Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 80

Dclroil ifrce Vxcso Sunday, December 14, 1997 5H THE DETROIT DISC lira Various artists 1 i "Motor City Riffs" WRIF-FM (101.1), Detroit Packaging problems delayed the release of this track compilation, originally slated for September, but after many months of hype, here it is. And aside from the' sloppy liner notes loaded with spelling and grammar errors apparently there are still some, uh, packaging problems this one's a winner great stuff from some of the area's best-known acts, including 19 Wheels, Motor Dolls, Howling Diablos and Speedball. It all leads off with the positively perfect "Punched a Friend" from Chelsea's Holy Cows, and rolls onward to the Mutants' delightfully dirty "Piece of Bonus track "Gimme, Gimme Good Lovin'," recorded in 1980 by Adrenalin compilation coproducer Brian Pastoria's old band is a nod to the days when station-sponsored local anthologies weren't just a quirk. This phenomenon needs to be annual. $10, available at Harmony House only, with proceeds going to the Leukemia Society of America.

2537 By Brian McCollum, Free Press Pop Music Critic 1 1 Tr0f r7V7rn Digitally remastered collectMBy I fl LI I A I qt Jits by the Four Tops JL i fJry deliver a more polished sourfjT. I iThe digitally remastered by Kevin Keeves at New I Four Tops "The Ultimate Collection" 1 I II York's Polydram Studios, is the bulwarked! (Motown) bottom. Yes, James Jamerson bass can now I The Supremes 'The Ultimate Collection" rattle your subwoofer, though occasionally (Motown) "I DETROIT'S TOP particularly with the Supremes thai tin-i The beloved Motown sound, whether by kering comes at the expense of the top end. default or design, was never about sonic You can't split hairs wilh the song selection purity. The bottom end was overdriven, at 25 tracks apiece, these discs do ocals fogged with loads of echo, the whole thing super-compressed into a promised, delivering all the notable chart a i nugget of potent urgency.

And it sound- singles. Also just out under the "Ultimate kedi just dandy in a car or on a transistor Collection" tag: discs on Gladys radio which its creators claim was CD era, Motown has steadily and surely directed some digital spit-shining toward its valuable catalog. 1992's "Hitsville USA" set was the first big step in the right direction, featuring 43 years' worth of singles cleaned up and delivered with a CD-worlhy sound. Other series have followed, notably the "Milestones" and "Ultimate Collection" lines, which kicked off last year with a mandate: to showcase the 45-rpm versions of songs by Motown's biggest artists. Those singles were often vastly different from the mixes that appeared on LP and thus different from the ones we've heard on the radio for the last couple of decades.

But as the songs that poured out of countless record players worldwide during the 1960s, they're the most definitive accounts of the Motown story. These two just-released discs are vital "Ultimate Collection" entries, taking a comprehensive look at a pair of Motown's A-list artists and some of the most celebrated work of producers Brian Holland and Iximonl Dozier. The most noticeable aural improvement on these mono translations, Knight the Pips and Jr. Walker whole point. kthei the All Stars.

On lap for 1998: the Singles So, while it will never be possible to make those Detroit mixes St Jf Marvelettes and Martha the SIM I 1 I I vi A 7 truly sparkle, the label is final Vandellas in February, with Marvin Gaye coming in the LSG, "My Body" ly doing something about preserving the energy fall. 2538 and 2539 By Brian that there. After a wave of ticky- McCollum, Free Press Pop Music Critic tacky reissues early in the I 2 1 1 2 Elton John, "Candle In the Wind '97" 3 3 5 Puff Daddy, "Been Around the World" 4 4 4 1 Mase, "Feel So Good' i 5 6 1 i Janet Jackson, "Together Again" 613! 3 1 Usher, "You Make Me Wanna" 71 5 Hanson, "I Will Come to You" I 8 8 i 6 LeAnn Rimes, "How Do I Live" 9)17 Savage Garden, "Truly Madly Deeply" JlO'lO! Aaliyah, "One Gave My Heart To" All reviews use a scale of one to four stars. ALSO I FROM THE VAULT vqcAL xt Albums 8 2 ZB 2 i id Other discs scheduled for release Tuesday: Ice Cube "Featuring Ice Cube" Queen Pen "My Melody" 1 1 1 1 1 Garth Brooks, "Sevens" 2 i 2 1 3 1 Celine Dion, "Let's Talk About Love" 3 I 5 2 2Pac, Still Down? (Remember 4 3) 4) Barbra Streisand, "Higher Ground" 5 i 7 8 1 Chumbawamba, "Tubthumper" 6l 6i Spice Girls, "Spiceworld" 7 4 12 1 LeAnn Rimes, "You Light Up My Life 8 '10 '14 1 Hanson, "Middle of Nowhere" 1 Metallica, "Re-Load" 1018 5 Erykah Badu, "Live" The King's Singers "Spirit Voices" (RCA) We have probably lost the ability to be surprised at artists who want to cross over to other genres. Michael Bolton sings opera? Yawn.

So when the King's Singers, the six Englishmen from Cambridge, decide to do "Kokomo" with Mike Love and "Lift the Wings" from Kiverdance on their new album, we barely have the energy to ask why. The group, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in a few months, is perhaps bored with its brilliant a cappella choral performances. With new interpretations of Beach Boys, Sade, Sting and Paul Simon classics, it has succeeded in making pap out of pop. But at least it's wilh perfect pitchy 2540 1 By Chris Ledbetter, Free Press Entertainment Editor Specialty chart: Country Albums 1 1 1 1 1 Garth Brooks, "Sevens" CLASSICAL 3 1 LeAnn Rimes, "You Light Up My Life Bing Crosby "Bing's Gold Records" (MCA) Between the years 1937 and 1950, Bing Crosby racked up 21 No. 1 hits for the Decca label, a string that has never been surpassed.

