The Michigan Daily - Friday, January 24, 1986-- Page 9

Records
sun-City
Artists United Against
Apartheid - Sun City
Manhattan)
Famine relief is politically safe.
This is not to suggest that it is not an
gportant, generous gesture, but the
Mists who participated in USA for
Africa, Live-Aid, and Band-Aid over-
sme only personal selfishness. Un-
tetunately, apartheid is a political
Iot potato. While the problems facing
riutims of political oppression in
South Africa are potentially every bit
4pressing as those faced by famine
" .tims, the artists who united to
eate Sun City were taking a stand
gainst, among others, our current
presidential administration. Many
Mrtists who participated in the ...... -
jd projects were asked to par-
gipate, many refused.
wFamine relief is easy to do. One
aeed only overcome one's own
Wlfishness. Political protest requires
fUmiliarity with issues, a willingness
to-face criticism for taking a position
which will probably be unacceptable
to a significant portion of one's peers
and countrymen. By contrast, no
reasonable person opposes aid to
Ethiopian famine victims. Or to put
things another way, no one is going to
award Little Steven a Nobel Prize for
putting together Sun City, but Bob
Geldof has a shot.
While artists on Sun City don't
carry the same "Entertainment
Tonight" star-points as those in-
volved in any of the .....-Aid projec-
ts, the album boasts unparallelled
diversity.
The old guard is represented by Bob
Dylan, a pair of Rolling Stones, Ringo
Starr, and Peter Townshend. Rappers
include Afrika Bambaataa, Run
DMC, and Kurtis Blow. Top-40 stars
like Bono, Bruce, Hall and Oates, and
Pat Benatar are present. Jazz fans
can thrill to the terrific horn work of
Miles Davis. Punk is represented by
Stiv Bator and Joey Ramone. There's
a lot more too. Literally something
for everyone who likes any of the
popular music from the past thirty
years. No other record will ever
feature Lou Reed and the Fat Boys
,Ade-by-side.
Go to a record store, grab this
record, look at the artists involved,
and a few favorites will probably
Jump out. Their involvement in this
project is a bald-faced attempt to get
you, their fan, to buy this record.
Many of them contribute only one
musical phrase, but their presence,
their name on the label, means they
want you to buy this record. This sen-
timent should mean something, but it
probably isn't enough to draw seven
bucks from a wallet.
The surprise for me, is that Sun City
does not fall back on the fact that it is
for a good cause, and it does not rely
on the names to sell the record. It is a
,cohesive, linked whole, working
,within a range of styles to create a
unified, aesthetically satisfying
album, with an identifiable flow and
consistent musical quality.
The title song is a 'powerhouse of im-
B-stuff
They're low-budget, they're
unusual and they're rarely seen in
Ann Arbor. For movie buffs or for
people who just want a little
change of pace, B-movies are
finally coming to the University.

Eyemediae Showcase will be
sponsoring three nights devoted to
B-movies. On Monday January
27th at 8 p.m., The Offenders,
starring John Lurie (Stranger
Than Paradise) and Lydia Lunch,
will be shown. The Offenders is
written, directed and produced by
Scott and Beth B., as was Letters
To Dad, which will be shown on
Wednesday, February 5th at 8
p.m. After the showing of Letters
To Dad, Beth will hold a
'discussion. Black Box and The
Trap Door, also brain children of
Scott and Beth B., will be shown on
Monday, February 10th at 8 p.m.
"lack Box, The Trap Door and The
'Offenders will be shown at
Eyemedia, 214 N. Forth. Letters
To Dad will be shown at
Auditorium A in Angell Hall. All
1movies are $3.


