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The
Stardust Brothers
Bobby thinks the new album 'Vanishing
Point' is 'a punk rock album for 1997' while Mani reckons it's got
'soundtracks to life'. Wahey! The Primals are back - and oh how we've
missed them...
"This is a testament to funk, to funksterators,
tricknologists, mujicians, who got music burrnng in their brains and no
holes in their souls." -Dr. John:"Under A HooDooMoon" (St. Martin
Press)
Invisible Man: Michael Bonner
Starstuck:
Stephen Sweet
The last thing Bobby Gillespie says in to my
tape recorder, leaning across a table to do so, his heavy black fringe
almost brushing the microphone in front of him, is delivered slowly
carefully and with relish. "It's like Phil Spector said: 'You can always
come back, but you've got to come back stronger,' "and then he flashes a
big, fat, happy Cheshire Cat smile which threatens to engulf his face
and says everything about how he feels about the new look Primal Scream,
the prospect of their upcoming live dates, and most importantly of all,
their amazing and uncompromising new album, "Vanishing Point".
SITTING in the canteen of a south London rehearsal studios,where the
Scream are putting the final touches to their live set, Bobby's been
smiling like a trooper for most of the afternoon. Not entirely without
good reason,too. Many people seemed prepared to write the Scream off
after their last album, "Give Out ButDon'tGive Up", presuming that the
band who never baulked at excess had finally lost the plot somewhere in
Memphis. But in a laudable (and typically Scream-like) gesture of
defiance, they've staged one ofthe most audacious and spectacular
comebacks of recent memory. Notonly have they recruited Mani from the
Stone Roses (uniting two of the most significant British bands of the
last 10 years in the process, something akin to Robbie Fowler signing to
Man Utd) but "Vanishing Point" is a great album: a complex, mature work
that's every bit as extraordinary, way out and visionary as
"Screamadelica". "Vanishing Point" redefines the band's parameters,
giving them an edge and a hunger that none of their other albums from
"Sonic Flower Groove" to "Give Out But Don't Give Up" ever had. It's
restless, alive and driven, continuously striving to push styles and
genres to their limits, putting square pegs into round holes,f***ing
around with everything from psychedelia to punk and dub to funk. lt's
the sound of a band whole-heartedly embracing the limitless potential of
music.
It opens with the Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd
psychedelia of"Burning Wheel", Bobby's voice drifting through a haze of
backwards drum loops and reverb-heavy guitars, everything swathed in
layers of lush sound effects. This segues into "Get Duffy" -a sleazy,
nocturnal instrumental, the soundtrack to driving home in the small
hours watching dawn slowly etch its way across the sky. The
speed-fuelled insanity of "Kowalski" and the exquisite "Star" follow,
and the chunky breakbeat funk of "If They Move, Kill 'Em", littered with
Quincy Jones-style flutes, wah-wah guitars and a brass section ripped
screaming from "The Streets Of San Francisco" sends your head spinning.
After that, "Out Of The Void", coccooned by a shifting fog of tablas,
sitars and three-note Hammond riffs, leads ontothe unremittingly bleak
"Stuka"-far and away the most outrageous five minutes the Primals have
ever committed to vinyl, setting deep, old-school dub rhythms
reminiscent of Augustus Pablo's "King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown"
against Bobby's Vocador distorted vocals. It's cold and alien; a menace,
madness, totally out of control. Then they give us "Medication", a
Stones clone cut from the same cloth as "Rocks", and a deranged cover of
"Motorhead", with Bobby singing through a Darth Vader helmet over an
apocalyptic backing ofdistorted guitars. As Mani proudly points out: "No
two songs are the same. There's some proper soundtracksto life on this
album." "We wanted to make a great album," says Bobby frankly. "We had a
lot ideas and a lot of energy. We really enjoyed making 'Vanishing
Point'. We went to the studio every day and just experimented with
sounds and ideas. There was such a joy there, that's why it sounds so
alive. It's bursting. We've got a lot of music inside us. There's
intensity of focus, too- musically, Iyrically attitude wise, everything.
The cIarity of thought is incredible on this album."
'VANISHING Point" succeeds in capturing the moment just as effectiveness
"Screamadelica" did, but while the beatific grooves of "Sceamadelica"
reflected the blissed-out hedonism of post-Acid House ecstacy culture,
"Vanishing Point' is indicative of life on the brink of the next
Millennium: strung-out, paranoid and existential.
