NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS : 30 January 1988
NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS : 30 January 1988
El Salvador! Nicaragua! Ethiopia! and South Africa! /
The sheer frustration / Of an arrogant nation /
It's Shee-aagh, ney-ked aggrrrrression!!!
(Sheer, Naked Aggression')
It's the splendid isolation of this Sino-Australian duo - well, they're
actually a trio again, with the addition of Karina Hayes on 'additional'
vocals - that allows SPK to retain their artistic dignity when perpetrating
the otherwise unforgivable: the bellowing of political tract over a modishly-syncopating
drum machine and sequencer.
From being torchbearers in the metal dance renaissance in the early
'80s, they managed to alienate their self-conscious noise disciples by
redefining their work along clean lines and writing state-of-the-art pop/dance
songs. It was their candid eccentricity and under-or-overstated irony which
also kept them from a life of popular-designer-acceptance.
'Digitalis Ambigua...' finds them still in a state of magnificent exile.
Strains of the 'Machine Age Voodoo' era still cling - the carefree, electro-simplicity
of 'Breathless' is a detached affair with conventional western pop melodiousness
and rushing-headlong choruses. You get the feeling they just did it to
show how easy it is. 'Hand To Mouth' which follows it is also a reflection
of bygone days but it's one where the message strains too much to complement
the medium.
The side is the theme setter and stakes out new textures in their work.
The sounds are created by - or at least emulate - what I fondly believe
to be Oriental/Pacific Islands type woodwind and xylophonic instruments,
backed up by field recordings of non-Western human chants. These pieces
are then set into a political context by use of spoken cut-ups (thankfully,
used minimally and therefore to best effect). 'White Island' illustrates
the destruction of Bikini Atoll, with a poignant over-vocal from Sinan
making the whole concept commercially hum-able. Graeme Revell's talent
for making grandiose yet basic sound (viz the other-worldly sampled orchestras
on 'Sheer, Naked Aggression') is actually outweighed by his under-used
gift for setting out crystalline melodies.
The most endearing aspect of SPK is their humanity and freedom from
dogma (artistic and political). They are neither overtly male (often a
fault in this field) nor obviously female in their approach - even when
Graeme bellows his discontent with the world really loudly, he sounds
like a merging of Baden-Powell and a piqued Mysteron. They're in a world
of their own.
(8)
