w w V V u ww w w i _i Michiras '84 .. ........ ........ ............... ........................................... ............. .................t..................,....ti....................:::k: j'r k!!Si:: :4:'';:!?:!::C::i:: i:i"'fii: Saturday, March 10, you may be the lucky winner! Come and test your luck and skill in the casino and carnival booths. Win raffle tickets that may result in you becoming the proud owner of a Honda Aero 80. Come and party . . . all night long! pI I GET AROUND THE HIGH COST OF GETTING AROUND Laurie Laurie Anderson Mister Heartbreak Warner Bros. By Byron L. Bull P ERFORMANCE ARTIST Laurie Anderson, with the release of her second album Mister Heartbreak, has reached a level of technical and aesthetic finesse most songwriter/composers take years to reach. This unique collection of seven songs combines rich poeticism with strikingly original music for a captivating work that only sounds better under repeated listening. The last album I can recall that was this sophisticated and beautiful was Kate Bush's 1980 Never Forever, though Anderson's work here is far more audacious. "I like jagged music," Anderson commented in a recent interview, and her compositions do have a quirky boldness - one that may require a little time to get adjusted to. Her writing has a sly sense of whimsy to it, the lyrics are full of fast word play and suddenly dropped non-sequiturs. Quite often her lines lead off into unexpected tangents that defy immediate interpretation, being a series of cryptic images instead of straightforward narratives. Musically her style embraces both the avant-garde and pop, as an ap- pealing melody suddenly lurching into a burst of dissonance and then back into catchy hook. The result is a jarring eclecticism that is as challenging to the ear as it is pleasant - a fresh style that refuses to bow to convention. And while Big Science (her collection of songs from her theatrical magnum- opus United States I-IV) suffered from its austere polish, the material here has a new feeling of warmth and color. An- derson's voice is more resonant than before, as she swings from singing to rapping in her cooly sensuous voice. There are more imaginative uses of overdubs and distortion, and the beat is distinctly heavier. Some of the credit is due no doubt to the work of electric guitar virtuoso Adrian Belew and co- producer/bassist Bill Laswell (of New York's art-funk ensemble Material) who have brought their own unique trademarks to the material, giving it a swinging, at times jazz, flavor. In the opening track, "Sharkey's Day," Anderson delves into a territory that might be described as progressive pop-funk. Brightly syncopated and relentlessly rhythmic, this wild daydream of a desk-chained worker has an offbeat charm that, though a bit harsh, flows dynamically. Light!. Camera! Action! TIMBER!screams Anderson against a soulful but facetious female chorus, punctuated by Belew's extensive vocabulary of crackling feedback and distorted chord twanging. David Byrne sounds damn conservative by comparison. Anderson also displays a growing penchant for wonderful absurdism. For example, she envisions a Bradburyian forest of high-tech trees, where They grow to their full height and they chop themselves down. In "KoKoKu" she develops a lovely Japanese melody reminiscent of Y.MO. as she peers through the always swirling mist of time. Viewing the ef- facts of evolution both human and cosmic she approvingly sighs, They say man is taller now. Tall Man./They say the stars are closer now. Thank your lucky stars. That sounds deceptively simple, but it tends to linger in the mind, gaining depth the more one plays the song. Other songs like "Langue d'Amour" and "Blue Lagoon" (both from United States but revised) betray her fondness for romanticism. In the former we're related a parable about a brief affair between a lonely woman and a most en- chanted serpent, told with numerous uhs and let's sees interjected to give it the feel of a hastily improvised cam- pfire tale. The latter is a hazy, sensual note-in-a-bottle from some lost tropical island. Amid the paradisical depiction of endless hot days and midnight swims in a lagoon, she injects Ariel's song from The Tempest, and the inclusion is seamless, against the whispers of muf- fled synths and distant steel drums. Conversely, this album also contains Anderson's most provocative piece to date, "Gravity's Angell." Starting with a sole high-pitched bell (shades of Pen- derecki) it slowly swells with sporadic bursts of synths, drums, and guitars, forming a primitive, haunting canon ef- h. JA U/I 1R' A k I-- ---- - ------- ----- --.- Anderson: Inspired tunes Whether shopping, commuting or just soaking up sun, the Aero 80 is the economical way to make it all fun. A stingy 80 cc two-stroke engine gets the most out of every gallon of gas, while still providing plenty of zip. Plus, an electric start, automatic choke and automatic oil injection make it as de- pendable as it is easy to handle. fect,.laced with an eerie Peter Gabriel backup vocal. Its images are grim and sardonic, full of dark irony and despair. Such as the funeral of a friend (so ugly Even God got sad looking at him) where the thoughts of the mourners are more concerned with the ham and cheese sandwiches in the next room. The last stanza contains this night- marish scene: Well we were just lying there/And this ghost of your former lover walked in./And stood there. Made of thin air. Full of desire. No less fascinating is the "Excellent Birds" duet sung with and co-authored by Peter Gabriel. Sparsely arranged, it draws its power from the delicate shading of the vocal harmonies, and a deft Linn drum program under a simple but evocative eight-note Synclavier motif that strongly bears Gabriel's signature. Lyrically the song is pic- turesque but thematically obscure - a seemingly subconscious flowing of images and impressions that is less concrete while m both sho polyrhyth register,; writing w so the ble The s video, h quality. The on "Sharkey the slurr son's or William in the ki delivery ting in a phasizing appearar of preter derson's need of on spiring al /J 't I Li AeroM 80 c1 " xSPORES i(di KrEK . A In addition to our extr we are now announcir 1 I - r - ; , ,I be NICHOLSON ENTERPRISES, INC. 769-9815 THE FRIDAY NIGHT SPECIA Tonight between five and nine we will COUS COUS - a famous Moroccan dish of exotic spices over a bed of Coust Served with specialty salad and de 558 4405 Jackson Rd. E t~t Mlt now!l Mon.-Thur. 7-6 Fri. 7-9; Sat. 7-5 14 Weekend/Friday, March 9, 1984. 3 Weeke