Reviews of films, books and CDs that deserve a second look

POP

HERE COME THE WARM JETS
Brian Eno
E.G. Records, 1974
(Reissued, $ 22.99)

Multimedia-artist and self-proclaimed non-musician Brian Eno is one of the most prolific and varied artists of his generation. He came to prominence as the eccentric keyboard player of the famous English glam rock act Roxy Music, but creative differences and an increasingly strained relationships with band mate Bryan Ferry forced Eno to leave the group. After his departure from the band, Eno made a name for himself as a hit producer, electronic music pioneer, sound engineer, and one of the greatest ambient composers.

His unique and innovative approach to production led to his first solo record, Here Come the Warm Jets, in 1974. Eno carried on his role from the Roxy Music days as a "sound manipulator" and took the lead vocals, leaving all the instrumental work to his collaborators, including Robert Fripp and former Roxy Music bandmates. His compositions are catchy in their pop essence, yet twisted in their production and arrangements. A wide array of instruments including synthesizers and tape recorders come and go in the songs, painting a colourful and diverse landscape. His lyrics are decidedly abstract and dark humoured, further proof of his limitless imagination. Irresistible straight-forward rock songs like "Needles in the Camel's Eye" or "Blank Frank" coupled with the harmonious vocal arrangements of "Some of them are Old" and the electronic noises of "Driving me Backwards" result in an unpredictable record that amazes in its smallest detail, making you want to play it over and over again. Not only is Here Come the Warm Jets a landmark in both pop rock and alternative music, but the techniques used for its creation would also serve as inspiration for generations of electronic and hip hop producers to come. Even if the album only made it to the UK Top 30, it's still considered an overlooked classic.
-- Jean-Michel Gadoua

JAZZ

THE COLE PORTER SONGBOOK
Ella Fitzgerald
Vols 1 & 2
Verve, 1984
(Original recordings 1956)

Ella Fitzgerald's exceptionally pure voice has been called too innocent by some; indeed, it's arguable that many of her renditions lack the "hoomph" and sex appeal of some of her grittier contemporaries, including Billie Holliday and Lena Horne. Still, it's impossible not to be touched -- and even awed --by the clarity of her range and tone. Cole Porter's breathtakingly clever lyrics might benefit from a more ironic rendition (a classic line from "Always True to You in My Fashion" dealing with one of the protagonist's many many lovers goes "If a Harris pat means a Paris Hat...") but this important CD collection, with its cleaned, crisp stereo sound, brings together some of Ella's best work, bar none.

As a one-stop shopping source of Porter's greatest hits, you also can't do better. Volume 1 particularly includes every song of his you've ever hummed to: "Anything goes," "Too darn hot," "I Get a Kick Out of You," among others. Volume 2 features a few huge hits ("You Do Something to Me," "You're the Top," "I've Got You Under My Skin") but also quite a few numbers you may have only heard once or twice. Porter could be glib but he could also achieve emotional depth, as in the moving -- and at the time highly controversial -- "Love for Sale." All in all a collection well worth owning by Ella and Porter fans alike.
-- Madeleine Partous

FILM

THE PARTY
Director Blake Edwards
Starring Peter Sellers
United Artists 1968
DVD release MGM 2001

If you were to host a Hollywood party, who would you invite? Well, if you're looking for a laugh, Peter Sellers would probably top your list -- but only if you were interested in cleaning up the mess.

In The Party, Sellers plays an Indian actor (Hrundi V Bakshi) who's somewhat clumsy -- to say the least. During the filming of a costume epic, he shows his true colours when he blows up everything on set. He inevitably gets fired, and is instantly put on the town's "do not hire list". But as movie-fate would have it, the studio-head mistakenly puts our anti-hero on his personal party guest list. Sellers shows up at the party, where everyone assumes he must belong. He gets off on the wrong foot and loses his shoe in the elaborate fountain next to the entrance, and so begins his race to remain dignified, when he obviously isn't. Sellers' comic escapades are highlighted by the presence of an alcoholic butler (played by Steve Franken) and gets Mr Bakshi in trouble. Sellers is truly unforgettable in this film, but perhaps one of the most well-known lines from the film comes when Sellers is feeding the studio-head's parrot. While shoving bits of parrot food into the cage, he remarks "Birdie Num Num". The Party is not a film for every day, but it is the perfect movie to rent when you need a good, loud laugh.
-- Carla Sparks

BOOKS

ANGLE OF REPOSE
Wallace Stegner
Penguin, 1992 ($18.99)

Wallace Stegner, who died ten years ago this April, was a remarkable prose stylist and unquestionably the most important novelist of the American west. His penetrating insights into the American psyche fashioned stories that debunk the romantic myths of the men and women who "tamed" the west. He favoured the wild bison, leaping salmon and open country over cowboys and cattle, fish farms and fenced pastures. Nature in its raw state was central to his world view and there are echoes of the early environmentalist Aldo Leopold in his work. In 1960 he wrote in his "Wilderness Letter" to the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission: "Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear air and dirty the last clean streams...."

If you've never read Mr Stegner, there's no better place to start than Angle of Repose, the 1971 novel that won the Pulitzer prize.

His style has been compared both to John Steinbeck and William Faulkner which, on the surface, seems a bit of a stretch. As a storyteller he's certainly in Mr Steinbeck's class. He's also capable of Faulknerian riffs, though he flies closer to the ground, as in this passage taken from Angle of Repose where the narrator speculates on what his relatives think of him: "....helpless....roll his wheelchair off the porch who'd rescue him.... Damned old independent mule-headed....worse than a baby. Never consider the trouble he makes for the people who look after him.... House I....grew up in, he says. Papers, he says, thing I've always wanted to do...."

He's perhaps more at home when wearing Mr Steinbeck's battered fedora, as in this passage from the chapter entitled Leadville: "He called before nine, saying that Leah was taking Jackie to her camp, and he might drop up if I was going to be home. I wonder where he thought I might be going, I'd be glad to see him, I said, not untruthfully. Ada and I plotted a lunch: avocado salad, a soufflé, garlic bread, a bottle of Green Hungarian....."

The story is told by Lyman Ward, a retired historian now confined to a wheelchair. He chronicles the years his grandparents spent in joy and sorrow carving out the fictional western mining town of Leadville. The saga moves backwards and forwards through four generations and, in the end, is as much about the narrator as it is about his ancestors. This literary slight of hand is one Mr Stegner uses to advantage in several of his books notably The Spectator Bird, which won a National Book Award in 1976.

He's written 11 novels. His last, Crossing to Safety, 1987, is also a very rewarding read.
-- David Elkins