nz singles

Rip It Up, Issue 219, 1 November 1995, Page 42

nz singles

CHICANE Revs Per Minute CD EP (Failsafe) Revs is the debut release from Christchurch four-piece Chicane, a bunch who clearly, know a good melody when they write one. No doubt they’re sick to the stomach with the comparison by now, but undeniably there’s a great deal of Carter/Fits worship going on here. All four songs written by cosinger/guitarist Dean Chiplin have that smouldering, sinewy side of the Fits about them, while the noisier notions of Justin Schilder. take them off on more solid, fuzzed out guitar journeys. Not bad at all. TEREMOAN A Four Women CD Single (BMG)' . . Built on a subtle, sensual piano melody, Teremoana’s classy souldrenched vocals turns Nina Simone's ‘Four Women’ into one long mellow groove, deep enough to fall into. DLT’s ‘Deez Mix’ gives the song an added funky punch, though the ‘Radio Edit’ is the more sophisticated cut. MOANA and THE MOAHUNTERS .Give It Up (Let My Peoples Know). CD Single (BMG) . , Commissioned ‘message’ songs always give me the willies. The motivation behind them is more often about cash than ‘concern’. ‘Give It Up’ — which urges the kids to give up the ciggies — has a cool funk/hip-hop beat underneath Moana’s pop vocal, and Dam Native's Danny D doing it raggamuffin style. Also featured is a cool techno version of ‘AEIOU’ that drops much of the vocal but ups the BPM. EXPONENTS La La Lulu/ Summer You Never Meant CD Single (Warners) The Exponents land on their feet again, finding yet another major label willing to toss some bucks in their direction, only they’re covering old ground here. ‘La La Lulu’ sounds nothing more than a reworking of ‘Erotic’ with a few minor changes. The Exponents are

a great pop band, but they don’t write good rock songs, and the absence of Brian Jones’ melodic flair is still blindingly obvious. The Mccartneyesque ballad ‘Summer You Never Meant’ is by far the winner here. TED BROWN and THE ITALIANS Perfectly Good Pop Song CD Single (Lunacy/BMG) When you’ve got a tune that works as well as the stylish countrytinged pop of ‘Sick and Broke and Hungry Sunday Blues', the b-side on this release, why make a move as dire as ‘Perfectly Good Pop Song’? A song about writing a pop song — ‘...then we had the drop out bit with the eerie guitar...’ — all it suggests is someone looking under a barrel that’s already been scraped for ideas. MAREE SHEEHAN You Can’t Hide Love CD Single (Roadshow) From her forthcoming debut long player, Drawn In Deep, comes ‘You Can’t Hide Love’, written by recent New Zealand visitor Gerry DeVeaux (Kravitz’s cousin), and recorded during Sheehan's foray to Sydney. ‘You Can’t...’ is a pretty slick, soulful slow jam that is bound to be all over Mai any time now. Sheehan’s voice has never production this crisp before, and although the song itself is not a patch on ‘Fatally Cool’, it’s not a step in the wrong direction either. KATE IN THE LEMON TREE Skeeps Cassingle (Pagan) Wanganui’s Kate In The Lemon Tree collected first prize at the 1994 Smokefree Rockquest grand final, and the release of the five song EP Skeeps is their reward for victory. It’s a wildly eclectic affair, mixing up funk, jazz, rock and pop, though every song with the exception of the grunty closer, ‘A Small Taunt’, has a quirky, novelty feel to it, not unlike the more buoyant moments of pre-Neil Split Enz. First track ‘Glide’ does just that on a strangulated vocal, and ‘Guido’ has early Supergroove stamped all over it, but basically it sounds too throwaway to warrant a second listen.

JOHN RUSSELL