The System - Is Murder

THE SYSTEM - IS MURDER

In the meantime, over at Spiderleg Records the release of the second EP by The System found them also fulfilling their earlier signs of great promise in a most satisfactory way. Entitled Is Murder, the record revealed that since debuting with their Warfare EP a year previously, The System had continued with their knack of forging together various Punk influences to create their own pounding amalgamation.

Having spent the past year gigging with the likes of Flux Of Pink Indians, Crass, Alternative, and Dirt, their primary source of influence had been all things Anarcho and had now subsequently morphed into a hybrid of all these bands. For some - bemoaning the fact that there was already one Crass too many - this was a problem but the truth of the matter was that being the epitome of a so-called 'Crass band' was actually something to aspire to.

The System had taken essential ingredients from all their Anarcho peers and created a record that was not only pleasing to the ear but also to the eye. On thrashing, fuzzed-out rhythm guitar it could easily have been Crass's Andy Palmer himself playing - which was no bad thing in the slightest. Similarly, the sleeve design was a combination of The Mob's dove of peace, Crass's broken gun, and Dirt's Grim Reaper; all in stylish and stark black and white.

The only let down was that unfortunately The System still hadn't learned to write good, polemical lyrics and this was the only thing that held them back from being a truly great Anarcho Punk band. And alas, as The System were soon to disband after the release of Is Murder, it was something that in the end they would never achieve but instead would leave them being remembered as the band who were almost very, very good indeed.

The System - Warfare

THE SYSTEM - WARFARE

More appropriate and in tune with events of that specific period was Spiderleg Records' other release during spring of 1982 called The (Warfare) EP by The System. Hailing from Wigan and featuring the wonderfully named Jimi Jerkoff on bass, Jan Camode on vocals, Andy Atom on guitar and Spider on drums, The System had forged a pounding, leaping, gliding and thrusting amalgamation of Punk styles.

From '77-type tuneful composition to The Ruts' sense of scale to fledgling Crass rhetoric, their musical ambitions were undeniable whilst politically, the sentiments of the songs came across as being heartfelt: "The dogs of war are starting with their game. Warfare! Warfare! Will it always be the same? The dogs of war don't even know your name, who gives a fuck they'll destroy you any way."

It was apparent, however, that in the use of such clumsy slogans on the record's sleeve as 'I'm not going to end up a poppy on your lapel,' and 'Fuck! Their liberty and justice, it is not ours,' that this was The System's first tentative steps into polemics.

Still, this was a band that promised great things for the future as did also another band whose début record would be released on Crass Records a month later. Hailing from Eltham, in South East London, the band was called Conflict...