Out of the hellfire abrasion of the Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, punk's wild bassman Barry Adamson has been developing a new line in personal revelation. The Negro Inside Me, though limited to six tracks and 31 minutes, is an upbeat celebration of mixed blood, interracial love and the release of something passionate.

Alternating between parallel careers producing (Ethyl Meatplow), contributing to movie soundtracks (Gas Food Lodging) and making solo records, Adamson has featured consistently in British critics polls. Like his previous offerings Moss Side Story, a musical detective story, and Soul Murder, a confessional psychic journey, this new record offers a filmic shock quality, juxtaposing disparate styles and attitudes like a David Lynch movie.

Over a pumping dance groove, "The Snowball Effect" opens the record with mischievous spontaneity, using an answering-machine message from Adamson's publicist as a vocal. Followed by the shadowy film noir atmosphere of "Dead Heat," we are into familiar Adamson territory, while "Cold Black Preach" returns to the dark disturbed vein so beloved by the Bad Seeds.

Wryly and distinctly peculiar throughout, Adamson waits until the last two tracks to soften the mix. A cover of the Serge Gainsbourg-Jane Birkin hip-thruster "Je T'Aime ... Moi Non Plus" over gauzy hip-hop breaks and singing guitars is turned out with every intimation and gasp intact. "A Perfectly Natural Union," the final track and an instrumental ballad, has an angelic tranquillity that balances the record with an uplifting soulfulness. As writer, performer and producer, Adamson delivers a compound impact of love, humor and brutality that's half film score, half dance record – depending on how you dance. (RS 665)

EDWARD HELMORE