Small Town Pleasures

MANFRED MANN - AS IS (FONTANA 1966) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve mono+stereo

2012-01-14T03:32:00.005+02:00

The FONTANA years 1
The departure of frontman Paul Jones left Manfred Mann with a large void to fill in the summer of 1966. Not only was Jones a charismatic vocalist, he was also a writer and one of Manfred Mann's key selling points with the record buying public. The group's record company, HMV, realised this and hedged their bets by signing Jones for a new solo deal, but dropping the band from its roster.
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In late 1966 while Jones was enjoying success with his first solo single, "High Time," a new version of Manfred Mann emerged with a cover of Bob Dylan's "Just Like A Woman" on Fontana. The new line up featured Mike D'Abo as vocalist (previously with A Band Of Angels) and was augmented by Klaus Voorman on bass, with Tom McGuiness switching to lead guitar. Despite the magnitude of this personnel change, the single was a top 10 hit and paved the way for this album, As Is.
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Released in October 1966, As Is continued the pop sensibilities of their previous album, Mann Made, with the group firmly removed from its original R&B roots. In addition to "Just Like A Woman," highlights included a humorous tribute to a hangover entitled "Morning After The Party" and a slick vibes led rendition of the jazz standard "Autumn Leaves." Like many mid sixties albums, As Is seems to be a collection of songs, rather than a complete entity like Pet Sounds or Sgt. Pepper.
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In this instance some of the material does appear to be filler, such as the banal "Box Office Draw" and the chaotic "Another Kind Of Music." The general feel of the album shows a band searching for a direction and does not seem as focused or disciplined as the Jones-led R&B material. Nevertheless there is some excellent playing, particularly from drummer Mike Hugg and Manfred Mann himself, whose jazz influenced style helped add a high brow dimension to the group.
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The album was a top 20 hit in the UK charts and consolidated the group's reputation, on which they would continue to build over the next three years[allmusic]
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MANFRED MANN - MIGHTY GARVEY! (FONTANA 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve mono+stereo

2012-01-14T03:29:00.006+02:00

The FONTANA years 2
This was the third album from the chapter two version of the Manfred Mann group featuring lead-singer Mike dAbo. The group is mostly known for their big and fine hit-singles during 1966-69 such as "Just Like a Woman", "Seme-detached Suburban Mr James", "Fox on the Run and of course the two included on this album "Mighty Quinn" and "Ha, Ha, Said the Clown".
Their albums are all fine examples of early British pop-rock at its finest and really worth seeking out. All band members were experinced, talented and capeable of playing very different instruments and musical styles. This obviously shows on their albums and there is a great variety in instrumentation on their albums.
"Mighty Garvey" is probably their most consistent with fine original material from Hugg and dAbo, and apart from the "comedy" tracks "Happy Families" they stay away from their tendency to put in a couply of jazz-tunes. Though "Happy Families" hardly are meant to be taken seriously, the opener sets a fine free-and-easy mood for the album.
Mike dabo's "No Better, No Worse" is a great Traffic inspired tune featuring Klaus Voorman's flute, which is also known from more of their hits.
"Every Day Another Hair Turns Grey" is Mike Hugg's sad melodic answer to Beatles' "Penny Lane" - fine lead and harmony vocals on this one.
"Country Dancing" is a song much in the same vein as the single "Ha, Ha, Said the Clown", though not as good - written by dAbo.
"It's So Easy Falling in Love" and "Each and Every Day" are other fine typical Manfred Mann songs; featuring the mellotrone which also often was used on their records. Written by Hugg.
"Mighty Quinn" is simply one the greatest singles released in the late 1960's - try compare with Bob Dylan's original, then you'll understand how big this band really was.
The funky "Big Betty" is my least favourite on the album - may give associations towards Steve Winwoods Spencer Davis days.
Mike dabo's "The Vicar's Daughter" is a beautiful song, with lyrics that some may find somewhat too sentimental; for me personally it's a favourite.
Guitarist Tom McGuinnes also contributed a song now and then; here he is featured with the surrelistic and experimental "Cubist Town" - though different the song works fine in the context.
Hugg's "Harry the One Man Band" is a little more of the same - art pop-rock - naive in the same way as Syd Barrett's early Pink Floyd songs....
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Manfred Mann always used the long-play format to showcase its virtuosity and range of influences away from the world of pop singles. This was evident early in the band's career with albums such as The Five Faces of Manfred Mann, which was a hardcore R&B album, far removed from the pop sensibilities of singles like "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" and "Sha La La." The contrast between this album and their singles output of 1968 is not quite as stark, as the LP contains pop material such as "It's So Easy Falling" and "The Vicar's Daughter." More unorthodox selections include "Cubist Town," "Harry the One-Man Band," and "Country Dancing," which showcase the eclectic side of the group. The album failed to chart in the U.K., which is surprising considering Manfred Mann's popularity in 1968 -- three British Top Ten singles. Perhaps the inclusion of one or two more hits like "Ha Ha Said the Clown" would have attracted more sales. In the U.S., the album was released as The Mighty Quinn and mixed some tracks from this album with older single material. The result is a more balanced affair, with the hits providing a welcome contrast to the more highbrow material. However, the U.K. record business was intent on not duplicating singles on albums -- a tradition that became rare in the 1970s.[allmusic]
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MANFRED MANN - UP THE JUNCTION (FONTANA 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 9 bonus

2012-01-14T03:26:00.006+02:00

The FONTANA years 3
One of the great soundtracks of the 1960s, Up the Junction shows Manfred Mann shedding their pop skin and evolving into a truly awesome jazz outfit, which would later be fully realized in their Chapter Three incarnation. Not that they didn't have some lovely pop gems on this record. The title song, sort of a flipped-out, very very British alternative to "Good Vibrations," is one of Manfred Mann's finest pieces ever, with an excellent vocal from Mike d'Abo, Paul Jones' (Manfred's original vocalist) replacement. But the series of brief jazz-based instrumentals such as "Sheila's Dance" and "Belgravia" are equally arresting, showing off Mike Hugg's drumming and Mann's own piano abilities as never before. Priceless.[allmusic]
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MANFRED MANN - WHAT A MANN (FONTANA 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 11 bonus

2012-01-14T03:23:00.006+02:00

The FONTANA years 4
What a Mann was Manfred Mann's first compilation of material from their Fontana sessions. Issued in March 1968, the album appeared at a time when Manfred Mann's commercial appeal appeared to be waning. Between the release of "Ha Ha Said the Clown" in early 1967 and "The Mighty Quinn" in 1968, the group had only scraped a number 60 hit with a jazz instrumental entitled "Sweet Pea." The follow-up single to this, "So Long Dad," failed to chart, as did their Instrumental Assassination EP. In view of these chart failures, it seems rather odd that Fontana chose to issue this album, which features the aforementioned flops and additional B-sides from 1966-1967. Despite the commercial ambiguity of the selection, the album does succeed in showcasing the more offbeat, bizarre side of Manfred Mann. Of interest are covers of Bobby Hebb's "Sunny" and Georgie Fame's "Get Away," which highlight the group's jazz credentials. They also send up the Troggs' "Wild Thing" and "With a Girl Like You." Although these latter covers are humorous, they do occasionally slip into self-indulgence. More palatable is the group's tribute to psychedelia with "Funniest Gig" which should, perhaps, have been an A-side rather than the flip to the upbeat but thin-sounding "So Long Dad." As a compilation, What a Mann has its moments, but it's overweighed with instrumental material such as the exceptionally dull "One Way." This bias toward instrumental tracks reduces the opportunity to exploit the songwriting and vocal talents of Michael d'Abo, who was then making a name for himself as writer of the Foundations' "Build Me up Buttercup" and Chris Farlowe's"Handbags and Gladrags," later a hit for Rod Stewart and the Stereophonics.[allmusic]
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MANFRED MANN - FIVE FACES OF MANFRED MANN (HIS MASTER'S VOICE 1964) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 13 Bonus

2011-12-23T18:18:00.007+02:00

The HMV years 1
The debut album by Manfred Mann holds up even better 40 years on than it did in 1964. It's also one of the longest LPs of its era, clocking in at 39 minutes, and there's not a wasted note or a song extended too far among its 14 tracks. The Manfreds never had the reputation that the Rolling Stones enjoyed, which is a shame, because The Five Faces of Manfred Mann is one of the great blues-based British invasion albums; it's a hot, rocking record that benefits from some virtuoso playing as well, and some of the best singing of its era, courtesy of Paul Jones, who blew most of his rivals out of the competition with his magnificently impassioned, soulful performance on "Untie Me," and his simmering, lusty renditions of "Smokestack Lightning" and "Bring It to Jerome." The stereo mix of the album, which never surfaced officially in England until EMI's anniversary reissue (remastered in 24-bit digital sound), holds up very nicely, with sharp separation between the channels yet -- apart from a few moments on "Untie Me" -- few moments of artificiality.[allmusic]
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MANFRED MANN - MANN MADE (HIS MASTER'S VOICE 1965) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 12 bonus

