ASE

 

subliminal sandwich
meat beat manifesto
no thing/in terscope

Meat Beat Manifesto... .
Strange creature. A hard one to pin
Hown. Aurally, a feast of flavours,
but . . . odd ones. No Western

uisine here. Strange, unexpected
astes, like boiling a Bantam
rooster in Kool-aid and soy sauce,
slathering w/ molasses, rolling in

ajun-spiced cotton candy and
frying in bacon grease and
chocolate syrup. All relatively
normal ingredients, but mixed in
an unusual way — these discs are
nlike anything you’ve ever eaten.
And for the most part, purty damn
tasty, hoss. Disc one is.....
paranoid post-apocalyptic
echnodub jungle boogie tattooed
tw/ lyrics lacking literal sense, no
eavy Meanings, just as often as
mot
repetitive>repetitive>repetitive>
speech-as-rhy-thm sonic loops: the
decipherable Jamaican Patois
dub rap of ‘Nuclear Bomb,’
pled and looped and tlockedt{
to a tribal chant, a technodub
mantra riding over a squared-off
*60s hipster funk beat that has
}ereevs™ stamped on it in big ole
psychedelic letters . . . brings to
mind white patent go-go boots,
orange-tinted wraparound bugeyes
fand...

- ,.. Smooth phaseshift to funkiest
backbeat — John Bonham
loosened up on Wild Turkey and
goofballs swinging the funk bat
hard and wide for ‘Long Periods of
Time,’ and I could go onandon but
I won’t because my editor has a

 

touch of the evil in ‘er, don’t you
know, and we must be very careful
about such things.

Disc two is soundscape territory.
Technoid synth musings of a
mathematical nature give way to
firecrackle sample and beautifully
eerie, ethereal strings —a
moonscape soundtrack, strange
beauty. Think: Bladerunner.
Think; Kitaro & Vangelis jamming
w/ members of Skinny Puppy and
Nine Inch Nails on the soundtrack
for a documentary about Ecstasy.

 

 

 

No lyrics, of course. Paint your
own picture. I’ve got mine, git yer
own. Mastermind Jack Dangers’
only explicit message turns up in
the CD liner notes — more
graphics than notes, really, those
arty odds and ends: photographic
slides of strangeness (complete w/
raw edge outside frame of shot an
the requisite grease pencil numbers
scrawled under each
pic); the inevitable
fisheye shots ::and:: I
almost forgot, the
Message, the Explicit
Message: “Buy, Sell,
Reproduce, Die.” Not
necessarily in that
order, of course.
Another bit of copy
worth noting is Mr.
Dangers’ wry
exhortation:
“Important: Play
twice before
listening.”

And now, the Big Critical
Judgement (which you may mock
freely, as you may any of the
above, please send all scorn and
ridicule to: E/ Pretensio, the
Overblown Nouveau-Boho
Wannabe, c/o the Other Press).
The Judgement: Subliminal
Sandwich is intriguing,
challenging, satisfying, both
cerebrally and physically. Far
better than the type of disc one
would rather listen to twice before
playing.

Richard Cheese

baltimore
nina simone
legacy/epic/sony

q This CD was nearly worn out
before the review was even

attempted.
Nina
Simone—
Jazz and
Blues artist,
storyteller,
and beautiful
woman—has
sung her way
into many,
many hearts
over the
years.

The title
track,
‘Baltimore’,
is one of the
most
enjoyable
songs she has
ever
performed.

She croons in ‘Music for Lovers’,
she dances on the sound vibrations

in ‘The Family’, and tops the
album off with the gospel tune ‘If
You Pray Right’.

Along with Simone’s
phenomenal voice, musical
backings including Will Lee and
Eric Gale shape up an album that

 

is well worth a listen, a purchase
and a keepsake. rachel young

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Other Press August 1996 13