JACK
RADICS - Love & Laughter (EMI) Never heard of Mr Radics before, but
what a pleasant experience it was. Writing, arranging and producing all of his
own work, at least we know what he’s expressing is real to him. The opening track
No Matter is care free, while this kind of atmosphere travels through most of
the album. Too Bad features Mr Gentleman and has a bit more of an
attitude, That’s Life an up beat jazzy tone. A soulful album with enough
pop elements to appeal to many a listener. - PB 4 / C RADIOHEAD
- KID A To say that Radiohead was experimenting a little is
one hell of an understatement. For starters the mixed medium cover artwork is
totally schizo, covered with irregular fold out lengths, blotches, scratches,
smears and scribbles - few recognizable images, no words - almost two dozen pages
(3 of which are trace paper)! The line between avant garde and pretension seems
to be getting more and more wavy. They’ve had some wonderful songs in the past.
It seems as if they had too much time and too big a budget with this one. It will
definitely take some time for many people to get into this psychedelic sound journey
of self-indulgence. They haven’t shaken their depressed aura, which is cool. Perhaps
what they attempted with this album was to confuse and deter listeners who love
Westlife and won’t have the patience to glide through this experiment with
them. Method in their madness…? The more you listen to it, the more you’ll love
or hate it - there’s absolutely no inbetweener here. Radiohead surely evoke
emotion with many of the songs - but the cover, I mean really, all those poor
trees, broe… - PB 4 / B RAGE
AGAINST THE MACHINE - The Battle Of Los Angeles (Epic) Untainted by
technology but fuelled by growing injustices the revolutionary Rage Against
The Machine does exactly what we’d expect of them: deliver another fine, unadulterated
hard rock album with a dozen tracks that don’t skimp on the issues. -
PB 5 / A CHRIS
REA - King Of The Beach Ol' Chris has always been a beach lover -
I mean his best known song is called On The Beach, for goodness sake! Sure,
he doesn’t look like much of a surfer, but is there anything better than to laze
on white sand in an easy chair, the seabreeze brushing your face? Yeah, if you
earn enough money, otherwise it’s strictly weekends for you, sunshine. Surfer
or lazer, fact remains, Mr Gravely voice knows how to create and produce relaxing,
pensive, no fuss music. Calm, collected and very neutral. He was also quite unfortunate,
writing the tracks in such miserable locations like Parrot Cay, Turks
and the Cacos Islands. Shame, poor guy. What a life - no wonder he doesn’t get
time to reflect on the world’s injustices. - PB 4 / A ROB
ZOMBIE - American Made Music To Strip By (Geffen) The monster master
does it again. That phenomenal breakthrough re-mix album of the man’s first band
(White Zombie) entitled Super Sexy Swingin’ Sounds is still fantastic.
Here a whole bunch of knob fiddlers give his Hellbilly Deluxe album their
interpretations. Some of them include the mighty Rammstein (as precise
as always), DJ Lethal, Spacetruckers, Charlie Clouser (x3,
as on Super Sexy - outstanding), God Lives Underwater (trippy, almost
trance-like & twangy) and more. Most of the songs retain their original crunch
& vibe, the more electronified/dance touches adding to, in stead of diminishing
its impact. As always the fine art direction and graphics (by Zombie himself)
encapsulates the creepy comic book/early horror film/ tattooed loonatiks atmosphere.
Excellent live shots adorn the sleeve of the Devilman and his band, in
full make-up, stage flames, stripper girl, goods & gadgets, making you itch to
be present and witness the great spectacle. A totally cool companion piece to
your Hellbilly album. (PS. As usual the remixes have brilliant titles like: Porno
Holocaust-, Black Leather Cat Suit-, Pink Pussy- & Ilsa She-Wolf of Hollywood
Mix…) - PB 6 / A ROB
ZOMBIE - Hellbilly Deluxe Rob’s post-White Zombie solo career
is as colourful as that of his earlier groundbreaker. With that same flavour still
in tact, it could well have been another White Zombie album, but it seems
to have glided into a more electronic area, opening it up to a wider audience.
