A GUY CALLED GERALD - To All Things What They Need

A GUY CALLED GERALD
'To All Things What They Need' !K7

The man best known for the seminal Hacienda anthem 'Voodoo Ray' returns with a mixed bag of an album that bluntly refuses to retread old ground. There's little of the acid house that made Gerald Simpson's name on here, and only a dash of the drum and bass he's also known for. Mostly, this is pretty experimental stuff - and as ever with that sort of album, some works, some doesn't. High points include 'Call For Prayer', a deep, haunting ambient track with a strong Eastern feel and 'Pump', where a minimalist house beat is filled wit with acid squelches and shrill high hits. Finley Quaye crops up to add some understated vocals to the drum and bass, 'Strangest Changes' - he thankfully seems have lost the irritating vibrato that used to plague his vocals - but Ursula Rucker's vocals on 'Millennium Sanhedrin' prove only to be pretentious beyond belief.

M6/M8