l
The mAKE-UP
In Mass Mind (Dischord) * it 7": at
The faithful already know that The mAKE-UP are the undisputed emperors of cool in the global music stakes. There’s no problem With their mode of expression - passionate, frenzied testifying to a garage beat and punk- blues gUitars — and every band should try matching outfits at some pomt, although it's doubtful anyone else could carry off mustard safari surts like Svenonius, Canty, Mae and Gamboa.
In all this, The mAKE-UP are the
ultimate rock ’n' roll religious experience for boys and girls everywhere but, yet again, they've released an album which is less than the dwine revelation of one of their glgS, A mAKE-UP album is really JUSI a comfort blanket to keep you sane until the next time they come out to play. So here’s the new one, gaining a blasphemously ’paltry' four stars. (FS)
POP
Future Bible Heroes Memories Of Love (Setanta) is
This record Will probably terrorise the holybejeezus out of doom-laden Radiohead fans, One whiff of this and they'll be thrOWing their hands up in apoplectic horror, screaming 'This is silly music. We shall not listen to it’, befOie burying themselves in the garden Well fear not, O Whey-faced duvet dwellers, it's only a bunch of novelty pop songs, ignore it and it'll go away After the opening, actually rather pretty 'Lonely Days', it's a precipitous slide into a sickly miasma of tiresome Romo hleepograms and songs that Ian Broudie would reJect for being too twee It's all as retro and pointless as Ocean Colour Scene v jUSl substitute the ( hosen avatar of All Things Godly Called Steve from Marriot
i to Strange. People who pretend to like
Ultravox
kill them now' (PW)
i COUNTRY ROCK ; Joe Ely ; Twistin’ In The Wind (MCA Nashville)
"2" 3! e“ xi:
, Joe Ely is back With the label on which . he made his initial breakthrough in the ‘, late 70s, and this strong follow up to
Letter To Laredo even includes some of
the musmans who were part of his ' regular band at that time, including
pedal steel maestro Lloyd Maines and
cjtiltarlst Jesse Taylor Ely is lll fine vocal
sup
0
out 6 April
form, and While they break no new ground, his song-writing instincts are as sure as ever, from the good-time fun of Nacho Mama through to the eerie symbolism of Up On The Ridge or the on-the-edge border town drama enacted in Behind The Bamboo Shade. In other words, prime slices of Texas roots music, with the customary spicing of Tex-Mex and blues. (KM)
BLUES
John Lee Hooker
Jealous (Point Blank) 1r 1% iii
A first UK release for this album, which was originally issued back in I986 on the small Pausa label, Just before his string of successful Silvertone albums re-ignited the veteran blues giant's career. John Lee is heard in typically strong form in a set of songs which don't tell us anything we didn’t already know about the boogie-master, but stand up well enough a decade on. There are none of the big-name cameo appearances familiar from recent records, but the organ and guitar- based band is sunably tight and greasy, and there is a greater energy to the music than in some of the more self- satisfied albums of the 90s (KM)
CLASSICAL/JAZZ
Orlando Consort and Perfect Houseplants Extempore (Linn Records) t * 4r
Linn Records bring together the two main strands of their catalogue With this idiosyncratic but fascmating fusion of medieval church mu3ic and contemporary jazz, in which the pure, haunting v0ices of the Orlando Consort mingle in largely productive fashion with the four Jazz musiCians of Perfect Houseplants The results are very different from those achieved by Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble in a similarly conceived meeting a couple of years ago. The harmonic and rhythmic influence of Jazz is much more overtly employed here, and the interplay between the two quartets is developed in more experimental directions (including some vocal improvisation) Within a constantly shifting sound-scape. (KM)
FOLK
Mackenzie Camhanach (Macmeanmna) ai- w if “it One of three releases reflecting the
new-found energy and confidence in
zrstar
n 2 CDs and limited
Gaelic music. Recorded in Dundee (produced by Michael Marra), this IS the first group album by Fiona, Gillian and Eilidh, the MackenZie Singing siblings from LeWis. Thick With vocal harmony, the songs are rounded out by a dozen or so of folk music’s finest instrumentalists and Singers, including a precentor and a dog! Uninhibited by the accepted strictures of tradition, the singing in places is less than perfect, but the tremendous variety of styles and imaginative arrangements contribute to an absorbing, and refreshingly contemporary album. (NC)
SINGLES 60 Foot Dolls
Alison’s Room (Indolent) air air it
The Doll's have seen fit to rewrite the theme from Fame here Which is, of course, entirely their perogative and obViously if one has to rip off Irene Cara, Fame is gonna Win over F/ashdance any day. Unfortunately, 'Don’t Speak’, No Doubt’s chart wassailing 'tribute' to Ms Cara’s disco opus, predated the Doll’s by, oooh, ages. And do Leroy et a.’ get any royalties out of this? (PW)
Astrid
No Reason (Fantastic Plastic) * ‘k at It has of course, been etched in anCient tableux that lovelorn Scottish boys mooning about gurls over jangelsome gunars Will always, always be, if not exactly a good thing, then at least something that's always nice to have around. It's all rather charming of course, cosy but perhaps a little too snug, like an irksome truss or a hug from an over eager, damp mormon. (PW)
Solex
Solex All Licketysplit (Matador)
it: at: vii is
Lo fi, Fo Fum, we smell the blood of a Norwegian. Or summat. This is by far away single and title of the fortnight. Solex is a woman Who ENJOYS skipping blithely around over acres of samples from Geoff Love and the BBC Philharmonic play those Tijuana TV hits albums, thereby creating sOme kind of bliss, And all recorded With two egg cups and a scaletrix set. (PW)
Kula Shaker
Sound Of Drums (Sony) * 1k it
More beefy, balls to the wall, Eastern- tinged psychedelia from Crispian and chums in this their first new material
record reviews MUSIC
The Starlets: nifty charm
Since K. Chanting and a healthy dose of mysticism should ensure the usual healthy followmg, especially at festivals. Don't know What he means by 'We're shaking the spear of love in the City, Oh yeah.’ though, (IT)
The Starlets
Give My Regard To Betty Ford (Illuminiere) it t w at
First single in aeons from Glasgow's Starlets and a rather nifty one too. Like Belle and Sebastian, the Starlet’s have a sound that comes out of nowhere but at the same time sounds like a cmammon cocktail of half a dozen dimly recalled, fantastic records that no one has ever conSidered, um, ripping off. Biff still sings like Scooter from The Muppets and it's all about as funky as Betty Boothroyd at a May Day regatta, but it’s a real charmer nonetheless. (PW)
REVIEWERS THIS ISSUE:
Norman Chalmers, Damien Love, Alastair Mabbott, Alan Morrison, Kenny Mathieson, Peter Ross, Fiona Shepherd, Paul WhitelaW, Jonathan Trew.
STAR RATINGS
k s a t a- Unmissable
x * it * Very 00d
it it 4r Wort a shot
* tr Below average
* You’ve been warned
the new single
sup erstar
2-16 Apr l998 THE LIST"