Customer Reviews

Handcream for a Generation

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

(3 and a half stars) This album has a little bit of everything, from R&B/Soul to Techno/Dance, with some good rock interspersed liberally throughout. It matches my criteria for a good album, in that it has a decent flow/groove throughout. Though not as good as their last album, this is still a superior effort. Taken individually the songs are well written, with some excellent efforts, Heavy Soup is a great opening track, Motion the 11 is a fun reggae/dance track, and Spectral Mornings is a 14 minute raga that never seems to end (this is a good thing, I didn't want it to). This is a band with a tremendous amount of talent, that is definately worth seriously listening to. That being said, I think sometimes they get a little too caught up in their own brilliance and overstate their point. While I was happy with the length of Spectral Mornings, some of the songs seemed to be quite too long, and little too repetitive.
Overall a very ambitous effort, and well executed, but with some flaws that can get slightly annoying. The quality makes up for any shortcomings, and the album holds up after repeated listening.
Maybe 3 and three quarters stars

Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres deepen their supple grooves as they move closer to mainstream central on Cornershop's fourth release, Handcream for a Generation. Since When I Was Born for the 7th Time was a formal breakthrough and minor hit thanks to "Brimful of Asha", Handcream for a Generation may feel like a retread. Yet after considerations of newness and chronology are taken into account, this latest may prove to be the better collection. They've mastered a dance-collage technique that makes their peers cry (and look like dolts in the process). Their music no longer flaunts but consumes their influences - disco, Bollywood, hard rock, new wave, hip-hop - and makes a better case for a rainbow coalition than previous rhetoric. Having less to say, these 13 tracks just want to get your Paki-black-Jamaican-white [bottom] moving. Cribbed from their Clinton side-project, "people power in the disco hour" remains their statement of fact. That may sound like party-time idealism, but these hedonists know where to find true equality.

All I can say is they nailed it this time out.I have been a slight fan of these guys for years.I saw them live in 97, and thought they were good-but too many drawn-out sitar/dobro moments.On this new album I dont hear any sitars whatsoever, and it's so refreshing that they almost completely changed their style.I thought for sure they would do the exact same thing.This album seems rooted in the 70's.The first tune seems like a Sly Stone outtake, there is a reggae tune, and a flat-out/no apologies disco song.I normally dont like disco, but it jives with the rest of the album since it's all over the map.There is even a full-fledged rock tune a la Rod Stewart/Faces_
(Lessons from Rocky 1-3)A couple techno songs keep it sounding up-to-date.If you want an album that has all kinds of music and sampling....THIS IS 4 U

Really, there is no better word than funky to describe this album. Being a huge fan of their previous album, When I was Born for the 7th time, I was anxious to try this out. This is absolutely unlike what I had expected.

Their latest effort is definitely a departure from their previous downtempo and cheerful sound. I'm happy that after four years they did not try to capitalize on the success of the last album, something I call the Moby - 18 factor.

It's great, surprising, refreshing. It sorts of reminds me of the transition for Beck from Mutations to Midnite Vultures. One introspected, downtempo, relaxed, the other more experimental, tongue-in-cheek, and funky.

Don't be worried, they did not leave out their trademark indian influences. They just use them in a different way. Not exactly a classic, but certainly a great album. Highly recommended.

I seriously just up and bought this when I walked into a major record shop who was blasting it on thier "radio station". Heard one song, walked by the booth, went to section BOOM, bought it...it's that easy. Normally when I purchase a CD like this I get about 20% of good material and the rest is [bowel movement]. this however, is 100% of unreal sampling, mixing and about every kind of music fused together perfectly.

This being said, I purchaed this beacuse of "Lessons Learned from Rocky I and Rocky II" mostly because I am a huge britpop fan (well, if it's good at any rate) and although there is nop other song on this CD like it, I still highly recommend this. If you are looking fo a britpop flavor throughout then you may be dissapointed but I was happily suprised!

I am still 100% pure britpop power but CD's like this sometimes make me stray,

My my Tjinder & the lads of Cornershop have outdone themselves with "Handcream for a Generation". You have to love the titles of Cornershop's records.

With "When I Was Born for the 7th Time" we fans were treated & by that I mean really treated to something very refreshing music has to offer.

There were lovely songs such as: "Sleep On The Left Side", "Brimful Of Asha", "We're In Yr Corner", "Good S.", "It's Good To Be On The Road Back Home Again" & many more. Tjinder has a really beautiful voice & really composes his music in a way that complements his voice. This is further proven & demonstrated none other than by the man himself & his crew (Ben Ayres, Anthony Saffery, Nick Simms & Peter Bengry) in the epic new release of "Handcream For A Generation".

I'm glad & proud to say that you can buy this bands record/s without listening to it at the record store as you won't be disappointed long after the purchase & long after the disc has stopped playing as the tunes are stuck inside your head ready for repeated listens.

