MUSIC RECORD REVIEWS
.loe Lampard reviews the new releases.
‘This Is lt‘ (MCA) This is what? A chart hit? Hopefully not. but probably so. ‘this is' the latest release from Dannii Minogue. Kylie‘s little and less talented sister. ‘Big Gun'(East West) is the latest from those head- banging. short-wearing. hair-shaking and noise- rnaking Antipodean rock gods rte/Dc, standard stuff that will no doubt be a hit due to the tie-in with the Schwarzenegger epic motion picture. Forget the title track and the movie- link. this is worth getting anyway for the live classics ‘Back in Black' and “For Those About To Rock‘ on the flipside. Paul Weller swings along in full summer retro mode and releases ‘Suntlower' (Go! Discs) along with remixes of ‘Kosmos‘. 'That Spiritual Feeling' and a live version of ‘Bull-rush‘ — file under easy listening.
(Jul 3. fresh front their British tour with Jamiroquai. release a fine track titled ‘A Break From The Old Routine‘ (MCA). a nice bassline and fine vocals with a couple of decent remixes make this one a winner. Funky weirdness comes from Freaky Realistic with their bizarre new offering entitled ‘Leonard Nimoy‘ (Frealism) a catchy little number with some strange lyrics. laid-back and on the right track.
My favourite releases this time round are both on the excellent Mute label. firstly Parallax release their debut single ‘Push For The Love Of Life‘ (Mute) — move over Utah Saints and Sheep On Drugs. this is techno/rock at its loudest and fastest. worth getting ifjust for the ‘Valentine Mix‘. Next up is the newest offering frotn a collaboration between Moritz Von Oswald and Thomas Fehimann. the two Berlin experimental/techno gods. who‘ve been working together now for around ten years. The collective’s name is 3MB and the single's called ‘3MB Featuring Magic Juan Atkins EP'. This is a slice of progressive. experimental. loud. hardcore music. love it l most certainly do. though the neighbours don't exactly agree and have been at the door again threatening violence. Lastly. well worth a mention is the new release from Urban Species. a mellow rap on a good groove vibe is the flavour
for ‘The Experience' (Talkin‘ Loud). not as good as their track ‘Hide And Seek‘ on the Talkin‘ Loud ll sampler LP. but
Lvery listenable anyway.
VERVE
A Storm In lleaven (llut)
If you believe something is redundant, what happens to change your mind? If you do not love yourself, who will love you? Do you have faith? If you believe a man can fly, who can say any different?
This is what you will feel after immersing yourself in Verve. Sit back, let it wash over you, like waves on a shore. Not as a comfortable armchair sat in front of the calculated images of TV - these are your own vistas,
: using the least exercised part of
human existence, the imagination. With song titles ‘Slide Away’, ‘Already There’, ‘See You In The Next One’, this
is an out of mind and body experience. Verve’s music is moody, evocative and uplifting, yet always quietly questioning. They marry the disparate traits of new age with the legacy of self-centred indie shoegazing and the legend of dinosaurs such as led Zeppelin and The Doors. They are provocative dreamers, reminding us
§ not to get too comfortable. That the 2 world needs Verve, a little hope, a ; little help, only emphasises how great
is our need to escape, it only for minutes at a time.
Like the sea, there’s no denying Verve’s awesome power. These waves
i either lap at your feet or surge right j around you. Don’t let this be one of the bands that got away. (Ania
Glowacz)
l - w-
:— uz
Zooropa (Island)
on to tape?
pleasure stems from the
The all-out promotional campaign that’s planned for this record is kind of at odds with the low-key nature of what’s on it. I can almost hear Bono snorting, ‘We didn’t HAVE to do this, you know’, and indeed they didn’t. Who in their right minds, while trailing around the planet on one of the most talked-about tours of the last ten years, would write the follow-up to a massive LP, and just whack the fucker
Most of ‘Zooropa”s listening circumstances of its creation; that the
process that resulted in ‘Achtung Baby’ is still going on; that Zoo TV has
taken on a life of its own, filling them with ideas they had to rush into the studio to set down.
Ah, you ask, but does it contain another ‘Pride’, another ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’, ‘Mysterious Ways’, or ‘One’? Well, it has to be said that as far as killer tracks go, this is possibly 02’s least blockbusting LP ever. But it also feels less like a career move than any of them, barring (perhaps) ‘The Unforgettable Fire’. Gone is the panicked urge to make every album a significant milestone.
‘Zooropa’ is like a communal notebook. It’s not going to be their most listened-to album . . . but as a tour souvenir, it beats a dumb T-shirt. (Alastair Mabbott)
_ i .
THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN
Sound Of Speed (blanco y negro) ; Even their scars’n’all compilations are ? scouring, edifying listens. In the fine ' tradition of 1988’s ‘Barbed Wire Kisses’, and in the run-up to their acoustic album, ‘Sound Of Speed’ comes like a much-needed spiked fix of drugrock. ‘I got syphilitic hetero friends,’ goes the opening line of ‘Snakedrlver’, the single and one of the three new tracks on this twenty- track saga. It could be the Mary Chain by numbers, with its chugging black feedback rhythm track, but manages to stalk wastelands new, covered in shattered electric guitar scree.
‘Ileverence (Radio Mix)’ is equally traumatic a listen, as is the extended version of ‘Sidewalklng’, further proof (as if it were needed) that in their single releases Jlmbo and Billy-boy relish lnfllcting such agony and ecstasy on the unwary. And in the acoustic version of ‘Teenage Lust’ and the covers of ‘thtle Bed Ilooster’, ‘Tower Of Song’ and, totally surreally, ‘My Girl’ are new angles enough to attract not just the completist but the lover of rock’s more perverse outposts too.
Eight years on, It’s gratifying that The Jesus And Mary Chain are as fucked up and darkly humorous as ever. (Craig McLean)
3:};
35 The List 2—l5 July 1993