OFF: Adrian Shaw's 'Tea' review

[Assassin Soniqué]

Artist:         Adrian Shaw
Title:  Tea for the Hydra
Label:  Woronzow Records WOO 27 CD, 1996
Credits:        Ade Shaw - all instruments, all tracks
                Nick Soloman - lead guitar and organ solo on Red and Grey,
                        drums on Machine Music
                Andy Ward - drums on Red and Grey
                Bari Watts - lead guitar on Heart Of Stone
                Aaron Shaw - lead guitar on Roger's in a Home
                Pete Pavli - violin on I'm Glad I'm Me

Not having followed Ade's career at all since leaving Hawkwind in
the late 70's, I really had no idea what to expect of this release,
short of the fact that it is described as psychedelic on the Woronzow
Records WWW page. So with some eagerness, I removed the disk from the
suitably colourful case, and placed it in the player ......

The album opens with some sweeping high pitched synthesizer effects
as "Son of Sam" begins. A warbling effect suddenly appears in your
left ear, then sweeps around the inside of your skull for a while,
becoming all the while more frenetic, as other electronic effects
join the fray. A distorted keyboard 'melody' (for want of a better
word) starts up to accompany Ade's almost spoken lyrical
contribution. Yes, psychedelia lives on in the 90's!

"Heart of Stone" picks up the pace with heavily distorted bass and
synth opening. The lyricals are sung this time, but there is a fine
line between spoken word and singing which Ade only just crosses. His
singing style somehow reminds of John Cooper Clarke! There is some
great little pieces of lead guitar here, interspersed with a heavy
throbbing drum solo accompanying samples from the movie "Eraserhead".
Right when you need a break from the craziness, the strains of a
piano are heard as "Falling" begins. It's amazing how much this track
reminds me of the Beatles! This is a really great (if strangely
chosen) track, with pleasant piano, keyboard, drum, bass guitar and
vocals. I was surprised!

The 'nice' music hangs around for the next two tracks, but with
small doses of Ade's musical insanity  interspersed for good measure.
"I'm Glad I'm Me" is another slow paced track which forms a nice
blend from the previous totally sane piece to the "Teeth of the
Hydra" which follows. This opens with some vocals over a lone guitar,
and the other instruments joining in for the chorus. Both of these
are great pieces, with some decent playing included free of charge.
But you are definitely ready for an icrease in pace afterwards.

A sudden lead break opens "Roger's in a Home", which turns out to be
only marginally faster than the previous few, but somehow exhibits a
lot of energy and feeling. The customary crazy synth bit in the
middle is accompanied by snippets of children playing and (possibly)
an opera singer, as the lead comes back with a gusto. By now, I'm
enjoying the album immensely, but need an insanity injection,
"Machine Music" provides just that. Heavy fuzz on the mid paced bass
line, and psyche all around provided by the almost subtle vocal
resampling.

The piano intro to "Red and Grey" and extremely misleading as the
guitar bass and drums thunder in .... regular changes of pace save
what would otherwise possibly be a bit of a monotonous track. Not my
favoutite track on the album, but the organ solo towards the end is
worth the effort of hearing it out. "Iron Curtain" follows, opening
with synth effects reminiscent to the opening track, but with less
emphasis on the L-R panning, on more on crazy variations of the
sounds. As the track continues, the effects get more complex, but
sadly it goes no where at all. After Four and a half minutes of it I
expected something ... but no!

The synth is joined by guitar, keyboards, bass and drums once again
for the next track "Trillib", the vocals accompanied here and there
by an opera singer (whose voice is suitably electronically altered).
Basically a slow rock track with some psychedelic effects, it's OK
but nothing mind blowing. The final piece on this tribute to all
things multi-coloured is "Live for the Day". The beat is maintained
with an interesting effect which sounds like a recording of some sort
played backwards. Bits of guitar, bass and keyboard here and there
also back the vocals (which are quite strange ... I'm sure one bit
said "I trust that my software will keep me together"!) It's actually
not a bad track at all.

Overall, I quite like this album, though a few of the tracks towards
the end let it down a little. I would recommend it to anyone
interested in this genre (whatever it actually is!). It's a pity I'm
not familiar with some of Ade's other work, such as "Magic Muscle"
and his part of the "Bevis Frond" so that I could provide some
comparison. A very hard album to describe indeed!

_____________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________ Sonique _

--
Paul Ward        aka: Assassin Sonique'      .---.  __  .--------   Long
R & D Manager, P & C Micro's Pty Ltd        /     \( o`-,  -----   may
mail: sonique at www.pcmicro.com.au           ////    '~ (    ---   they
http://www.pcmicro.com.au/~Sonique/       /////// :    ; ---   Fly!