THE JUICE

Rip It Up, Issue 182, 1 September 1992, Page 21

THE JUICE

' : i If you have any club or DJ news/ goss from anywhere in NZ then fax us on 09-376-1558.. Be sure to put in a contact . name, phone and fax number. V •-*:? t After their recent NZ gig at the i; v Auckland Town Hall, members of the Public Enemy/lce T entourage headed for The Box where Ice T had played 3 years before. With Flav on the mic and Ice T on ; the turntables the two played for an hour, giving the audience amongst other things an extended jam version of ‘9ll is a Joke’. T Ice T and DJ Evil E then went next door to Cause Celebre where they both rapped over the soul tapes playing in the bar. Ice T did a well-cool version .'My Funny Valentine* before staggering out at around 6am with a local blonde. No sign •' this tour of Ice T’s beautiful wife Darlene . who had so many tongues (male & female) hanging out on his last visit to NZ. •i . t Godlike UK DJ Grooverider plays one night only in Auckland at . DTM’s on November sth. T Box DJs Rob Salmon and Manuel Bundy have been flown to Australia to perform at the Australian DMC Championships. Salmon will be performing in his capacity as DJ for rap crew Leaders of Style, and Bundy will be a celebrity guest - billed as one of the world’s leading Hip-Hop Club DJs! t Former NZ DMC DJ Champ Rhys B is in-store all day Wednesday at the Soul Mine in Kilburnie, Wellington for those wanting expert opinion on import ■ releases or tips on DJ techniques. t Also in Wellington, when clubbing check out X-Tasy Plus, Sol, DADA, and Metro (but only for one-nighters). T New to the Christchurch club scene is Ministry, opening mid-September with a < big boomin' 10K system. t CHCH also has a helluva rap contest at the Worchester Bar on Saturday September 19, results here next month, t Anyone wanting a Beats Per Minute T-Shirt should send S3O to BFM, c/o AUSA, Private Bag, Auckland. Be sure to include your name and address or they’ll \ enjoy a drink at your expense. t Local rappers Slam & Jam are signed to Second Nature Records, and released thru Volition in Australia. A pressing fuckup means their single ‘Prove Me Wrong’ is only now available on the all important DJ 12" vinyl format. T Also on Second Nature is The Semis, formerly Semi MCs. They dropped the MC tag because they’ve evolved from a four man rap crew into a seven piece live band (with only one rapper). Their first show is at DTM’s in Auckland on September 24, . with support from Houseparty, Pacifican Descendants, and a six strong female dance crew. In October they support Simply Red in Wellington and Christchurch and have a national tour to support their single, released on October 19. More on the Semi’s in next month’s GROOOVE. raawaßraiEnmaiKD

VARIOUS ARTISTS Massive Five (FFRR Records Ltd) Having turned my back on raggamuffin sounds last year, I was interested in hearing some recent releases, to see if there'd been any progress. After more than a decade of running BFM's weekly Sound System programme, mostly, at my own expense, I'd found the financial burden becoming excessive in relation to the pleasure I was getting out of the music. To be blunt, the digital sound was becoming a bore. It had reached a plateau and I returned to roots music with few regrets. Massive Five offers a good cross-section of '92 singles from the UK reggae charts, as accurate a barometer of the hot sounds as any. So what has changed? Precious little, I fear. Among the 20 tracks here are nine featuring DJs, most of them familiar names, none of them doing anything fresh. Studios are still churning out these frantic rhythms, some more funk than reggae, with a rasping machine gun rapper trying to prove he's the fastest in the business but who seldom has much to say beyond an exaggerated assessment of his sexual prowess. Someone occasionally comes up with a cute phrase or catchline which will be copied by many others and have as much longevity as the average fruitfly. The Lovers Rock, fathered by Gregory Isaacs and nurtured in the UK, sounds better without being much more innovative. Half Pint, Cocoa Tea, China Black, Peter Hunningale and Mike Anthony are sweet and smooth like cafe au lait, while Marcia Griffiths lifts an ordinary song, 'Closer To You', with a typically polished performance. There are only two tracks which give these tired old ears any real inspiration. Lovers hitmakers Brian and Tony Gold turn to politics, specifically South Africa, with 'Can You' and come up with a winner. A woman living in the townships writes to a friend in Britain, asking "Can you swim on any beach you want to, are there any signs around saying 'We don't want no blacks in town?' You must be living in paradise."

The other is Michael Rose's 'Visit Them', a song for prisoners, produced by Sly and Robbie. It's a spare, understated rhythm topped off by Rose's best performance since quitting Black Uhuru. If this is the new Taxi sound, give me more. Just as S&R showed the way in the early

1980 s, they threaten to leave others in their wake today. So maybe there's hope for reggae yet, and ragga fans can pick up Massive Five without hesitation. Me, I'll stick with the roots, - thanks. DUNCAN CAMPBELL SHABBA RANKS Rough and Ready Vol One (Epic) It's a sure thing, Shabba "Mr Loveman" Ranks in a re-mix stylee, king of the ragga heap with nothing gonna stop him now. It's just part of the natural progression of musical history that ragga and its new development will take its rightful place in the popular consciousness. To many, reggae is only one thing, the folk poetry of roots musicians or the get up, stand up rhythms of Bob Marley. But ever since Wayne Smith kicked the computerised beats of 'Sleng Teng' way back in 1985, it's been a whole new ball game with the beats getting hard as a crowbar and the vocals mixing it up with hip hop. Well, we have a perfect beast. This new one from Shabba is in fact a greatest hits package, done for the ragga hungry American market. There, as they say, is the rub, many hardcore reggae fans might find these re-mixes redundant or just not reggae enough. An example being 'Just Reality', in its original form a sparse but effective work-out from producer Bobby "Digital" Dixon but here the much in demand Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth take it to a different groove, an uplifting electro ride that is better than the original. As is the soul influenced 'Lover Man', the original is taken at a much faster tempo, re-mixer David "Boom Boom" Morales slows it down like syrup pouring from a spoon, with Shabba singing his own praises and Chevelle Franklin taking over from Deborahe Glasgow on the "kill you with it" chorus. It's one hot track in this form. Good to see that the Americans haven't tried to stop Shabba's politically incorrect sexual aspects, what is termed the Slackness Style. Things like 'Wicked in Bed' and the selfexplanatory 'Hard and Stiff' are all on display here. All in all a great outing for Shabba, a sharpening of the raggamuffin beat with all the hip hop influences floating in and out and a good introduction for those of you not acquainted with reggae in the nineties.

KERRY BUCHANAN