Records

Rip It Up, Issue 134, 1 September 1988, Page 26

Records

NINA SIMONE My Baby Just Cares For Me (Polydor) If you caught the title track (and terrific accompanying "clay-motion" video) on Radio With Pictures some weeks ago, you may have wondered whether the recording was old or new. The style may have been very 1950 s but the result was quintessential 80s cool. Well the album is a re-issue, original liner notes and all, of Simone's debut recorded in 1958. Included is the hit that brought her to major public , attention; a beautifully austere rendition of 'I Loves You Porgy', which in a little over three minutes contains ; more smokey soul that Sade's yet managed over as many albums. Unfortunately not all the album is as stunning. Simone may have been raised in a tradition of gospel and blues but she also graduated from Juilliard and sometimes the cultures clash. Her piano arrangement of Count Basie's 'Good Bait' moves from relaxed swing to some sort of pseudo sonata. And you could almost believe her version of 'You'll Never Walk Alone'had been < arranged by Liberace. Occasionally the mix works however, as when her piano picks out 'Good King Wenceslas' to chillingly underscore the sombre vocals on 'Little Girl Blue'. The album epitomizes the idiosyncratic nature of Simone's genius. Not only is each subsequent track likely

to be quite different in style but is just as likely to delight, bore or infuriate. One can imagine people with quite opposing tastes loving different numbers equally. Me, I'm hanging on to the album for about five tracks and for those alone I'm very grateful to those excellent people at Charly for securing its re-release. PETER THOMSON VINNIE VINCENT INVASION All Systems Go (Festival) Vinnie got his first big break when he joined Kiss for Creatures Of The Night and stayed long enough to record three albums with them. However, feeling somewhat confined musically, he left to form his own project, Invasion, and unleashed all his built-up fire and ' fury on his first self-titled album, which did phenomenomally well in the U.S.A. ; His over-the-top wild guitar style now continues with attack number two, and it's All Systems Go as 'Ashes To Ashes' builds up to a guitar solo which pulls out all the stops. Vocalist Mark Slaughter is a welcome addition to the group, ' possessing a high-pitched, Robert Plant-like voice which fits in more suitably than the previous singer. 'Dirty Rhythm'is up next and that's what it's all about. Come to think of it, so is 'Heavy Pettin' and 'Naughty Naughty'. There are also the ballads, the best one being 'Love Kills' which also has a very nice acoustic intro. The CD has extra tracks and one of them is 'Ya Know — I'm Pretty Shot', a classical guitar piece played beautifully by Mr Vincent. Seems Vinnie's getting lots of good breaks now. GEOFF DUNN

ERASURE The Innocents (Mute) I wonder what would have - happened to Vince Clarke if he'd stayed with Depeche Mode, or if he'd kept Yazoo together, or if he'd carried on working with Feargal Sharkey as The Assembly. The man has itchy fingers; he can't stay with one "project" fortoo long. In 1987 Clarke auditioned hundreds of vocalists before he found Andy Bell. Together they formed Erasure, and it was back to business as usual for old hit-machine Vince. - z ; The Innocents is thus chock-full of the same clean pop that came out of Yazoo, The Assembly and early . Depeche Mode. Clarke has always relied on producer Daniel Millerfor a

squeaky clean sound but Stephen Hague has done the job this time, and the overall feel is even brighter and more reliable than usual. 'Sixty-Five Thousand' has a Go-Go beat, a notable musical addition to Clarke's otherwise private and unfashionable synth style. 'A Little Respect' and Witch In The Ditch' stand out slightly above the rest. So The Innocents answers my 'What if..." questions. Yazoo and The Assembly never went away — they simply moved to Erasure, where they are happy and well. Andy even sings a bit like Alison Moyet. For the thousands that loved Yazoo (and the dozens that liked The Assembly's 'Never Never'), this is not a bad thing. CHAD TAYLOR

Yngwie J.Malmsteen . Odyssey (Polygram) The Swedish guitar hero for the 80s shows he has plenty more to offer after luckily escaping serious injury in an < accident which totalled his car. Assisting Yngwie is former Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner, who naturally fits in well • alongside a guitarist with so influenced by Richie Blackmore. This is a marked improvement on the previous Trilogy album, with more matured writing, except there are still some silly lyrics about rioting in the dungeons or something. First track, 'Rising Force', and the instrumentals 'Bite The Bullet', 'Krakatoa' and 'Memories' are obvious highlights as Malmsteen gets to show off all his technical and lightning flash on the Strat. In that respect, no Ingwie fan will be disappointed because his playing is as fast and fluent as ever. GD , The Church Hindsight 1980-87 (Parlaphone) Formed in Sydney in 1980, Steve Kilbey's paisley shirts and Marty Wilson-Piper and Peter Koppe's 12-string managed to anticipate the psychedelic and guitar phases of the mid-80s. Hindsight manages to give theirfragmented recording career a cohesive mood, from the majestic— if

. stiff-sounding — 'Unguarded Moment' to the beautifully atmospheric 'Myrrh'. In between the band managed to sound like they knew their way around pop on 'Tear It All Away', the head-on 'Life Speeds Up' and the classy 'Shadow Cabinet'. A justifiable retrospection. GK The Mad Turks From Istanbul Cafe Istanbul (Festival) The Mad Turks in a nutshell: their bass-player calls himself Mark la Merde, their label is a subsidiary called the Greasy Record Company and their album is full of lines like "there's nothing he considers more important than - finding out what's between your thighs" Profound, eh? The instrumentation is competent, somewhere between the Byrds and the Stones, but the choruses are pure Oz-rock pub-thud, Cold Chisel revisited. Altogether an experience' worth crossing the street to avoid. MH Painters & Dockers . ' Kiss My Art (Doc/White) Tired old R&B riffs which no amount of honking brass, heavy-handed satire or low comedy can disguise. Startlingly unoriginal and totally tacky, right down to the puce-coloured vinyl. The armpit

(Festival)

of Australiana.

DC