ZANG TUMMM TUMB ARTICLES “the first draft of history”

VARIOUS ARTISTS ‘Zang Tuum Tumb Sampled’ (ZTT)

You’ve got to hand it to these ZTT individuals, though precisely what you’ve got to hand them is open to debate. On the basis of this drearily predictable compilation concept, they deserve nothing very nice.

Talk about window dressing! No amount of sleeve-note theorising (and I don’t mind sleeve-note theorising in principle) can disguise the fact that this is a bunch of out-takes and mild mannered remakes from ZTT’s back room/back catalogue.

To summarise, there are songs by Propaganda, Anne Pigalle, Instinct and Andrew Poppy, bumped up to LP quota by Art Of Noise wafflings, and FGTH doing ‘Born To Run’ live, plus another number called ‘Disneyland’. The latter would have been termed a ‘progressive rock workout’ 10 years ago.

Much of the music is valuable stuff — notably that by the various Ps — but we’re dealing with self-styled consumer situationists here, aren’t we, so remarks such as ‘I like this one’ are missing most of the point.

ZTT say they want to be a spanner in the works. OK. Re-issue this item in a bare sleeve with the following cover line: ‘Promotional Trailer Combined With Quick And Painless Profit Margin — Certain Compensations May Be Found Within’.

Now for that I could respect them. ☆☆½

Dave Hill