2011-12-23T18:15:00.005+02:00

The HMV years 2
The group's second British album, released just as the original lineup was entering a state of collapse with the impending departure of two key members, shows some of the changes that can happen in a year, as they move away from Chess Records' brand of blues as their baseline. Instead, Manfred Mann produce a sound that is slightly smoother and a lot more soulful. A handful of originals, mostly by Mike Vickers and Mike Hugg with one Paul Jones-authored number thrown in, are scattered amid covers of songs originally from the Temptations, the Skyliners, and T-Bone Walker. If it isn't as fierce, bold, or daringly ambitious as Manfred Mann's debut long-player, Mann Made is just as much a virtuoso effort, and a surprisingly cohesive one considering that it was released immediately after Mike Vickers and Paul Jones announced their respective departures from the band.[allmusic]
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MANFRED MANN - SOUL OF MANN (HIS MASTER'S VOICE 1967) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 12 bonus

2011-12-23T18:12:00.005+02:00

The HMV years 3
Amidst their pop/rock, blues, and folk-rock, Manfred Mann peppered their early recordings with jazzy instrumentals that faintly suggested a jazz-rock direction. Soul of Mann, never issued in the U.S., is a compilation of most of these early instrumental efforts, which originally appeared on various singles, EPs, and LPs between 1963 and 1966 (though one song, "L.S.D.," and is actually a blues-rocker with a Paul Jones vocal). Instrumentals were not the band's forte, but this collection is more interesting than you might think. No one would put Manfred Mann on the level of genuine American jazz acts like Oscar Peterson, but these cuts are executed with a surprising amount of style and wit. And Mann and his men were nothing if not eclectic, producing downright strange instrumental takes on "Satisfaction," "I Got You Babe," and "My Generation." There are straighter (but still imaginative) versions of songs by the Yardbirds and Cannonball Adderley, as well as their own originals (the bluesy stomper "Mr. Anello" is a standout). Manfred Mann fans will find this worth picking up, especially given that several of the tracks never came out in the U.S., such as the aforementioned "Mr. Anello," and all of the pop covers they did for the 1966 EP Instrumental Asylum.[allmusic]
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MANFRED MANN - MANN MADE HITS (HIS MASTER'S VOICE 1966) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 13 bonus

2011-12-23T18:07:00.006+02:00

The HMV years 4
The first greatest-hits compilation devoted to Manfred Mann's hits, Mann Made Hits was one of the great dance albums of its era and has held up about as well as those hits, which is to say, really well. Originally released in England on EMI's HMV imprint, it opens up with the cheerful, soulful pop of "Pretty Flamingo" but quickly branches into the group's more R&B-focused work ("On No, Not My Baby," "Come Tomorrow," "There's No Living Without Your Loving"), their bluesier sides ("I'm Your Kingpin"), their folk-influenced output ("John Hardy," "With God on Our Side," "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"), and their harder jazz side ("Spirit Feel"), without missing their biggest pop hits ("Do Wah Diddy Didd," "Sha La La," "5-4-3-2-1"). This is about the best original vinyl compilation there ever was on this band, and one can also see the quandary EMI was in when they issued it -- having dropped the group in the wake of Paul Jones's departure for a solo career in 1966, presuming that the band's prospects were limited (while they held on to Jones), the front cover is labeled "Manfred Mann With Paul Jones." As it turned out, they were selling the band short, as the latter enjoyed three more years of hits, but this is still a killer farewell to the Paul Jones-era, even if it has been supplanted by numerous more comprehensive compilations since.[allmusic]
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SIGMUND SNOPEK III - VIRGINIA WOOLF (WATER STREET 1972) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 2 bonus

2011-12-04T00:47:00.006+02:00

If the modernist novelist Virginia Woolf seems like a bizarre title subject for a rock album, it nevertheless fits the relentless peculiarity of the music on the first album from Sigmund Snopek III. Actually, this is the second album by Snopek's band the Bloomsbury People following a self-titled effort in 1970. The band plays on the entire album, but it was credited, for whatever reason, to Snopek alone. Snopek's muse and music certainly act as the impetus and grand vision for the entire project, and what an intriguingly skewed vision it is. "Virginia Woolf" is essentially one epic (novelistic, you might even say) composition broken up into song-sized portions, and even broken down further within individual songs. There is a continuity and wholeness to the entire piece, at least, that is somewhat lost when you try to listen to it as a collection of songs. The songs by themselves can occasionally sound choppy and stylistically schizophrenic -- albeit almost always riveting -- due to the ambitious amalgam. Strong intimations of rock, blues, psychedelia, and jazz mingle with classical motifs, structures, and lofty compositional techniques in a fusion that is not really rock in any conventional sense of the term (although it does often rock), but is not quite classical either. Progressive rock didn't quite exist officially at the time the album was recorded, and while Snopek's disparate composite might be seen as a prototype for that genre, it does not entirely satisfy the description the genre ultimately took on. What it can be called is avant-garde experimentation that happens to utilize recognizable pop-style melodies, rock instrumentation, and some of the deft interplay of jazz, with an ultimate freaked out, psychedelic tinge that might easily have impressed Frank Zappa had he heard the album. (That especially goes for the marching band drum solo that erupts a couple minutes into the title track.) The songs themselves essentially resist classification and don't seem to follow the authorial theme closely, but the aforementioned "Virginia Woolf," seesawing "Orange," and majestically symphonic "Blue" are standouts. Virginia Woolf is only partly successful, but it is a compelling piece of work nonetheless.[allmusic]
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AFTER ALL - AFTER ALL (ATHENA 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-12-04T00:35:00.005+02:00

"Hastily put together in 1969 by a veteran quartet of Tallahassee, FL, musicians and together for only a handful of months, After All is merely a footnote in the history of late-'60s and Florida rock. Their single recorded effort, however, was a moody slice of acid-tinged progressive pop that, while perhaps not among the finest obscurities from the era, brings back the grooviness and off-the-cuff adventurousness of the decade in full color. All of the members of After All had a history playing in various rhythm & blues and jazz bands, dating back to the late '50s, performing at clubs and parties throughout the Tallahassee region. Drummer Mark Ellerbee was fresh out of Vietnam and a graduate of the Florida State School of Music when he bumped into fellow Florida State graduate and keyboardist Alan Gold, who was performing at the time in one of the area's top night club bands. With the addition of fellow scenesters bassist Bill Moon and jazz guitarist Charles Short, After All was officially born. The group envisioned creating a concept album by throwing together a variety of the era's newest styles, from acid and classical rock to structural complexity and surreal lyrics. To help with the latter, they enlisted a young local poet, Linda Hargrove, to provide the lyrics to most of the songs. The band knew a Nashville producer who was willing to record a "spec album" for them at no cost provided if they did it quickly, so they entered the studio in 1969 and recorded After All in a couple days. Following the release of the album on Athena Records, the instrumentalists returned to Florida and took up their respective careers again. Hargrove, on the other hand, remained in Nashville and carved out a fine, if under-recognized, career for herself as a country singer/songwriter and performer. ~ Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide"
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JUNI & TOO MUCH - TOO MUCH (ATLANTIC 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-12-04T00:30:00.005+02:00

