CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
For years the Consumer Guide has graded 20 albums per month, and I could have done it again — there are plenty of LPs worth writing about. But because I've been obsessing on 12-inch singles, this month I'm breaking format. I'm hardly a 12-inch expert—-this isn't reviewer-serviced stuff, and because indie-label underground r&b seems to have been exploding ever since the collapse of disco as mass culture, I have a lot of catching up to do.
For years the Consumer Guide has graded 20 albums per month, and I could have done it again — there are plenty of LPs worth writing about. But because I've been obsessing on 12-inch singles, this month I'm breaking format. I'm hardly a 12-inch expert—-this isn't reviewer-serviced stuff, and because indie-label underground r&b seems to have been exploding ever since the collapse of disco as mass culture, I have a lot of catching up to do. But the records are expensive enough to warrant grading— between 5 and 10 minutes of A side (with good Bs a rarity) retail for three of four bucks. (Downstairs, 20 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036, has great stock and does mail order; Mail O Disc, Box 143, Kings Park, NY 11754 is a mail-order specialist.') I haven�t given up on little records with big holes, either—at $1.30 a pop, the best ones are real bargains, and for those of use who' listen more than dance, their compression is often a plus.
AFRIKA BAMBAATAA/ZULU NATION/ COSMIC FORCE: �Zulu Nation Throw Down� (Paul Winley 12-inch):: Half jingly song-chant and half rap, this starts out so flat that even the rap sounds off key. But soon the harmonies begin to seem natural, as in �ethnic� music tuned to its own scale, or maybe Kleenex/ Liliput. And Lisa Lee, resident young lay-dee of this �Funkadelic of the microphone,� must have been a tobacco auctioneer in some earlier lifetime, and a Shirelle after that. Virtually irresistible. A-
