RECORDS

Rip It Up, Issue 44, 1 March 1981, Page 13

RECORDS

Jam Sound Affects Polydor The Jam have had it both ways. They’ve maintained their initial punk following thanks to their stripped down energy and intelligent use of mod trappings. And they've continued to seduce the survivors of the sixties with their uncanny feel for past classic noises. Like the best Toy Love moments ('Rebel’, ‘Don’t Ask Me’ and 'Swimming Pool’) the Jam have the knack of encapsulating the core and spirit of British Invasion sixties’ rock into their very own shell. Sound Affects is the third in a series of puns and the third in a trio of vital albums that have seen the extension and refinement of Paul Weller as perhaps the single most important writer in British rock’n’roll. As in the kids-growing-up Setting Sons Weller hits you with an almost flawless first side and so leaving the reverse for his few weak patches. ‘Pretty Green’ opens and is basic controlled Jam, but, next up, ’Monday’ is Weller’s most attractive and mature love song to date, it haunts you and provides an ideal contrast for their Beatles’ ‘I Feel Fine’ inspired ‘But I’m Different Now’ and the climatic ‘Set the House Ablaze’. The first blemish is 'Start' and it is disappointing utilisation of the Fab Four’s 'Taxman' bass riff. But ‘That's Entertainment', acoustic and danceable, shows Weller's ironic observational powers at their best. Light going out and a kick in the balls That's entertainment. Setting Sons was let down by 'SmithersJones’ and a rather unnecessary cover of ‘Heatwave’. This time an ungainly band effort, ‘Music For the Last Couple’ let the side down, and the closer, 'Scrape Away’ battles with a pale tune. Smiles all round though for ‘Dream Time’ which continues where the exquisite ‘Dreams of Children’ (flip of ‘Going Underground’) left off, and 'Man in the Corner Shop’ and ‘Boy About Town' are both giltedged Weller melodies. Paul Weller is changing. The cynicism and the bitter winces at realism are still there (‘That’s Entertainment’, ‘Pretty Green’ and 'Set the House Ablaze’) but there are love songs here ('Monday’ and ‘But I’m Different Now’) that he would have been incapable of writing in the past and they certainly augur well for the future. The sons continue to grow. George Kay The Cramps Songs The Lord Taught Us Illegal The background to this album, finally available here, is a story or two in itself. There’s the eccentric Mad Daddy for starters, to say nothing of Seattle's mercurial Sonics, who made garage punk thunder in 1964-66 before anyone knew what garage punk was or

should be. The Sonics have given the Cramps ‘Strychnine’ on this album. They also, in 1965, did the best version of ‘Louie, Louie’ you’ll ever hear. And finally there's producer Alex Chilton, who thinks the Cramps are the best rock’n’roll band in the world, and whose own every postBox Tops’ musical move is an absolute musthave. The spine on the American sleeve of the Cramps’ album says ‘file under sacred music'. Ha. With lines like ‘is it a skin condition or an extra eye?’ it is clear the Cramps are far from devout. They play modern bizarre razor-edged echo-and-reverb rockabilly, aping all the madness of that genre but pointedly staying well clear of slavish copyists like Robert Gordon and Dave Edmunds. Chilton’s decision to make the record in Sam Phillips’ Memphis studio (where even John Prine was made to sound reasonable) is the icing on the cake the sound of this record is unbelievable. Only the Trashmen have ever threatened to achieve anything similar. The Sonics, all of whom probably own hardware stores in the mid-west by now, would be real proud of the way the band does ‘Strychnine’, while the record’s bona fide classics come early on Side One with ‘TV Set’ and ‘Garbage Man’. For the Cramps, three chords are sometimes two too many. There’s even a tasteful cover of Peggy Lee’s ‘Fever’ at the end of side two. So tasteful it was a single. Songs The Lord Taught Us sounds like a glorious never-again oncer. A curio best never repeated. But there is more besiege CBS to release the Gravest Hits EP as well. It’s just as good. Roy Colbert Coup D ’Etat Polygram So often, the verdict on Coup D’Etat live seems to be the same "great playing, but I drifted away". They have so far lived their life under the handicap of inspiring respect rather than devotion.

