Records

Rip It Up, Issue 147, 1 October 1989, Page 30

Records

ORIGINALSOUNDTRACK I'm Gonna Git You Sucka

(Arista) The film looks outta sight, like revenge of the blaxploitation actors. There's Isaac “Truck Turner” Hayes, Jim “Slaughter” Brown, and best of all the return of Huggy Bear!! Yes, Antonio Fargas s stepping out in some cool

threads, wheeling and dealing as “Pimp ofthe Year”. So, a cool movie has to have a cool soundtrack, and so it has. The Gap Band do the itle track and the mid-tempo ‘You're So Cute’, and

Jermaine Jackson turns is an okay soul shuffle in ‘Clean Up Your Act'. But the highlights lie with the hardcore rhymes of BDP “Jack Of Spades’, K-9 Posse ‘This Beat Is Military’ and Two Nice's ‘Two Can Play The Game'. K-9 uses the rap from Full Metal Jacketand Nice Two use Johnnie

Taylor's 'Who Making Love' fo full effect. Only failure to me is Fishbone and Curtis Mayfield playing around with something called ‘He’s A Fly Guy.

Check out the record and make sure yousee thefilm.

KERRY BUCHANAN

SIDEWINDERS

Witchdoctor : (RCA) ' Afour piece of guitar-struck hopefuls from Tucson, the Sidewinders recorded this, their second LP, for around USS3,OOO. Sure, it's no wall of sound production and orchestras were asked to stay at home but that kinda money - these days would hardly pay for studio takeaways.

So with asound between LA and garageland the Sidewinders cut loose with dual guitars, particularly on the nine-minute slow building ‘What She Said’. The rest is pretty standard jangling guitar fare but they do a neat version of Neil Diamond's ‘Solitary Man’ — and before you start laughing justrememberwho wrote I'mA - Believer’.

Age-old, standard guitaring, but they doitraw and keen. GEORGEKAY

SARAH JANE MORRIS

Sarah Jane Morris

(Jive) ~ Thefront sleeve photo recalls the innocence of pre-Hollywood Marilyn Monroe — all curly hair, freckles and a fresh faced smile. So it'sa bitofa surprise on first encountering the soulful depth of Morris’s voice, let alone the knowingintelligence behindher songwriting. : In ‘The Rains Have Failed Again’ she reflects upon the inequalities of wealth and power in modern societies, drawing a comparison between rural Africa and urban London. That may sound like heavy freightfor a pop song but Morris carries it off with astute yet simple phrasing and a heartfelt delivery. The similarly serious lyric to ‘This Ain't Livin” is delivered via a catchy melody and uptempo sophisticated funk. Her three other co-written numbers are styled in appealingly tuneful pop / soul with always sparkling arrangements.. The balance of the album consists of interpretations of five well known songs. This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)' may not cut Natalie Cole’s mid-70s version but it certainly makes a respectable alternative. Bobby Hebb's ‘Sunny’ becomes slowed down funk that allows Morris to stretch and scat a little, while Billy Paul’s ‘Me And Mrs

Jones' takes on a shrewd and sensitive lesbian understanding. Only on ‘She’s Leaving Home' does Morris fail, over-emotingto an extent that s risible. {Such melodramatics may suit Las

Vegas lounges butin the context of that

otherwise fine album, thetrackisan - embarrassment.) Her rendition of ‘Alone Again Naturally’ is, by contrast, almostunderstated as she lets the words themselves evoke emotion aided by a gently plaintive harmonica. Sarah Jane Morrisis an ambitious album for a debut. The fact that it is also 90 percent successful augers well for her future. May she never again need to resort to singing backup for such a wimpy group as the Communards. PETER THOMSON -

DAVID PEASTON

Introducing David Peaston CHRISTOPHERWILLIAMS Adventuresin Paradise : (Geffen) From the likes of Frank Sinatra and Johnny Ace in the 40s, the smooth and soulful masculine style has had some fine champions. Through Clyde McPhatter, most of the Motown roster, Teddy Pendergrass, Barry White and dozens more, it has developed into the wondrous extremes of Luther and Alexander. Here are two new

contenders, and they’re mighty strong David Peaston would be my pick. He's gotthe pedigree (hewon

Amateur Night at the Apollo for about ayearstraight), he's got the style (the man looks like an entire tag wrestling team inside one perfectly tailored suit) and he definitely has the voice. Outside of the obligatory Riley / Griffin produced swingbeat single, the album is pure, classic soul. Peaston’s voice has the same effortless quality as Mr Vandross, gliding elegantly over love songs like chocolate sauce. He tears up

the grooves on a version of ‘God Bless The Child’ that leaves the listener

drained and would certainly give Lady Day a run for her money. Immaculate. Christopher Williams, although - lacking Peaston'’s power, has also come up with a winner. Chris comes from the Al B Sure school of sensitive machismo, which explains why on the inner sleeve he can pose moodily in a wetsuit

complete with leg holster yet still come up with a credible album. As with Introducing... the sound is built around

the voice rather than clever production. Ignoring the truly ugly ‘My Prerogative’ soundalike single, Williams isthe Alexanderto Preston’s Luther, a bitfunkier and a bit raunchier, but still as smooth assilk. Tracks like ‘l'm Your Present, or ‘Paradise’ are the stuff romantic nights are built on —totally smooth city. Adventures In Paradise and Infroducing David Peaston are both albums of 24 carat class. The art of the ballad still lives. ‘ KIRK GEE e THEFATBOYS KrushOn You (Blatant) The human beat boxes have rolled into town again with a double Best Of compilation, a staple dietof beats, rhymes and scratches to fill the most famished rap fan. The Fat Boys are from the “old school” of rap, bedecked in gold chains, tracksuits and “fat” Nike sneakers. Even so, they can still : compete with the stylish new wave led by De La Soul and EPMD. . Their music is a welcome contrast to

the hardcore social posturing of Schoolly D, NWA and Public Enemy. These N's certainly haven't gotan A. All these cats know is burgers, cokes and big butts. They know alot — they obviously speak from experience.

