SINGLES
LONGPIGS: Lost Myself (Mother)
An epic mid-pacer, "Lost Myself" is the opening track from Longpigs' occasionally overblown debut "The Sun Is Often Out". Although not as immediate as preceding singles "Far"' and "She Said", "Lost Myself" works as an exercise in dynamics for falsetto vocals, strings and a big,slightly sardonic guitar outro. In such a setting, though, singer Crispin Hunt's pretence to vulnerability seems a little unconvincing.
Second track on the CD single, "Floss" is more emotionally persuasive with affecting vocal and intimate guitar fills. Combining trippy acoustic strumming and a psychedelic rap over a "Cold Turkey" guitar figure to rant at the soma of everyday life, "The Wonder Drug" is an inventive diversion while "When You're Alone" is what used to be described by pop hacks as a "live-in-the-studio rave-up" and a good excuse for Richard Hawley to let fly with some twisted punk axe-grinding.
OCEAN COLOUR SCENE: Riverboat Song e.p. (MCA)
"Riverboat Song", "The Day We Caught The Train" and "The Circle" lugubriously regurgitate a catalogue of hoary influences drawn from vintage vinyl in seedburned sleeves. "You Got It Bad" got it real bad in the lyric department. (Sample couplet: "If I brought you flowers would you watch them grow?") Given the choice between watching flowers grow and enduring the Scenesters, I'd stare at daisies every time. Meantime
COMPULSION: Question Time For The Proles (One Little Indian)
Leaden studenty title notwithstanding, the "Question Time For The Proles" ep gets better as it gets weirder, Top track "Drop" kicks Kinksy crooning through a grumpy rasp to a lilting chorus. The outro sports backwards noises and an effect like a sonar reading from a psychedelic submarine.
TONIC: Tonic e.p. (Flotsam & Jetsam)
As the first line of the first number, "Window Shopping" puts it "Again and again it's the same old story..."This poorly-recorded track is encumbered by unnecessary time/tempo changes while "Cry" would be utterly devoid of inspiration were it not for a plaintive guitar drone letting in some light and shade. "The Siren Song" is plain boring and "Lover's Leap" gives the game away again: "I must confess that more or less I'm the same as everyone." You said it, pal. Meantime
DONE LYING DOWN: So You Drive (Immaterial)
On the barbed shout of "I don't really like the way it makes me feel" abrasiev power chords flash in from all directions. Given a gleaming production, DLD revel in a blend of hyper-attitudinal Stateside drawl, taut springy rhythm and a dynamic grasp of sliding octaves. Meantime
SUPER DELUXE: She Came On (Luminous)
"She Came On" is a piece of pop fluff from a pocket full of nothing. Super Deluxe are Seattle's answer to Crowded House, complete with clumsy couplets such as, "Despite the flight of intellect, instinct will rule"> Amidst this meaninglessness, Supertramp's "Give A Little Bit" is a logical song for Super Deluxe to cover, fiddly guitar solo included. Meantime
DHARMAS: 3 Miles High (Rhythm King)
"A funky psychedelic indie six piece from Hastings". The press release just about says it all. Let me add that this CD is encased in a Marillion-lookalike sleeve and ploughs through a good-timey mix of acoustic guitars, sprightly fiddles, falsetto vocals, Hammond organ and an obligatory solo number from songwriter Simon Steadman. And there'a bloke called Dom on bongos. Their last single reached no. 7 in th eindie charts. The Dharmas are a mega-gigging, Glastonbury-playing apparition from jolly indie hell. Meantime
TROUT: Three Wise Men e.p. (Bosque/Rock Action)
Trout specialise in a back-to-basics dementia, surging and nagging in angular fashion behind vocalist Willie Rogan who sings like Peter Lorre cast as a Greek Bond villain (from New Delhi).
"Skunkrap" is an off-the-wall ranter while U.F.O.'s insistant riff and defiantly stupid lyrics emerged, we are told, during a gig. Adding the hangover psychosis of "livin' In An Oven" and "plasma"'s spatan strung-out surf, this e.p. is a clockwork orange injected with psychedelic snake oil. Love 'em or loathe 'em, Trout bring out the klutz in you. Meantime
SLINGBACKS: All Pop No Star (Virgin)
Someone's been doing their homework. Produced by Mitch Easter, All Pop No Star is a romping glam stomper which also helps itself to the melody line from Sheena Is A Punk Rocker and the keychange from th Buzzcocks' "I Don't Mind". The overall effect is that of Courtney Love fronting The Glitter Band, singer Shireen snarling; "This should have been your ride to riches, instead of detox wards and stitches."
