National Front blues

Press, 10 May 1979, Page 14

National Front blues

POET AND THE ROOTS “Dread Beat an’ Blood” (Front Line FL1017): “Dread Beat an’ Blood” was named by “Melody Maker” as the best reggae album of 1978, and that is not surprising since it has an authenticity lacking in the recent albums by the likes of Bob Marley and the Wailers.

Talking with a friend about this album, I wondered if New Zealanders

could relate to “Dread Beat an’ Blood,” since it deals with race relations in England, particularly oppression of the blacks and police brutality.

However, I don’t see why not, since reggae had its roots in the sense of oppression felt by lowerclass West Indians in Jamaica, and the music of the early Wallers and Peter Tosh became accepted universally.

In any case racism is a universal problem, whether at Notting Hill Gate or Auckland University. The interest in “Dread Beat an’ Blood” is that side one, and two out of four songs on side two, are actually poems .set to music. Surprisingly, the concept works. The poet is Linton Kwesi Johnson, whose radical trandition is placed in the Race Today movement in Britain. The music is used to draw attention to the “shitstem,” as Linton puts it, and specific cases are used to illustrate the abuse.

Strangely enough Linton and Bob Marley come close together on one point. They both “sermonise” although Linton speaks rather than sings. The backing band, together with singer Vivien Weathers, aided by Dennis Matumbi, prove that you don’t have to come from Jamaica to put down the reggae beat — indeed it has a solid African rhythm about it. SQUEEZE “U.K. Squeeze” (A and M L 36703): I feel sorry for Squeeze in one sense because, playing their album, one gets the feeling that it has all been done before. New wave material I mean. But the problem is that Squeeze have been together since 1974, and new wave was just the thing to “break in” the band. Further, Squeeze were signed up after the A and M deal with the Sex Pistols fell through, and then a peculiarly New Zealand problem for Squeeze is that the album has been ou in Britain for a year, but look what new-wave releases have been made in New Zealand in that time.

I’m not knocking the band at all. The fact they are good, and the John Cate production is firstrate, although they had their problems with him. For instance, Cale did not want any “drippy”

love songs, hence the occasional odd-ball song like “Out Of Control,” which is about falling in love with school kids — a sort of fixation with school uniforms. Cale also wasted some

of the bands’ time. Once he decided they should record “Amazing Grace.” In came the acoustic guitars. church organs, and flute overdubs. Luckily it did not make it on to the album.

Musically the band has its moments, especially Jools Holland on key* boards in a strange instrumental called “Wild Sewerage in Brazil,” which almost foreshadows some of Pere Übu’s material. However, there are also some straight rockers, including “Get Smart” and “First Thing Wrong,” white Squeeze also try to establish a punk identity on the opening two numbers, “Sex Master” and “Bang Bang.” “Take Me I’m Yours” was a hit single in Britain, but I cannot see why. It is pretty bland. But I like this album. It has enough variety to keep the customer satisfied.

PLASTIC BERTRAND “An 1” (RCA VPLI 4117): Listening to Plastic Bertrand reminds me of Ned Seagoon’s comment in “Dishonoured” when Grytpype and Moriarty trick him into abandoning the yacht.

“I floated alone in the Indian Ocean, unable to speak a word of the language.” Thus, I am faced with the daunting task of translating the French songs of Plastic Bertrand into English. Apparently it is fortunate I cannot, because the lyrics are terrible.

Plastic Bertrand is exactly that. Plastic. It is very much Euro disco music, with nothing to offer. All the tracks are similar to the hit single release “Ca Plane Pour Moi,” except perhaps for “Solo Naif-Song” which sound a bit like the French equivalent of “Old McDonald Had A Farm,” because of the use of animal noises.

The popular Italian Song “Bambino” is discoized into obscurity, and the old classic “Sha La La La Lee” meets a similar fate.

Still, I can actually see this album selling well, especially among those' who want to impress their peers with “look what I bought today.” It would also impress at parties and give one that continental feeling of being superior to the Joneses.