Arts
4
The Michigan Daily
Friday, August 14, 1981
Page 10
'Seize the Beat'
'Seize the Beat (Dance Ze Dan-
ce)'-(Ze-Island)-Somebody should
stop Ze Records before they hurt
somebody. Remember that old "killer
joke" bit by Monty Python? I fear that
Ze Records are dangerously close to
creating the killer dance cut.
Indeed, most of the tracks on Ze's
new collection of dance singles, Seize
the Beat, are killers, but only in the
figurative sense.
"BUSTING OUT," the current disco
hit for Material, is of course the
an accessible cut from them. But it
seems to me that their accessibility this
time around simply carries their inven-
tive funkiness to a new level of ex-
perimentation. (Take that, you snobs.)
THE WAS (NOT WAS) selection,
"Wheel Me Out," is easily the best
thing they've ever released, certainly
far better than anything on the just-
released album ('especially the
despicably inane "Out Come the
Freaks"). It's a maddening song to
follow, though, largely because
everything imaginable is thrown into
the mix.
There's the cool, jazzy hornwork of
Marcus Belgrave; the heavy-metal lef-
tovers from Wayne Kramer's guitar;
the oblivious, floating keyboard theme;
the sultry nonsense vocals from the
mother of the brothers behind this
whole thing ("I'm really in the mood
today./I am a former scientist/ Now on
wheels."); and the insane imitations by
the Weiss (a.k.a. Was) brothers them-
selves of everybody from a German
scientist to an angry black poet, all
screaming "Then I was discouraged by
you"-everything forced through an
aural meat grinder, altered, distorted,
sliced, amplified, and finally pressed
into a disorientingly danceable hash.
The mystery of the whole thing is that it
still hangs together with an astounding
continuity that is sadly missing from
many of the album cuts.
Many will probably consider
Christina's "Drive My Car" sacrilege,
but I think The Beatles got just what
they deserve-a version of their song
complete with throbbing disco beat and
vocals that make all the silly sexual in-
4
4
- UiiP5SAIMi5I' NE
freshest and hottest of the lot. It's one of
those songs that borders constantly on
burning up on its own ferocious dan-
ceability. But Nona Hendryx's vocals
keep the whole thing just this side of the
spontaneous combustion line. I mean,
she's HOT, ya know, but she's cool.
Need I say more?
PIerhaps I should add that Material
purists who have followed the band
from their early days of tape-looped
dance minimalism may cringe at such
nuendo laughably obvious. Christina is
a true national treasure-no one could
deliver this song with such beautifully
faked naivete. Her tuneless cooing and
little-girlish squeals make her sound
just like one of those supposedly in-
nocent temptresses in a grade-B R-
rated cheerleader movie.-
THE SECOND SIDE of this collection
is somewhat less eclectic but clearly no
less enjoyable than its flip counterpart.
It belongs exclusively to various spinof-
fs of Ze stalwarts Kid Creole and the
Coconuts. Each song features a new
angle on August Darnell's and Andy
Hernandez's continually playful mix-
ture of disco, salsa, big band, and pop.
All three of these songs seem more dan-
ceable than most of The Coconuts' new
album, Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places,
even when the tunes don't seem to be as
strong or as clever as we are ac-
customed to hearing from Kid Creole
(as is the case with "Cowboys and
Gangsters" and "Deputy of Love").
As usual, Ze Records' new product
makes just about everything else in the
dance market pale in comparison. It's
just not the same, dancing to even the
best controlled disco beat after aban-
doning oneself to the, uproarious,
nothing-is-sacred dance school
epitomized by the Ze stable of stars. In
addition, the fact that none of these
dance singles have ever been available
on an album before and few of them are
available as 12-inch singles any more
makes this album an unbeatable
bargain. 'Nuffsaid?
-Mark Dighton
I
'Hot Coffee' spills on the scene
4
By RJ SMITH
Daily Arts Writer
Jim Robins is one of those people who shouldn't exist. Too much excitability,
too much disarming optimism; it just doesn't figure. It is hard to spend time
with Robins without soon gauging your own energy. His enthusiasm is so exper-
tly tailored that he wears it effortlessly.
All of this bubbles forth in the first issue of Hot Coffee, a new magazine which
Robins edits and publishes. The issue contains a single piece, a short story by
New York author Francisco Goldman. On sale all over town, the publication
looks to have been worked on and talked about by Robins and the staff an
unusually long time for a new local publication. The result is a magazine that in
every way, from the logo to the graphics to the way the thing is folded, is smart
and catchy.
ONE MIGHT suppose that it~should be topnotch, given that Hot Coffee num-
ber one was two years in the making. "A friend and I were talking about doing
something like this a while ago, we actually had a lot of ideas planned out. But
then the whole thing went to sleep while I went to Spain," Robins explains. Af-
PUT' EM AWAY
If you can live without
your cigarettes for one
t dies day you might find you
0tto anl without thenm
JUST POR A DAY.
ter a year in Spain he returned to Ann Arbor, but had forgotten about his
magazine ambitions.
"And then one day I was sitting in a bar and Eric Keller (destined to be Hot
Coffee's art director) said to me, 'Hey, whatever happened to Hot Coffee?' "
Things moved quickly after that.
Robins spends a lot of time in bars, and seems to do his best thinking in them.
While mulling over the construction of a cocktail napkin, he came up with what is
the magazine's most striking feature: its folded-over format. Hot Coffee is
printed on a sheet slightly bigger than a newspaper, and is then doubled over in
both directions like aforementioned napkin.
"WE WERE looking for something between a chat book and a broadside,"
Robins explains. What they did not come up with was the new wave slap-dash
layout scads of new "hip".publications are adopting. Printed on glossy paper,
Hot Coffee manages a high degree of stylishness while still looking a lot more
funky than either The Observer or Cabart,
What really shores up the looks of the magazine, in the first issue anyway, is
the work of Eric Keller. Keller does graphic work for Monthly Detroit magazine
and was a founder of the old Lightworks. To accompany Goldman's piece he has
come up with three sexy, atmospheric illustrations.
Goldman's story itself is full of telling detail and smooth pacing. Titled "Trish
& Laura," it tells the story of a couple of pretty and none-too-bright suburban
teenagers who return home after running away with two carnival workers. We
follow Laura around from the moment she first gets home to the moment she
confronts her parents. While Goldman does a good job of getting Laura from
home to the country club where she is to meet her parents, it is in the
digressions, a pair of flashbacks, that the writing really comes alive.
THE MAGAZINE is in the process of being put on a rather regular basis,
although it will not be a monthly. The next issue, Robins says, will appear in
late September at, a number of bookstores and other places around the city.
These are absurd times for someone to invest time and effort in a small
magazine; reports indicate there are more such magazines than ever before in
America's history, and the market is witness to the daily death of publications
that lose the battle for readers and capital. Yet, based on one issue anyway, Hot
Coffee seems like a success story. "We'd like to be for the coffee bean what Wet
magazine is for swim wear," Robins says. There are better reasons to wish his
magazine well.
I
A
4