albums

Rip It Up, Issue 177, 1 April 1992, Page 28

albums

CONSOLIDATED Friendly Fascisim (Nettwerk) White boy rappers are certainly nothing new, but there's never really been anything quite like Consolidated. - These San Franciscans have been carving out quite a niche for themselves over the last couple of years, they use some of the most uncompromising beats around, and lyrically they go way beyond - uncompromising. These guys are the serious white liberals, and they're not afraid to let you know. But where most 'political' lyrics can wear thin quickly, Consolidated's angry stance and very heavy rap attack power through any lapses into whining. Samples are used to maximum effect, from the more traditional hip hop styled tracks like 'Brutal Equation' to the heavily /' ; pastiched stuff like White American Male'9l Part 2', which is basically beats and samples. Tracks are linked by some pretty intense little sampled/ spoken bursts, and no one is spared, from the usual liberal targets like J,, government, racists, big business and the like right down to college radio hipsters. All this crusading is well and • good, but you need the music to back it, and Consolidated have no worries there — this is powerful stuff. KIRKGEE JAMES Seven (Polygram) James were never an outstanding band, sure they may have been , covered by the Smiths — but they lacked any aspect of importance. Then bam they bombarded us with 'How Was It For You' and 'Sit Down'. The . transformation was incredible, but the album Gold Mother failed to capture the moment. Hang on though— just as you thought you could dismiss it all as fluke or trickery, they've releaesd Seven— an album that succeeds. Some would call their relaxed rock-come-pop weak or unthreatening, but musical snobbery aside, James' overall sound works well.

They're a band who scream through whispers, whose violin, trumpet and synth additions sound clean rather than cluttered. And though sounding a little too Simple Minds for my liking at times, James have finally found that all-elusive mass appeal factor. Lyrical commentaries on Godlessness, war, paranoia and privacy possess their characteristic intelligence. They're the lyrics of a band consumed by thought rather than those desperate to preach and the musical accompaniment does them justice. 'Mothe?, one of their finest

moments, backs the lines "These wards are motherfuckers / how many songs must we kill today" with incredibly

atmospheric, drawn-out guitar. 'Protect Me' is full of the same 'Sit Down' magic and the final track, 'Seven', is a fitting crescendo of trumpet and high hat behind the apt "now we've done our time, we can drift away" (into the limelight no doubt). James have surpassed most of their previous offerings on this album, it's the album Gold Mother should have been. Seven must be seen as a success for them.

JOHN IAITE

EXTREMITIES The Earache Sampler (Relativity / Earache) Unfortunately this isn't one you can all go out and buy, as it's a promo sampler, but it's great to give you an idea of what's happening at the far edges of rock. It's pretty easy to be glib about this stuff, either writing it off as good for a laugh or getting bogged down in the whole semantics of utterly extreme metal and why the Europeans do this, but neither approach is very fair as this is definitely more than novelty stuff. There's six bands represented here by two tracks each from current albums. I was most interested by Godflesh, who are a seminal industrial / metal act, and Cathedral, the ex-Napalm Death vocalist's doom act. Godflesh deliver beautifully, both

tracks from Pure are like William

Burroughs' nightmares made aural, a mix of programmed sound and white noise. Cathedral are a bit non, just like death metal slowed down a lot, nothing that made me pay attention. Also here are Carcass doing the total extreme splatter metal thing, Entombed, who sound like a more

traditional act gone real ugly, Confessor, who could be Jane's Addiction meets Carcass and lastly, a pleasant suprise with Old. The tracks are from Low Flux Tube, an album I will be buying for sure. They are musically pushing things too far, a total wall of guitars, huge drums and just plain power, then the vocals start.

