‘ MUSIC LIST/ROCK
I THE LAST FEW WEEKS have not been a particularly healthy period tor Glasgow venues. Firstly Madisons has been closed due to the desires ol the tire inspectors, putting the venue out oi action lor at least three weeks, and secondly The Mission, on the south side, has been lorced out ot operation lor the time being at least due to the complaints oi neighbours about noise. Elsewhere, Fury Murrys and Rooltops are not going to be promoting regularly over July and August, and the Fixx have cut down from two gigs a week to one (until September.) Do I spot a gap in the market lor some budding promoter?
I SPOTTED at the recent Wet Wet Wet concert was lormer Celtic manager Davie Hay. This writer tell a sudden ieeling ot reliel at not being the oldest person there . . . Also spotted was Rangers' midfielder, Ian Ferguson. . . interestingly, neither prelered to stay at home and watch the Republic of Ireland v. USSR match which was on at the same time.
ALBUMS
I Iggy Pop: Instinct (A&M). Well, yes, it you call it heavy metal, that’s line by me. It just happens to be the leanest, sharpest heavy metal you’ll hear Irom anyone even hall lggy’s age. ‘Blah Blah Blah’ was a turgid and boring (though successlul) stab at a comeback, but this is Iggy back at lull lighting lury. Bowie has deserted lor his muddled pastures, so with Bill Laswell producing and lormer Sex Pistol Steve Jones attacking his axe throughout, ‘lnstinct' is, as you'd expect, well hard. (Mab)
I A.R. Kane: Sixty-Nine (Rough Trade). A.R. Kane have been going down a bomb in London, while imparting very little except that In the Eighties even the hippie underground has a designer label on its pocket. ‘Here, in my L.S.Oream,’ indeed. ll they do have promise, they've completely blown it with this LP, which is only disconcerting tor the reason that it‘s like Pink Floyd with the interesting bits taken out. For some kind ol sonic assault (it that's what they're alter) they should maybe rope Adrian Sherwood into produce the next one. As it Is, ‘Slxty-nine‘ meanders its way
' you grow out at alter a lirst album.
Instrumental ‘Russla In Winter’, on side two, which bears much more repeated listening. (Mab)
I Lightning Strike: Beat Sheet (RCA). Energy, real guitars, passion, commitment! Whenever press releases throw words like that at you, you can bet the record itsell will be dog lood.And when the band in question look like they’ve spent the day zig-zagglng between Flip and their local Army Surplus Store, you can usually lorget it and go and listen to some Jerry Lee Lewis instead. Happily, Lightning Strikes are an honourable exception, and though ‘Beat Street’ does recall The Clash, it doesn't do so as strongly as I’d at lirst suspected. All in all, pretty good (Mab) I The Styng-Rites: Night Cruising E.P. (DDT). Produced by kindred spirit Eugene Reynolds, here’s The Styng-Rites doing irighteningly well what we already knew they were pretty good at. They’re not just revivalists, despite a nimble shoplitting ot the ‘Midnight Hour’ ritt on ‘101 Things To 00’, but somehow bring their Sixties pop pastiche sound contemporary. Don’t ask me how. (Mab)
I Thee Hypnotics: Love In A Oitterent Vein (Hipsville). One look at the picture on the sleeve and you can tell that these guys are heavily into late Sixties I long hair and leather culture. God, they’re ugly. The music itsell is a pretty able stab at Ye Olde Stooges, like Loop, except that Thee Hypnotics use more than one chord per song. (Mab) I Chilli and The Groove Gangsters: Jump To The Beat (Groove Gangsters). Ol the Groove Gangsters I know naught, but this is a dangerously catchy electro dance track, tipping the hat to Krattwerk as it goes. (Mab)
I The Rocks: Freehome (Goteloan Phonographic Company): A Slirlingshire band based around two lrontmen, Bo McMullan and Mike McNally. The press release hints that they are experienced (‘in the mid to late seventies they had one ot the most successlul bands in the area’). Nevertheless this is a modern sounding single, which hints at good things rather than totally delivering them. Freehome has a delinite Alrican inlluence, via the guitar playing and backing vocals, but one suspects this may be Irom Paul Simon’s vision rather than the real thing. One that should be heard though.
