Shake Summation

Rip It Up, Issue 83, 1 June 1984, Page 8

Shake Summation

Russell Brown

Children's Hour Ya Ya Ya (Flying Nun) During Children's Hour's last tour one of the band was told they were ' the biggest boot band in the South Island". If unwelcome and unwise, the statement was perhaps understandable. The Flesh EP was angry and jagged, often undisciplined. 'Go Slow' even sounded like a punk song. The sort-of A-Side of this record. Washed Away', might have been (it wasn't) written as a reply to those who saw CH as a thrash band. It's eerily measured, keeping itself in check until expectations dictate a guitar rave should begin and gleefully trailing off Balance, economy, a lovely lyric ("Red eyes blind with anger / Don't understand / Walk across the water / On your hands"), fine singing and a little naievete ... Already there have been qualms that t'other side. Stuck Pig', is a sexist tirade. It isn't. It's certainly not nice a savage sexual comedy in which the singer sticks more pins into himself than anybody else. But if you wish to take a side it's actually damning macho male attitudes towards sex bleed then the pig will feed. " And again the playing, although in places demonic, is thoughtful. If it lacks the emotion of Flesh this is still a better record. A very, very good record indeed, in fact. National Anthem Chapter One (Mushroom) This song apparently sets out to be a slice of Grand Rock, a la Big Country and succeeds ... partially. The successful part is the lovely horn/guitar arrange-

ment of the chorus. It really is stirring and that's from someone wishes Bono would just piss off. In between the choruses, the song flags a little, however, and the singing's not up to much. It's brought to you by ex New Entrants, Craig and Tony. The Narcs

Heart and Soul (CBS) The Narcs make a bold leap from one format to another... But they actually carry off this rock ballad quite well, even if it gets heavy-handed towards the end. Certainly a much better record than 'Look the Other Way'. Shame about the flip, ‘Mic Technique', though now that's embarassing. Marginal Era

You Fascinate (Reaction) Neat melody, good singing, dead catchy... and a severe case of hackneyed lyrics. A moratium is hereby placed on the use of "fascinate" and "fascination" (and for that matter "imagination" and a few others ...) in modern pop songs. Breaking My Heart' is appealing too and also let down by secondhand lyrics. These are good songs but they deserved more care. As it is. with 'This Heaven' now enshrined as The Theme From Radio With Pictures, this might go a step further to be the hit single Marginal Era need The Idles

Agroculture (Jayrem) . It's to the Idles' credit they haven’t fallen into the experienced musicians' trap of setting out to play Boring Old Rock Music. Right from the opening ‘Great White Snakes', the textures aren’t what you might expect, some of the song structures are interesting. But then you listen harder, hear Ross McKenzie’s strained singing, the competent but tepid playing ... you get to be able to predict what'll happen next... you realise you've stil got boring rock music ... The Politicians Baghdad "The weather is hot, like the girls / Down in Baghdad."Yeah.