V ALBUMS
I Disposable Homes at Hlphoprlsy: hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury (4th a Broadway)This is not so much an album to get down to as an album to sit down. listen and learn with. Fresh-faced beats and live percussion that is unlike most rap contemporaries combines with the social consciousness of Gil Scott-Heron to provide a disturbing and powerful critique of modern America. There seems little that frontman Michael Franti is scared to get his lyrical lips around. be it the violence of hom0phobic language. the GquWar. the Green Card system or those in the black community who sell out. All receive a severe tongue-lashing. Pick ofan extremer juicy crop is an excellent reworking ofthe Dead Kennedys‘ ‘California Uber Alles’. in which modern-day California Governor Pete Wilson is given a stern lecturing. Sit down. listen and learn. (Philip Ogilvic) I Mighty Force: Hypnovel (Earache) Blink hard. scratch yer heed and furrow yer brows. but yes. it's really happened: Earache. the label responsible for some of the most disembowelling thrash-speed-death metal in Britain. has gone dance. Well. sort of. Mighty Force. in fact. draw equally on hard-edged rap. electro. techno. ambient soundscapes and menacing European Body Music. though without ever really capturing the essence of any ofthem. When the brew‘s correctly mixed. you get a potent. pulse-zapping hybrid; when it isn‘t . a yawnsome mish-mash. And how could they allow a song entitled ‘Fat Lady Philosophers’ to be so serious? (Calvin Bush) I No Man: Lovestghlene Little Indlan) A sublime merger of substance and style. ofart and artifice. of modern dance sensibilities and traditional orchestral arrangements. Lovesighs is a compilation ofNo Man‘s four single releases so far. Tiptoeing across the gold-plated rooftops ofThe Blue Nile. funking on down with the Native Tongues‘ collective. aching for loved ones with all the doomed romance of a modern-day Baudelaire. their songs straddle many influences. Some might say. pointing to the sleevenotcs‘ reference to Mahler and Reich. that it‘s all too pretentious, but ifthat's the price we pay for a welcome return to intelligence. poetry and beauty. I reckon we can
afford it. (Calvin Bush) I James DIIIdII: EISIIIIII SI (NMC) The sheer intricacy of Glaswegian composer James Dillon's writing works against the percussion-only title composition. but is heard to more impressive effect in the orchestral textures of La Femme In visible (where his liking for manipulation ofdense blocks of sound is much to the fore) and Windows and Canopies. His musical languages are unconventional and often difficult. but are also shot through with a striking degree of power and originality. and are performed with conviction by Richard Bernas and Music Projects/London. NMC also issue an imaginative song-book project from The Composer‘s Ensemble. in which Mary Weingold sings a collection of new songs from British composers. intended to provide ‘a fresh focus to the writing of small lyrical forms.‘ (Kenny Mathieson)
I John Scofield: Grace Under Pressure (Blue Note)
I may just be losing my
grip, folks. but damn me if ‘Twang‘ from Sco‘s new
album doesn‘t sound just
like The Grateful Dead. minusthe dodgy vocals. Elsewhere. though. the vein is the more familiar. carefully-crafted modern
' jazz we have come to
expect. But this quartet with the twin-guitar front line of Scofield and Bill Frisell is not as gutsy as the band with saxman Joe Lovano which featured on his previous two albums. Charlie Haden and Joey Baron complete the line-up. and in truth it sounds more like a Frisell album than a Scofield one, which isn‘t necessarily a bad thing. just a slightly unexpected one. London guitarman Ronny Jordan’s debut album for Island. The Antidote, pitches at a club audience. but the uneasy alliance of Wes Mongomery-style jazz and a contemporary dance groove ends up sounding like a compromise all round. (Kenny Mathieson)
V SINGLES
I Bertryl Barty: Valentlna (Bruce’s) The importance that people are attaching to this premiere release on Bruce Findlay‘s new label — ‘What. Barky.’ Barky?’ they mouth. pulling faces once Findlay is out of earshot. ‘The man's lost his marbles.’ - means that this might not get a fair hearing. But anyway: the band's live rumbustiousness has been smoothed out somewhat by their producer. the peerless Calum Malcolm. rendering it a shade tame.
But it’s got a busy but discreet rhythm track and a spacey guitar motif which both go a little way to make up for it. (AM)
I The Wlldheerts: Mondo Alilmho A-Go-Go (East West) Mundane amalgam of the mediocre parts from several brands of hard rock, played by a band including an ex-Quireboy and ex-Dog D‘Amour. Worth picking up in shop to stare at the cover. a newly-extracted heart bloodin impaled on a sucker-tip arrow. Best put it back afterwards. though. (GI)
I Extreme: Song for Love (AMA) Freddie Mercury-inspired release, with proceeds going to the Terence Higgins Trust. Fans will already have the title track. drawn from the ten-squillion-selling Pornograffiri ll. Queen or Extreme completists may be interested in the flipside: ‘Love Of My Life‘ featuring Brian May. Otherwise. leave this alone and send the charity two quid instead. (GI)
I Butterfly Child: Eucalyptus E? (II. Ark) As you might expect from a label connected to A R Kane. Butterfly Child’s EP drifts off untethered into the ether. the vocalist peers through a hole in the clouds to sing of longing and yearning and 'Breath Of Fresh Air' and ‘Viola‘ ache in all the tenderest spots. Acoustic. insistent and way out there. (CB) I The Aphex Twin: DIgeridoo (Outer Rhythm) I‘m not usually a fan of heavy industrial hardcore, but even my most cynical mood can‘t take away from this monster of an electric pylon. ‘Digeridoo' is a near-perfect example of hardcore, as startlingly haunting techno beats bring the Australian outback into your living room. (PO)
I They Do It Wlth errors: The Last Reel Belly (Setanta) Studies in weirdness. As could be surmised from their name, They Do It With Mirrors are scene-shifters par excellence. This Limerick trio’s debut EP constantly mutates, variously contriving to be New Wave spikiness. acoustic melancholy, artpunk beatness. more spikiness. Too malleable for its own good. but diffuse thrills are there to be gleaned. (CMcL)
I Sinnemon: I Need You Now (Jive) Over the last nine years. every Tom, Dick and Clivilles has sampled this record. None of them has been up to the task. and now justice is done with the re-release of this superb. pulsating garage classic. Still sounding ahead of its time. this record stands for all that is gospel in dance (PO)
RECORD REVIEWS MUSIC
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TOCTA OUTLETS THROUGHOUT
The List 34 April — 7 May 1992 35