OUT OF TIME

Rip It Up, Issue 192, 1 July 1993, Page 26

OUT OF TIME

This column's gunna be an exploration for me. A continuing search for timeless music outside the mainstream and the alternative. I wanna find stuff that has the impact of a first hearing of 'Revolution 9', the early Negati via nd albums, John Cage, uillean pipe music, all those sounds that made you shrink and grow at the same time, that are totally alien and utterly familiar, that make you wanna puke up poetic garbage like this. When you get a bit sick of pop, rock, dance, classics, jazz etc. When you feel like giving the whole music bit a wide berth, watch the League instead, you NEED some of this largely undef ina ble sh it. It's tougher to find, it's often as disappointing as its mainstream relatives but there's great stuff out there. And you can get it close to home. Terence O'Neill Joyce's ODE label imports a bewildering bulk of semi (and totally) obscure world labels. One of the most useful for our needs is Le Chant du Monde who put out some deliciously odd stuff. As a primer of worldwide ancient acoustic sound Instruments de Musique du Monde (LDX 274675) would be hard to beat. In 71 minutes you hear good examples of 36 different instruments and ensembles from Tibet to the Solomons. An ethnomusicological feat of strange timbres and inspired performances. Plus a 120 page illustrated book! From the same label come several volumes of Cultures Electroniques, a series of double CDs showcasing the winners of the annual International Concours of Electroacoustic Music held in Brussels. No 2 of the series (LDC 278044/ 45) from 1987 is perhaps a little stronger than 89's No. 4 (LDC 278049 50) and boasts a piece by NZ's John Rimmer, but both hold many serious sonic surprises and I'm keen to hear any other volumes. It's all electronic pieces but they must be based at some level on an acoustic source. This source may be looped, chopped, sampled, computerised or otherwise electronically altered and the best are generally those that take this process the farthest. Expect to hear some sounds you've never encountered (and all without a @s&*!!ing dancebeat!!) I've gotta put in a quick plug for a triple CD that's really outside the parameters of this column but Ode's got the Tatiana Nikolayeva 24 Preludes & Fugues of the ridiculously underrated Dmitri Shostakovich which has been widely praised and rightly so. Piano music up there with Bach and Bartok. (Hyperion CDA66441/ 3) OK, back on track and Ode do their own recording too, one of the latest being Prof. Li Xiang-Ting's Guqin Recital (Ode CD SV 1337). The Guqin, a seven string, four foot long "lute-zither" of some 15 centuries' development, has been recorded solo at Auckland's Mandrill Studio and sounds stunning. Each of the 13 pieces has a distinct sound and feel and such is the depth of texture and delicacy of the instrument that it remains fascinating and satisfying for the hour plus of the disc. Sumptuous. Enough of Ode but still on local release (Rykodiscthru Festival) is The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania (HNCDI373) by Muzsikas. Unprepossessing title but if you can't dance to this super unleaded Hungarian stringband stuff then I can only assume you lost yer legs in some Mack/ skateboard collision. It's deleriously propulsive music played by four young guys and a bunch of previously unrecorded old blokes who've been playing like thisfor most of the century. Utterly magical, brilliantly performed and spectacularly recorded this disc is one of my picks of the year out of every field of music. It swings like a mad bastard and has all those wondrous textures that you only get close to in the most extraordinary electric music. If you wanna leap around in circles in an hour-long drug-free high then buy this record! Right, next time, more locally available stuff, all, like these, procurable thru good retailers nationwide then ... out into the big, scary universe of importing. CHRIS KNOX

Hiatt's 'Feels Like Rain' and the wonderful shuffle of Ray Charles's 'Mary Anne'. Guy's competence isn't in question, it's just that his pandering to a mainstream audience means one of the most stunning blues performers comes across as being rather ordinary. For contemporary blues with all the feeling of the Delta, try the recent, moving, compilation Deep Blues (Anxious/ Warners). CHRIS BOURKE REVOLVER Cold Water Flat (Hut) . Well, the cover looks nice and blue. And Revolver are still shoegazers. And shoegazing is dead. And, well, what else is there to say? , 7*' s I mean full marks to them for sticking to their guns and proving it meant more to them than just a bandwagon. At least they didn't go country or something equally aimless like . Moose. But ; really, shoegazing was just a fill-in scene. They were the leg warmers of rock — kind of handy at the time, but ultimately tragic. ’ • . - Cold Water Flat is all diffident softness. They've experimented with orchestras and it still sounds miser-

