Fred Dust

Hard Attack by Dust is an improvement over the acceptable performance of the self-titled debut from the year before. The team of producer Kenny Kerner and vocalist/guitarist/producer Richie Wise do just what the title suggests, bringing a harder attack to songs like "Pull Away/So Many Times" and "Ivory," the latter an instrumental with emphasis on guitar riffs and cymbal work. It's an all-out assault from the trio and pretty interesting, though the album as a whole works better when Thog's Fred Singer adds piano and organ. "How Many Horses" benefits from keyboard presence, and brings the group back to the Leslie West/Mountain flavors so obvious on the group's 1971 debut. That song definitely sounds like Dust was intent on remaking the Jack Bruce/Mountain classic "Theme From an Imaginary Western," one of that group's highlights…

One hundred tapes. Recorded by Jean Vapeur on the now legendary Nagra IV S tape recorder. A box full of the original sound recordings for Step Across the Border, the film Werner Penzel and I travelled around the world to make in 1988-1989 with musician Fred Frith. Just before the collapse of Socialism and the digital take-over of the world. Twenty minutes on every tape. That is, thirty-three hours of sound material. In the end, only ninety minutes of it are in the film. The rest of the recordings have been slumbering away in an old crate, and trailed along on our every studio move, surviving icy winters and even a flood in our archive vault. Now and again I need to clean the tape debris off the Nagra with a brush. Little piles of magnetic dust. But the sounds are still there! Wear debris, a symbol of elapsed time.

If you've never heard anything by Right Said Fred apart from their worldwide mega-hit "I'm Too Sexy," then you are missing out on one of the best dance-pop bands of this generation. To base your opinion of the band on that one song is like judging the Beatles' entire catalog by repeated listenings to a song like "Yellow Submarine." Sure, it's fun and catchy, but there is so much more to the band than that one piece of pop fluff. This, their fourth album and first as a duo, is a huge step forward for the Freds and their best album yet by far. Richard Fairbrass went from being their vocalist to being a real force to be reckoned with. His voice is rich and full of self-assured power, and he can wrap it around a ballad ("I Know What Love Is," "Feel Like a Woman") or a dancefloor filler ("Love Song," "Bring Your Smile"). The normally cold electronic dance beats are transformed into human heartbeats by Fred Fairbrass' joyous acoustic guitar strums. Tracks like "Mojive," "You're My Mate," and "Lovers.com" leap out of the speakers with a renewed sense of confidence. "The Sun Changes Everything" is power pop with a dance beat and Beach Boys-esque harmonies.