Mornin'... Chalk up another score on the quitegoodometer for the Gyroscopic Weasels; I thoroughly enjoyed Sunday evening's frolic through the gay meadow of Ms Campbell's pop mind. I wasn't nearly coherent enough to register which songs were my favourites and, wholly unfamiliar with the Gut-wrenching Wallflowers' oeuvre as I am, I suspect the covers had a head start in my affections anyway. The other Belles present were as nimble and light-footed as Pat Nevin in his prime, though they gave the ball away far less often. Special mention should be made of Stevie's dancing fingers and Chris's swelling organ. That's "and", not "on". I missed both films; we'd been banking on "Confessions of a Sauna Attendant" - Hopkins was even wearing his Robin Askwith pants - but it was all balloons and Truffaut. Arse. Mark Kolmar spoke thus:

If Isobel's album shows any evidence that she may have visited a vocal coach, please let me know. I'll settle for any new-found ability to project from the diaphragm.

Which only serves to remind me of an old Steve Martin joke. Project, though ? Surely untrained voices can be the most affecting; I mean, we don't want Isobel turning into Tina Turner, do we ? Tina Charles, perhaps. Anyway, thesedays they've got microphones that can record a baby otter talking in its sleep at 200 paces. The Galloping Whelks should sound like Blue Oyster Cult in comparison.

If only to avoid a completely negative post, I will recommend the new David Sylvian album. You will like it. Gorgeous.

I can't (yet) concur with this; seems scant reward, song-wise, for 12 years of wading through half-arsed collaborations and interminable axe-Fripperies. It could be a grower, though. The major chains seem to have it in for fans of arty, precious, fortysomething reformed synth-poppers though - both "Dead Bees..." and last year's Mark Hollis long-player were viciously and unnecessarily expensive in their week of release. Bloody Virgin. Back to balloons again. Sheesh. Mike (quite happy to go on the Simmons shag register as long as it's Jean, circa 1950). _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "nambling pambling rice pudding & crochet holiday camp +-+ +-+ gangwanking whimsy-thon" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+