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Formed a year ago, their main preocupation has always beet to bring Latin-twisted pop to the charts, and under the svengali-like guidance of their precocious young manager Steve Spiro, they´ve had rival companies battling to put out the product. The first single will be ´ Welcome To The Monkey House´ , but the real killer is lined up to be issue n.2. The song is called ´ I´ve Just Spend A Night In The Jungle´ (unless they change the title again !) and features a delicious salsa rhythm with soaring vocals from Mr. Magnet himself, escalating into a frenzy with the repeated ´ Amour, Amour´ hook. Guitars shimmer, and the keyboards are truly sinistre´ !
The rest of the set is equally strong save for a moment of two when the melodies and dynamics become slightly contrived, bringing back memories of pomp rock. However, they only rely on a tired ´rock´ format, at most, two numbers. The rest are solidy based on a percussion-swamped disco beat .
This Animal Magnet thing definitely has the ring of a ´concept´ . The sound, lyrics, onstage manner - and now the clothes of Stephen Linard suite the whole sleazo latino bit perfectly. it is surprising, then, to see them having to resort to playing places like The Pits, which lives down to its name admirably. Animal Magnet have already done their ´due-paying´ onthe successful Duran Duran tour and should be playing one-offs in sumptuous venues as part of a complete evening´s entertainment - bored rockist crowds and seedy pubs don´t deserve them.