Shake Summation

Rip It Up, Issue 93, 1 April 1985, Page 26

Shake Summation

Russell Brown

DD Smash v—/ She Loves Me Back (Mushroom) To these ears, 'Whaling' was dreary, 'Magic' was absolutely sparkling pop, and 'She Loves Me Back' falls somewhere between the two. Dave can’t quite hit the silky groove of the Luther Vandross original (nor should he even try), but he gets another chance to strut his singing stuff and everybody sounds like they're having a good time as a matter of fact, there’s a real party feel to it. The flip, 'Wot A Day’, has standard Dobbyn quirks, but maybe you have to wait a little bit long for the good ending. Dance Exponents My Love For You (Mushroom) The most lightweight track from the Exponents’ forthcoming album and the one on which they sound most like U2. Things wouldn’t be too bad however, if the local record company hadn’t seen fit to chop the song down to 2 min 29 sec the structure goes out the window and it sounds like a long ad. The flip, 'Ashened, Ashened, Autumn Leaves' is a lot more like it, with Jordan displaying his ability to place words well over music and Chris Sheehan whipping up a nice guitar line. The noisy workout it ends with probably warrants a Play Loud recommendation.

Herbs Nuclear Waste (Warrior) Wow... heavy shit... nuclear explosions and a kick drum that sounds several metres high are just a couple of the tricks in this remix. The song itself, with its nagging guitar line, still manages to sound celebratory while talking about the threat of nuclear destruction and that’s something in itself. The dub does go on a little bit long, though or perhaps the record should come with a free spliff.

This Times Square (Ode) This band sprang from two old lineups, Skin Dynamics and Stiff Richards and unfortunately, old is the way it tends to sound. None of it’s bad, but the familiarsounding power poppish approach only really comes together on the more involved closing track ‘I Am the Truth’. The songs do, however, give the impression that they'd sound better live. We’ll have to wait and see.

Step Chant Unit Painting Pictures (Jayrem) A pretty ordinary synth song with patented Waikato guitar and lines like 'Televisions of my mind." It might sound better given a massive production, but ... ‘The Game’ is texturally a bit harder but, driven by an awfully dumb synth riff, lacks even the subtlety of the A-side. Radio Active Loving You (Ode)

Sounds like someone’s been listening to Seventeen Seconds. There is the odd good idea here and it’s best when there’s no singing going on, but it all goes to waste on such a bloody dull song. The B-side is something stupid about “shock treatment and mind control."