No Ripcord - Issue 6
Welcome to Issue 6 on No Ripcord. With writer Peter Mattinson heading off to university soon, this may be the last issue he contributes to. Another thing that's been happening recently is our link with Entertainment Magazine "Turned On". A small supplement has been included in their special relaunch issue featuring the best our our last issue. The "Turned On" Web Page will be soon added to our links page so please check it out when you have time.
Contents:
ALBUMS OUT SOON:
Ocean Colour Scene - "One From The Modern" (Out September 13th)
Gomez - "Liquid Skin" (Out September 13th)
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - "Spanish Dance Troupe" (Out October 4th)
My personal pick of the 3 - the new one by Gomez.
OASIS NEWS AND POLL RESULTS
Obviously most of you will have heard the news of Guigsy and Bonehead quitting Oasis to "spend more time with their families". All sorts of names have been linked with the vacant roles and Noel was quoted in NME saying that ideally he would have John Squire (ex-Stone Roses/Seahorses), Nick McCabe, and Simon Jones (both ex-Verve). But whether that will happen is another thing altogether.
Speaking of Oasis, the results of our poll are complete. We asked you which was your favourite Oasis album and the results were as follows:
| Definitely Maybe | 44% |
| (What's The Story) Morning Glory? | 31% |
| Be Here Now | 5% |
| The Masterplan | 2% |
| None | 18% |
NEW STONE ROSES RELEASE!
Well sort of...actually just another cash-in by the stupidest record company in the world. They're re-issuing the album for it's tenth anniversary (albeit it a few months late) with the promise of an extra CD with added tracks (Fools Gold, Elephant Stone, What The World Is Waiting For, and Where Angels Play apparently) and some video footage. We've also been promised new artwork...
The re-issue is out on October 4th...
PUMPKINS BASSIST QUITS + NEW ALBUM DETAILS
And news just in is that original Smashing Pumpkins bass player D'Arcy has quit the band. Reports suggested that she has been unhappy for a while. The band however will still be touring the new album, which will be released on February 15th, 2000 through Virgin.
SQUIRE FORMS NEW BAND
Ex Stone-Roses and Seahorses guitarist John Squire has formed a new band called Reluctance. Reports suggest the band sound like an early Stone Roses around the time of "Mersey Paradise". Meanwhile Ian Brown is set to release a new album and single. The album, allegedly to be called "Golden Greats", is suspected to see Ian head in a more dance-orientated direction, and will be preceded by his new single, "Love Like A Fountain".
This issue we've introduced a new scoring system where every release gets a mark out of ten. There's an archive of these scores, and the scores of every release we've reviewed, here.
Singles:
@tomika - Wiser?
@tomika's new single, the follow up to debut "Dead Flowers", is a rather impressive effort. The only weird thing is that the b-sides "Uncomfortably Numb" and "Dead Man Walking" are actually better than "Wiser". They've been loosely compared to the Manic Street Preachers and even Stereophonics in the national press, but I don't agree. They've got a sound of their own mainly due to Gareth Norgate's distinctive vocal style. Aside from that, the music is much more aggressive and passionate than those aforementioned bands are currently churning out. If it hadn't been for the brilliance of Muse I'd have happily awarded single of the week to this Hampshire four-piece. Instead, all I can do is strongly recommend it to you. 8/10
Muse - Cave
Brilliant new single from Britain's best new band. Carries on where "Uno" left off, but with an added maturity. Excellent vocals and great guitar work are in abundance here. What more could you ask for? Single of the Week? Oh go on then... These lot are set for great things so jump on the bandwagon now. 10/10
Stroke - I Wish I Had
I walked out on Stroke at T in The Park after 10 minutes because I couldn't bear any more. The song is pretty uneventful with the lead singer telling us over and over again "I wish I had gone, so I could get wasted" and rather informatively that "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose". Well this one's definitely a lose, just like that T in The Park performance that no one seemed to turn up to watch. 2/10
Badly Drawn Boy - Once Around The Block
