Records

Rip It Up, Issue 100, 1 November 1985, Page 16

Records

Grace Jones Slave To the Rhythm Manhattan/EMI Now, let's see; she was born in Jamaica ... The woman whose face once sold motor oil, preened in French discos, stretched by Jean-Paul Goude, skanked out by Sly 'n' Robbie, has now recorded an album with the ZTT team. Arriving at ZTT at their height, in fact; having missed the opportunity to co-star in a good Bond movie by about seven years, Grace Jones seems convinced not to miss the boat ever again. ... and raised in America ...

This is her first album, I realised later, in about four years. Correction; this is her first song. Slave To the Rhythm' is the same song remixed some four times into four completely separate and individual tracks. Plus several enigmatic instrumentals, whining snippets from a Paul Morley interview and gumptious banter from a Paul Cooke chat with Miss Jones. A

concept album, you know, like Yes or Genesis used to do, long before you ever started soiling your hands in a record bin. ... which makes her an American Girl ... This is her first album, I realised later, where she seems to have really out-grown everything she could possibly do; an album about Grace, rather than by. The sweets are there, the My J.A. Guy' humalong style singles, plus the mood (via Florn) that made Welcome to the Pleasure Dome so luxurious, but most of the album is spent in a game of 'Find the Grace', disappointing when one considers the previous constructions of reggae-meets-disco of which she was the figurehead, the focus point of fundamental focus points.

... Does Grace Jones have a sense of humour?

More importantly, has Grace Jones the Figurehead left the Sinking Ship? Has she lost her immaculate sense of balance between style and content? Has Grace Jones, paradoxically the most reliable of adventurous performers, finally produced a flop too thin to be outrageous? ... "What, can't you tell?" Chad Taylor

Various Artists Tuatara A Flying Nun Compilation Flying Nun In his extensive sleeve notes, Roy Colbert points out the major problem of compiling such a F Nun statement of the art as this: "A compilation that was representative, democratic, not too long aPid aurally edible."

Tuatara is wonderfully representative from the lilting, folky pop of Sneaky Feelings' 'Throwing Stones' and I Go Wild', by the Bats to the sheer aggressive power of 'Coalminer's Song' off the first Gordons album and Children’s Hour's crashing symphony 'Looking For the Sun'; from the esoteric violin-based 'lsol' by Marie and the Atom, through Jay Clarkson's sublime vocal on 'The Man With No Desire', to the rockin’ experimentalism of Fetus Productions' 'State To Be In’ and the Knox-Bathgate schlock-horror tour do force 'The Brain That Wouldn't Die!

Classic Kilgour guitar comes courtesy of 'Fish' off the Clean’s Great Sounds Great... and Neck of the Woods' from the Great Unwashed singles package. Classic

songs come courtesy of the current big two the Chills’ 'Pink Frost' and the Verlaines' 'Death and the Maiden'. Tuatara is democratic there's bands and people from Auckland to Invercargill, conventional and less so, male and female, old men and rising young stars. Tuatara is not too long, the tip of an iceberg. But then how long would the truly definitive F Nun compilation be? And Tuatara is scrumptiously aurally edible, made for the NME to love, or turn around and be complete and utter bastards about. Made to be listened to along with this year’s releases from F Nun bands new and old. Colbert closes: "So that’s it. 12 bands, 12 tracks. Flying Nun stands behind them all with hope in their hearts and a smile in their eyes. They just ask that you listen." Yeah ... sit up World, and listen to the label without a logo. Paul McKessar

Diana Ross Eaten Alive Capitol The fluctuating share price of D Ross Enterprises Inc has reflected the company's erratic market

performance over recent years. It will therefore be interesting to watch the reception of Ross’s current venture involving that once major concern, Gibb Bros (BeeGee) Holdings Ltd. This deal involves source material supplied by the latter company, produced and packaged under the Ross name. The similarity of styles involved (both essentially high-pitched) makes this joint venture more logical than might at first appear. Any lingering stockholders in Gibb Bros should not of course expect a market rise comparable to that of 1977-78 but they can be assured that this project may well involve some of the firm's best work since that date. Consequently Ross’s finished product has an overall consistency rarely shown in recent output. This new product also involves a well paced variety that should be agreeable to its targeted consumer. Smart planning by the company also involved engaging the services of the M Jackson Consultancy for the initial (single) marketing thrust. Ftotential investors should however be warned that the project's overall presentation shows generally more finesse and less dependence on Jacksonian brashness.

In summary: longstanding investors can be confident of a modestly satisfactory return. Speculators may wish to dabble through curiousity.

Peter Thomson

Freddie Jackson Rock Me Tonight Capitol As Gerri Hirshey notes in Nowhere To Run her vital history of soul the touchstone of soul and of black music in general is the voice. That thing that can make you cry or scare the hell out of you. Otis Redding in 'Try A Little Tenderness; the Chi-Lites’ 'Have You Seen Her' and Aretha's 'Respect' for example.

