HR181 - South Africa - C90 — 1990
SIDE ONE:
Willow: Everyman Pastel Blood: Real Blood Tarantulas: Summertime Sphinx: Having Influenced (Astral Light) Rough Diamond: Daydreams Tarantulas: Spiderman |
SIDE TWO:
Sphinx: Games of the Gods Tarantulas: Einstein Rough Diamond: The New Age Sphinx: Detoxified Brains Psyche: Let’s Dance Carnage Visors: Rhade Sphinx: To Renew |
Review by Jerry Kranitz
The Harsh Reality country series continues with seven South African artists. The tape was compiled for Harsh Reality by Jay Scott who ran the Cape Town based Network 77 label. His selections span a genre hopping range…
Willow contribute a lo-fi blend of rickety synth-pop. I like the spoken word backed by lightly choral vocal backdrop.
Pastel Blood’s entry starts off with foreboding atmospherics and effects, as if we’re trudging our way through a haunted castle. Screechy guitar noodling, bass lines pounding, maddened voices babbling and drums crashing. It’s only just past the 7-minute mark that a goth-punk song begins to take shape. Yet throughout its 15-minute length this is mostly about goth rock horror show atmosphere, always feeling like it’s working up to an explosion that never comes. Cool stuff and lots of possibilities but shorter and tighter would have been better.
Tarantulas weigh in with three tracks. The first is a nifty blend of lo-fi jangly pop, swinging saxophone and punk-soul vocals. The second is a bouncy jazz-pop instrumental with a blend of African Highlife and Caribbean vibes. And the third is similar but with vocals and bits of Ska.
Sphinx is headed up by compilation curator Jay Scott who contributes four tracks. One is a peacefully subdued blend of Berlin school electronica, Kraftwerk, and minimal space-ambience. We’ve got a lengthy sci-fi soundtrack with experimental twists and turns and elements of what today is known as Dungeon Synth. Another sounds like a short excerpt from a Vangelis epic. And I was surprised by a pop tune that’s equal parts space-disco and glam with bits of late era UItravox.
Rough Diamond offer up two selections of saucy instrumental lounge jazz. During the first song I was expecting at any moment Tony Bennett would start singing. The second is slightly more adventurous, sounding maybe but not quite like something from an Aksak Maboul album.
Psyche straddle synth-pop and industrial dance.
And Carnage Visors contribute a short, eerily atmospheric goth tune.
The Harsh Reality country series continues with seven South African artists. The tape was compiled for Harsh Reality by Jay Scott who ran the Cape Town based Network 77 label. His selections span a genre hopping range…
Willow contribute a lo-fi blend of rickety synth-pop. I like the spoken word backed by lightly choral vocal backdrop.
Pastel Blood’s entry starts off with foreboding atmospherics and effects, as if we’re trudging our way through a haunted castle. Screechy guitar noodling, bass lines pounding, maddened voices babbling and drums crashing. It’s only just past the 7-minute mark that a goth-punk song begins to take shape. Yet throughout its 15-minute length this is mostly about goth rock horror show atmosphere, always feeling like it’s working up to an explosion that never comes. Cool stuff and lots of possibilities but shorter and tighter would have been better.
Tarantulas weigh in with three tracks. The first is a nifty blend of lo-fi jangly pop, swinging saxophone and punk-soul vocals. The second is a bouncy jazz-pop instrumental with a blend of African Highlife and Caribbean vibes. And the third is similar but with vocals and bits of Ska.
Sphinx is headed up by compilation curator Jay Scott who contributes four tracks. One is a peacefully subdued blend of Berlin school electronica, Kraftwerk, and minimal space-ambience. We’ve got a lengthy sci-fi soundtrack with experimental twists and turns and elements of what today is known as Dungeon Synth. Another sounds like a short excerpt from a Vangelis epic. And I was surprised by a pop tune that’s equal parts space-disco and glam with bits of late era UItravox.
Rough Diamond offer up two selections of saucy instrumental lounge jazz. During the first song I was expecting at any moment Tony Bennett would start singing. The second is slightly more adventurous, sounding maybe but not quite like something from an Aksak Maboul album.
Psyche straddle synth-pop and industrial dance.
And Carnage Visors contribute a short, eerily atmospheric goth tune.