Greater Than One
London

July 10, 1989

Cover Image

UK LPx2 K=K Recordings KGKLP2
US LPx2 Wax Trax! WAX069

side a

  1. Now Is the Time (12" mix) - [KGK2]
  2. Everybody's Crazy (Except Us) - [KGK1]
  3. Techno Golden Beat - [KGK2], [KGKLP1]

side b

  1. Peace - [KGK3]
  2. Slave
  3. Computer Dub - [KGK3]

side c

  1. Now Is the Time - [KGK2], [KGKLP1]
  2. Song for England - [KGKLP1]
  3. The Truth - [KGKLP1]
  4. Kunst Gleich Kapital - [KGK1], [KGKLP1]

side d

  1. All the Masters Licked You - [KGKLP1]
  2. Dance of the Cowards - [KGKLP1]
  3. All Men Are Boys - [KGKLP1]
  4. I Know Everything - [KGKLP1]

US CD Wax Trax! WAX069

  1. Now Is the Time (12" mix) - [KGK2]
  2. Everybody's Crazy (Except Us) - [KGK1]
  3. Techno Golden Beat - [KGK2], [KGKLP1]
  4. Peace - [KGK3]
  5. Slave
  6. Computer Dub - [KGK3]
  7. Now Is the Time - [KGK2], [KGKLP1]
  8. Song for England - [KGKLP1]
  9. The Truth - [KGKLP1]
  10. Kunst Gleich Kapital - [KGK1], [KGKLP1]
  11. All the Masters Licked You - [KGKLP1]
  12. Dance of the Cowards - [KGKLP1]
  13. All Men Are Boys - [KGKLP1]
  14. I Know Everything - [KGKLP1]
  15. Dear Ol' Blighty - [KGKLP1]

US CS Wax Trax! WAX069

side a

  1. Now Is the Time (12" mix) - [KGK2]
  2. Everybody's Crazy (Except Us) - [KGK1]
  3. Techno Golden Beat - [KGK2], [KGKLP1]
  4. Peace - [KGK3]
  5. Slave
  6. Computer Dub - [KGK3]

side b

  1. Now Is the Time - [KGK2], [KGKLP1]
  2. Song for England - [KGKLP1]
  3. The Truth - [KGKLP1]
  4. Kunst Gleich Kapital - [KGK1], [KGKLP1]
  5. All the Masters Licked You - [KGKLP1]
  6. Dance of the Cowards - [KGKLP1]
  7. All Men Are Boys - [KGKLP1]
  8. I Know Everything - [KGKLP1]
  9. Dear Ol' Blighty - [KGKLP1]
  10. Brick Lane - [KGKLP1], [ROIRA200]

Lee Newman
Michael Wells

The second LP in the 2xLP set is the exact same LP as the vinyl edition of Dance of the Cowards. The CD adds various other remixes. Only "Slave" is new.

Out there something big is happening. Amid the sound of houses collapsing, techno crashing, and acid tumbling, a new musical form is erupting all around us. Inspired by the likes of The Young Gods, Front 242, and Kraftwerk, such bands as London's Greater Than One are on the edge of moment's most timely soundstream. They're the sound of the integrated technology boom, the meeting of electro, dance and cut up sound scrawl of rap's experimentalists. They're the meeting of porno kings Derek & Clive screaming, "I'm deaf, I'm dumb, I'm blind," and Hardcore Eurodance ("Song for England"), the sound of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" interfacing with Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in a punishingly loud, hipper-than-thou disco in the middle of Europe ("Now is the Time"). They're what Art of Noise set out to be and failed—British tradition put through a sampler, scrambled and regurgitated. As their current single, "I Don't Need God" shows, they're the promise of groups like MARRS brought to fruition—a blistering blend of distinctly European sound snatches, a perfect collision of the classical and the contemporary that bursts in your face like a nail bomb. "All Men Are Boys" combines the traditional 'Emperor Napoleon' nursery rhyme with savage drumming. "Peace slams John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" against New Order's "Confusion" (conceptual, eh?), while "Everybody's Crazy" hits us with opera and helicopters. Like Meat Beat Manifesto's recent Storm the Studio, this is a double retrospective, a sum total of the band's work to date (the reason for the missing star). After two years of drivel about the subversive attitude of sonic piracy, the thrill of robbing and stealing, London illustrates a savage talent lurking behind the collision of styles. This is the end, a new age is coming. - Sam King, Sounds

London marks the point when the sample band begins to become a genre, new and unique unto itself. Sprawled across two records, we are subjected to, the barrage of modern culture turned into folk music. Disco for the sonic guerilla. Acid house/techno terrorism. Call it what you may, this is a must for the alternative club/radio despite the fact that this is the sound of the mainstream that seeks to drown us. Like Adrian Sherwood and Tom Ellard, Greater Than One chronicle both the valiant fighting the tide and the last breaths of those caught in the undertow. - Rockpool

If you are interested in music, especially the music being made today, then you will be interested in this record. It will not sit quietly on your turntable, it will transform your imagination and liquefy your expectations of what music is "supposed" to be like. The degree to which you are impressed will probably depend on how bored you are with popular, mainstream music; one spin for the cynical could result in renewed hope for the future. Technology, art, ideas, and courage can be combined to create really important, relevant music that affects the way we judge our world, and this compilation is such a work. I now dare to imagine what they may do next. - Robert Shea, Discotext