Steve Ignorant and Paranoid Visions - When...?

After whetting the collective appetites of punk-dom with ‘Split Personality’ from last year’s stellar Escape From The Austerity Complex and then teasing us a little more with the If Ignorance Is Bliss EP, the unbeatable tag team of Paranoid Visions and former Crass singer Steve Ignorant serve up their main course in the form of full length album When...? – and what a tasty treat it is. Raw, razor-sharp and fuelled by the rebellious spirit we’ve come to expect, the record rocks with the best of them and is a more than welcome reminder that punk and politics remain a potent mix.
Ever the contrarians, Paranoid Visions seem to be one of the few bands from the first wave of the genre to actually get better with age. They’re on fire on the likes of ‘Charity Begins At Home’ and the pit-friendly ‘Braindance’. Ignorant more than pulls his weight too and the Crass legend’s bug-eyed performance on ‘No Contrition’ is ace. While the acoustic ‘Log On_Bog Off’ derails things slightly, ‘Join The Dots’ and the diabolically catchy ‘Changing Times’ (which successfully juggles vocals from Steve, Deko Dachau, Aoife Destruction and Sarah Bellum) leave us wanting many more records from this Anglo-Irish union in the future.

Key Track: 'Changing Times'