singles

Rip It Up, Issue 179, 1 June 1992, Page 26

singles

MARK SYEMOUR AND PAUL KELLY Hey Boys (Picture This) A song written for the Australian movie Garbo by Hunter And Collector Seymour is a folky tale of angst and pathos helped out by an aching verse from Paul Kelly and backing vocals from the Finn Bros. Irv fact the song is .. reminiscent of a Neil Finn special with its loving craftmanship. A bullseye. NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS Straight To You (Liberation) Meanwhile in the basement, Nick Cave with his cigarettes for electrodes, muses, as Matthew Hyland rightly pointed out, in embryonic Leonard Cohen style. And like the great C&W stars he emulates, Cave can marry the maudlin with the world-weary and make it sound decadent. This A-side creeps to the cross with bared soul and 'Jack The Ripper may bawl to be 'believed, but it's the lyrical very Cohenish 'Blue Bird' that steals prizes. THE CHURCH Ripple (Mushroom) From the bowels of Cave to the stratospheres means the Church are burning more vapour trails. Incandescent and perhaps ultimately vacuous, it is hard to dislike amorphous pleasantries like 'Ripple', 'Fog' and 'Nightmare', as something approaching melodic substance gradually emerges. PRIMAL SCREAM Dixie Narco EP (Creation) Now truly living up to the irony of their name, Bob Gillespie is making music that has no limitations, no horizons, just expansive often unsettling tracts of soul. 'Movin On Up' you'll know, but the three new songs here are monsters. 'Steal My Soul' is desolation and steel guitars, a mood picked up by 'Carry Me Home' which fades with devastating broodiness. But the big card is 'Screamadelica', 10 minutes of restrained funk tension that flickers through every trick in the soul book. Massive. YOTHU YINDI \ Djapana (Mushroom) This, Aboriginal group from Australia have perfectly captured the elation of championing a righteous cause. Translated 'Djapana' means sunset

dreaming and with erb-like assimilation

of black textures they've got an uplifting hit on their hands. FRENTE! Clunk (White Label) The same cannot be said for the enigmatic artiness that Melbourne's Frente! would like to embrace. Vocalist Angie inhabits the core of their sound with some mannered singing and although 'Ordinary Angels' shows a vague appreciation of what makes a single tick, the other four tracks are too flighty and self-consciously clever. 800 RADLEYS Adrenalin (Creation) Another Creation product and no less massive is the 800 Radley's fourth EP who, with their first album also out this month, are cutting a swathe through guitar band mediocrity. From the album, 'Lazy Day' crackles with kinetic pace and diversity, like punk with a high IQ. 'Feels Like Tomorrow' starts like a runaway train then cuts into this sublime tune, an inspired arrangement only surpassed by 'Whiplashed' which rises to a high melodic pitch. This band has everything. BILLY BRAGG Accident Waiting to Happen (Liberation) In keeping with his socialist ethic of value for money, Bragg issues an eight-track double CD for the price of one. Studio and live versions of 'Accident' take well deserved kicks at fascism, there's spanking live versions of 'Levi Stubb's' and 'North Sea Bubble' and a hurtling version of the Beatles 'Revolution'. Bargain time. HELVELLN The Cruelest Plauge (White Label) ANDREW PONDLEBURY AND KATE CEBERANO Calling You (Regular) This is where the deluge oozes to a trickle at the bottom of the barrel. Helvelln, a trio who took their name from a British town, are equally as random on 'Cruelest Plague', slick, pointless cocktail pop with cha-cha. Pondlebury and Ceberano start with a political country feel on 'Calling Home' before slipping into something like gush, balladeering laced with steel guitars. So radio friendly it's like crawling. GEORGE KAY L 7 Pretend We're Dead/ Shitlist (Slash/ Liberation) Smell The Magic, L7's debut EP (Sub

Pop), was a dirty grunge fest spiked with black humour. This first single from their first album smells suspiciously like it's aimed at the pop charts with a sing-along chorus (and an ironic sample from Madonna's 'Get Into The Groove'). But it kind of rocks and it still - features their great gritty guitar sound. 'Shitlist' is L 7 sounding rude and nasty again the way we like 'em. Now they're on a major label they're getting called the female Nirvana, but who needs that? DONNA YUZWALK