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KING APPARATUS- King Ap-

paratus (Raw Energy) By Kirby Ferguson

Wow, my first freebie! I wasn’t expecting much but this is good stuff. King Apparatus recently wona CASBY (Canadian Artists Selected By You) for Favourite Ska Band, but labelling them as ska isn’t quite accurate; they sound more like party rock to me. When they do revert to straight ska (and this is rare) they sound...well, white. But most of the time the tunefulness and good-time vocal interplay make this loads of fun. Even the band’s sophomoric humour can’t sink the high spirits here. So, hey, they’re Canadian, they’re independent, they’re good and they need your money. Take it from the boys themselves: ‘*Buy our stuff/Make us rich/Buy our stuff/And all your friends will think you’ re really cool.’’ Who wouldn’t be convinced? ,

MAGIC AND LOSS- Lou Reed (Warner) By Kirby Ferguson

First I want to ramble about Lou for awhile, if you want to hear about MAGIC AND LOSS just skip this paragraph. I cannot believe how Lou Reed has mu- tated over the years. Believe it or not, Lou actually. sang with The Velvet Underground, and while his voice wasn’t technically impressive, he knew how to work witha rhythm. After going solo, Lou put out some good songs and loads of dross, never coming near the quality of his work with VU. During this period he did some really insane stuff: rotting his brain with tons of dope, porking out then shrinking back to skin and bones, shaving his head, flirting with bisexuality, claiming he no longer had a dick, but rather a syringe had been surgically implanted in its place. This is the man who released the notorious METAL MACHINE MUSIC (a cult item in the most extreme sense), atwo record set of feedback, which I have actually heard; it sounds something like this: FZZZZZGLIKSSSSSSHHH etc.. This is the man who claimed he had 863 albums -no more, no less, 863- in the can, one to be released every two months after his death. But all this insanity distracted from the fact

a bore UPEI X-P RESS

January 23, 1992

But like Neil Young, Reed has been revitalized since 1989, releasing NEW YORK, one of his best albums, after the sterile product of albums like MISTRIAL and NEW SENSATION. NEW YORK Saw Lou open new doors lyrically and musically, opting for politica statements (!) using New York asa microcosm, and presenting a new, guitar-oriented sound. Reed contin- ued his winning streak in 1990 with the haunting Andy Warhol tribute, SONGS FOR DRELLA, a collaboration with former VU bandmate, John Cale. MAGIC AND LOSS combines the dreamy, haunting artiness of DRELLA with the more rock-oriented NEW YORK, while returning to Lou’s classic theme: of, well, magic and loss. It also runs Lou’s winning

streak up to three.

One of the strengths of Lou’s new material is his distinct, animated guitar tone, which -since the voice can’t- carries the songs. The guitar interplay always keeps the album musical, something Lou has hada problem with in the past. However, sometimes there aren’t melodies, as in ‘‘Dreamin’,’’ which is the sory equivalent of just that, and ‘‘ Harry’ s Circumcision,’ which is merely a backdrop for the song’s old-style Reed horror story. The whole point of the Lou Reed experience is the words, and, in this case, they stand up as Lou’s basic philosophy of life. The sound is sometimes ethereal, sometimes haunting, and at othe times, raw and epicly abrasive, reflecting the two themes of magic and loss. I won’t claim to know poetry, but I know Lou Reed’s lyrics presenta uniquely honest view and are bluntly penetrating. If there are any great rock poets (which I’m really not: sure of) Lou Reed is certainly one of them.

MAGIC AND LOSS is even better than DRELLA an NEW YORK; itcombines the best of both and does

away with the weaknesses (like the unconvincing ant sometimes trite politics). MAGIC AND LOSS is a

work whose seriousness demands you think about it Musical street-corner poetry at its best. .

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