"When we first formed the band, one of our favourite albums was PiLs
'Metal Box'," says Bobby- "I think the songs on 'Vanishing Point' are
about life in Britain at the end of the Nineties in much the sameway as
'Metal Box' caught the mood ofthe country at the end ofthe Seventies
that damp, dark, alienated feeling, y'know? But 'Vanishing Point' is
more internal, more psychological than 'Metal Box' was."
Certainly parts of "Vanishing Point" sound like particularly brutal
catharsis. "Through my bleeding eyes, I'm filthy, fly/Scrawl with
insects," ("BurningWheel"), "I can't slip my skin/I'm full of dust/I'm
chemically imbalanced/I am cancer," ("Out OfThe Void") and "I got jesus
in my head like a stinger/He moves from tree to tree/In the back of my
mind/A ragged shadowy figure!/I got Him/I got Original Sin," ("Stuka"}.
This is the stark comedown from the euphoria of "Screamadelica"; the
wide-eyed optimism replaced by a darker purpose, a soul-searching' soul
cleansing operation designed to exorcise whatever shit the Scream have
accumulated over the last five years -a period which Bobby refers to
simply as "dark times".
"I've always had it in me to write lyrics like this." he says. They're
dark, but true. I've always wanted to write really direct lyrics-no
metaphors, just open and honest cos that's the kind of lyric I like in
other people's songs. I mean, I really admire Tricky. That's a f***ing
great record, man. It's a f***ing modern-day blues album. He's an
exceptional songwriter: the atmosphere he creates, the starkness of
thewords. I listen to that album and can understand it because he's
hiding nothing from me. It's totally real." The lyrics on "Vanishing
Point" are a world away from the generic rock vocabulary of "Give
Out...".
"Aye, because then I wasn't(?) writing about me. We
recorded that whole album badly. We weren't very focused at the time.
There's that track 'Jesus' on the B-side of 'Star'-'GiveOut. . 'should
have sounded like that: really downbeat and late night, like the third
Velvets album. "I think we were a bit confused after 'Screamadelica'. We
got a bit burned out in every kinda way. We became too one-dimensional
in our approach, and that's why 'Give Out. . .' is a very
one-dimensional record. We never planned to make a conventional rock
record, it just happened that way. The music felt the right musicto play
at the time, but I don't think we executed it very well. You know 'Stone
my Soul' on 'Dixie Narco', right? If we'd done an album as strung-out as
that it would have been perfect."
"VANISHING Point" is a fiercely intransigent album. There's references
to Richard Sarafian's road movie which lends the album its title, and to
Sam Peckinpah's classic western "The Wild Bunch" ("IfThey Move, Kill
'Em" is the film's opening line), both of which aretypical Scream
influences: the speed-addled car rental driver Kowalski in "Vanishing
Point" and the vicious outlaws from "The Wild Bunch are romantic
outsider figures. Driven by obsession, honouring a personal moral code
resolutely refusing to do anything unless its on their own terms.
"At the start of the year we said we were going to put the
Wild Bunch back together for one last job," cackles Bobby. I love people
like Peckinpah, my man James Coburn and Warren Oates are real maverick
talents, totally uncompromising."
'Vanishing Point" is uncompromising.
"Completely agrees Mani, puffing cheerily on a cigarette. "You don't
have to compromise in this game. If you do, you're prostituting
yourself: you're doing it for other people and not yourself. You've got
no self-respert in that case. l've always tried hard to be
uncompromising, to do the unexpected."
As
your first proper single in three years, "Kowalski" was a total
statement of intent. It's a complete "f*** you". "It sounds like a
junkyard having a nervous breakdown," announces Bobby. "It's punk rock,
that's what it is. 'Vanishing Point' is a punk rock album for 1997 in
terms of its attitude and emotional directness. We've just done this
track with Jaki Liebezeit from Can on drums, Mani on bass and Kevin
Shieldsfrom the Valentines on guitar, and it's f***ing amazing, man. We
just want to keep on going like this, pushing ourselves as far as we can
in terms ofexperimenting. We're not f***ing scared ofanything now." "I
wish people would be more dangerous, take more chances," sighs Mani.
"Take something and spin it round on its head, right? Still it's easier
to play the game safely and getwell-paid for it, eh? But that's not me,
pal. Nor my buddies here."
"The reason you form a band in the first place is to create your own
world with your own rules where you're not under anyone else's law,"
says Bobby shaking his head. "What's the point of forming a band if
you're prepared to be dictated by managers or a record company? Too many
people are content to take the money and be part of the industry, but
they're bands with no f***ing imagination, no experimentation, no sense
of the avant garde. No F***ing Creativity. But I don't pay a lot of
attention to that scene. It's not part of my world. I don't care what
other people do. We're not in competition with anybody, wejust want to
make Primal Scream music. Nothing else has any relevance."