Often touted as the Japanese Black Sabbath by blowhards and those who’ve not actually heard the music, the excellently named Too Much hailed from the large city port of Kobe, where the band members grew up sucking in all kinds of western influences from the LPs and 7” singles that came in on the boats.One of the band – guitarist Junio Nakahara – had spent the late ‘60s in the blues group The Helpful Soul, whose sole LP features in this book’s Top 50 on account of its deeply inspired 10-minutes plus plodathon ‘Peace For Fools’.However, as its audience could never have perceived The Helpful Soul as anything more than another Group Sounds act, guitarist Nakahara decided to jump on the burgeoning New Rock bandwagon by forming the more appropriately named Too Much.Nakahara’s inspiration came from the TOO MUCH concert that The Helpful Soul played with the newly-formed Blues Creation, in Kyoto at the end of February 1970.The hippy phrase ‘too much’ was already utterly cliched in the West by this time, but it was iconic and easily pronounceable to Japanese.In the process, Nakahara hooked up with hard rock singer Juni Lush, changed his own name to the more substantially New Rock-sounding Tsomu Ogawa(!), and dragged high school mates Hideya Kobayashi and Masayuki Aoki along as the rhythm section.They signed a deal with Atlantic Records in the summer of 1970, and wrote a whole slew of mindless proto-metal anthems, including the excellent ‘Grease It Out’, ‘Love Is You’ and ‘Gonna Take You’.These were duly recorded and sounded mindlessly, monolithically, perfectly suited to the lowbrow audience Too Much was aiming to please.Unfortunately, the Atlantic businessmen saw in the be-afro’d Juni Lush another potential star in the mould of Flower Travellin’ Band’s Joe Yamanaka, and they pressured the band into adding several mawkishly sentimetal ballads to the debut LP in order to widen their audience.The results were disastrous. No one needed yet another version of Bobby Dylan’s ‘I Shall Be Released’, particularly the Nipponashville abortion that Too Much delivered. Hey, but neither did they require ‘Song For My Lady’, the arduously phlegmatic 12-minute album closer which arrived replete with megastring sections, Michel LaGrande pianos, Moody Blues flute solos and nere a six-string razor in sight.Too Much was just not enough, and they split soon after the album was released...
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THE HUMAN BEAST - VOLUME ONE (DECCA 1970) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-10-20T03:14:00.005+03:00

REQUEST No 3
Although it was optimistically titled Volume One, this would turn out to be the sole album by this obscure, odd, Edinburgh early heavy rock trio. The tracks are dominated by the Jimi Hendrix/Cream-influenced guitar of Gillies Buchan, which leans heavily on devious wah-wah effects. Indebted to blues-rock and early heavy metal, but not quite in either bag, the sound is somewhat skeletal even as power trios go. The ethos of the hippie era are evident even in the song titles alone: "Appearance Is Everything, Style Is a Way of Living," "Brush with the Midnight Butterfly," "Reality Presented as an Alterative," and "Naked Breakfast."
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This was a short-lived heavy power trio whose album is now quite rare by some collectors. They had earlier been known as Skin. Tracks like Mystic Man, Brush With The Midnight Butterfly and Reality Presented As An Alternative typify the heavy psych genre, but the two outstanding tracks are slow and in the classic psychedelic mould; Appearance Is Everything Style Is A Way Of Living, which brings to mind US Boston band Beacon Street Union and has fine Eastern - influenced guitar work and the more acoustic than electric Maybe Someday, which had a good hypnotic melody and a certain Eastern feeling.
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Sought after, and absolutely excellent heavy UK psychedelic album from 1970, alternately hypnotic and hard-driving, with intense guitar workouts in a classic psych mould; much high-caliber Eastern-influenced guitar work and cracking drums?highly recommended, although those of you who know this album will need no encouragement, historical buffs note that David McNiven from Bread, Love and Dreams contributed the few lyrics (strange as they are) on this mostly instrumental album...
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THE END - INTROSPECTION (DECCA 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 2 bonus

2011-10-20T03:11:00.004+03:00

REQUEST No 2
Although never achieving the success they deserved, the End are best remembered for their Bill Wyman-produced psychedelic-pop that was a masterful mixture of swirling, dream-like numbers, and flowery, but never twee, pop. Their Introspection album is now viewed as one of the finest examples of British psychedelia. Dave Brown and Colin Giffin formed the End in 1965 following the demise of beat group the Innocents. Nicky Graham and John Horton were drafted in from Dickie Pride's backing group, the Original Topics, and the line-up was completed with former Tuxedos drummer Roger Groom. After recording at the now legendary R.G. Jones' Morden studio, successful friend Bill Wyman arranged a tour with the Rolling Stones. They also appeared with Spencer Davis on ITV television's Thank Your Lucky Stars playing "Hallelujah I Love Her So." At this time their music was very much in the club-soul/blue-eyed soul style that was sweeping England by storm. Following the tour, Roger Groom quit to be replaced by Hugh Atwooll, a former school friend of Nicky Graham. John Horton also quit, but the split was amicable as he continued to help out on their second single, "Shades of Orange." Cut by Bill Wyman, with the addition of Charlie Watts on tabla, the song was recorded during the sessions for the Rolling Stones' psychedelic foray, Their Satanic Majesties Request. "Shades of Orange" epitomizes British Psychedelia and is one of the genre's most sought after items.
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Following the single's release, Gordon Smith also left and was replaced by former Mode guitarist Terry Taylor. The band then decamped to Spain, where several singles were released domestically, including "Why," a Top Five hit in April 1967. By Christmas 1968, both Colin Giffin and Hugh Attwooll had left after recording the Introspection album, and although a new drummer, Paul Francis, was enlisted, the writing was on the wall. With the arrival of another Mode refugee, Jim Henderson, the End metamorphosed into the more progressive-sounding Tucky Buzzard. Introspection was delayed for over a year due to a fallout from the Rolling Stones' bust-up with Allen Klein and was musically the type of psychedelia that had gone out of fashion by the time of its December 1969 release. The band had changed name and style, leaving this glorious album to sink without a trace.[allmusic]
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CAPABILITY BROWN - FROM SCRATCH (CHARISMA 1972) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-10-20T03:07:00.004+03:00

REQUEST No 1
Sextet Capability Brown were quintessentially multi-instrumentalists that could whip up CSN harmonies with the slightest of ease. The first watering was when ex Moments bassist Kenny Rowe, bassist /vocalist Tony Ferguson and percussionist Joe Williams from Tony Rivers’ folky Harmony Grass joined ex Gremlins Roger Willis and ex Fuzzy Duck guitarist/lute/balalaika player Grahame White to form Capability Brown. Under the Charisma umbrella the group launched their first single “War” in 1971 followed by the 1972 debut album From Scratch. The entirety of the album was a blend of art rock projection with a shimmer of Prog tracing on tracks like “Rayge” and the concept “Sole Survivor”, song about escaping the holocaust in a time machine. From Scratch had a lot of power as in the bass thundering “No Range” with Ferguson playing some sizzling flute coupled with Climax Blues styled harmonies. Atmospheric renditions of Rare Bird’s “Beautiful Scarlet” and “Red Man” plus a severing version of Argent’s “Liar” (Russ Ballard) / “Keep Death Off The Road” with White slicing emphatically was superb in the making. (later covered by Three Dog Night) These cats were harmony kings that could fuse folk with rock in the same spaces as Gentle Giant or Hookfoot. By 1973 Capability launched Voice which opened up with Affinity’s “I Am And So Are You” written by another Charisma student Alan Hull from Lindisfarne. This album holds their greatest number “Sad Am I” with a definite nod to Marmalade, Stealers Wheel or Iveys.
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Capability Brown had and still have a cult following in UK music history as a "progressive" band, ultimately based on an outstanding piece from their second album, Voice. But largely their range covered mainstream pop music, treated in an "arty", alternative fashion. The band was a six-piece in which everyone sang and played instruments. The line-up consisted of Tony Ferguson (guitar, bass), Dave Nevin (keyboards, guitar, bass), Kenny Rowe (bass, percussion), Grahame White (guitar, lute, balalaika, keyboards), Joe Williams (percussion) and Roger Willis (drums, keyboards).
Ferguson and Nevin wrote the majority of the band's material, and the band also excelled in covers of obscure material (Rare Bird's Beautiful Scarlet and Redman, Argent's Liar, Affinity's I Am And So Are You and Steely Dan's Midnight Cruiser).
Capability Brown's forte was vocalizing. Together they sounded not unlike The Association: a massed choir of voices, ranging from baritone to high clean falsettos. Their first album, From Scratch, which included Liar, was average and unexceptional. The second album Voice, released in 1973, was their claim to fame, incorporating an over-20-minute richly melodic piece called Circumstances (In Love, Past, Present, Future Meet) - a stunning piece of music incorporating keyboards, a cappela voices, synthesizers and mellotrons, solo vocals, delicate harpsichord-like acoustic guitar sections, powerful electric guitar chords and massed vocal choirs.
The band did not manage to record again after this, and in 1974 Tony, Roger and Graham were recruited by friend and Christie member Roger Flavell to join his group, Christie for a tour of South America. Thus Capability Brown was no more.[progarchives]
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TWICE AS MUCH - OWN UP + THATS ALL (IMMEDIATE 1966 & 1968) JVC K2 mastering cardboard sleeves + 2 bonus

