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June:
A big month for British music in general, even if not in terms of new releases.
It seems the British music industry is officially in recession. This is no
great surprise as it seems the powers that be have led it there over recent
years. A recent survey has shown that the average price of a CD album in
Britain is around £14.50 while in the USA, and most other places I gather,
it is nearer £8 or £9. Whether they like it or not, the present situation
and future is in the hands of the industry, not the record buying public.
There will surely have to be some sort of reform in favour of the fans before
there is any significant rise in sales. Don't hold too high hopes for this
from a group, or several groups of people intent on ripping as much money
out of the public as possible for as long as possible. Price rises over
the last few years have been astronomical, so that we can now be expected
on occasions to part with up to £16 for a relatively new release album, and
even the previously generous "mid price" tag rests at about a tenner. Not
only this, but the changes recently announced by CIN governing the
eligibility of singles for the national top 75 chart also seem designed to
ensure the punters pay more for less. From early July each single format must
be limited to 3 tracks and 20 minutes in length if it is to qualify -
effectively putting an end to the long standing tradition of 4-track EP's,
still favoured by many including chart regulars
Mansun
and
Embrace.
That the
rule covers remixes too could be a great blow to the dance music single -
previously containing up to 6 tracks lasting anything up to 40 minutes - and
could open the door for the release of hordes of overpriced remix albums.
Exactly what the world doesn't need!
Of course we would be very foolish to expect this cut in musical content
to be accompanied by a cut in price. Instead we will see the same amount of
music spread over many formats, each at the old overblown price. Expect to
see 3 part CD sets the norm before long (indeed already used by
Garbage
and
occasional others), which can only hasten the killing off of cassettes and
vinyl as only 3 single formats are eligible for a chart placing.
CIN have said that the new ruling is not set in stone and could
be reversed if enough complaints are received, but following the
volume of the immediate outcry from music buyers are reluctant to
give out their correspondence address, leaving a lot of upset
people wondering where on earth they can complain to!
The drop in record sales has also led to a level of panic and
sudden caution among record companies, resulting in many cutting
the lower selling bands from their rosters. Even
Creation kissed
goodbye to
18 Wheeler and more recent signing
Howard Jones.
East West
were perhaps foolishly wary when they decided not to persevere
with
Rialto
and parted company with them.
China records didn't
think twice before snapping them up and their eponymous debut album
is now receiving good reviews everywhere. Biggest of all though is
the folding of the UK branch of major label
A&M,
home to
The Bluetones,
Therapy,
Dodgy and
Del Amitri to name but a few. No acts
will be dropped as a result but instead will be divided between
Polygram subsidiaries
Island,
Mercury and
Polydor.
There have been staff redundancies and such a sweeping change must represent a
sizeable cost cutting exercise.
So what are we left to hope for? A glorious new band stepping
from the shadows in some corner of the country to unite and re-inspire
a generation? A remarkably well financed independent label willing
to buck the trend and bring us quality new music in affordable
volumes? Seems unlikely, but people's passion for music cannot be
killed off and if the corporate stranglehold continues to tighten,
something along the line has got to give.
So, the good but overpriced and disappointingly low selling records
of this month? Not that many from the sorts of bands I'd usually be
listening out for.
Ian Brown
released the marvellous
Can't See Me
from his album. It's a warm, shuffling groove reminiscent of the best
chilled out moods captured by
The Stone Roses.
He may have almost cocked
it up on Top of the Pops (halfway through a line he realises it's not
quite time for the second verse), but that glitch aside it was all
sounding great! What then explains the lowly chart position of #21? Eh?
June, as many will well know, is exam time, bringing many hours sitting
in deep concentration with the radio filling up the background. This wider
than usual exposure to the charts opened up my ears, and this page, to the
multitude of summer pop hits making extended visits to the top ten. Defying
the tradition of most years they're mostly pretty good this time around and
none too annoying (except, of course, the Mavericks). Top of the charts was
the inescapably catchy
Feel It by
The Tamperer featuring Maya. It's a
rebuilding of the old
Jackson>'s
tune in case you couldn't guess, but a worthy
one - not least for its lovely use of tubular bells, a criminally ignored
instrument in pop (and almost everything else). There was also much puzzling over
the origin and meaning of the line "What's she gonna look like with a chimney
on her?" I can offer a couple of solutions I've heard. Firstly an old myth
or old-wives tale that the house of a woman committing adultery with an
already married man will fall down on her as some sort of retribution, and
secondly that "chimney" is a slang term for a body-bag.
Moving swiftly on to my personal favourite of the summer season so far,
The Corr's
cover version of
Fleetwood Mac's
Dreams.
This wasn't, like so many, nailed
into my head by repetitive radio plays, but happily lodged there after the
first one. It's a terrific song (this is all I have to judge it, not being
a fan of the Mac to any degree), covered in great style.
The Corr's
employ
traditional-type Irish instruments such as violins and tin whistle's to make
a catchy folk-pop type sound, and give it something extra with the addition
of synthesiser sounds kept on a tight leash. It all mixed together really nicely
to lie under the lovely
Andrea Corr's
beautiful voice. (She is quite amazing. I hate
to go off on the type of tangent usually reserved for pub-talk, but a friend and
I were quite transfixed when we saw them play on TV, and every time we played
it back. We were almost in danger of never watching or doing anything else again...
Having said that, I was accused by another friend of veering towards becoming
one of the faceless record buying public when I said I was buying it, and I know
exactly what he meant, but there are exceptions to everything... Perhaps a
longer explanation of that is needed but it'll have to wait.) It's fair to
point out too that we can't accuse them of carving out their success on the back
of a cover version since they've had a few of their own hit singles and have
sold millions of LP's. Expect to see a lot more of
Andrea,
and her almost equally
lovely sisters (and their brother
Jim I guess).
Summer fun came in the form of
Horny by
Mousse T Vs Hot'n'Juicy
- a wacky
in-your-face stomp on a subject you can surely guess. A top laugh, especially
to hear people everywhere spontaneously start humming the line "I'm horny, horny,
horny, horny, ba ba baaaA!" You get the picture...
Respect is due to that man there
Norman Cook
for knocking out his best tune yet
in the form of
The Rockafeller Skank.
Beat driven, infectious hooks arranged and
rearranged in grand style. It's deservedly
Fatboy Slim's
best chart performance
yet, but should have hung around a lot longer than the 7 weeks it did (it may
sound like a long time, but most of those were nearer the bottom end. Most
dance tunes become wearing but this delivers energy from start to finish.
Finally,
Embrace
were released upon us again, and it seems they're still on
something of an upward spiral. Latest single
Come Back to What You Know
exists in the same mood as its predecessor
All You Good Good People.
This, for me,
is something that was meant to be a powerful yet moving anthem collecting the insecure
and confused feelings inside all of us and delivering triumphant ones in return,
so that we might rejoice that this monumental group of musicians have come to
share feelings with us and make us feel it's all ok. Actually it's a bit listless and
up it's own *rse, and it's been done before anyway. What happened to rock'n'roll?? I
really liked
The Last Gas and
One Big Family,
but now they only want to show us how sensitive they really are. How boring...
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