Records

Rip It Up, Issue 119, 1 June 1987, Page 28

Records

Nick Swan Cry Murder Ode Rebel music to be sure. This man belongs to the landscape of the Irish uprisings where right and wrong don’t exist no more and good and bad mean one and the same. Excellent musicians support Nick Swan as he sings about the war in between. Neil Duncan and Ross Burge, stalwarts of the Wellington music scene for a long time, now join forces with Martin Walsh and Vincent Burke to guide the listener through war torn lands, as songs from traditional to covers explore issues from both the wider political context to the neighbourhood and home. Check out ‘Set Me Free’ and ‘The Well Below the Valley.’ - • - . The album is sparse. It doesn’t waste time with sweetening the tone. And so it shouldn’t, the message comes through loud and clear. Pain and suffering. You can sense the grimness of the brick and mortar, silent eyes and ears to

the war and its brethren, hear the boots march across the cobbles, and the voices in whispers sing, ‘‘Cry murder, my son Patrick dead in Belfast ’69.” Definitely not for the squeamish. However the simple acoustics and sensitive backings will disarm you — the beautiful lyricism of the Irish voice captured so readily here will take you into the Northern Ireland reality — the reality for some is a fight that will never cease and blood that won’t stop running in the fields or the streets. The pathos of Irish luck. Tim Byrne John Wetton and Phil Manzanera Wetton/Manzanera Geffen Ex-Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera and bassist John Wetton have worked together before. Wetton played bass for Roxy’s live album Viva and shared credits with Manzanera on Bryan Ferry’s Let’s Stick Together and In Your Mind — collaborations a lot more rewarding than this collection of AOR rock ballads. At first I thought the original tricky-dick guitarist would get away with the collaboration but Manzanera is shunted behind the

drum kit and Wetton’s loud vocals. Wetton’s abilities sound ordinary at best — why has Manzanera settled for such a dull back seat? It could be smart thinking, seeing as AOR has made such a big comeback (altogether: “hooray”), both here and in the US.

Manzanera fans can spend their money more wisely. Try his recent Primitive Gardens and a very capable compilation of his solo albums named Guitarissimo. The latter, unfortunately, is a CD-only release. Along with Eno’s Thursday Afternoon and Harold Budd’s Pavilion of Dreams, Guitarissimo almost makes the purchase of a CD player worthwhile. Chad Taylor Delbert McClinton Honky Tonkin’ (I Done Me Some) Ode The title of this collection is an understatement, ol’ Delbert having played in honky tonks and dancehalls for nearly three decades now. The music of this perrenial journeyman is a distinctive mixture of country and R&B, utilising fiddle, steel guitar and a four-piece horn section. He also possesses a classic southern lived-in voice.

This set represents his personal picks from his first two ABC al-

bums, Victim of Life's Circumstances and Genuine Cowhide, and a fine piece of drinking accompaniment it is too. About half the songs are Delbert originals, and they prove him to be a capable (if a little one-dimensional) writer, ‘Two More Bottles of Wine’ being my personal favourite. Still, anyone with a song entitled Tm Dying as Fast as I Can’ must have something going for him. This record is unlikely to astonish anyone with innovation or intrigue, but it is nonetheless music with heart, warmth, and above all, spirit. Mark Kennedy Basia

Time and Tide (Portrait) The only soft spot I ever had for Matt Bianco was my living room carpet but this debut solo album from ex-Bianco vocalist Basia is amicable in the extreme. It still abounds with sambasand Biancostyle weaknesses but if you shut your eyes to a wistful piece like ‘Promises,’ the title tack of ‘How Dare You' easily wins your admiration, mostly due to Basia’s breezy singing. After you start liking it, there’s not a lot to talk about; like Sade, she’s covering the stylistic points with a minimum of fuss and bother. Time and Tide is clean as

a whistle, very quick, very stylish. The smoothness isn’t lack of depth so much as good tailoring. And she wears it well. CT Robert Cray Band Who’s Been Talking (Atlantic) Robert Cray first met his current producers — and frequent songwriting partners — in 1978 when they signed him to their Tomato label. Two years later the label went bankrupt, only months after releasing Who’s Been Talking. Now, thanks to Cray’s current popularity, the album has been dug out, digitally remastered and supplied with an informative and updated inner sleeve. The most obvious difference from his current work is that the music is more strictly in a blues idiom. Indeed half the 10 tracks are covers normally associated with the likes of Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon. Nonetheless Cray performs with customary skill and assurance, and at least two or three of the original numbers are well up to present expectations. All in all a fine blues album, with much more than historical interest to recommend it. PT Painters & Dockers Bucket (Doc)

Live rock and roll with crass jokes, the Members At the Chelsea Nightclub but with the added “bonus” of being Australian.