2011-09-30T00:43:00.006+03:00

One of the most anonymous-sounding acts of the British Invasion, Twice as Much was the duo of Dave Skinner and Andrew Rose, harmony singers who also wrote much of their own material. Signed to the Immediate label (run by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham), the pair recorded several singles and a couple of albums between 1966 and 1968. Most of these recordings were innocuous, pleasantly forgettable pop affairs in the Peter & Gordon/Chad & Jeremy mold, with light orchestral pop/rock arrangements that sometimes employed a touch of the Baroque. They had their only British Top 40 success with a cover of the Stones' "Sitting on a Fence"; although the Stones' version was one of their best cuts from the Between the Buttons era.
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Twice as Much's debut album was an odd exercise in twee pop-Baroque production, very typical of producer Andrew Oldham's ornate, sometimes over-the-top grandiosity. The LP was evenly divided between group originals and covers of hits by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Small Faces. There was also the Spector-Goffin-King composition "Is This What I Get for Loving You Baby?" and "I Have a Love," both of which, coincidentally or not, were done in the mid-'60s by another one-time Oldham client, Marianne Faithfull. The originals, interestingly, were better, though hardly great. David Skinner and Andrew Rose were pleasant, though unexceptional, harmony singers, and played out their introverted, somewhat sad pop/ballads against orchestral production with heavy debts to the mid-'60s Beach Boys and California sunshine pop. "Life Is But Nothing" would be covered to good effect by Del Shannon on another Oldham production, and "Why Can't They All Go and Leave Me Alone?," in which the introversion slides into solipsism, is a notable obscure exercise in crashing, epic symphonic pop/rock. The covers do the originals no favors, emasculating classics like "Help" and "Sha La La La La Lee" into fey pop ballads suitable for upper-class parlors. Incidentally, there's a true all-star supporting cast on this record. The session musicians include guitarists Jimmy Page, John McLaughlin, Joe Moretti, and Big Jim Sullivan; drummer Andy White; keyboardists Nicky Hopkins and Art Greenslade (the latter of whom did the arrangements), and engineer Glyn Johns.
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Twice as Much never got much more than a couple of dismissive comparisons to Simon & Garfunkel (to whom there's admittedly a slight vocal resemblance, although the U.K. duo's brand of lush psych-pop owes little to the New Yorkers' folk-rock roots) and a footnote in pop history for covering a Rolling Stones song on their first Immediate single ("Sitting on a Fence," the country-tinged opener here). This is a shame, because the vocal blend of Dave Skinner and Andrew Rose is simply gorgeous, and they were a dab hand as songwriters as well. Nothing on That's All is up to the level of "Night Time Girl," the album track from the debut, Own Up, that's among the loveliest songs of the entire psych-pop era, but this album is much more consistent than the patchy debut. Soft and gentle, along the lines of Chad and Jeremy's Of Cabbages and Kings, or perhaps Curt Boettcher's work, the album includes gems like a pair of Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane rarities, "Hey Girl" and the trippy "Green Circles," a dreamy take on the Dionne Warwick classic "You'll Never Get to Heaven," and an inspired medley of the ghostly original "Life Is But Nothing," with an oddly resigned version of Bobby Freeman's "Do You Wanna Dance." That's All is second-string work to be sure, but it's certainly of interest to all sunshine pop and lite-psych fans. [allmusic]
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DINO VALENTE - DINO (EPIC 1968) Jap DSD mastering cardboard sleeve + 2 bonus

2011-09-30T00:38:00.005+03:00

A fascinating enigma of the San Francisco psychedelic scene, Valente is most famed as the author of "Get Together." This definitive '60s love-and-peace anthem was recorded on the Jefferson Airplane's first album, and taken into the Top Ten by the Youngbloods. Valente was also an original member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, although drug busts meant that he did not actually perform and record with the group for about five years, by which time they were on the downside artistically. Prior to finally hooking up with Quicksilver, he also recorded a strange but attractive folk-psychedelic album as a solo act that, until its belated reissue on CD, was a rare and legendary psychedelic cult item.
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Dino Valente's sole album recalls the one issued by another San Francisco artist signed to CBS in the late '60s, Skip Spence: quirky, lyrically vague, folky yet psychedelic, and nearly devoid of commercial potential in spite of its largely pleasant (if moody) melodies and textures. Valente, however, was not as intriguing a lyricist as Spence, nor as intensely soulful a vocalist, and overall much sunnier in tone. Valente had a rather whiny voice, so it was wise to put so much echo on both his 12-string guitar (which accounts for most of the instrumentation on the record) and vocals, which both covered up some of his vocal deficiencies and added a sheath of mystery. Listening to his songs is like listening to some hippie trying to talk a vulnerable, confused, attractive girl, on the rebound from a failed romance, into taking up with him as a panacea to her problems: phrases are uttered and rejoinders offered, but one can't be sure exactly what the situation is or where it's leading. It's not the insufferable experience this description might lead you to expect, mostly because of the enticing (if similar-sounding) melancholy of the tunes.The CD reissue added two previously unreleased tracks that are similar to the rest of the album in both mood and quality.[allmusic]
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QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE - WHAT ABOUT ME (CAPITOL 1970) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-09-30T00:35:00.004+03:00

Musically, there is little to delineate the fifth long-player from Quicksilver Messenger Service, What About Me, from their previous effort, Just for Love. Not surprisingly, material for both was initiated during a prolific two-month retreat to the Opaelua Lodge in Haleiwa, HI, during May and June of 1970. The quartet version of Quicksilver Messenger Service -- which had yielded the band's first two LPs -- expanded once again to include Dino Valente (aka Chester A. Powers, Chet Powers, and most notably on this album, Jesse Oris Farrow) as well as British session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins. The additional talents of Mark Naftalin (keyboards) were incorporated when Hopkins was unavailable. This began his short stint with Quicksilver Messenger Service, which lasted through their sixth LP, Quicksilver (1972). The most apparent change in Quicksilver Messenger Service's sound can be directly attributed to the return of Valente. The group has departed the long, free-flowing improvisations that prevailed on both their self-titled debut and follow-up, Happy Trails. The songs are now shorter and more notably structured, with an added emphasis on Valente's compositions. The title track, "What About Me," became an ethical and sociological anthem with challenging and direct lyrical references to the political and social instability of the early '70s. Valente, whose songwriting credits on this disc are both numerous and attributed to his Farrow persona, also comes up with some passable introspective love songs, such as "Baby Baby" and "Long Haired Lady," as well as a couple of interesting collaborations with Gary Duncan (bass/vocals). The psychedelic samba "All in My Mind" also highlights the often overlooked percussive contributions from Jose Reyes. Two of the more distinguished entries on What About Me are John Cipollina's raunchy blues instrumental "Local Color" -- replete with a driving backbeat reminiscent of their take on the Robert Johnson standard "Walkin' Blues" -- as well as Nicky Hopkins' emotive "Spindrifter." [allmusic]
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JORMA KAUKONEN with TOM HOBSON - QUAH (GRUNT/RCA 1974) Remastered + 4 bonus

2011-09-30T00:08:00.006+03:00

Quah -- Jorma Kaukonen's (guitar/vocal) solo debut effort -- was recorded and issued shortly after the dissolution of Jefferson Airplane in 1974. In contrast to the sonic indulgences of Grace Slick's Manhole or Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship's Blows Against the Empire, Kaukonen retreated back to his folk-blues roots along with vocalist Tom Hobson -- who contributes to "Blue Prelude" and "Sweet Hawaiian Sunshine" -- to create this intricate acoustic masterwork. From the highly original artwork -- courtesy of Kaukonen's then-wife Margareta -- to the stark and beautiful melodies within the grooves, Quah is unlike any other recording from the era. Much of the album's vibe is strikingly similar to the final contributions that Kaukonen made to Jefferson Airplane. The most obvious and direct correlation being "Third Week at the Chelsea," which maintains much of the same intimacy as the tracks "Genesis," "Flying Clouds," and "Song for the North Star." Likewise, his admiration for folk, blues, and gospel -- which had first surfaced on the self-titled Hot Tuna debut release -- informs the content of this disc on his cover of Rev. Gary Davis' "I Am the Light of This World" as well as the haunting traditional blues "Another Man Done Gone"and Blind Boy Blake's understatedly ribald "Police Dog Blues." Tom Hobson's inimitable vocal delivery stands apart from Kaukonen's in a somewhat theatrical manner. His take on the noir torch song "Blue Prelude" could not be more dissimilar to the practically giddy "Sweet Hawaiian Sunshine." Yet both are equally functional in the context of the rest of the album. In 1987 Relix magazine issued a very limited pressing of Quah on CD. Tragically, it was not re-pressed and remains near the top of want lists from enthusiasts eager to retire worn vinyl copies. This disc is a timeless and highly underrated statement from one of the world's premier guitarists. It is worthy -- if not quietly demanding -- of repeated listening.[allmusic]
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HOT TUNA - DOUBLE DOSE (GRUNT/RCA 1978) JVC K2 mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-08-24T04:44:00.004+03:00

