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*Trust’ hooks old and new fans
By Mark Hain '
Staff Reporter
Chris and Cosey
“Trust”
Nettwerk-Capitol Records
Eurythmics
“We Too are One”
Arista Records
In 1982, two innovative electronic
duos, both fronted by charismatic
female vocalists, recorded a duet.
For Chris and Cosey, recently
emerging from the disbanded pio
neering industrialists Throbbing
Gristle, the duet was surprisingly
tame. Rather than a primordial murk
of unsettling sounds and white noise,
it had identifiable melody and
rhythm.
For the Eurythmics, recently
emerging from the ill-fated progres
sive pop group The Tourists, the duet
was an exercise in expansion. The
traditional pop format was aban
doned. The result of this ad hoc quar
tet was the raw, seething single
“Sweet Surprise.” But now, seven
years later, Chris and Cosey have
remained clinging to the cutting edge
while the Eurythmics has degener
ated into bland, ersatz-soul medioc
rity.
Chris and Cosey’s recent output
has ranged from experimental noise
to harsh, percussive disco to seem
ingly innocuous pop ditties that were
actually chock-full of sinister sub
liminal messages. Although most of
their music was challenging and
interesting, it didn’t inspire the rabid
fandom that their former Throbbing
Gristle cohorts Psychic TV did. At
least nobody shaved heads and got
cranial tattoos or pierced genitals for
Chris and Cosey like the more ex
treme Psychic Youth did.
Still, Chris Carter and Cosey
Fanni Tutti have built up a strong
underground following, and their lat
est release, “Trust,” remains just
industrial enough to satisfy the old
fans but still is accessible enough to
maybe hook a few new listeners even
without the added help of subliminal
seductions.
“Trust” opens with the wonder
iMrv
fully obsessive “Deep Velvet,” si
multaneously disturbing, danceable
and as aurally rich as the title fabric.
Cosey, who’s never had a particularly
strong voice, is more effective than
she has been in the past, and for once
the singing is nearly as well done as
the rhythm and noise engineering.
“Illusion” particularly benefits from
her newly expressive singing, and the
insistent beat of “Watching You”
makes it perfect fodder for nefarious,
avant-garde discos.
More than any other of its recent
albums, ‘ ‘Trust’ ’ harkens back to the
glory days of Throbbing Gristle, in
corporating the spiraling, circular
saw-like guitar riffs and tuneless,
muted comet blasts that became
trademark T.G. sounds. The per
versely erotic “Percusex” is espe
‘ daily reminiscent, referring back to
the T.G. hit’ " Hot on tne hccis oi
Love” in lyrical content like ‘‘1 let
you caress my body/with bloody fin
gcTc- quantity of good material on
“Trust” is what makes the selection
of “Rise” as the album’s first single
so unfortunate. An unthreateningly
ordinary dance floor rave-up,
“Rise” at least incorporates enough
sampling from “Barbarella” and
uncharacteristic humor to add inter
est. Although the general trend
seems to imply that the longer a band
slays together, the less innovative
and more mild its music gets, Chris
and Cosey generally have maintained
a dark undercurrent and original
sound to their music.
It seems as it the
Eurythmics either
simply have run
out of creativity or
are ready to sub
mit to the tempta
tion of broader
commercial suc
cess.
Down at the other end of the scale,
the Eurythmics’ first release on
Arista, “We Too are One,” slips
further into an uninspired pop waste
land. Up until this point, Dave Ste
wart and Annie Lennox seemed to
have reached their nadir with 1986’s
“Revenge,” an album that practi
cally bore a banner screaming
“Synth bands can rock, too!” yet
only offered a sludgy soul mish
mash. The duo momentarily re
deemed themselves with 1987’s
“Savage”, however, by dropping
most of the R ‘n’ B posing and con
centrating instead on creating a ra
zor-sharp concept album about a
descent into blissful insanity. It was
their most innovative album since the
“1984” soundtrack, so of course ii
didn’t sell.
This is wny wc iw «»v
comes as a not unexpected disap
pointment.
If this was a new band, it would be
easy to dismiss, but there’s that excel
lent carly-’80s material to consider. It
seems as if the Eurythmics either
simply have run out of creativity or
are ready to submit to the temptation
of broader commercial success.
“We Too are One’ ’ features more
guitars and real drums than usual, as
well as pop-pap producer Jimmy
Iovine. The result is generic top-40
radio spew -- seems like ol’ Dave ‘n’
Annie are really out to make a buck.
