Records

Rip It Up, Issue 147, 1 October 1989, Page 28

Records

PEREUBU Cloudiand Ll (Mercury) , In 1978 Pere Übu were the greatest rock n’ roll band on this blighted little planet. Thatis a fact, just like the Beatles were a good band and Jim Morrisson died in the bath are facts. For

supporting evidence This Modern Dance and Dub Housing make it open and shut with music thatborrowed a philosphy from Captain Beefheart but took compassion, humour and tension further than even the Captain dared. Developing from those two albums, anything’s bound to be an anti-climax and so New Picnic Time and The Art Of Walking are that rare commodity — dispensable Übu. Glossing over the excellent live

albums and Thomas's entertaining solo output we arrive, still clutchingsmall hopes of a return to 1978's glory, atlast year's Tenement Years— and surprise surprise they time machine us back 10 years to where Dub Housing left off and deliver glorious tunes, warmth, sadness, stupidity and brilliance. Faith restored. : :

And now, with Cloudland, faith maintained. Using Paul Hamann and Stephen “Pet Shop” Hague as the producers they have whittled away the eccentric burps and squeaks that tumbled around the edges of their other albums to create 14 songs that are trim, evocative and accessible. ‘Breath’ is a magnificent opener, a song that drives with a sublime guitar hook and one of Thomas's aching vocals. Following that would defeat most bands but these guys just change tack and come up with shivering tunes like ‘Cry’ and ‘Why Go It Alone’ and a single in ‘Waiting For Mary' that's too wonderfully odd to worry the charts. After the pushy, buoyant‘Love Love Love’ the second side is down-beat Cleveland style with the band getting sombre on ‘Nevadd’, ‘Flat’and ‘The Waltz', but just to keep things in perspective ‘Monday Night' closes Cloudland with Thomas crooning a mixture of high school pep and Übu humour. Humour them. So Cloudlandis cloud nine, and no mistake. It doesn't have the same quota of charm, richness or variety that made Tenement Years the best album of last year but there’s more humanity and

Rip It Up

inspiration in these grooves than on anything else available this year, with the possible exception of Mould's Workbook. Get onto this cloud. GEORGEKAY

TALLTALES AND TRUE Shiver (Roo Art)

Roo Artis an Australian record label formed to foster and promote new Ockerbandsforbothhomeand international consumption. They claim to have captured the cream of emerging Australian bands in the last 12 months and Tall Tales And True is - purported o be one of them. From Sydney, TT&T seem to go out of their way to defy categorisation — they're not eccentric butthey’re sureas - hell eclectic, drawing on the same time-honoured American roots as say Hothouse Flowers, but with a much harder edge than that Irish band ever revealed.

Sothere’s rhythm and there’s blues in theirrock n’ roll and a buoyancy that's bestillustrated in the opening track, Trust'. The best on show is a trio of intense, metallic blues influenced songs onthe second side — ‘Stranger On The Stair’, the suffocating ‘Think Of Yourself’ and ‘Passing Out The Chains'. There's no doubtthat TT&T have storiesand songs of substance and bite. Keep an earon them. ' GEORGEKAY

LEATHERWOLF Street Ready ' (A&M) Average hard rock music continues to thrive in America-land, with varying

degrees of success. Most bands disappearwithout a trace, easily replaced. Others stand the test of fime, surprisingly. ' California’s Leatherwolf present their second album, featuring more guts than the likes of Styx, Journey, or Jefferson Starship, some easy sounding rock

songs, plenty of guitars and the standard ingredients. It's easily digestable and unoffensive. The lyrics are totally cliched and the singer will gain no reputation for a distinctive

voice, buthe cansing, and hits incredible high notes. Three good

guitarists, while not exactly a “triple axe attack”, carry good melodies and copious lead breaks that flow rather than grate, and aren’t over-done or wanky. An adequate rhythm section and very sing-alongable songs complete the picture. You won'tfind any ground breaking material here, but you will find a solid rock album that's pleasant fo listen to. The kind of stuff that should be played onNZ commercial radio as an easy introduction to heavy metal or related music— instead the heaviestwe're presented with is Bon Jovi or Poison. Leatherwolf deserve to be heard before disappearing. ANIA GLOWACZ !

MRBIG

(WEA) Bass wunderkid Billy Sheehan quit the David Lee Roth band shortly after Skyscraperto form his own project and what we have here isthe end result.

