the state of the ART

Rip It Up, Issue 46, 1 May 1981, Page 12

the state of the ART

George Kay

The Cure Faith Stunn Public Image Flowers of Romance Virgin

Siouxsee and the Banshees Kaleidoscope Polydor Visage Polydor Boomtown Rats Mondo Bongo Mercury Pauline Murray and The Invisible Girls Illusive

Rock'n'roll in the UK is currently at its most diverse and most volatile. Overnight you can become passe, the victim of a press shift in allegiance, and as a result few new bands are' allowed to progress beyond the ideas expressed on first albums.

So new fads throw up new heroes, but under scrutiny here is a range of virtual veterans who've managed to sustain enough direction/determination to see them over the initial two or three albums. Whether or not the effort has been worth it is another story. Fade To Grey The road the Cure are travelling is leading to increasing musical-emotional inversion. Seventeen Seconds, as an account of a disintegrating love affair, was successful enough, but the dangers of pre-occupa-tion with self depression were obvious in the album's morbid incompleteness. Faith is a further retreat into the melancholic process of song writing and even though it has undoubted rewards, it is more obvious that Robert Smith has succumbed to the temptation of despair, romantic or otherwise. The crystalline guitar sound of Seventeen Seconds has been replaced in many cases by Simon Gallup's firm bass lines and Smith's marriage of guitar and keyboards. The images ("Whisper your name in an empty room" Smith sings in Other Voice') and constant use of vocal echo behind synthesiser landscapes are alluring, particularly on 'All Cats Are Grey' and 'The Funeral Party', but they're also misleading. They tend to sentimentalise dejection to the point where it becomes an idealistic notion, a pained, lost artist persona. •

Faith is a more consistent and more complete prospect than its predecessor,but it'saims are essentially the same. It is seductive and enjoyable, but its

equation of despair with profundity or importance is vacuous. So be warned.

Blooming Flowers PiL have made it quite clear with their last two studio albums that they have little time for rock'n'roll as they see it. Their primitive obstinacy has been obsessive in that they've refused to conform to rock norms or general expectations.

Last year Jah Wobble left, taking PiL's famous bass sound with him and so now exdrummer Martin Atkins and impressario Keith Levene have been forced to fill the vacuum on Flowers of Romance with pounding up-front studio treated drum patterns which provide the only rhythmic basis for the new songs.

A definite Eastern influence' pervades some of the songs, especially Lydon's vocal on 'Four Enclosed Walls' which, apparently, broke the studio oscillator during recording. 'Phenagen' and the title track (culled from Sid Vicious' first band) also use mosque vocalese as the emotional core. On 'Under the House' and 'Hymies' Hymn' repetitive-hypnotic drum sequences are used to powerful effect and on 'Go Back' Levene's scratchy guitar reinforces Lydon's anti-fascist/ apathy sneer. Wobble isn't missed, in fact the absence of a bassist is an innovation as the music is more open, more accessible. Quite plainly this is their best album and, acquired taste or not, it must be confronted.

Make-Up Visage are a manufactured concept, made up of two Magazines (Dave Formula and John McGeoch now with the Banshees), a couple of Ultravoxes (Billy Currie and Midge Ure) and a Rich Kid (Rusty Egan). With fashion barometer Steve Strange they recorded this album last year, and, not surprisingly, the music is tailored towards Ultravox modernity. The songs are tightly arranged, catchy and wellsynthesised, the sort of thing that radio stations often label as 'tomorrow's music'. In fact, it's nowhere music, it's quite soulless in its attempts at highly contemporary craftsmanship and the cosmetics of Visage cannot hide that fact. The Art of Sinking (Without Trace) The Boomtown Rats are another band who are full of sound and fury and who have

failed to live up to Geldof's mouthings. Their first two albums proved that they were adept at using old Stones' and rock-flash cliches in a contemporary framework. Geldof, master of the blether, set himself up as frontman, the character as 'charismatic' leader, the only thing was he got on everyone's nerves with his opinionated chatter. Surfacing showed the band for what they were a bunch of slick superficialists and Mondo Bongo continues this artistic collapse to the point of disintegration. The rare redeeming features, a Costelloinfluenced 'Elephants' Graveyard' and the relatively unaffected bongo of 'Please Don't Go', are the last weak gasps of a band who seem to have made this album out of some business commitment or for something to do. Geldof and his boys are out of style and out of touch. Feminine Ways Talking of style, Siouxsee, and to a much lesser extent, Pauline Murray, should spring to mind. Siouxsee, once the female vanguard of intelligent punk (The Scream) and neo-Nazi chic, is now as risque as Blondie without a rinse, Jaut Kaleidoscope, with John IvlcGeoch welcome on guitar, is a vast improvement on the over-traumatic Join Hands. Kaleidoscope is an album of easy-to-assimilate pieces with old Roxy Music tones used to fine effect especially on 'Happy House' and the commercial 'Christine'. Siouxsee still sounds distant but in command notably on Desert Kisses' and 'Red Light', the latter taking a vocal cue from Jim Morrison. This album proves that Siouxsee and the Banshees can use their ideas to produce music that is balanced, composed and still retains a sense of drama. These qualities also apply to Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls' first album. The two Penetration efforts indicated, if nothing else, that she had

sufficient talent to survive outside of the straight democratic band format. Produced by Martin Hannett and using John Cooper Clarke's occasional band, the Invisible Girls, the album is an excellent first step in her solo career. Murray sounds more at home with this more thoughtful repertoire than she did with the often blunt dynamics that Penetration favoured. Highlights such as 'Screaming In The Darkness', the single 'Dream Sequence', 'Shoot You Down' and Mr. X' are sophisticated in their use of power and melody and are sure signs that Pauline Murray's days, rather than declining with the demise of Penetration, are only just beginning. So the kids are alright? Well some of them, particularly PiL, who brook no interference, with their projects, and Siouxsee and Pauline Murray who are changing and even developing, two qualities rock'n'roll always needs to stay healthy. Overall diagnosis? Fair.