BAADER MEINHOF Baader Meinhof (Hut)

Baader Meinhof is the latest ‘vehicle’ for Luke Haines, the man who, as leader of The Auteurs, made three increasingly excellent, spiteful albums (one of which was also expertly remixed by m -Ziq) before disbanding them (allegedly) earlier this year. Surrounded by a bevy of percussionists and a string section (including former Auteur James Banbury), and aided and abetted by sometime Auteurs producer Phil Vinall, Haines has succeeded in creating an album that pretty much represents the antithesis of entertainment. With tracks like "Mogadishu", "Kill Ramirez" and "Baader Meinhof" (resplendent in two versions which bookend the album), Baader Meinhof’s debut seems to be merely an excuse for Haines to spend half an hour namedropping terrorists over a backdrop of strings, tablas and approximations of the riff from Stevie Wonder’s "Superstition"; the lyrics read like a Frederick Forsyth novel squeezed dry of any semblance of plot. Best bit: the line (in "There’s Gonna Be An Accident") "You’re going home in a fucking ambulance". Worst bit: the rest. Lucky early purchasers such as myself are rewarded with a Free Ltd Edition Etched 7", containing 150 seconds of music on one side (the not-as-bad-as-you’d-expect-for-a-track-deemed-not-good-enough-for-a-place-on-an-album-as-terrible-as-this-one "I’ve Been A Fool For You") and on the other the legend, gouged into the vinyl with what appears to be a blunt compass, "I’ve been a fool for you". Hmmm. Ever get the feeling you’ve beet cheated?