RECORDS

Rip It Up, Issue 57, 1 April 1982, Page 14

RECORDS

The Teardrop Explodes Wilder Mercury Julian Cope is a fanciful person, a restless eccentric touched by belated psychedelia and surreal whimsy. He’s also a good songwriter.V i rr • As a start, Kilimanjaro was OK, but, as an album per se it was a disappointment. 'Treason' had instant presence but only 'Poppies in the Field' and perhaps 'Thief of Baghdad', stretched the band as an evocative unit to provide the space and finesse the songs needed. Wilder is something else. It is an improvement in every respect. It has a continuity of sound supplied by sole producer, Clive Langer, and it has a consistency of direction, bestowed by the sole writer (who else but Cope?) and the glowing ability of the band. The first ■ side concentrates on the more aggressive material. Five songs, among them Cope's answer to. 'Reward' 'Colours Fly Away', arid a couple of straight forward shots in 'Bent Out of Shape' and 'Pure Joy', lead to 'The Culture Bunker', a natural and sophisticated climax. iJlHliilHnßifl Turn, over, and 'Passionate Friend' and 'Like Leila Khaled Said' are strong active melodies but the glory belongs to the wistful melancholic airs ! of 'Tiny Children', The Fighting Takes Over' and The Great Dominions'. Ballads that fcillUastJißßMßfllHMMM .Wilder reinforces my conception of Cope as a British Athur Lee. Love combined the j same acoustic/electric/brass freshness with a sense of the sensitive/ ridiculous that Teardrop Explodes have achieved. Whichever way you look at it, Wilder is a seductive, superb album. George Kay D : D. Smash Cool Bananas Mushroom It's nice to be able to hold up an album and say, "This is New Zealand music." .Especially when it's a rock album that identifies with this country. A New Zealand

Sound. Hello Sailor did it with their first album, Herbs did it last year, and now D.D. Smash make number three. Cool Bananas is Kiwi Rock, and proud of it. It's hard to classify this sound, except that it has a suntan, a big grin, a love for wide open spaces, and a sentimental streak. It's brisk, loud, flashy and holding a can. It has to have a good tune, a sharp tongue and a strong back. The man who understands this is Dave Dobbyn.

Dave writes about human beings, and is a very human one himself. His songs are about people, falling in love, laughing, fighting and suffering. Listen to Dave singing Blue Note':

The last little letter Like the final curtain Like the bluest note of all l was shattered, broken glass was what .love' became, Tore my, heart out ... White Water is another example. A song about canoeing the' rapids? The song is genuinely exciting, with a strong tune conveying the feeling: ;;. Good singles, as Dobbyn always provides, Repetition' and The Devil You Know', all other songs with a little twist that lifts them above the ordinary, in melody or lyrics, plus Dobbyn's boogie special The Gambler', always a live favourite. .31 To be played at all discerning parties, and raised with the flag 1 ■ ■ i ■ ■■ .t—----every morning. Duncan Campbell

XTC f* '■ ’ • English 1 Settlement Virgin After eighteen months of silence, XTC have returned with two reassuring bids for the pop market the twelve inch 'Senses ; Working Overtime' which” is flanked by the high quality pop company of 'Blame It On the Weather’ and Tissue Tigers', arid now a fifth album, English Settlement. Black Sea, pessimistic and industrious, was under-rated and the more acoustic tones of English Settlement continues Partridge's gift of giving you the bad news within the framework of uplifting pop. Using a medieval historical perspective- as an analogy for the modern malaise, XTC have carved out a further appearance/reality yarn. 'Senses Working Overtime' is perfect as its musical joviality is deceptive, the icing. on a rotten cake, life stinks but "the church bells softly chime." Listen to it. 'Jason and the , Argonauts' and English Roundabout'', fresh-paced musically, are slightly veiled digs at social disorders. And 'Melt the Guns', 'No Thugs In Our House' and All Of A Sudden It's Too 1 Lateral though too pat lyrically, i benefit from Partridge's conviction ■ ■■ "11 1 ■■■ 1 1 and melodic sense. And then there's Moulding who turns in his usual quota of nicely waited infectious ditties, 'Runaways', 'Ball and Chain' and Yacht Dance', to provide the balance of ideas. ■ English Settlement is a pastoral

