RECORDS

Rip It Up, Issue 55, 1 February 1982, Page 16

RECORDS

Joy Division Still Factory The long-awaited, posthumous Joy Division album, Still, is a collection of previously unavailable (at least in this .country) studio material, and the last-ever live performance, on May 2nd, 1980. Unfortunately, this album has the slightly tainted feel of a cashin about it. The feeling isn't helped by Factory's Sex Pistols' cassette, and Tony Wilson's statements that he sees nothing wrong with placing stickers on JD album covers, saying 'by the singer who killed himself'. But any doubts must take second place to the music, and in this case, much of this album can only rate as essential, especially the studio material. This brings together material as diverse as the first postWarsaw sessions ('lce Age', Walked In Line' and 'The Kill ), the famed John Peel sessions ('Exercise One' and The Sound Of Music'), the Factory sampler ('Glass'), previously unreleased material ('Something Must Break' and 'The Only Mistake') and, the highlight of the set, 'Dead Souls', previously only available on a French limited edition single with Atmosphere’. The first album's final track is a live 'Sister Ray', which strangely is nowhere near as chilling as the Velvets' original. The live album is not as essential, although it highlights the intensity of Curtis' performances. However, the recording standard is only of average bootleg quality, and the band is extra-

ordinarily, untogether, even out of tune in places. . ' •.• T At worst, Still ties up the loose ends. At best, it is magnificent, moody, and equal to anything Joy Division have produced. Simon Grigg Fetus Productions Fetus A difficult, somewhat pretentious review of a difficult, somewhat pretentious, and almost-impossible-to-find album. Some ex-Features and their fellow creatures record a soundtrack for a movie about the intrauterine life of the Eggman portrayed on the cover. An Australian record. . A large door opens. George Harrison joins Gentle Giant, listens to Echo and the Teardrops, and sings 'Halocast' (a song), then the Velvets Mk I lose Reed, Nico, Tucker and Morrison; Cale becomes Karel, who fiddles while 'Annoying' burns into 'Caution', a dub version of Eraserhead (but it's a spaghetti western!), in which the water goes down the plughole and the mutants applaud. Delicious synthesisers and a lady sing 'Mission To Fort Bold', then Humour 3X A Day' has Young Marble Giants and 2000's ethereal voices, but the big bad wolf's gonna blow that dub house down with a guitar like a spring in a bowel. Marvellous! Side Two is less straighforward (titles are henceforth approximate). Deep into the operating theatre to excuse the 'Human Weakness', as Jed becomes Judd, but better, better. 'Sick Boy takes an anaesthetic, snoring, car crash descent into tropical jungle echo chamber, featuring sex and drugs in rotting role (good, eh?).

I Call'; he does. 'Plastic Surgery', (another song), with 'Sunny Afternoon's' descending riff making way for sick boys, now 'Patients' in the same hospital Lennon’and Ono spent their life with the lions. Some spastic asdic plunges 'lnto The Heart', a L'Age D'Or closes and were out. • Someone make a movie of this, it's gorgeous. Try and find it. Chris Knox The Sound From The Lion's Mouth Korova This, their second album, is musically and spiritually a marked improvement on its predecessor, Jeopardy. But in terms of originality, virgin territories have yet to be discovered. Contemporary 'dark' bands that reference can be drawn from would be Echo and the Bunnymen, Joy Division, Core and recent tour partners, Comsat Angels. Listen to 'New Dark Age', the closing track. Collectively, the songs are strong music, and strong treatment has been meted out, justifiably so by producer Hugh Jones.

A rumbling presence, a punctuation of the drum sound, coupled with punchy, absolute bass, moulds a groove that is almost mantric. A searing guitar, slicing and weaving. Layers of synthesiser washing over, attacking and building. The foundation is secure for Adrian Borland's surefooted vocal work. The message, lyrically, reveals modern Westworld awareness of the decline of optimism in any safe future. Any solutions offered manifest as advice that people should soul-search themselves. So what else is new? On one hand, From The Lion's Mouth is a record that smacks of identifiable influences. On the other? Intrigue. An irritatingly pleasant album. Danceable too. Stefan Morris

Men. At: Work Business As Usual CBS Men At Work's debut is a collection of succinct, polished pop songs . that have all the ingredients needed to make a commercial monster of an album. 'Who Can It Be Now?' ' and 'Down Under' have been huge hits in Australia, and there's ample scope to produce more, since every track is tailored for AM radio. The strength of the album lies in the immediacy of the melodies and the fine woodwind arrangements. There are two more possible hits here in 'Catch A Star' and Touching The Untouchables'. Guitarists Colin Hay and Ron Strykert wrote most of the songs, but keyboards and woodwind player Greg Ham also makes a fine contribution in 'Helpless Automaton'. An album chock-full of established and potential hit singles, marred only by wandering too close to Police territory on two tracks, and by a third track that's just bland filler. The concluding track, 'Down By The Sea', shows the band has the ability to sustain interest on a longer, more complex arrangement. ’.xV ' ■■■■; We will be hearing more of this band. David Perkins The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe Original Records As if you didn't already know by now, these albums began life as a late night BBC radio serial and rapidly became a cult. The programmes were rerun, the paperback topped The Times' bestseller list in first week of publication (and hung in there for over six months) and people began collapsing with laughter on English streets if they saw a

