Maklng Muelc Happen
I Various: Duh Cone Crazy - The Evolution 0i Dub At King Tubby’s 1975-1979 (Blood And Flre) Take this straight home. Play ‘Satta Dread Dub‘. As the needle unearths the groove. inhale the whiff of spliff that spirals in its wake. And spend time with this album.
In the late 60s. King Tubby staged a major coup by remixing reggae hits to create dub‘s meditative landscapes. ln pulling the voice out of the mix mid-sentence. letting the parting syllable echo on. in disrupting the guitar and whatever else. King Tubby established the reign of recording engineer as metaphysician. Steeped in the Rasta ethos. these dub instrumentals. tightly- rolled homages to Jah. took Jamaica by storm. Dub flourished and Tubby went on to establish his own studio. overseeing the rise of mixmasters like Prince Jammy. Scientist and Prince Philip. This album samples those glory days. Tubby‘s own ‘Real Cone Crazy Dub’ and 'Dub Fi Gwan’ will spiritualise your heart till it bleeds gemstones. The whole album can but breathe euphoria into your veins.
lfyou have so far failed to adventure into dub. this album is the place to
begin your salvation. And if you‘ve got the spare dosh. get the sister LP. If Deejay Was Your Trade. If your collection is already well rolled. then you know full well what to do. (Ewan Allinson)
I Fun-lla-Mental: Seize The Time (Nation) Lined up beside Seize The Time. Fun~Da-Mental’s first full-length record. even the admirable Senser start to look like wussies. This is a full-blooded response to racial violence. giving no quarter and expecting none in return. The group have made little effort to sweeten their sound for the masses; the grooves are hard and driving. the delivery urgent. the sentiments militant. The tracks are interspersed with samples of crass right-wing opinions filched from TV and radio. amateuristh tacked on. as though a cheap ghettoblaster was the only editing facility at their disposal. But that's the only part of Seize The 'lime that smacks of the contrived. When a group kick off their debut album with an Ansaphone death threat from a neo-nazi outfit. the need to fabricate a mystique is redundant. (Alastair Mabbott)
I The Damned: Eternally Damned (MCI) Two factors. neither of them their fault. have obscured the true intentions of The Damned. First. punk. The
Damned were the first of the Class of ‘76 to get a record out. and will be forever. but incongruously. linked with its bleak no- futun'sms. Then. they were tarred by association with goth. for which Dave Vanian‘s stagewear and graveyard fantasies provided a workable model. (A shame that his musical aesthetic was ditched in the process.) Eradicate the glass- smashing. gobbing and grave-robbing from your mind‘s eye when you listen to this and the true Damned will emerge: a bunch of geezers who lovejaunty pop songs with tunes that you can sing in the abattoir. Sorry. shower. Never first-rate. but somehow all the more loveable for it. this is The Damned. (Alastair Mabbott)
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I samuel Barber: The Songs (08) A superb two- disc set of the complete songs. which could feature prominently when award time comes around this year. Soprano Cheryl Studer and baritone Thomas Hampson. accompanied by pianist John Browning. include a number of recently- published songs from the early part of Barber‘s career. in a collection which spans six decades.
from ‘A Slumber Song Of
The Madonna‘ (1925) to the final ‘Three Songs' (1972). The many highlights include a wonderful ‘Dover Beach‘ with the Emerson String Quartet.
I Olivier Messiaen: Catalogue d’oiseaux (06) Another double set. featuring the young Russian piano virtuoso Anatol Ugorski‘s forthright (and occasionally wilful) interpretations of Messiaen‘s two volumes of bird-songs. Catalogue d 'oisear and La fauvette
desjardt'ns. It lacks a little
of the sensitivity Peter
Hill broughi to his readings in his complete survey for Unicorn Kanchana. but is nonetheless a beautifully recorded and at times breathtakingly executed version of this deceptively simple but immensely rich music.
I Arthur Bliss: Cello Concerto (Argo) l have admired the cellist Robert Cohen ever since hearing his excellent recording of the Elgar Cello Converto (CW). and he does not disappoint in this lesser but still engaging work by another Englishman. Musically. though. it is overshadowed by his masterly Meditations On A Theme of John Blow, splendidly played by the Royal Philharmonic under Barry Wordsworth. The colourful Introduction And Allegro completes a strong collection by this minor but eminently listenable composer.
I Grow! use“: Concertos (Sony) This disc offers three concertos by one of the most significant living composers. admirany played by the Ensemble Modern under Peter
Eotvos. The Piano Concerto (1988. with Ueli Wiget as soloist) has a distinct after-echo of Bartok about it. but the floating. almost impressionistic textures and sonorities of the earlier Cello Concerto (I966. with Miklos Perenyi) and the Chamber Concerto For [3 Instrtmzentalists ( 1970) belong even more overtly to the quintessential Ligeti sound-world.
I Brodsky Quartet: lament (Silva) This is the downbeat flip-side of their earlier exuberant encores disc. with dark pieces by Stravinsky. Szymanski. Sculthorpe (mis-spelled on the sleeve). Alvarez and David Matthews alongside violinist Michael Thomas‘s own works. and arrangements of Massenet with Wilhelmina Fernandez and ‘She Moved Through the Fair‘ with a miscast Elvis Costello. 1 have mixed feelings about this approach to programming. largely because it lacks any real musical coherence. despite the implied thematic link. (Kenny Mathieson)
Tennents Live! a
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