Goldie: characteristically intense
DRUM 'N’ BASS Goldie
Saturnz Return (London) * 1k 4: a:
Saturnz Return comes in two parts and runs for over 150 minutes, including 'Mother’ which is over an hour long. Contributors include David Bowie, Noel Gallagher, KRS-1 and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Just another drum 'n' bass album it is most definitely not.
It is not without its flaws however. At times. this complex and demanding record is more like an endurance test than a simple listening experience. This is especially true of ’Mother', which combines classical orchestration with Enostyle ambience and Goldie-ster drum ’n’ bass. It's an impressive, self-indulgent effort but one that deserves to be respected for its honesty and intensity.
The second part of Saturnz Return features ten tracks, of which four are downtempo. 'Dragonfly' is sixteen minutes long with Latin elements, acoustic guitars and scattered beats. Elsewhere. 'Letter Of Fate' finds Goldie reading from a suicide note he wrote as a teenager, backed by an eerie ambient soundtrack.
0f the harder tracks, the KRS~1 collaboration 'Digital’ successfully combines rap and drum 'n’ bass, while ’Temper Temper' finds Noel Gallagher causing havoc over Goldie's drum programming. It sounds nightmarish, but that was probably the point.
In parts, Saturnz Return is too long and too ambitious. In the main however, it is an immensely impressive example of one man's desire to take music to the outer limits . . . and beyond. (18)
patented by the 60s girl groups but, disappointingly for a group normally so adept at nicking a good idea and making it their own, this bit of fluff is low on manic pop thrill (F8)
The Secret Goldfish/
Scientific Support Dept Punk Drone/Kipper Linch
(Creeping Bent) tr sir
Creeping Bent Singles Club #6 is one half souped-up Secret Goldfish pop boogie album track and one half squelchy odyssey in keeping With the current climate for spar e age doodles which began wrth BBC StereOphoriic Workshop and IS now being practised by the likes of Mount Vernon Arts Lab and Air. But ‘kill all hippies"? Now there's no need for that kind of talk (F5)
mim— Speeder
Everything I Do is Wrong (Discordant)
Confident but not outstanding debut from a local trio of youngsters plus 'honorary teenager' Francis Blle Bandit which sounds like one of Uruser Yatsora's less notable efforts The flip ’Three Fifteen' is a fu7ztastic belligerent romp to file alongside ldlewrlcl. (FS)
Saint Etienne
Sylvie (Creation) s
Our spaneg musical alchemists return after spending a term or two at the ltTSlllUiC for the PurSuit of Perfect Pop 'Sylvie’ lS their homage to the keep- your-hands-off-my-man subgenre
1:,
st Etienne: fluff
The Bluetones
Solomon Bites The Worm (Superior Quality Recordings) 1k at it
The tide of fashion is against them but rt sounds like The Bluetones couldn't give a flying feck 'Solomon f is the usual blithe chorus topped With a dirtier guitar sound than before, confirming their you-c an-damn-us- wrtli-faint-prarse-but-yOLi'll-never- kriock-us-down status as The Charlatans of the SOUllt. (FS)
Hurricane #1
Only The Strongest Will Survive (Creation) at
if only such Dril'v‘lllilall theory could be applied to today's aspiring bands, then we wouldn’t have to greet this pile of lukewarm slops (sorry, heartfelt ballad) With the shrugging indifference it ’inspires' (FS)
record reviews MUSIC Groop Dogdrill
Oily Rag (Mantra) it * a? air
It will be a sad day when Groop Dogdrill stop swamp-rocking in filthy deference to Jon Spencer Blues ExplOSion On '0in Rag' they seem to be snarling about nothing more nefarious than smoking but you can imagine it's about animal necrophilia. Er if you want to. (FS)
REVIEWERS THIS ISSUE:
Andrew Burnet, Jim Byers, Alastair Mabbot, Kenny Mathieson, Peter Ross, Fiona Shepherd, Jonathan Trew
STAR RATINGS
it it it t or Unmissable
* 1% i # Very 00d
* t it Wort a shot
it * Below average
it You’ve been warned
WA
Groop Dogdrill: smoking
superstar everydavitallapar'l
26 January 98 - the new single
taken from the forthcoming LP Palm Tree
LIVE 11 Feb ABERDEEN The Lemon Tree 12 Feb EDINBURGH The Attic 13 Feb DUNDEE Westport Bar
23 Jan-S Feb 1998 THE U8T55