April 18, 2001

Ruby : Short-Staffed At The Gene Pool

Former Silverfish bellower's continuing trip-hop adventure

6 / 10 You'd never have seen this coming. Lesley Rankine - one-time dreadlocked Silverfish crustette and Creation's defining uncommercial solo signing - is a genuine Stateside superstar.

'Short-Staffed...' is the two-year-old, lost-in-the-post-trip-hop-smog sequel to 1996's 'Salt Peter' LP - a rumble of dub-u-like thunder which drowned in the coffee-table-house boom in Britain but took on a weird life of its own over the Atlantic.

How weird? Well, Rankine recorded a duet with Tom Jones and became the choice for a new generation by recording a Pepsi ad - a bit like Sean Manic becoming the face of Estée Lauder.

'Short Staffed...' veers wildly across the spectrum of post-club pop, coming on all eerie speed garage on 'Beefheart' and evolving into vocoder jazz with tickertape clicks on 'Fuse Again'. Oh yes, and there's a bit in 'Fly' where she scats like Cleo Laine.

Caught at the crossroads between jazzbo-Tricky nastiness and Morcheeba Fiat Uno chic, 'Short-Staffed...' is nice enough without ever hammering at the doors of greatness. Short-staffed in the ideas department, then.

Jim Wirth

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