ALBUMS

Rip It Up, Issue 241, 1 September 1997, Page 29

ALBUMS

OASIS Be Here Now (Creation) Now the circle is complete. When I first heard Oasis they were but the learners. Now they are the masters of one of the most important rock ‘n’ roll sounds to emerge Out of the 19905. Be Here /Vowdoesn’t need to skite or pander to the few non-believers who

still don’t get it. This is the culmination of everything they said they were capable of. And forget all the easy Beatles comparisons, even when ‘All Around the World’ is championed as their ‘Let it Be’. And ignore the mentions of the Stones when the American courtship of the title track and ‘Fade In Out’ are discussed.

This album is pure epic Oasis, with enough attitude and Hooj singalongs to level a salivating nation of millions. *D’ya*Know What I Mean’ gave the real fans a terrace anthem. ‘Stand By Me’ will be a ‘Wonderwall’, though it’s so much more in terms of soul squeezing glory with all these strings and harmonies and genius guitar riffery. The hairs on the back of your neck were invented for this song. Noel has delivered 11 of the biggest, rockiest, emotionally depth-charged songs we’ve heard from him. And Liam’s voice is in amazing form, with the disengaged sneer now becoming only one of the many vocal personas he has in his arsenal. They’ll create an absolute kicker like ‘My Big Mouth', which makes your heart race with every chorus, and be able to change gear and create the equally credible beauty of ‘Don’t Go Away’, a heartfelt ballad that shows a face we hardly get to see; vulnerability. Be Here Now is a classic album of absolute mastery. It should be put on board every spaceship to show aliens what earth is capable of. JOHN TAITE BIKE Take In The Sun (Flying Nun) Bike’s debut album follows on from the preceding singles in the musical continuity stakes. There is no audible change in the formula, 60s guitar pop/rock, chiming jangle with lush honey toned vocals. Nope, no change there. The opening rock bite of Take In The Sun gets the theme of the album off to a solid start, matching the sunny sentiment of the deck chaired cover, elsewhere ‘Sunrise’ backs it up with it’s lackadaisical vernal pop. The lackadaisical sensations that permeate Take In The Sun work best over the (very) occasional filler track. The Byrds atmospher-

ic pop of ‘Welcome to My World’ complete with back tracked guitar (cliche, yet still profitable), or the countrified ‘lnside’ are the best examples of Andrew Brough’s reflective melancholy powers in full bloom. Elsewhere the single tracks, ‘Circus Kids’, ‘Old And Blue’, and ‘Save My Life’, round out an album that’s 72% successful, and will with its

release this month be a decent companion piece to the Stereo Bus for seasonal popjhrills. Take In The Sun, and soak in its rays. MAC HODGE ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN Ballyhoo: The Best Of (Korova) Hardly a coincidence, surely, that this Best Of just pre-dates the Bunnymen’s new album Evergreen, in what must be an orchestrated attempt at restoring McCulloch and co. to the forefront of British pop. The 80s have long since been convicted of being crap, but" in 1980 Liverpool’s Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, and Wah! Heat shared enough heady, doom-laden pseudointellectual mysticism to be called a movement. The Bunnymen’s first album, Crocodiles, defined their dark, psychedelic rock ‘n’ roll and the excellent Ballyhoo appropriately contains thd great drug anthem, ‘Villiers Terrace’, and the revolutionary zeal of ‘All That Jazz’, as fitting representatives from that timeless debut. From there it was into the existential epic sweep of Heaven Up Here and the likes of ‘Over The Wall’, and then into the metaphorical depths of Ocean Rain, and McCulloch kissing tortoise shells on the otherwise memorable ‘Seven Seas’. Their last album proper, Echo and the Bunnymen, didn’t have the daring and grandeur of their classic period, but songs like ‘Lips Like Sugar’ still showed remnants of past glory. The almost narcissistic self-belief of McCulloch has already paved the way for the band’s current regeneration, but they’re unlikely to re-create the majesty of their hey-day that’s so majestically captured by Ballyhoo. GEORGE KAY VARIOUS ARTISTS Spawn: The Album (Sony) Like all the best ideas, the concept behind this is so simple — pair up some big names from the rock and dance worlds for the movie soundtrack of the bestselling comic Spawn, see what chemistry is generated, and hope for some monstrous progeny. On the whole, it’s worked — though nothing

here redefines either genre, and some collaborations don’t seem to need half the pairing. Still, the highs are highs. Slayer and Atari Teenage Riot work each other into a truly inspired digital speed frenzy that’s more than the sum of it’s contributor’s parts; Butthole Surfers and Moby attempt to weird each other out with floaty hallucinogenics; while Filter and the Crystal Method come off like Perry Farrell fronting Nine Inch Nails on the naggingly poppy track, ‘(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do’. Orbital and Kirk Hammett beef up the former’s

