Records

Rip It Up, Issue 151, 1 February 1990, Page 24

Records

BUFFALO TOM Buffalo Tom (SST / Jayrem) Buffalo Tom are from Dinosaur Jnr's home state of Masachusetts, record for their label SST, their debut album is produced by J Mascis, and he plays guitar on one song, so alert readers may be able to guess that there are similarities between the two bands. Buffalo Tom arefarfrom an extended conceptual rip-off, though. While Mascis' songs levitate where they should be falling apart, those of Bill Janowitz, Tom Maginnis and Chris Colbourn (remember the names, you'll be thoroughly sick of them in a year) have an effortless cohesion about them; they didn't fall together as much by accident as by some exquisite whim of the gods. Rhythms are simple but emphatic, ratherthan lazy or frenzied, chord changes as natural as breathing. Inexorable melodies grow like a fungus on this palpitatingsonic mass, and once established in the listener's brain are impossible to move. It all sounds so easy, so unaffected that by association

the depths of meloncholy that a song like 'The Bus' almost drowns in seem frighteningly real. Each song simply has to burst into excesses of polychromatic guitar noise because after a while the vocals can neither bear nor express the strain they're under. Words don't really stand a chance in this emotional climate, but mysteriously specific titles like 'Racine', 'The Plank' and 'Sunflower Suit' and half-heard snatches of surreal ambiguity are effective as triggers of evocation rather than an articulate descriptions of anything in particular. This is only the beginning for Buffalo Tom, but there's kerosene in the baptismal font for sure. If there's any justice in their dream world, they'll die heroes. MATTHEW HYLAND KATECEBERANO Brave (Regular) Just as Melbourne's I'm Talking started to achieve foreign success, singer Kate Ceberano quit to seek solo fame and pursue serious music, disappearing from the pop spotlight to sing jazz standards. Such meanderings never bode well for continuing success

in the pop field, especially when your jazz has more style than substance. I like everything about this album except it's name. Brave is hardly an appropriate title when you choose to cover such safe classics as Stevie Wonder's 'Higher Ground' (yes same song as Red Hot Chili Peppers), Traffic's 'Quasimodo's Dream', Aretha

Franklin's'Since You've Been Gone' and the lesser known Commodores' track'Young Boys Are My Weakness' (Originally'Young Girls...') Kate Ceberano's achievement is to source such varied songs and to record them with numerous different personnel in both Australia and the Northern Hemisphere and still achieve

a coherent sound. She has even used British dance writer/producer Phil Harding and UK pop writer Simon Climie. My favourites are her very contemporary Aretha Franklin remake and current single 'Love Dimension'. With Brave Kate Ceberano proves that as a vocalist she can take a great song and make it her own. That's substance overstyle. MURRAY CAMMICK YOUNG MC Stone Cold Rhymin' (Island) Rap has reached a difficult, adolescent phase. It's finding new maturity—socially, lyrically, musically — but at the same time it's suffering. from overkill. Popularity brings the cash-ins and record companies are climbing over one another to find the next sensation, which results in inferior product being released, or good albums geared savagely to market forces. Stone Coldßhymin 'almost falls into the latter trap, but class saves the day. Young MC has a headstart on the pack as he's part of the Delicious Vinyl team, with the production wizardry of Dike and Ross at his disposal. These boys always come up with the goods, they can do it all. There's outright funky pop like 'Bust A Move', "mood" rap in the form of 'Non Stop' and of course just plain genius like 'Know How', which has o be one of the singles of the decade. It's all perfect, from the snappiest drums to the cleverest , sampling. ’ ' MrYoung does alright himself too.

He has one of the most distinctive rapping styles around, which owes as much to Reggae toasting as it does to the usual rap influences ('I Let 'Em > Know' is real ragamuffin style). The only problem is that Stone Cold ßhymin'is that it's at times a little soft. 'Principal's Office' may be a great pop single but compared to other tracks on the album it's twee and cloying. Young MC can produce better stuff, as his raps on the new Sly & Robbie LP proved, but he needs a little more freedom. Despite that, Stone Cold Rhyming outclasses most of the recent competition. Heaven help us if Young MC decides to get really loose. KIRK GEE ' - « > VARIOUS ARTISTS Shocker (Soundtrack) (SBK) • • • • There I was, watching the Pit Bull 1 sequence on Faces Of Death Volume 3 and my bleeding heart liberal neighbour came in to ask if I, wanted to take part in the Phantom Of lhe Opera role-playing game. He looked at the screen and gave a speech on how people like me are making holes in the ' ozone layer by enjoying sports and stuff, and then walked out. 1 hate people telling me what to do, like what I should watch and listen to, so I was going to leave it up to you about this one. But hell, I'm a social critic and / everything, sq I decided to tell you that. this is not very good. . The film looks okay. It's one of those prison things where a guy gets the . chair, but gets real mad, and comes back and kills people. The film is aimed at 10 year-old slash fans, so the music follows. It's metal, but not that you'd know it. You get the big love theme by Saraya, and Alice Cooper doing a "rap" on 'Shockdance' and what. ; soundtrack would be complete without Iggy Pop groaning on 'Love - Transfusion'? J ■ • The music is "supervised" by Desmond Child, the man who brought ius light metal and Jean Beauvoir (who was in the Plasmatics and wishes he still was). The film is subtitled "No more Mr, Nice Guy" so they get Megadeath to cover Mr Alice's classic. Now I thought this was going to be good, but even they sound like wimps, it just doesn't happen. Pity, because there's some good people involved, like Dangerous Toys, Motley's Tommy Lee and Kiss's Paul Stanley. But that's what happens when Hollywood calls. , . .»