While I'd have loved Slingbacks to be Glam 4 Real, the other tracks (a cover of the Beatles' "Two Of Us" and two acoustic numbers) offer rather more restrained samples of this US/UK trio's stroppy powerpop. Fair enough - just don't pawn the fuzz pedal.Meantime
IMPERIAL TEEN: You're One (Slash/London)
Roddy Bottum sings, plays guitar, occasionally drums with Imperial Teen. Its easy to forget his other occupation as keyboard player of Faith No More. as Imperial Teen hold their own as a college radiofriendly fuzz-pop band. Debut long-player "Seasick" is awash with girl-sung choruses, upbeat homoeroticism and snappy couplets barbed with the detritus from what Bottum refers to as "an extremely nasty time". First single "You're One" quotes from Kurt Cobain's suicide note but musically is as far removed from FNM as you can get. Like the Lemonheads at their best, Imperial Teen effortlessly combine dark drug fall-out with breezy pop. Pretty irresistible. Meantime
SPACEHOPPER: Mars Bonding/ SECRET GOLDFISH: Venus Bonding (Creeping Bent)Spacehopper bond in three movement. Opening: military drumming and pulsing E-strings. Middle: the now departed Sarah's whispered vocal amid wchoing sliding guitars. Ending: the intro ventures back for a swift conclusing kicking,
The Secret Goldfish present an irritating fuzzed-up Claire Grogan vocal over a blatant "I Fought The Law" rip-off. Meantime
FUZZBIRD: Change It/ Famous Babblington Baby (FR Records)Though not much of a song, Change It's warped guitars parade quite handsomely for three minutes pus. The acoustic-driven "Famous Babblington Bab"y is rescued from the brink of boredom by rolling bass, off-kilter keyboards and quick, somebody call the fuzz (pedal). dislocated, disturbed riffs.Meantime
60FT DOLLS: Happy Shopper (Indolent)This is Mott The Hoople updated to 1977. Richard Parfitt's "Ian Hunter rasp" and grasp of lad-glam is well to the fore: "Julie - she's a man". This blatant hero-emulation kicks with a little more spark than the bulk of The Big 3, the Dolls' debut l.p. where, despite the occasional quality track (Loser), songs such as "Talk To Me", "Stay", "The One" and "Good Times" 9"Let The Good Times Roll") lapse too often into the plain platitudes their white-bread titles suggest.Meantime
SOLAR RACE: Resilient Little Muscle (Silvertone)
A blatant rip-off of "Androgynous Mind" by Sonic Youth, this even has feedback and sonic stuff sprayed behind the impressive lung power of siger Eildh Bradley. Third track "Like Cow" is a hissy, distorted, drum-machine driven guitar fest, with skewed "Ooohs" and an out-of-it Pinky and Perky element. I assume the resileint little muscle is in her larynx, or refers to a cock or a clit.Meantime
PILLBOX: Invasion (What Really Turns You On?) (X-Ray)
What really turns Pillbox on is to be to Hole what Bush are to Nirvana. "Invasion" (in both standard and "dirty" versions), "Don't Call Me Babe" and "The Most" are tuneful girl-grunge trying a little too hard for lyrical shock value. Singer Susan Hyatt.Meantime
MANSUN: Take It Easy Chicken (Parlophone)
It's a stupid title, but not as bad as "Drastic Surgeon" (2nd track on this e.p.) "Chicken" lunges from Casio VL Tone beeps to big anonymous hackneyed riffs and snarling Britvox. Nest track "Moronica" still succumbs to empty Terrorvisionisms.Meantime
MAIL RAIN: Forecast For Storms (3rd Stone)
Officially confirmed as the longest ever single, this 76 minute "Organic Techno" fest from Mali Rain consists of elevem "b-sides" following the 5 minute 33 second title track. Throughout, one is reminded of those bland, burbling "relaxation tapes". Two tracks are especially irksome. "Aztec Gold" veers into world muzak territory while the artlessly-titled "Optimist Castle" (well, it might sound good if it were a Fall track) noodles around an ineffectual vocal. For those of us who're not chillin'-out E-heads or New Age armoatherapists, only "Sentinal" and "Pende" offer any eardrum buzz.Meantime
MOTOR LIFE CO: Be a Hero (Pendejo)
Taken as a guitar showcase, "Be A Hero" is a stop/start spiralling rockfest, dryly reminiscent of Garbage. Unfortunately, Sean Guthrie's earnest lyrics and slate grey vocal melodies go nowhere fat. The B-side is less turgid, whilst third track "Free Verse" benefits from a more memorable tune and less fussy playing.Meantime
HARDBODY: On Your Own (Sony)
Sleeved in Muji-styled chic, slightly alternative without threatening the equilibrium, Hardbod have created an undemanding audio accessory for a white-walled, wood-floored designer room. Hardbody's gliding lightness is their charm, and in terms of lasting impact, their undoing.Meantime
OLIVE: Miracle (RCA)
It's frightening what ten years in Simply Red can do to a man. While Mick Hucknall nudges Chris Evans in the irksome media redhead stakes, ex Reds keyboard player Tim Kellet now professes to be "anti-soul", whatever that means. Although those expecting a Road To J. Mascis-style conversion to hard guitar rock night be disappointed, "Miracle" features melodic, soulful (oops, Tim, ya fucked up) crooning from vocalist Ruth-Ann wafting over a melodic groove that sways pleasantly, if lightly, in the summer breeze.
Meantime
POSH: Mermaid (Jealous)
A singer called Pippa, a songwriter/keyboard playing chap called Dearlove...one doesn't need an Oxbridge degree to tell how Posh arrived at their moniker. Musically, this is quasi-contemporary fluff. Posh are to Britpop what The Motels ("Drowning In Berlin")were to Siouxsie and her crew. "Mermaid"'s "observational" lyrics aren't exactly brimming with insight: "she wants to be seen, she's a summer holiday queen." The anodyne new wave "Body Fascism" is, very plainly, obvious: "Steroid heaven in the gymnasium". Attention Anthea Turner, all game show hosts, Michael Portillo, Oprah Winfrey and Divine Brown: you, too, are easy targets and had better watch out for Posh's would-be poisoned pen.Meantime
ALBUMS
DELICATESSEN: Hustle Into Bed (Starfish)
Are Delicatessen authentically pervy or merely arty practitioners of a heavy-breathing, sweatypalmed music hall act? Their second I.p.suggests the latter. "Hustle Into Bed" is an excursion in libidinous MOR with the constant accompaniment of pastoral acoustic guitar and school music-room instrumental explorations. A fan of Nick Cave and Jeffrey Lee Pierce, mainman Neil Carlil! lacks their intensity: he's a book-lined boudoir poet with a powerful voice (on the title track he's Bolan duetting with Billy Corgan). And he swears like only a basically decent young man can. The '1" word is prevalent throughout the album, the single "Monkey Suit" boasting the line "the Clergy came & went & fucked & stayed up late." A little profanity can be refreshing, but here it seems somewhat self-conscious and overdone.