I Summerhill: I Want You (Rocket 5): The return at Snakes oi Shake
through several variations on the theme at unintelligible lyrics voiced over as many textures as the guitarist can stamp out at his eltects pedals. ‘Sulliday’, the last track on side one, meanders at a tedious snail’s-pace, messing around with indecipherahle screaming, leedback and other strange noises, with a heat so non-existent that ‘lunereal' would be attributing it too much zip. Hopelully the sort ol thing
(Mab)
I Skin: Shame Humility Revenge (Product lnc).Originally put oil by their aloolness, though shaken by their Sensurround live impact. I can very rarely stand listening to anything Swans-related, though I theoretically approve. Skin is a sideline oi Swans Michael Gira and Jarboe, and ‘Shame, Humility, Revenge‘ was recorded at the same time as the lirst Skin LP, around 18 months ago: less explicitly brutal than the music Gira and Jarboe were making with Swans at the time, but still drenched in their lavourite menacing atmosphere. On ‘One Small Sacrilice’ can be heard early signs of the Country & Western Iixation that has had less ettect on Swans' music than they think it has, but more Morricone than Hank Williams, rellecting America’s dream back on itsell through the mirror oi the arid, amoral landscape on which it was lorged. Perlect tor Gira’s tortured soul in the wilderness posture and nakedly harrowing words. The wide-screen Western ieeling ol Skin and recent Swans is the antithesis ol U2’s, in that in the centre ol Gira’s desert lies a heart at irredeemable darkness. (Mab)
SINGLES
I The Blue Ox Babes: Apples And Oranges (GoIOiscs). The lirst and most durable impression oi this is that it's like a song Irom an ultra-tame rock musical and doesn’t endear itsell. The Iiddles, pipes and horns mesh beautitully on the long, vaguely Oexy’s
Arthur Fowler and His Top-Up Loans
songwriter Seorl Bumatt. This is a line tour track collection, with all the right sounds In there somewhere hour the Byrds through to R.E.M. Best tracks are the more restrained Golden Sunshine and Goodbye (Just About Everything) which sounds like it would be brilliant live. So how about some gigs? (JW)
I Jane Wiedlin: Rush Hour (E.M.l.): Upmarket at her lorrnar Go Go colleague Belinda Carlisle, and down market ol, say, Tracy.Chapman. Good , song, well produced, and almost pertect, lightweight pop. A hlt. (JW)
I Tanita Tikaram: Good Tradition (WEA): Perhaps not the most remarkable single ot the year In terms at the three minutes or soot vinyl. What Is remarkable is that someone who has a voice and songs at this maturity is only 18. Tanita Tikaram has a better understanding oi where her own, and other people's music, is coming Irom than most people twice her age. With that on her side, this single, which is a line song produced to bring out its most spriter side, should signal the start ol a lengthy and prosperous career. Not necessarily an overnight sensation though: time is well and truly on her side. (JW)
PLAYLIST
1. Ramones: Blitzkrieg Bop (Sire compilation LP track)
2. Ramones: Teenage Lobotomy (Sire compilation LP track)
3. Amayenge: Chibuyubuyu (WOMAO Zambian compilation LP track)
4. The Styng-Rites: 101 Things To 00 (‘Night Cruising' EP track)
5. Blue Ox Babes: Russia In Winter (GoIOiscs B-side)
6. We Free Kings: These Boots Are Made For Walking (Edinburgh Musicians Collective compilation tape) 7. Therapy: Get Down On It (Edinburgh Musicians Collective compilation tape) 8. Firehose: Sometimes (SST)
9. Somebody Famous: Glory (Raindance LPtrack).
10. Joe Strummer: Trash City (CBS)
REVIEW
ARTHUR FOWLER AND HIS TOP-UP LOANS
Edinburgh's Venue, June 23 ‘Oisgusting’, ‘slmplyterrillc’, ‘outrageous’ and ‘you should be ashamed ot yourselves’ were all heard bandied about alterthe band had played this, their lirst gig. Consisting ol seven unashamed showotls, Arthur Fowler put on a superbly out-ol-hand pertormance. Originally the band was conceived as a method at getting as many women as possible on stage at onetime, doing anything or nothing, but with a view towards heavy drinking. The result verges on the chaotic, and the songs, mainly original, are about
anything but love and heartbreak-
‘Oirty Filthy Copper Bastards’ and ‘Tea Reggae' being two. First night antics involved lull or partial nakedness, a stomach contraction solo, rock'n’roll gargling, underpants thrown to the audience and general costuming. As a band they adroltly avold classillcatlon and as an evening out, it you’re game, you shouldn’t miss them. (Linda Gibson)
32 The List 8— 21Jul_v1‘)88