Comes complete with mock barfs, a cover done in gruesome bad taste, and a horn section that, given the “live” sound and ensuing torrid mix, doesn’t do a halfbad job when it gets to drown out the shouting of vocalist Paul Stewart. P&D would be a great time in the flesh I’m sure, but it doesn’t translate that well to vinyl. Reduced to the lowest common denominator, ‘Kill Kill Kill’ sounds like just another ripoff of the ‘Taxman’ riff, the Lybian terrorist jokes fell flat in our house, and so on. Maybe by now they’ve got some “good” Fijian cannibal politician jokes. Available through Ima Hitt and selected retail stores. PM Chad’s Tree Buckle in the Rail (Nude/Jayrem) And you thought the Smiths were a maudlin bunch... Australia’s Chad’s Tree are led by Mark Snarski, creator of much in the way of “poetic” words (witness a lyric sheet entitled “Words for singing by M Snarski” that turns all the lyrics into one poem ...) but unfortunately incapable of singing them well enough or setting them to anything remotely resembling a nifty tune. Left dull and pretentious, Chad’s Tree need a hefty dose of vitality and a cut in Cohenisms. PM

Various Artists Sounds of Soweto EMI Various Artists Soweto Street Music, Vols 1 & 2 Avanguard/Ode Hugh Masekela Tomorrow WEA Following fast on the heels of the runaway success of Paul Simon’s Gracelands, EMI has locally released the double album set Sounds of Soweto. Whether you regard Simon a benevolent publicist for African music or a pop

singer only interested in reviving his flagging career, there’s no confusion about the motives behind the release of this record. Soweto would be dull indeed were this an accurate document of its music. Ten artists with 16 tracks between them; a collection of vapid pop music performed with synthesisers and drum machines and sung, for the most part, in English. Little remains of any African content in this homogenous mix save perfunctory lyrical references to freedom, unity and peace.

By whose claim, then, is this the sound of Soweto? South Africa’s pop charts reflect a taste for

American soul and disco and it’s an influence evident in the songs on this album. Many of the artist here — Brenda and the Big Dudes, the Winners among them — regularly appear in the charts. But South Africa's pop stars aren’t representative of Soweto’s music. There’s not an indigenous rhythm within earshot of this album, certainly none of the popular urban music — mabaquanga and Zulu “jive” — which is surely the real sound of Soweto.

Zulu jive (or Zulu “disco”) is the pop music of the Bantustans: its driving 4/4 rhythm and bass-heavy beat make it distinct from all other African music. It is similar only to

other Zulu styles (notably mabaquanga and the gospel-style acapella music — isicathamoya — of Ladysmith Black Mambazo) whose elements it incorporates. Soweto Street Music was released in England in late 1984 as a double album, selling for the price of a single album. Now it is available as an Australian import in its post-Gracelands incarnation — two albums, two volumes. And, like the original, not a word of information about the music or the artists.

Definitive it isn’t but Soweto Street Music, volumes one and two, is still worth its price. There’s a variety of styles here, from a raw

rural sound typified by Uthawolfu Amentkentshane and Zuleliphezulu (accordions and fiddles against that insistent Zulu beat) to the punchy and polished Zulu jive of Super Tens, the Editions and the Special Five. If you want to hear more of this music there’s a number of good releases on the Earthworks label (London) and Shanachie Records in the States. I can particularly recommend the Earthworks compilations Zulu Jive: Urban and Rural Zulu Beats from South Africa and Zulu Jive Volume Two: the Indestructible Beat of Soweto (also on Shanachie), along with records by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the Mahotella Queens (four jive-singing females backed by the Makgona Tshohle Band) and Kati Eliclean Namanono (Amalabi, on Earthworks). If you’re looking for further adventures try to track down a copy of He O Oe Oe! by Puseletso Seema and Tau Ea Linare (Globestyle Records, London). Bass and drum are rock hard and solid, and they meet in head-on collision with accordions, wild singing and long shrill whistles; this is Sotho pop music from the small country of Lesotho, isolated and landlocked within South Africa, and the whistles are cattle calls. Hugh Masekela is a South Afri-

can exile who has been living in the States for many ears. He had a string of pop hits in the 60s, appeared in the film Monterey Pop and re-surfaced with the very successful Techno-Bush LP in 1984. Techno-Bush was recorded in location in Botswana in the heart of the African bush and Masekela was backed by the band Kalahari. Tomorrow continues this collaboration in more convenient surroundings, Trident studios in London. Masekela’s music is that of the rootless exile, a detached romantic view of his African homeland that finds favour with displaced and would-be Africans, black and white. As can be heard on this record, he’s an excellent trumpet player but he can make little headway against the melange of musical style served here; a formulated muzak that cannot avoid sounding contrived and soulless. If you’re an initiate to the music of the African continent don’t let the obstacles deter you from further investigation. The best African music is varied, vibrant and exciting; it has survived, flourished even, despite decades of colonial repression. In its many different styles there is life and spirit, qualities lacking in the majority of contemporary western music.

Jeremy Tempter