Records

Rip It Up, Issue 101, 1 December 1985, Page 24

Records

Simple Minds Once Upon A Time Virgin In the record business it's customary for hit singles to be either lifted from albums or to appear on the said Long Player in order to boost sales. 'Don't You (Forget About Me)’, Simple Minds' first American chart success, won't make LP status: "It’s not good enough. It's a good stylish pop song but I think there's a bigger heartbeat to our own songs.”

That quote is vintage Jim Kerr in its total belief in the band. Simple Minds have long been committed to what can only be described as "big" music full of powerful sentiments, relentless rhythms and a weakness for overstatement as a reaction to pessimism and complacency. That weakness reached a head on the stadium exagerrations of Sparkle in the Rain, an album which, in retrospect, failed to capitalise on the melodic compassion and subtleties of A lew Gold

Dream. Two years on and Once Upon A Time tries to redress that balance. Producers Jimmy lovine (from Tom Petty to Springsteen) and Bob Clearmountain (Hall and Oates) have added that little bit of texture that Lillywhite's production couldn't quite achieve. And new bassist John Giblin (ex Peter Gabriel) and a backing vocal lineup that includes the Simms Brothers (Let's Dance), Carlos Alomar and Robin Clark have added soul touches that the band has often needed.

Talking songs and the album has depth not variety. The title t[ack, 'Alive and Kicking' and 'Sanctify Yourself echo with grandeur but they have the tunes to save them. 'Oh Jungleland' and 'Ghost Dancing’ are a mite more impatient, taking their cue from Bono's impetuosity and restless aggression. But the best has to be 'All the Things She Said', 'Come A Long Way’ and the peerless ‘I Wish You Were Here', where the band

mix delicacy with danger. Jim Kerr has already been telling the press that this is "the album we've been dreaming about for four years” and that the band has "dropped the kind of preciousness we once had." No arguments,

Once Upon A Time is a strong and consistent album by any standards, but the ghost of New Gold Dream still lingers with (lost?) opportunities. George Kay

The Fall This Nation’s Saving Grace Beggar's Banquet. England's saving grace? The cover depicts grey streets and inner city towerblocks, while above a white chariot charges across the clouds. The Fall? The E. Smiths come to save the nation? I couldn't think of a better team to do the job

The Fall are a band inspiring simple gut reactions you love 'em or you hate 'em. This Nation's Saving Grace is pretty damn lovable, more complete and better than The Wonderful and Frightening World 0f... A rougher sound is evident, even though John Leckie is still producing. Especially rougher on Side two where Smith lends a helping hand at the controls tape hiss 'n' all!

This Nation's Saving Grace (subtitles: 'Schtick Yarbles Revisited': 'Castle ls.Nkroached) begins and ends with the same short tune, Brix E. Smith's ‘Mansion’, which becomes 'To Nkroachment: Yarbles’ at the end with vocals added.

The best tracks on the respective sides are ‘Spoilt Victorian Child’ and ‘I Am Damo Suzuki! The Fall retain their talent for writing their best songs around a simple R&B riff. ‘What You Need' contains a mass chorus in the vein of 'Eat Y'self Fitter’, but 'LA' ain't such a killer (it's the only weak song) Mark E.“LL.L.A.A.A."s Brix E. “freak-me-out"s while a sequencer provides the tune ... hmm.

Lyrically: Clockwork Orange (natch), unintelligible northern gibberish (ditto), disparaging remarks about the Kane Gang, along with domestic observations "my new house ... is a beatnik hangout”, “yesterday we had liver and sausage" and “then I found out we were not going to Italy." The last line refers to the Fall’s planned trip to Turin, cancelled the day before the British tragedy ('Kicker Conspiracy’ continuation?). Then: "We are a COOL group!" shouts Mark E. Smith. They are, and this is the coolest English reckid of the year, by far. Paul McKessar

Cabaret Voltaire The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of the Lord Some Bizarre/Virgin Cabaret Voltaire began circa 1978; bleak, industrial and loud. Live At the YMCA and Do the Mussolini were confrontational in the extreme, blaringly simple note sequences and drumming that ground the audience down. They were exciting, innovative and fundamental to anyone's conceptions of the progress(?) of modern pop music, and it seemed unlikely they would last out the year. To anyone thrilled by the band’s central members, Kirk and Mallinder, in 1977/78, therefore, it’s quite breathtaking to still be thrilled by them today. The Covenant... the latest album in a huge line of singles, tapes, EPs and double-12" releases, is conclusive, precise, tortured and dazzling: it sums up everything that they have done and pushes their musical possibilities and skills into new areas. It’s hummable, accessible, danceable (comparisons with the new Nile Rodgers album are not exaggerations) and yet exactly the same electric-eclectic paranoia that renders their pop rivals trivial and contrived.

Side one picks up where the 12" mix of 'Yashar' left off; whimsical and sexy tape-looping over furious backbeats. Stephen Mallinder confines himself to bass and vocals and leaves everything else up to Richard Kirk, whose solo efforts have been consistently melodic this role separation seems the most likely reason for

their newfound appeal to more mainstream ears. The paradox of such ugly themes alongside sultry funk is as disarming as it is successful. There is no hint of the pop-band-with-a-guilty-conscience syndrome that plagues 90 per cent of’political” musical efforts. Side two is more personal, still with those slick bass-lines. The thinness of Micro-Phonies is absent; everything on this record is thick and considered, rich in allusion and packed with protein. Mallinder sweats and Kirk plots, with the result of their best recording since 2x45 and its later remixes. Album of the year. Chad Taylor Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble Soul To Soul Epic It’s a fact that Stevie Ray Vaughan lives just below the main air route in Austin, Texas. For a punk, an inspirational location imagine the ideas you could nick from plugging into the surge of the big jets. For Stevie Ray Vaughan it's home of a family blues revival that includes his brother’s band, the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

With two nicely judged shots of R&B and blues already under the stetson, Vaughan and Double Trouble have tried to broaden their horizons on Soul To Soul with the addition of Reese Wynams on keyboards and Joe Sublett on sax. They give the band that extra dimension, especially on instrumentals like 'Say What l ' and 'Gone Home! But it’s the Stevie Ray Vaughan show and that means the usual balance of shitkickin’ R&B ('Lookin' Out the Window’, 'Look At Little Sister' and 'Change If), slow-pickin’ blues ('Ain’t Gone 'n' Give Up On Love) and tributes to Hendrix ('Say What!). Although there’s nothing here that can touch the sublime 'Dirty Pool', Soul To Soul is probably the most dependable and consistent album that Vaughan and Double Trouble have so far produced. George Kay

ÜB4O Baggariddim DEP International May we start by saying that ‘I Got You Babe’ has to be the most boring Number One single of 1985? We may? Thank you. Once you get past the extended version on the EP in this two-record set, you're into some pretty interesting territory. Even 'Don’t Break My Heart’, a pedestrian Ali Campbell love-moan, is better than Chrissie Whine. ‘Mi Spliff', on the flip, is another Astro speedster which is probably a live killer. The LP consists of versions, ie: remixes of songs already recorded. In this case they're from the Geffrey Morgan LP and most of them are 'lf It Happens Again! The spritely rhythm track is stripped down to the bones and various guest DJs are invited to do their stuff over the top. The guests include Pato Banton (famous for this year's best electrobeat hit Alio Tosh), Tony Tribe, Gunslinger, Dillinger and Admiral Jerry. How much you enjoy this collection depends on how quickly you get bored by hearing the same track remixed, time after time. Rehashing rhythms is common enough in reggae: whole LPs based on a single track have been released in this fashion.

Baggariddim would have to be classed as an acquired taste. But that shouldn’t put you off sampling, all the same.

Duncan Campbell