Our Life in the Bush of Kate by Big City Orchestre

[endwar@phys.psu.edu (Andrew Russ)]

    Big City Orchestre [sic] -- Our Life in the Bush of Kate -- 60 min
cassette.  (ubuibi, 858 Haight, San Francisco  CA  94117).

Tracks:  Wuthering Heights
         All We Ever Look For
         Oh, England, My Concrete Block
         The Dreaming
         Passing Through Air
         Night of the Swallow*
         Feel It
         Army Dreamers*
         Waking the Witch
         Experiment IV
         Breathing

*=live recording.

    This is in some ways the weirdest Kate Bush covers ever, but in other
ways it's a desperately boring recording.  It is perhaps both compliment
and condemnation to say that these covers generally sound as though they 
were performed by a combination of the Residents and early Current 93 
(Dogs Blood Rising), with more than a hint of goth.  Big City Orchestre 
have long been mainstays of the underground cassette network that has 
been working deep beneath the surface of the popular culture over the 
past decade or two.  BCO could be classified as "avant-garde", which is 
to say they are more interested in exploring the manipulation of sound 
than in creating recognizable music.  The previous release "We Like Noize 
Too" was constructed by taking a large number of 45 rpm singles, painting
scraping, cutting, and otherwise destroying them, then playing the 
altered records on a several turntables.  The resulting recording of 
formless noise was packaged in a bag of broken bits of 78 rpm records.  
    This tape does not live up to such extreme expectations.  The first 
tracks are better than the later ones.  "Oh England,..." consists of a 
couple of looped spoken passages, and succeeds in being interesting and 
novel.  "All We Ever Look For" is based on a lyric fragment and a pirated 
Robert Fripp riff, evoking a kind of dark ambience.  On the other hand, 
"The Dreaming" as a bit of drum-machine driven technogoth is simply not 
interesting compared to KaTe's 1982 original, though the grungy, gristly 
noisiness at the end makes the last part better than the first part.  On 
the other hand the throbbing techno beat riff was going through my head
for the next day.  
Similarly, all the energy and craziness of the original "Waking the 
Witch" gets buried in the rigidity of the spoken vocal loops.  
"Experiment IV" is basically the lyrics recited over drums; for some 
nightmarish reason it reminds me of Bob Dylan:  Poet; Sebastian Cabot:  
Actor.  It's almost that bad.  Most of the tracks fall somewhere in 
between:  "Passing Through Air" consists of a geeky reading of the lyrics 
(which are revealed to be rather interesting) over a bed of rumbling 
synthesizer noise.  "Feel It" is recited over a bed that includes sampled 
muzak.  
    In a way, what's really going on here is BCO using some lyrical or 
musical fragment to create their own song, but ultimately the problem is 
that they can't write songs equal to the material they borrow from, and 
they don't have the audacity to steal material outright.  
    Perhaps the most direct comparison i can make is to Jon Drukman's 
legendary Kate Rape tape.  Kate Rape is much more fun and interesting 
than Our Life..., mainly for those sections where Drukman mangled KaTe 
music into something new.  For that matter, i even prefer the Utah 
Saints.  
    I suspect that BCO have done better work (i don't recommend "We Like 
Noize, too" either, but for different reasons).  Anyone who is interested 
because of the KaTe connection is cautioned to listen to some of this 
before plunking down any money.  If you're the type to through caution to 
the wind, then you can try writing to the address above and asking how 
much for a copy (Expect to pay about $8 -- I paid $5.99 from another 
source (the now-defunct Anomalous Distribution)).  
    If you want a better representative of what the cassette underground 
is capable of, try the Evolution Control Committee ("gunderphonics", 
"Buddha Bleach") or Nux Vomica ("Spindal Alpha").  

Oh well.  You probably want some real KaTe material here, too, so let
me comment a bit on the two CD singles.

Rubberband Girl:  "Rubberband Girl" has simple pop radio appeal as a hit 
single attempt.  Prince used effectively and unobtrusively here as 
backing vocalist.  Almost surprised that she didn't get Paddy to play 
some rubberbands on this track though, or at least evoke them (in a 
subtle way) in the music more.  "Show a Little Devotion" would have fit 
well on Aspects of the Sensual World -- it has the same vibe.  "Home for 
Christmas" is a nice little greeting card of a song.  Overall a 
thoroughly middle-of-the-road attempt.  If Columbia doesn't want to 
promote this song, they can't blame Kate for being too weird to market.  

Eat the Music:  Maybe not a great bargain in that there's only one new 
piece of music here for the dediKaTed colleKTor, but it is more 
interesting musically.  "Eat the Music" features a delicious carnalvorous 
lyric.  Which is to say i like the indulgence in fruity metaphors and the 
deliberately induced confusion between eating and loving and killing.  
The fondness for the extreme.  The thumpy acid-world-beat music works 
well, too, though (at risk of being of accused of heresy) i must say i 
would have preferred having the extended mix last about 2-3 times as 
long, get faster towards the end, and stress the valihas interplaying 
over the course of the song.  As it is, the song just doesn't last long 
enough to put you into that trance-like state that is threatened.  Maybe, 
though, 9+ minutes is long enough if you're dancing like a dervish in red 
shoes, which may have been the point.  I'm sorry, but i really can't see 
this as a fruit or caribbean cruise line commercial.  "Big Stripey Lie" 
is a gorgeous blast of Dax-like noise.  It is definitely an inducement 
for buying the album (as opposed to "Rubberband Girl").  "Candle In the 
Wind" was originally on the "Rocket Man" single, and while it was sort of 
an afterthought, i think the contrast between the vocal and the 
instrumental is interesting -- my biggest complaint with the arrangement 
being the choice of keyboard sounds.  

"If Music be the Food of Love, play on." --Shakespeare.  

andrew