Records

Rip It Up, Issue 71, 1 June 1983, Page 24

Records

Sharon O'Neill Foreign Affairs . CBS ■ Sharon O'Neill has always been my pick for the first Kiwi act to . chart American Top 10. Given the requisite breaks, this is the album that should do it. Consider the evidence. Her singing is very pleasant, if somewhat restricted in tonal range. Rarely, however, is the listener conscious of any vocal limitations on Foreign Affairs because, not only is it so well produced, it maximizes O'Neill's strongest asset her songwriting. .'Always unashamedly in the pop mainstream, O'Neill has long been capable of turning out extremely pretty and catchy melodies. But. f while both her last.two. albums featured the occasional sparkling ■ number, they also contained large amounts of dross. This time out there are gems aplenty. After three weeks continued listening I'm still happily hooked on well over half the tracks. O'Neill's strong suit has always been ballads and Take The Fall', for example, is up with her best but what's particularly exciting here is the strength of her mid and up-tempo writing. Check out 'Danger' or ' 'Kids In Our Town'. there s the overall sound. Then there’s the overall sound. It's been a long haul from her first recordings in Wellington to the largesse of Los Angeles. Her debut i album (in 1978) was full of delight-; ful tunes but suffered from lightweight production. Here, under the tutelage of John Boylan, I O'Neill provides sumptuous layers of music that combine lush texture with driving propulsion. Moreover her keyboard work has never been so assured and its instrumental dominance is a considerable improvement over the jagged guitar focus of 1981's Maybe. In fact all the musicianship on the

album • is as exemplary as one would expect from the impressive roster of.’names involved. What we have then is a very sophisticated album of MOR rock from a singer-songwriter who thoroughly deserves major international success. And, for my money, 'Danger' is . a potential blockbuster, single■ that: could ' do for Sharon O'Neill what a.Vegemite sandwich did for half a dozen Australians. Wouldn't you like to see a Kiwi win the new talent award when they’ televise the Grammies next year? Peter Thomson; : \ • ■ V •• '• '• "•• • • • ' A'.■ •, Bow Wow Wow When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going •'rgavmb The question is are they pretty, enough to. make it in the States? Nothing wrong with the music. Sparkling pop again with those distinctive tribal rhythms kicking in the foreground. A commercial stab straight at America with Blondie producer Mike Chapman aiming Bow Wow Wow into that space vacated by Ms Harry's exit from the hearts and pockets of a nation. Bow Wow Wow have covered some ground after escaping first from Adam Ant and then from svengali Malcolm McLaren. But they've stuck with the music, danced round the pitfalls and now line up for their crack at the big

break. Why not? Annabella Lwin is 17 now and that voice is strong. The musicianship of course is sound. The maxislick production gloss gets’ me down a bit but someone obviously wants a mass appeal hit record. There's probably a few on the album that could do it. 'Aphrodis!iac' and 'Do You Want To Hold 1 Me' sound j likely. ' ' The . dreamy 'Man. Mountain' makes a mark and the Calypso flavour, on 'What's the Time' may be a foretaste of the future of tribal drums. I guess that's a natural progression. At least there's no square dancing. Bow Wow Wow make natural forward steps on the album. Best of luck. It is tough to keep going. Mark Everton Bob Marley & The Wailers Confrontation Island Posthumous albums are awkward things, if only because of the intense questioning about the motives for releasing them. The big cash-in' is a standard accusation. Since someone has already done this in Marley's case, with the appalling Chances Are, this LP stands a better, chance of being accepted by those who revere the man's memory. What's more, Bob's wife is executive producer. Having established the legitimacy of Confrontation, we turn to the contents. These consist of

