dirty dub and freaknik funk. You've got your Arc De Triomphe and Eiffel Tower stops with Motorbass and St Germain, but the tour heads down the smokey jazz side streets with Melaaz and out to the concrete suburbs for 6am rooftop scratch jams. A summer album guaranteed to boost Eurostar ticket sales. (RW)
Home 8
Turn The Dark Off (Polydor)
* * it it it
Howie B spent last year as vibes man for U2, working on every track on their new Pop album. Luckily, he has so much talent and inspiration that he can give Bono and the boys his all and still have this tank-load of Howie jurce to give us. With more funky loops than a pair of crocheted combat pants, the album Just can’t be faulted. The frenetic chase of 'Angels Go Bald: Too' is balanced by minimal sonic soundscapes akin to his Skylab material and, even tracks that are quite patently nonsense like 'Take Your Partner By The Hand’, are still brilliant. (RW)
Charles Gayle Quartet Delivered (2.13.61) finish
Henry Rollins’s oft expressed interest in avant-garde Jazz is reflected in two new releases on his own label. Saxophonist Charles Gayle was heard in Scotland last month in memorable concerts with Sunny Murray but leads a quartet here, on an album of tunes which weld together the big, soulful melodies of the sanctified gospel tradition with squalling avant-garde saxophone forays, underpinned by a
restlessly energised rhythm section and
James Jones’s choppy, rolling piano lines. (KM)
Matthew Shipp Quartet
; The Flow Of X (2.13.61) * it it t ; Pianist Matthew Shipp is attracting a
lot of attention on the avant-razz scene, and this album is a convrncing demonstration of why that should be so Working With a quartet featuring Matt Maneri's acerbic violin, the
excellent bass work of William Parker, and drummer Whitt Dickey, they explore a sequence of improvrsations which take staples of the jazz vocabulary as launching points for abstract extrapolations. Demanding but rewarding (and occasionally pretty damn funky) listening. (KM)
Cinema Momento Mori (Series 500) a: us * *
Cinema‘s classy debut comes wrth the most pep of press releases. We learn that the ’young lads from Glasgov-r' -- respectively Crawford Tait and Gregor Reid — are very much on a lifestyle tip, quoting themselves as spaghetti- western buffs, philosophers and doctors of computers The musir actually sounds like that: a loose drum ’n' bass type take on Momcone that is very wrdescreen and pretty damn thrilling. (SP)
Kid Loco
More Real Pop Porn Blue Sound (Yellow) * at tr tr
Anyone who finds electronit a told should really check the lTilJSlt coming out of Paris JUSI now Kid Loco, like Air, deals in hazy atmospherrt s and gorgeous chord changes This is almost picnic mtisit, evoking dusty roads, bare ankles and other larvyiid pleasures, (SP)
i Yo La Tengo
Blue-Green Arrow (Earworm) tiiii
YLT at their best convey an almost
Visible timelessness Their new LP, / Can
Hear The Heart Bearing As One, already seems life-long, and it's only been out a few weeks This (tit, ‘-.‘./Ill(Il is actually superior to the LP version, shows off YLT's magic for doing simple things in extraordinary ways Indeed, it may well be their finest ever five minutes“ air-(cmditioner atinospherics, e-bows and some phenomenal guitar- playing by Ira. Quite beautiful (SP)
’Wearisomely familiar': Robert Cray
l
DANCE The Prodigy The Fat OfThe Land (XL) at it it at w
Sometimes it's hard to believe that a group as uncompromising as The Prodigy are such a mountainous commercial hit. You can believe it with the other recent album chart-toppers Radiohead, because they're making stadium-sized gestures. But with The Prodigy, the mood just gets darker and
broodier.
The flipside is that few could resist rhythms as deep as the Grand Canyon or energy as wired as the skate punk velocity of ‘Fuel My Fire' (an [.7 cover, which no one else seems to like for some reason - maybe they just can't handle the sound of Magazine-meets-Anthrax).
The recognisable Prodigy soundbites and tics are here, their effect not diminished by their familiarity. In fact, much of The Fat Of The Land could fit into the speedfreak atmos of Music For The Jilted Generation, even if it boasts nothing quite so gripping as ’Poison' or ‘Break And Enter'. If Liam Howlett is always looking to push forward and bend boundaries, then he hasn't done it here, not by Prodigy standards. The leap from first to second album is vast compared to the sonic advancement here. However, everyone else has to admit, if it ain't broke . . . (Fiona Shepherd)
Cornershop Good Ships/Funky Days Are Back Again (Wiiija) it w Jr w
Cornershop seem more and more like a modern-day Sly And The Family Stone They're so funked—tip, free and fantastic that you've got to believe that this is their tune This double-header is like |<><al cltih anthems from a stene where the kids are all Into heavy politics, good tunes and had sideburns Alright (SPt
Future Pilot Aka
We Shall Overcome (Creeping Bent) * sir i ‘t
Future Pilot aka Stishrl [Earle ‘it't'lll‘x intent on transforming his bedroom into Bearsrlen's equivalent of the Biat k
record reviews MUSIC
Ark Studios The exciting news is that ( discerning (elebs like Thurston Moore, James Kirk and Bill Wells are already queuing up for a slice of this action, and much great music IS underway. Here, the main cut is an uplifting spiritual wrth the RanJit Nagar Chorus in fine form (SP)
The Pastels
Unfair Kind Of Fame (Domino) * * * 3k *
Modesty obviously prevents me gomg ton iii-depth Just checkout the stars, hahy (SP)
REVIEWERS THIS ISSUE:
Jirn Byers, Thorn Dibdin, Damien Love, Kenny ltlathreson, Stephen Pastel, Fiona Shepherd, Rory Weller.
ll M Jul 1997 THE lIST37