![[HOME]](buttons/homxoff.gif){kind=small}
![[MUSIC]](buttons/musxoff.gif){kind=small}
![[SINGLES]](buttons/sinxoff.gif){kind=small}
![[ALBUMS]](buttons/albxoff.gif){kind=small}
![[SONGS]](buttons/sonxoff.gif){kind=small}
![[FEEDBACK]](buttons/feexoff.gif){kind=small}
|
|
|
|
 |
SPIZZENERGI Spizzhistory Rough Trade RT SO 1 (1981) |
Spizz History (Rough Trade)
I DON'T really know what Spizz was, whether he will be again, or what Evidently Rough Trade aren't reckoning to get much more out of him, or they wouldn't be putting out this "greatest hits" collection.
 |
To judge from its record of history which stays the course'from Spizzoil's '6000' Crazy' to Spizzenergi 2's 'Megacity' what Spizz might have been (historically) is a smart parasite, an art punk. Not that he didn't make some half great records. Even the early songs recorded with just Pete Petrol on schoolboy fuzzbox guitar would, if they didn't sound like they were recorded in an airing cupboard, be great. 'Spizz History' has generous selections from each of the Spizz incarnations (bar Spizzles) seven from Spizzoil, including the four from 'Cold City' four more obvious ones from' Spizzenergi - the dead disco 'Soldier Soldier', 'Captain Kirk', the curiously faithful version of 'Virginia Plain', and 'Amnesia' Athletico Spizz '80 have 'No Room' and the great 'Spock's Missing', and the second Spizzenergi conclude worthily with 'Work' and 'Megacity'. When the crunch came, the different Spizzes nodded out because they were too cultivated a taste. They were free and they were fun, but they were only ever mucking about on the surface of music so no-one really missed them Spizz achieved a certain position of classlessness and could frolic without committing himself to anything more than a very general alternative scene. |
Perhaps Spizz wasn't disciplined enough to attain a conceptual hold on pop entertainment, for that's what would have kept him afloat. Nonetheless, here is the proof that he achieved a body of work, even if each segment of it is only a minor itch in the corner of pop's eye. For a while at least, Spizzenergi actually looked as though they might build on their part-time audience and really infiltrate, but Spizz just wanted to play the fool to art students like himself.
A puzzling and somewhat directionless figure, he never knew the sins of fame and glamour, but his quirky commentaries and sidelines make up a consistently strong compilation of music.
Barney Hoskyns
Stolen from New Musical Express 27thMarch 1982 - Via Julian White RockList Site.