Ford Prefect. Writer Douglas Adams is yet another in the tradition of Oxbridge humourists he even has Python connections although the absurdity of his scifi also owes much to American novelist Kurt Vonnegut. I mean, at the beginning of episode one the aliens obliterate earth merely to make way for a hyperspace bypass. While radio does, of course, offer the sci-fi writer more imaginative scope than the limitations of film, Adams sensibly limits his lunatic fantasies to the affairs of space, time and matter. The spaceship is, after all, equipEed with Infinite Improbability >rive. I was lucky enough to originally hear all this craziness on BBC FM and the sound effects certainly did lose something when later broadcast on NZ's AM. And while it probably can be fairly claimed that The Guide marks a significant step forward

in radio humour, whether you wish to lay out all the required bucks for two or three records as against buying the paperback depends on how much of a cultist you are. Peter Thomson Angelic Upstarts Live EMI Iron Maiden Maiden Japan Harvest Two live 1 cuts from young English bands from similar backgrounds (working class), but with vastly different outlooks on life. ' • ‘ Iron Maiden, from London's East End, are forerunners in the new heavy metal stakes, making up for a lyrical naivety with precision power, guitar-laden licks, owing much to bands like Uriah Heep, Black Sabbath et al. Great stuff for the headbanging cardboard guitar fraternity, and huge in places like Japan, from whence this mini-LP originated. The Angelic Upstarts, on the other hand, are hard-core punk, Pistols-orientated, with a very strong socio-political message. Their songs deal with the frustrations of youth; unemployment, police harrassment, teenage suicide, etc. Pretty grim stuff, which seems to have no place in ' the Iron Maiden repertoire. .Both albums score a high-level energy quota, depending on what side you like your bread buttered. Both very powerful, in their own context. Greg Cobb lan Dury Juke Box Dury Stiff I could say there ain't half been some clever bastards, and this is one of them. Or I could say here are twelve more reasons to be cheerful. But that would be totally cliched and lacking in class. No, squire, what I'm trying to say is that Stiff Records is not a little brassed.off at losing our lan to Polydor. What a waste, they said (Gawd, here I go again). So they ups and releases this collection of greatest hits, B-sides, odds and ends. Very tasty it is, too. A bit funky, a bit filthy, naughty and very nice. I'd almost forgotten how nice it was to do me Swedish exercises to 'lnbetweenies'. Now I'm not Nellie Melba, or Nellie Dean for that matter, but I knows what I likes. lan don't put on no upper class airs, he just writes and sings about what he knows. Word has it that lan ain't too chuffed about the track selection here, but you can't have everything and I'm not complaining. Duncan Campbell Adam and the Ants Prince Charming CBS A third album from the ex-punk waif that sees him switch from personality to product, from popster to poopster and from Geronimo to Dick Turpin. His previous entertainment, Kings of the Wild Frontier, did have things going for it, namely the singles, and they swiftly created and established the Ant following in a big way. So much so that he sold more records than anybody in Britain last year. So with his market defined, he lost no time in maintaining his fantasy run with two of his. emptiest gestures 'Prince Charming' and 'Stand and Deliver'. Both are on the new album, and both are indicative of

its shallow audience-pitching and trend-watching theatrics. ; 'Scorpios', which hasn't a bad tune, is an attempt at brassed-up salsa; 'Ant (C) Rap' is a torrid Adam rant, but credit must go to 'Picasso Visita', the best song available. Elsewhere, it's back to . the bad news. '5 Guns West' is a futile Western pastiche; 'Miles High Club' and 'Mowhok' are raucous Ant chants, and concluding the album, 'S.E.X.', fiddly and aimless. Fade to wymowheh. Resisting puns like 'highway robbery' is difficult when confronted by an album as calculated and meagre as Prince Charming. The clown.prince has delivered very little indeed. George Kay Meo 245 Screen Memory Mushroom , . Meo 245 are from Melbourne, Screen Memory is their ' first album. Released last year in Australia to moderate acclaim, it didn't do as well as expected. The reasons for this album not reaching its full sales potential aren't really clear. It's commercial synthesiser pop, neither bland nor copybook. It possesses drive and energy, and the songs are uncommonly good. .-V The band's major asset is Paul Brickhill. Not only are his vocals strong, but his keyboards are tasteful and imaginative. There is no distinctive synth sound, instead Brickhill diversifies to achieve a myriad of different feelings. Production credits go to New Zealander Peter Dawkins, and it's possibly his best job yet, outweighing even Mi-Sex's Grafitti Crimes. The current single, 'Jewels', though good, is not one of the album's best cuts. The best tracks are on Side Two 'White Lies' 'So Far Away' and 'Generator'. Australians tend to latch onto bands that are derivative and conventional, overlooking those that have something to offer. Let's hope Meo 245 don't miss out in NZ too. Mark Phillips