Hot Tuna, now a quartet with the official addition of keyboardist Nick Buck, released this two-LP live album, its first concert material in seven years, and having thus summed things up, broke up as the album hit record stores. Double Dose gave a good sense of mature Hot Tuna as a vehicle for the musical interests of Jorma Kaukonen, who used the entire first side as an acoustic solo set, then included the excellent "Genesis" from his solo album Quah on side B. Elsewhere, the electrified group alternated between Kaukonen's best Hot Tuna compositions and blues and rock standards. It was produced by Felix Pappalardi (Cream, Mountain), who gave Hot Tuna its best recorded sound; even though it's a "live" record, there seems to have been a lot of studio overdubbing. ~ William Ruhlmann
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Side A
"Winin' Boy Blues" (Jelly Roll Morton) – 5:57
"Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning" (Reverend Gary Davis) – 3:08
"Embryonic Journey" (Jorma Kaukonen) – 1:56
"Killing Time in the Crystal City" (Kaukonen) – 6:35
Side B
"I Wish You Would" (Billy Boy Arnold) – 4:20
"Genesis" (Kaukonen) – 4:16
"Extrication Love Song" (Kaukonen) – 4:26
"Talking 'Bout You" (Chuck Berry) – 5:34
Side C
"Funky #7" (Kaukonen, Jack Casady) – 8:49
"Serpent of Dreams" (Kaukonen) – 6:43
"Bowlegged Woman, Knock Kneed Man" (Bobby Rush, Calvin Carter) – 4:51
Side D
"I See the Light" (Kaukonen) – 5:49
"Watch the North Wind Rise" (Kaukonen) – 4:58
"Sunrise Dance with the Devil" (Kaukonen) – 5:38
"I Can't Be Satisfied" (McKinley Morganfield) – 4:58
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JEFFERSON STARSHIP - SPITFIRE (GRUNT/RCA 1976) JVC K2 mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-08-24T04:39:00.005+03:00

Spitfire was Jefferson Starship's 1976 follow-up to the chart-topping Red Octopus (1975), and it found the band in a cooperative mood. All seven bandmembers earned writing credits on at least one of the nine songs, along with eight outsiders, and even drummer John Barbata got a lead vocal on the simple rock & roll song "Big City." But the three main power centers in the group remained in place. Singer/guitarist Paul Kantner continued to turn out his lengthy, complex songs with their exhortatory, vaguely political lyrics (the five-minute "Dance with the Dragon" and the seven-minute "Song to the Sun: Ozymandias/Don't Let It Rain"). Singer Grace Slick contributed her own idiosyncratic compositions, simultaneously elliptical and passionately stated ("Hot Water" and "Switchblade"). And singer Marty Balin, whose romantic ballad "Miracles" had fueled the success of Red Octopus, wrote (or located) and sang more songs of love and pleasure ("Cruisin'," "St. Charles," "With Your Love," and "Love Lovely Love"). Weaving the three styles together were the fluid lead guitar work of Craig Chaquico and the alternating bass and keyboard playing of David Freiberg and Pete Sears. The result was an album that quickly scaled the charts, spending six consecutive weeks at number three in Billboard and going platinum. That it didn't do better on the band's considerable career momentum can be put down to the relatively disappointing nature of the material. There was no "Miracles" on the album, to begin with. Grunt Records released the more modest "With Your Love" as a single and got it into the Top 20, but the closest thing to "Miracles" was really "St. Charles," a song that certainly had some of the same elements but lacked the kind of direct emotional statement that made "Miracles" a classic. Similarly, "Dance with the Dragon" was no "Ride the Tiger" (from Dragon Fly [1974]), and while "Switchblade" was an unusually clear statement of romantic intent from Slick (whose "lyrical wordplay is...not easily accessible yet compelling and thought-provoking," as 2004 reissue annotator Jeff Tamarkin generously says of "Hot Water"), its provocative title made it an unlikely choice for an adult contemporary hit. Spitfire was more than the sum of its parts, boasting the sort of vocal interplay and instrumental virtuosity that had always been the hallmarks of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship. If the band had taken more time to write and find better songs, it might have matched the sales and quality of its predecessor.[allmusic]
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RENAISSANCE - PROLOGUE (SOVEREIGN/CAPITOL 1972) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-08-24T04:17:00.007+03:00

The first album by the '70s (i.e. Annie Haslam) version of Renaissance is a transitional work, rooted in more standard hard rock sounds (including psychedelia) than what followed. One can spot the difference, which may please some listeners and put others off, in the fairly heavy guitar sound of "Prologue," Rob Hendry's electric instrument playing both lead and rhythm parts prominently at various times behind Annie Haslam's soaring vocals and adjacent to John Tout's piano. "Kiev" may also startle some longtime fans, since Haslam doesn't handle the lead vocals, the male members' singing being much more prominent. The ethereal, flowingly lyrical "Sounds of the Sea" is the cut here that most resembles the music that the group became known for in the years ahead, and shows Haslam singing in the high register for which she would become famous. "Spare Some Love," with its prominent folky acoustic guitar, also anticipates material (specifically "Let It Grow" and "On The Frontier") off of the group's better known second album, Ashes Are Burning. "Bound For Infinity" marked the final creative contribution by co-founder Jim McCarty, of the '60s version of Renaissance, and is pretty enough even if it doesn't fit in anywhere with their subsequent sound. And the 11-minute epic "Rajah Khan," with its elements of raga-rock, including sitar-like passages on Hendry's electric guitars and an extended VCS 3 synthesizer solo by Francis Monkman, is a more advanced and virtuoso descendant of late '60s psychedelia. It, too, has little to do with the sound that the group subsequently adopted (although it does intersect, in the most peripheral way, with "Song of Scheherazade" and some of the other Eastern-theme works that preceded it), but the track is entertaining and does show off a startlingly different type of art-rock toward which this group could have gravitated. The sound is clean, and this version of Prologue is to be preferred over Capitol's abortive attempt to reissue it in the late 1980's as In The Beginning, which cut some of the material and had totally lackluster sound.[allmusic]
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FIFTY FOOT HOSE - CAULDRON (LIMELIGHT/MERCURY 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 7 bonus

2011-08-19T02:25:00.005+03:00

Fifty Foot Hose were one of the most unusual '60s San Francisco psychedelic bands, in part because they weren't really that psychedelic. Like a few other acts of the time (most notably the United States of America), they were trying to fuse the contemporary sounds of rock with electronic instruments and avant-garde compositional ideas. Only one album resulted from the ambitious enterprise, and that record (Cauldron, 1968) still remains unknown to all but hardcore collectors. Although an erratic work, it was intriguing for its mix of jazzy psychedelic rock tunes with electronic sound effects that anticipated future models of synthesizers, but sounded fiercer and more primitive.
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Fifty Foot Hose were founded by bassist Cork Marcheschi, who had previously been in a conventional rock/R&B band the Ethix. Under Marcheschi's prodding, in 1967, the Ethix released one wildly atonal single, "Bad Trip," whose violent musique concrete foreshadowed the avant-garde postures of his subsequent group (in fact, "Bad Trip" was more avant-garde than anything Fifty Foot Hose would record). (Apparently it was played once on a local underground radio station, and then never again.) Interested in the ideas of experimental composers like Edgar Varese, John Cage, Terry Riley, and George Antheil, Marcheschi constructed his own electronic instrument from a combination of elements like Theremins, fuzz boxes, a cardboard tube, and a speaker from a World War II aircraft bomber.
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Fifty Foot Hose were filled out by guitarist David Blossom and his vocalist wife Nancy, who brought both psychedelic and jazz influences to the band, and a couple of musicians who had played with Marcheschi in other acts. A home demo successfully demonstrated their fusion of electronic effects and songs that were loosely in tune with the San Francisco psychedelic vibe. It led to a deal with Limelight, a subsidiary of Mercury that focused more upon experimental music than conventional rock and pop outings.
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Cauldron was perhaps more interesting for its experimental textures than the sometimes routine compositions -- eerie electronic swoops and jolts swam through the background and foreground of the tracks, enhanced by techniques like putting instruments through an FM transmitter. The jazzier and spookier tunes worked better than the bluesier hard rock items, yet it was an admirably risk-taking effort. But, ultimately, a pretty uncommercial one -- although they got some live work in San Francisco, the album was heard by few at its time of release.[allmusic]
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ROGER THWAITES - AGE OF TIME (SOUND UNLIMITED 1971) Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-08-15T14:25:00.004+03:00

Hailed from Araluen, Australia, Roger Thwaites is a folk singer released two albums. "Age Of Time" is his second album released right after the first album called "200 Years" in 1970. Don't miss Roger's growling voice!
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..."Well, from the first song on, a surprisingly good LP which appears almost as if it had been produced with my specific tastes in mind! The vocals are mostly big and booming with plenty of echo, the songs are great, the lyrics interesting (mostly about the Australian outback and people), the backing a peculiar mix of folk, early rock'n'roll, psychedelia, country and pop, with some songs featuring scorching acid guitar and studio effects. The closest reference point would be Lee Hazlewood's solo LPs, which happen to be among my favourites, and if Mr Thwaites hadn't heard Lee (did his solo records get released in Australia?) then he surely must have been a fan of Elvis and Johnny Cash...." [http://recordhuntinginaustralia.blogspot.com/]
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HEAVEN & EARTH - REFUGE (OVATION 1973) Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-08-01T03:36:00.004+03:00

A female psychedelic duo's sole album released in 1973. Very well polished folk, pop and psychedelic sound with Anita Kerr Singers harmonies.
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Whatever your musical taste, psych-folk, funk, soft rock… this LP seems to fit perfectly. Should appeal to fans of BJ Ward, Wendy & Bonnie, Linda Perhacs, Christine Harwood, Sunforest, Margo Guryan, Lyn Christopher, Barbara & Ernie...
Recorded through October & November at Streeterville Studios, Chicago. Produced by Dick Schory & George Andrews. Solo voice- Jo D. Andrews, 2nd Voice- Pat Gefell. Acoustic guitars- Pat Gefell, Charles Chittenden, Ron Steele. Flute & Echoplex- Arthur Lauer. Congas & Bongos- Bobby Christian. Strings arranged & conducted by- George Andrews. Strings- Joseph Golan, Joseph Sciacchitano, Samuel Magad, Jerry Sabranski, Fred Spector, William Schoen. Vocal Arrangements by Jo D Andrews.
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THE WASHINGTON APPLE - FRESH COUNTRY APPLES (DELICIOUS 1970) Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-08-01T03:32:00.007+03:00

The Washington Apples were from the Pacific Northwest and consisted of Janet Marble (vocals), Joe Hadlock (keyboards), Tom Chapman (guitar), David King (bass), and Scott Schreckengost (drums).
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“WHEN THE ‘APPLES FIRST STARTED, THE IDEA WAS TO WRITE AND RECORD SOME UNUSUAL CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FOR RADIO COMMERCIALS ABOUT WASHINGTON APPLES. ” (album liner note)
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After starting their careers cutting a series of radio commercials in support of Washington apples, the band got a chance to record some more conventional material and saw the release of a 1970 album on the Seattle-based Delicious Records label. “Fresh Country Apples” is definitely different. The first side offers up a series of expanded versions of their earlier commercial jingles. Powered by excellent vocals, material such as the title track isn’t half bad, the only major mis-step being the hokey “Apple Core Baltimore” (the title says it all). The flip side features the band in a more contemporary setting and is actually quite good.
Highlights include a bluesy cover of “Summertime”, “Blues for J” and Hadlock’s pseudo-jazzy “Another Day”, and a version of the Youngbloods’ “Sunlight”. While some dealers have hyped the album as being a psych classic, most of the set sports a far more commercial orientation. The one exception is the extended closer “Ode To Cory”. Complete with thunderstorm effects, squealing guitar and a dirge like tempo, this one sounds like it was torn out of some acid-tripping San Francisco band’s catalog. Quite impressive. (Acid Archives)
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THESE TRAILS - THESE TRAILS (PP 1973) Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-08-01T03:28:00.005+03:00

Reissuing a rare, privately pressed Hawaiian LP from 1973, These Trails' self-titled debut documents a singularly exotic strain of acid-folk. Ethereal male/female harmonies soar over rich melodies and traditional island instrumentation to create gorgeously verdant psychedelia that captures the very essence of tropical paradise. In addition to conventional Hawaiian elements like slack guitar and swaying rhythms, These Trails integrate Far Eastern sounds like tabla and sitar into the equation, further expanding the music's otherworldliness. From its effortless evocation of ocean waves to lush arrangements that capture the beauty and mystery of jungles glistening in the morning dew, no other record sounds quite like this one. ~ Jason Ankeny
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These Trails was never really a band; it was an album of music originally birthed upon the world in 1973 made by everyday-people-type inhabitants of Hawaii. Nonetheless, it was a powerful expression that stands with up other recently discovered heroes of the private press world, such as Linda Perhacs & Gary Higgins, whose singular musical endeavors stand with the best of what the hippified 1970s had to offer.
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Liner Note Authors: Rob Sevier; Margaret Morgan.
Recording information: Sinergia, Inc., Honolulu.
Photographer: Joseph Martin.
Arranger: David Choy.
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Personnel: Patrick Cockett (vocals, guitar, slide guitar, tabla); Margaret Morgan (vocals, guitar, dulcimer); Carlos Pardeiro (vocals, guitar, sitar); Eric Kingsbury (guitar); David Choy (recorder, ARP synthesizer).
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COLLAGE - COLLAGE (CREAM 1970) Korean mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-07-13T05:01:00.008+03:00

Collage was an obscured outfit released only one album in 1970 on Cream records.
Twelve cool soft rock tracks are backed up by brass,fuzz guitar and chorus which strongly reminds of Free design,Beau Brummels and Beach Boys. Highly recommended for soft rock enthusiasts.[Big Pink Music Review]
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JACKSON HEIGHTS - KING PROGRESS (CHARISMA 1970) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-07-13T04:56:00.005+03:00

Formed by former Nice bassist and vocalist Lee Jackson when The Nice split in 1969. The name was taken from a district of New York. Musically they were more pop-orientated than The Nice, but they built up a good live reputation through relentless touring. Their debut album on Charisma made little impact although it did contain a fine version of an old Nice favourite Cry Of Eugene and another highlight was a similarly gentle, atmospheric song Insomnia.It would be the only album that included Charlie Harcourt (who would later go on to join Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys and Lindisfarne), Tommy Slone, and Mario Enrique Covarrubias Tapia who would leave shortly after the album was released. The group re-emerged a couple of years later on Vertigo with 5th Avenue Bus, an album of melodic, well constructed and somewhat orchestrated pop-orientated material. This format was repeated on Ragamuffin's Fool, which was housed in a poster sleeve. After a final effort, Bump And Grind, they disbanded, but in 1974 Jackson formed Refugee, who cut an album for Charisma. After this he disappeared from the music scene for good.
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JOHNNY WINTER - JOHNNY WINTER (COLUMBIA 1969) Jap DSD mastering cardboard sleeve + 5 bonus

2011-07-13T04:52:00.004+03:00

When Johnny Winter emerged on the national scene in 1969, the hope, particularly in the record business, was that he would become a superstar on the scale of Jimi Hendrix, another blues-based rock guitarist and singer who preceded him by a few years. That never quite happened, but Winter did survive the high expectations of his early admirers to become a mature, respected blues musician with a strong sense of tradition.
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Winter's debut album for Columbia was also arguably his bluesiest and best. Straight out of Texas with a hot trio, Winter made blues-rock music for the angels, tearing up a cheap Fender guitar with total abandon on tracks like "I'm Yours and I'm Hers," "Leland Mississippi Blues," and perhaps the slow blues moment to die for on this set, B.B. King's "Be Careful with a Fool." Winter's playing and vocals have yet to become mannered or cliched on this session, and if you've ever wondered what the fuss is all about, here's the best place to check out his true legacy.[allmusic]
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JOHNNY WINTER AND - JOHNNY WINTER AND (COLUMBIA 1970) Jap DSD mastering cardboard sleeve + 2 bonus

