THE BEST BEFORE DATE - 1984 - Out of the Flesh by Chakk

And who, you may ask, were Chakk?  They were a Sheffield based band, much touted at the time as ones to look out for. This track Out of the Flesh gives a vivid sense for why people at the time, including me, got a bit in a lather of excitement about them. Because it still is a blistering stonker.

Produced by Roland Kirk of Cabaret Voltaire, this 12" version of Out of the Flesh has everything you might ask for from a mid eighties industrial funk track. Vocal screams turn into saxophones, drums hit harder than a lump hammer on plate steel, then squish into staccato guitar riffs. The vocalist yelps, croons, shouts, screams, gives it the full tilt 'Tony Hadley' profundo. Imagine ABC after a very rough night out on the lash, driven insane by Viagra and an addiction to abstract concrete poetry. It is very very very very OTT.  Exemplary of its time, with saxophones, everything raw, rough edged, harsh sounding, backwards bits, looped samples and scratching going on. Kirk brings out the full range of studio production techniques. Producing what turned out to be Chakk's first and finest recorded moment.

Out of the Flesh flew to the top of the UK Independent Chart, but never got within touching distance of the conventional UK Top 40. When you strike your best with your first release, it can be difficult to impossible to find even an half adequate song to follow it up with. The album that eventually came out - 10 Days in an Elevator - is best described as a lot of half thought through ideas actively going nowhere, extended to a length where they turn boredom quickly into murderous intent. Too much arty twiddling twaddle and not enough focus and intent.

Chakk, as a band, persisted until 1987 then folded without achieving any major league success. Some bands cannot live up to expectations nor survive the hype they attract. Their lead singer Mark Brydon wisely used the record company advance to build a production studio in Sheffield. He went on most notably to produce Moloko, who had a few hits in the late nineties through to early noughties.