KERRY BUCHANAN

ALICE COOPER The Beast Of Alice Cooper ’ (Warner Brothers) A lot of my formative years were spent listening to Alice records. Both The Killer arid Million Dollar Babies are rock classics, and you can still hear echoes of Alice in a lot of the new metal. It's his style and attitude that' keeps him important. Like, as teen • anthems go, nothing much beats Tm Eighteen'—it's got everything. He gets a bit obvious in 'School's Out', but no less effective. This collection is almost the same as the old Best Of collection, but in a much more attractive package, inner sleeve and all. It could possible lose . 'Desperado' and'ls It My Body', and gain 'Sick Things', 'Killer' and 'Love It To Death'. But if great to hear teenage lament circa 1974 again, and I forgot how good 'Muscle Of Love Is'. KERRY BUCHANAN TAMA Workshop (TeAroha) I'm familiar with the hassles and frustrations local guitar virtuoso Tama Renata endured to finally see his debut album release. Five years in the making, progress limited by budget and with record company interest non-existent, last year Aly Cook came to the rescue and, together with Tama and engineer Reid Snell, formerTe /. Aroha Records. Good on ya, Aly! You too, Tama. Well-known and acclaimed on the Auckland scene for 20 years, Tama Renata finally makes vinyl! Inevitably, given the circumstances and Tama's diverse musical influences, Workshop suffers a little through lack of focus and a somewhat dated .

approach. So we get a variety of feels; Polynesian, reggae, funk, jazz, rock—but how. Make no mistake, Tama

Renata is one hot guitarist. Good singer, too.

With all but one track self-composed (Danny Wilson's 'ln The Ghetto') Workshop displays a much underrated New Zealand talent. Not without its faults, it's a worthy debut. JOHNDIX BABYFACE Tender Lover . (Solar) Babyface is probably best known to you pop kids as half of LA Reid and Babyface, remixers to the stars. He has had quite a career prior to this,. however, from his days with the Deele and supplying hits to the Solar stable, up until his more recent successes ?

hitmaking for the likes of Bobby Brown, Pebbles, Karyn White and others. Now he's got a solo album out so that he can prove beyond a doubt that he's a

talented guy. Tender Loveris very much your cool modem soul album. He's on the cover dressed badly and looking pouty with rumpled beds in the background, and it has a funky side and a slow side. The funky side is pretty good; youngbloods Troop and After 7 help out with some real nice dancefloor stuff, particularly the title track and 'Can't Stop My Heart'. Things really get going with the smoochy ballad side though, and being a romantic sort of guy I appreciate this genre.

Unsurprisingly, there's a smooth, rich Solar sound to all this, complete with whispered intros and anguished, impassioned vocals. 'Whip Appeal' (not an S&M ballad, unfortunately), 'Sunshine', 'Given A Chance'—it's all wonderful and heartrending, and it's rgeat to hear that classic LA sound still works. I suppose this means that Babyface is now really rich. KIRKGEE

VARIOUS ARTISTS Stairway To Heaven / Highway To Hell (Polygram) When this bunch of metal and pop rockers got together to perform at the Moscow Peace Festival in August 'B9 they decided to also donate their performances to make this record. Each track is a cover version of a song originally recorded by an artist who has sufffered from drug or alcohol abuse, and the choice of material is great. Ozzy particularly cooks on his smokin' rendition of 'Purple Haze' with Zakk Wylde burnin'so hot on guitar that

Hendrix is sure to have approved. . Motley Crue slide through a fairly . - : decent tribute to Tommy Bolin in the • form of'Teaser'and the Scorpions do likewise for Keith Moon with 'I Can't Explain'. Also included are Bon Jovi playing Thin Lizzy's The Boys Are Back In Town', Skid Row doing the Pistols' 'Holidays In The Sun', Cinderella with a worthy version of 'Move Oved (Janis Joplin) and Jason Bonham having a ‘ good shot at doing his dad's 'Moby Dick'. : • ■To finish off there's the loose rock n' roll jam that closed the Russian festival. . Profits from this project will go to MADF • (is that "Make A Difference/ •:• \ Foundation" or "Mad Fuckers"?) to help prevent drug and alcohol abuse amongst today's youth.' v ■ GEOFF DUNN - BAD BRAINS Quickness (Caroline) One of the great racial anomalies of rock music is the "black guys can't rock" myth. It's okay for white guys to be funky (especially if they're really bad at it, and English) but the upper echelons of the music world just cannot cope with black guys rocking. This is quite strange because not only did blacks create the foundation upon which rock n' roll is built, but most of the great guitar innovators were blacks—King, Berry, Hendrix, Hazell. Attitudes, though, are starting to change. The likes of Living Colour and Fishbone are breaking into the charts, so maybe now is the time for the great black rockers, Bad Brains, to emerge from the underground. Quickness, their , fourth album, is the first to be released locally in NZ. It remains very much in the Brains' musical hardcore territory. They use the traditional buzzsaw guitar sound, but it's tempered by the band's funk/ reggae roots, which adds interesting edge. Earl's drumming could easily be sampled from some hard funk act, while HR's vocals are sort of aggro-Rasta, with a reggae feel. But it's the hardcore sound which they really excel at. There's no OTT speed for speed's sake, yet no punches are pulled. 'Soulcraft' is truly heavy, dangerous stuff while at the other end of the scale 'Yout' Juice' is funky metal, the sort of stuff that Living Colour have adopted. It all flows well together. As the Bad Brains themselves say, "with the quickness I children will lead the way." It would do the charts a world of good. ,

KIRK GEE