With the large-scale success of their last single, ‘Doctor I Like Your Medicine’ they are in

a position'to change all that with a rarity in local music circles the perfectly-timed album release. Unfortunately, the album seems to be pretty much in line with the story so far: near faultless playing and well developed melodies but short of a spark. Coup D’Etat is produced by the group, and perhaps it is there that the trouble, lies. The sound is crisp and workmanlike, but also rather two-dimensional. Perhaps a step back from the determined DIY stance might lift the sound out of the grooves a little more. A little more rigorous self-criticism about the writing might also do the trick. Some of the words on ’Taxi’, for example are better left unrepeated, and ‘Naughty But Nice’ and the Blondie-derived ‘Closer To You’ are both a little slight to be occupying almost half of Side One. All these reservations aside, there is no doubt that Coup D’Etat have got it in them to make good albums. This one is a long way there on the strength of 'Doctor’ and ‘No Music On My Radio’ alone. And it really is great playing. Francis Stark Class Of ’Bl Propeller After several successful singles, Propeller Records have released their first album. In many ways it is the successor to AK 79, but unlike that they have only started gigging since the recording of the album. Five of Side One’s six bands are from the North Shore of Auckland. First are the Ainsworths. ‘Danger Man’ is good clean pop melodic and hook-laden, it would make a great single. The Bombers’ contribution is ‘Dance’. A nice bass riff, with sparse guitar and a big debt to the Mekons. Next are the Newmatics, the only southerners. ‘Five Miseries’ is skainjected rock. Thoughtful and tasty, it leaves many of its British counterparts for dead. The wonderful honking sax, and delightful phrasing make this the best cut on the album.

Rebel Truce are usually shambolic live, but ‘The Man Inside’ is passable in a dense, angry-young-man way. Also benefitting from the

studio are the Killjoys whose ’l’m Normal’ is simplistic, almost bland, but with radio appeal. The Moderns close the side with ‘Day Has Ended’. A classy organ sound saves them from their toneless singer and limp chorus.

The last of the North Shore bands, the Screaming Meemees open Side Two. They are possibly the best pure pop band in the country at present. They possess an uncanny ability to borrow and assimilate. ’All Dressed Up’ is a Kinks riff which has been ... dressed up. Quite harmless and lots of fun. Youth For A Price offer by far the most intriguing track on the album. Quirky and spontaneous, ‘Oh Yeah’, is a mishmash of tunes woven together for maximum texture. I’d like to hear them do it live.

Blam Blam Blam are probably the most experienced band on the album. Their playing on ‘Motivation’ is tight and well-constructed and the lyrics slot in perfectly. They obviously deserve to record more. Rhythm Method’s ‘Mad’ was one of the few bright spots on ‘Homegrown ’. ‘Carousel’ bears no resemblance to its ska sound. It revolves around a magnificent guitar line and bouncy keyboards. The Newtones, from Christchurch, are the only non-Auckland band on the record. ‘New Way’ is pretty heady stuff, with some adventurous guitar, and other studio techniques, spicing a pretty ordinary song. Vivid Militia’s ’Let’s Go To Australia’, suffers from a lack of tune which soon becomes unbearable. Not a good note to end on. Class Of 'Bl has been a long while coming. I’d give it eight and a half out of twelve. But who’s to say which class members will finally graduate? Mark Phillips

Black Uhuru Virgin Right now, Black Uhuru are the hottest thing in Jamaican music, and it’s good news that Festival are releasing their most recent album here. Meanwhile, RTC have issued this selftitled compilation of singles originally released on Taxi and D-Roy, plus a couple of new tracks. Originally titled Showcase, this album shows Black Uhuru to be worthy of all the acclaim they’ve received in the last two years. In fact,