Teaming up with the equally fasttechno guitarist Paul Gilbert was a good decision; they complement instead of trying to outplay each other. While still

having all the amazing runs and fretboard freakouts, Mr Big work well as a band unit that write good songs that aren’t merely lessons in mastering the scales. Check out'Wind Me Up' or ‘Blame it On My Youth’ and you'll find that this is team-work stuff that really COOKS: i

The total mind-blower though is ‘Addicted To That Rush’ where Sheehan’s fingers go faster than Roadrunner on speed. A great debut from a big band for the 90s. GEOFFDUNN ROLLING STONES : Steel Wheels . (CBS) . ; Afterthe disappointing Dirty Work, the Rolling Stones were put on the backburneras Jagger and Richards pursued their solo projects. Richards produced a competent album and Jagger areal dunger. Exchanges between the two dominated the media and for a while it seemed that the

Stones would remain a mere memory. Since then, however, differences have been shelved and the Stones are back onthe road, touring the USA and promoting their new album Stee/ Wheels.So how successful is the reunion? ' In comparison with the solo outings and the most recent Stones albums, Steel Wheelsis a success. This is no Sticky Fingers but itis palpably their best effort since Tattoo You. All the ingredients of a good Stones record - are present, from vintage rock (‘Sad Sad Sad’, ‘Rock & A Hard Place’, ‘Hold OnTo Your Hat), country ('Blinded By Love’) and down-home R&B (‘Break The Spell). The odd number out s the unusual ‘Continental Drift’ which has more in common with Their Satanic

Majestys Request and their brief liaison with acid music. !

Steel Wheels is proof that Jagger and Richards work better as a team — although Keith Richards’ vocals demonstrate a new confidence, absent prior o his solo stint. Listen to ‘Slipping Away’, one of the album'’s standouts. Al in all, a satisfying return, although with the one provisio that the chauvinism of the Stones can be allittle grating. DAVID PERKINS

THIRD WORLD Serious Business (Mercury) ; BURNING SPEAR Live InParis : (Jayrem) Reggae, being the stone the builder refused, has long been caught between the Rock and the Hard Place: make the sound more palatable to the tastes of the lucrative Western market or languish in obscurity. Having chosen the former course, Third World have prospered at the expense of sniping fromthe purists. If| don't align myself with them, it’s simply because Third

World's output of recent years has been less pleasing aesthetically.

They'veproducedawatery reggae-funk hybrid which pays the bills butscarcely does credit to their

pedigree. ' Fortunately, Serious Business goes some way towards capturing the spirit of their early peaks, 96 Degrees and Journey To Addis. In ‘Forbidden Love’ they may have even finally found a successor to their perennial single ‘Now That We've Found Love’. To keep things trendy, Daddy O of Stetsasonic provides a rap atthe end, while Ibo Cooperdoes afair version of ‘Reggae Ambassador’, another likely single.

Also a catchy contenderis ‘Love Will Always Be There’, while a competent remake of the Four Tops' ‘Same Old Song’ brings up the rear. Best of the bunch, though, is ‘Keep Your Head To

The Sky’, a broad, sweeping, positive : song featuring outstanding singing from Rugs Clarke, Cat Coore and guest

Marva Hicks. The remainderis best described as familiar Third World and the final score is around 6 out of 10.

Burning Spear has also compromised on his last two releases, opting fora more uptempo dancehall style which draws big audiences in the US and Europe. Still, having seen him this year inLondon | can vouch that he clings to his roots. This handsomely packaged double cassette features a band Spear no longer uses, having fired most of them at the end of last year for apparently getting above their station. You either play Spear’s music oryou don't, but the band he’s now using is equally as good. This setwas recorded lastyear in Paris and shows the shaman at his best, punctuating his fervent

singing with ecstatic shrieks and groans, testifying his blackness, his faith and his genius T o

~ ‘Driver’ and ‘Door Peep’ are especially hot, as is ‘Creation Rebel’, an old Studio One songnow in its third

incarnation. It should also be noted that the cassette version includes two songs not on the LP, which was only available here as an expensive import. Score

one for Jayrem and expect a live video soonas well. DUNCAN CAMPBELL - MOJO NIXON & SKID ROPER Root Hog Or Die (Enigma) : Okay, let's get the serious shit over and done with. Musically, this LP is happening (especially when compared with Mojo's previous efforts). What you getis rockabilly through o the boogie of ‘Polk Salad Annie’ and the funk of ‘Sweet Soul Music’, and hotshot

producer Jim Dickinson has given the whole affair a nice clean feel, which is no mean feat considering most of the percussion comes from a washboard attached to a broomstick. :

Lyrically, Mojo's scathingly witty use ofthe American idiom has never been so on target. Sacred cows are slaughtered wholesale and Mojo takes on the evils of censorship, substance abuse, social controls and corporate greed, to name justa few. If's here that we wave goodbye to seriousness as, for all his noble intentions, Mojo is basically a lunatic. Thus his attack on censorship is interwoven with an explanation of a popular (2) gambling game where poultry defacationisa random element; and the whole sordid tale is given a rather neat Memphis soul backing— punchy horns, funky guitars, the works.