The theatrics have also expanded into a full blown horror show. There are so many
memorable songs on here, Superbeast, Dragula and Living Dead Girl
but a few (many of these also ending up in movie soundtracks). The sleeve design
is fabulous. A horror comic book to the tee - complete with fake Rob Zombie
and other horror masks order forms, semi-clad & naked vampire girls, comic strips,
cheesy old horror film tag lines & more. Some people might be offended by the
Charles Manson imagery hinted at in Zombie’s new look, though. -
PB 5 / A GENE
ROCKWELL - 20 Greatest Hits (BMG) Gene passed away quite some time
back, but his song Heart lives on forever. No wonder it’s the first track. His
suffering, lovelorn style had all the ladies quake in their skirts. Other songs
include Save The Last Dance For Me, Always On My Mind, Secret Love, Hands,
Backstage, Help Me as well as some spiritual songs. A cult figure indeed.
- PB 3 / C ROMEO
+ JULIET - Motion Picture Soundtrack Who would ever have thought that
a soundtrack to a Shakespeare adaptation would consist of an interesting blend
of modern pop and rock music instead of somber classical themes? Well, me for
a start, as it is inevitable that modern themes would be incorporated to spice
up the morose settings of that renowned playwright. Far from being a Garbage
fan, I must admit their #1Crush moves me. The Butthole Surfers'
contribution to the soundtrack is a more dazed, dance orientated number, quite
different to what we'd usually expect from them and they're fast becoming a soundtrack
favourite in Hollywood. I do prefer their traditional style though. The track
by Radiohead is a fine choice. Besides the listening pleasure you might
derive from the CD you can also pop it into your computer and experience some
extra visual bits & bytes. Though it's aimed at the charts with a few crappy songs
also included, at least one plus point is that this soundtrack is set to expose
a whole bunch of people who might normally not give a toss, to the wonders of
William Shakespeare. - PB 4 / B ROMEO
MUST DIE - Motion Picture Soundtrack (EMI) Romeo & Juliet in the ‘Hood
with a cross cultural flavour? Martial Arts master & Kung-Fu film superstar Jet
Li and teen-pop-star-all-grown-up Aaliyah team up in this blend of Eastern
action and 'Hood style. The Hip-Hop / Rap / R&B soundtrack is filled with
many big names like DMX, Mack 10 and Chante’ Moore. There’s
also Destiny’s Child, Confidential, Blade and Playa. And yes, they
do sing about money, Rolexes, cars, gangbangin’ and oh, God all the other clichés,
like BG from Cash Money - but at least not all the tracks are that
dumb. Aaliyah lends about four tracks, her lovely voice an attribute to
the album. Unfortunately this is a censored version, the crass language in some
of the tracks left out. The 18 strong track album is wrapped up by veteran Stanley
Clarke featuring Politix. Many people might enjoy the movie more than
the soundtrack. - PB 3 / B ILSE
ROOS & JOHAN SCHOLTZ - In Duet (BMG) The music factory that is Dennis
East and Jurie Els (producing everything from Patricia Lewis to that little jerk
Robbie Klay), has another possible money-maker on the run here. Just like the
two from The Bold & The Beautiful releasing CDs, here we have two stars
from SA’s biggest soapie, Egoli. They’re actually not that bad as they
do their mellow renditions of many of South Africa’s prominent songwriters like
Koos Kombuis, Anton Goosen, Jannie DuToit, Lucas Maree. A Christmas
Medley is also thrown in for good measure. With a relative 50/50 split of
English and Afrikaans songs, I must admit, the Afrikaans ones sound better (it
being their mother tongue). Not a bad attempt, but for goodness sakes, work on
those CD covers & layouts! - PB 3 / C |