22 - Wednesday, March 14, 1990 - North Shore News

music Fis

RUNNING HARD ahead of the
riff rap, M.C. Hammer knocks
noggins with 10 nasty cuts on his
latest.

ASS ME a 12-pack of
Duracells please. My
ghetto blaster is falter-
ing.
M.C. Hammer — Please Hammer
Don’t Hurt Em, Capitol Records
1990

Billboard’s number one rap artist
for 1989 covers a lot of bases. The
opening two tracks, Here Comes
The Hammer and U Can't Touch
This spark with a punchy one-two
body blow. Once the Hammer has
done with twisting your ears a bit,
it’s consciousness-raising time with
the life-affirmative Help The
Children, Pray and Crime Stary.

The cover art for the release
features a rambling and revealing
manifesto, dedicating the collec-
tion ‘‘to all men and women who
stand for life, love, peace and
equality.” Hammer sets himself up
as a rap avenger for Good and
God.

Hammer drops it just once on
an otherwise solid outing. Blinded
by machismo and the business at
hand when his ‘‘nature starts to
grow,"’ Hammer slips all too easily
into woman-as-object mode on
She's Soft And Wet.

Sly And Robbie — Silent Assassin,
Island Records 1989

This potent rap-reggae hybrid
brings together reggae big boys Sly
Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare
with Boogie Down Productions’
rapper KRS-One and roaming
rapping posse Willie D, Young
MC, Queen Latifah and the Shah
of Brooklyn.

The exotic fusion breaks new
sonic ground by combining rock-
steady Jamaican riddim and cut-
ting-edge American hip-hop tech-
nique. The v.sceral medium moves
messages and shows a collective
heart in the right places: Adven-
tures Of A Bullet, Letters To The

President and Living A Lie respec-
tively offer pithy dispatches on gun
tolly, world peace and drugged
existence.

Mantronix — This Should Move

MICHAEL
BECKER

record review

Ya, Capitol Records 1990

Too damn hype. Funky mixing
main man Curtis Mantrenik urges
the rabble to ‘‘get stupid.’’ To get
there, Mantronix pumps out stu-
dio-smart scratch and sample. To
lend the release cross-over poten-
tial, Jamaican-born Canadian Cur-
tis detours into R&B territory with
Got To Have Your Love, a sultry
single powered by some soulful
vocai chops from a mystery
woman called Wondress.

Things get really stupid with
throw-away cuts like Sex-N-Drug
And Rock-N-Roll. More Wondress
next time around and Mantronix
will move many.

Technotronic — Pump Up The
Jam The Album, SBK Records
1989

Groovatronic vibrations: Rhythm
rules okay in the house of hip hop.
More Neneh Cherry than Sait-N-
Pepa, the cut opening The Album
locked up number one on
Billboard's dance chart for a
month late last year and made in-
roads on the music industry mag-
azine’s pop and black singles
charts.

The specific appeal here is to the
nightclub drones. The same inces-
sant mindlessness that propetled

COME JOIN IN THE CELEBRATION
OF WESTIN HOTELS & RESORTS

disco through the ‘70s is given a
new-tech glamor spin courtesy of
two Zaireans, singer Manuella
Komosi and blue-lipsticked
former-model Felly.

Pump Up The Jam is enriching
fuel if you want to make like a
Rock ‘N Flower. If you're looking
for a bit of mental meat between
the beats, skip it.

ese eee
ATTILA THE Stockbroker, The
English King of Rant and Roll, fl-

ings spittle and profoundly witty
verbal diarrhea at the Vancouver
East Cultura! Centre, 8 p.m.,
Tuesday. March 20.

The folks at Festival Records
have just released Tuesday-July
4th-The Rivoli, a rousing live re-
cording of the mandola-wielding
madman in action.

Tickets for Attila live are avail-
able at Black Swan, Highlife, the
Vancouver Folk Music Festival of-
fice or by calling 254-9578.

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60TH ANNIVERSARY.

Every Night of the Week
for the Month of March,
we'll be featuring a menu created by
The Great Chefs of the World
alongside the wines of

Robert Mondavi Winery.

For Reservations Call

682-3377

Garden

Restaurant

at The Westin Bayshore

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