survive!... Free speech for the dumb! Free speech for the dumb!"

Midway through the album, the relentless sound is broken briefly by a snatch of sampled documentary commentary laced with the cries and screams of men, women and children. Rather than being a distraction from the overall Discharge experience it instead serves to accentuate the subject matter: "At seven tenths of a millisecond after the explosion and at a distance of 60 miles, the light from the fireball of a single megaton thermo-nuclear device is 30 times brighter than the mid-day sun. This little boy has received severe retinal burns from an explosion 27 miles away. The blast wave from a thermo-nuclear explosion has been likened to an enormous door slamming in the depths of Hell." This being the cue for Discharge to explode into another sonic inferno with Cal again screaming at the centre: "Can you hear the sound of an enormous door slamming in the depths of Hell? The possibility of life's destruction. Can you hear the cries of pain, the mournful sound? The possibility of life's destruction."

If only Thatcher could have heard this record, would she have been moved by it in any way at all? Would she have recognised it as the template for a style of music that would be much emulated by groups around the world for years to come? Would she have considered it to be some sort of threat to civil society and sought to have it banned? Would she have quite liked it, actually? Would she have thought it better than I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher by The Notsensibles? Or perhaps she would have preferred and be more of a fan of the Subhumans, who coincidentally also had a new record released during the period of the Falklands war?