The Jazz Butcher Polygram

By TOM MEGGINSON

Butch is back - and a bargain Butch to boot. On his tour last year to promote Fishcotheque, Pat Fish the Jazz Butcher - and his merry band stopped in at CBC studios in Montreal. There, they did a bit of recording for “Brave New Waves,” in a Peel-type session.

When he got back to England, Butch went to work on a 12” single of dance music, to fill what he found to be a “severe shortage of suitable frugging material” in his repertoire. He created an acid-dance cover of “Spooky,” instantly familiar sixties pop gem.

Butch’s compatriots must be content with just the dance tracks. But we happy colonists may rejoice to our own exclusive mini-album, featuring the English EP on side one and the CBC session on the flip. And at seven bucks for the vinyl or tape, and eleven for the CD, it may be this year’s best buy yet

The Jazz Butcher is yet another product of the eighties yearning for the simple sixties. Like most other psychedelic pop artists, his songs attack today’s evils with the sort of whimsical sarcasm that can only come from England’s acid underground. Like Julian Cope and Robyn Hitchcock, Butch follows a credo of “speak softly but carry lots of guitar effects.”

In the current anti-drug blitz of neo-disco and Armani suits, the Butcher’s attitudes and music may seem a trifle out of date. He begins his copious liner notes with the words, “Thanks for the money. We’ll be spending it on WEAPONS and DRUGS.” Not the kind of thing you’d hear pretty Rick crooning over his drum programs.

If you want to dance with the Butcher, he suggests that you play his record “very loud indeed and thrash about in a carefree fashion until it stops.” Anarchic as that may sound, the two versions of “Spooky” and the remix of “The Best Way” - a rap about the evils of eating chicken from Fishcotheque - incorporate elements of the evil House menace. Fortunately, since Butch is both a musician and a lunatic, his version of dance music is rythmic and repetetive, yet also interesting and weird.

The radio session is more traditional Jazz Butcher material. It’s stripped down, more like the music of his first two albums. He must have had quite a time in Canada, as he names several famous hosers in “Sex Engine”: Barbara Frum, Bruno Gerussi and A1 Waxman get mentioned alongside Skinny Puppy, Also included are a raunchier version of “Blame,” in overproduced form on side one, and three very pleasant tunes with dark lyrics “Whitfield, Sarah & The Birchfield Road Affair,” “Giri-Go” and “Grey Flannelette,” the Butcher’s favorite.

If you’ve got a sense of humor and a taste for alternative music, this could be your chance to get turned on to a great English institution - Acid Pop. The Jazz Butcher gives his own feelings about his music in Spooky’s liner notes: “I hope you dig the noises on this record. That is, after all, the reason for our making them."

A true musician speaks.

Spooky EP

Thanks for the money. We'll be spending it on weapons and drugs. The first thing that you have to understand about this disc is that it is not an L.P.: it is a single and a radio session nailed together for your amusement.

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