Catch a Fire : Bob Marley and the Wallers.

To cut the crap-talk short. I think reggae is the revolution, and Bob Marley is great. To most of the raggae fans Bob Marley is raggae.

Catch a Fire is a 1973 Bob Marley and the Wailers recording which wasn't released here until the recent phenomenal success they had with "Natty Dread' which was one of last year's best sellers, world wide. There isn't a single dud track in 'Catch a Fire', all of them are just fantastic. This is one re record that is a must to all reggae fans and also strongly recommended to those who haven't heard reggae before. The real raw music of Jamaica - the way it should be.

The most popular tracks are "Stir it up" (Johnny Nash took it to No.1 - remember?) and "Baby we're got a date". Both written by Bob Marley himself, like the rest of the tracks, other than for "400 years" and "stop that train" by Peter Mackintosh the keyboards player. The introduction to all the tracks alone, I believe, is well worth the while you spend on listening to it. Especially "Concrete Jungle" and "Baby ve we've got a date". "Slave Driver" (from which the theme "Catch a Fire" is taken) is also another fantastic track.

Listen to the lyrics, listen to the beat, the rhythm, shit man these guys sure do know what they are doing.

Lots of people hold the false impression that reggae is a load of repitious off-beats. It's not man! (I guess its like saying all the classical music sounds the same). Once you get into it, and once you are familiar with the beat, you will notice how each track stands out on its own. There is the steady instrumentation and the constant repetition of the back beat coupled with the beautiful vocals of Bob Marley. "Catch a fire" are reggae songs at their best.

All you Eric Clapton fans who think that his version of the reggae guitar is good, should compare him to Bob Marley. Do you wanna guess who's influenced whom? What about Elton John's "Jamaica Jerk-off". Led Sep's "D'yer Ma'ker" If you like them, you gonna like Bob Marley and the Wailers even better.

It's no use me raving on about reggae but I think Bob Marley and the Wailers are incredible and you ought to seriously consider listening to their music. Once you get into it, you won't come out of it -believe me.

- Hemal

Get Closer : Seals & Crofts

"Get Closer" is quite a nice album without much to offer in the way of imaginative music. After listening to it once I thought it was quite nice, after a second time I still thought it was nice, but also boring.

Now, I realise that Salient's reviews pages are always full of reviews of boring records, which go through records track by track telling you how nice, but also how boring each track is. I could do that too but I have decided to do something startlingly different in the field of record reviews. I'm not really sure what would be startling in this respect, so I think I'll sit back for a few minutes and think about what to write....

She has just spilt a cup of coffe all over the front of her skirt and it is now dribbling down the side of her legs and collecting in a pool on the floor. The liquid gradually begins to disperse as it soaks into the carpet, leaving a brownish coloured stain.

"I'll get a rag" says one enterprising young man as he disappears into the kitchen while the sun slowly sinks below the hills, leaving its yellow, orange, red and purple tinges on the fluffy little cirro-cumulus clouds suspended above the horizon (See! I'll bet you never thought I knew a word like that, did you?).

Eventually he comes back into the room with the rag setting his mind to the task of mopping up the carpet. He soon turns his attention to the young woman who is still soaking wet. He gently places his hand on her knees and drifts up her skirt towards the milky-white flesh above the fish-net stockings she is wearing, and, when he has finally attained his goal, that place he had been longing for - he wipes up the coffee which is sitting there.

At this point the record finishes "Quite pleasant background music" I think to myself as I change the record to something a little more appealing. Get Closer is going to be a strong contender for the 2ZB Breakfast Show Stakes, so if you like that kind of thing, then by all means go and buy it - otherwise leave Seals and Crofts alone until they stop following their little commercial success formula, and produce something more imaginative.

- John Bowden

(I think you could have done something more imaginative than a poor imitation of Henry Miller. I think we would all have preferred to know about the boring tracks instead of boring chauvinism -Typesetter)

Jean Luc Ponty : Aurora, Atlantic

Jean-Luc Ponty is the man who, for me, made Mahavishnu Orchestras "From the Emerald Beyond" such an exemplary contemporary record The violinists stay with the Orchestra was a short and stormy one; he once commented to New Musical Express that the thing he disliked about John McLaughlin and his orchestra was that everything and to be played at such a pace as to make a cheetah seem slow!

So it comes as no surprise that on this, his second solo effort, there is an infusion, of quiet and serene music, (much like "Pastoral" from "The Emerald Beyond") and much quicker up tempo music.

Ponty was born in 1942 in Normandy, the sone of a violinist, so it is no wonder that young Jean should find interest in that instrument. His interest has blossomed to find him now in the enviable position of No.1 violinist in Jazz/Rock circles today. But he was originally a classically trained violinist, and the classical feel shines through in his well bred playing.

The problem of playing in a jazz group with a violin has been overcome by utilizing electric amplification. The result of his classical training fused together with electric jazz is to perform some of the most joyful music.

Around him, Ponty has a band of considerable talent; Parryl Stuermer is an accomplished guitarist, Patrice Rushen, the new keyboardist, finds plenty of room and versatility within the framework of Ponty's music. Tom Fowler (bass) and Norman Fearrington from the nucleus of a most flexible rhythmn section.

