From awahlbom@Krille.Update.UU.SE Thu Nov 16 04:31:27 1995 From: Anders Wahlbom To: HineFans Subject: Swedish Hine articles RUPERT HINE: Immunity (A&M/CBS) (Review from Schlager no.14 (no. 7/81, 10 April)) They are few, those who really use all the possibilites of the studio to make classy pop. Class in the sense that everything is right. All sounds are in the right places, every note is carefully thought out and tested over and over again to be definitive, the perfect one. And all of this without being perfect for the sake of perfection itself, without it becoming stiff. Peter Gabriel and David Bowie are two of THEM, and Rupert Hine is another one... Things have been quiet around Hine for the last couple of years. After the now "classic" albums with the poet David MacIver and the Quantum Jump years he disappeared into anonymity. He worked as a producer and session musician and as a manufacturer of radio and TV commercials, but artistically it was all quiet. But all those years he was working on "Immunity", and here it is! "Immunity" is one of those works that stop time, or make it go faster. It's very simple to draw a parallel with Peter Gabriel's magnificent solo works if you want to pigeon-hole it. Said and done! Like Gabriel's later works, Hine's album doesn't have any cymbals at all, in fact percussion is generally sparse. This makes the sound very pleasant. Instead, Hine mainly works with keyboards. But not in a traditional way, far from it. No, he takes every chance to play and experiment with effects, tape recorders and voices. But what he makes is pop. Timeless, classic pop but with depth, thought, emotions and tensions. This time the lyrics are written by one of the members of the afore- mentioned Quantum Jump, Jeanette Obstoj. The theme is loneliness, alienation, fear [or maybe "terror"]. And in a song such as "I Think A Man Will Hang Soon", the interplay between words and music is complete. Dramatic words reflecting dramatic notes. Or take, for example, "Misplaced Love", where Marianne Faithful steps in to express the words of the woman in a mistaken relationship, an alienated love. Words and music welded together as far as it is possible. "Immunity" will be one of the most important albums of the year. Don't pass it by. - Lars Nylin ---