Earlier this year, The Jazz Butcher discreetly slipped out an LP under the name The Black Eg. Stuffed with off-kilter humour, it's a far cry from the downbeat and desolate self-therapy of Condition Blue.

Here, Butchie tears himself to shreds, giving his heart a good kicking in the process. The brooding opens with Girls Say Yes a sad, delicate lament that's cut from the same sorry cloth as Harlan and the overlong Racheland. There's still some light with the shade though; the upbeat She's A Yo Yo and Shirley Maclaine suggest he hasn't lost it totally.

"I've been bouncing of the wall, cos that's all I've got to work with," he confesses. Know the feeling.

Andy Cowan (Rage Sept '91)

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