There are 11 slices of such madness, ranging from the crazed ‘Debbie Gibson’s Pregnant With My v Two-Headed Love Child' to the obscene ‘She's Vibrator Dependent’ (simply an exploration of modern sexuality, | swear). The duo’s wit and exuberance, however, never allows the album to sink info mere novelty territory. ' Root Hog Or Dieis afun slab of vinyl. Sure, it's dumb, noisy and offensive fun, butisn’t that what rock n’ roll’s all about? KIRK GEE :

LL COOL J

Walking With A Panther (Def Jam) Okay, there's the legend in leather, the man ladies love, just out walking his big pussy cat, the panther. See, no-one fucks with you when you've got a big animal. LLis at one with the beast. He is in complete control, | mean s he worried about all those jive rappers that crept up in his absence? Those PE boys with the big clocks, hell, LL already knows what goddam time itis. What

about all those kids selling all those . records to white people? De La Soul, man, we've already got The Cosby Show, know whatl'msaying? On ‘Why Do They Call It Dope’, LL ‘assumes the role of the discerning public with the line “What's up with LL, will he ever made another Rock The Bells"2". He just shrugs it off, because it's self-evident. Like who cares, here'sa new one. They're all good because LL is a law unto himself. There are 16 tracks on the album (more on the CD and tape). Nine are about his rapping skills, three about how good he is with his dick, three are heartfelt ballads (well, sort of) and one seemsto be aboutsocial issues.

Soin effect LL returns as if nothing has happened. He takes us back to the old days. While everybody else throws off the gold chains and puts on the

African tribal dress, LL wants to shove those leather African medallions down their throats. Maybe he has the right, because as he says on ‘Def Jam In The - Motherland’, he’s been to Africa and got “enlightened” and over there “he’s areal liveidol”. And areal African

chief, Kwasi Achi-Brou, as named by the elders of Gran-Bassan, so he has his roofs. Which are St Albans, Queens, where he was born James Todd Smith. He can walk those streets and be proud because he is LL Cool J. His last record was one of the nastiest and loudest things ever put on vinyl. It sounded like the end of the world. But, things go on, and this records sounds more relaxed. It flows like a funky river. Check out ‘Clap Your Hands' with the looping guitar riff and LL pushing out old school rhymes like “/'ma 150 proof, Smirnoffis only 80,"then throwingina sample from TV's Cheers. Theeasy sexual swager of I'm That Type Of Guy’ and his story of the quest for the ‘Big Ole Butt' from the silken sheets to the tablecloth of the Red Lobster.

Even the fast stuff finds a groove lost on Bigger And Deffer Like ‘Nitro’ with the mixed up ‘Funky Drummer’ and the use of MFSB's ‘Love Is The Message’ on ‘DefJam In The Motherland'. Just love those strange choruses on ‘Smokin, Dopin’ and the female bit on ‘Jingling Baby'. ‘ Yeabh, I've listened to this a lot. First| thought he’s lost it, three ballads are - three too many, it sounded a bit light and had an old fashioned feel. But yo have to approach it asin invitation into LU'sworld. He hasn'tlostitatall. lf'sa perfectproductfromanego

unfettered. KERRY BUCHANAN

BANGTANGO

Psycho Cafe T (MCA) ; Now this is more like it. Bang Tango (what a name) hit the scene with a market enjoying unprecedented record company interestin “rock”. They look the part and they sound it. From the opening blasts of some bluesy wah-wah guitar, itjust gets . better. This is a hot debut with more than a few strong songs, a brilliant vocalist (managing to combine Bon Scott, Robert Plant, Billy Idol and lan Astbury), some killer bass and energy to spare. They borrow heavily — there are stolen riffs from Guns N Roses and U2, and some very Zeppelin sounds — but hey, these are the 80s, anything goes.

There's one dubious number, ‘Love Injection’, followed ironically by a ballad (“/'d do anything for you”) but that's not a bad tally. Is this what they call “gothic metal”? Dunno, but who cares, this kicks butt. Very corny band name, butif they can follow this up, they'll be the most exciting band since Guns N Roses. .

ANIA GLOWACZ