albums

Rip It Up, Issue 168, 1 July 1991, Page 28

albums

FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM Earth Inferno (Beggars Banquet) Fields of the Nephilim are perhaps the only "gothic" band to have outlived that restrictive label, building a monumental reputation worldwide for the epic quality of their live performances and sheer hard work. This record is a document to those qualities, capturing the power of the "Neph in both Britain and Hamburg during their 1 990 tour. All the classic tracks are here, from 'Dawnrazor' to the anthemic 'Moonchild', spanning their very prolific vinyl career, especially in the 1 2" department. The atmoshphere of this record in particular is heightened by the ambiguous but nevertheless stunning artwgrk. It adds forcibly to the Aztec image running throughout the package. The 'Nephilim are proof to the fact that you can obtain longevity through dedication to your music. Their long and hopefully continuing career is an excellent reference point for all young and aspirinq qroups. LUKE CASEY L 7 Smell The Magic (Sub-Pop) (Flying In) First heard this blaring in Real Groovy and was instantly transfixed, the singer sounded like some kind of male banshee screeching "get out of my way or I might shove" but then I found out it was a song by all-gurl group L 7 offa this EP Smell The Magic, i the best thing to come out of Sub-Pop since Mudhoney spawned 'Revolution'. Nasty vocals, rugged guitar, ugly sentimements, guitars that groan and grind all over the place, six mayhemic tracks, every one a smack in the face for dead "rock" babies: the swagger and sneer of 'Shove' ("some guy just pinched my ass/drunken bums ain't got no class!"), 'Fast And Frightening' (which sounds like it says and whoever's singing it rolls her rm's just like Johnny Rotten), 'Right On Thru', Til The Wheels Fall Off', 'Deathwish' and 'Broomstick'. You guys have got your dicks but these gurlz ride a stick. Record of the month, no contest. DONNA YUZWALK KRAFTWERK The Mix (EMI) ; Hypnotic, moving and deeply; sexual, Kraftwerk's 15-odd years of music making run like an autobahnthrough modern music, an unswerving line of common sense and perfection. Its four members have always lived and worked in the present - the fundamental difference between the group and its many dated imitators. The real Kraftwerk keeps on going, 'Music Non Stop', and the interesting thing is the trademark sound never lasts longer than an album. Electric Cafe bore digital hip-hop influences,

Autobahn wheezes antique analogue pleasures. Computer World is breezy. and light, Man Machine is quaintly . unhip and clunky. They grow like a family and release albums only when the fruit is ripe, little collages of emotion and discovery inspired by when they were made, not by what people expected to hear. • The Mix represents the band's . history in 11 well-chosen tracks, although the popular 1982 single Tour De France' is notably absent. The old stage robots adorn the cover and the CD format seems appropriate. Note also the total lack of technical information; a stark contrast to more . "traditional" musicians who spend a slick and a half detailing superstitious lists of recording studios, backing musicians and remix details as if to convince the purchaser that whatever's lacking in life has somehow been made up for by hard labour. While the music industry hums its way into the next century with sentimental re-hashes of music forms long dead, Kraftwerk detail the Now. The Mix shows them as they are: pure and simple, uncluttered and direct, sophisticated and humourous. Or, as Afrika Bambaataa put it, this is some weird shit. Whichever you prefer. CHAD TAYLOR MARY'S DANISH ./y ' Experience (Festival) Recorded live at the Ventura Theatre, LA's Mary's Danish, whose debut LP Here Come's The Wondertruck didn't seem to stop too many people in its tracks last year. They're the band with the joint female vocalists and the guitarist who co-wrote the Bangles hit Walking Down Your Street'. They play funked up rock with brass and 'balls'. Here they rip through most of the songs off the album with only two new tracks, Tracy In The Bathroom' and a nifty version of 'Foxy Lady'. The production is seamless, the vocals are brash and busy if somewhat abrasive, the energy level is cranked up to the max all the way through. This can be exhausting, but if you like your southern Californian rock hectic, "right-on" and bristling with youthful exuberance, here's your J platter. DONNA YUZWALK ■ , ' QUEENSRYCHE Empire (EMI) From their beginnings in the early eighties Queenryche have developed a sound from something like Judas Priest up to Empire, being closer to the feel of Rush. Perhaps that's understandable since they used Rush's usual studio and producer to make it and the result is their most polished album to date.

