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CHAZ JANKEL The Submarine Has Surfaced C J RECORDS 002CD

1. Wherever we go
2. I come alive
3. Hey now
4. The farside
5. A restless path
6. Tear it up
7. Wise up baby
8. Check the meaning
9. I long for you
10. The way it's going down

Chaz Jankel (vocals)
Alex Watson (vocals)
Steven Tart (vocals)
Natalia Scott (vocals)
Lewis Jankel (synth bass)
Johny Turnbull (backing vocals)
Ed Rieband (trombone)
Rupert Cobb (trumpet)
Hetty Snell (cello)
rec. CJ Studios, London

 

Most people will know Chaz Jankel as co-writer and colleague of Ian Dury, in whose Blockheads Jankel was so distinguished a member. Of late he's been listening to jazz though Chaz, please, if you've been listening to `Cannonbull Adderley' you've probably been in a China shop. The rest of us are content with `Cannonball'. Balls, not bulls.

Jankel recorded a jazz album called `Out of the Blue' though it didn't have wide distribution and I've never come across it. This latest disc is not a jazz album. I liked it best when the lyrics were at their sharpest and with Jankel that's more often than most. I liked it least when the rhythms were heavy, repetitious and dogged. Sometimes even in the case of the latter, the lyrics can just about hold their own, but more often they deserve better tunes. Wherever we go; is a case in point. Witless music; ok words. I come alive is guitar-based with a lot of overdubbing. Natalia Scott takes the vocals, a soulful singer plying a Latino feel, though the rhythm is again far too heavy. Hey now is a funky outing, whilst there's a typically erudite `Drury' feel to Tear it up - plenty of synth too. The stylistic parameters are therefore set wide. A ska beat runs through Wise up baby though there are rather too many John Shuttleworth synth twiddles for my puritanical taste. Alex Watson's vocals are good though - a fine singer. Check the meaning has an added trumpet but is dull. Far, far better is the sensitive ballad - Watson again - called I long for you. And the last track is the jazziest - it's also pop-like and appealing.

Why doesn't the Jankel quality control regulator operate more self-critically? Four tracks could easily be ditched leaving six pretty good ones.

Jonathan Woolf

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