RECORD REVIEWS MUSIC
V ALBUMS
I The Chills: Soft Bomb (Slash/London) Utterly, resoluter belying their freeze-dried ‘monicker‘ , The Chills continue to roast glow-as-you-please tunesome beans. Their virtuoso 1990 single didn‘t quite fit for the whole of its parent Submarine Bells album; but now Soft Bomb has ‘heavenly‘ and ‘pop' and (nearly) ‘hit‘ circling its every move. Mainman Martin Phillips still calls New Zealand home, but his songs are never that remote. Mosaically intricate yet straightly affable, they employ lavish strings (‘Water Wolves‘), deploy self-barbing lyrics (‘The Male Monster From The Id‘), and unemploy any reservations about making such richly succulent music (erm, the rest). (Craig McLean) I Indigo Girls: Rites 0i Passage (Epic) Scuffing up the campfire niceness of last year‘s Nomads. Indians. Saints, Indigo Girls‘ third UK album has the Georgian twosome stirring a new spirit into their purity. That purity still flows from Amy Ray and Emily Salier‘s confluent harmonies and gently picked, skeletal acoustics. The spirit. though, wavers through via guest percussionist Budgie‘s thumping backbone, some Celtifying uilleann pipes, and a new sophistication in the arrangements of tracks like ‘Jonas & Ezekial’ and ‘Chickenman‘. Add in a totally committed re-evaluation of Dire Straits‘ ‘Romeo And Juliet‘, and Rites 0f Passage has Indigo Girls further refining an already mighty fine formula. (Craig McLean)
I Takemitsu: Viola Concerto; Solo Piano Works (Philips) Japan‘s best-known composer has been successful in integrating traditional Japanese instruments with a Western orchestra. as on November Steps on this disc. The Viola C oncerto— A String A round A utumn. is less compelling. although well played by Nobuko lmai and the Saito Kinen Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa. Another J apanesc soloist. Kumi Ogano. is lesstaut and acerbic in the solo piano music than Roger Woodward a few years back. but she is highly effective in drawing out the haunting. reflective beauty of the chosen works. (Kenny Mathieson)
I Magnapop: Magnapop (Play It Again Sam) Famed thus far for being Michael Stipe-produced and big in Holland. budding pop cats
Magnapop have had to endure lots of questions about, well, Michael Stipe and Holland. Soon, though, they will be asked about their vaguely discoloured, slightly pungent world by those who have sniffed round its fringes and found it not lacking a certain je ne sais quoi. Less wiggy than Pixies' alien flip-out, less wibbly than the Muses‘ nightmare duality, but thankfully more squiffy than the bog standard ‘awkward kid‘ persona adopted by grown-ups in lumberjack shirts with nothing to say that they can‘t express adequately with a guitar alone. There‘s nothing else here to touch the strident but cute single ‘Merry‘, but Linda Hopper‘s game caterwauling (in the style of B-52‘s goddess Kate Pierson) is a mighty embellishing device throughout, and once the tracks begin to separate themselves out, Magnapop‘s twisted suburbia sounds like a cool place to be. (Fiona Shepherd)
I S'Exnress: Intercourse
\J‘ (Rhythm King) The strength of S‘Express‘s debut album was the way Mark Moore and his assortment of Clubland cohorts so wholeheartedly threw themselves into the pop arena. The camp glamour of their image was perfectly reflected in the hedonistic tomfoolery of three-minute classics. Sadly, the lunacy that elevated S‘Express above the quagmire of most commercial dance has been lost. Moore‘s new collaborator, Sonique, undoubtedly has a fine voice but continually makes the mistake of playing it straight when she should be vamping it up. On a track like ‘Trumpets‘ Moore‘s flair for musical surprise and innovation is well to the fore but is let down by her lack of vocal conviction. It‘s left to the final track, ‘Brazil‘, to show S‘Express haven‘t completely lost the plot — a track of unbridled idiocy that reminds you why it’s so difficult to damn S‘Express completely. (James Haliburton)
V SINGLES
I Natural Life: Passion (Tribe) Why the kids should trust the eco-proselytizing of a man with a beard is a puzzle only marginally less teasing than why trust a group of men with beards,
but Natural Life wear their platitudes well. This is another bite of tenuously club-affiliated hippy marshmallow which would be a hectoring insult were it not such a splendid little spunkbucket , sweeping cynicism to the margins. (F5)
I Drop Nineteens: Winona (Rut) Briefly punted last year as the US response to shoegazing, Drop Nineteens have held off their debut release in this country until they can be sure that no one remembers what it is they‘re meant to be replying to. The record‘s insouciant, pretty. vibrant, shunts some driving riffs and all that. but hardly essential. Anyway. there‘s a new House Of Love album out and Guy Chadwick could do with the money. (FS) I Coco And The Bean: Talking With A Number 6 (Baghdad Radio) Hot. funky and likely to cause immense palpitations in even the staunchcst of pituitaryglands. Fortheir second single. the Edinburgh-based collective create such an irresistible sense of chunky. hunky fun that national interest and ‘the new Sugar Bullet‘ tag can't be far away. (CB)
I Sly And Lovechild: Change Of Heart (Citybeat) The self-proclaimed Ken and Barbie ofthe dancefloor are richly due a hit. especially after their towering near-miss ‘Spirit Of Destiny". This charisma-free plod through 70s disco tack with a mushy tribal underlay sadly won‘t be it. And such pwetty people too. (CB)
I Solid State Logic: Rise (ZTT) lfyou want the definitive version ofthis track. best head back to the original one on the band‘sown Angel label. If you feel in need ofa technoficd remoulding minus the original‘s unmuzzlcd pit-bull ofa bass. but with requisite
. crowd cheers and
steaming Hoovers. here it is. Don‘t know the score? One-nil to Angel Records. (CB)
I Leatheriace: Compact And Bijou EP (Roughneclt) Sort of a Lemmyficd version of The Farm are Leatherface. openly espousing brickie chic. but instead relying on bludgconing rhythms and open-throat vocals wrapped around speedy punk riffing. Like The Farm. the cheeky irascibility of it all. particularly on bonus CD track 'Dreaming‘ and bizarre Tracy Chapman cover ‘Talkin‘ ‘Bout A Revolution'. is hard to resist. Now begone. before the scrubbing brush arrives. (CB)
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Glasgow 7-15 August 1992
linropean Community Baroque Orchestra Die Iiipeldauer (Austria) Chierlyckc Danscryen (Belgium) Les Arts I’lorissants, Ensemble Binchois. A Sci Voci (France) La Stagione Frankfurt,
Duo Mediterraneo (Germany) Ars Nova Warsaw (Poland) Iza. Cantus Sercnus (Romania) Alexei Lubimov (Russia) Melvyn Tan,
Castalian Band (UK)
A whole week of music making and dance in Glasgow Concerts. entertainments, community, education and fringe events Instrument makers exhibition The modern world premiere of Rospigliosi and Abbatini’s opera
La
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Based on a Spanish play and first performed in Rome in 1668, this production in Glasgow‘s world-famous Tramway, is given by the Scottish [Early Music Consort in association with Andrea Francalanci’s early dance company 11 Ballarino (Italy) with an
international cast. Musical direction by Warwick Edwards, producer Kate Brown.
Alive to the Challenge of Europe Write or call for free Festival brochure - Glasgow International Iiarly Music Festival Scottish liarly Music Consort, 22 Falkland Street, Glasgow G12 ()I’R, Scotland Telephone: 041-334 922‘) Fax: 041-337 5510
Programme subject to change
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The List 17—30July 199229