What this band have going for them is an approach to lyrics that is not cliched, dealing with subjects like corruption within world officialdom. Previous album Operation Mind Crime dealt with this in a heavy "aural movie" way while Empire is a more

personalised outlook of today's tough realities for the man in the street. 'Silent Lucidity' is the much air played ballad and very nice it is too, whereas 'Jet City Woman' is the best of the more vigourous songs. Geoff Tate's vocals don't vary much, so over an hour gets a bit much but why not give Empire a good listen and see what you think. GEOFF DUNN JAMES Gold Mother (Fontana) INSPIRAL CARPETS The Beast Inside (Liberation) NED'S ATOMIC DUSTBIN God Fodder (Furtive) This is where we evaluate three of the better habits to emerge from post-Smith's England. James pre-date the main Manchester hysteria by a good few years when back then they were tinkerering around, with cottage music. Rickety and folkish they gradually evolved intto one of England's better fully fledged intellectual rock n'roll bands. Gold Mothe is their best so far. Released last year in all forms this re-issued CD unfortunately deletes the haunting 'Crescendo' for 'Love Control' and 'Hang On' is moved aside for the insanely catchy 'Sit Down', the single ■which put them on the map. But the core of the original Gold Mother remains untouched. 'Government Walls' is stirring stuff, 'Come Home' is tense and overwrought with the sexpop of 'How Was It For You' chiming in with (lighter relief. James are the nineties Gang of Four, that's all the recommendation you should need. Inspiral Carpets often sound like they discovered Teardrop Explodes, found they were an eighties band and decided to pickpocket the sixties Farfisa heroes instead. They're the archetypal retro band yet their ; scatterbrained first album crackled with energy and had 'She Comes In The Fall' as a genuinely great song. The Beast Inside is much more cohesive and with its denser, sludgier textures it suggests deeper minds at work. The single 'Caravan' is a bad start as it's just'd stiff Weakness' and although 'Please Be Cruel' hardly „ excites the first side definitely comes alive with 'Born Yesterday' and slides out with music and style on the title track. The ethereal, shimmering 'Niagra' is the best thing here but the quality of the second side stands or falls with the lengthy 'Further Away' and Graham Lambert's infectious guitar line gives the song the thread it needs to be cohesive.

The Beast Inside is a brave attempt by the Carpets to implant some unified and profound ideas of their own into their influences. Not an unreserved success but an admirable effort, old chaps.

Escaping from the west Midlands — Oldbury to be exact — Ned's Atomic Dustbin have a already carved their name with the classic third generation

punk anthem 'Kill Your Televsion', a magnificent sentiment set alight by a focused headbanging guitar assault from Rat. It opens NAD's first album God Fodder and sets a Ramones/Buzzcocks/Undertones manifesto of guitars as Buzzcocks. Pitted against two bassists, Rat and Dan Dan the drummer, John the singer doesn't try to compete. His calm, unruffled vocals carry the melody line while the band go ape beneath him. After 'Kill Your Television' there's a barrage of fine songs in 'Less Than Useful', 'Selfish' and 'Grey Cell Green'. Real lacerations occur on 'Until You Find Out' and 'What Gives My Son' hurtles into the generation gap. Ned's Atomic Dustbin are wonderful high grade fresh garbage of the sort that you felt was left to rot at the Roxy in '79. But they're not nihilists. John sounds too intelligent and civilised for . that. Whatever way you approach it, God Fodder spells fun. GEORGE KAY LAMONT DOZIER Inside Seduction (Atlantic) Lamont along with the two Holland boys wrote and produced some classic Motown, dug deep into the Southern funk with the Hot Wax period, and did a few solid albums in the seventies. Shame that the nineties finds Lamont lost in the mire of MOR production and hanging around with Phil Collins, who 'helps' Lamont with this work. Lamont croons his way through some very schlock filled tracks, like 'Pure Heaven' where he wants to "get into your bedroom eyes" and comments philosophically that The Quiet's Too Loud', but then again, we can't blame him too much there, since Phil Collins wrote that one. The only things I liked were the beginning of 'I Wanna Hold You Forever' and the big soul ballad, 'Love In The Rain'. Let's hope that the rest of the decade will be better for Mr Dozier. KERRY BUCHANAN - ' SCHOOL OFFISH School of Fish (Capitol) School of Fish seemed worth a listen ' mainly because of a connection with cult hipsters Francis X and the Bushmen (and a great kid smashing a guitar . cover) and things have changed a bit. School of Fish have somewhat mellowed the Bushmen's aural assault, the distortion pedal still gets a workout here but in a much more polite manner. There's all these insidious sixties styled harmonies creeping in here too, the sort of thing that goes well with the sort of angst-ridden lyrics these guys come out with. It's the whole sugar-coated bitter pill deal. It's all quite pleasant and listenable too, if not exactly challenging. School of Fish sort of makes me think of Crowded House fuzzing out a bit, or one of those 80s/60s outifts like Pylon aiming for the charts. If you like your pop melodic, sort of anthemic and with a touch of harsheness, then this one's for you. KIRK GEE