ENZED CLASSICS

Rip It Up, Issue 47, 1 June 1981, Page 18

ENZ E D CLASSICS

Hits and Myths XSF - There is a long, if sometimes dishonourable. tradition of compilation . albums in ■ this country. Right from the days of the Loxene Golden Disc records until the early seventies, samplers and compilations were the best guide to the state of health of New Zealand recording. The flowering of the - local album market in the last five or six years has somewhat diminished their role, although lately they have resurfaced as a means of exposure for non-established acts. In the light of that, it is interesting to compare Hits and Myths with the' recent sixties' sampler, How Was The Air Up There? While the latter.-may. bring a nostalgic tear to the eye of a patriot, nobody could suggest that the singles represented there bear any kind of comparison with their British beat boom contemporaries. The seventies' collection, however, is full of world-class tracks.

All of the tracks, except perhaps for those by the Whizz Kids and Schtung, are wellknown and the majority were

bona fide hits. 'April Sun In Cuba', 'Gutter Black', 'Be Mine Tonight', 'Squeeze', 'Feels So Good' and 'One Good Reason' are all testaments to the high standards . of - New . Zealand singles-making ;-lin ■, 1977-80. There is really no point in going over the tracks everyone has their favourites, and they are bound to be here. It's ironic that the very improvement in standards which rendered compilation - albums pretty much redundant by the mid-seventies is now reflected in this excellent collection. Congratulations to XSF. Francis Stark The La De Das La De Das/Find Us A Way Epic ■ It's about time someone dug out some of those often-brilliant records that made New Zealand rock what it is. Last. year's compilation How Was the Air Up There set the ball rolling. Now we have the first two La De Das albums repackaged as a double set. The La De Das were the ace NZ band of the late sixties. They had hits, big hits, with

radical material vicious guitar riffs, heavy soul overtones.

The albums, particularly the first one, stand up pretty well, but they show the problems of making a record album. The first one was probably comparatively easy. Essentially, it was the group's stage act plus a couple of hit singles, 'How is the Air Up There' and 'On Top of the World' (an obscure John Mayall song). The La De Das played these songs night after night and the best still jump out of the speakers. Phil Key's 'preaching' may have been ersatz, but he had a lot of style. So did all the band. They led the scene musically and what they wore on stage tartan trousers, furred boots, epauletted jackets was copied religiously.

The album has the La De Das strong interpretations of material by Mose Allison, Muddy Waters, Lee Dorsey, Chris Kenner, (a very moody 'Land of a Thousand Dances'), Jimmy Reed, .Small' Faces, Manfred Mann (Kevin Borich was a Paul Jones imitator for a while) and Sam and Dave.

The first album remains a classic, perhaps more by intuition and good luck than anything else. The second shows the strain of trying to improve on the first. There are several R&B covers (Ray Charles, Capitols, Spencer Davis Group), but half the album is original songs by organist Bruce Howard and bassist Trevor Wilson. In his album notes, Wilson calls it "our first serious attempt at songwriting." Underline "serious". Some of the songs aren't bad, notably the fey 'Rosalie' but the group was more ambitious than successful. Sadly, too, the production wasn't able to match their ambitions.

J . However, there are some great moments Borich turns in a creditable 'I Gotta Woman'. But overall it's a much more studied effort than the earlier album. Its failure is that of a great - dance band trying for seriousness check the decline of the Young Rascals on that one. One thing is certain: when the La De Das were hot they cooked up a storm.‘j|||ijßßHu Ken Williams