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Nikki
Sudden - Waiting On Egypt / The Bible Belt
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It took me about five minutes of listening to Nikki Sudden's Waiting in Egypt/Bible Belt in my local record store to decide that I wanted a copy. Formerly of the Swell Maps, it appears that Sudden's prolific post-band catalogue has been rediscovered by Secretly Canadian Records, who re-issued four of Sudden's records (as two double CDs) in 2001. Waiting in Egypt/Bible Belt includes the two records -- which were originally released in 1982 and 1983 -- as well as 11 bonus tracks. Waiting On Egypt is the harder, more urban-rock
record, filled with hooky electric guitar rockers ("Channel Steamer")
and gritty garage arrangements ("Fashion Cult" and "New
York"). In contrast, Bible Belt is a more carefree -- and less
cacophonous -- record, filled with humorous tracks like the harmonica-infused,
Shane MacGowan sound-alikes "English Girls" and "Bethlehem
Castle," the lovely ballad (featuring female vocals) "Chelsea
Embankment" and the enjoyably funky "Six Hip Princes."
Taken From: http://www.nudeasthenews.com/reviews/1018 |
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are the first two double CD reissues of the wonderful work of Nikki Sudden
(note: the other being Texas/Dead Men Tell No Tales).
Starting out in the '70s as Swell Maps with his late brother Epic Soundtracks
when Nikki was 15 and Epic was 12, they recorded some of the most raw
sounding DIY/punk pure music ever committed to vinyl. When Nikki "went solo" in the late '70s, he simply expanded his musical backing and started to take credit for the songs he'd been writing all along. Epic continued to drum with his brother off and on over much of the '80s, he also did a lot of session work and started writing and recording his own essential solo work in the early '90s. Waiting On Egypt (1982) picks up where Swell Maps left off, primitive catchy noisy stuff with some telling indicators of his future work. The 4th track is a slightly deconstructed cover of the Rolling Stones' I'd Much Rather Be with the Boys, who besides providing Nikki with a sartorial ideal he's faithfully followed ever since (mainly Keith Richards' rooster hair, velvet jacket, scarves and wasted late '60s early '70s look), also predated later work's stylistic ideals. A rainy day lost in the comfortable grey of all that interior and exterior insulation, and an abiding love of the romance of rock & roll. This presents the entire album's original 13 track and a bonus half a dozen singles and rarities from the same time period. By The Bible Belt (1983) Nikki had run into Dave Kusworth, with whom he'd become The Jacobites a bit later. Kusworth is probably the perfect glimmer twin for Nikki, besides the clothes the looks and the sounds there's some kind of alchemical magic that took place on the records they made together. During this time future Waterboy Mike Scott was also a part of the beautiful melancholia that is Nikki's first really great album. Sad songs that feel so good, makes you turn it up loud and drink hard liquor, for a walk down that road of broken dreams into some kind of temporary glory; a rise and a fall, in the arc of an angel flying too high. Another strong influence ingredient is Neil Young and Crazy Horse (and the occasional dash of T-Rex), and some of Dylan's lost Spanish opium dreaming reveries, and of course Johnny Thunders who was a sort of mix of much of the same gene pool himself. Taken From: http://www.dreamgeo.com/reviewsone.html |
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