Another one of the more impressive singles this issue. Badly Drawn Boy writes, produces and performs on the first two tracks and has a little help on track live, a live version of the title track taken from a Radio Luxembourg Broadcast. It's a fairly upbeat bright summer tune and a good choice for a single that should do well. "Once Around The Block" has nice vocals and an infectious guitar riff that you'll be humming all day. The b-side, "Soul Attitude" is also a good effort. Largely instrumental with some evidence of vocals low down in the mix, it plods along nicely and ties in well with the main track. 7/10
Elastica - 6 Track EP
Elastica's first release in, well ages. The new look band felt a 6 track EP was more appropriate in representing the various stages of their lengthy 3 year recording period for that "difficult" 2nd album. Let's have a look at it track by track:
First is "How He Wrote Elastica Man". A lively effort with the Fall's Mark E Smith porviding guest vocals. It's basically the letters E-L-A-S-T-I-C-A (which works better than you'd think) being shouted over a catchy guitar riff. This is my favourite of the tracks on the CD. Next a Donna Matthews Home Demo "Nothing Stays The Same" which is a bit uneventful. Might have benefited from a proper studio recording but I suppose we'll never know. "Miami Nice" is the next track. Pretty poor name and the track lives up to it. Instrumental and depressingingly slow. Mark E Smith's back for the next track "KB" and with him comes the uptempo sound from before, along with a bit of electronic trickery. Not really a bad song, but not as catchy as the opener. A live version of "Operate" is next. The vocals are pretty low in the mix and hard to pick out, but it's still one of the standout tracks on the EP - A chaotic mix of feedback, distorted guitars and pounding drums. The final track, "Generator", has another heavy riff and shouty vocals, which works well. All in all, the EP is fairly encouraging albeit it patchy in places, but I suppose that's because they've kept the best songs for the album. 6/10
Space Raiders - (I Need The) Disko Doktor
On the CD version there's three mixes of this track and all three are brilliant. The edit version is by far the cheesiest but that's its charm. It's got all the typical cliches in it you could think of and if it was a serious effort this would be tragic, but it's not so it's alright. The awesome bassline in the, wait for it, "Clockwork Voodoo Freaks Legwarmer Mix", is the best thing I've heard this year. Simple, effective, perfect for the song. I don't know what anything else the Space Raiders have made is like, but this is an absolute gem of a single, and everyone should own a copy. 9/10
Echoboy - Frances Says The Knife Is Alive
Another EP - Echoboy's debut recording for Mute Records. As the press release proudly informs us Echoboy's ongoing quest is to embrace the future and never look back. Which is fair enough. Echoboy aka Richard Warren was a member of a band called The Hybirds, but on discovering what could be achieved with experimentation went off on his own. This EP, in particular final track "Slow Down Sheena" is downbeat, depressing and haunting, but in a good way. It's not the sort of music that will cheer you up, but it's trying to break new ground and not doing a bad job of it.6/10
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Spanish Dance Troupe
Gorky's new single is their debut on new label Mantra. Quite a bizarre offering as well. It plods along for two and half minutes without really doing anything different then changes a bit. It's not dislikeable but it's so non-descript it's difficulty to like as well. Second track "(Do the) Chicken In the Jungle" is even weirder. I get the feeling they're trying a bit too hard to be different. Which is fair enough as being Welsh alone isn't enough to be "different" anymore. Final track "The Johnny Cash Lawsuit Song" is my favourite of the three. Another slow acoustic song, this time with much deeper vocals.4/10
Cuba (feat. Shara Nelson) - Black Island
I didn't like this one very much. Doesn't do anything for me at all. The vocals are impressive but there just isn't isn't enough of a tune there to support them. It's slow, it drags on, and it's annoying. Should do well in the charts then...1/10
Whistler - Intermission EP
Interesting concept by Whistler - can't be arsed writing any songs - do a 4 track EP completely full of cover versions. The choices are varied and Whistler claim have been big influences on them. The most notable is Nirvana's "All Apologies" which is an interesting interpretation of the song. Lightweight version of the music with a few strings over the top, add female vocals for a twist and there you go. The worst cover version I've ever heard.