Black Sea and although . less intense, it maintains Partridge's high standards of a change-is-as-good-as-a-progression. I'm still a fan. George Kay New Order , Movement Factory Rest assured, this is not a let's-bury-lan trip. Face facts: he died nearly two years ago, and Joy Division died with him. The record buyers of this country worshipped a- dead idol, because we couldn't buy the damn stuff until after he died. Take your complaints to! the] Factory •Right. New. Order are another ball game. Curtis was not the creative heart; The songwriters were Bernie Albrecht and Steve Morris. They've refused'to give interviews since the trauma, panting to forget the past and reestablish themselves as a musical entity. Happily, they've done it. Movement is not a consistent album, but any lapses into the old style can certainly .be forgiven. Those who bought Still will know that the first single, 'Ceremony', was from the old days, while Everything's Gone ■ Green' only just progressed. This album makes a clean break, apart from 'The Him' and 'Doubts ; Even 1 Here’ which recall the ghost of Curtis. What they also serve to show is how onedimensional he was, as. a performer. Grab the new sound from Truth', 'Senses' or 'Chosen Time'. Solid synthesised funk, the sort of

thing Human League or Heaven 17 are into, but “much more basic, deeper and more demanding. 'ICB' continues . that feeling, while 'Dreams Never End' has a rhythmic drive that the old JD sound never quite achieved. . Martin Hannett overwhelms with the depth of his production, and New Order establish themselves. Respect the dead, but don't cling to them. Life goes on, and the living are doing pretty well. Duncan Campbell Soft Cell Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret Mercury The bright electronic pop invasion of the last year has been spearheaded by bands from the north of England. Human League, I from! Sheffield, ! opened the doors, (and following them are Soft Cell, 1 from Leeds. Soft Cell burst ( on; to ,the scene [late last, year with 'Tainted Love', I a song originally recorded | by, Gloria Jones, Marc Bolan's girlfriend Since then, Marc Almond and David Ball have had two more British Top TO singles with Bedsitter' and 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye': Both are included, and while the former falls a bit flat, 'Say Hello sparkles in the same way 'Don't You Want Me’ did on Dare. Almond has a strong Newleyperiod Bowie voice, which* he uses to full effect, particularly on the j northern ' soul of 'Seedy Films'. David Ball, responsible for all the electronic and acoustic instruments, plunders and then refurbishes [ tunes, to make them his own.

Listen to the Motown steal on 'Secret Life'. Sex, nightclubs, ; entertainment and frustration sit at the core of f Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret; It's an album that at first disappoints, then thrills. The melodies are accessible and infectious, it flows smoothly and doesn't wear out its welcome. . ; Perhaps not a great pop record, > but at least a bloody good one. Mark Phillips A Certain Ratio The Double Twelve Incn^H Factory -mOBM. For a while in 1980 Factory's A Certain! Ratio! looked | like being one of the futures of rock'n'roll. Constantly name-dropped and touted for certain eminence, they have since fallen from grace as a result of a reportedly duff album and a realisation that perhaps they • had I been overrated. This double twelve inch contains the songs that raised all the hopes. Flight' and 'Blown Away', released in ! November 1980, remain as blatant Joy Division messages with vocalist Simon Topping being ■ indistinguishable from lan Curtis. Look at Jit another way and you could call’ it the Manchester sound, billowing bass lines and cavernish production. Whatever, it sounds dated, almost ancient. Ironically ACR's best moves .were invariably their earliest. 'Do the Du', 'Shack Up' and 'The ; Fox' made appearances in late 79 and mid 'BO respectively and their amateurish,Top-sided funk anticipated the fad that was to overtake