Shake Summation

Rip It Up, Issue 99, 1 October 1985, Page 36

Shake Summation

Russell Brown

Sneaky Feelings Husband House (Flying Nun) Mmmm ... bands like Sneaky Feelings are really beginning to find out what they're about in the studio these days, and the lush, Warm sound and array of instruments on Husband House’ are just as much part'of the single as

the song itself. It’s very nice, just saved from being too nice by a peculiarly affecting quality. Matthew Bannister's singing is still a little wobbly, but that’s part of its expressiveness. I like as much The Strange and Conflicting Feelings Of Separation and Betrayal', a sparer, tauter song with great nosecold singing from David Pine. Different again is 'Major Barbara', an odd, vocal-dominated little song. This record should reach a lot of people, and that's good. Doubiehappys Cut It Out (Flying Nun) There can't help but be a tinge of sadness about this record, being, as it was, completed only a few days before Wayne Elsey was tragically killed. But it's here and now as a really good reminder of what the Doubiehappys were retrospective ironies in the lyrics and all. 'Needles and Plastic' kicks off enthusistically. like a bouncier 'Sister Ray', with a great pop chorus and Shayne Carter singing as he sings best wailin 'Some Fantasy' is a bit weirder, and captures the Elsey guitar style in a way the first record never got near; its "sun will still rise between the bottles" message is stated with honesty and spirit. The other Waynesong, Moss Monster' is a song about the ugly side of humanity that prowls along like the Cramps mixed with crunchy peanut butter; the thickest and grungiest sound on the disc. Those three songs were played live and sound live, but Nerves' is a pointer to what the band might have done, with its''ooh-bah" vocals and intriguing

mixture of pop and badness. Epic stuff about the epicness of the mating game. Yeah! Oh, the Doublehappy sense o' humour is represented by, the cut-out-and-dress dolls of each band member, so dig out the scissors ... and it does sound best a little loud ... The Shallows Suzanne Said . Roy Montgomery, once of the Pin Group, brings his distinctive voice back to the public ear with the help of Scorched Earth Policy's Mary Heney and it's good. There are some Cohen cadences and words like ''disease”, "pain", "passionless", and "silence”, but it has a great bassline and coheres in the special way a good single does. The flip, .'Trial By Separation' has a great rhythm guitar, track and plenty of reverb to recommend it. - Not Really Anything Watched A World (Flying Nun) An appropriate name for a band such as this, given that the first couple of incarnations were noisy but enjoyable psychedlish. the current one is intensely abrasively musical and the record is different again. It sidesteps the band's sometime propensity to get to carried away in playing and lays the four songs out clearly. 'The Brag' builds into a powerful expression of disgust at a very ugly side of male attitudes to sex. Grant Hughson's trumpet sets everything off to a tee, as it does elsewhere on the EP 'Red Red Red’ isn't as notable. but ‘Rain and the Rhinos’ is sparse and tranquil, reflecting the lyric which is apparently taken

from the writings of a monk of some centuries' vintage. 'Bomb Shelter' is a lot more manic, raining down sheets of guitar, but it's strangely not quite as effective as it might be. But considering that this record was made before there was really a band to put its name to it, it's a damn good start. The Fold (Flying Nun) This record sounds kinda weird compared to most other things: the Fold are a simple sound, just vocals, flanged bass and drums, and it's a little unnerving to hear so little on a record. The sparseness has left them freer to tweak with what sounds are there, especially in Rack' and ‘Kiss By the Window', which make echo relevant again. A record for savage moods, this confirms that there's substance behind the Fold's manic live presence and gets away from the homogenity that's their main problem. The Fold might falter if they didn't rush headlong, so they rush headlong. The Wetbacks Out of the Swamp Recorded at Harlequin and very much bearing that studio's stamp, especially on the guitars, Out of the Swamp, I would guess, lacks a little warmth compared to the Wetbacks live. It gets a little samey sounding by the end of the six songs too, but on the other hand Dianne Archer's singing is particularly strong andthe band's lyrical concerns are most worthy. Not a bad debut from a band that'd probably go down a storm at the Performance Cafe.