erstwhile Soup Dragon/BMX Bandit Sushil K Dade Now, let the contest begin. It's an almost balletic clash of these two parties’ respective talents. Even the brief filler tracks like ’Advert' have room for both artists to showcase their skills with Wells' Nymanesque brass backing Dade’s Stephen Hawking electronic vocal. Take fully-fledged compositions like 'No Funerals This Morning’ or 'Olympic Material' and bathe in their 60s film soundtrack associations If anyone wants to make a Midnight Cowboy for the millenium, look no further for your musical contributors. This collaboration IS a magnificently moody iaz7/electro hybrid. It’s been an exemplary clean fight With both sides playing to their strengths to provrde maXimum atmospheric value (ES)
The Yummy Fur Sexy World (Guided Missile) :-°s a:
If you've still got an image fixed in your head of The Yummy Fur as a spindly Fire Engines tribute band whose songs seem permanently perched on the edge of falling apart, Sexy World Will set you right That staccato, out-of- kilter guitar is still present on every track, in spirit if not literally, but the Fur have fashioned a hip brand of mutant disco-rock with plenty of analogue keyboards and a liberally used, and very cool, Vocoder. Edgy, occasionally frantic and With an apparent anti-drugs theme running through it, Sexy World seems eminently capable of biting the hand that feeds it, so watch out (AM)
JAZZ
Joe Harriott
Free Form/Abstract (Redail) cs: -..’-:~ The Vinyl copies of these two semi- legendary free Jazz albums change hands for alarming prices on the rare occaSIons when they do become available, so the excellent Redial label has done the rest of us a big favour by re-issciing them as mid-price CDs The Jamaica-born saxOphonist Joe Harriott's free )azz experiments parallel advances being made Simultaneously in New York by Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, in a group which also features trumpeter Shake Keane, pianist Pat Smythe, Coleridge Goode on bass, and either Phil Seaman or Bobby Orr on drums This is remarkable mUSlC for a British )azz grow) to have made in 1960—62, and the results remain fascinating in a musical as well as historical dimenSIon. (Klvl)
~ 1» .l ~’«' y f ‘ i f; ‘
CONTEMPORARY
Philip Glass
Koyaanisqatsi (Nonesuch) 4: w s:- Glass's recording deal with Nonesuch has already produced new versions of many of his earlier works, and his most celebrated film score is now added to that list. Glass's music for Godrey Reggio's film is a stunning experience in the cinema, and if it does not quite translate as effectively to a purely audio medium, it remains his most accessible work. The new recording features an expanded version of the Philip Glass Ensemble, and restores much of the rnUSic from the film which was omitted from the original LP length release. The disc: comes With a second CD, Glass Jukebox, a useful sampler of his work (KM)
Rae & Christian SPElIbOUTId (Grand Central) '. a»
The stand-out track on Manc production duo Rae & Christian's magnificent Northern Sulphuric Saul album, 'Spellbocind’ is an euphoric slice of commerical soul whic h is rootsy
enough to avoid the anodyne trap The _ smooth, confident vocal by Veba is
2 complemented on the flip by some
3 cool hip hop from American guests Q-
Ball and Curt Cazel. (PR) The Corrs
. So Young (East West)
In which the Irish Courtney Cox look- alikes cover the homoerotic early
MEGASTORE
Meet JEFF LEYTON At Ipm on Friday 27th November
when he will be signing copies of his new album
MUSIC OF THE NIGHT
Jeff is currently playing Jean Valjean in the Edinburgh production of Les Miserables.
astrid: hedging their bets with their Hi-Fi Lo-Fi EP
Suede Single With much suggestive banging on the bodhran and sucking on the penny whistle. Oh, alright then, it's actually a polished, forget-it-while— you-listen exercise in blandness. Numbing, frankly. (PR)
Snow Patrol
Velocity Girl/Absolute Gravity (JBBDSter) sir st?
In which the Glaswegian Matthew Perry look-alikes cover the shambling early Primal Scream single. Well, again no, but 'Velocrty Girl’ as its Jeepster release might suggest -- does smack of the kind of shuffly-bumfluff indie the way your Field Mice-obsessed uncle used to like II. The more contemporary second A-side, 'Absolute GraVity’, is a mighty fine collision between 60s garage and hip hop scratching. (PR)
Blak Twang Perfect Love Song (MBA)
The Brit hop scene is increasingly holding its own and this is a decent effort by the respected Blak Twang describing the difficulty of wooing your lady When you’re a tough guy rapper from the gritty urban Jungle. The 'Trying A Thing Mix' features an inspired sample of tOCC's 'l'm Not In Love’, but things go awry With the ’Eldee Mix' which sees Lynden DaVid Hall warbling on about his ’sexy Cinderella’. (PR)
Electrasy Besr Friend’s Girl (MCA) s “"5 S'mPly appalling pop/rap hybrid
sounds like a really, really bad B-SZs album track and is so irritatingly perky
record reviews MUSIG
that any sane person will want to force-feed ElectraSy high-strength barbiturates until they throw themselves from the roof of MCA headquarters in a cra2y fit of depression. Sadly, what will actually happen is that Electrasy will be on TF/ Friday until the end of time and it will be music lovers everywhere who leap to their doom. (PR)
Grand Drive
Wrong Notes (Loose Sounds) seee
The impreSSionistic smear of colour on the cover is like looking at heaven or Las Vegas through a tear-blurred eye. It’s an appropriate image for South Londoners Grand Drive whose ’Wrong Notes' is steeped in the rhinestone melancholy and city sickness of Neil Young’s Harvest, Gram Parsons' Grievous Angel or the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack. You’ll be weeping into your eggnog to this come Christmas. (PR)
astrid Hi-fi Lo-fi EP (Fantastic Plastic) air air sfc
Four tracks of power pop from Glasgow-based astrid (dig that crazy lower case 'a'!) which owes a nod to Teenage Fanclub, a Wink to the early Beatles and its first child to Edwyn Collins Who produces and plays hammond. This cauld well have been a paintless exercise in classicism, but astrid snatch Victory from the Jaws of tedium thanks to a Winning combination of energy, melody and attitude. (PR)
El Nifio
Codie Clear (Ignition) e vs 4r Unreconstructed rock from Indiana post-grungeis El Nino, who come to these shores With an amp-load of enthusiastic press notices and a catchy tune about bad medicine. Live, this WOLild probably blow y0ur mind clean out of your head, but on record its gUitar attack is something of a pathetic shark (PR)
REVIEWERS THIS ISSUE:
Sarah Dempster, Alastair Mabbott, Kenny Mathieson, Fiona Shepherd, Peter Ross, Lawrie Thomas
I STAR RATINGS
E :2 sh s? a Unmissable
! x s s- Very good
E s». Worth a shot
i c» e Below average
) r» You've been warned
KING TUT’S WAH WAH HUT
FRIZGNOV‘ MIKE
THU 26 NOV FRI 27 NOV SAT 28 NO‘v
«PENTHOUSE- STROKE-5
fl
~ONE LADY OWNER .
weozoec- MILES HUNT N
muwsc. SPEEDER/ RISER 2
SAT 5: DEC - TUE 8 DEC FRI 11 DEC WED 16 DEC
E I H E R .- 'DRUGSTORE -THE HIGH FIDELITYN -c H I c KSCD
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TICKETS: VENUE, VIRGIN RECORDS & FROM WAY AHEAD 0N 0141-1339-8383 (24HRS)
19 Nov— 3 Dec I998 THE LIST 55