Musically, Carlill's gift for sustaining a mood is unquestionable but, while the panoramic arrangements and queasy, sliding string scores are impressive, "Hustle Into Bed" might have benefited from some variation in tempo and, dare I say it, a little less pretence.Meantime
THE FLOORS: Superbe (Dead Elvis)
This seven-track CD is a cool conglomeration featuring Lee Ranaldo, Lydia Lunch and the unheard helping hand of Kin Fowley. Masterminded by sardonic Dubliner Dave Donohue, Superbe opens with the lop-sided lament "Jesus Lived Six Years Longer Than Kurt Cobain", Nirvana chords give way to throwaway couplets such as "I am the walnut/you are the wall/ you are the Ringo/ I am the Paul" before returning to scenes of wakes in Ireland and Seattle.
La Lunch's contribution is culled from a hectoring 1986 live performance and is underscored by the controlled sonic mayhem at which Ranaldo, in particular, excels. The ferocious "Shadow Of A Gun" builds on a groove that sounds like it was stamped out one moonless midnight by some heavy industrial machinery while "Last Night I Broke Into Your Room" and "The Bee" offer repectively valeful Leonard Cohenisms and Ranaldo reading a poem by Donohue. At every crisp twist and turm, Superbe is an unexpected delight.Meantime
GOOBER PATROL: Dutch Ovens (Them's Good Records)Norwich's Goober Patrol are apparently guaranteed to put a smile on the thinnest, most sullen lips. I guess that means that everyone must love a helping of lowest-common denomenator fun-punk...
Furst track, "Hay, Hay and Thrice Hay" is Therapy?-lite complete with whacky title (Frankie Howerd-style) but minus the underto of angst (Of either Therapy? or the privately ruminating Howerd himself). Moody introspection is banished to nights in alone at the Halls Of Residence. Why, there's even a song called "paddington Bear" (which cheekily rips off Buddy Holly's "Everyday"). Appropriately enough, there are also numbers named "Don't Give Up The Day Job" and "Pxxx Off". See, these stupid wee boys may allude to captive prankster farting in the tirle of their albumcan't bring themselves to do a Patti Smith and actually print "Piss".
Surprisingly, I'm not grinning with glee to the sound of this professionally-played toy punk soundtrack for students spilling lager on their Levellers T-shirts. Bring back Dr & The Medics.Meantime
YELLOW CAR: Auto Erotica (Gift Of Life)
"Auto Erotica" recalls the "punks-who-can-play" bands signed in the wake of the Pistols. The keyword here is repetition. Repetition of the same authentic new wave clichesm such as the caterwauling backing vocals, become rather weraing over the course of fifteen songs.
Ultimately, "Auto Erotica" lacks punk's best feature: the incentive for the listener to get up and do it themselves. This ultra-tight take on punk would take most of us years to perfect. Checking out the intros to "All Over Now" and "Student Bastards", it's clear that creativity is itching in guitarist Agent Caper's fingers. It's a pity the restrictions of Yellow Car's chosen genre prevent him from exploiting his muse to the full.Meantime
HULA HOOP: The Lovelist Ring Of Saturn (Silver Girl)
Do they really want to sound like this? Despite upbeat opener Midget Love's teasing guitar work, Hula Hoop lapse almost immediately into perfunctory indie exercises, the hooklines in tracks like "X-Ray" never getting a chance to shine through. Glory by association doesn't work here, either. A song called "Tom Waits" has a spring in its step and an outro nod to The Fall ("Hey Mark, you're spoiling all the Paintwork") and "The Queen Of Gamaliel" and "The 20th Century Black Hole" have elements to recommend them, but elements are all they remain, Minimalism would be fine if less equalled more but the overall effect here is lack of inspiration. Umbrella starts well with a promising narritive and tremolo guitar but is soon rendered dull through lack of further embellishment, while "Dreamsicle '95" adds a 70s synth sound as an afterthought and the closing Raison lapses into banality. Oi, Hula Hoop: noooo!Meantime
VARIOUS: Amour (Silver Girl)
Subtitled "A Silver Girl Sampler", this compilation presents fourteen tracks from the San Diego label, just over half of them previously unreleased. As "Amour" casts its net across the U.S. from New York to Placentia, California and Houston, Texas, Europe is represented by Swiss Sub-Poppers Sportsguitar, who weigh in with Filthy and Dundee's prodigal sons Spare Snare. Recorded by Jan Burnett in his living room, "Clutch Me Now" is built round a nagging vocal loop that sounds like he's cut some Lightning Seeds with Mogadon.
