T In the Park, the Torment: Live Festival
RECORD REVIEWS MUSIC
mum.
I [7: Hungry For Stink (Slash) Lunkhead heavy metal that. ifit wasn't made by - shocker! — a band entirely composed of females. would be laughed out of town. With the follow-up to their breakthrough Brie/cs Are Heavy album. it quickly becomes clear why L7 delight in dropping trousers. flinging tampons and being wather wadical. Kick up enough of a rumpus. they rightly surmise. and no one will notice that what is generally perceived as ‘attitood‘ in this dirgey. grungey porridge is in fact sullen nihilism and a total lack of imagination. or indeed talent. So there. (Craig McLean)
I The Church: Sometime Anywhere (Arista) Mellow Australian duo The Church continue to uphold a modest success
rate on these shores that seems tojustify the continuing availability of their polite. unruffled works. though the chances of anyone getting at all flustered. or even beguiled (which is probably the desired effect) by Sometime Anywhere are remote. ‘Lost My Touch’ plays with tuneful ambience that‘s almost modern. but ‘Loveblind' is bland pop for the mid- 80s smoothie who likes to paddle in un-Top 40- charted waters. as are many of the anachronistic offerings on this criminally interminable recording. A bit ofelbow grease and they could branch off into the ethnic dance or avant-garde ambient fields but this is just a creative shrug of the shoulders. (Fiona Shepherd)
I Killing Joke: Pandemonium (Butterfly) There are. no doubt. people who relish the return of Killing Joke. in much the same way that Julian Cope doesn‘t have tojustify himself too hard to ensure continuing respect. But sadly for the Joke. the kids they once thrilled and terrified in equal measure are all grown up now and no longer scared by bedtime ghost stories. Rather. laz Coleman and his disturbed cronies will shudder to discover they are treasured with a perverse affection, which is not at all what harbingers of the
industrial apocalypse seek to inspire. On Pandemonimn. they thrust their punk-metal neurosis home using that brutal 90s machismo so familiar from the rap-metal crossover sector. The paradox is that. as Killing Joke take their crusade more seriously than ever. their musical impact is increasingly eroded. But they‘re still better than Nine lnch Nails. (Fiona Shepherd)
I The Drum Club: Drums Are Dangerous (Big Lite) This album positively shines with glimmering.
‘ celebratory. stomping drums. upbeat motifs and glistening. translucent vocals. Where their debut. Everything Is Now stretched house into long tracts of dub. Drums Are Dangerous sparkles with twinkling melodies. sharper construction and crisp production. ‘Drums Are Dangerous‘. the opening track. is elongated from the dense. poppy single version into a flow of peaking anthem undercut by minimal backing. ‘Crystal Express' and ‘Space Angel Station' embellish percussive patterns with Saffron‘s clear. articulate snatches
l of song. And the effect is seriously uplifting. This is music unafraid of exploring its feminine side while slamming a few foot friendly beats. Spiritual. ethereal, downright delightful even and well worth
v purchasing. (Bethan Cole)
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If! Alli?!
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mm:
sleeve note) in three
, sweeping movements.
The disc also includes his
I Aaron Copland: American Songs (Teldec) lfconstant World Cup telly exposure to Hoedown gives Copland's sales a significant blast this disc could benefit. since the orchestral version of the Songs has a similarly folksy feel. Thomas Hampson‘s richly sonorous baritone is a shade too operatic in places (his recent Mahler disc on this label has the same slightly over-studied air). but mostly isjust fine. Soprano Dawn Upshaw is also featured on the more serious Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson, and is heard to equally good effect on Goethe Lieder (Elektra Nonesuch) with pianist Richard Goode. I Ernest Bloch: America (Delos) Staying on the American theme, Bloch‘s meditation on his adopted land is sub-titled ‘An Epic Rhapsody for Orchestra'. and traces the span of American history from 1400 to 1926 (all helpfully annotated in the
Concerto Grosso No I , a
i rather less rhetorical work
from 1925. and Gerard Schwarz. and the Seattle Symphony play both with
distinction.
I Andrni Panutnlk: Concertina (Conifer)
Following a fine disc of
string quartets earlier this year. Conifer continue their survey of this
compelling music. His 2 vocabulary is both
rigorously constructed and highly accessible. and his characteristically sparse textures and serene moods
are heard in the ethereal
Sinfoniu Concertunte for flute. harp and strings. the
almost as delicate I’ert'ussimi Concertino,
and Harmony. which uses
two small instrumental 3 groups. Worth checking
out.
I Olivier Messiaen: L’Eclairs Sur L’Au-nela (Jade) Antoni Wit and the Polish Radio Orchestra nip in with the first recording of this death- bed masterpiece. Messiaen was nothing if not an original. but his
I distinctive musical voice is heard in a gentler. more
intimate scale here. The
l orchestra is brusque in the
opening movement. then
settles down to a lucid.
subtly coloured performance. Messiaen
admirers should also
9 consider new discs by
young British pianists. a
strong Quutor pour [(1 Fill (In Temps (Collins), with Joanna McGregor leading
the quartet. and Rolf Hinds's accomplished but
slightly bitty Meditations
(United). I Mark Anthony Tumage: Creek (Argo) As anyone who saw it at the
Edinburgh Festival in
1988 will know. there are
i lots of sweary words in
1 Steven Berkoff’s text for this two-act opera about inner—city malaise (squeezed neatly onto a single disc). so don‘t say
you weren't warned. The
rampant energy and go-
for-it bravado of
i Tumage's music transfers
l much better to disc than the altemately naff stage Cockney accents and portentous literary
effusions. (Kenny
{ Mathieson)
Oadiohead
+1'he Julie Dolphin
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l 2m
(7523
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1 A a a .- A " ' c ‘ . I . I I . . l a u ‘ . ' O I S '- o 3 e I l _ ' ‘ - .. I . I I
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The List 29 July—ll August I994 39