Whoever's singing is really angry about something, and I don't want to know what. He literally screams his / lungs out, pure anger and agression. Maybe not the sort of thing you can ‘ listen to every day, but pretty cool at the right time. These bands might well seem like real minority listening, but that's only from lack of exposure. They are all doing their thing with quality and integrity and with more and more people realising that what the mainstream presents as wild and

dangerous is little more than cocaine-fueled play acting, the underground seems far more sensible. If you're one of those people who have gone from Maiden to Motley to Metallica and still aren't happy, then take a listen to some of this stuff, it

makes sense. Flying In is importing it so write to them or Aaaarrgghh! Magazine in Palmerston North, which not only knows this scene well, but treats it intelligently. There's a whole new world out there for you. KIRK GEE THE LEVELLERS Levelling The Land (China Records) The Levellers are a quaint bunch. With the strut, swagger and war cries of a low grade Clash they're prickly about being compared to the Pogues, probably because they hope their music strikes up a similar traditional anarchic fever. Taking their name from the group that offered a truly democratic impulse in the 16405, the Levellers seem duty bound to graft that revolutionary zeal onto their ham-fisted hybrid of heavy jigs, reels and anthemic power chords. Cliches of liberty and rants against

tyranny tumble from their lips on 'Liberty Song', 'Sell Out' and 'Another Man's Cause' where "gunshots shatter the peace of night". Mythical meetings with real folk over jugs of ale, reminiscing over working class causes get the treatment on 'One Way', The Game' and The Riverflows' and if the band has one saving grace other than their hilarious lack of

humour in peddling such rather old chestnuts, it's their occasional proximity to the Waterboys courtesy of the likes of The Road'. Lock up your Maypoles. GEORGE KAY THE GADFLYS The Gadflys (Phantom) I saw these Australians live on their recent visit here and they were the proverbial 'amazing discover/. A three-piece jazzy combo of double bass, acoustic guitar and clarinet, the Gadflys tossed a healthy dollop of what I suppose is folk music into the mix, but in case that didn't throw

everybody, they cover things like The Passenge?. All in all it was a very cool concept that worked live. The good news is that if you missed them, the whole mess works on record as well and this six-track effort is the proof. If anything, this works better as they've boosted the sound in places by adding percussion and piano while managing

to keep the sparse, bleak feel that songs like 'All God's Children' have. . These guys seem to have found the link between the Saints (who they also cover) and Dave Brubeck and that in itself is worth buying their records for. KIRKGEE M.C. 900 FT JESUS Welcome To My Dream (Nettwerk) Not, as expected, an intense heap of industrialism and drum machines and bits of metal, but rather a surprising blend of jazz and hip hop. Mr Jesus has no end of oddball lyrical . trips going on here, but the music remains pretty solid, kind of atmospheric funk really. There's plenty of samples and sequenced beats, but this is all overlayed with live musicians doing their thing. At times this veers off into long jams that lost me, they were too 'background music' to really pull your ears out of shape, but when things were more down to earth, Welcome To My Dream is great. The Killer . Inside', not suprisingly the first single, 'Hearing Voices Inside One's Head' and the instrumental 'Dancing .; \ Barefoot 7 are just fine, great beats and plenty of hooks with a nasty feel running through the songs. The whole ‘ MG 900 Ft Jesus deal seems to happen on these tracks, a mix of accessibility and just a little weirdness. KIRK GEE THE JOLLY BOYS Beer Joint And Tailoring (First Warning) The Caribbean is a melting point for 'World Music' which has influenced traditional and contemporary styles on every continent of the planet. The Jolly Boys are a true roots band playing an indigenous style known as 'mentd', based on the oral and musical traditions of Jamaica mixed with \ calypso borrowed from neighbouring Trinidad. This has in turn directly influenced ska and reggae with a follow on through jazz, blues and soul. This four-piece band have been around long enough to have had Errol Flynn as a fan. They used to play at his ranch parties for Hollywood stars. The current line up features original member Moses Deans on banjo with Allan Swymmer lead vocals and ' bongos, Noel Howard acoustic guitar and Joseph Bennett on rhumba box. The giant kalimbra or rhumba box is a traditional percussion instrument and is central to their rhythmical music style that uses repetitive vocal chants and lyrical melodies to retell folklore. They sing traditional songs in this set,

with the exception of 'Before The Next Teardrop Falls' popularised by Freddy Fender. Other titles range from 'Never Find A Lover Like Me' through to 'So Long Babylon' to 'Ba Ba De Ya'.