Ranging from Holiday Flyer;s gentle bass-free replication of Galaxie 500's "It's Getting Late" to the well-worn grungey dynamics of Retriever's "Pen Pa", "Amour" also serves as an introduction to the V.U. country of Hoboken's Doug Shepard ("Fall From Grace") and the disaffected boy/girl duetting of Tipli who close proceedings wth "More Disappointment". The twin peaks of the collection recall the varied oeuvre of Sonic Youth. Gapeseed's angular "Ceci N'es Spasm Pipe" sounds like the spawn of "Confusion is Sex", while Gravity Wax's "Lanimar Flow" (which, thrillingly, shares its tile with an obscure 70s Rou Orbison l.p.) matches a lilting, Lee Ranaldo-style vocal to the most affecting melody on the album. More please. bigwig
RACHEL'S: The Sea And The Bells (Quarterstick)
Surf's up. Following their "Music For Egon Schiele", The Sea And The Bells is a double-album length series of interpretative tone poems from the soon-to-be-touring seventeen piece rachel's, an eclectic ensemble consiting of classical players and rock musicians such as Shellac's ubiquitous Bob ("Robert") Weston. Composed by Rachel's core trio of Christian Frederickson, Jason Noble and Rachel Grimes, "The Sea And The Bells" frequently recalls the stately, elegiac quality of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra's piano and cello-led pieces. At other times, often within a single track (particularly "The Sirens"), harmony gives way to music concrete blarings as dissonant changes of mood suggest a spiritual journey through elements by turns calm and perilous, Undulating like the patterns of waves, keening strins quickly turn menacing suggesting squalling seas and shipwrecks, The Bells toll forlornly through "Night At Sea", "Letter Home" and the resonant "To Rest Near You" which is augmented with sound effects of cannon fire. Atmospheric.
bigwig
LONGPIGS: The Sun Is Often Out (Mother)
Displaying the sure-footed guitar of Richard Hawley and Crispin Hunt's impressive vocal range, the singles "She Said" and "Far" pack the most powerful puches on Longpigs' debut. "Far", in particular, features an abundance of mangled guitar and flasetto hooks. "She Said"'s follow-up, "on and On", signals the album's more reflective side, at its best on the reverbed outro to "Dozen Wicked Words". As the catchy early glam of "Sally Dances" gives way to the overblown "Jesus Christ", it becomes evident that, like Radiohead, Longpigs' musical dexterity occasionally lapses into blandness. A sidestep away from the album, Hawley's edgy electric ballad "Tendresse" (available as a b-side to "She Said") proves this needn't be so.
Meantime
CHAVEZ: Ride The Fader (Matador)
Droning out of Dullsville, Indie-ana, Chavez should bow down and beg Saint Nick for a seasonal slice of candy apple melody to brighten their bilge water ballads and murky mid-range plodders. Shored up with fuzzy sonic sludge, Ride The Fader's 12 tracks consistently fall short of capitalizing on some promising titles. Consequently, Our Boys Will Shine Tonight proves less than luminous whilst the tepid Cool Joys would require enhancement from an infinite supply of cool jays to stand a change of flipping your wig. An album that's more "ho hum" than "ho ho ho!" bigwig
ANIMALS THAT SWIM: I Was The King, I Really Was The King (Elemental)
Animals That Swim emerge from the muddy indie backwater to get their kicks singing about Kit-Kats. According to their press release, lead singer Hank Starr is a "genius poet". Student smart arse, more like. The evidence before us suggests bedsit bard baloney, beloved of the NME and Melody Maker, for its "wry narritive". Indeed, one focusses automatically on the words (despite Starr's humdrum delivery) since ATS's music merely serves as functional scene functional scene setting for the ultra-English vignettes on offer. Chief irritant in this bland backdrop is an ominipresent trumpet that attempts to ingratiate itself over the course of the whole l.p.
The lilting, notably horn-free "Dispatches From Lula" is by far the best track, mixing acoustic guitar, piano, violin and a melodic vocal. "The Good Old Way" also deserves credit for employing that damn trumpet effectively (for once) as it buils to a stirring finale. The rest is just depressing, wighed down with too much literal observation("faded Glamour") and an anecdotal style ("The Greenhouse") which considers itself wittier than it is. Meantime
THE JESUS LIZARD: Shot (Capitol)
"Thumper" kicks off The Jesus Lizard's first major-label l.p. with Lydonesque vocals and fluid bass. as "thumbscrews" demonstrates, we have entered a land where well-turned vocal melody is not the primary concern. Updating the Dead Kennedys' "let's Lynch The Landlord", Yow declaims with his cop-baiting whine, "we're gonna ask the landlord why he's such a cock." Guitarist Duane Denison temporarily relieves the pressure, and throughout "Shot" applies slanted arpeggios to Yow's twisted narratives. Highlights? "Pervertedly Slow" - a nice turn of phrase; "mailman", delivered from the point of view of a woman describing a predatory man, and "Trephination" - quite bizaree. You should hear it.
PULP: Different Class (Island)
Simultaneously imemrsed as participant/observer for the last fourteen years in the worlds of pop and sexual intrigue, Jarvis Cocker imbues Pulp's successor to "His'n'Hers" with the observational and conversational gifts of a skilled raconteur. Nothing here possesses the sinister depravity of the earlier album's opener, "Joyriders", but Cocker's vignettes of new town/suburban life are still erotically charged, if by now edging towards over-familiarity. Whilst Pulp's brand of Europop burbles efficiently under Cocker's breathy vocals, "underwear" hardly seems fresh in its title and lyrical concerns while "Disco 2000" is rather mundane in its homage to Laura Branigan's "Gloria" and "i-Spy"'s self-referential spoken interludes are delievred in a fashion I find slightly too knowing to be satisfying.
These tracks pale into comparison to the the three already-released single a-sides included, "Mis-Shapes", "Sorted For E's and Wizz" and "Common People". "Sorted..." and "Common People" are great performances from start to finish, teh former poignantly recalling Bowie's "Memory Of A Free Festival" with its acoustic textures. Like "Common People" it delivers true pop realism, rendered more covincingly than Blur seem ever capable of, though over the course of this l.p., Pulp's music doesn't always rise above a stylish yet stylised studio sheen.
