RECORD REVIEWS MUSIC *
EILEE- ! I Tartan Amoebas: ; Imaginary Tartan
Menagerie (Iona) Edinburgh's Amoebas i
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continue to explore a rich vein of musical transplantation. A cheerful plundering of genres and mix-and-match soundscapes has produced an album that might be 70‘s LA jazz/rock for a few moments. a sip of Penguin Cafe. a Bob Hope/Bing Crosby dash through a souk. trash grunge. Jimmy Shand on if. a lone piper on a camel. Mexican mariachi. Carribean calypso. sweet and frantic fiddle. horny horns and. incidently. no
Built to Spill: file under ‘M’
They tour in January for the first time. Go and see them. (Jonathan Trew)
I Built to Spill: There's Nothing Wrong With love (City Slang) Straight outta Boise. Idaho. Built to Spill arrive on these shores with a daft name
invented in l992.‘ This is music with its roots in the past but its delivery set firmly in the future. (Thom [)ibdin)
I Whipping Boy: Heartwonn (Columbia) Four everyday blokes from Dublin singing about
vocals. Already a cult. everyday happenings — ilild II debut album which . creating their own cross- stormy relationships. Sounds as if it hasjust . cullurul coilidh‘ [he band being young and the like _ blown ilCFOSS the plains of S N
their home state. Main man Doug Martsch has a plaintive. aching catch in his voice that gives this record a smalltown indie sound reminiscent of Pavement. Built to Spill revel in writing songs which take unusual twists. never letting their sound
may not sound overly passionate but Whipping Boy do it with such startling honesty and cold perception that even the most jaded ear can't fail to be touched.
They run the gamut of emotions lyrically then pull the same trick
are off on their first steps to world domination. if they don't self-combust first. (Norman Chalmers) I Dave Angel: Tales (ii The Unexpected (Blunted) ()ut of Swindon. but you would have thought it was Detroit from the way the bass drum oozes with
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light enticement rather than a hardcore bang. Angel has created the perfect album for the 5am dancelloor. It has enough of a groove to keep the feetjigging while playing with jazz-seeped synth lines in a way which invites you to lie back and listen.
Angel defines his sound with a sample from 200/ .‘l Space Odyssey? ‘l‘li! My name is Hal 9000. l was
musically. tuming from tender. gut-wrenching vocals that ache with regret to downbeat laments via aural whirlstorms whipped up by angry guitars and pile- driving drumming. Whipping Boy can kick ass with the best of them but they're just as at home whispering poisoned honey into your car as they are taking a broken bottle to your senses.
settle into an easy- listening pop groove. The use of strings on tracks like ‘Car'. which opens with an impressive Neil Young-style falsetto. add to the quirkiness of the band‘s sound and differentiates them from the whole slew of post- grtmge American indie bands. File under ‘M' for maverick. moody and. occasionally, magnificent. (Eddie Gibb)
EILEE-
I Beethoven: Missa Solemnis (harmonia mundi) Phillipe llerreweghe‘s is the latest period-scale recording of this mighty Mass. and his assembled forces make a rewarding job of it. The live recording is not ideally balanced. but that is more than compensated for in the immediacy and intensity of the performances. with soprano Rosa Bannion and tenor James Taylor particularly impressive. lt fits on a single disc too. with a bonus CD of tasters from Herreweghe‘s other recordings.
I Mozart: Requiem (Erato) Another period instrument performance. but one which takes a distinctly modern and slightly unconventional view of Mozart's final. unfinished masterpiece. William Christie drives Les Arts lilorissants and his soloists through a big. emphatically dramatic account (using the Sussmayr version of the score) which will unsettle some preconceptions. but is undeniably powerful. I Schumann: Fraueniiebe und leben (06) Al the
opposite end of the scale. Annie Sofie Von Otter is undoubtedly a star in Lieder performance. and this superb reading of Schumann's great song- cycle can only add to her reputation. She has a great gift for working her way directly to the heart of whatever she sings. and displays that again in both the I-‘rmwnliel'w cycle and her selection of Lieder. I Tchaikovsky and Glazunov: Violin Concertos (Teldec) Maxim Vengerov is a star in the ascendant. and this coupling of the two major Russian Romantic violin concertos provides convincing evidence of why that is so. l-lis Tchaikovsky is fresh and expressive. with no hint of warhorse-weariness in his electrifying approach. while the less well-known Glazunov is so beautifully judged that it almost makes it sound a greater work than it is. Highly recommended. I Schnittke and lutoslawski: Viola Concerto and Chain 2 (Koch Schwann) Isabelle
Van Keulen has set herself
I soloist in two sharply
at stiffchailenge here as
concerto-style works. written for already well- established stars. She copes admirably with the challenge. particularly in bringing out Schnittke's bitter-sweet. passionate angst in the Viola Concern). She misses some of the vibrancy essential to Lutoslawski's Chain 2 on violin. but retrieves matters with a suitably fiery ending
I Evelyn Glennie: Wind In the Bamboo Grove (Catalyst) The remarkable Scottish percussionist draws on the work of four Japanese composers. The results are absorbing. whether on three solo pieces by Keiko Abe. or with the additional input ofJohn Harle on Yuyama's ‘Divertimento'. ajazz-influenced quartet on Yoshioka's ‘Rhapsody'. and extra percussionist on Miki‘s ‘Marimba Spiritual'. Catalyst also re-issue Steve Martiand Factory recordings on a superb 2- for-i priced disc. while the Kronos Quartet fill out their Released [985-1995 (Elektra Nonesuch) compilation with a bonus disc of unreleased material. (Kenny
lcontrasting contemporary I Mathicson)
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From AUSTRALIA The Music ofABBA
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The List I-
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