Other tracks you get are "At Seventeen" by Janis Ian, "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" by Burt Bacharach and The Who's "Blue, Red And Grey". All in all, a bit of a weak release but with covers you're nearly always going to fall short of the original. 2/10
Albums:
Nojahoda - Jahoda Witness
Nojahoda are a good band - no wait!! They're a bloody good band!! At first they may confuse you with a mixture of rock fused with electro-fuck. In fact they flirt with all sorts of musical genres - too many for me to be bothered to write! But don't let that put you off - the real mainstay through the album is indie/rock. Any claims that Nojahoda are anything like Red Hot Chili Peppers or Beck are absolute bollocks and I don't know who in the press department decided to say that, but they just made a complete arse of themselves in doing so.
"Therapy" (no not the band) is rockin' track with a bad ass riff heavily supported by the distinctive vocals of 'Jahoda's frontman (don't now his name yet) Pinata's daring use of kazoos should be applauded rather than slated by those no-marks down at the trusty(?!) NME. The comedy sample at the start is one that everyone with a pretentious bastard as a friend can relate to! (Hello James!)
Jahoda Witness is a refreshingly tongue in cheek whilst not giving a shit about treading on anyone's toes - keep up the good work guys. 9/10
Reviewed by Chris Hall
Ween - Paintin' The Town Brown
This is a collection of Ween live tracks - 19 in all - taken from gigs between 1990 and 1998. The CD opens: "We're Ween. It's 1991...and...we are here to play you music." Cue songs like "Mushroom Festival In Hell", "Mister Would You Please Help My Pony" and "Poopship Destroyer". Jokey lyrics and music that takes the piss, jumping between styles as diverse as rock and ridiculous country ("Japanese Cowboy"). It doesn't take itself seriously at all which I suppose might have been refreshing in 1991 or whenever, but not today. The songs are so different it's difficult to get into the CD at all and it all gets a bit tiresome fairly quickly. Plus points are a rather good sound for live recordings and if you're a fan you'll probably find the in-between song comments amusing. But I'm not a fan so it's only getting 4/10.
Reviewed by David Coleman
Lowcraft - Manticore
Having delivered two brilliant singles I had high hopes for Lowcraft's debut album. But those hopes we're rather quickly crushed. It still has a couple of great tracks, "Trembling" and "Transcendental Meltdown", but they're surrounded by lightweight fillers like "Tree Mantra". Opener "Inch Away From Heaven" is typical of the album. It starts like like it's going to be a good song but never gets near. "Divine" is similar and seems to lose its way halfway through. Many of the songs are 5 minutes plus when there's barely three minutes worth of decent stuff there. Maybe they just got carried away in the studio trying to turn simple ideas into epics? Whatever they were trying to do hasn't worked and the album is far too patchy. It's an effort listening to it and some songs are so bad, and so long, they just have to be skipped. An under-achieving 4/10 for Lowcraft who could and should have done better.
Reviewed by David Coleman
Breakbeat Era - Ultra-Obscene
Drum and bass from Roni Size (he of Mercury Music Prize winning fame) and some other people who I haven't heard of. As No Ripcord is primarily an alternative/indie fanzine I don't know if this will be anyone's cup of tea. It's not exactly mine. I would normally mention some individual songs but the all seem to sound the same. 2/10 because it gives me a headache...
Reviewed by David Coleman
I was sceptical about all the predictions made about the internet changing the way we buy music and still am. I know I'd sooner have stuff on CD than on MP3's - It's much more permanent. But the internet has a lot to offer for artists and listeners.
