NME 29th November 1997 Issue



IAN BROWN



IAN BROWN GOES APE!


IAN BROWN's first solo album, 'Unfinished Monkey Business', will be released through Polydor on February 2, featuring 12 tracks written by Brown with a little help from his friends.

Original Stone Roses members Mani (Gary Mounfield) and Reni (Alan Wren) play on the album and latterday Roses keyboard player Nigel Ipinson and drummer Robbie Maddix have co-written tracks and play on the album. Former Simply Red, Asia and Stone Roses member Aziz Ibrahim also plays on many of the tracks and helped Brown produce the album.

Brown plays bass drums, harmonica, keyboards and rhythm, acoustic, bass and lead guitars on various tracks as well as singing lead vocals. Brown also helped design the album sleeve, which will feature a series of photos taken recently in New York.

The full tracklisting and writing credits are: 'Intro Under The Paving Stones: The Beach' (Brown), 'My Star' (Brown/Ibrahim), 'Can't See Me' (Brown/Mounfield/Wren), 'Ice Cold Cube' (Brown/Ibrahim), 'Sunshine' (Brown), 'Lions' (Brown), 'Corpses In Their Mouths' (Brown/Ibrahim), 'What Happened To Ya Pt1' (Brown/Ippinson/Maddix/Ibrahim), 'What Happened To Ya Pt2' (Brown/Ippinson/Maddix/Ibrahim), 'Nah Nah' (Ippinson), 'Pipe Dreams' (Brown) and 'Unfinished Monkey Business' (Brown).

Brown's spokeswoman commented: "There's all different kinds of stuff on there, from acoustic to more trippy and experimental stuff, to sampled electronic stuff. There is a real groove along the lines of the Roses but then there's a lot more different styles than the Roses ever had.

"You can hear elements of the Roses in tracks like 'Can't See Me', because it was written when the Roses were still together, and 'What Happened To Ya Pt2'. I certainly think you get more understanding about how the Roses songs were written on this than you do by listening to The Seahorses."

There was no news of any live dates as NME went to press.

According to Brown's spokeswoman, John Squire was not approached by Brown to work on the album and the two have not spoken since Squire quit the band in March 1996.

The album is preceded by the release of a single, 'My Star', on January 12. Its B-sides, 'Fourteen' and 'See The Dawn', are not featured on the album.




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