I The House 0! love: Audience With The Mind (Fontana) The fall and rise of The House Of Love. Initial indie trail-blazing. personality clashes set to sulphurous rock. makeweight follow-up records interrupted by the odd bobby-dazzler of a single. promise unfulfilled. The solution: burrow back to the core. Go into the studio for twelve days. No producers. no props. no preening. So Audience With The Mind is selfless and true. the sound of Chadwick and Groothuizen and Evans solidifying as a team. ‘Shining On‘ is the acidic energy of ‘Shine On‘ diverted into something more quietly forceful. Much of The House Of Love‘s fourth album is this low-key. this deceptively capable of worming its way into the listener's mood. ‘Erosion‘ and ‘Hollow‘, meanwhile. the songs written by bass player Chris Groothuizen. offer big bold respites from Chadwick‘s intense. cathartic musings. Melodrama and melancholy rarely sounded so good. (Craig McLean)
I Tribe Alter Tribe: Love Under Will (Music For Nations) Imagine an amalgam of Peter Gabriel and Pearl Jam and you will have Tribe After Tribe. Love Under Will is no groundbreaker. but as someone tired of Seattle. funk crossover and metal willie worship. I rates this as a highlight. African tn'bal rhythms mix nicely with driving guitar (the hip cliche. I believe) and the odd Syd Barrett-tinged vocal performance. It‘s a brave stab in what is still a conservative genre of music that discourages experimentation. Despite there being no standout songs here. we are left with a satisfying whole. (Alan McCrorie)
I Holocaust Hypnosis 0t Birds (Taunrs Moon) Debut signing to the new Taurus Moon record label is Holocaust. the Edinburgh three-piece who originated around fifteen years ago and have had fairly major success in various heavy metal charts over their long and
l volatile career. Why? If
this latest offering is anything to go on. okay. the group are quite tight and are most definitely accomplished musicians. but why didn't they use their latent talent and come up with something a bit different and interesting? The LP has eleven labon'ous tracks. which sound like Runrig on a large dose of valiurn. most definitely not my cup of tea but no doubt one that will go down well with certain parties. They'd be a good bet for booking at granny‘s birthday. (.loe Lampard). I Gunshot: Patriot Games (Vinyl Solution) British hip-hop certainly doesn't get the recognition it should and
this is one album that
probably won‘t get the
attention it deserves. The I debut LP from this East . London threesome is as
hardcore as they come
. and. for a nice change.
doesn‘t rely on a tiresome string of expletives to make it rhyme. There's a
good mix of tracks on the
album. with some
excellent lyrics being
; intricately woven around
the break-beats and
scratching. One which
i probably won’t get airplay
and the sales it deserves. the reason being that far too many people think that good hip-hop only comes from the States. Wake up. My only complaint is the sad front cover picture, but as they say you shouldn’tjudge a book by its cover and this is one book definitely worth browsing through. (Joe Lampard).
I Funkdoobiest Which 000MB II B (Epic) Coming from the same stable as Cypress Hill and House Of Pain. Funkdoobiest release an excellent debut. a strong slice of underground hip-hop with big fat drum beats and funky guitar licks mixing in nicely with their laid- back vocals. The three- piece consists of Sondoobie. DJ Ralph M and the native American
Tomahawk Funk. who : look as ifthey're refugees from the set of an old
Checch and Chong movie. My favourite track is ‘Bow Wow Wow’ and obviously someone from Epic agrees with me. as this is to be their first single. Certainly not music for the masses (hip- hop is such a maligned music form). but definitely one for the blunted funk seekers
' among you. (Joe
Lampard).
I Mind Bomb: Mlnd Bomb (Mercury) Interesting debut here from difficult-to- summarise Chicago four- piece Mind Bomb. For the most part. it's a drums and heavy guitar thing. with
no slackening of pace but a goodly amount of variety. Occasionally. they slip in some dancey synth. and they do a full-blown jazz break on ‘40 Days’. The production‘s good - in fact. good enough to make you wonder if the band can really cut it live. Nice fly graphics on the cover too. Best line has to be from ‘Daisy Chain’: ‘l'm a daisy. you‘re a daisy/Everyone’s the same.‘ Makes you go all squishy inside. (Gavin Inglis)
: I Oyster Band: llon
Bandits (Cooking Vinyl)
3 Folky swirls abound in
this third album from rocky roots merchants The Oyster Band. Levellers producer A] Scott has tied up the loose ends and the result is enjoyable. though with few surprises. There’s the devil-driven fiddle. marching whistles and a nice amount of deep strings. Songs range from
the traditional 'Rambling
Irishman’ to inevitable
chartwise rock ballads like ‘Cry. Cry'. As a
whole. the recording suffers from the familiar
problem of not matching . the energy ofa live
delivery. Good stuff nonetheless. (Gavin Inglis)
I Masters Of Reality:
Sunrise on the Sutterbus (net American) The cover
depicts a rabbit on a bicycle. which sums up this album pretty well. MOR have been around in
. a shape-shifting form since 1980. and the vibe
from this release is very
much of a bunch of guys
bored of an evening. who
' stumble upon the idea of
doing another album.
Unlike most efforts in said
mode. this is excellent.
: There‘s variety in both
sound and content. Their sense of humour
i dominates and they amble
from a'song about American tea~making to
; 30-second snippets about
Madonna and bicycles. Good for long. easy nights. (Gavin Inglis) I Babes In Toyland:
Painkillers (Southern)
Kind of a stopover release
é from those toothy Babes
while they pursue collaborations here. there
and everywhere. None of
the four new tracks are electrifying. although ‘Ragweed' has a certain chill factor and ‘Angel Hair' features some very
‘ listenable gibbering.
There's also a re-recorded version of ‘He's My Thing'. but the bulk ofthe album is given over to ‘Fontanellette‘. eleven live pieces from the Frmranelle LP. The whole package smacks of a mere reminder to the world the the Babes are still around. Still an essential buy for committed fans. (Gavin Inglis)
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