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Maybe if I knew more about contemporary composition I wouldn't
think Spring Heel Jack was so special. Maybe if I knew more about
techno flavors of the month I wouldn't either. But maybe I know
enough about these areas of musical endeavor to recognize a band
that's good at both simultaneously--or a band that's better at each
because it's better at both. Ashley Wales is the raving electro-wiz
who attends every new-music premiere in the U.K., John Coxon the
pop pro who makes sure things never get too forbidding. No
vocalists, sampled or otherwise, and despite an early fondness for
string sounds, not much fluff. Just rockish synth noises over
superfast drumbeats, augmented by a musical pallette that ranges
from rumbling subbass to electronic carillon and set into long
structures that sure sound like compositions to me. I'm not betting
the college fund, but I doubt there's classical or techno much like
it. The U.S debut was 68 Million Shades . . . ; Busy Curious
Thirsty (Island) is somewhat less dancy and every bit as good. You
know?
"My mother's husband is a pretty good guy/They were lovers since
before my daddy died," begins one ditty on Lonesome Bob's Things
Fall Apart (Checkered Past),
which ends up being about compromnise, not revenge. A New
Jersey native buried hip deep in the Nashville underground, he
mines country music for its darkest truths and isn't afraid to put
them across with words like "overidealized." Also, he rocks.
Finley Quaye is half Scottish, half Ghanaian, so naturally he sings
reggae. It's 1997, so naturally his Maverick a Strike (550 Music)
skanks despite its light pop feel. True star or U.K. hype, the
music is all there.
Playboy, Oct. 1997
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Sept. 1997 |
Nov. 1997 |
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