Word: soundly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Rosenthal is heartily invited to visit our department and discover that these languages, which sound so strange to him, are part and parcel of human civilization and, with due respect to Australia (which incidentally, has produced some outstanding scholars of Urdu and Indian Islam), are, after all, the heritage of several hundreds of millions of people...
...convincing. The frustration and psychological suffering that apartheid imposes on all elements of life are made crushingly vivid, and the emotional impact of the unrestrained, passionate voice is compelling. Through this nightmare there remains a glimmer of hope in the freedom songs of the political prisoners, "a single powerful sound rolling and thundering, shaking the very foundations of the prison walls." It is not a practical agenda but only a vision of a possible future. Technically, it does not mesh well with the generally hopeless tone. But emotionally, it is the underlying credo of the entire novel: a new world...
These vocal harmonies on Rank and File are also the last remaining trace of the band's former country sound. Unfortunately, the rest of that sound has been swallowed up by Ross's guitar and so-called "Rosstronix" effects. The result is several songs in which Ross vamps on for about half a minute too long, as if the band couldn't decide how or when...
...lively and short enough so that they don't have to. "Unlucky in Love," for example, doesn't say much of anything, but its sonic-boom noise and punk/polka rhythm make it great fun. Otherwise, the new Rank and File's hybrid of nasal vocals and buzzsaw guitars sound like uniform drone. Rank and File may catapult the band to MTV stardom (and Rhino Records out from the novelty and oldies bins in record stores), but such success will come at the expense of the band's more interesting elements...
...rhythm section and lead singer Rob Craw's milk-curdling snarl. Paris suggests that the Huxtons must be a killer live band. The credit for the successes of Paris--and the blame for its failures--must rest on the shoulders of producer Ian "Mack" McKenzie, who committed that live sound to vinyl. For most of the songs, the production is too antiseptic, too well-scrubbed for the type of rough, crude music the Huxtons play. Occasionally, though, McKenzie and the Huxtons click, as on the wall-of-noise landscape behind the Huxton's theme song "I've Been Around...