45s

Rip It Up, Issue 70, 1 May 1983, Page 22

45s

Russell Brown

Sneaky Feelings ~ . .ESST Be My Friend (Flying Nun)* Out at last. Sneaky Feelings have"; come ; on, since . this . was recorded and a few flaws' show, but! it's saved by the quality of the *" songs. 1 still prefer the flip Amnesia' - it was the song that i touched me the firstjfewj times 1 saw the Sneakies play and it still' sounds good. The main problem here,,is: with the vocals, which don’t quite click". Not as good as it could have been but I have a feeling it's going to become one of3_ my favourite NZ singles) Just wait for their next effort it'll be on 16-track! Dance Exponents ■ . All I Can Do (Mushroom) t,, T“ tt " The Exponents go downmarket fstudiowise and come up with the 'goods. The eight-track production has plenty of - presence •''and it's dead clean. Jordan Luck is writing Some of the better songs that never got written in the sixties, but the arrangement of this one isn't all that inspired) Still, this is the best local pure pop this year and I hope its a hit. The B-side is a country . song called Empty Bunk'- but I can't comment on that because I've got the dud pressing with a rough version of 'l'm Not the One' on the flip instead.' If you have, keep it it might be a collector's item some day. Narcs No Turning Back EP (CBS) ~ Its good to see the Narcs get their act together at last. From the Serge Clerc-type cover up this is' a well 'put- together . project. The only low : point tis 'The Beach a distinctly unexciting instrumental r" The f other three tracks are , good '■ metal pop, not entirely my cup of tea but there's a big market for itl out there. All three do. go on somewhat longer than they should, however. 1 can't help thinking that the Narcs should head for Australia at the earliest possible opportunity.That's advice, no t! i t?39BH Hip Singles i&g Typewriter (Hit Singles) . Instantly catchy, ultimately irritating, 'Typewriter' has the potential to reach outside that cosy little clique who buy New Zealand records. In fact; ' that's where its chances of success lie. If it reaches enough people, it'll be a. big novelty single. The. flip So Strange' is better (seems to be a habit with the Singles), in fact it's

probably the best thing the band has.recorded. The Henchmen Do The Maelstrom* (Cadaver Records)M -ji •] : Radio »Birdman L dedicated records' to the Stooges,' the Henchmen dedicate records to Radio ■ Birdman. This is a thunderous bit of Stooges-style , pop., hat ends with a searing lead : break (God, what am I saying?). What heavy ' metal used to sound like before it all went bad. The flip is,nowhere near as good. Available from Cadaver, Records, 11 Hanui Place, Massey as a limited edition 12"., -The Bronx, Streetfighters /' Well, for a start the;last; thing we need is another song glorifying! violence. But the main thing is that this record is unforgivably bland, bland, bland. It sounds like some.thing radio programmers might like. The, flip is an overlong, flat version of:Golden';Earring's classic ' Radar v e'-J^ssKes^ssasas^ffisaE Mole Manne EP (Jayrem) OK, the first single was fine, but isn't this stretching things a bit far? There seems-to be a big shortage of musical ideas here. The major mistake, however, was printing the lyrics on the sleeve - they don't bear up to it at all well. Ihe interesting thing here is that the band; (a Wellington outfit) chose to record four, of the six tracks at Christchurch's Tandem Studios and the sound's fine. A pointer for Christchurch bands? But this is only an average record, just. ;kd3, Subway A pleasant tune with echoes of the Jam, among others. The sound quality is good I for . a . bedroom recording too. The flip is 'Captain Earth' I've always been a little , wary of songs about starships and space and things but again;' a good tune. Singer-guitarist-songwriter ; Paul Campbell seems to have, a fine sense of melody and a good voice what he needs to work on is his lyrics.