Music Review: Part 1, Funeral Parade EP (Reissue)

By Less Lee Moore

Perhaps the only reason that hundreds of copies of Part 1’s 1982 EP Funeral Parade weren’t burned at Southern Baptist churches during the eighties is because there were only 300 of them pressed. Lord knows if I’d heard their vicious, anti-religious lyrics and angular, distorted music back then I would have been an instant fan. Now we can all rejoice because Sacred Bones has reissued a remastered version of Funeral Parade in a deluxe gatefold sleeve. The UK band also reformed in 2013 and did a brief tour of North America for the first time ever this past April.

Initially considered part of the London “anarcho-punk” scene due to their association with bands like Rudimentary Peni, Crass, and Subhumans, Part 1 doesn’t fit snugly into any one category. Musically, they some across like deathrock, while lyrically they feel almost like mid-’80s thrash metal. Singer Jake Baker’s snarl is decidedly punk as he spits out lyrics like “though shalt not kill but you’ve his clearance to burn” (from “Salem”).

Funeral Parade feels like less of an EP and more of a blistering 17-minute performance art piece captured on vinyl. Instrumental bits “Funeral Parade” and “Funeral Parade (reprise)” open and close the EP, while the other four tracks flow into each other almost seamlessly, like variations on a theme. Mark Ferelli’s guitar work is astonishingly good, and if you’ve not heard Part 1 before, you’ll be shocked that you hadn’t discovered them sooner.

Blogs devoted to obscure bands have become a goldmine for music fans and collectors who either want to consume as much music as possible or who are looking for the origins of those never-forgotten songs they taped off of college radio in the ’80s. Since much of those uploads are unmastered transfers from vinyl to MP3, it’s fantastic that labels like Sacred Bones are providing pristine copies of this kind of music for all of us to enjoy.

Funeral Parade was reissued by Sacred Bones on April 7.