Krush On You contains a lot of variety, from ‘Fat Boys Scratch’ to ‘Hardcore Reggae’. A number of tracks are in the Bootsy Collins vein with female vocals providing pleasant support. The Boys “take itto the bridge” on ‘Sex Machine’ and scratch itinto oblivion. You can see that the human beatbox Dion Wembley has been a maijor influence on Double J & Twice The T. His rhythm capacity is . comparable with a drum machine.

The Fat Boys' soft-core rapping style is fun and vaguely humorous and in some cases extremely danceable. They don'tneed no Chubby has-beento teach them how to twist. GRANTSHAND

VARIOUS NZ ARTISTS AK 89: In Love With These Times

(Campus Radio BFM)

Interesting play on ftitles here. A decade ago, Ripper records brought out AK 79. A collection of Auckland punk bands, it was a reflection of the times which were definitely a-changing. Same with hip-hop, it

doesn'ttake a sociology ciegréé to

connectthe two. They both exist outside of the mainstream, despite

attempts to drag them in. The other connection is with the Flying Nun album whose charming guitar-finged folk tunes have become part ofthe mainstream.

Anyway, it's strange that the first track hasn’t got a lotto do with hip-hop.

‘Nasty Talk’ from Kirsten and Monster House is more Miami pop, with big beats galore, | like it, butit doesn'tHfitin with the rest of the tracks. It'd make a good single, though. The Semi MCs, veteran winners of rap contests, turn in two good cuts, with ‘Girl We're Through’ taking the honours with lines like “You wear cosmetics/ Maybe even buy Mystique”and the school dance scene with the SIOO

bottle of champagne sounding good. ‘Duke Of Earl’ isn'tthe Gene Chandler classic, buta love rap with the beat box mouthing off. Next, the Homeboys with ‘Dope Of A New Kind' which shamelessy “adapts”

PE’s'Don’t Believe The Hype' and uses afew phrases fromlce T. Still, ithasa. logic of its own and is the hardest hip-hop on the tape, despite their other track ‘What's Our Name' laying down the law about what bad mofo's they are. This one has a special appearance by Nick D’Angelo with “I'm just here for the money.” Which leaves Pyrette’s female rap ‘Cult Bust' about big business and those wild sociologists down town. It's rap about marketing, | think. Not sure about the music, like the scratching, but the the samples make it sound like some old Cabaret Voltaire cut. ' The two Total Effect tracks could do with better production, beefthe bass up, because lyrically they're probably the best tracks and need that big kick. ‘Ripping Up A Storm’ uses the Doors’ ‘Riders On The Storm' riff and cuts in James Brown. ‘Four Musketeers'is about “gettingbusy” andhasmy favourite theme of getting them “sucker ass rappers” and dissing the hell out of them. Nice scratch too, with MC Square getting on the good foot.

These sort of collections are important and can only get better, maybe next time UDC might get a track. Radio BFM, too, have always played hip hop, and have excellent specialist shows, but how come NWA have been taken offthe playlist KERRY BUCHANAN

DIESEL PARK WEST ’ Shakespeare Alabama (EMI) The story goes that EMI were looking for the next Simple Minds but went o Leicester and signed DPW instead. And they paid plenty for a band who're not gonna be the next stadium filler although there is a touch of the heroicin the music that singer / guitarist / songwriter John Butler leads the band through. : Buttheir best songs like the soaring ‘Bell Of Hope'’ and the menacing ‘When The Hoodoo Comes' keep their feeton the ground borrowing from influences as diverse as the Byrds and the Stones. Also worth singling outis ‘The Waking Hour’ which gets passionate without lapsing into overstatement or pretension.

Despite the silly fitle, this debut reveals a band with potential to develop into something worthwhile.

GEORGEKAY

VARIOUS ARTISTS Scandal (Soundtrack) (Parlophone) The packaging here is not just incidental enhancement, it is the whole point. Without the movie there would be absolutely no reason to dig up so much musical mush. The point,of | course, is that all this twaddle was popularin London during the years of Christine Keeler’s rise and fall. Sowas a lot of better stuff — the Beatles for instance by 1962/63 — but it probably wasn'tlistened to within the social circles of StephenWardandJohn . Profumo. So we get lots of MOR from the likes of Frank Ifield, Craig Douglas, Nat King Cole, Matt Monro, Johnny Burnette et al, as well as a questionable novelty from Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren.

True, there’s also an occasional goodie (Eddie Cochran forinstance) but over so many tracks — six of the 20 weren'teven usedin the film—only a couple are enlivened by their cinematic context. The Shadows’ ‘Apache’ provides a marvellous soundtrack for the montage of Mandy and Christine girdingthemselvesforbattleinthe erogenous zone. And Donizetti's opera extract vividly recalls the sagging faced John Hurt as a brooding Stephen Ward. (Dusty Springfield's sublime ‘Nothing Has Been Proved’ doesn’t count; it's brand new and it's only played over the closing credits.) Ah, butthe album sleevel Here, if there ever was one, is a case of the cover justifying the music. The LPhas a foldout chock full of shots from the

movie and tabloid newspaper front pages atthe time the story broke. There's also a potted chronology of the scandal and other cultural events of the era. History as junk consumption. Junk consumption as history.

PETER THOMSON