able. At places you wonder how they managed to run through a whole song without heading off for a sulk or a sob. Revolver are anti-heroes in a climate that wants heroes.' Cold Water Flat?- Flat, cold water more like. They should be put down before they do any real damage. . . JOHN TAITE . ’ ' . ' . ? J OZZY OSBOURNE Live and Loud (Epic) ? Z The best produced live album of Ozzy's career is taken from his last two tours and it's totally wild! The usual Carmina Burana intro has been replaced by a sampled collage of Ozzy's work before he whips into a really manic state by tearing into 'Paranoid'. It's all aboard for the ride as he rocks and rollercoasts through old favourites ('War Pigs/, 'Crazy Train', 'Suicide Solution’) and newer numbers ('No More Tears', 'Miracle Man', 'Road To Nowhere'). The real shame is that it's the end of this band (apart from the ’nearly completed final ' studio album) as Zakk Wylde and Randy Castillo are perfect sidemen for the great Oz. Zakk is forming his southern hard

rockin' band but he's been invaluable to Ozzy as friend, wicked guitarist and contributor to some of his best music. Ozzy of course is mad as ever and giving it all he's got to ensure that these are the ultimate live vocal performances of his life, complete with Ozzy's inimitable stage banter eg "Let's go fuckin' crazy!". It's all a lot of fun and will be excellent to see on video. The limited edition of the CD and tape will be a must for collectors with its novel packaging of Ozzy in a speaker box. At the end of this double set the original Black Sabbath perform their track of the same name from a three song reunion which took place at Ozzy's very last concert. It's only the second time in over thirteen years that he's had anything to do with Sabbath since quitting and leaves the possibility of a few big shows with them across Europe and the States. Whatever happens, this is the last of Ozzy's long tours. Just as well it's all here on Live and Loud. GEOFF DUNN THE BEST OF MARTIN STEPHENSON AND THE DAINTEES There Comes A Time (Kitchenware) Hailing from Newcastle in the north east of England, Martin Stephenson and the Daintees never scaled the heady heights that many thought they would. Now after four albums and a musically varied career they have decided to call it a day, leaving Stephenson free to puruse a solo career that always seemed likely. Rather like the Go-Betweens and unlike Prefab Sprout, the Daintees received large critical acclaim without having the sales figures to match. This may have been caused by Stephenson’s willingness to experiment with many types of music including jazz, country and western and folk and his ability to sound like Neil Diamond, Taj Mahal, Nick Cave, Lloyd Cole or Michael Franks rather than himself. That aside, it soon becomes evident on this 18 track Best Of collection just what a fine singer songwriter he is. The majority of the material here is drawn from the first two albums Boat to Bolivia and Gladsome Humour and Blue which was probably their most complete work. Amongst the heart warming highlights from this period are 'Crocodile Cryer, 'Wholly Humble Heart'

and 'There Comes A Time'. The better tunes from Salutation Road are included as are two from last year's (and the Daintees' final) The Boys Heart LP. This is fair enough as on their last single 'Big Sky New Light' they were in grave danger of turning into Deacon Blue. Thankfully this never happened. Most compilations leave out at least one personal favourite. This one, happily, is as damn near perfect in track selection as it is easy on the ear. AUSTER CAIN DAVID CROSBY Thousand Roads (Atlantic) To approach a new David Crosby album with anything like an open mind requires both a forgiving nature and a long memory. Either that or complete ignorance of his last two decades as the archetypal bloated 60$ derelict who dissipated his talent through self-indulgence and multiple addictions. But following the (by now standard) cathartic autobiography Crosby began rebuidling his career. There've been the shots at acting — a pirate in Hodk and a guest slot on Roseanne — and a cautious bid for a return to musical credibility. While the flagellated guitar of this new album's title track may recall the days of Almost Cut My Hair, Crosby's words convey none of his former smug arrogance. The tone here is rueful reflection. 'Yvette In English', co-penned with Joni Mitchell, has a delicate beauty which suggests that Crosby's songwriting glories may not yet be altogether past. However most of the album consists of non-originals astutely chosen from the likes of Jimmy Webb, Marc Cohn, John Hiatt and Paul Brady. The overall mood is low key and the arrangements — title track apart — favour discreet and gentle instrumentation. Yet with the brace of producers from Don Was through Glyn Johns to Phil Collins there's still variety. Some tracks certainly slide into cloying sentimentality but much of the album provides a worthwhile showcase for Crosby's attractive voice. On balance Thousand Roads presents a modest but reasonable argument for David Crosby having a future again.

PETER THOMSON