RECORD REVIEWS MUSIC
I Material: Hallucination Engine (AxlomVBobert Fripp And Brian Eno: The Essential Fripp And Eno (Venture) The raison d'etre of Material is basically that the world comes to gyrate around Bill Laswell‘s floor- pinning bass. The cast-list on this one is stellar — it includes Wayne Shorter. Bernie Worrell. Bootsy Collins. Shankar. Sly Dunbar and Zakir Hussain and Trilok Gurtu on tablas — and the feel is similar to 1989’s Seven Souls but richer and more ornate. The Essential Fripp And Eno includes both sides of No Pusssfooting — and we know how seminal that record is considered these days — so for the first 40 minutes. nothing happens, but does so very gracefully. ‘Evening Star‘ is a majestic enough piece to escape denigration as mere early New Age. while the previously unreleased ‘Healthy Colours l—lV’ is Bri ‘n’ Bob’s stab at a sparse funk feel, with squelchy bass synth. experimental (ie the world and his dog would be doing exactly the same a few months later) vocal samples and. it has to be said. quickly- wom charm. (Alastair Mabbott)
I Junior Brown: Guit With It (Curb) Is this guy for real? Let's hope not: even the most committed
i «k m
'.
hat act' would have trouble keeping a straight face while mouthing grade-A C&W cheese like ‘My Wife Thinks You’re Dead’ and ‘You Didn’t Have To Go All The Way‘. Brown squeezes some truly deranged solos from his self-devised double-neck guitar and pedal steel (the ‘guit- steel’ of the title) that serious country artistes would only contemplate
in their most self- destructive fantasies. And
near the end. when he
slips a few Hendrix licks into an eleven-minute (I) solo. we can at last relax
in the knowledge that he’s : taking this about as
’ seriously as we are. Wild
‘ guitar. high chuckle
factor. And a neglected genius. Probably. (Alastair
Mabbott)
I Various: Own Bro
(AMPS) This cassette,
‘ giving fifteen (mainly)
Edinburgh-based bands a track each to show off. is
a couple of months old now. but with the current I flurry of activity in the
AMPS camp. is still timely. Odd Bodhran mix up a brew comparable to that of Material. reviewed elsewhere on this page. but. largely. side one is top-heavy on 70s funk and its poppier 80s derivative. with The Comedians injecting a fiddle for a bit of variety. The highlight. though. is Macumba. who
mix strident bagpipes with African-influenced drumming to devastating effect. Glasgow’s The Beat Poets incongruoust turn up on side two. which also boasts Fjaere and two accomplished efforts by the underexposed Harmonics and Stuntdog. From there on. indie sounds predominate in the shape of Subconscious and the more carnivorous stylings of Supernova and Miraclehead. A good breadth of styles. then. and enough ofquality to make this worth searching out. (Available from AMPS. 43 Barclay Place. Edinburgh EH 10 SDW.) (Alastair Mabbott)
I Coldcut: Philosophy (Arista) Welcome back to 1990, when dance music was soul, late summer schmooze with a happy, less bleepy tone. Back then, Coldcut were the band that launched the careers of Lisa Stansfield and Yazz. Rarely threatening the charts since, the boys have created their own label. ‘Ahead Of Our Time’. The trouble is it isn’t. Back in I990. Messrs Black and Moore tinkled with drum machines and programmes. Little has changed on Philosophy. Coldcut could do with a session drummer or investing in one of those wee drum kits out of Argos. It’s retro. but that isn't always a bad thing. The first half is melodic. with the melting vocals of Janis Alexander rather stim’ng on ‘Chocolate Box’ and ‘What We’re Living For’. In comparison. the second part is garbled and engaging. Choose from Bobby Gillespie’s gospel pen'od (‘Peace & Love’). Julee Cruise's Twin Pea/cs variables (‘Sign’). Mike Peden's string vestiges (‘Angel Heart’. ‘Autumn Leaves’) and Eric Serra‘s (Big) Blue period (‘Fat Bloke’). Ahead ofits time? No. Worthwhile? Yes. ifonly to remember that dance has soul. (Philip Dorward)
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The List I 1—24 March I994 31