26th January, 1998

A vintage week.

Single of the Week

"Come Taste My Mind" by Earl Brutus

Wonderful. Resurfacing from the wilderness like baddies from a spaghetti western, the oldest, ugliest and filthiest men in pop stick the amazing glam explosion of "Come Taste My Mind" in your face and demand that you like it. And who am I to refuse? Opening with the sound of sirens from a warped parallel world, the track is underpinned by a big metal riff that is used to hang hooks off so immediate and addictive that you are soon up on your feet with an air guitar in your hands. "Look into my mind, there's nothing there", they sing. Maybe, but there's certainly something there on this single: a balls-out, glitterband classic.

"Superstar" is next, and out-glitters anything from the 70s, sounding like a cross between the Dr Who theme and "Rock N Roll" from disgraced panto dame Gary Glitter. An instrumental mostly, with odd words shouted at apparently at random, this - when played loud - will bring the neighbours round to complain faster than a denial from the lips of Bill Clinton. "Nice Man In A Bubble" follows, a mellower instrumental track that mutates into something being slaughtered with a chainsaw in a junk yard (trust me, this is exactly what it sounds like). As the shrieks die away, the nice bit comes back, as if nothing had happened. Unsettling. "William, Taste My Mind" is last, an alternative version of the a-side, credited as being mixed by William Reid (presumably that William Reid, as the distortion and feedback drench this liberally). Fuzzed up more than a bit of old chewing gum found down the back of the sofa, this takes the original and swaggers it around with it drunkenly for a bit before letting it go, gasping.

Earl Brutus - old enough to be your fathers, but quite considerably louder.

Rating: 10/10

The Rest

"Candle Fire" by Dawn Of The Replicants

Probably the Replicants most immediate single to date, "Candle Fire" is a slow burner, a cross between The Doors and The Stone Roses. A wall-of-sound mix makes the song a mighty chunk of noise that oozes mantra-like out your speakers and seduces you with its simplistic but compelling tune. As it picks up pace, "Candle Fire" becomes the Velvet Underground with its incessant, discordant sound hammering away mercilessly at your eardrums. Majestic.

First b-side is the David Holmes mix of "Skullcrusher", turning the original into a trip-hop shuffler overlaid with large swooning guitar swathes that wash over it from time to time. Against a dance beat like this, the Replicants are closer to Beck than anything else, and almost as genius. "Leaving So Soon?" is last, and is a brooding gothic soundtrack to something very nasty and seedy going on in a locked room. The ghost of Ian Curtis flits in and out of view of a track that would send Portishead to bed with nightmares.

This lot really do deserve the hype cast up around them. Too easy to dismiss them as Goths, their music is far more complex and original (and often a damn site funnier) than that. Catch them live in February supporting the awesome Ultrasound and be assimilated by the talents of the best new bands around.

Rating: 9/10

"It's All About The Benjamins" by Puff Daddy and Dave Grohl

The best rap/rock crossover ever was not "Walk This Way" by Run DMC and Aerosmith, but the marriage made in Valhalla that was "Bring Tha Noize" by Public Enemy and Anthrax. This is not as good as that, but it is better than the novelty cartoon of "Walk This Way". Taking Police plagiarist Puff Daddy's (oooh, what a scary gangsta name) original rap track (included here - accomplished but unremarkable), Foo Fighter Grohl encases it in molten metal, with a big crunchy riff and screamed "it's all about the Benjamins" all over the place. Crossovers like this can either be big, dumb and stupid, or they can capture the danger of both genres and create something menacing, exciting and ultra-now. "It's All About The Benjamins" is one of the latter types.

Besides the original album version, another two mixes are on offer here. The "Rock Remix II" is another version touched by the hand of Grohl, where the guitar is kept in check more, but the mood is just as insane. Last up is the "DJ Ming And FS Drum And Bass Mix", which is exactly as its name suggests.

Now let Dave do the same to the godawful "I'll Be Missing You"...

Rating: 9/10

"I Will Be Your Girlfriend" by Dubstar

Enough of all this macho posturing now - time for a bit of class with the jaded pop delights of Dubstar. "I Will Be Your Girlfriend" is typical Dubstar fare - a man-hating rant set to an almost cheesy beat with a big chorus. With this though, they surpass themselves with one of their most infectious choruses to date and some of their best lines ("I'm the knee in your groin" and "I'm the prostitute that rings your family""). Since the demise of bands like The Primitives, The Shop Assistants and - most similarly to Dubstar - the divine Parachute Men, Dubstar have carried the torch of intelligent and likeable female-fronted indie pop well. Here they carry it even farther.

With "Stars" and "Not So Manic Now" on the b-side, this amounts to a mini greatest hits and a thing to cherish.

Rating: 8/10

"Sylvie" by Saint Etienne

After a three year sabbatical, Sarah, Bob and the other one are back to fill our lives with kitsch pop tunes and classy bubblegum fluff. With "Sylvie", they don't disappoint too much, taking a trip to seventies night at the local disco and coming back with a hi-nrg groove about the green-eyed monster. The main thing that lets "Sylvie" down a little is the fact there's about three different tunes in there, without any of them being classic. Nice in the background, but we know this lot can do quite a bit better than that.

First b-side is "Afraid To Go Home", a slow and mournful kitchen sink lament. Next is "Zipcode", a fairly messy disposable track, and last is the instrumental "Hill Street Connection", the best of the extra tracks with its funky bassline and what sounds like a flute. The title presumably comes from the fact the song is "heavily influenced" by the "Hill Street Blues" theme.

Rating: 7/10

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