Shake Summation

Rip It Up, Issue 103, 1 February 1986, Page 4

Shake Summation

Bird Nest Roys Whack It All Down (Flying Nun) To hold in your hand and look at, this record has all the exuberance youd expect from BNRs — colourful cover, silly name, a million thankyous on the back ... unfortunately the record itself doesn't measure up as well. There's nothing at all wrong with the five songs, but somewhere between the studio and vinyl they've blanded out something wicked. It's all a bit clean and polite and unbrash — ‘Ain't Mutating, being the sweetest song anyway, suffers the most, and ‘Cresta’ gets through the best because of that glorious guitar lick. Considerable volume helps, particularly on side two — but it just ain't the band. Able Tasmans The Tired Sun (Flying Nun) The Able Tasmans went in and made a record — explored their songs and played around with 'em. And it's good — particularly the opening song ‘Patrick’s Mother’ and the wild, Gun Clubby ‘Tom Song. The most ambitious song, ‘Snow White Chook’ doesn’t work quite as well as it might, but its minor shortcomings are scooped up and tossed away by the (very) mini-anthem ‘Nelson the Cat’ It's all helped out by a bright, bold, bumpy production. Yep. .

Russell Brown