2011-07-13T04:48:00.006+03:00

After two late-'60s albums on Columbia, Johnny Winter hit his stride in 1970 working with Rick Derringer and the McCoys, now recruited as his sidemen and collaborators (and proving with just about every note here how far they'd gotten past "Hang on Sloopy"). In place of the bluesy focus on his first two albums, Winter extended himself into more of a rock-oriented mode here, in both his singing and his selection of material. This was hard rock with a blues edge, and had a certain commercial smoothness lacking in his earlier work. Derringer's presence on guitar and as a songwriter saw to it that Winter's blues virtuosity was balanced by perfectly placed guitar hooks, and the two guitarists complemented each other perfectly throughout as well. There wasn't a weak moment anywhere on the record, and if Johnny Winter And wasn't a huge commercial success, it was mostly because of the huge amount of competition at the time from other, equally inspired players, that kept numbers like the Winter originals "Prodigal Son" and "Guess I'll Go Away" as well as Derringer co-authored pieces such as "Look Up" from having the impact they should have had on FM radio.[allmusic]
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IAN MATTHEWS - JOURNEYS FROM THE GOSPEL OAK (MOONCREST 1974) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 7 bonus

2011-07-13T04:17:00.005+03:00

In 1972, several years after leaving both Fairport Convention and his own group, Matthews Southern Comfort, Iain Matthews was once again struck with a case of musical wanderlust and decided to pack in his solo career and form a new group, Plainsong. At the time, Matthews still owed an album to Vertigo Records, and rather than give them Plainsong's debut, he booked a studio for five days and cut a solo album dominated by covers of songs from American tunesmiths, with only two original songs appearing on the set. By all rights, the album that resulted should have been a tossed-off trifle (especially since Vertigo opted not to release it after all, eventually selling it to the independent Mooncrest label), but Journeys from Gospel Oak turned out to be one of Matthews' most satisfying solo efforts, a lovely fusion of airy country rock and pastoral British folk that captured some of Matthews' most beautiful and heartfelt vocal work. Matthews' two new songs, "Knowing the Game" and "Franklin Avenue," are fine tunes inspired by his experiences in the music business, but the covers he chose for the set are inspired; he manages to bring something fresh and affecting to well-worn numbers like "Do Right Woman" and "Sing Me Back Home," and lesser known compositions like "Bride 1945" and "Things You Gave Me" prove his interpretive instincts were to be reckoned with. The compact band Matthews put together for the sessions is superb: Jerry Donahue's lead guitar is subtle but gently reinforces the country accents of the melodies, and bassist Pat Donaldson and drummer Timi Donald (who played on many of Richard Thompson's early solo sessions) give the tracks a rock-solid foundation. Journeys from Gospel Oak is a simple album, but there's something deeply satisfying in its elegance, and it captures a soulful and touching spirit that's found in Iain Matthews' best music.[allmusic]
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DICK HECKSTALL-SMITH - A STORY ENDED (BRONZE 1972) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 5 bonus

2011-07-13T04:13:00.004+03:00

Rather than a story ended, Dick Heckstall-Smith's debut album was in some ways a continuation of the stories written by his previous bands Colosseum and the Graham Bond Organisation, for the record was recorded with the assistance of several of his past associates from those two groundbreaking British blues-rock-jazz groups, including Mark Clarke, Dave Greenslade, Chris Farlowe, and Jon Hiseman (who both played drums and produced) of the just-disbanded Colosseum, as well as Graham Bond. Pete Brown, who'd worked with several of the musicians who sprang from the Graham Bond Organisation crowd, co-wrote most of the songs with Heckstall-Smith; Chris Spedding and famed Elton John sideman Caleb Quaye contributed guitar. As often happens on solo projects stuffed with contributions by famous friends, however, the album was something of a disappointment in comparison to the leader's respectable track record. It sounds like a slightly heavier, slightly jazzier Colosseum, with songs that strain and tumble over themselves where the best Colosseum tracks had a powerful glide. Vocals were never Colosseum's strong suit, but the singing here, particularly on those tracks paced by Farlowe's blustery bellow, really drags the lyrically ambitious (and at times convoluted) material down. It might have been better to have had Pete Brown himself sing on those numbers he co-composed, as he was capable of projecting a real sense of his lyrics in spite of his vocal limitations. Instead, listeners are left with a confused-sounding (and at times grating) set that doesn't add up to the sum of the individual talents, though in the most melodic and laid-back number ("What the Morning Was After"), you get a hint of the kind of moody songs that Brown helped craft for Jack Bruce's early solo recordings. [The 2004 U.K. expanded CD reissue on Castle adds three pretty well-recorded live tracks from the touring band Heckstall-Smith assembled shortly after A Story Ended was recorded, including versions of two of the songs from the album ("Moses in the Bullrushourses" and "The Pirate's Dream"), as well as a cover of a Paul Butterfield song ("No Amount of Loving") not on the LP. The CD also adds a couple of previously unreleased studio recordings (credited to Manchild) laid down by the band in early 1973, although the album for which these were intended was never finished due to an injury to Heckstall-Smith.]
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OPEN ROAD - WINDY DAZE (GREENWICH GRAMOPHONE 1970) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 2 bonus

2011-07-13T04:07:00.006+03:00

"Produced by legendary rock producer, Tony Reeves (ex-Colosseum bassist), Open Road were the very first progressive group to be signed to the Greenwich Gramophone Company (a subsidiary of Chapter One Records) in 1971. Their music reflects feelings of anti-establishment prevalent amongst the young at that time, and was quite visionary in its approach.
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The members of the band consist of 'Candy' John Carr - Drums, Percussion and Vocals. Barry Husband - Acoustic and Lead Guitar, Bass and Vocals. Simon Lanzon - Keyboards, Piano, Accordion and Vocals and Mike Thomson - Bass, 12 String Guitar and Vocals. Producers - Tony Reeves and Open Road. Engineers - Robin Black and George Chiantz. Recorded at Olympic Sound Studios and Morgan, April 1971. Cover Design - Scribble, Doug Smith and Open Road.[chapter one records]
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MAGGIE BELL - SUICIDE SAL (POLYDOR 1975) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 2 bonus

2011-05-22T03:43:00.003+03:00

Although critically feted in the U.K., Bell, both solo and with her former band Stone the Crows, never quite achieved the commercial breakthrough everyone had so expected. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, Bell's recording career was punctuated by a sole Stone the Crows charting album. With that band's demise in 1973, the soul singer went solo, releasing the (again) critically acclaimed Queen of the Night album, with 1975's Suicide Sal following. A tougher, more energized set than its predecessor, Sal's electrifying live feel reflects the incendiary stage shows Bell and her new backing band had been playing in the intervening time between recordings. The two bonus tracks, recorded at a gig later that year, capture their live ferocity. Intriguingly, the funky, fiery title track, an homage to Bell's Aunt, a music hall star, is one of only two originals on this set. The second, the lavishly bluesy "If You Don't Know" was penned by band keyboardist Pete Wingfield, and boasts a guesting Jimmy Page on guitar. The storming "Coming on Strong" also has a Bell connection, being co-penned by ex-Crow Colin Allen and Zoot Money. The rest of the album comprises astutely chosen covers drawn from an eclectic selection of artists. One of the standouts is "It's Been So Long," a powerful gospel number written by the Pretty Things' Phil May, who not only rewrote some of the lyrics for Bell, but added his backing vocals to the song. Free's classic "Wishing Well" gets a sensational workout, while that band's offshoot Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu & Rabbit's "Hold On" is taken to new emotive heights. From barrelling Beatles pop to the Sutherland Brothers poignant Gaelic ode, from ballads to hefty rock & roll, Bell struts across this set with style and such assurance, that even Aunt Sal must have been impressed. One of Britain's greatest soul singers, showcased at her best, this magnificent album also includes an excellent, expansive biography of this crucial artist.[allmusic]
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MONUMENT - THE FIRST MONUMENT (BEACON 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-05-22T03:40:00.004+03:00

More than an independent band, MONUMENT are an offshoot of British hard rock band ZIOR, who released two albums in the early Seventies. Their only album, "The First Monument", is the result of an all-night, drunken jam session involving the four members of ZIOR. The album features a heavy, distorted, Hammond-drenched sound, and ZIOR's trademark occult lyrical themes.[progarchives]
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By 1971, when this album was first released, it had become somewhat trendy amongst the underground fraternity to actively participate in practises such as ritual magic, occult arts and various other esoteric customs. With music very much to the fore of this scene, a twilight culture unfurled linking mysticism to it in the form of groups inspired by their own self interest and beliefs.
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While special imagery and gimmicks were an all important part of such groups presentation there were those, like Monument, whose fascination for the occult drove them away from seeking to glamourise their image. Vocalist and keyboards man Steven Lowe was a founder member of a witches coven in Essex and this keen interest in the ancient craft served to shape much of the lyrical content of their sole album, which is steeped in sorcery and mysticism. Monument were short-lived, unlike some of the more commercial outfits with similar leanings striving for recognition...
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LITTER - $ 100 FINE (HEXAGON/WARICK 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 19 bonus

