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7 out of 10
I like the Mission - not for their music, particularly, but because those who took the piss during the band's 1980s heyday condemned with one hand whilst holding a Duran Duran twelve-inch in the other. This deluxe edition double-CD set is definitely for the fans, but why not? At least Wayne Hussey and Co had the sense to call it a day, unlike far too many other bands exhuming themselves around the world at the moment. One can only hope the Mission honour their farewells and don't suddenly reanimate in another ten years' time to compete with the replicant version on 'Top of the Robo-Pops' or whatever will be passing itself off as popular culture in 2019.
Disc one is a pretty authentic-sounding document of the band's final gigs at the Shepherd's Bush Empire this time last year. Hussey's voice alternates between raw (on the covers of Like A Hurricane and 1969, for example) and majestic (Island In A Stream, Tower of Strength). This is, perhaps, not surprising - he has been in the job since 1985. Even the berating of someone for throwing a bag on stage ("Who threw that? You're a wanker.") only adds to the dark rock n' roll party atmosphere. The rest of the band jingle, shimmer and pound away as they always have. The crowd assist, jubilantly, on well-loved classics such as She Sells Sanc - I mean, Bridges Burning and Achilles Last Sta- I mean, Severina. 'We'll miss the Mission!' is the call. Hussey has to call the rest of the band together at the end for a final bow, as if they were about to head for the bar but the thanks sound heartfelt. Disc two has four tracks recorded in Cologne and Janice Long. This, plus the fact that the band cover an Aerosmith song, may put even the die-hard fans off but they should go with this last hurrah - the Mission are worth it.
Listen: www.myspace.com/themissionuk
Tracklist:
Disc One:
1. Like A Hurricane
2. Over The Hills And Far Away
3. Bridges Burning
4. Dance On Glass
5. Stay With Me
6. Island In A Stream
7. Love Me To Death
8. Dream On
9. Fabienne
10. Severina
11. Wake (RSV)
12. Forevermore
13. 1969
14. Shelter From The Storm
15. Tower of Strength
Disc Two:
1. Interview With Janice Long
2. Butterfly On A Wheel
3. Naked And Savage
4. Hungry As The Hunter
5. Serpent's Kiss
1 comment:
simon hinkler is guesting on this ethiopian fusion album
I am Dan Harper, the man behind Dub Colossus (I recorded it in my studio
in Addis,
put all the
musicians together, co-wrote/played on etc).
I thought given my other
recent
Ethiopian release
(to great press/reviews to date) this should be sent your way.
I was recording this album (Invisible System, Punt (Made in Ethiopia)
before Dub
Colossus was
born, all of DC are on it plus e.g. Mahmoud Ahmed (Ethiopques and
Ethiopia's main
man), many other
Ethiopians + guests from the UK upon my return include Justin Adams
(Robert Plant)
and Juldeh,
Hilaire Chabby (Baba Maal), Captain Sensible, Simon Hinkler (The Mission),
Zion
Train, Baka
Beyond, Ozric Tentacles etc etc. It is released after due to my heavy
workload and
as I set up my
own record label to do this. I returned to the UK post 8 years aid work
in Mali and
Ethiopia with
my Malian wife and daughter (Frome in Somerset).
Some reviews are pasted below for you. If you receive this let me know
and I can
mail you a CD
for review or some mp3s and jpegs. Although the press so far has been
great, and
the next FRoots
has a full article on the album plus a free track on the cover CD, I need
now to get
it into some
newspapers and non-world music mags. Mojo are currently looking at it I
think. The
reason being
it crosses so many genres as you will see from below and thus will appeal
to world,
reggae, dub,
dance, club, psy, rock etc fans as well.
It has been played on e.g. BBC World Service, Late Junction, Asian net etc
as well
as in the USA,
New Zealand Radio (with interview), etc etc.
Ok, some reviews now.
Best
Dan - 07515 400362
INVISIBLE SYSTEM Rock N Reel Review (just came through, not yet published)
****
Punt ? Made In Ethiopia
(HARPER DIABATE RECORDS) www.harperdiabate.com
Having spent several years in Africa as an aid worker, musician and
producer Dan
Harper (aka
Invisible System), was uniquely qualified when it came to the creation of
this
wonderfully strange
and slightly otherworldly album. Punt is a remarkable musical melting pot
that
crosses continents,
cultures and musical genres and in doing so gives birth to something that,
with its
blend of
Ethiopian music, dub, trance, pop, electronica, rock and psychedelia
refuses
resolutely to be
pigeon holed. Created with the assistance of an eclectic collection of
musicians
from bands as
diverse as Ozric Tentacles, Robert Plant, Zion Train, Loop Guru, Baka
Beyond, The
Mission,
Transglobal Underground and Baaba Maal, Punt is truly innovative. Recorded
at
Harper?s mobile Worm
Hole Studio in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia it features some of that country?s
finest
including legendary
singer Mahmoud Ahmed together with pianist Samuel Yirga Miyiku,
saxophonist Feleke
Hailu
Woldemariam and singers Tsedenia Gebremarkos Woldesilassie and Sintayehu
Zenebe who
last year
collaborated with Harper on Count Dubullah?s Dub Colossus project, A Town
Called
Addis. One of the
most startlingly original musical adventures of the year Punt seamlessly
knits
together these
diverse threads and in doing so gives a whole new meaning to the term
?fusion music?.
Dave Haslam
TJNelson
World Music Network
How an aid worker, who spent eight years in Mali and Ethiopia, became the
nomadic record producer, composer, musician, sound engineer and all around
champion for equality and democracy in the underbelly of the fat,
bureaucracy-laden aid organizations in the third world is a mystery only
Invisible System's mastermind Dan Harper can answer. But it's clear from
his liner .......
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