MUSIC RECORD REVIEWS
V ALBUMS
assurety.
. EM F . So they’re more confident, this 33$:g‘mflyfigu sngma (panophone) second-album EMF, less reliant on a moon waxes and wanes, They’ve gone mad around the world . battering battery 0' dancefloor SUCKS! ,hcplanemominucto and the world responded in klnd.As v punches. Now they can even drona chart their inviolable EMF proved intheirllve assault on i oearwlthoutlearolloslnusneedlreak trajectory and, er, the ' distant shores, and reaffirmed at I momentum. ‘She BIOODS' is a ballad, TVPS have made another Reading, the erstwhfle {census EMF'SWIB, James delivering 3
album. Some things never change, eh? Closer To God certainly isn‘t going to swell their tiny but obsessive fan-base. Still, there‘s Dan Treacy‘s tortured psyche to deal with, expressed in that bizarre, almost child-like dogma he favours. Still. there‘s Jowe Head‘s plod-hoppin g bass holding Dan‘s ramshackle ditties together. Still, the sound's so small, so wilfully inhibited, only Dan truly knows whether it‘s for real or for fun this time. On. and it does contain the mightiest couplet penned this year: ‘l've taken three 55/811! 1 still can 'r dance like Bobby Gillespie. ’ Is anyone still listening? Thought not. (Calvin Bush)
I Extreme: III Sides To Every Story (MM) Seventy-six minutes of this crap. and the only thing I can find to compliment Extreme on is their tight-arsed drum sound. While taking their cues mainly from Queen, The Beatles and good-time rockers like Van Halen, Extreme diversify in two equally awful ways: nodding to the Chili Peppers generation by dint of some uncomfortably-delivered rapping, or making soundtracks for an imaginary Rutles Go To Frisco movie. This record is so . . .wretchedly. .. bloated - but gutless with it, which you could never say of Queen. Nuno Bettencourt is 30, but his music is old school, old hat and old bollocks. (Alastair Mabbott)
I Dedication Orchestra: Spirits Rejoice (Ogun) The London jazzers turn out in
like ravers crazed by rock excess. An adrenallsing encounter.
Here’ is a swelling blast of funky neo-metal. This, and the warped pop ; deviousness that was the magic
‘Getting Through’ single, ollerthe flrrnest evidence that EMF are no
longer just chancers on samplers. Even ; when they drive techno piles deep into
? ‘Dlue Highs’, they’re there purely to bolster flashes of guitar heaviosity. Even when ‘lnside’ has a failsafe New
Ditto ‘Stigma’. From the off, ‘They’re
Order current pumping in the mix, cresting on the surf is a pounding rock
cautionary tale of life on the road and the attendant (amorous) traumas therein. Okay, so that voice is as breathlesst thin as ever, gratineg weedy at times. Luckily, the taut assertiveness that elsewhere abounds is a more than adequate prop for this slight precariousness. And it’s that same unrelenting vigour, moderated by a matured songwriting touch, that sees EMF pulling away from the perilous clutches of transient teen
g McLean)
SINEAD O’CONNOR
' Am I Not Your Girl? (Ensign)
In dusting Off this collection of ‘standards’ and ‘classics’, Sinead
O’Connor is laying bare —she says-
: her own vocational soul. ‘They are the
songs that made me want to be a
with such tragic heroines as Billie Holiday and Marilyn Monroe. j Frequently pilloried, the young . Dubliner is better placed than most to empathise with such doomed icons. ' ‘Am I Not Your Girl?’ is parttriumph, part lolly. The anguish summoned up
singer,’ she informs us; allying herself
sfi ..
stardom. (Crai
STEVE MARTLAND
Crossing The Border (Factory) Lllre that OfJames MacMillan, Steve Martiand’s music is a conscious reaction to the perceived sterility of academic music in the contemporary period. Inspired by the energy of rock and jazz as much as by anything in the classical tradition, he has turned out a stream of strikingly radical but highly accessible compositions, and earned himself a reputation as an anti-establishment rebel in the process.
“Crossing The Border’ is the commission which St Mary’s Music School turned down in controversial
circumstances, and itproves _to_be_‘ , N »
arguably his most powerful piece to
date. Its relentless repeating rhythms, imaginative orchestration (for string orchestra) and sheer drive indicate a composer in full mastery of his chosen idioms. The disc also includes the excellent ’Re-mix’ (originally performed, as was ‘Principia’, by the Maarten Altena Ensemble), ‘American lnvention’, and another Dutch premiere, ‘Shoulderto Shoulder', written for Orkest de Volharding.
The simultaneously released arrangements of Mozart on ‘Wolfgang’ (Factory) reveal a different side of the composer, in surprisingly respectiul performances of twO Serenades, and instrumental versions Of six Operatic arias. Don’t expect Mozart pure and simple, but it's not minimalist (or rock)
Mozart, either. (Kenny Mathieson)
by her passionate rendition of ‘Success Has Made A Failure Of Our Home’ falls
. into the former category. Similarly, her muted, sinister slblllance is perfect for ' ‘I Want To Be Loved By You”, echoing
Monroe’s famously limited, but no less
force for this album in remembrance of The Blue Notes, with proceeds going toward establishing a music school for young South Africans. There is
together, the sassy strut Of the jazz
' orchestra and the moumlul shuffle of
the blues shadowing her every vocal
float. Endwards, coherence is splintered.
‘Scarlet Ribbons’ (delicate intonation
and ulllean pipes) gives way to an
instrumental romp through ‘Don’t Cry
For Me, Argentina’, which in turn is 1
followed by a softly spoken rail against
the Catholic Church. A disconcerting,
? fractious ending that is entirely out of
step with what has gone before. But
i such is the O’Connor way. (Craig
I McLean)
some sensational playing effectual, style. ‘Why Don’t You 00 on colourful ; Right?’ and ‘Blaclr Coffee’ are equally arrangements of I
compositions by members of the band, most of whom (Chris McGregor. Dudu Pukwana. Mongezi Feza. Johnny Dyani) are no longer around, although drummer Louis Moholo is on the album. Check it out. Another SA exile. Abdullah Ibrahim, has a new solo album, Desert Flowers. which will appeal to anyone who likes his rather one-dimensional style, and I know many do. (Kenny Mathieson)
30 The List 25 September - 8 October 1992