a few records i got: HoL extended mix, Y Kant Tori Read, Nico

[aruss@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (Andrew Russ)]

Things considered:

    Kate Bush:  "Hounds of Love" (Extended Version)  promo 12"
    Y Kant Tori Read LP
    Happy Rhodes: Ecto CD
    Nico:  Drama of Exile LP  (the real version)
    Nico:  The Marble Index CD
    The Raincoats LP
    Scrawl:  Bloodsucker EP
    Scrawl:  "Misery"/"Just Plain Bad" 7"

KaTe Bush:  "Hounds of Love" (Extended Version) promo 12" -- I hadn't 
heard of this, so i picked it up when i saw it in a used record store in 
Pittsburgh ($4 including tax (but originally priced at $12!))  This is an 
EMI America promo 12" (catalog  SPRO - 9574 ).  This really isn't a major 
item -- this is very very similar to the album version, just 43 seconds 
longer (extended version time = 3:44), but after a couple close listens, 
it isn't immediately apparent what was added, maybe a longer vocal 
section at the end or something.  Comparing to the published lyrics, the 
second chorus is replaced by a repeat of the first, followed by a repeat 
of the first verse, and then an edited version of the second chorus.  If 
you listen closely, the first edit is obvious, after "Here I go" (that 
one line is actually kept from the second chorus).  I thought this 
version was worth mentioning because it wasn't listed on the discography 
i got from the discography server a year or so ago.  On the other hand, 
that list was compiled before the box set came out -- is this track in 
there?  On the other hand, it's not a major opus by any means.  

Y Kant Tori Read LP (Atlantic 81845-1) -- This is the apocryphal first 
album by Tori Amos, or maybe by Tori and her producer(s).  It's not as 
bad as i thought it would be, but it does have some very dumb stuff in 
it, for instance the band name.  The cover resembles "The Kate Bush Mini 
LP", except where KaTe looks like she is might actually use the sword, 
Tori is using it as a photo prop.  
    Musically, if Little Earthquakes is Tori imitating Kate on The Kick 
Inside, then this is Tori trying to become the thinking person's Pat 
Benatar, except maybe the chorus of "The Big Picture", which has the same 
feel as "The Big Sky".  But any resemblance to anyone else probably says 
more about the producer (Joe "Check the Tuning" Chiccarelli) than about 
Tori.   The production excess reminds me of what's wrong with the last 
couple Tonio K albums.  I mean, when you can't pick out which songs 
Fernando Saunders plays bass on, you know there's a problem.  Otherwise, 
the album vacillates between good parts and bad parts, so let me try to 
list some of each:  
    Smart parts:  The Patti-Smith styled intro to "Heart Attack at 23", 
Piano playing at end of "Fire On the Side" (and elsewhere), "Etienne 
Trilogy", Tori's voice, Lines such as "No one really owns the 
merchandise" and "Little Earth / she tries so hard / to change our ways / 
Sometimes she / must get sick / of this place." recruiting Fernando 
Saunders, Favorite line:  "I'm a lush for your love", using bagpipes and 
bazouki, Opening section of "Floating City".  
    Dumb Parts:  Band name, spelling "Fayth" with a "y" (Y did they do 
that?), Rapping first verse of "Fayth", Lines such as "And on a dark 
night / when you feel lonely / and the world just / can't understand you 
/ Pirates Yeah / Pirates", Cloying credits, Calling the two sides of the 
record "Left side" and "Right side", Dumbest lyric:  "Sweet love / hello 
/ Make a slave / of me,"  Gratuitous silly drawing on the cover, 
Everything about the production.  
    Tori describes this as her attempt to be a "rock chick".  That's a 
fair description.  I can understand why she'd want to disown this record.  
Tori's development is not unlike Simon and Garfunkel's: compare their 
albums to the singles the duo did in the 50s as Tom and Jerry (and 
mercilessly resurrected on an album by Pickwick records after "The Sounds 
of Silence" became a hit.)  In the end, the dumb bits in Y Kant Tori Read 
outweigh the smart bits, and the album sank uneventfully into the cutout 
bins.  There are some of what Vickie called "Tori moments" here, but they 
really have to be developed (at the expense of the "Joe Chiccarelli 
moments").  She basically needs to go back and work on her writing and 
her approach to production.  Which is exactly what has happened since.  
    But to tell the truth, i would never have gotten this if it wasn't 
for having heard her recent stuff.  
    I picked up a promo copy (i suspect these are much more common than 
"regular" copies).  The sticker recommends the songs "The Big Picture" 
and "Cool on Your Island".  I recommend "Etienne Trilogy" and "Floating 
City".  This is an LP copy, 10 songs, total time about 48 minutes.  
    Another note:  music publisher is Sword and Stone, same as for Tori's 
more recent stuff.  That, and the lyrics to the "Etienne Trilogy" do 
suggest an interest in witchcraft, though they lack real specifics.  
    Here are some interesting excerpts of the credits: 