What the new album has in store:
Lovely intro "Heavy Soup" to kick of the funkiness before we are treated to what is my favorite track on the cd "Staging The Plaguing Of The Raised Platform" (Once again, just all around brilliance here, the guitar is ever so rock n' roll & Tjinder gets kids to sing the chorus which is fantastically done & another thing what an interesting & very catchy name for a song). Then rolls on track 3 which always makes me feel as if I'm in a club. Track 4 the 1st single of the album, while it's not bad I would have gone with "Staging The Plaguing Of The Raised Platform" for the 1st single, then we get more funky tunes such as "WWW", a slice of reggae on "Motion The 11" & a very groovy version of "People Power." After all this we get treated to music that could be classified as world before more funkiness & alas "Spectral Mornings" (got to love the Punjabi folk he implements). Then comes "Slip The Drummer One" which makes one feel they could dance 24/7 & then the outro of "Heavy Soup" to keep the good happy tune vibrations alive as is present all the way through the cd.

It will be interesting to see what they do with the follow up to "Handcream".

In the next record I would like to hear Tjinder singing more but none the less a top notch effort in all the fun, catchy & quirkiness' is provided for in "Handcream For A Generation" - Get your copy today! ??

More C.Shop funky tunes that are avilable on CD's & Singles include:
Elivs Sex Change
Hold On It Hurts
Woman's Gotta Have It
When I Was Born For The 7th Time
Handcream For A Generation
Brimful Of Asha (Norman Cook Remixes)
Good Ships / Funky Days Are Back Again
Brimful Of Asha (Easy Winners 1 + 2, Mucho Macho Bolan Boogie Mix)
Staging 1 (Green P's)
Staging 2 (Straight Aces)
Lessons Learned From Rocky 1 - 3
Jullandar Shere
Sleep On The Left Side
Wog Remixes
Born Disco, Died Heavy Metal (Rehoused)

When Tjinder Singh said he didn't want to rush the follow up to Cornershop's last album "When I Was Born For The 7th Time" it certainly wasn't any sort of understatement. We've been waiting nearly half a decade for this follow up and thankfully the extra time taken in the recording of this c.d. seems to have paid off. There are certain similarties between this c.d. and it's predecessor-they have a pretty distinctive mix of hip-hop beats and funky, fuzzy guitars and most especially Singh's own nondescript, monologue style vocals. There are no outstanding individual tracks like "Brimful Of Asha" or even "Sleep On The Leftside" but what this c.d. has is tracks of far greater consistency then the last one.

It all opens with a funky track where an ageing 'soulster' M.C. delivers a preview of the c.d. and where this group are coming from. It's like 70's hardcore soul/funk. Track 2 is the first of many really good tracks. Funky guitar riff plays out in front of a nice rhythm guitar riff, some swirly old fashioned synths, deep bass, all with Singh's inimitable vocal style and then the chorus he gets the backing of a group of kids. Sounds awfully insipid but believe me the overall sound is much cooler then this sounds-hey even Pink Floyd used kids voices effectively! "Music Plus 1" has a real techno feel to it-even though it doesn't thump along at 90 decibels per-hour-it's more like the sounds you'd hear on a Fat Boy Slim c.d. The first major single "Lessons Learned From Rocky 1 To Rocky 3" comes in next-and what a track this is. It traces the demise of rock music between the years of those two films-it's pretty ingenious stuff. The basic muffled guitar riff is straight out of the 70's and the backing singers give it a funky sound. In the year 2,000 they had worked on a c.d. with George Clinton-well his own influence is to be heard all over track 5-oh complete with a really old sounding hammond organ.

The style completely changes for the next track-at the first mention of Rasta you sort of know where this one may go-the heavy bass drum and reggae style brass section gives the whole sound of c.d. a nice change of emphasis-and the guest vocalist suits this track perfectly. "People Power" is another outstanding track-it has that rhythm guitar that was to be heard on the original version of "Brimful Of..." -you know it's such a simple song but it's pretty hypnotic and catchy. The first ethnic Indian sounds are to be heard on track 8. Boy will the drumming and rhythm of this track simply blow you away. Once again it's one man and his own P.A. system which is delivered in a mixture of Urdu and English. "The London Radar" is a really funky/disco number-amazing bass and guitar and the overall effects just sound like the last days of disco-all this is played behind the backdrop of people arriving into London by plane. Track 10 is simply amazing-it features Noel Gallagher on guitar and it's the second track to use Indian instruments. The thing is this track lasts for a full 14 minutes but I never grew tired of it for one minute. Firstly the melting pot of various influences makes this sound great. I heard this track being played in a record store recently and immediately heads were weaving and bobbing subconsciously back and forth. Track 11 is a little more of heavy vocoder vocals and a slow deep bass sound of hip-hop. The closing track closes off the c.d. in an almost identical style to the way the c.d. starts. So this concludes a very entertaining 60 minutes of music and a triumphant return for Cornershop!

