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ROCK/POP
LUKE HAINES The Oliver Twist Manifesto (Hut) .0
Once upon a time. Luke Haines was on the verge of something very big. With The Auteurs, he made big. brash, snarly rock before crafting slabs of sinister Englishness with Black Box Recorder. Their elegies to death and loneliness and despair in the country gardens and tower blocks of ye olde Albion left indelible marks.
Now, he's pushing his luck on his own. Cockney pauper Oliver Twist, fragile BritArtist Sarah Lucas and the cult of disco are all put to Luke's sword. Thrust alone into the limelight though, his edge is blunted. High drama turns to low camp and darkly powerful thoughts end up as anaemic ramblings. A genuine tragedy.
(Brian Donaldson)
ROCK
JOE STRUMMER AND THE MESCALEROS
Global A Go-Go (Hellcat) coo
Let's hear it for Bazooka Joe — the man, lest we forget, who fronted a lil' ole punk rock band called The Clash and boasted the ‘original' post-Taxi Driver mohawk - Fran and Becks can eat his shorts. The second LP with collaborators The Mescaleros is rather a mess of ideas and styles
choice cut. a burst of paran0ia that COuld have snuck off an ASian Dub Foundation or Primal Scream LP. Mind you. hard to imagine either singing: “God. you baked a lot of fruit cake. baby!‘ (Rodger Evans)
ECLECTICA ROCK SUPER FURRY ANIMALS
Rings Around The World (Epic) coco.
It happened bang on time. Just as The Super Furry Animals were developing a reputation
for being such great imbibers of de ‘erb as to
be incapable of producing a coherent thought let alone a record, they come up with this; quite clearly their best album to date. Whilst last year's Welsh- language pastoral album Mwng may have been
created by much wiser
songwriters. it's successor has an
; ambition that the band , has hitherto shown little
interest in. 'lt's Not The End Of The World“ is a Kinks-y
, homily to growing old
whilst “Shooting Doris Day' is an acoustic anthem to the inevitably ofchange.packed bizarrely with psychedelically-coded references to the rise and fall of Peter Mandelson. Not that Rings. . . isn't occasionally without the skewed splendour of yore. The title track is
Wilson's Beach Boys on
even more drugs than normal and “Receptacle
ROCK
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Hut Recordings 1991-2001 H3. 0000
In the grand scheme of things, ten years in music isn’t a very long time. Entire musical cultures have exploded and fizzled in less than a third of that time, so a decade of intrepid label Hut suitably shows how music - predominantly indie —has evolved from the post-baggy fallout to the fickle new century.
Kicking off with the ever-contrary Smashing Pumpkins with an early gem ‘I Am One’, this collection lifts highlights from many of the artists on the roster, with David Gray, The Auteurs and Whale all putting in quality appearances.
The joyous bluster of ‘Yes’, from that long split angelic duo McAlmont and Butler displayed that big and beautiful haven’t gone out of style, while Embrace sadly reaffirmed that their finest moment was when they were still toddlers, in the ever tremendous ‘All You Good People’.
Gomez’ paean to getting mortal on student union liquor, ‘Whipping Piccadilly’ is still as silly as ever and even the over-blown moodiness of solo Richard Ashcroft can be excused in this context. The Verve’s ‘History’ provides an expansive, strung-out snapshot into his past also.
Ever with a keen eye on the future this closes with Hut’s trio of contemporary bucks. Crackout, The Burn and The Music all parade some tasty guitar skills to cover the overdraft. The Music come out tops however, on the Led Zep in a tussle with Jason Pierce and John Squire squall of ‘Take The Long Road And Walk It’. All three are a healthy indication Hut will be up there for another ten years. (Mark Robertson)
been wired to earth. (Tim Abrahams)
ELECTRONICA FROG POCKET/ RANDOM NUMBER Summer 2001 Record
McAlmont in the Hut
M’fiMAS Diflici’DRTs-
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98 THE LIST 5-19 Jul 2001