LONGPIGS: Lost Myself (Mother)
An epic mid-pacer, "Lost Myself" is the opening track from Longpigs' occasionally overblown debut "The Sun Is Often Out". Although not as immediate as preceding singles "Far"' and "She Said", "Lost Myself" works as an exercise in dynamics for falsetto vocals, strings and a big,slightly sardonic guitar outro. In such a setting, though, singer Crispin Hunt's pretence to vulnerability seems a little unconvincing.
Second track on the CD single, "Floss" is more emotionally persuasive with affecting vocal and intimate guitar fills. Combining trippy acoustic strumming and a psychedelic rap over a "Cold Turkey" guitar figure to rant at the soma of everyday life, "The Wonder Drug" is an inventive diversion while "When You're Alone" is what used to be described by pop hacks as a "live-in-the-studio rave-up" and a good excuse for Richard Hawley to let fly with some twisted punk axe-grinding.
OCEAN COLOUR SCENE: Riverboat Song e.p. (MCA)
"Riverboat Song", "The Day We Caught The Train" and "The Circle" lugubriously regurgitate a catalogue of hoary influences drawn from vintage vinyl in seedburned sleeves. "You Got It Bad" got it real bad in the lyric department. (Sample couplet: "If I brought you flowers would you watch them grow?") Given the choice between watching flowers grow and enduring the Scenesters, I'd stare at daisies every time. Meantime
COMPULSION: Question Time For The Proles (One Little Indian)
Leaden studenty title notwithstanding, the "Question Time For The Proles" ep gets better as it gets weirder, Top track "Drop" kicks Kinksy crooning through a grumpy rasp to a lilting chorus. The outro sports backwards noises and an effect like a sonar reading from a psychedelic submarine.
TONIC: Tonic e.p. (Flotsam & Jetsam)
As the first line of the first number, "Window Shopping" puts it "Again and again it's the same old story..."This poorly-recorded track is encumbered by unnecessary time/tempo changes while "Cry" would be utterly devoid of inspiration were it not for a plaintive guitar drone letting in some light and shade. "The Siren Song" is plain boring and "Lover's Leap" gives the game away again: "I must confess that more or less I'm the same as everyone." You said it, pal. Meantime
DONE LYING DOWN: So You Drive (Immaterial)
On the barbed shout of "I don't really like the way it makes me feel" abrasiev power chords flash in from all directions. Given a gleaming production, DLD revel in a blend of hyper-attitudinal Stateside drawl, taut springy rhythm and a dynamic grasp of sliding octaves. Meantime
SUPER DELUXE: She Came On (Luminous)
"She Came On" is a piece of pop fluff from a pocket full of nothing. Super Deluxe are Seattle's answer to Crowded House, complete with clumsy couplets such as, "Despite the flight of intellect, instinct will rule"> Amidst this meaninglessness, Supertramp's "Give A Little Bit" is a logical song for Super Deluxe to cover, fiddly guitar solo included. Meantime
DHARMAS: 3 Miles High (Rhythm King)
"A funky psychedelic indie six piece from Hastings". The press release just about says it all. Let me add that this CD is encased in a Marillion-lookalike sleeve and ploughs through a good-timey mix of acoustic guitars, sprightly fiddles, falsetto vocals, Hammond organ and an obligatory solo number from songwriter Simon Steadman. And there'a bloke called Dom on bongos. Their last single reached no. 7 in th eindie charts. The Dharmas are a mega-gigging, Glastonbury-playing apparition from jolly indie hell. Meantime
TROUT: Three Wise Men e.p. (Bosque/Rock Action)
Trout specialise in a back-to-basics dementia, surging and nagging in angular fashion behind vocalist Willie Rogan who sings like Peter Lorre cast as a Greek Bond villain (from New Delhi).
"Skunkrap" is an off-the-wall ranter while U.F.O.'s insistant riff and defiantly stupid lyrics emerged, we are told, during a gig. Adding the hangover psychosis of "livin' In An Oven" and "plasma"'s spatan strung-out surf, this e.p. is a clockwork orange injected with psychedelic snake oil. Love 'em or loathe 'em, Trout bring out the klutz in you. Meantime
SLINGBACKS: All Pop No Star (Virgin)
Someone's been doing their homework. Produced by Mitch Easter, All Pop No Star is a romping glam stomper which also helps itself to the melody line from Sheena Is A Punk Rocker and the keychange from th Buzzcocks' "I Don't Mind". The overall effect is that of Courtney Love fronting The Glitter Band, singer Shireen snarling; "This should have been your ride to riches, instead of detox wards and stitches."