Swymmer's vocals have the timbre and accent of Toots Hibbert rather than Marley, and these and the backing vocals flow in and out of the rhythms and simple strumming of the banjo and guitar.

Beer Joint is only the third album the Jolly Boys have done in several decades of playing. The BBC's Andy Kershaw recorded the band live to DAT over several days and nights in their home town of Port Antonio, only 50 miles, but a tortuous two-and-a-half hour drive from Kingston. The ' arrangements and sound balance are a bit rough and ragged in places, but overall Joint captures the feeling of balmy Jamaican evenings, Red Stripe beer, herb and big Jolly smiles. The new generation of field recordings. JOHNPILLEY BOOGIE DOWN PRODUCTIONS Sex And Violence (Jive) Although BDP have long been acclaimed as crucial rap listening, I've never really been a fan. KRS-1 has ' always sounded didactic and never had the sort of voice or backing tracks that carries someone like Public Enemy. His weak rap with REM seemed like the end, but no! Here he is with a new album, and it really hits the spot. The whole deal kicks off with a ragga thing, The Original Wa/, which suits KRS-1 's voice perfectly and things stay that good pretty much the whole way. : There are moments where things get a bit mundane, but the/re few and far • between. Sex and Violence veers between some hard raps that use great beats and hooks to keep them interesting and some pretty cool reggae stuff. Best of all, this is - distinctive and original sounding in a genre that's fast becoming as generic 1 as any mainstream music. As the harsh liner notes prove, BDP have certainly not grown complacent. KIRK GEE

SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS Black Music For White People (Possum) Unfortunately the title pretty much sums it up. Screamin' Jay, who has long been one of the more interesting and entertaining personas in rock, has made an album that at times tries to

cater to the mass market and thus is downright ugly. It's not Ja/s fault really, he certainly hasn't lost his touch as his tour last year proved, in fact he's sounding better than ever. It's just you've got to pay the bills somehow, and let's face it, the likes of Bonnie Raitt and co are more interested in

crusading for polite and preferably dead bluesman, not live psychos. As far as the masses go, I can't see it

happening there. R'n'B is largely bought by the thirty-something generation who can't really deal with rock's excesses, and they don't get much more daring than Roy Orbison (It's 0.K., David Lynch digs him) or maybe some zydeco. So where does that leave the likes of Screamin' Jay? Making albums that are less than satisfying. Do we need a dance

version of 'I Put A Spell On You?' or a cover of 'Strokin"? Not at all. All is not lost though, there's a few great moments here, some classic Hawkins gibberish and covers of a couple of Tom Waits tracks, 'Heartattack and Vine' and 'lce Cream Man' that show there's no shortage of life left in the old guy yet. Maybe not what I would have liked from Screamin' Jay, but at least he's getting some royalties finally. KIRK GEE

MACAULEY SCHENKER GROUP M.S.G. (Electrola / EMI) It would be no exaggeration to describe Michael Schenker as the most gifted and tasteful heavy rock guitarist of the last 20 years. From U.F.O. to ■ ' M.S.G., his masterful touch has graced over 15 albums, all without a hint of repetition. This is the third album with the new resident singer/ songwriter Robin Macauley and the only criticism one could make of this union is the ' underlying 'American' sound. Schenker seems to have lost the European edge of his early 80s classics, replacing it with competent, but somewhat sterile Bon Jovi similarities. The opening cut 'Eve' has a ferocious bite, but the ' album gradually loses energy. 'When I'm Gone' is a rather corny ballad ’ redeemed only slightly by the excellent drumming of former "" Kingdom Come skinsman James A Kottack. Repeated listenings do glean other tracks worthy of merit,, 'Nightmare' and 'Craz/ in particular, but a great deal of the material, - although proficiently executed, is . rather soulless. Michael Schenker has done well to re-establish himself and quell the drug

I alcohol addiction that nearly cost him his career. He would be well advised to bring some of the dark side of his : - personal life to his future musical outings.

LUKE CASEY