Independent on Sunday (10.26.03)

DISCS ETC: MUSIC CDS - ANGLO-JAPANESE BEAUTY THE CREATURES HAI! SIOUX

SIMON PRICE

The Wicked Stepmother of Punk has been busy lately. But Siouxsie's latest activity is a return to the side project that refused to die. The Creatures were contemporaries of acts like Bow Wow Wow and PiL: the 1981/82 school of alternative bands who experimented with tribal rhythms to often stunning effect. Hai! is only the fourth Creatures album in 20 years, and it's as dense as its predecessors, built from layer upon layer of xylophones, bells and steel pipes from Budgie and "taiko" drummer Leonard Eto. Imagine the marching band from Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" let loose on the marching powder in which the Mac themselves had been indulging, while Sioux coos like a 1940s siren over the top, and you're some way to imagining this Anglo-Japanese beauty. SP