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South African Music Zine
edited by Sugar |
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Amuzine Contributors MUSIC ON-SITE-LOPEDIA, Looking for a CD? Can't name that song? Got a question? Ask Sugar! |
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Lithium - Zennon Supertrooper 
Second album time for one of the premier mid-nineties SA hard rock bands and these boys have gone and reinvented themselves. Their first album 'Broken' has not lost its staunch band of evangelisten-to-thists
but the band fought their way out of a bad EMI deal and released this album independently. You work harder when it's your own money, so to speak, and Lithium have grown up and put a lot of time and thought into the 17 songs on show here, the monochromatic 4AD feel of the cover and inner sleeve design and the sound and production of 'Zennon Supertrooper'. "Tell me about the name", I asked Simon Portlock, the band's drummer and occasional spokesperson when lead vocalist Dave Owens gives someone else a chance. There was no reply to my question, not because it was so difficult, but because there was no-one from the band in my room when I was writing this review late one evening last week. Still it seemed right to let the question weirdly hang in empty space in the context of this slightly sci-fi themed album. I would have bought this CD on sight believing it to be a Pixies CD that I had never seen before as it's that kind of cover. The music has that Pixies' muscle and flexes early in the album on songs like 'Stampede Stanley' and 'Bogey' but everything calms down towards the middle and some new ideas begin to wave their heads amidst the taut and tight rock roots. There's a feeling of restrained energy, like Lithium would love to launch into a controlled but wild Led Zeppelin thrash but need to bide their time until they have a bunch of songs that can take their musical hammering and still emerge melodic and pristine. There are some of those moments on 'ZS' on both the harder songs like 'Impending' and 'Alice' and the softer stuff like the single 'Innocence', 'Leafcatch' and the lovely 'Planet Nowhere'. The four band members, Simon Portlock (drums), Ian Watson (guitar), Dave Owens (vocals and guitar) and Paul Opie (a mean and stalking bass), work hard and play hard and no-one lets the side down. Dave Owens' vocals are as powerful as ever yet adapt with sensitivity to the less heavy stuff and also to the more expressive lyrics that Lithium seem to be writing. Overall though, 'Zennon Supertrooper' is definitely a grower and a brave and ultimately successful gamble by Lithium on their own talent and instincts. Show your support for these courageous indies by buying this album but only if you're a fan of SA hardish rock, similar to the stuff Barney Simon plays on his radio show. Actually, if you do listen to Barney, then you would probably have bought this album already. Stephen "Sugar" Segerman  |
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Lots of SA CDs to buy online at One World. There's also the Two Oceans Trading online shopping mall where you can purchase Springbok rugby merchandising, SA books, jewellery and CD-ROMs, amongst many other items. Any thoughts, requests, problems, complaints, praise or interesting and relevant SA music news, please email it immediately to: sugar@cd.co.za
Contributors Copyright © 1996-98 Amuzine. All rights reserved. |
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