Now Freddie Jackson’s voice is an example of modern soul stylings, warm and sweet like Luther Vandross. If this was the 50s he'd be second lead with someone like the Moonglows or the El-Dorados he is that good. On a song as potentially cliched as 'Calling; he rises above it all, using vocal phrasing similar to Marvin Gaye’s in ‘What’s Going On' the epitome of modern soul singing.

The key to the album is the single cut 'Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times' Sake)' this is the whole album concentrated, the controlled backbeat, the bridge with the uplifting instrumental links, that whole easy groove with Freddie singing as sweet as Sam Cooke.

My fave tracks are the uptempo 'He'll Never Love You (Like I Do)' and the decidedly down 'Good Morning Heartache'. Credit is due to the production team of Paul Laurence. Barry Eastmond and Robert Aries, who never let music swamp the voice, whilst adding great textures. This album has been number one on the American black music charts for weeks it deserves similar success here. Kerry Buchanan Peter Broggs Rastafari Liveth Eric Donaldson Traffic Jam The Melodians Irie Feeling Eek-A-Mouse Assasinator Various Artists A Reggae Christmas Reggae Rhythm Series Jayrem More releases from Jayrem (see LPs elsewhere this issue), this time a cassette-only series, covering artists who otherwise might not see release here.

Top of the heap has to be Peter Broggs, a 12 Tribes singer whose work reflects the deeply-felt religious sentiments of that orthodox Rastafarian movement. Like -in

Deep Roots music, Rastafari Liveth (Braggs' second LP) benefits from repeated listening. Jayrem also plans to release his latest work, Rise and Shine. Eric Donaldson is best remembered for the original 'Cherry Oh Baby', a much-covered standard, most recently by ÜB4O. That song won Donaldson a talent quest at a very tender age. While he's never repeated that success, Traffic Jam shows a consistent songwriter in the hands of a capable producer (Duke Reid). Donaldson still sounds like a teenager at heart (and in voice).

The Melodians are another onehit wonder, 'The Rovers of Babylon' also achieving standard status. Founder member Brent Dowe split for a solo career in 1973, after the mental breakdown of the group's lead singer, Tony Brevett. The original trio, completed by harmony singer Trevor McNaughton, reunited last year to make Irie Feeling and looks back on form.

Eek-A-Mouse, the great beanpole DJ with the chiming toasting style, is the best-known figure in this bunch, for his classic 'Wa Do Dem'. It is said that if you’ve got one Eek-A-Mouse album, you’ve got them all. Assassinator is certainly typical fare, lots of idiosyncratic mouth music over Radies nddim, ranting against the gunmen and sundry other villains.

Christmas albums can either be godawful or turn into collectors’

items. It’s rather incongruous hearing Jamaican artists, especially Rastas, singing songs associated with a Western Christian festival. Yet the result is often beau- | tiful. Try June Lodge's 'Joy to the ' World’, Freddie McGregor’s ‘0 Come All Ye Faithful'and Michigan | and Smiley’s 'Little Drummer Boy; The simple melodies and sentiments of these timeless songs take on new life. To wrap it up, Eek-A-Mouse whips out his own version of ‘The Night Before Christmas', which you must hear to i believe. * I

Duncan Campbell

The Scientists Heading For A Trauma Atom Bomb Baby Au-Go-Go Rummage through the trash bin and you'd pick out the Scientists as the rotten apples mouldering at the bottom of the barrel, all bad and fuzzy and, despite signs of taste, a mite indigestible.

If you're talkin’ dirty-arse the Scientists' supply of Purex has long disappeared down the drain, but cos they're little more than revved-up revivalists y'can see these Scientists ain't inventing nothing. Their form of wiggy pop running through the singles compilation Heading For A Trauma smacks (as it were) of stooge-like minimalism real mean 'n' miserly with nary a chord to spare. Mainman Kim Salmon sings of all things rock ’n’ roll, steals a lot of it too, and drops stylistic and musical references throughout the record as freely as French bombs. The 13th Floor Elevators get a name check on the previously unreleased ‘Fire Escape', while the band prove being obvious is nowhere near their major concern by including covers of Alan Vega's 'Raver' and John Fogerty's ‘The Wall'.

'lt Came From Out Of the Sky’, another Creedence number, drops onto Atom Bomb Baby, an album released this year that’s currently at the centre of a mucky bout of mud slinging between the Scientists and their Melbourne-based label Au-Go-Go. Seems the company nicked the masters of what was to have been the band’s debut album and then mixed and released them without the Scientists' consent. The group have since disowned the recording, describing it as “some bastardisation of the real thing". Ah well, it's much of the same really, and of course it isn’t the "real thing”. Still, I suppose the Scientists are a shade more convincing than Hoodoo Gurus, but, really, what kind of recommendation is that ?

Shayne Carter