‘Satan’ (excellent!), but DJ Spooky’s addition of bass and beats to an old Metallica song is a little pointless. Marilyn Manson and Sneaker Pimps just ooze sleaziness together, switching roles halfway through; and Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello joins Prodigy’s ‘One Man Army’ and comes off a 2nd Lieutenant. Some don’t fare too well at all — particularly Rollins, who gets lost in Goldie’s jungle — but for the most part, this is a success that should last the distance. TROY FERGUSON ATARI TEENAGE RIOT The Future Of War (Digital Hardcore) Berlin born and London based digital noise terrorists Atari Teenage Riot return with their second manifesto of hardcore hate. Lead rioter Alec Empire is staying true to his name, and forging an empire of his own, continually distancing himself from all things ‘techno’, and instead striving to deconstruct digital blandness. Complacency is not a word to be found in ATR’s vocab, they want you to get off your arse and riot against racism, fascism, bigotry, boredom, and an increasingly consumerist society. The irony is they recognise that with time they may become part of the consumerism they despise. Musically ATR take the original substance of German hardcore punk rock — violent stabbing vocals (‘Fuck the state! We are the resistance!!!!!’) and distorted, bleeding guitars, and set it to blitzkrieg digital beats and manga samples. As accessible as a breadknife scrapping over a blackboard. ATR want to repulse you or march arm in arm with you to destroy the ‘system’. If you’re looking to join in, watch your step cause slamming to this slab of chaos, it’s likely you’ll break your neck, or at least have a solid case for an ACC whiplash claim. MAC HODGE PANTERA Official Live 101 Proof (East West Pantera are possibly the last of metal’s old(ish) school hard men; staunchly uninterested in sulky stories of childhood woes, self-analysis, or incorporating too much electronic technology into their straight-ahead heaviness. In fact,

they don’t care for much beyond “kickin’ fuckin’ ass” and “going crazy”, so of course, the live situation is the ideal platform for them. Therefore Official Live ought to present Pantera in as realistic a light as possible. Recorded on Pantera’s Tourkill 9697 across the USA, the set list is gleaned from all four studio albums — just the crowd-pleasers of course, and sounds exactly like what you expect if you have ever seen (or even heard) them. The real enticement is the two new studio tracks tacked on the end, of which ‘I Can’t Hide’ is far grittier and punked out than the usual Pantera fare. A change of direction looming? Probably not — they’ll be playing the same high- tension, maximum-aggres-sion rock fury until the apocalypse, at least. TROY FERGUSON VARIOUS ARTISTS 15 Years In An Open Boat (On-U-Sound) You wonder whether Adrian Sherwood knew where it would all end up when he started up his record label On-U-Sound 17 years ago. For all intents and purposes, On-U is the dub label. Serious dub-fans may dispute this, pointing elsewhere to labels such as Blood And Fire, Ariwa, etc, but in terms of consistently taking dub to the masses, no one has done it like Sherwood. Keith le Blanc, African Head Charge, Lee Perry, Prince Far I, Singers & Players, Creation Rebel, Tackhead, are just some of the enormous dub

names who have recorded and released music through this label over the years. If this new compilation was to do the label justice, it would probably need to be an eight-album boxed set or something equally monstrous. Even so, the two discs of On-U tracks which actually make up the release do pretty well in chronicling the history of the label. Beginning with Prince Far I’s 1982 vitriolic rant ‘Virgin’ (he wasn’t too happy with his recording contract!), the first disc includes bona-fide classics from Mark Stewart and Mafia (‘Jerusalem’), Bim Sherman (‘Slummy Ghetto’), Dub Syndicate (‘Night Train’) as well as some rarer cuts from Akabu and Congo Ashanti Roy. The first disc ends not with dub but industrial — Tackhead’s response to the military build-up in Britain in the mid-80s, ‘What’s My Mission Now’.

Disc two also has its share of classics, not the least Andy Fairley’s ‘Jack

the Biscuit’, which must surely be one of On-U’s most bizarre releases ever. Although the disc finishes with relatively recent outputs from the likes of Little Axe, 2 Bad Card and Audio Active, most of the material is actually taken from the 80s. A sign that On-U’s best days are behind it? Perhaps, but what mighty fine days they were. DOMINIC WAGHORN 800 YAA TRIBE Angry Samoans (Music For Nations) 800 Yaa have dabbled in rock/rap crossover since their late 80s debut, on which they were ‘Pickin’ Up Metal’; and their Faith No More collaboration, ‘Another Body Murdered’, was one of the highlights of the Judgement Night soundtrack So to expect big things from a full crossover album, Angry Samoans, is not unreasonable; and it’s a pity that the hard rock backing sounds on this album have not grown in stature relative to the physical size of the 800 Yaa boys. The guitar ‘licks’ are even more ham-fisted and dated than Body Count (and without the knowing humour), and are mixed so low as to be totally squashed by the classic 800 Yaa confrontational vocal approach — in your face, tough, and scary. At least they don’t disappoint on that front, even if the rap hasn’t evolved much beyond the staunch hoodlum styles they’ve always circled around. With a better backing band, it’d be way more relevant.

TROY FERGUSON