JAMs, Severed Heads, and Chris and Cosey

[FULIGIN%UMASS.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU (Peter E. Lee)]

Howdy,

     In reply to Sho Kuwamoto's letter asking about the latest
releases from Chris and Cosey and the Severed Heads, and who the
Justified Ancients of Mummu are :
     The latest US (Canadian actually) releases of Chris and Cosey and
Severed Heads that I know of are the albums 'Exotika' and 'Bad Mood
Guy' respectively.  The S.Heads also have a 12" from the album, "Hot
With Fleas".  I have liked what I've heard of the Chris and Cosey LP,
but I'm not in a good position to comment too critically on it, as I
don't own a copy.
     The Severed Heads LP and 12", on the other hand, I do own and
unfortunately have somewhat mixed feelings about.  The album continues
in their recent trend of getting more and more accessable and less and
less inventive, and while it's far from being OMD or the Pet Shop
Boys, it simply is not on a par with "City Slab Horror" or "Come Visit
The Big Bigot".  I did like the album, and would still recommend it,
but I would tend to recommend their earlier stuff more highly.  The
12" of "Hot With Fleas" is, unfortunately, pretty superfluous.
     As for the JAMs - they are another band who I have real mixed
feelings about...  Their name is quite deliberately taken from
Illuminatus, and their first LP and early singles are full of
references to it.  Their symbol is even a beat box inset in a pyramid.
The band is most (in)famous for bringing the whole 'sampling'
controversy to a head on their first album by ripping off vast
portions of Abba's 'Dancing Queen' on the song 'The Queen and I'.
They basically play an entire chorus of the song unaltered, with a
beat box underneath.  The result was a suit which they lost, and all
existing copies of the album are supposed to be destroyed, so if you
find one, buy it - it may be worth money.
     Their music teeters on the edge between being boring white rap
with lots of gratuitous sampling (albeit rapping with heavy scottish
accents) and being good, exciting dance music with lots of gratuitous
sampling.  I like two of their singles ("All You Need Is Love" and
"Downtown") and parts of their first LP, but most of the rest leaves
me cold.  The band have released two LPs - "1987 - What the Fuck Is
Going On?" and "Who Killed the JAMS" and several 12"s including "All
You Need Is Love", "Downtown", and "Whitney Joins the JAMs".  There is
also an alternate version of '1987' with all of the naughty bits
removed (as a result of the suit).  Apparently it includes
instructions on how to recreate the original using a dubbing cassette
deck.  The JAMs are now defunct - they split up about a month ago.
     Please forgive the rambling tone of this letter - I have midterms
I should be studying for and not enough time to beat it into better
shape.  Hope the info helps!

                                                     -Peter E. Lee
Fuligin%UMass.BITNet@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU