- There’s a mind and I just heard room full of ghosts ghosts are all course, there are than the courageous examination worked and will work for those and will, but this encouraged: Take swear its fine. Beyond the variously death-ageing thread sewn into the fabric the songs, Brave tains Wet B’Ionket, The Chill Blue, ingly, haunting particular, Night Blue- contains one lines which so perfectly my own sentiments of a Jungian collective cious seems not but necessary: It’s the night of the I’d like to say how But it’s all been said I try to say it new then I’II say it wrong. Courageous and ate, *hard and’ soft, cold, Brave Word8 premely accomplished modern pop. Martin unique lyrical construct The Chills’ non-linear structures which form music of potency and resonance.
by Paul Done Imprint staff
,
It haa taken seven years and 10 different versions of the group but, joy! bliss! capture! The Chills first album is here! After a series of singles (compiled onto the soon-t o-be-reissued Kai&ioscope World), the bizarre, fractured Lost EP and a couple more singles, Brave Word8 has been released with the most stable lineup The Chills have had and with Martin Phillipps songwriting powers at their finest. As it is Brave $Vords stands as the finest, most fully realized pop LP so far in 1987. Though the album includes thrashy rave-. ups and swirling bits of gloominess, the majority of the music on the LP is ringing, bright antiodean pop. Martin Phillipps’ Pyrics evoke various shades of specific uncertainty - about love, about death, about the human condition(-ing?]. No small part of the reason that The Chills have taken so long to reach this stage is the fact that they have been hidden away in their home of New Zealand for much of their career, visiting Eu-
by Peter Stathopulos Imprint staff
I
There’s a .Cali coming odt of the California music scene and it’s growing louder. This W&t Coast band is carving out its own distinctive sound. This nine-song package, Into The Woods, is their best effort so far. The album has a cofisistent unity to it tind contains wellwritten tunes that aren’t weakened by inferior production or inappropriate arrangements. A jgy to l&ten to from first to last. Most of the songs sound like anthems, Even love songs are played and sung as if they were the last love songs in the world. They begin with a synth melody that continually haunts the % background while the guitars and drums echo variations and the solemn voice of MichaelBeen steps in and grabs the lead. This use of the synthesizer creates a mysterious, haunting quality in songs like Too Many Tears, Memory, and the title track,The / woods. The Call use some standardpractice musical ideas, but they get away with it because they do it effectively. The introductory bass riffs on Expecting and In The River aye really sharp on
Chlllin’l rope infrequently* Further, they have only been to North America once last July, during which they played three ahows - two in New York City and one in Boston. (For a review of one of the N.Y.C.‘shows anda North Ame&an-exclusive interview, scavenge a copy of’ the July 24 Imprint) Their press coverage outside their home New Zealand has been minimal, at best. There could not have been a
by Chris Imprint
Wodskou staff
The Wedding Present . . . sounds pretty inhocuous, huh? Sorta like Myron, Floren jemming with Perry Como with The Happy Wanderer on the flip side, eh? Guess agaiin, kids! T.he Wedding Present’s umpteenth single release is one heckuva corker, another three staccato bursts of adrenaline rush from these*British indie chart god8 who should once and for all transcend the legions of so-called shambly popsters who play their guitars fast and, uhm, shambly. Put on the A-side and flail about to a.three-minute blast of glorious amphetamine guitar that would do e olde Buzzcocks proud: I thoug 3:t I was gonna be able to write one of those “Boy, this record sounded great - and
better’ title for this album than Brave Words. Now that the frivolity and lightness have been drained from the lyrics, the focus upon death and pain has sharpened - even since Pink’ Frost, which may still stand as The Chills finest moment. Martin Phillipps stands straight end courageous in his clear, thoughtful examination of fears of death and fears of ageing - fears wh?ch lie within us, well-en-
tombed and hidden through years of dFnia1 and avoidance. He pries open the doors of our own uncertainty - not with the callousness of a intruder, but with the encouragement to confront and come to an understanding, or an acceptance, of our ghosts within. “Ghosts” is certainly how Martin Phillipps views these deeply buried fears and stigmas
then I found out that the turntable was on 45” ’ reviews, but y’see., Anyone Can Make A Mb take is a 45. Don’t get the idea that this is just some wild, undisciplined speed buzz, t bough; these guitars ring and chime with a manic op sense and crunchingly per Pect guitar riffs whilst a non-manic depressive Ian Curtis-styJe singer carries a propulsive tune that’s pretty darned catchy in its own atonal way. How The Wedding Present; keep these songs in one piece at this pace without everything flying off in a millioqdifferent dii rections is a mystery to me, but I’m no? gonna argue with results like this. AII About Eve and Getting Nowhere Fast on the flip aremore of the same - impossibly fast atid frenzied pop that’s closer td 1978’s Buzzcocks/Undertones pop-punk heyday in spirit and sheer excitement than a whole indi_e chart full of jangle-pop and goth-clones. If yer blood’s justa boiling for some brilliant, aggressive pop, try pumping summa this into yerself intravenously for a great fix,
WORK FOR ARTS! an incredibly bland way. The: rein lies the problem: the album lacks anything to grip on to; it is completely devoid of both feeling and intensity; it begsfor airplay in Muzak-possessed ‘telephones. The musicians don’t milk any emotion from their in-
Compiled
by Ed Draqs
‘The following venue8 show obrcure and mord.welbknown cam u8 and nearby. If ou huve a free night (hah) go bre !i or as QD enjoya 3:le form of education. If ym (cheap] films happening in the area, Jet me know, c/o Enjoy yourself, you hear? FED FLICKS FEDERATION
(FF), Am
Lecture
IiaM
116 ($1 Fgda,
HALL,
CINEMA GRATIS
(Free. Phons 888-4090 to confirm.] [CG], Campus Centre (Free with
ST. PAUL’S KITCHENER
’
(STP), French Loutige (In French only. PUBLIC LIBRARY [KPL), Queen & WLU-SU FILMS, Student Union Bldg. lEl($S.88 WLU, (Not SU) Arts Building 2E7 Free.) PRINCESS CINEMA, 8 Prince88 St. ($2.75 Members, GORGE CINEMA, 4$ Mill St., Elo~aJ@&a&ers, FRIDAY,
OCTOBER
16:
FF The Killing Field8 at 7&8. FED HALL - No movie@. (Oktoberfest. Free. WLU-SU Witches of Eastwick (i.men are sue h . ..) STP I)iva (En francois, sur video.) e 18h30. PRINCEASS The French Connection (5 Oscars) at 7, Sid and Nancy (love [?I story)‘at &lo.
SATURDA~OCTOBERifi
FF The Killing Field8 at 789.. PRINCESS m& Dayb (d: Woody The French Conaection
A~I, 1987.) at’ (USA, 1978) at