lKhaya t We’ve Got Rhymes 4 X Like These
l
Remember the odd kid at school? He
’ was always happy enough yet kept
himself to himself and seemed to be
absorbed in his own world for much of
j the time This is the kind of record he made when he grew up, It's a kind of ' naive, left-field pop that looks at the
' world in a slightly different way from
everyone else Sometimes, it's
; exuberant and messy like a good party 3 and at other times Khaya display ; leanings towards the Belle 8r Sebastian
school of songwriting. The antithesis to
plodding OBSIS pastiches, this is l imaginative and uplifting. Who needs prozac7 iJT)
DANCE Fatboy Slim
: You've Come A Long Way Baby (Skint)
The latest album from remrxer, party person and former Hotisemartin of the year Norman Cook heriiris With the
spacey, fivpitotit [)J Shadowy loop of Right Here, Right Now' before latiiit hirici into (lUlITIC‘SSCnIlal 1998
: party tunes 'The Rockafeller Skank'
and 'Gangster Tripping' With their
inventive use of rock ’n' roll and ska
hat kings respectively. Then there's the : funky gospel of 'Praise You' which
3 right about now is probably making
Primal St ream wonder how they took the wrong turning to miss a song like that Apart from these not-
_ ll)( ()l‘Sl(l€"lrll)l€-" highlights, there's a bit § of not so iii-yer-face filler and a lot of cheese, ‘.'.’ll!( M Cook makes no bones
’ROCK
about errrhrat int: ‘r/ori've Come A Long Baht; no Zrl-carat clasSIt‘ but that's probably guitly because it doesn’t take rtselt too seriously (FS)
JAZZ Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith
Yo Miles! (Shanachie) ****
The re-release of many of Miles Davis's Jazz-rock albums of the early-70$ has sparked a surge of interest in that period, and a critical re-evaluation is clearly underway. Guitarist Henry Kaiser and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith pay their own express tribute in this double album (at less than full price), generating an authentic- sounding version of Miles's dark, dense electric soundscapes on a selection of his material from that era, including extended workouts on 'Black Satin’, 'Ife', ’Calypso Frelimo’ and a medley of themes from the classic Jack Johnson soundtrack, as well as Smith's composition 'Miles Dewey Davis III — Great Ancestor'. (KM)
David S. Ware
Go See The World (Columbia) eeeww
Branford Marsalis confounded expectations by making avant-iazz
saxophonist David S. Ware his first
signing to Columbia, rather than another young in-the-tradition stylist. The quartet's caustic, high-density mu5ic lies at an opposite extreme to contemporary neo-bop, expressed in a sequence of seething, passionate, structurally aware free-Jazz explorations, With Ware’s squalling, blues-drenched, but oddly lyrical tenor lines interwoven in a highly-charged dialogue With Matthew Shipp's Jangling piano, William Parker’s organic bass, and Susie lbarra’s drums It remains to be seen if Ware is simply the label's token radical the enters as Henry Threadgill exrtsJ, or a real Sign of change. (KM)
‘ Alanis Morisette
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie Something of a riddle is Ms Morisette. Within the music papers and magazines she is almost universally sneered at. Her name has passed into popular usage so that any female singer/songwriter
with a guitar who is in the least bit.
and this is the key word. 'feisty' is
' described as ’doing a Morisette'. , Critics practically queue up to take a ' swipe at what they perceive as the
unholy alliance of postured rebellion with radio-friendly rock. She is the antithesis of every pale-
faced, middle-class male music
writer who was weaned on
I deliberately obscure indie whining. I And yet her debut album sold 28
million records. That‘s the equivalent of half the population of Britain owning a copy of lagged
Little Pill.
' This album will sell well although it won’t reach the stratospheric
Alanis Morisette: ‘feisty'
levels of it‘s predecessor. It's bland, adult-orientated soft rock which is
: plodding in the moments when it's not cloyingly introspective. The lyrics are brutally emotional and honest and earnest in that way that only over self-
analysing Americans can produce. It will dominate the airwaves and sell mainly to women in the 25-35 age group who have little active interest in music but can empathise with the lyrical intimacy. Imagine an aural
; equivalent of Oprah. (JT)
record reviews MUSIG
as
It's coming up for Air with 'All I Need'.
samba/Atari-cum-Gregorian chant double A-side deserved applause for its title which will clearly see it in the record books when it makes Number One in the virtual reality hit parade‘. (FS)
The Creatures
2nd Floor (Sioux) sir sir us
While Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie are still indisputably cool individuals, this all-guns-blazing techno rock offering from their resurrected Creatures guise fails to supercede all those pseudo- industrial alternative types who were influenced by the magnificent Banshees in the first place. I'm talking about Garbage, of course. (FS)
Monk And Canatella SON 4.5.98 (Telstar) it is a
A misleadingly metallic single from the group who sound like they’re named after a brand of fine cigar. The obliquely-titled 'SON 4.5.98' 50unds like the forceful rock/rap/crusty crossover stormers that the maligned likes of Senser were trailing round the summer festivals a few years ago. The anti-social flipside to shadowy jazz iunglism. (FS)
Mucho Macho
The Airport Freeze (Wiiija) aw st
Big beat duo from Romford who . . no, don't run away! Come back! You're missmg a groovy little number in the Bentley Rhythm Ace/Fatboy Slim mould! See you on the student disco dancefloor. (FS)
mm- Air
All i Need (Virgin) So it's not irresistible lounge disco like the rest of Moon Safari, but after almost a year's gestation period on the album, 'All I Need' sounds lovelier and more plaintive than ever Beth Hirsch’s Will 0' the wisp vocals caress this space-age ballad where acoustic gurtar and retro keyboards teach the world to swoon in perfect harmony. (FS)
Liqmd Lunch
Red Six EP (Bourbon Sunday Records) «it
Edinburgh five-piece whose impact would be more conSiderable if Oasis hadn't already conquered the world With exactly the same sort of impassioned guitar rock and throaty vocals. ’One Stage To Another', the first of the four tracks, plays a different tune, being a neo-Goth epic inspired by Killing Joke Via Mansun (FS)
Manic Street Preachers The Everlasting (Epic) it a
The first tvtanics single since, ooh, 'Roses In The Hospital' to suck big- style. ’The Everlasting' is an appropriately-named slowie tarted up with some half-arsed reverb and a tedious Orchestral chorus. For the first time in living memory, James Dean Bradfield sounds painful rather than pained, and you realise the Manics previously swore they'd never write a ballad With good reason, Mind you, the similarly somnambulant ‘The Drugs Don't Work' practically became the national anthem, so there’s no accounting for taste. (FS)
Salako
4},
REVIEWERS THIS ISSUE:
Andrew Burnet, Thom Dibdin, Rodger Evans, Kenny Mathieson, Fiona Shepherd, Jonathan Trew
The Moonlight Radiates A Purple ‘ STAR RATINGS
Glow In This World/Go On Then! 32misga£e Enlighten Me, Why Don'tcha? * H W31 8 shot (Jeepster) it is w it w 1» Below average
Just th0ught this fetching indie * YOU V9 been Warned
5—19 Nov I998 THE llST49