    "Well, I'll start the thank-yous with the Reverend Pirate Ed and his 
devoted wife Mary Ellen (my parents) for having the foresight to get me 
piano lessons before I could talk back -- not knowing it would become a 
priority over algebra homework ... what a ploy.  I Love You.
    "To Mr. Doug Morris for sharing his tuna fish sandwich with me and 
for letting me make the record I wanted to make."
    "Jason Flom, well, it was either adopting me or getting a record 
deal--you're the best, honey.
    "Joe 'Check the Tuning' Chiccarelli--who understood my music, my 
alien friends, and who became the ears of this project, my mentor and my 
friend.
    "Mike, my brother, for teaching me to write them. [her songs]
    "Thank God for music and the sword of truth.
                                   "Tori (Dink to Joe and Crew)"

One unrelated Tori note, regarding the Crucify CD5:  the credits for 
"Winter" say "Mixed by Jon Kelly".  Is this the same Jon Kelly who 
engineered Lionheart and co-produced Never For Ever?


    Happy Rhodes:  Ecto CD.  Most people here probably have already 
formed their opinions of Happy, so i'll make this brief and technical.  
I got Ecto on CD, after already having it on tape.  The sound on the CD 
is crystalline and flawless, which makes the songs sound even better.  
There's a kind of classicism in the songs that comes through even more 
here.   There are two bonus tracks:  "Look for the Child", which is 
absolutely abominably treacly (Happy obviously hasn't read Lord of the 
Flies), and "When the Rain Came Down", which is a lovely song.  

    Nico:  Drama of Exile LP (Tom K Records TK0002-1311).  Here's the 
story behind this album.  In 1980, Nico went into the studio to record a 
new album.  She had recorded some early punky demos, then ran out of 
money.  The studio then sold the tapes to Aura records (or an 
intermediary), which released the songs as the new Nico album called 
Drama of Exile.  It sounded sort of like Nico's attempt at a punk sound.  
Meanwhile, Nico, with the same full band, recorded the songs the way she 
wanted them and the results were privately released some years ago.  
About a year ago, the album was rereleased in Czechoslovakia, on the Tom 
K label.  (Why Czechoslovakia?  The "Velvet Revolution" was named after 
the Velvet Underground.  That band is very big over there, apparently, at 
least with people such as Vaclav Havel.)  
    This, the "real" version of the album, has a decidedly more produced 
sound, much more atmospheric.  The whole album flip-flops in its 
sensibilities -- where the demo verion was dominated by the guitar 
pyrotechnics on the slashing cover of "Heroes", songs such as "Genghis 
Khan", "One More Chance", "Orly Flight" and "Sixty Forty" are more 
prominent here.  Also included are "Saeta" and "Vegas" sounding similar 
if not identical to the single on Flicknife records.  The use of unusual 
instruments and sounds is handled very well here -- the sitar in "Orly 
Flight" and sanshin and bouzouki elsewhere.  Also worth noting are the 
unusual (male) backing vocals on "Genghis Khan".  
    Sound is excellent.  
    I got this through the Velvet Underground Appreciation Society for an 
extravagant price ($15 LP, $25 CD, plus shipping), so hopefully you can 
find this elsewhere at a better price.  
    I definitely recommend this record if you're a Nico fan.  


    Even if you're not one, you should at least listen once to:
Nico:  The Marble Index  CD  -- This album from 1968 was recently reissued 
on CD with two outtakes.  This is perhaps the most radical of Nico's 
albums, and the closest points of reference are probably:  early Public 
Image Limited (before they went totally Rotten), "Numb Companions" by 
Danielle Dax, and maybe "The Dreaming" (the song).  Nico's songs are sung 
in a plain chant over a harmonium; Nico's piercing deep voice suits the 
Middle Eastern flavor of the melodies well.  On top of this, former 
Velvet Underground bandmate (and classical music prodigy) John Cale 
arranged thick arrangments of instruments, then pulled out everything 
except the fripperies.  The result is a sort of purposeful chaos swirling 
around the center of Nico's voice and harmonium.  My favorite song here 
is "Evening of Light" with its pounding pinao pulse.  The two new tracks 
both fit well with the rest of the album.  "Roses In the Snow" is similar 
to the other tracks, while "Nibelungen" is just Nico singing a cappella -
- it works, too.  

    Joni Mitchell:  Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm LP -- OK, so i'm a few 
years late, but i'm going to comment on this anyway.  Joni continues in 
the same direction established on Dog Eat Dog:  deemphasizing her 
hopeless romantic persona (though not completely abandoning it) and 
emphasizing political and environmental concerns.  While whe still hasn't 
found anything as powerful as the personal themes she put in her lyrics 
in the 1970s, this album is a definite improvement over the previous two.  
But still, i don't get very excited about it.  The same basic problems 
are still there:,  overproduction and the superstar syndrome (Peter 
Gabriel sings on one song, Thomas Dolby plays on another, Don Henley 
sings on a third, Willie Nelson makes an appearance, and even Tom Petty 
and Billy Idol (?!) rented their voices).  

    The Raincoats LP (Rough Trade ROUGH 3) -- This came out on Rough 
Trade in 1979.  The Raincoats were four women who could sort of play and 
sort of sing and managed to turn it all into some memorable music.  Not 
as raw and rocking as Scrawl, but otherwise not too dissimilar; or maybe 
they sound like Essential Logic without Lora Logic (who saxes on one 
song).  There is a scrapy violin sound that makes the hook on several 
songs.  Worth noting are the cover of "Lola" (four feminist women singing 
about male transvestites?) and the single "In Love".  This is one of the 
albums that defined what Rough Trade was, way back when. 

    Scrawl:  Bloodsucker CD EP (Feel Good All Over records)
    Scrawl:  "Misery"/"Just Plain Bad" 7" (SOL)
    Now here's a band that very probably listened to the Raincoats. These 
two releases seem to be chronicling the decline of this group.  The 
decline isn't musical, but rather one of support and interest.  After 
Rough Trade went bankrupt, all three of Scrawl's albums went out of 
print, leaving the band to scramble for whatever recording deal they 
could find.  There is bitterness over this fate, evident in the titles of 
the songs and in the CD's liner notes.  
    Bloodsucker contains 5 standard issue Scrawl songs and two covers:  
Cheap Trick ("High Roller") and Paula Abdul ("Cold Hearted Snake").  This 
is a really depressing release, though.  "It's been too long since I sang 
a happy song."  Or the liner notes:  "We own the rights, own the masters, 
we paid for the recording.  This EP is a self-release.  We got tired of 
waiting for faxes, phone calls, contracts, money, and bankruptcy 
notices."  and "The drawing 'Bloodsucker' is an artist's rendering.  Any 
resemblance to music industry executives is purely coincidental."  The 
sound is rougher, a throwback to the first album.  It's fine if you like 
Scrawl, and won't change your mind if you don't.  Priced at $9-10 for 
roughly 26 minutes, though, it's not a good deal.  
    The 7", the band's latest, is even more stripped down.  There is no 
cover art.  The A side is Marcy with an acoustic guitar and bass.  The B 
side is the full group, but the song's cowriters are not the regular 
members of the band -- are they breaking up?  "Misery" is a bit different 
from the earlier Scrawl stuff, but still nice.  The B side seems a little 
toned down, too.  This single was released on "SOL", Bob Mould's "Singles 
Only Label".  


				andrew 

				aruss@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu