A long overdue offering from Belgium's greatest musical export since Plastic Betrand,
"Theme From Turnpike" sees us back in familiar Deus territory - i.e. weird, original
and interesting. Using a Charlie Mingus jazz riff as a main sample, Deus then add layer
upon layer of additional instruments as well as a dark, brooding vocal track, building up
to a powerful, almost industrial climax. Great stuff. Of the other tracks on the CD version
of the single, "Worried About Satan" is a quick jolt of Buzzcocks-like punk; "Overflow" a
slow and meandering song in the same vein as the Velvet Underground; and "My Little Contessa"
a piano-based instrumental in a similar style to "Turnpike".
Rating: 9/10
The Rest
Generation X, Adam & The Ants, Bow Wow Wow, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, We've Got A Fuzzbox,
Transvision Vamp, East 17...and Shampoo. All teens (well maybe not Sputnik!) with a
message, and that message basically boils down to 'we want to make a noise and we don't
want to go to school and work and stuff and we believe in music as rebellion'. Which is an
ace message, and "Girl Power" puts it across very well with loud guitars and snot-nosed
vocals. A great single for those who don't take everything too seriously (and a pretty
interesting but faithful cover of Gary Numan's 'Cars' on the b-side).
Rating: 8/10
No doubt familiar to some of you from the "Trainspotting" soundtrack, this is an
epic track and a fine example of indie-techno-dance (does this sort of stuff -
Underworld, Leftfield, 808 State, etc - have a name??). Starting off with ambient
notes over which a processed vocal strains, it's not long before the drum kicks in.
And what a drum sound - this is Boss Drum indeed. The main mix on this single keeps
up this relentless rhythm for over 11 minutes, by which time your mind's wandered
all over the place, but your feet have kept moving (as would the rest of your body,
if you were dancing to it a club.)
Rating: 8/10
Another nice piece of pop-punk mayhem from SFA and one of the better tracks from what
I though was a patchy LP, this has a perky and lively start, settling into punky verse /
trippy chorus mode. Not as fine a single as "God!..", but catchy and original nevertheless,
and should see them in the chart (if Kula Shaker can go top 5, so can the SFA!).
Rating: 7/10
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