While I'd have loved Slingbacks to be Glam 4 Real, the other tracks (a cover of the Beatles' "Two Of Us" and two acoustic numbers) offer rather more restrained samples of this US/UK trio's stroppy powerpop. Fair enough - just don't pawn the fuzz pedal.Meantime
IMPERIAL TEEN: You're One (Slash/London)
Roddy Bottum sings, plays guitar, occasionally drums with Imperial Teen. Its easy to forget his other occupation as keyboard player of Faith No More. as Imperial Teen hold their own as a college radiofriendly fuzz-pop band. Debut long-player "Seasick" is awash with girl-sung choruses, upbeat homoeroticism and snappy couplets barbed with the detritus from what Bottum refers to as "an extremely nasty time". First single "You're One" quotes from Kurt Cobain's suicide note but musically is as far removed from FNM as you can get. Like the Lemonheads at their best, Imperial Teen effortlessly combine dark drug fall-out with breezy pop. Pretty irresistible. Meantime
SPACEHOPPER: Mars Bonding/ SECRET GOLDFISH: Venus Bonding (Creeping Bent)Spacehopper bond in three movement. Opening: military drumming and pulsing E-strings. Middle: the now departed Sarah's whispered vocal amid wchoing sliding guitars. Ending: the intro ventures back for a swift conclusing kicking,
The Secret Goldfish present an irritating fuzzed-up Claire Grogan vocal over a blatant "I Fought The Law" rip-off. Meantime
FUZZBIRD: Change It/ Famous Babblington Baby (FR Records)Though not much of a song, Change It's warped guitars parade quite handsomely for three minutes pus. The acoustic-driven "Famous Babblington Bab"y is rescued from the brink of boredom by rolling bass, off-kilter keyboards and quick, somebody call the fuzz (pedal). dislocated, disturbed riffs.Meantime
60FT DOLLS: Happy Shopper (Indolent)This is Mott The Hoople updated to 1977. Richard Parfitt's "Ian Hunter rasp" and grasp of lad-glam is well to the fore: "Julie - she's a man". This blatant hero-emulation kicks with a little more spark than the bulk of The Big 3, the Dolls' debut l.p. where, despite the occasional quality track (Loser), songs such as "Talk To Me", "Stay", "The One" and "Good Times" 9"Let The Good Times Roll") lapse too often into the plain platitudes their white-bread titles suggest.Meantime
SOLAR RACE: Resilient Little Muscle (Silvertone)
A blatant rip-off of "Androgynous Mind" by Sonic Youth, this even has feedback and sonic stuff sprayed behind the impressive lung power of siger Eildh Bradley. Third track "Like Cow" is a hissy, distorted, drum-machine driven guitar fest, with skewed "Ooohs" and an out-of-it Pinky and Perky element. I assume the resileint little muscle is in her larynx, or refers to a cock or a clit.Meantime
PILLBOX: Invasion (What Really Turns You On?) (X-Ray)
What really turns Pillbox on is to be to Hole what Bush are to Nirvana. "Invasion" (in both standard and "dirty" versions), "Don't Call Me Babe" and "The Most" are tuneful girl-grunge trying a little too hard for lyrical shock value. Singer Susan Hyatt.Meantime
MANSUN: Take It Easy Chicken (Parlophone)
It's a stupid title, but not as bad as "Drastic Surgeon" (2nd track on this e.p.) "Chicken" lunges from Casio VL Tone beeps to big anonymous hackneyed riffs and snarling Britvox. Nest track "Moronica" still succumbs to empty Terrorvisionisms.Meantime
MAIL RAIN: Forecast For Storms (3rd Stone)
Officially confirmed as the longest ever single, this 76 minute "Organic Techno" fest from Mali Rain consists of elevem "b-sides" following the 5 minute 33 second title track. Throughout, one is reminded of those bland, burbling "relaxation tapes". Two tracks are especially irksome. "Aztec Gold" veers into world muzak territory while the artlessly-titled "Optimist Castle" (well, it might sound good if it were a Fall track) noodles around an ineffectual vocal. For those of us who're not chillin'-out E-heads or New Age armoatherapists, only "Sentinal" and "Pende" offer any eardrum buzz.Meantime
MOTOR LIFE CO: Be a Hero (Pendejo)
Taken as a guitar showcase, "Be A Hero" is a stop/start spiralling rockfest, dryly reminiscent of Garbage. Unfortunately, Sean Guthrie's earnest lyrics and slate grey vocal melodies go nowhere fat. The B-side is less turgid, whilst third track "Free Verse" benefits from a more memorable tune and less fussy playing.Meantime
HARDBODY: On Your Own (Sony)
Sleeved in Muji-styled chic, slightly alternative without threatening the equilibrium, Hardbod have created an undemanding audio accessory for a white-walled, wood-floored designer room. Hardbody's gliding lightness is their charm, and in terms of lasting impact, their undoing.Meantime
OLIVE: Miracle (RCA)
It's frightening what ten years in Simply Red can do to a man. While Mick Hucknall nudges Chris Evans in the irksome media redhead stakes, ex Reds keyboard player Tim Kellet now professes to be "anti-soul", whatever that means. Although those expecting a Road To J. Mascis-style conversion to hard guitar rock night be disappointed, "Miracle" features melodic, soulful (oops, Tim, ya fucked up) crooning from vocalist Ruth-Ann wafting over a melodic groove that sways pleasantly, if lightly, in the summer breeze.
Meantime
POSH: Mermaid (Jealous)
A singer called Pippa, a songwriter/keyboard playing chap called Dearlove...one doesn't need an Oxbridge degree to tell how Posh arrived at their moniker. Musically, this is quasi-contemporary fluff. Posh are to Britpop what The Motels ("Drowning In Berlin")were to Siouxsie and her crew. "Mermaid"'s "observational" lyrics aren't exactly brimming with insight: "she wants to be seen, she's a summer holiday queen." The anodyne new wave "Body Fascism" is, very plainly, obvious: "Steroid heaven in the gymnasium". Attention Anthea Turner, all game show hosts, Michael Portillo, Oprah Winfrey and Divine Brown: you, too, are easy targets and had better watch out for Posh's would-be poisoned pen.Meantime
ALBUMS
DELICATESSEN: Hustle Into Bed (Starfish)
Are Delicatessen authentically pervy or merely arty practitioners of a heavy-breathing, sweatypalmed music hall act? Their second I.p.suggests the latter. "Hustle Into Bed" is an excursion in libidinous MOR with the constant accompaniment of pastoral acoustic guitar and school music-room instrumental explorations. A fan of Nick Cave and Jeffrey Lee Pierce, mainman Neil Carlil! lacks their intensity: he's a book-lined boudoir poet with a powerful voice (on the title track he's Bolan duetting with Billy Corgan). And he swears like only a basically decent young man can. The '1" word is prevalent throughout the album, the single "Monkey Suit" boasting the line "the Clergy came & went & fucked & stayed up late." A little profanity can be refreshing, but here it seems somewhat self-conscious and overdone.
Musically, Carlill's gift for sustaining a mood is unquestionable but, while the panoramic arrangements and queasy, sliding string scores are impressive, "Hustle Into Bed" might have benefited from some variation in tempo and, dare I say it, a little less pretence.Meantime
THE FLOORS: Superbe (Dead Elvis)
This seven-track CD is a cool conglomeration featuring Lee Ranaldo, Lydia Lunch and the unheard helping hand of Kin Fowley. Masterminded by sardonic Dubliner Dave Donohue, Superbe opens with the lop-sided lament "Jesus Lived Six Years Longer Than Kurt Cobain", Nirvana chords give way to throwaway couplets such as "I am the walnut/you are the wall/ you are the Ringo/ I am the Paul" before returning to scenes of wakes in Ireland and Seattle.
La Lunch's contribution is culled from a hectoring 1986 live performance and is underscored by the controlled sonic mayhem at which Ranaldo, in particular, excels. The ferocious "Shadow Of A Gun" builds on a groove that sounds like it was stamped out one moonless midnight by some heavy industrial machinery while "Last Night I Broke Into Your Room" and "The Bee" offer repectively valeful Leonard Cohenisms and Ranaldo reading a poem by Donohue. At every crisp twist and turm, Superbe is an unexpected delight.Meantime
GOOBER PATROL: Dutch Ovens (Them's Good Records)Norwich's Goober Patrol are apparently guaranteed to put a smile on the thinnest, most sullen lips. I guess that means that everyone must love a helping of lowest-common denomenator fun-punk...
Furst track, "Hay, Hay and Thrice Hay" is Therapy?-lite complete with whacky title (Frankie Howerd-style) but minus the underto of angst (Of either Therapy? or the privately ruminating Howerd himself). Moody introspection is banished to nights in alone at the Halls Of Residence. Why, there's even a song called "paddington Bear" (which cheekily rips off Buddy Holly's "Everyday"). Appropriately enough, there are also numbers named "Don't Give Up The Day Job" and "Pxxx Off". See, these stupid wee boys may allude to captive prankster farting in the tirle of their albumcan't bring themselves to do a Patti Smith and actually print "Piss".
Surprisingly, I'm not grinning with glee to the sound of this professionally-played toy punk soundtrack for students spilling lager on their Levellers T-shirts. Bring back Dr & The Medics.Meantime
YELLOW CAR: Auto Erotica (Gift Of Life)
"Auto Erotica" recalls the "punks-who-can-play" bands signed in the wake of the Pistols. The keyword here is repetition. Repetition of the same authentic new wave clichesm such as the caterwauling backing vocals, become rather weraing over the course of fifteen songs.
Ultimately, "Auto Erotica" lacks punk's best feature: the incentive for the listener to get up and do it themselves. This ultra-tight take on punk would take most of us years to perfect. Checking out the intros to "All Over Now" and "Student Bastards", it's clear that creativity is itching in guitarist Agent Caper's fingers. It's a pity the restrictions of Yellow Car's chosen genre prevent him from exploiting his muse to the full.Meantime
HULA HOOP: The Lovelist Ring Of Saturn (Silver Girl)
Do they really want to sound like this? Despite upbeat opener Midget Love's teasing guitar work, Hula Hoop lapse almost immediately into perfunctory indie exercises, the hooklines in tracks like "X-Ray" never getting a chance to shine through. Glory by association doesn't work here, either. A song called "Tom Waits" has a spring in its step and an outro nod to The Fall ("Hey Mark, you're spoiling all the Paintwork") and "The Queen Of Gamaliel" and "The 20th Century Black Hole" have elements to recommend them, but elements are all they remain, Minimalism would be fine if less equalled more but the overall effect here is lack of inspiration. Umbrella starts well with a promising narritive and tremolo guitar but is soon rendered dull through lack of further embellishment, while "Dreamsicle '95" adds a 70s synth sound as an afterthought and the closing Raison lapses into banality. Oi, Hula Hoop: noooo!Meantime
VARIOUS: Amour (Silver Girl)
Subtitled "A Silver Girl Sampler", this compilation presents fourteen tracks from the San Diego label, just over half of them previously unreleased. As "Amour" casts its net across the U.S. from New York to Placentia, California and Houston, Texas, Europe is represented by Swiss Sub-Poppers Sportsguitar, who weigh in with Filthy and Dundee's prodigal sons Spare Snare. Recorded by Jan Burnett in his living room, "Clutch Me Now" is built round a nagging vocal loop that sounds like he's cut some Lightning Seeds with Mogadon.