Bobby is eventually called down to the studio leaving Mani in the chair.
Away from the formidable shadows cast by Ian Brown and John Squire,
Mani's come into his own as a genuine character the kind of man who'd
have you pissing yourself with laughter at your own mum's funeral.
You seem very happy at the moment Mani.
"Happy as Larry, my friend," he beams through a cloud of cigarette
smoke. All roads have been leading to this. 10 years of sweating it out
with the other band have pointed to this."
You made your debut with the Scream the other week on "Later With Jools
Holland". No disrespect to the others, but you walked away with it.
"I was born to have it, and have it I shall," he chuckles. "I
enjoyed my time with John, Ian and Reni - I got a good education from
those boys. Itwas a f**ing pleasure and I have total respect for them.
It was a great lO years. I don't think i ever got any recognition in the
Roses, but I was happy to take a back seat. But now I'm with these boys
and I'm having it. I totally enjoyed playing 'Later'. It was the flrst
time I've enjoyed playing live for quite a few years as well. Nearly
everytime we tried something live with the Roses, shit happened. Let me
tell you, I've been bad many times before. Some nights, you're awful
-y'know, you can't summon up the energy to pull it off. F***, the Roses
were lame sometimes," he pauses to light another cigarette. "Butthen
again, we could also be totally mind-blowingly awesome," he says with a
smirk as Bobby returns to the table.
So. Bob, what's your favorite Roses track?
"Love Spreads'. I think it's one of the greatest comeback records ever.
People waited five years,and they come back with that. The first thing
you hear from them after all that time is this huge fat dirty guitar
riff. It's an incredible record, man. Alot of people didn't like it
because it wasn't what they expected them to do. If they'd brought out
another 'Made of Stone' it would have gone in at Number One. But they
didnt, and I loved them for doing that. They tried to take it further,
but I think most people wanted more of the same, more of the first
album. But they wanted to take chances and 'Love Spreads' is a F**ing
great comeback. It's Iike Elvis in '68."
Mani, whats your favourite Primal Scream track?
"I've always had a soft spot for 'Jailbird'," he says not missing a
beat. "It reminds me od playing snooker."
LATER, the three of us are sitting around talking about Stanley Booth's
exceptional account of The Stones near descent into madness, "The True
Adventures Of The Rolling Stones", and the Scream's forthcoming tour
("Eight-piece band. Horn section. Adrian Sherwood at the controls
playing psychedelic dub. Mani on bass. It's going to be funkier than a
mosquito's tweeter," beams Bobby) when Andrew Innes, Scream guitarist
currently in charge of putting the band through their paces, comesto
take Bob and Mani downstairs. The rehearsal room is the size of a large
living room . Frankly, it's seen better days. The walls are chipped,
great chunks of stone visible through navy blue paintwork, and naked
strip lights hang precariously from the roof, illuminating banks of
equipment, instruments and ampswhich haphazardly litter the floor.
There's no direct inlet for fresh air no windows, and the air is musty
with several years' accumulated cigarette smoke. The Scream have been
holed up here for a little over two weeks, their line-up consisting of
Bob and Mani, guitarists Innes and Throb (absent today), Martin Duffy on
keyboards, new drummer Paul Mulreany, trumpet player Duncan Mackay, and
saxophonist Jim Hunt. The relationship among the band is relaxed,
intimate, almost fraternal. Everyone is happy to be here, eager to work.
They start to play "Burning Wheel". Bobby, a concave figure,
eyes nearly closed, hanging bent over the mic stand, lost in Innes'
guitar lines; Mani, strutting up and down in front of his amp, a
straycat playing meaty dub-punk basslines; Innes, resting his guitar
against his thigh, ripping it up and down like a gunfighter, drawing
faster and faster, over and over. They play five othertracks
-"Kowalski", "If They Move, Kill' Em", "Get Duffy", "Out Of The Void"
and "Star". This is the moment Bob has been waiting 10 years for. "Innes
has whipped us into shape," admits Bob cheerfully. "Oh, yes, I'm really
looking forward to this," says Mani, rubbing his hands together. "I
cannot f***ing wait to play live properly with this lot." And
then,singing in a soft, high voice, his eyes glinting mischievously.
"We're going to blow your f***ing socks off" And then he begins to
laugh, loud and heartily.
"VANISHING Point". Primal Scream music. Nothing else soundsquite like
it. Turn it up.
Originally
appeared in Melody Maker, 12 July 1997.
Copyright © Melody
Maker.
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