they probably surpass anything you’ve read about them. Along with Denis Bovell, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare are probably the most influential producers in reggae. They take sounds and rhythms and twist them to produce something devastatingly original. Nowhere is this better illustrated than with Black Uhuru who have the songs and the voices to enable Dunbar and Shakespeare to work without restraints. The only track here not produced by them, 'Shine Eye Girl', is no less adventurous with its masterful dub. Most compilations are fairly scrappy. This is an exception an album so compelling that it goes beyond the superlatives it has already received. Simon Grigg Pearl Harbour Don't Follow Me I'm Lost Too WEA Something of a turnaround this. Last year’s Pearl Harbour & The Explosions was a pleasant surprise, very danceable, bass bubbly and unique enough to last. But the Explosions quickly exploded and now it's just Pearl, confronting us this time with thirteen exercises in rock'n’roll pop. Many of them sound as though they could have actually come from the vaults of 1956-62, but Pearl wrote the majority of them, confirming she’s in and right behind this new stylistic move boots and all. A muddy production, often burying the band’s more inspired moments, doesn’t help this enjoyable but too often unspectacular time tunnel romp. One feels there really are better vehicles for Ms Harbour’s distinctive talents. Highlights would be a Chiffons-like 'Everybody’s Boring But My Baby’, the humourous (Coasters even) 'At The Dentist', a pumping piano-sweetened 'Cowboys And Indians' (suggesting a duet with Dave Edmunds might just work) and 'Heaven Is Gonna Be Empty’. Nice throwback cover too. Roy Colbert Stiff Little Fingers Manx Chrysalis More than any band currently carrying banners Belfast’s Stiff Little Fingers have a right to be angry. Their music over their two studio albums, Inflammable Material and Nobody's Heroes has always been a splash of sulphuric acid, concentrated, in its harsh and jagged portrayal of Irish conditions. But this anger has become, even in the space of only two albums, a restriction on their music. Hanx is a muted, sometimes faster-than-the-studio live testament of their almost mythical, in some quarters, anthems from both albums. From Inflammable Material we are dealt blows from key cuts 'Suspect Device’ ‘Barbed Wire Love’, an even longer version of Marley’s ‘Johnny Was’ and their finest three minutes, ‘Alternative Ulster’, a distillation of their usefulness. The slightly more sedate Nobody's Heroes is amply represented by the title track, a clipped and less-than-soaring version of 'Gotta Gettaway’, the rest of the first side and 'Tin Soldiers’ from the second. Be thankful that

their version of the Specials’ 'Doesn't Make It All Right’ has been left in the Manor Mobile’s tape decks, we don’t need another. As a track selection, predictably enough, Hanx is a veritable live greatest hits and unless I’m mistaken it’s going to sell a bundle. Fine, it has more power and stridency than most, but it shows that the band’s over-the-top 1-D song format has worn way too thin. Buy Inflammable Material and leave it at that. George Kay Various Artists Machines Virgin A 12-track sampler for all those into meccanik dancing. Melodically the machines are sometimes left to do too much of the work, but compositionally all is not lost as there are plenty of interesting lyrical ideas thrown around from Crash Course In Science’s run-down on 'Kitchen Motors', sung in a suitably atonal housewifely whine, to Fad Gadget’s garish tale of 'Ricky’s Hand’. Side One, with Orchestral Manoeuvres’ 'Messages’ as the apex, scores stronger on continuity, Side Two springing the surprises the sprawling anarchy of Public Image’s 'Pied Piper’, the similarity non-album XTC contribution 'The Somnambulist’ (moody, heartbeatbased and excellent) and Irmin Schmidt/Bruno Spoerri's aural painting of a nightmare train ride 'Rapido De noir’. A generally serious collection, Henry Badowski and Silicon Teens proving the exceptions and the most likely singles successes. Roy Colbert Various Artists Leiber & St oiler Only In America WEA Rock and roll history can make dull listening. It can even be saddening. To find out a song you lived by in your high school years is as junky as 'The Tide Is High’ can be shattering. So the delight of this double album set of songs written and, for the most part produced, by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller is that very little sounds rubbishy. If you’ve never heard of Leiber and Stoller they could briefly be described as two middle class white guys who loved black music, wrote a series of classic rock and roll songs ('Hound Dog’, ‘Kansas City’, ‘Poison Ivy', ‘Little Egypt’ etc) and, perhaps just as importantly, regarded the production of a record as being as important as writing the original song. There are 30 tracks on Only In America. By and large the selection is excellent. There are obscure delights like Big Mama Thornton’s original 1953 version of ‘Hound Dog’ and the Coasters’ recording of ‘D.W. Washburn’ which makes good sense of a good song the Monkees ruined. I can think of only two quibbles in the song choice. Trini Lopez singing ‘Kansas City’ seems odd when the hit version was by Wilbert Harrison, and people like Wilson Pickett have covered it. And it would have been interesting to hear Peggy Lee’s original recording of 'l’m A Woman’ rather than Maria Muldaur’s version, as good as it is. But enough of the nit picking. This a collection to be enjoyed, not dissected. It’s flashy, funny and fast and if La Vern Baker singing ‘Saved’ doesn’t move you then you’ve never loved rock and roll.

Phil Gifford