The many varying talents of Ponty and his backers are best displayed by contrasting the first two tracks of this record, "Is Once Enough" and "Renaissance"; "Is Once Enough" starts a cracking pace that features a particularly fine solo from Stuermer with Ponty's violin offering many differing high and low points; the contrast being sharp while the music continues at a blazing pace.

"Renaissance" on the other hand is serene and peaceful relying heavily on Ms Rushens electric piano to underpin it. Ponty's violin is quiet and complements beautifully the tender acoustic playing of Darryl Stuermer. Here the acoustic guitar is strummed and picked quickly and yet it fits in with the very happy feel which the piece radiates. This is a piece of ensemble playing that is so tight in its unity yet so fluid in that it allows perfectly for the solo.

"Aurora - Part 1" sees a return to the wailing plaintive violin, perfectly controlled, that made Ponty such a vital musician on Mahavishnus "Emerald Beyond"; his playing here is not just a return to that style, but an improvement on it; the never ending search for perfection it you wish.

Yet to me, much of this music has a familiar ring to it, "Passenger of the Dark", which opens side two, has a definite Mahavishnu Orchestra feel. It's as definite as the rising sun. So it seems that even though Jean-Luc Ponty and John McLaughlins personalities weren't exactly compatible, that two are of such stature, that a little bit of each other couldn't help but have rubbed off on both.

Yet at the same time Ponty has also stuck to his guns and written some more melodically quieter numbers. "Lost Forest" in particular is in this mould; it is an almost intense number and yet, through Patrice Rushens keybaords in particular, a warm feeling is radiated.

"Between you and me" is more into the realms of contemporary Jazz/Rock and the room it offers for improvisation is vast. Once again Ponty uses his imaginative violin work to evoke various feelings through both fast and quiet bow work. "Waking Dream" brings Aurora to a close in a most serene manner.

There are some intriuging points to "Aurora". There is definitely a strong Mahavishnu feel, and one gets the clear impression that Jean-Luc Ponty went through many changes during his stay with John McLaughlin. But I don't think that is at all bad. In fact, if you're in for listening changes may I suggest "Aurora"? Just put up your feet, boil some coffee, relax and listen ....

- Grant Cairncross

Jean Luc Ponty performs tonight in the Town Hall with the musicians used in "Aurora". This should be a spectacular and unique opportunity to see the world's best rock violinist.

Public $7 Students $6 Book at DIC and maybe door sales.

To the Hilt - by Golden Earring

1975 Red Bullet Production : $7.50

Golden Earring originally came in on the first wave of Dutch rock to hit the English-speaking market along with Focus, Exception and others. In the past they have used material by other people e.g. their extended version of "Eight Miles High" which was originally written and performed by The Birds.

After hearing 'To the Hilt" I'd say there's tons of inherent interest in the group which does not always get a free run. Right now they're like a bowl of too many ingredients, and in the scramble to be heard it is the "boss" people like Barry Hay, the drummer, and the organist, who are hogging the limelight. Yet when Bongers and Kalf are given a fair go they lend a track of beautiful, solf, tone that threads itself acceptably into the basic rock of drums, guitar, and vocal moaning. Nowhere is this clearer than in 'Sleepwalkin' which is about a fella who falls in love and the old world gets very unwieldly for him: the track starts with a cheeky, bouncey, combination of guitar and drums; the lyrics are humourously sarcastic, e.g.

Don't panic - we're on the Titanic
and
I've never felt this way I'm supposed to be skilled in the
game
Once again, it goes to show
You fall into the trap of love
before you know

and the track goes out on some easy-listening sax backed by trumpet. This is the best track, and is a fine example of what can happen when they use all their muscles.

The other side-two tracks "Latin Lightnin" and "Violins" also try something new. "Latin Lightnin" bounds off to a racy start, then stops dead, and a throaty whisper says......

Oh baby, come see me dance tonight

...then the track races on again. However, these experiments tend to be rare, and the group invariably outplays its lyrics either by limiting the vocals to mere patches, playing so loud you can't hear the words, or singing in an almost identicle key to the backing so that you can hardly tell which is which.

Why does a $7.50 album hardly ever entail a copy of the words? This is a pity because occasionally you catch something interesting, as in "Violins" where a street music man receives "the smiles of people passing" who write about him in the paper

except they found him dead
his bow had made him bad, friends

Side One illustrates the emotional monotony of the group, especially in the lyrics department. All the lyrics announce a cheesed-off, betrayed, cynical, attitude to life, maybe because the lyric writing is in the hands of Barry Hay whose girlfriend burnt down his house last year. "Why Me?" speaks of rejection, and a person who crashes their car into the end of a street "to find out what's behind that wall". The sardonic "Facedancer" orders the listener......

Take that frown from your face
You're looking good when you smile

......which could be told to the group itself. But there is often a touch of humour though morbid humour e.g. on the track "To the Hilt"

One day you're tied and gagged to
the railway tracks
hear the humming of the wheels
feel the wheels right across your neck

However, even when the words are depressive, the actual music is often off on a track of its own, with an urgent invigorating quality peculiar to itself, It's good, easy-going music, just great when you're with yourself in the corner one night, and the smile of Buddha on your face.

- Martin Doyle