Duck soup
MALCOLM MCLAREN
Duck Rock (Charisma)
The old rascal’s done it again.
From The Sex Pistols to Bow Wow Wow, Malcolm McLaren has force-few rock some of its most powerful fuel.
This LP is his most ambitious project to date. With ABC’s producer Trevor Horn, he has set out an epic journey to check out the roots of rock and roll.
The results are fascinating. There’s an Afro/Cuban chant that dates from before the time of Christ, a hillbilly hoedown, a skipping song from the Bronx and pop from the troubled black township of South Africa’s Soweto. Running behind the tracks is a late night funky phone-in from New York that links all the strands of this musical marathon.
McLaren is a delightfully dotty travelling companion, hip-hopping from one culture to another and shamelessly stealing from them all.
He’s gone right back to the deep black roots of popular music, and Trevor Horn’s mixed it with the white man’s magic of advanced technology.
’Duck Rock’ is like those vivid snatches of sound that leap out at you when you twist a radio tuner through the stations — a whole world opened up at the flick of a switch.
I doubt whether you’ll hear a more revolutionary record all year. Food for thought for a long time to come. ☆☆☆☆☆
Lynn Hanna