Admittedly, I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Les Temps Modernes. Founder James Nice has an unshakeable blind passion for '80s proto-electronica, post-punk, and anything Factory Records ever considered releasing. What this translates to is a reissue program comprised of lost classics, adequate relics, and unearthed turds. Chicken Rhythms falls squarely into that middle category.
An argument has been made that Northside was the product of the esteemed Anthony Wilson trying to exploit the "Madchester" scene that groups like The Stones Roses and the label's very own Happy Mondays were bringing to musical heights or cultural lows, depending on who you ask. Based on these recordings, which includes the band's sole Factory album and a handful of bonus single tracks, it comes across as a forced fit. Despite the outright mimicry of the period's neo-psychedelic visual art on the cover, Northside's music rarely resembles any of these "baggy" groups or their immediate descendents enough to even warrant charging the members as opportunist copycats or bandwagon jumpers. I wonder if Northside might have had at least a little more longevity, or perhaps a shot at a proper crossover hit if they hadn't been branded so irresistably with this faddish scene.
"Shall We Take A Trip," their most notable single, only proferred the band a faint glimmer of success in their native U.K., largely due to and simultaneously in spite of a BBC ban of the tune over its drug-friendly lyrical content. While hardly as anthemic as that classic Mondays' hit "Hallelujah," this track as well as several other very enjoyable numbers like "Take 5" and "My Rising Star" will satiate casual and rabid collectors of '90s alternative music, to say nothing of the Factory completists who depend on LTM.
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