Use No Hooks - The Job LP

Chapter Music is very excited to reveal a trove of previously unreleased recordings by early 80s Aussie disco-punk heroes Use No Hooks. The band feature Arne Hanna from Michael Hutchence’s late 80s INXS side-project Max Q, as well as members of infamous Melbourne synth-punk band Primitive Calculators.

Use No Hooks are best known for their 1983 Aussie punk-funk classic Do The Job, never released at the time and first heard on Chapter’s Can’t Stop It! #2 compilation in 2007. The track was later bootlegged on a 12" by Psychemagik and has since become a leftfield club staple.

The band existed in various incarnations from 1979-84. They initially took part in Melbourne’s renowned Little Band scene, before morphing unexpectedly into a nine piece disco-funk big band in 1983. This final incarnation took nods from Chic, Talking Heads and the Sugarhill Gang, twisting them into an Australian punk-funk, proto-rap format uniquely their own.

The band recorded five songs onto reel-to-reel four track with engineer Simon Grounds in 1983, including the legendary Do the Job and a cover of Willie Dixon’s Spoonful, but the unmixed tape remained in a cupboard for more than 35 years.

A chance conversation between Simon and Chapter’s Guy Blackman lead to the songs finally being rescued from the aging reel. Mikey Young and Simon Grounds mixed the recordings, and UNH bandleader Mick Earls added choice live and rehearsal tracks from Use No Hooks’ earlier lineups (mostly recorded by premier Little Bands documenteur Alan Bamford) as digital bonus material.

The end result proves Do the Job was no accident. Lead vocalist Stuart Grant (frontman for Primitive Calculators) intones Mick Earl’s dry, colloquial lyrics in playful dialogue with singers Denise Hilton (Primitive Calculators), Marisa Stirpe (The Take) and Wendy Morrissey, over frighteningly tight white funk grooves from Mick Earls (guitar), Phil Nichols (keys), Matt Errey (keys), Andre Schuster (bass) and Arne Hanna (drums).