PRESSING THE TRENDS

PRESSING THE TRENDS

LETTER FROM BRITAIN

by

Penny Valentine

Some people get too clever for their own good...

Casting an eye over the consumer market, certain shifts are beginning to take place. Melody Maker, in a violent effort to stop sales slipping to the point of no return have copied the jazzy slick busy look of the NME. Its probably stopped the fall to oblivion but then...the NME itself is beginning to lose readers. This despite every conceivable attempt at visual brilliance: a little from the fanzines here, a rush outside the usual perimeters of their relationships to the recording industry with Consuming Passions. This is a nice idea: grab anyone (musician, hairdresser, fan) and ask them what their favorites are. Very much on the lines of the old pop interviews of favorite color, food, etc. It makes them appear even more trendy, and probably captures a few people who might never read the paper each week to boot. The problem remains that despite all this there is obviously an audience theyre losing, perhaps one thats turning away from the national habit of being a regular anything. In a circulation war things happen and whats happening now is that the papers are so busy trying to be first with the next big (or even small) trend, they kill it before its started.

This was beginning to show itself a year ago. Now its reached near-epidemic proportions. You can sometimes sniff the panic off the pages.

The most recent example is Rip, Rig & Panic. Admittedly the band already had pretty good credentials: being out of the avant garde The Pop Group, the darlings of over two years ago. But, like Blue Rondo A La Turk, theyd only get their instruments plugged in twice when they hit the NME front page. Lucky for them, unlike Blue Rondo (who are not only pretty lightweight but are busy making everyone believe theyre taking the music business for a ride, much like Malcolm McLaren did with the Pistols) Rip Rig, who take their name from a Roland Kirk number, are serious experimentalists who happen to be very clever. Their music is sometimes possible to dance to, but, in melding a vast array of jazz influences, they're also incredibly demanding. Still, after listening to some of the so-called experimentalists recently, they sound more like Ali on a fit day than a hot air balloon. The trouble is that after only a few concerts since the NME build-up (and that paper wasn't alone) they're starting to get attacked. Of course. Such is the way of things.

Rip Rip are the dense layered end of the current musical spectrum; Orchestral Maneuvers In The Dark (whose highly melodic Souvenir single is high on the charts) are still holding on to some musical ethic, a kind of populism. But much of the new material coming out of the British studios is tediously pretentious. In the gallop towards In-ness much of it gets into the Independent Labels chart; some creeps into the traditional Top 30. If the new batch Ive currently received is anything to go by there's a rush to obscurity. Being experimental is one thing, but the latest offerings from Cabaret Voltaire, Section 25, Liverpools This Heat and Eyeless In Gaza are electronic-based albums who take Minimalism to the point of insanity. Its like listening to a tap drip. Voltaires Red Mecca comes over like'a fuse box West Side Story; This Heat bear the distinction of having one track sounding like a comb and paper played in a Tibetan Temple; Section 25 (whose Always Now is in the charts) bring us the apocalypse... again. No one can escape this kind of war, they moan, 40,000 feet about the floor. Its like hearing people playing elastic bands and razor blades. Even The Police have got the bug. Heres Sting on Ghost In The Machine blathering on about anti-behaviorism and turning half the tracks into Woodstockian ventures for the 80s. The thing about the Police is that they had the knack of turning out great 45s down to an art. Why give that up just when we need it?

At the other end of the scale Madness emerge with Madness 7, a collection so unriddled by pretentions of intelligence that its just as painful to listen to. Isnt the lot of the aggressive downtrodden white British boy turning into a bit of a nasty stereotype? Yes.

In the middle of all this comes Belfast band U2 with October. This is the group Bruce Springsteen went to see while he was over and, reportedly, liked a lot. Not surprising. They tread perilously close to being a heavy rock band but rescue it in the nick of time on every track: a bit of Clash guitar here, a bit of dub there, some clear uncluttered piano at the most unexpected moment. They have a genuine rock enthusiasm, You can almost taste it. I guess its that, plus a sense of musical dramatics, chert caught Bruces ear. Plus their real coup de grace: singer Bono. He combines the sense of edgy desolation perfected by Ian Curtis with Joy Division (and then ripped off by everyone without ever having the same effect) with real ballad passion. Its wonderful combination, a voice that manages depth with distance; nowhere better aired than on their new single Gloria.

With the major musical emphasis here on fey declamation over very little, its no wonder that, where over the past five years America has had very little direct influence on British music, this is beginning to become noticably less true. Its not really surprising that Talking Heads are not only of the most eagerly-awaited, influential and enjoyable bands to cross the Atlantic; nor is it a surprise that the single were all currently going crazy about is Laurie Andersons O Superman. Its not that anyone doesnt feel the age of the computer station is here...but there's a growing feeling that we need our electronics with (gulp) tunes...melody lines...that kind of outdated thing. Maybe its the oncoming winter, but America seems to be providing the real emotional disturbances all over again.