Records

Rip It Up, Issue 110, 1 September 1986, Page 30

Records

Adrenal Glandy Songs of Love, Hate and Revenge Flying Nun I suppose in a year such as this where country music has had a somewhat “higher” profile one must expect — and welcome — sendups. As we all know, there’s country, and there’s ... country. Not that this is either, it’s more like towny-and-western with a definite “orientation week" look and feel about it.

I’ll not deny there’s some humour in the lyrics (’Emotional Surgery) and the odd good idea, but the joke is just not good enough to sustain listening over an entire album. This is not helped by the almost total absence of finesse and subtlety in the playing and singing; indeed the female vocalist turns are downright embarrassing. So it comes off sounding both smug and corny, something akin to Bob Hope does Elvis Presley. I’m quite sure the participants involved had fun making this, but had they taken the time to listen

to the likes of Hank Wangford, Commander Cody or even the country satires of the Topp Twins, this project just may have come up smelling of a slightly different substance. As it is the joke is entirely on Flying Nun. Yep, she’s ropey folks! Mark Kennedy 1

The Robert Cray Band

False Accusations

Hightone/Centre A fine soul-inflected singer and guitarist, Robert Cray keeps the blues alive. His “modern" sound doubtless will displease the easilydispleased purists, but it is one of the most promising of hybrids. Cray draws as much from Memphis as Chicago, from B B King and Steve Cropper for his guitar, from such as Sam Cooke, Junior Parker and O V Wright for his vocals. However, these are hints only. Cray is certainly his own man, although I feel he has yet to develop a truly distinctive style (is this asking too much? It shouldn’t be), an aural delight as he usually is.

The Robert Cray Band plays like a band of brothers and Cray sings with conviction. The songs are new (I especially like ‘False Accusations’) and tasty (no guitar his-

trionics). Taste abounds, and perhaps one might wish for a little more edge. So be it. If you too might yearn for a little more edge investigate Showdown (Alligator), which teams Cray with Albert Collins (and his rhythm section) and Johnny Copeland. Ken Williams

Alan Broadbent Trio Further Down the Road Tartar

Ahmad Jamal Rossiter Road

Atlantic Aah ... the seduction of production. These two albums share the same general approach and lineup: jazz piano, bass and drums (though Jamal includes a percussionist as well). Yet regardless of their different styles — although sharing a very high standard of musicianship — the overwhelming distinction one is aware of between these two albums is their sound. If the Jamal somewhat heightens the pure sound (through such deftly used production touches as adding echo to the piano’s resonance) unfortunately the Broadbent album diminishes what we would hear in actual performance. Broadbent, along with Mike

Nock, is probably New Zealand’s most accomplished jazz pianist and thoroughly deserves his overseas success. Here, again teamed with the international talents of local rhythm section FrankanAndy, this album sould be a stunner. Musically I’ve no complaints whatsoever. The performances are absorbing and the choice of material is again very astute (though I don’t find any of Broadbent’s three original numbers has the sheer beauty of ‘Song of Home’, the title track on last year’s album). What I do bitch about is the dead sound. What’s the use of Andy Brown being in top-notch form if he can hardly be heard? Good grief, this trio had more recorded presence when on Jazz Seen a year or so back, and TVNZ are not known for their high musical production standards. Ahmad Jamal’s Rossiter Road aims for a different sound so perhaps comparisons aren’t strictly fair, but at least each of the four musicians is right here, up front and sparkling. Jamal is now into his fourth decade as a recording artist — he was probably, in terms of repertoire and arrangements, the biggest single influence on Miles Davis’s mid 50s quintet — but has here hooked up with a rhythm section of very up-to-date

inclinations. This music is characterised by a bristling backbeat and even driving funk that pushes Jamal into some of his best playing for years. His wonderful harmonic sense shines throughout, although he can still become florid at times with a penchant for rollerskating over the keyboard (although on a Steinway this rich urge must become well-nigh irresistable). If only Alan Broadbent and co had been recorded with equipment this good. Peter Thomson

Jimi Hendrix

Johnny B Goode Capitol

Jimi used to adorn my wall during my school days and surge out of the car down at the beach. He still sounds great and his influence in both black and white music is still strong — witness Run DMC or Zodiac Mindwarp. This mini LP is subtitled “Original Video Soundtrack”, and can be obtained on video via Jimi Plays Berkeley or the Sony video Johnny B Goode. Five lovely cuts of Jimi, with the Chuck Berry standard almost catching fire. The version of Voodoo Chile is unfortunately edited but his playing makes up for that. This is late Hendrix, with the Band of Gypsies, but featuring the original drummer Mitch Mitchell, surely one of the best “rock” drummers ever. This fits in well with the Jimi Plays Monterey set released recently, and is essential for any Hendrix fan. Kerry Buchanan The BoDeans

Love and Hope and Sex and Dreams

Bigtime/Slash These four gents from Milwaukee have just tried to do too much. Booze is the only other crucial element missing from their album title, and their music, a low alcohol blend of 50s to 70s rock/pop nasal C&W, is delivered with the appropriate reverence for those past

legendary formats. ‘Fadeaway’ and ‘Rickshaw Riding’ are nice tunes, in fact the whole first side floats by without offending anybody and comes to rest at Buddy Holly’s door with a song called Angels’. But we’ve been there before and the same goes for the lame-horse C&W .“reality” of songs like ‘Misery’ on the second side.

Sure T-Bone Burnett has given them a great sound, sweet and clear, but right from the overtastefully contrived fake tinted authenticity of the cover to the music which has the music which has the same faults, this album is indicative of some of the bogus back-to-the-roots dullards who’re continuing to surface on the once commendable Slash. The BoDeans, like their name, represent this convenient exploitation of composite pasts. George Kay

Wire Train between two words (CBS) In San Francisco lies U2. Wire Train subscribe to the sound of chiming guitars and skiffling high hats. The album whiiiiines aong in a bland porridge of Bryan Adams, Bono and the Hooters, giving nine tracks of their own and one of Dylan’s, ‘God on our Side’. It’s very easy listening, with the obvious influence of their Irish idols in every element of the mix. I will follow? Wire Train certainly have. BC The Fixx Walkabout (MCA) When ‘Reach the Beach’ hit the charts in 1983, the Fixx placed their first franchise with finely chopped and spirited tunes. Walkabout deepens and extends their initial efforts with a style far more developed, confident and intelligent. Arrangements are spacious, as are the lyrics of Cy Curnin ... provocative in the warmest of senses. Producer Rupert Hine knits this progression into a well ordered and thoughtful piece of work. It almost gets INXSish. BC

Joe Cocker Cocker (Liberation) On his last tour here (in ’B4) Joe’s rendition of ‘lnner City Blues’ was the most beautiful tribute to Marvin Gaye I’ve yet heard. It floated above the rapt audience like a soul set free. Now on record the song’s become earthbound. The arrangement is similar but heavier and turns hackneyed before the end. It’s a problem indicative of the album. The original material is not particularly distinctive and the choice of cover songs generally uninspired. Only a rousing ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’, emphasising Randy Newman’s implied bump’n’grind, rises above the merely competent. So catch this number in the movie 9V2 Weeks and, if you haven’t already done so, try Cocker’s fine previous album, Civilised Man. PT Brian Eno More Blank than Frank (EG) A compilation album from Eno and another high-art-in-the-marketplace project from EG; the album is packaged and released to coincide with the publication of Russell Mill’s illustrations and collaborations with Eno, like-titled More Dark than Shark, a very beautiful and engaging book indeed (available from Faber and Faber). One track from his first album, two from his second and so on, carefully chosen to illustrate Eno’s interests in ambient music (since Discreet Music) and also in the melancholic; treat your mum to ‘Taking Tiger Mountain’ and the charming ‘On Some Faraway Beach: Like all compilations, it’s all too inadequate a treatment of his prolific output; more of a friendly launching to Mills’ book than anything else. CT Shriekback The Infinite (Kaz) The date says 1985 but this sounds old to me, including as it does the old, old All Lined Up’ single and ‘My Spine (is the Bass Line): Shriekback have always had a great talent for imagery and eeriness, and this LP shows that, but it lacks the angry glaze of Oil and Gold, the latter being up their with Led Zeppelin and Goethe. Interesting, but not gripping. CT Propaganda Wishful Thinking (ZTT EP) Modern remixes are usually cold and uninteresting crap, a poor substitute for “versions” (live or otherwise), but Propaganda’s

old-fashioned habit of writing good songs means that this EP is actually worthwhile. Includes versions of ‘Dr Mabuse; ‘P-Machinery’ and Josef K’s ‘Sorry for Laughing’, all with a constructive new angle. Hurry up with the new album, guys, you got a fan down here... CT Cawley and Storie (Riva) A very workmanlike debut album from two guys I’ve never heard of before, but apparently they’ve been playing around Indiana for the last 10 years or so. (Does that mean anything?) Mostly ballady type numbers, neither are great voices, but the feel is there, probably helped a lot by the likes of great session players like Pino Paladino, Geoff Whitehorn, Henry Spinetti and also Mel Collins on a couple of tracks. Reminds me a lot of Dirk Hamilton, and although not as good, I still like this album a lot. It gets better every listening, which means it’ll probably be a favourite in a coupla years! GC Microdisney The Clock Comes Down the Stairs (CBS) They're an Irish-English band who’ve been around a while and are well-liked by the English press. The Clock Comes Down the Stairs is their first local release — those in the know say that earlier imports are far superior. Their’s is a sort of wistful pop, leaning on the “wistful” to the point of boredom — singer Blah Blah sounds better transformed into a female at 45rpm than he does at 33. ‘Horse Overboard’ and most of the lyrics are fine, but that’s all. B for Boring. Nah. Z for Zzzzz ... PM Siouxsie and the Banshees Tinderbox (Polydor) Six LPs down the line (I think — who’s counting anyway?) and downhill all the way. Budgie’s still a cool (if a tad predictable) drummer, but the rest is just predictable. Gloom, gloom, gloom, the ‘Candyman' sells heroin to the kids "and the children, he warns, ‘don’t tell!’. ” I saw It Came From Outer Space too, and this guy says that at exactly 92 degrees Farenheit people snap — not 91 or 93, but exactly 92 — and do terrible things. Like write songs about it, eh Siouxsie? I say all the life is long gone out of this band and let them die in peace. But first, crush their delusions by not buying this record. PM