Demo Parade

It must be said. I listen to more crap than any journalist in the Western World. Most of the time, however, even a dire tape has a few redeeming factors - maybe one classic song out of four, maybe a humourous lyric, maybe a fantastic singer. Other times - and yes, this is one of those times - you find a demo that is genuinely not worth the tape it's recorded on.

I'm talking about a demo from Buttox! , an exercise I would deem a complete waste of time for all parties involved. Completely amelodic melodies, stupid lyrics, a terrible voice, and (to be fair) average guitar lines. All I can really say about the tape is that if it's not a joke, it should have been.

Next up a professional and well-produced tape from The Shade in Co. Tipperary that has managed to leave a similarly bad taste in my mouth for completely different reasons. Sent with a video in a lingerie-type box and called "The Obsene Collection," this tape delivers a perplexing cross between Inspiral Carpets and an over ambitious pub band. While not without musical merit, it has some severe lyrical problems.

The band have written a song, 'Daddy's Girl', about a father sexual abusing his daughter and surrounded it with sexy packaging and seductive sounds that just don't suit the subject matter. On top of that, the title track 'Obscene' details a strange dancefloor seduction that ends, so far as I can tell, with the seductress being raped. The chorus, "You are obscene, you are a sex machine," is directed at the woman, who somehow seems to be being portrayed as the villain here. Maybe I'm misinterpreting, but either way it seems to me that The Shade shouldn't attempt to tackle such weighty material.

After all that, it's nice to get a demo that's so well performed and copped on that you can devote your energy to deciding whether or not it's a sound or a song that you like. The Glasgow-based Colour Wheel score high marks with 'When I Was Young', with an inspiring James/Monkees style offering. 'Shine' brings together vague They Might Be Giants vocal antics with Hothouse Flowery instrumentation with similar success and 'Goodbye Jane' comes across like an Alman Brother stung by Jellyfish. So far, so good, I say.

When you reach 'SkyPainting' you start to worry that this has all been done already. Then, by song's end - having suffered good, upbeat, fun harmonies and the like - you really don't care. Truly enjoyable.

Belfast's Hatchetfield start off almost as strongly with the beginning to 'Goodbye' - great, catchy high-pitched guitar riffs are shifted down an octave when the smooth and confident vocals start. With punchy lyrics like "I don't want to disguise the fact/that you're walking round and saying that/my voice just isn't good enough for you/I just wanted to point out that/everything you think you do is crap/and now we have all just had enough of you," set to infectious melody lines, you can't help but sing along.

'Major Mistake' tends at first toward the pop side of Therapy? with a radio rockish chorus, but is plagued by strange tempo changes and indecision over what kind of song it's actually supposed to be. On 'Fools', the melody and guitar accompaniment don't really seem to sit right with each other and the drums lack punch exactly when they're supposed to have it. Lastly, 'I'm Happy' is Human League-ish in flavour but using completely different ingredients - to the extent that it's almost Manchestery at times. Still, muddled guitars and occasionally fuzzy production don't diminish the fact that the songs are good, with a desireable if vague sense of intangible indieness.

A bit less successful are The Clouds from Mayo who, it is only right to say, are only together on a part time basis. The band's lack of experience, however, doesn't show up too drastically on the demo, which surpasses many tapes by full time gigging bands. Still, the band claim influences that are fairly easy to place - The Doors, The Smiths, Jimi Hendrix - and sound at times about as original as a Deacon Blue cover band. 'Missing in Action', for example, is just way too Doorsy. Still, the lead singer, Adrian Murphy maintains a pleasant bluesyness throughout, even though the structure 'Whenever' in particular doesn't showcase it all that well.

I would and could never claim to be an expert on traditional Irish music, but at the same time, I can tell when things click and when they don't. Anam have their moments and the original songs on the tape are very good, but the instrumental work doesn't sound as tight as it could be. Songs which benefit from a certain amount of looseness in live sessions nearly always benefit from a slicker performance on disc. Nevertheless the four Dubliners here are obviously very talented and I wish them luck breaking into a difficult genre.