some singles released only in Jamaica, along with out-takes from the - Survival and Uprising sessions. Afficianados will probably pick which is which. Frankly, the singles have the edge. At least one dates back to the Natty Dread days. Listening to the bite of the rhythm, there's just no comparison with the later material, I hate to say. : (Hate, because I recall raving about Survival, which was superb lyrically and melodically, but which in retrospect sounds too polite down around the feet level.) . So,; to the best tracks: 'Chant Down Babylon' sounds like a single from the Exodus period (I'm only guessing here), . while 'Buffalo Soldier' is probably.. a Survival out-take, ditto 'I Know'. 'Jump Nyabinghi' is the album's best dancer and comes somewhere between Rastaman , Vibration and Exodus, as best I ' can , figure. 'Trench Town', a Grade-A killer, also sounds very Exodus-like, and 'Stiff Necked Fools' bears closest ! resemblance to Natty Dread. It's also Marley's best vocal performance) Kere?^BH||M3Kßß^M No one expects miracles; from (albums like this.'Often, they only succeed in making you think of what might have been. On the later tracks, there is an air of weary resignation. Marley was reflecting on the mortality of man, j feeling a hideous disease draining away his very life. Not. happy conditions to work under. The difference between This and the earlier material is obvious. That having been said, there is sufficient here that reflects a great talent. That has been preserved is something for which we should all be thankful. Jah no dead ... Duncan Campbell Phil Bowering/Low Profile Quiet Streets Jayrem Phil Bowering has been around. An ex Proton, he's probably best remembered for his 1982 single protesting the visit of the warship Truxtun', but has also been intimately involved in Wellington

music as an organiser and musician. For this 6-track mini-LP he's gathered around him a group of experienced musicians calling themselves Low Profile. It all fits. Bowering has taken a long hard look at society, not particularly liking what he's seen, and this project has been the result. Low-key and biting in an unassuming way the lyrics are about change and its ramifications. The music carries these themes further, contrasting established patterns and styles with experimental passages. Throughout the rhythms are strong, on occasion as in 'lnsurrection' not dissimilar to those of the Police. Some jazz-style variation in the use of instruments and the presence of horns adds colour. 'Zone 31' is an accurate musical depiction of life in Wellington's Aro Valley/Terrace area, capturing its familiar feel and the encroachment of re-development. 'lnsurrection', a soulful criticism of oppression, is the high-point, developing neatly and effortlessly and the title track is a fine instrumental. Well conceived and produced Quiet Streets' main weakness is an occasional heavy-handedness in the use of synthesiser. A quiet success. David Taylor Miles Davis Live At The Plugged Nickel CBS A 1 Di Meola Tour De Force Live CBS The restless spirit that is Miles Davis is no better demonstrated than on these 1965 Chicago dates, featuring one of the greatest jazz groups ever assembled. With Davis are tenor saxist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams. These people were later to record Filles De Kilimanjaro, a work which broke so much new ground, but also cost Davis quite a few old fans. Not that he ever

let this bother him. His music has comfortably straddled a couple of generations. The Plugged Nickel sessions capture Davis in a transitory period. The material is all familiar, but the interpretations show how he was stretching and exploring. On 'So What', he seems almost impatient, briskly working his way through the central theme and cooling down the pace periodically while he selects a new approach and starts expanding again. 'Round About Midnight' is almost painful in its intensity, Davis seemingly pulling ideas out of thin air. 'Stella By Starlight' is a collection of shifting moods, starting out sweet and soulful, then cutting loose as Davis gets bored and his playing becomes sharper, more emphatic. Shorter, even the master of understatement, feeds from Davis, understands his moods. The electricity between them fairly crackles on Walkin', while Testerdays' features some delightful duelling, the horns seem to smile at each other. Shorter makes his sharpest impact on 'AH Blues', showing his debt to Coltrane. Williams was just 20 when these gigs were played. His drumming then was impetuous and exuberant, but it complemented Davis' almost-fretful state of mind. The equally youthful Hancock is understandably restrained in this company, but his use of harmonies adds important colour and helped make this group a very special entity.. All credit to CBS for bringing so much wonderful history to life. A 1 Di Meola is one of those technoflash showoffs who tries to blind everyone with brilliance, but ends up battering them with bullshit. Technically gifted he may be, but this endless, breakneck pace becomes wearying, like five hours in a spindryer. Di Meola makes up for the dearth of melody and emotion in his music by playing it as fast and as loud as he can. Music for ageing HM freaks with intellectual pretensions.

Duncan Campbell