So you're a musician - maybe you're in a band or just messing around making a few home recordings on your own? Either way, the internet can be a valuable tool in bringing your sounds to the masses. There are an increasing number of companies springing up to help the artist, but the best I've came across is MP3.com. Just go to www.mp3.com and you'll see why.
Sign your band/project up in ten minutes and upload songs for free and with no restrictions (i.e. it doesn't matter if it's shite, not commercial etc.). They even give you a webpage, make CD's for you and seel them on your site. The deal with that is they get 50% of the sales but don't charge for production - a damn site better than most record companies let the artist get their hands on. All you need to get started is an MP3 of your own song.
A Stats Page even lets you find out how many people have downloaded or previewed your song, looked at your site, or if you're lucky, bought your CD's (which you can design the cover art and choose track listing for!). Loads of people are taking advantage of this and their have been success stories already. I've even indulged - Go to www.mp3.com/thedisorder to have a listen! If you're musical, there's no reason why you shouldn't sign up - you retain the rights, can pull out at any time, it's catch free, and rewarding!
So maybe you aren't making music, but you still want to hear new stuff right? Unsigned doesn't mean shit, and there is something for everyone on the internet. MP3's of all sorts of bands are on MP3.com which you can download for free. To play them, you need an MP3 player such as Winamp. This is very easy to find - just do a search...
You can also buy CD's of your favourite bands for cheaper prices at online stores such as CDNOW (www.cdnow.com) - just have a browse around for the bargains. The possibilities are limitless. There's loads I haven't mentioned - bootlegs (remember, they're illegal kids...), live MP3's, Upcoming Band Info, and even online E-zines like ours!
Another new section this issue in a bid to keep No Ripcord fresh rather than letting it sink into the same mould week in, week out. Many of you will be guitarists or bassists of varying standards and this section aims to teach you a "classic riff" that might impress your friends (or not as the case may be). For our first one, Daytripper by the Beatles. I saw a busker playing this riff in the street with a crowd of people gaping in amazement round him but it's not really that difficult.
D -----------------2--0-----4----0--2--
A --------------2--------2----2--------
E ---0----3--4-------------------------
What? No Band Of The Fortnight? Yes that's right, we couldn't be bothered this issue so here's a nice V99 review for you. A big thanks to Harriet who took the time to write it and safe us some work in the process.
The first band on the main stage are Ireland's Saw Doctors. Their cheerful folk-rock suits the sunny afternoon and despite the unfamiliar tunes they go down reasonably well with the crowd. The Cardigans are a pleasant surprise to me, as I've never been particularly into their music. Nina Perrson has an incredible voice and they play all the crowd-pleasers ("Lovefool", "My Favourite Game") plus some less familiar album tracks, making a very good set. Gomez are pleasant enough, I suppose, in a lazy-summer -afternoon-nothing-decent-on-the-second-stage kind of way, and when Tom Gray hands over the vocals to "that other bloke" they are even on the verge of becoming something special. I can't help thinking that this would be a worthwhile permanent change.
In a desperate bid to avoid Cast and the Happy Mondays (who I later hear were fantastic, but some people will tell you anything) I go to the second stage to see Gay Dad. Surprisingly, they are very good; their energetic songs suit the atmosphere well and there is a small but enthusiastic mosh-pit. While singer Cliff Jones commands attention with his rock star poses and anti-Placebo mini-tirade (" later we'll be performing a medley of Brian Molko's hit"), guitarist Charley deserves a mention for being the weekend's only musician who is actually smaller than her instrument!
The Stereophonics are, of course, slickly professional and hugely enjoyable, despite the over-familiarity of their formulaic rock. The crowd go wild for every song, particularly "The Bartender and the Thief", "A Thousand Trees" and "Traffic"; it seems the Stereophonics are the band of the moment. For some reason, people leave in droves before Suede take the stage. Perhaps they think that Suede are no longer very good, but on the evidence of tonight's performance, they're very wrong. The new songs grind and snarl; Brett prowls the stage; they play "metal Mickey" and "Animal Nitrate"; and for their final song they do "Saturday Night", Brett sprawled in a chair, fag in hand. Tonight, Suede are perfect.
