THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 7, 1995 TAG: 9501060063
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: ALBUM REVIEWS
SOURCE: BY MARK MOBLEY, MUSIC CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
ROBERT ALTMAN'S ``Ready to Wear'' is more ready to hear than ready to watch. Most of the overlong film's brightest moments are its loudest, when models saunter down Paris runways to fashionable dance music.
The soundtrack (Columbia) is more fun than the film. It leads off with Ini Kamoze's ``Here Come the Hotstepper,'' a loping dancehall track with funny rhymes. The song's brief appearance - in the deep background, no less - is something of a disappointment. Salt-N-Pepa's ``Here We Come'' has a similar title and feel.
Supercat's cover of Fats Domino's ``My Girl Josephine'' is the ``Oh Carolina'' of the season. Sam Phillips' cover of ``These Boots Are Made For Walkin' '' is more faithful but less amusing than the one by Norfolk band Buttsteak. ``Supermodel Sandwich'' is a trippy rock song from Terence Trent D'Arby.
Two notable remixes are a gorgeous reworking of the Cranberries' ``Pretty'' and an amazing nine-minute, technoesque version of U2's ``Lemon'' by Paul Oakenfold. The Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson and The New Power Generation (the former Prince outfit) also contribute tracks.
The song that gets the most screen time isn't on the disc. The final scene and end credits roll over Grace Jones' languid cover of ``La vie en rose.'' It's one of the most memorable dance singles of the '80s, and it's available on Jones' greatest-hits compilation, ``Island Life.''
For a scene featuring designer Issey Miyake, Altman selected the year's quirkiest world music hit, ``Twiggy Twiggy/Twiggy vs. James Bond'' by Pizzicato Five. It is a perky tune about hanging around the house, sung in breathy Japanese over a ``Hawaii 5-O'' sample. Whenever it turns up on the radio it is, in its own clever way, as unfailingly fresh-sounding as ``All I Wanna Do.'' The end is a joke: James Bond as Lawrence Welk.
On its extremely happy album ``Made in USA'' (Matador), this three-member band sounds like a cross between Betty Boo and nouveau cocktailers Combustible Edison. Lite retro jazz and evocations of '60s pop sit beside dance tunes and quiet-storm numbers.
The Pizzicato Five disc isn't the only Japanese release worth checking out. Shoukichi Kina makes rootsy rock and dance music. His ``Jing Jing'' rose to No. 2 on the British dance charts in 1980, though its most prominent instrument is the plingy, banjo-like shamisen. His vocals have a kabuki growliness and his songs have bounce and drive. Thirteen of them from the last 30 years are included on ``Peppermint Tea House: Asia Classics 2'' (Luaka Bop). Ry Cooder guests on slide guitar. Recommended.
The Boredoms' 1993 EP ``Super Roots'' (Reprise) is filled with studio tricks and wacky songlets. The band sounds sometimes like a bunch of kids fooling around, and sometimes like a demented Japanese incarnation of the brilliant American joke-funk band Ween (or even local performance artists Buttsteak).
Producer and synthesizer wizard Ryuichi Sakamoto is best known in the U.S. for composing the scores to such films as ``The Last Emperor'' and ``Little Buddha.'' His low-key ``Sweet Revenge'' features guest vocals by Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera, Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and a handful of performance artists, hip-hop poets and club kids. For all their exotic resumes, the singers - with the exception of Frame - are mostly bland. But the record has a pleasant dreaminess. MEMO: To hear this week's releases, dial 640-5555. Press 2468.
by CNB