All of those original recordings have been collected on this nicely annotated set, which places the ever adaptable crooner in an endless variety of sellings: pulling on Ihe green with the Irish ballad (That's an Irish cowpoking around "Don't Fence Me In" wilh the Andrews Sisters; gently swinging the marching tune "MacNainara's and, mosl effectively, accompanied only by Carmen Cavallaro's piano and a rhythm section, delivering a romantic "I Can't Begin lo Tell You." Ba-ba-Bing! 2544 By Terry Lawson, Free Press staff writer Various artists "Crime Jazz: Music in the First Degree" and "Crime Jazz: Music in the Second Degree" (Rhino) Contracted for a hit or maybe just a little arson, but can't seem to get in a properly malignant mood? Simply pick up one of these smoky little scene setters, slide it in the CD player, pour one neat and wait for inspiration or perhaps arrest: When Count Basic's theme for the gritty 1950s cop drama Squad" came blowing out of my speakers, I was ready lo turn myself in for a shoplifting incident from my youth. Although these two volumes of music associated with television crime shows and film noirs are hardly the first of their kind, they are the first to acknowledge the symbiotic relationship between the black-and-white bluster of crime drama and those blaring trombones and tympanies thai defined benchmark themes such as "Peter Gunn," (heard here in the Quincy Jones arrangement rendered immortal by countless high school pep bands) and Elmer Bernstein's scores for 'The Man with the Golden Arm" and "Sweet Smell of Success." The major suspects Touch of Evil," "Perry Mason Theme" are mostly accounted for, but licensing problems mean that Duke Ellington's groundbreaking score for "Anatomy of a Murder" is still at large. 2543 By Terry Lawson, Free Press staff writer achievements, most of it has been simply talk. Enter Roni Size and Reprazent, based in Bristol, England. Roni is an established producer, and Reprazent is a collection of musicians and DJs performing as a band.

They've collaborated on a stunning double-CD set that incorporates live instrumentation such as stand-up bass, acoustic guitar, saxophone and vocalists with electronically produced, hyperkinetic drum-n-bass beats. "New Forms" fuses elements of hip-hop, jazz, funk and rock into a surprisingly cohesive effort that just might be the disc that ushers in a new era of electronic music. All too often at least in the United Slates critics whine that electronica has "no soul" or is "computer music." Finally, there's an album that combines a healthy dose of electronic instrumentation with organic music. 2542 By Tim Pratt, Free Press special writer 3 3 2 Shania Twain, "Come on Over" 4 5 4 1 Trisha Yearwood, "Songbook 5 4 1 5 Brooks Dunn, "Greatest Hits Collection" 6 1 7 8 LeAnn Rimes, "Blue" 7 i 6 1 7 Tim McGraw, "Everywhere" Kenny Rogers, "Gift" 910 8 1 John Michael Montgomery, "Greatest Hits" 10 '12 9 1 john Denver Muppets, "Christmas Together" Week of Dec. 7.

Based on sales at 14,000 outlets nationwide, including Detroit. Compiled by SoundScan. TV GIGS Monday Simply Red, Conan Tuesday I)s Strait Jackets, Conan Celine Dion, Leno James Brown, Letterman Wednesday Ozzy Osbourne, Conan Ben Folds Five, Letterman Thursday Dwight Yoakam, Leno Hanson, Letterman Dog's Eye View, "Backstage Pass" Friday Southern Culture on the Skids, Conan Edgard Varese Volume 2, 1925-61: "Densite," "lonisation," "Deserts," "Integrales," etc. National Orchestra of France, Kent Nagano, conductor. (Erato) Varese's revolutionary music can still shock the hell out of an audience massive blocks of sound smashing against one another like planets, percussion orchestras wailing con blasto, electronic sounds right out of bizarro world.

But often overlooked is the subtlety of Varese's orchestration and the eerie beauty of his sonorities, best represented here in the influential "Deserts," in which pitched percussion duplicate wind lines, and "Jntegrales," wilh its repeated pitches and rising "summons" motifs. Kent Nagano doesn't repress Varese's violence, but he shapes these performances as lovingly as a Brahms symphony. A terrific portrait of this critical 20th-century voice. 254 1 By Mark Stryker, Free Press Music Critic JEl 1 ROCK ELECTRONICA Bush "Deconstructed" (TraumaInterscope) it Dance remixes from British grunge band Bush? Why not? Remixers Goldie and Tricky are two of the big-name DJs who tackle Bush favorites, using techno, drum-n-bass and dub elements. results are erratic.

Goldie's jungle version of "Swallowed (Toasted On Both Sides Please Mix)," for instance, is tedious after the first sound-alike minute or so. But Derek DeLirge's primal lake on "Everything Zen (Lhasa Fever tops the original. By Free Press News Services Roni Size and Reprazent "New Forms" (Talkin' IudMercury Records) There has been a lot of talk in the last year about electronic music breaking into the U.S. mainstream, but other than a few noteworthy WANT TO HEAR 4 A FREE SAMPLE? In metro Detroit, call 1-313-962-7587, Outstate, call 1-800-975-7587. Then enter the four-digit code from our reviews.

Or hear it on the Web: www.freep.com.