passioned singing and thunderous
percussion. It is rousing, a direct stab
at the policies of the Botha gover-
nment and the Reagan ad-
ministration's ineffectual stance on
South Africa. I wish that Steven Van
Zandt had been more confident of the
original, and not hedged his bets by
including a remixed "Sun City" for
AOR stations, as I think everyone's
capable of appreciating the street-
beat version. Thenagain, I'm a sucker
for the guitar lick in version II.
Darlene Love established herself as a
vocal force on the order of Tina Tur-
ner, Aretha Franklin, and Patti
LaBelle on both versions. Listen for
her.
Peter Gabriel's "No More Apar-
theid" is a sweeping, orchestrated,
mantra-like piece. "Revolutionary
Situation" is a newsreel rap song that
puts Paul Hardcastle's "19" to
shame. "Let Me See Your I.D." inter-
cuts superior rapping with casual-
but-powerful reminiscences by Gil
Scott-Heron. "The Struggle Con-
tinues" is fusion, with excellent work
by Miles Davis and Stanley Jordan.
Bono, Keith Richards, and Ron
Woods, combine on the swamp-bluesy
"Silver and Gold."
Somehow it all fits together, in a
way that Prince and Kenny Rogers
didn't on the USA for Africa record.
"Sun City" opens its listeners to its
mix of styles, makes the diverse
unite, creates order from disparity.
There are too many good reasons to
buy this record. It is the most painless
way I can imagine to do something for
oppressed South Africans. The record
is immensely satisfying - an easy
ticket to an appreciation of some of
the finest artists currently making
music. It is an education - genuinely
powerful, genuinely political, balan-
cing anger and frustration with hope.
At Live-Aid, Joan Baez told the
crowd that the concert was "your
Woodstock." Woodstock was not
philanthropic. Woodstock was an ex-
pression of social and political unity,
a committment to change a morally
bankrupt social order. In many ways
Sun City represents an evolution from
Woodstock, an extension of the
general concept to a global level, with
generalities replaced by direct
statements and actions. All that Sun
City needs now is popular support.
Provide it.
-John Logie

Front 242 & Revolting Cocks
12" (Wax trax)
Front 242 are a Belgian band who
work out of Chicago for Wax Trax.
Revolting Cocks are a project com-
prising Front 242's percussionist and
Belgium "mega-star" Luc Van Acker
who played guitar on Shriekback's
second LP. Front 242 shows im-
provement over most of their debut
LP on this 12". Their combination of
repetitive, driving electronic beats
with chaotic and industrial synths has
its best workout on "Don't Crash."
The heavy dance beat takes over
moreso on "Funkahdafi," a beatbox
exercise featuring an introduction of
good ole Mommar. The B-side is a
much better mix of "Commando"
from the laboriously long LP version.
Revolting Cocks are an even better
ideal, combining the early brooding
dance rhythms of Shriekback with the
hypnotic and crashing synth dirges of
Cabaret Voltaire. Each song is over
10 minutes long, but the rhythms are
so great and things build so slowly
that boredom is never reached. Both
tracks are two of the best pure elec-
tronic dance tracks I've heard and it's
a genre that I generally like to take a
piss on for all its heinous posturing
and stupid pop stars.
- Richard Williams
What Is This - 3 Out of 5
Live - MCA
What is this? This is 3 out of 5 live!
This is 2 out of those 3 repeated on the
opposite side. This is a record that
manages to strip away those super-
fluous elements of music such as style
and innovation. This is the record of-
fering you all of 2 funky guitar licks,
sustained by lagging drumbeats and
plain-sounding rhythm work. This is
the record that satisfies the curiosity
of all those who have always won-
dered just what a 5-minute version of
a Minutemen song would sound like,
played at half speed. This is then, the
perfect record for that multitude of
millions who are bored silly with
powerful, exciting, and inventive
music.
-Katie Gentile
A defense
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cooked up in your kitchen.
Call us.
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY

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Portfolio review: Sunday, January 26, 1986
Bring anything photographic. New time: 1:00 P.M. at
Student Publications Building, 420 Maynard.
Call Dan or Andi at 764-0552, for more information.

_ U

ON CAMPUS
Members of Our Technical Staff
February 7, 1986
Research challenges for PhD/MS graduates with
interests in
. Machine Intelligence . Optics
. VSI . Digital Systems Design
. Image Processing . Satellite Communications

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