The first band I see on Sunday is the Levellers, and they are hugely disappointing. From where I am the sound is terrible; no one appears to recognise any of the songs, and the incitements to riot for which I had been hoping appear to be bypassed altogether. Supergrass are another band that I know little about, but they play an energetic set and are very good. And they finish with "Caught By The Fuzz", the only song of theirs I know. Excellent.
I'd been looking forward to The Beautiful South, but though most other people seem to think they're brilliant, they make little impression on me. Paul Heaton's "dancing" is hugely annoying, and the songs are too familiar to listen to for any length of time. I'd rather listen to a CD, where you have time to enjoy the bitter lyrics but can switch it off when the sugary melodies become too much.
After a long delay (how long can it take to tune a bass guitar?) Manic Street Preachers finally take the stage. Despite criticisms that they have become just another indie-rock band, tonight they are leaner, meaner and better than they've been in a long time. Nicky wears a skirt and heckles the crowd like he used to; James holds a rose in his teeth; and best of all, they play "Of Walking Abortion", ending with Nicky, hands on hips, screaming "WHO'S RESPONSIBLE? YOU FUCKING ARE" into the crowd with all the contempt he can muster. New song "Masses Against The Classes" stomps along and the crowd are delighted. The gig ends with James smashing his guitar, and once again the Manics are the band that changed people's lives.
Reviewed by Harriet Kirk.
Popular culture has made some bizarre figures celebrities but few come close to matching the sheer bemusment that a certain Stephen Morrissey brought on the nation in 1983.
Think about it. You're watching Top Of The Pops and some MOR figure like Paul Young has just went through his latest top 10 hit when suddenly a skinny guy with a huge quiff, a bunch of flowers stuck in his back jean pocket and wearing a hearing aid appears and starts singing lines like "I would go out to tonight/but I haven't got a stitch to wear". Ask anyone around at the time. You either loved it, went out and got a Morrissey haircut and matching black overcoat, or hated it and carried on listening to Wham.
A lot of you probably think Radiohead are a bit dark and Thom Yorke a bit miserable. Well, compared to Smiths, Radiohead are the house band on Playschool. With their debut album, Morrissey and a fantastically gifted guitarist named Johnny Marr penned 11 songs about loneliness, sex, jealously, resentment and any other "negative" emotion associated with being human, plus a chilling final song "Suffer Little Children", written about the Moors Murders which happened close to Morrissey's childhood home.
A hint: If you're favourite band is something like Younger Younger 28's, then you best stay away. You'll end up slashing your wrists in a fit of despair (maybe no bad thing eh kids??). However, if the rest of you like the idea of songs with titles such as "Miserable Lie", "Pretty Girls Make Graves" and "Still Ill" (with it's classic "Ask me why and I'll spit in your eye") then you owe to yourself to own this record. It probably won't make your life better - but hey! At least you'll know you're not the only sad, desperate bugger in the world.
This classic albums section was written (possibly for the final time) by Peter Mattinson. Feel free to contact him with any opinions or comments.
A certain music weekly's shocking review of Nojahoda's "Jahoda Witness". A remarkable likeness to the press release suggests perhaps the reviewer didn't exactly give the album the best of listens. I'd have expected it from one of our reviewers but not from the NME surely?
Next month, a Pink Floyd Special with 5 classic albums (including "Dark Side of The Moon" and "Wish You Were Here") reviewed! For Those of you who hate Pink Floyd (who probably number a fair few), they'll still be plenty on offer. Another classic riff - perhaps you've got a suggestion you want tabbed out? If so, e-mail us with it and me and Adam will do our best to work it out between us. Singles are coming in thick and fast too so they'll be loads of them reviewed, a few albums too - perhaps Gomez's new one if I get it in time.
