Records

Rip It Up, Issue 103, 1 February 1986, Page 18

Records

Various Artists Repo Man ‘ MCA Hard core independent American music from a hard core independent American film. Repo Man stars Harry Dean Stanton (Paris Texas, Alien, etc) as the NUMEro uno car repossessor getting involved in the LA band scene and mixed up with something extra-terrestrial. The film came out in 1984 and died, until midnight showings developed it into a hot item. : The soundtrack has some great moments and works better than the comparable Return of the Living Dead. There's Iggy Pop’s nifty title track and hardcore fun with Black Flag's ‘TV Party’ (a different version from the one on Damagead). Circle Jerks contribute ‘Coup D’Etat’ and a surprise acoustic number called ‘When the Shit Hits the Fan: Suicidal Tendencies have done better songs, but their ‘lnstitutionalised’ fits the mood of the movie, as does Fear’s ‘Let's Start A War. The most interesting tracks for me are the Chicano tracks by the Plugz, with ‘EI Claudy La Cruz’ and a version of ‘Secret Agent Man! Other than the Dead Kennedys, this is the first local release for American hardcore — hopefully it won't be the last. Things like Husker Du and the Meat Puppets deserve more coverage than a few copies in the import bins. Kerry Buchanan Andrew Poppy The Beating of Wings ZIE Andrew Poppy does not deal directly with things. Like his classical forebears, to whom he pays some much homage (Bach in particular?), he does not directly comment on love, smoking, hangovers, infidelity, vacillation, misery and

the dozen or so other emotions that plague humankind, nor does he inspire one to dance or sing or kiss someone. On these points, even Wham! are ahead; is Andrew Poppy the product of naive academicism, or merely positive thinking? This thing called The Beating of Wings (including the title’s strange and meaningless attached “formulae” of S/B/Ch and K/W/Th) consists of four pieces, each some 20 minutes long. They are no more complex in structure (and no less accessible) than Mike Oldfield's Hergest Ridge, or Nina Simone’s recent and sublime ‘Vous Etes Seuls, Maisje Desire Etre Avec Nous' (not as weighty as it reads); it is their stylistic origin that is the source of their newness and austerity to Pop ears, rather than the thinking behind them. There is a “serious” attempt to combine “modern” and “classical” in ‘Listening “In; and it fails miserably; ‘Listening In’ is all reason and no purpose. After stalking up and down the room a bit, some emotions become clear. ‘Cadenza’ is a very pretty and delicate piece, even ending as it does on a sharp, single and grating note. ‘The Object Is A Hungry Wolf' takes time to make its point of sombre complexity; like much of the album, you wonder if it could not be achieved in slightly less time. So this album made me think. But would | be so eager if | did not have to review it? I'm eager about a lot of music, as are countless others, and that is the crux of the problem; Andrew Poppy does not need you to be so. Chad Taylor Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians fegMANIA , Bigtime Boyoboy, does this Robyn Hitchcock deliver a great line in Syd Barrett impersonations! He's been doing them since his Soft Boys days back in '77, and he still sings ‘em in ‘B6, along with running off a fair-ly-nifty lyric in the Barrett vein. fegMANIA is unmistakeably English, mildly psychedelic and nonheavy ... but rather uneven. It

opens pleasantly enough with ‘Egyptian Cream) then ‘Another Bubble, before really taking off with ‘l'm Only You' Thenit's ‘My Wife and My Dead Wife’ with an immediate tune and great silly words: “I'm drilling holes in the walls, | turn round and my dead wife's upstairs, she's still wearing flares, she talks out loud but no-one hears ... am | the only one who sees her?” ‘Goodnight | Say’ closes side one (and, sadly, most of the fun) with a bashing chorus that works jus’ fine. ‘The Man With the Lightbulb Head' contains as delightfully corny a lyric as you'd expect, but apart from ‘The Fly, side two merely slides pleasantly by without living up to the promise shown on the first side. The lyrics are all simple and neat, but the musical inventiveness is not sustained all the way ... : : fegMANIA’s highs are high, and the whole thing’s nice, but it just misses on catching me fully. Paul McKessar Albert Collins, Robert Cray, Johnny Copeland ; Showdown , : Alligator , The teaming of individual stars too often makes for dull records in which one dominates or all withdraw slightly; seldom do the participants give more than one would expect (or hope for). In the blues context, the 8.8. King/Bobby Bland collaborations are notably disappointing. :

However, Showdown exceeds alt expectations and is one of the most exciting of modern blues albums.

