THE PEOPLE'S BARD Billy Bragg showcased his new release Workers Playtime fo capture the hearts and minds of appreciative fans last month at the Commodore Ballroom.

NEWS phates Neil Lucente

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Exotic dishes excel

From page 22

The whole tub:slar works can then be dipped in Yen fin’s rich hoisin sauce and eaten hotdog- style.

Szechwan Chicken ($5.25, a number 89) is served in a robust hot garlic sauce along with a selection of wok-fried peppers, zucchini, celery, waterchestnuts and ginger.

A real standout for the avid hot food fan is Yen Jin’s Yu-Shong Eg- gplant ($4.95, a number 104).

The eggplant (thin, sweet, light purple, Japanese variety on our visit) is fried with hot garlic root and served with shredded carrot and green onion. {ts sauce is rich, complex and spicy. /

All spicy dishes are available in a

range of intensities from mild (provides a gentle bite) up to dou- ble extra hot (results in a dis- quieting ringing in the ear).

Chilled beer is the recommend- ed liquid accompaniment to the more exotic culinary side trips.

Yen jin is small but its menu is as long as the Great Wall.

Its regulation Chinese food is satisfactory and as challenging as that style of food gets, but the res- taurant’s more exotic dishes are well above ground level, as if the chef, upon getting an order for items from the more interesting end of the menu, is suddenly in- spired to show guests what Chinese food is really all about.

Open for lunch and dinner Monday to Friday and for dinner Saturday and Sunday.

LOVE IS revolutionary ac- tion in Bragg’s evolving terms of reference; Skinny Puppy deals in head trauma; two Berliners test the inter- national pop waters and find themselves swimming with sharks.

Billy Bragg — Workers Playtime, Go! Discs/PolyGram 1988

How Mao Billy bard? The latest release by the working person's pop guru makes no bones about its left of centre political correct- ness. There’s the colorful revolu- tionary Chinese poster emblazon- ed or. the front cover. There’s the image of a brawny miner with paint brush in hand, beneath which sits the slogan: “Capi- talism is killing music.” On the back, the fine print tells you the recording is not for sale in racist South Africa.

But you listen and, for the most part, you hear love songs. Come again? Has Bragg gone soft? The angry jabs at the empire south of our border and the stalwart union chants have been replaced with a more intensively extensive in- vestigation of love. The direction taken is inevitable. It’s spelled out ina line jammed in among the many gems in Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards: ‘Kf no one seems to understand, start your own revolution, cut out the mid- dle man.”

And for Bragg, the revolution begins with love: “Most impor- tant decisions in life are made be- tween two people in bed.”

Bragg is essentially a consum- mate storyteller. He’s not a great singer, but then he doesn’t really have to be. There are few in his. league when it comes down to a consideration of depth of expres- sion and purity of vision. This re- cording proves it.

Skinny Puppy — VIVIsectVI, Nettwerk/Capitol 1988

Peel back the scabs and let the putrefaction set in, Skinny Puppy’s back in town!

MICHAEL BECKER

record reviewer

Imagine, if you will, the mama from the movie Throw Mama From The Train throwing her lot in with Freddie, he cf Nightmare on Elm Street infamy. imagine them writhing in some nightclub tucked away on the trendy side of hell and think about the sounds they might make.

It doesn’t come darker than this malignant dose. The lyrical fixa- tions, couched in terms of disease, bodily fluids and breaking points, are not pretty. Chemical warfare, meat seeking missiles, the horrors of vivisection and environmental degradation are passed through

* the Puppy grinder and spat out in

a relentless stream of diatribe.

A well-placed kick in the head, this is the quintessential sound- track for a long and ignominious fall from grace.

[

AUN GIES

= ee

Swiraming With Sharks, WEA 1988 -

Sounding more like 99 Balloons Nena than bimbo-punk Nina Hagen, Inga and Anete Humpe deliver a generous grab-bag full of Euro-pop offerings.

The Berlin duo’s sound is readily accessible — heavy or the elec- tronic stuff and mostly danceable. The Syrics are to the point and colored by a delicious sense of ennui.

The collection’s namesake, Swimming With Sharks, is on the mark with a concise look at double-dealing submissiveness: “Swimming with the sharks, laughing with the enemy, always with the sharks, pretending you never disagree.”’

The Humpes pull off a great trick — with Munich sound man As- mand Volker twiddling the knobs, the pair manage to stay 2 stroke ahead of the sharks with a slick, airy sound and a series of slightly bent looks at relationships.

way

“Happy Thanksgiving”

(from the Staff & Management) Join us for a traditional turkey dinner and of course

stuffing and cranberry sauce We also include pumpkin pie for dessert. Dinner served from

5 pm. Oct. 8 through Oct. 10, 1988 Adults Q

Children under 12 $2D We have a table warting for you Reservations: PEMD BAS

CH lanbé, wine, gorgeous cily view, _ sunset, candlelight... we cil Unit Romance!

980-2405 |

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180 ESPLANADE, N. VAN.