Mark Stewart - 1987 - Mark Stewart

Mark Stewart

1987

Mark Stewart

01. Survival

02. Survivalist

03. Anger Is Holy

04. Hell Is Empty

05. Stranger

06. Forbidden Colour

07. Forbidden Dub

08. Fatal Attraction

09. Stranger Than Love

10. Stranger Than Love (Dub)

11. Survival

Keith LeBlanc – drums

Skip McDonald – guitar

Adrian Sherwood – keyboards, production

Doug Wimbish – bass guitar

Mark Stewart – vocals, production

Tracks 9, 10, 11 are CD only bonus tracks not available on the original LP and Cassette versions. All three tracks are from the 1987 12" single: Mark Stewart + Maffia 'This Is Stranger Than Love'.

Although Mark Stewart's left-wing leanings tend to be discussed only in the context of his sloganeering lyrics, the ex-Pop Group vocalist has emphasized that music itself can also be politically radical. When critics grumbled that this album lacked the political edge of Stewart's previous recordings, they were perhaps focusing on the more introspective dimensions of its lyrical content and glossing over tracks that were as sonically confrontational and subversive as material on Learning to Cope with Cowardice and As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade. Stewart challenges listeners' expectations through open-ended experimentation, rejecting simple song-oriented formats. With producer Adrian Sherwood and Maffia members Keith LeBlanc, Skip McDonald, and Doug Wimbish, he continues to play havoc with conventional notions of structure on several tracks, assembling dark, fragmented collages cut up with scratches, heavy metal guitar flourishes, voices culled from the media, and blasts of electronic noise. A prime example is the nine-minute assault of "Anger Is Holy," which finds Stewart pasting together big go-go beats, a recurring sample from Billy Idol's "Flesh for Fantasy," and his signature distorted vocals -- as well as interrupting the proceedings with a random moment of complete silence. But there is a less difficult, more melodic side to this album. Considered by some to be the blueprint for trip-hop, "Stranger" grafts together a version of Satie's "Gymnopedie No. 1," West Side Story's "Somewhere," and Stewart's pained/painful crooning. More than this track, however, the most genuinely beautiful and affecting cut on the album is the bass-heavy reworking of Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian's "Forbidden Colours" (titled "Forbidden Colour"), which Stewart then deconstructs on the dub version that follows. "Fatal Attraction" moves in a more dance-oriented direction; with its snaking, Moroder-esque disco beat, this track points toward the heavyweight 'funk grooves Stewart would explore on 1990s Metatron.

hen you listen to the first two tracks on Mark Stewart, you might be tempted, and apprehensively at that, to think it is still business as usual for Stewart. I trust that if you're reading this, you know what Stewart's business as usual is, and that I don't even have to bring up The Pop Group. But, you'd be wrong; Stewart's sound has evolved. And why shouldn't it? It is 1987, after all; the situation wouldn't be pretty if Stewart were still sticking to his sturm und drang politi-shout fest within in the same few months as Gary Clail's Tackhead Sound System.

As I said, the first two tracks are outliers; and poor ones at that. "Survival" and "Survivalist" are two slabs of thick 1980s Industrial funk, with Stewart shouting -things- about how horrible Capitalism is; yawn. But, before moving on to the more subtle pieces in the rest of the record, Stewart launches into the satisfying, no holds barred, production-quality-of-a-root-canal track called "Anger." And for good reason.

The rest of the album is the (main) attraction, as Stewart introduces melodic and moody synths to accompany solemn, spacious and stretching songs such as "Hell is Empty" and "Stranger." "Stranger" is the highlight of the record for me, with its distant and mournful synth riff; but coupled with a cheeky synth pop drum machine and vague lyrics such as "There must be a place for us / Somewhere over the borderline," you begin to question what is really going on here. Is Stewart showing his tender side and writing tender pop now? Or is at an illusion, a jab at the "borders" that we've built? Similarly to the contemporary Jack the Tab: Acid Tablets Volume One, the history and prior work of the artist keeps you guessing. And I love that.

"Forbidden Colour" and "Forbidden Dub" keep up this trend with added flair; and on this side of the LP, the dub isn't a bore fest. Finally there's "Fatal Attraction," which is a piece that is at turns a proto-House groover.

Other than aforementioned complaints, it's also worth noting the production, which is occasionally dated sounding (okay not occasionally, most of the time). 80's synth-drum production: I don't have to say anything more to set the dread rolling in your heart.

For the uninitiated, the variety and subtlety on this record would be a good entryway into the solo work of Mark Stewart. It's thus a shame how underheard this album seems to be. For Pop Group and Mark Stewart fans, this is highly recommended. And if you're wanting to get into Stewart, I say give this a shot.

Mark Stewart’s eponymous third album was recorded with the same band as 1985’s As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade, and also produced by Adrian Sherwood. It’s a less hostile record that abounds in musical references, to the Furious Five, Jacques Brel or Giorgio Moroder among others, and “Stranger”, as weird as it might seem, is an electro pop amalgamation of Erik Satie’s famous “Gymnopédie” and Leonard Bernstein’s “Somewhere”. Mark Stewart is still based in industrial hip-hop, but dub and electro also play a substantive part in it, which could have made it the best entry point in Mark Stewart’s solo output if it didn’t also contain too many failed experiments.