MUSIC RECORD REVIEWS
T in the Park, the Tennents Live Festival
Philip llorward slits through the new releases. Oranges may not be the only fruit but they‘re a damn sight juicier than The ilectarine llo 9‘s 'This Arsehole's Been Burned Too Many Times Before‘ (Postcard). Everybody in Scotland seems to love them. but I can‘t see the appeal. quite frankly. It‘s all too smart- ersed. the humour only vaguely amusing ifyou‘re out your box. lfyou really want
something worthwhile. spades at the ready for Gravediggaz. Four of the foremost minds of rap take on the roles of Old Testament demons for “Diary Of A Madman‘ (Gee Street). one of the most interesting rap records in a good while. Prepare to be enthralled. The Whooliganz are Kris Kross’s bastard brothers. Discovered by B-Real of Cypress Hill. this teenage duo have got themselves a sound that takes all the best bits of De La Soul and House of Pain.
\. . v *4. ~ ~
On first listen. The Fugue‘s ‘Sensitized' (Different Class) bears an unhealthy resemblance to Sunscreem, whom I only ever appreciated when remixed by Heller and Farley. Needless to say. I found the Nush and EBY mixes the most enjoyable part of this as they file down the rough edges and give it a disturbing air of professionalism. The liBY mix in particular could well prove to be monstrous in its own acid- jungle way.
If it's meat you‘re after then 'Proteanfl‘aal Zaman‘ (Nation) by Transglobal Underground is a must. TG's increasing importance as barrier breakers is con firmed here with Arabic vocals and womb beats. Radio programming from hell! Of course. success is in the hands of those with mighty corporate backing. Some of the talent like Luciana‘s 'lf You Want' (Chrysalis) is wholly justified as respectable summer groove. but others such as 0.8. Milton‘s ‘Hold On If You Believe In Love‘ (Logic) should really have been shot at birth. From the people that brought you 2 Unlimited. we have a record that will top the charts while sinking to new depths.
T
- l
in the Park, July 30th and 31 st at Strathclyde Park
42 The List l—l4 July 1994
is a goddarn obvious closing track - and then take the risk that makes it
l that little bit different from the
competition: in this case, devoting the
central portion of the album to the
four-part ‘Walk On Medley’.
5 Trouble is, alter a seven-year wait,
i one could hope that Scholz had something more up his sleeve than
retreads. The dated heavy metal
1 tracks in particular are so uninspired that it there were an Australian Boston ' - and I’m not saying there isn’t - ' they’d be forgiven for neglecting to
learn them. This album is unlikely to
I— BOSTON
Walk On (MCA) Just like punk never happened? You’ve got to be bloody kidding. Just like the gold standard was never abolished, Caesar was still hesitatlng at the banks of the Rubicon and wild boar was on the Sunday lunch menu. Tom (Boston) Scholz is the audio engineer who invented the best- selling llockman amongst other gadgets, and his mindset comes out in g the construction of ‘Walk On’. Get all . i the tried-and-tested bits in place — ‘l 199‘ V°""9b'°°d3 "Fe 393" {am and i Need Your Love. harks back to .More Soundgarden shaking ill their shoes : Than A Feeling’ and ‘We Can Make It’ “the” (“35‘3" M3“)le
Beatles melodies and assorted other staples nicked from rock’s motherlode?
When the theft is so daring and well- executed, not a jot. Aroma of mystic bollocks aside (their cover of The Creation’s ‘How Does It Feel To Feel?’, guilty as charged), ‘Carnival Of Light’ is mighty real, from the turbo-chug of the opening ‘Moonlight Medicine’ to the suitably overblown finale, ‘I Don’t Know Where It Comes From’. This latter is the epiphany of Ride’s hand- me-down moments, complete with school choir and quite staggering debt to ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’. it only Bide had had the guts for daylight robbery on their first album. (Craig McLean)
i RIDE
l Carnival Of Light (Creation)
I In which Bide sound great because 5 they don’t sound like Ride. llo more i ; dense - as in stupid - walls of guitars " nor pigeon-toed, knock-kneed, dead-
head, indie-schmindie preciousness.
i llo. The Ride of their third album have l decamped to that glorious bargain basement of inspiration, Retro-Rip- Offs-R-Us. In the crowded aisles they
5 meet Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub, l Whiteout, Oasis: masters all of the
l inspired time-trawl. Does it matter
1 that ‘Carnival Of Light’ is plagiaristic
to the max, stuffed to the gills with
; Stones riffs and Byrds harmonies and
|
? EDDI READER l
Eddi Reader (blanco y negro) :
l0n kd Iang’s ‘lngenue’, producer Greg
5 Penny added a sumptuous sheen that
i was merely the icing on a cake rich in i
lcool, calm, classy songs. Bringing the
same production values to Eddi ' Reader’s second solo album, the "
i nagging doubt is that there’s some
serious crack-papering going on here.
Reader’s go-with-the-flow
demeanour, her ability to emote and empathise and hurt in the most perilous (or shallow) of waters, almost
. lofts this album to the giddy heights occupied by its predecessor, ‘Mirmama‘. The single ‘Patience 0f
. Angels’, written by Boo Hewerdine, is
. already up there. So is ‘Scarecrow’, a
i folk tune from the combined pens of
! Reader, Hewerdine and Gary Clark. So
is ‘Joke (I’m Laughing)’ (another Hewerdine effort — spot a pattern
, here?).
i But ‘East Of Us’, forming a kind of
l centre-point, has too much pastoral
g dippiness, oozing a willowy vagueness that no amount of Reader’s image-rich lyrical poetry can mask. ‘Red Face
Blue Sky’ and ‘When I Watch You Sleeping’ (courtesy of ex-Fairground
Attraction Mark llevin) tread a
g similarly precarious path. This airy- iiairiness, when rendered with such
i pristine clarity, hangs heavy over the '49 minutes, overshadowing Eddi
Reader’s moments of genuine magic. I
(Craig McLean) l