No longer embracing the raw, angular post-punk sound with a surprisingly aggressive edge to it, "Handcream For A Generation" has only tenuous roots in Cornershop's first release, "Hold On It Hurts". "Born Disco, Died Heavy Metal" provides Tjinder Singh with part of the blueprint for "Handcream" : revisiting and reimagining the sounds of the 1970's, extending and refining them until they've been swirled into a millenial blend. "Born Disco, Died Heavy Metal"'s punctuated rhythm provides a direct antedcedent for the Bachman Turner Overdrive influenced "Lessons Learned From Rocky One To Rocky Three". Singh is primarily mining a neo-retro disco-rock vein on "Handcream", and contrary to its almost commonplace presence on their debut, the only track sung in his native Punjabi dialect is the epic "Spectral Mornings", the only other song besides "Sounds Super Recordings" to bring native instrumentation to bear on this CD.

Reviewers other than myself have commented on the stylistic variation brought to bear on a number of these tracks : "Heavy Soup"'s percolating bassline and swelling horns recall classic funk (though the outro, instrumental version is superior to the one which opens the CD with a spoken-word introduction); "Wogs Will Walk", Singh's centerpiece rap, revolves turntables in a saucy, bouyant, aggressive fashion, while "Slip The Drummer One" adopts a more streamlined, scratching approach; "Sounds Super Recording" dips into a rich, percussive Bhangra format, though the lyrics are delivered in heavily-accented English, followed by "Spectral Mornings", "Handcream's" 14-minute masterpiece, opening with a heavily resonant, almost palpable bassline , punctuated by tablas, and sitar, and moving with a fluid, danceable progression throughout, backed by savory, sinuous guitar line, and totally sold by Singh's rapping in his native dialect. "Staging The Plaguing Of The Raised Platform", an upbeat track, is another post-millennial tune that manages to savor, send-up, and fuse the sound of `70's rock with thoroughly modern production values (and using that children's choir to refrain and reframe the lyrics is a clever touch).

Where "Handcream" falls just a little short for me or the more overtly retro-disco numbers, "Music Plus One" and "People Power"; the former almost pulling it off as it mutates into kind of a `house track, the latter, just going through the motions. And speaking of "motion", the only track that really needed to be trimmed from this release is "Motion the 11" , a dub-heavy reggae track seriously out of place here, and execrable in its forced spontaneity.

Nevertheless, "Handcream" is an enjoyable listen, and on some tracks, downright riveting. While I wish that Singh hadn't jettisoned Cornershop's post-punk ethos I can remember how excited I was to get my hands on "Hold On..." in '95), there are a few tracks on "Handcream" that I revisit with some frequency, and I can recommend this CD with very little hesitation.

Can it really be a decade since Brimful Of Asha put Cornershop on Top Of The Pops? And it is a full six years since this, still their most recent album, appeared, though reports would suggest they still possess the people power in the disco hour. Certainly, this album is a bubbling bangle of beats from a band that clearly knows what it's about, and follows a consistent spindly-thread from the opener Heavy Soup, with a guest vocal from funky soul singer Otis Clay, to the bonus track, called Bonus Track.

The full versions of the singles Staging and Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III are here, and possibly the best track is the extended workout Spectral Mornings, which has extra colouration from Noel Gallagher's guitar and sitar from Sheema Mukherjee (from The Imagined Village). This has elements of raga, but elsewhere they touch down on almost every genre making this quite a global excursion, though their punk origins are never far from the surface. The Oasis connection continues with Guigsy's bass on Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III , which also features strings, a kids' chorus and Doreen Edwards from Distant Cousins.

File under: eclectic.

When I Was Born For the Seventh Time changed the way I thought about music. It opened new worlds to me, changing my musical taste from bubble-gum Oasis style pop to a lover of William Parker, Tortoise, King Tubby, Madlib, Phillip Glass, old funk records and everything else under the sun. It did this by being an easy to understand and at the same time brilliantly innovative and experimental.
This album continues Cornershop's fun-loving exploration of musical styles easily, if not as convincingly and movingly as When I Was Born... Surprisingly, since Disco and the Halfway to Discontent, Cornershop have moved from albums whose strengths were the traditiongal songs and whose interesting parts were the instrumental bits to a band whose weak point is song writing. Not that the songs on this are bad by any means. Staging the Plaguing... and Wogs Will Walk are two of the best tradtional songs Cornershop have ever written. However, the purely instrumental parts, such as Slip The Drummer One, Bonus Track, and Heavy Soup manage to outshine the traditional songs in terms of funk, soul, and ingenuity. The last three tracks on this album alone might be the most beautiful musical statement Cornershop has ever made.
So, with that in mind, buy this.