Producers Bruce Iglauer and Dick Shurman have brought together three of today’s big blues stars, only one of whom (Collins) is contracted to Alligator. The three guitarists are old collaborators in on-the-road jam sessions and perhaps it is this experience that gives the album its backbone. Collins is the principal soloist, but only by a fraction, because all three get to sing and play plenty. It's a pleasure to say that not only do they not get in each other’s way, but in fact drive each other to new heights. They're aided and abetted

by Collins’ old Icebreakers rhythm team of Johnny B. Gayden on bass and Casey Jones on drums. From the opening kick of ‘T Bone Shuffle’ to the climactic closer ‘Blackjack, Showdown flexes muscle at all times. Especially good is Robert Cray's pleading ‘The Dream’ with Collins demonstrating that he can provide sympathetic support as well as flamboyant leads. Highly recommended. Ken Williams John Cale Artificial Intelligence Beggar’s Banquet Nico & the Faction Camera Obscura Beggar’s Banquet - John Cale has been in this business for over 20 years and it’s beginning to show. Whilst avoiding the depths so ungracefully graced by the truly awful Carribean Sunset, Artificial Intelligence dribbles with Cale cliches (Artificial Belligerence, etc) that these days sound tried and tired, sometimes insipidly uninspired. : The idiot sinking in his own idiosyncracies? Not quite. But you get an inkling that Cale's mining through his backlog with the nuggets long gone and only sludge to be dredged up. We don't need to be bogged down with it and Cale doesn't need to sink in it. _ Leaving it up to you, John-boy ... Old buddy in arms Nico is at least charting more adventurous paths with the Faction on the Caleproduced Camera Obscura. But as one who prefers blood 'n’ guts to blips 'n’ thuds, the electronic eerieness here doesn't quite gel and the Faction do little to change my ever-so-biased opinion that synthesiser bands usually result from people playing with their organs for far too long. Still, there’s enough in Nicos performance to suggest her shows here could be worth investigation, and, who knows, with favourable, close to raveable reports floating across from the UK, we could even be in for a surprise. Validity over posterity, anyone? Shayne Carter

Simply Red Picture Book ; Elektra from the six-piece British ensemble whose radio hit ‘Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)’ brought to our attention the soul-soaked voice of Mick Huckhall, we have a five-a-side debut album. The band, which took its name from Huckhall's shock of red hair, brought in Stuart Levine (whose credits include Randy Crawford, the Crusaders and BB King) to produce. They gave the songs and he gave them a hit single with the Valentine Brothers song ‘Money’s Too Tight' If you enjoyed that track, sample this mixture of white soul and jazz. There's the bouncy funk of ‘Come To My Aid’ and ‘Look At You Now, the swing jazz feel of ‘Sad Old Red’ and the cruisy ‘Holding Back the Years. There's even a great version of David Byrne's ‘Heaven, slowed down tosuit. - o This band has a reputation in the UK and Europe as an exciting live act and this was verified to me by a friend who saw them live in Paris — but to be awarded the opening spot for James Brown's London season (at the Hammersmith Odeon) you would have to be good. Hot live and hot on vinyl, so don't let this album slip into ob-

scurity. Discover it now. It's great music. Simply Red . . . Simply Marvellous. ; Simon Elton Louie & the Hotsticks Stickability : Radar Vague Secrets Radar - ; Two mini-albums released through the new Christchurch label Radar. First up is a 12" 45rpm offering from the longrunning Christchurch sextet Louie and the Hotsticks. It comprises five songs — four written by vocalist/guitarist Alan Park, plus a re-arrangement of the old standard ‘Hit the Road Jack. The competent musicianship shines through, with the standout track being the ska-flavoured ‘Living On My Heart! The “live in the studio” sound gives this an air of honesty ‘which should be welcomed by the band’s fans. : ; The second album is an eight song presentation from fellow Christchurch band Vague Secrets, who are equally as at home playing to a pub audience or with underground theatre. This four piece play thinking man's music with the emphasis on rhythmical feels. Some songs do sound like studio jams and consequently tend to ramble, but the lyrics are above