The lyrics, which often contain
wry humor and beautifully visual
metaphors, are just as often plain
embarrassing: the choruses of seven
of the ten tracks are the song’s title
repeated over and over.
The album admittedly has its
moments. The title track is undenia
bly funky (the similar “Revival”,
however, is a dismal clubfoot);
“Don’t Ask Me Why” and “You
Hurt Me (and I Hate You)” start out
promisingly mournful and uncompli
cated, but lose momentum by the
chorus. The track that works best is
“Sylvia.” Except for a weak chorus
(again), its sweet, synthesized strings
contrast with the brutal lyrics about a
young prostitute. Ironically, it’s the
only completely electronic song -
further proof that the Eurythmics
never were meant to chug away like
Grand Funk.
That’s not to say the band has lost
its talent. Annie’s voice has a com
pelling raspiness and maturity now,
out someone should tell her that soul
musk: has more to do with emotional
commitment
Until she realizes this, and the
Eurythmics decide whether they
want to keep on churning out boring,
formulated, blue-eyed soul stampers
or to return to its more innovative
roots, the band seems doomed to join
its “Second British Invasion” com
panions Duran Duran and Culture
Club in the “Where are they now?”
file.
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BENES from Page 13
cent in style of Duran Duran or INXS.
Benes is playing it safe writing and
performing this style of music, and
he’s doing it very well. And there’s
nothing wrong with that
In a way, it epitomizes the values
and mood of a large segment of our
generation, and it’s what a lot of
people want. Anyway, Benes has a
rich and sensual voice, and he estab
lishes himself well in this genre of
music on this tape as a creative song
writer and a musician’s musician.
The lyrics are the only weak ele
ment of the music on this tape. The
lyrics have a great sense of rhythm
within the songs, but they don ’ t really
provoke any images or emotions.
They’re just words. But lyrics don’t
AWAKE from Page 13
and writing music, he said.
Benes began his music career as a
vocalist, but soon picked up a key
board and practiced at it "night and
day," he said. For three years he
played in original bands, such as One
r Whisper and The Pedestrians, then
r worked with former Finnster Ric
Cowling on a recording project called
‘Things Happen."
"After ‘Things Happen,’ I really
wanted to get back to playing live,"
Benes said, "butyl wasn’t excited
about anything I had going at the
time. 1 wanted to do something
new."
It was at this point that Benes
began the slow, deliberate process of
rinding the members of Lie Awake,
he said.
"I looked for ability, altitude, and
a kind of feel or groove for the mu
sic,” he said. "I was very careful,
and I’m real happy with the way it
(has) turned out.”
Besides Penes, Lie Awake cur
rently is made up of: Ray Yarusso,
bassist; Craig Enders, keyboards;
Chris Varga, drums; and Jeff Carlson,
guitar. Carlson is the newest member,
having joined about two months ago
after playing with Tipsy Alligator,
another local band, Benes said.
Lie Awake’s cover list includes
play any significant role in this genre
of music, so this isn’t really a prob
lem.
However, I can’t help but wonder.
From listening to this tape, I get the
feeling that Roger Benes and Lie
Awake are a talented and sometimes
creative bunch of musicians who
could play in the pop music big
league with bands like INXS, Mid
night Oil and maybe even Prince.
Only the lyric content sets diem
apart. And that’s a wide gap to bridge.
Still, I’ll give Roger Benes and Lie
Awake my highest accolades for this
tape by saying this tape has lots of
commercial potential. It’s another
good example of an outstanding Lin
coln band that has as much right to be
on MTV as those that already are.
songs by bands like INXS, The Cure,
New Order, Fine Young Cannibals
and Oingo Boingo.
The band looks for songs by “non
Top 40-glut bands,” and songs that
are not overly played, Yarusso said.
They also play keyboard-oriented
hits from the past, which have been
forgotten by most people, he said.
Lie Awake currently is playing
enough shows in the three-city circuit
of Lincoln, Omaha and Kansas City
to make a "comfortable living” at
music, Benes said. But some changes
lie ahead for the band, he added.
“If you follow the band, you’re
going to see a change toward original
music,” Benes said. “But we’re
finding out we may have to live
somewhere where original music is
important.”
Benes says that Lincoln is not one
of those places.
“The biggest thing here is foot
ball,” he said.
So the band members currently are
toying around with the idea of mov
ing their entire act to another city,
Yarusso said.
“It gets to the point where it's
either move or quit,” he said.
“People who think they can make it
from the Midwest are fooling them
selves. There’s no one around to sec
them.”