Ranging from Holiday Flyer;s gentle bass-free replication of Galaxie 500's "It's Getting Late" to the well-worn grungey dynamics of Retriever's "Pen Pa", "Amour" also serves as an introduction to the V.U. country of Hoboken's Doug Shepard ("Fall From Grace") and the disaffected boy/girl duetting of Tipli who close proceedings wth "More Disappointment". The twin peaks of the collection recall the varied oeuvre of Sonic Youth. Gapeseed's angular "Ceci N'es Spasm Pipe" sounds like the spawn of "Confusion is Sex", while Gravity Wax's "Lanimar Flow" (which, thrillingly, shares its tile with an obscure 70s Rou Orbison l.p.) matches a lilting, Lee Ranaldo-style vocal to the most affecting melody on the album. More please. bigwig
RACHEL'S: The Sea And The Bells (Quarterstick)
Surf's up. Following their "Music For Egon Schiele", The Sea And The Bells is a double-album length series of interpretative tone poems from the soon-to-be-touring seventeen piece rachel's, an eclectic ensemble consiting of classical players and rock musicians such as Shellac's ubiquitous Bob ("Robert") Weston. Composed by Rachel's core trio of Christian Frederickson, Jason Noble and Rachel Grimes, "The Sea And The Bells" frequently recalls the stately, elegiac quality of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra's piano and cello-led pieces. At other times, often within a single track (particularly "The Sirens"), harmony gives way to music concrete blarings as dissonant changes of mood suggest a spiritual journey through elements by turns calm and perilous, Undulating like the patterns of waves, keening strins quickly turn menacing suggesting squalling seas and shipwrecks, The Bells toll forlornly through "Night At Sea", "Letter Home" and the resonant "To Rest Near You" which is augmented with sound effects of cannon fire. Atmospheric.
bigwig
LONGPIGS: The Sun Is Often Out (Mother)
Displaying the sure-footed guitar of Richard Hawley and Crispin Hunt's impressive vocal range, the singles "She Said" and "Far" pack the most powerful puches on Longpigs' debut. "Far", in particular, features an abundance of mangled guitar and flasetto hooks. "She Said"'s follow-up, "on and On", signals the album's more reflective side, at its best on the reverbed outro to "Dozen Wicked Words". As the catchy early glam of "Sally Dances" gives way to the overblown "Jesus Christ", it becomes evident that, like Radiohead, Longpigs' musical dexterity occasionally lapses into blandness. A sidestep away from the album, Hawley's edgy electric ballad "Tendresse" (available as a b-side to "She Said") proves this needn't be so.
Meantime
CHAVEZ: Ride The Fader (Matador)
Droning out of Dullsville, Indie-ana, Chavez should bow down and beg Saint Nick for a seasonal slice of candy apple melody to brighten their bilge water ballads and murky mid-range plodders. Shored up with fuzzy sonic sludge, Ride The Fader's 12 tracks consistently fall short of capitalizing on some promising titles. Consequently, Our Boys Will Shine Tonight proves less than luminous whilst the tepid Cool Joys would require enhancement from an infinite supply of cool jays to stand a change of flipping your wig. An album that's more "ho hum" than "ho ho ho!" bigwig
ANIMALS THAT SWIM: I Was The King, I Really Was The King (Elemental)
Animals That Swim emerge from the muddy indie backwater to get their kicks singing about Kit-Kats. According to their press release, lead singer Hank Starr is a "genius poet". Student smart arse, more like. The evidence before us suggests bedsit bard baloney, beloved of the NME and Melody Maker, for its "wry narritive". Indeed, one focusses automatically on the words (despite Starr's humdrum delivery) since ATS's music merely serves as functional scene functional scene setting for the ultra-English vignettes on offer. Chief irritant in this bland backdrop is an ominipresent trumpet that attempts to ingratiate itself over the course of the whole l.p.
The lilting, notably horn-free "Dispatches From Lula" is by far the best track, mixing acoustic guitar, piano, violin and a melodic vocal. "The Good Old Way" also deserves credit for employing that damn trumpet effectively (for once) as it buils to a stirring finale. The rest is just depressing, wighed down with too much literal observation("faded Glamour") and an anecdotal style ("The Greenhouse") which considers itself wittier than it is. Meantime
THE JESUS LIZARD: Shot (Capitol)
"Thumper" kicks off The Jesus Lizard's first major-label l.p. with Lydonesque vocals and fluid bass. as "thumbscrews" demonstrates, we have entered a land where well-turned vocal melody is not the primary concern. Updating the Dead Kennedys' "let's Lynch The Landlord", Yow declaims with his cop-baiting whine, "we're gonna ask the landlord why he's such a cock." Guitarist Duane Denison temporarily relieves the pressure, and throughout "Shot" applies slanted arpeggios to Yow's twisted narratives. Highlights? "Pervertedly Slow" - a nice turn of phrase; "mailman", delivered from the point of view of a woman describing a predatory man, and "Trephination" - quite bizaree. You should hear it.
PULP: Different Class (Island)
Simultaneously imemrsed as participant/observer for the last fourteen years in the worlds of pop and sexual intrigue, Jarvis Cocker imbues Pulp's successor to "His'n'Hers" with the observational and conversational gifts of a skilled raconteur. Nothing here possesses the sinister depravity of the earlier album's opener, "Joyriders", but Cocker's vignettes of new town/suburban life are still erotically charged, if by now edging towards over-familiarity. Whilst Pulp's brand of Europop burbles efficiently under Cocker's breathy vocals, "underwear" hardly seems fresh in its title and lyrical concerns while "Disco 2000" is rather mundane in its homage to Laura Branigan's "Gloria" and "i-Spy"'s self-referential spoken interludes are delievred in a fashion I find slightly too knowing to be satisfying.
These tracks pale into comparison to the the three already-released single a-sides included, "Mis-Shapes", "Sorted For E's and Wizz" and "Common People". "Sorted..." and "Common People" are great performances from start to finish, teh former poignantly recalling Bowie's "Memory Of A Free Festival" with its acoustic textures. Like "Common People" it delivers true pop realism, rendered more covincingly than Blur seem ever capable of, though over the course of this l.p., Pulp's music doesn't always rise above a stylish yet stylised studio sheen.
Comments