average. Best tracks: ‘Headlines’ and ‘People Fly Away’. Good effort for the first time around. } Simon Elton ; Wynton Marsalis Black Codes (From The Underground) BHS Want to hear an opinion? Try this one: the quest for intellectual stimulation in jazz is threaten-: ing to destroy the music. The fact that Wynton Marsalis is so revered is proof positive. ev i i Jazz has walked a long road since Louis Armstrong playedina « band at an orphans’ home in New Orleans. Shunned as low-class and tainted by racism, it only climbed out of the mire through sheer virtuosity after the Second World War, when nothing else was ever the same again and some of plague the music industry more than ever (the anti-heroin campaign came. three decades 100 late for Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday, to name just two).

The refinement of the 1950 s and 60s which spawned Hard Bop and the Free movement brought with it a wave of pseudointellectual claptrap and a split between the Miller/Ellington nostalgia freaks, the Parker/Davis bop-

- pers and the potpourri of music fans who listen with interest to the - new sounds coming out of both America and Europe: ;o s e . What all this boils down to is ~ that the word Jazz' has come to . encompass a huge range of mu- - sical styles under a very broad - (and vague) collective term, and - that too many people are now for- - getting what the masters of mus- - ic were doing, ie: following their instincts, speaking from the heart, - seeking new directions. [r - 'Wynton Marsalis is a musical - scholar. Look at the cover of his “new LR Read (if you can’ stay + awake) the ‘ ostentatious sleeve _ notes of Stanley Crouch. Then - listen to a record which simply tries, probably with excellent in- ~ tentions and with state-of-the-art . equipment, all lovingly detailed, to : recreate the feeling of music ready played better by others, - many of ther jong dead. 2ot 2 < Marsalis is classically trained,” and if there's one thing his music: reflects, its. discipline. Emotion doesn’t come into it, no matter: = what Crouch’s gushy sleeve notes. say. Marsalis is simply imitating, in » very academic tones, music which: ~ was progressive in the early 1960 s but which has been surpassed. i = As an example, try Archie . Shepp’s Down Home New York, a .

performance by a man who was a contemporary : of _ Coltrane and. whose current music breaks new boundaries and takes the breath away. Shepp is a professor of music, Marsalis is a talented pupil. ::* Duncan Campbell - 50 Philip Glass =.. .. - = -~ Mishima . . = =OO : Nonesuch e . New yorker Philip Glass is the sort of contemporary composer - who's considered hip even when Time does devote four-page articles to him. Glass:is: the best: known of the so-called American “minimalists” (though from the little I've heard | prefer the work of John Adams or Steve : Reich). Minimalism is readily accessible to pop listeners through its repetitive, hypnotic rhythms and ‘often melodic use of electronics. (Glass in fact has had considerable ftuence on both Brian Eno and - ‘David Byrne == eg Byrne's Catherine Wheel album.) -7 Glasss greatest reputation currently rests with his composing for opera and it is therefore not surprising that he should have also recently begun writing for film. Mishima is the soundtrack to an as-yet unreleased American-made drama on the life {of Japanese - novelist Yukio Mishima who com- - mitted hara Kiri in 1970. 55

Firstly dismiss any thought that Glass would be remotely drawn to approximating those crude sounds that are often presented as westernised ‘“orientalism”. He also almost totally eschews electronics, relying instead on various string sections, including the traditionally European quartet. (Interestingly, Glass’s previous soundtrack, 1983’s Koyaanisqatsi, was dominated by electronics.) The nearest we get to anything vaguely “rockist” is the use of elec_tric guitar against strings on two ~of the 44 tracks. And it is precise_lythese twotracks] find the least satisfying, but then maybe it's got something to do with the way the guitarist sounds as if he's been recruited from a second-rate reception lounge. - What does the rest sound like then? Well the strings can create. both vigorous rhythms and sweet, “ stuff is enjoyable to fisten 10 you . .can alsq safely use it as fairly un_obtrusive background music and still retain your credibility. So next time you're out to dinner and some bozo puts on something from, say, that griffawful Wyndham Hill label, introduce your friends to Mishsima. Philip Glass as avantsgarde MOR — and why not? Peter Thomson