2011-05-22T03:36:00.004+03:00

Not all of the garage punk spirit was gone from the Litter by the time of their second album, when they were moving in a more hard rock and psychedelic direction. It's not on the level of the debut, however, because the material, about half original and half covers, is often unmemorable, and boring at times. "Mindbreaker" moves along in a pretty crunching garage-pop style with guitar that would have fit in with Distortions, and "Morning Sun" is fair California-type psychedelia with those meltdown sustain guitar riffs. Trendy guitar phasing is all over "Kaleidoscope," and things take a downturn with the blues-rock stomp "Blues One" and a nine-minute cover of "She's Not There."[allmusic]
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LITTER - DISTORTIONS (WARICK 1967) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 9 bonus

2011-05-22T03:31:00.005+03:00

One of Minneapolis' most popular '60s bands, the Litter are most well-known for their classic 1967 garage rock single "Action Woman." With its demonic fuzz/feedback guitar riffs and cocky, snarling lead vocal, it was an archetype of the tough '60s garage rock favored by fans of the Pebbles reissue series. In fact, the single, which got some airplay in Minnesota in early 1967 and then was largely forgotten, didn't reach an international audience until it became cut one, Side One on Volume One of Pebbles in the late '70s. It now has a place of honor on the Nuggets box set. The Litter were a little more successful and long-lived than the average regional garage band, recording a few albums, the last one for a major label, and evolving into a more progressive hard rock outfit before disbanding around the end of the '60s.
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The Litter was formed by members of two Minneapolis area mid-'60s groups, the Victors and the Tabs. (A few songs recorded by the Victors in late 1965 can be heard on the compilation The Scotty Story.) Heavily influenced by the fiercest British Invasion bands such as the Yardbirds and the Who, they recorded their debut single, "Action Woman"/"A Legal Matter," with local producer Warren Kendrick in late 1966. "Action Woman," in fact, was not a Litter original, but a Kendrick composition. Bill Strandlof, who had played the searing guitar lead on "Action Woman," was replaced by Tom "Zippy" Caplan in the spring of 1967, just before they recorded most of the tracks that comprised their debut album. Leaning heavily on covers of songs by British bands like the Yardbirds, the Who, and Small Faces, Distortions was nevertheless a prime example of '60s garage rock at its most powerful. With the garage rock revival, this local release became a coveted collector's item, and has since been reissued several times...................
Like many bands in the late '60s, the Litter subsequently went into a more psychedelic/hard rock direction. Their second album, 0 Fine, put more weight on original material, although their sound was growing more generic. Around this time, the Litter missed out on some potentially big opportunities, turning down offers from both Elektra and Columbia. They appear in a 1968 Chicago psychedelic nightclub scene in political filmmaker Haskell Wexler's classic movie Medium Cool, but only super-briefly; although they're shown playing on-stage, the soundtrack includes none of their music, with the Mothers of Invention's "Flower Punk" overdubbed onto the scene. By the time they did get onto a major label for the 1969 album Emerge (on ABC), Caplan and original lead singer Denny Waite had been replaced, and their hard rock sound had become less distinguished. The Litter have reunited and sometimes continued to play and record, with different lineups, into the '90s.[allmusic]
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JOHNNY TILLOTSON - BEST [His First Album] (CADENCE 1962) JVC K2 HD mastering cardboard sleeve + 12 bonus

2011-04-28T04:31:00.006+03:00

Tillotson was born April 20, 1939, in Jacksonville, FL, the son of Jack Tillotson, a country music disc jockey, and Doris Tillotson. When Tillotson was nine, he moved 40 miles to the smaller Florida town of Palatka. He got his first exposure as a singer on his father's radio station while he was still a child. His primary interest was country music, although he was inspired when he saw Elvis Presley perform in Jacksonville on May 13, 1955, just after he had turned 14. Meanwhile, his radio work led to a stint on a local TV show and even his own program. But he maintained his studies, and he was attending the University of Florida as a journalism and composition major in 1957 when he entered a national talent contest sponsored by Pet Milk. He was chosen as one of six finalists, resulting in a trip to Nashville, TN, for the final judging. He did not win the contest, but while in Nashville he came to the attention of a song publisher who was impressed by songs he had written and got a tape of them to Archie Bleyer, owner of the independent Cadence Records label, home to the Everly Brothers and Andy Williams. Bleyer signed Tillotson to a three-year contract and, in September 1958, issued his first single, combining two of the singer's own compositions, the ballad "Dreamy Eyes" and the up-tempo "Well I'm Your Man," both of which bore similarities to the sound of Buddy Holly. "Well I'm Your Man" charted first, peaking at number 87 in the Hot 100 in October, but "Dreamy Eyes" followed, topping out at number 63 in January 1959. (The simultaneously released "I'm Never Gonna Kiss You," a duet with Genevieve, a singer on the Jack Parr TV show, did not chart.)
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The relative failure of "Dreamy Eyes" sent Tillotson back to college, where he received his B.A. in 1959; that August 1959 Cadence released his next single, "True True Happiness," a song in the currently popular teen pop style, complete with recitations of romantic devotion; it petered out at number 54 in September. "Why Do I Love You So," which followed in December, suggested that Tillotson had been listening closely to Ricky Nelson's 1958 hit "Poor Little Fool"; it reached number 42 in February 1960. Next, Bleyer tried having Tillotson cover a couple of old R&B hits, combining the Penguins' "Earth Angel" and Johnny Ace's "Pledging My Love." Disc jockeys couldn't seem to decide which side of the single to play, and both peaked in the bottom half of the Hot 100 in May.
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Tillotson broke through to success with his sixth single, the bouncy pop/rock tune "Poetry in Motion," released in September 1960. He and Bleyer had finally found an appropriate forum for his clear tenor voice, recording with a Nashville studio full of country music session stars like saxophonist Boots Randolph and pianist Floyd Cramer. "Poetry in Motion" peaked at number two in November 1960; in the U.K., it hit number one in January 1961. Instead of immediately turning to extensive personal appearances, however, on Bleyer's advice Tillotson focused primarily on his recording career, though he appeared on television and began to be featured in teen magazines. "Jimmy's Girl," his next single, responded to this teen idol image, but it stopped at number 25 in February 1961. Singing another of his own compositions, Tillotson produced "Without You," a dramatic, string-filled production in the manner of Roy Orbison; it reached number seven in September 1961. Cadence then re-released Tillotson's first single, "Dreamy Eyes," and it got to number 35 in January 1962.[allmusic]
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JOHNNY TILLOTSON - IT KEEPS RIGHT ON A-HURTIN' (CADENCE 1962) JVC K2 HD mastering cardboard sleeve + 9 bonus

2011-04-28T04:25:00.007+03:00

Tillotson recorded his most successful self-written song, "It Keeps Right on a-Hurtin'," inspired by the terminal illness of his father. The song was given an overtly country arrangement, although Tillotson, as usual, sang it with his unaccented enunciation, without a hint of a country twang. Nevertheless, it became his first country chart hit, peaking at number four, while getting to number three in the pop chart (and even making number six in the R&B chart). And it earned him his first Grammy nomination, for Best Country & Western Recording. It also went on to become a much-covered country-pop standard, recorded by Elvis Presley and by Billy Joe Royal, whose version was a Top 20 country hit in 1988, as well as, by Tillotson's count, over 100 others, among them Bobby Darin, Sonny James, Hank Locklin, Dean Martin, Boots Randolph, Conway Twitty, Slim Whitman, and the Wilburn Brothers. By the time it was peaking in the charts in the spring of 1962, Tillotson was serving a six-month stint of active duty in the Army, having enlisted in the National Guard to satisfy his military obligation. But he was given weekend furloughs to allow him to continue to record, and he used them to cut his first LP of new recordings (following the 1961 hits collection Johnny Tillotson's Best), also called It Keeps Right on a-Hurtin'. Released in June 1962, the disc, a Top Ten hit, found Tillotson covering a series of country standards, and Cadence proceeded to dole many of them out as singles over the rest of the year: a cover of Hank Locklin's "Send Me the Pillow You Dream On" made the pop and country Top 20 and the Top Ten of the easy listening chart, and a cover of Hank Williams' "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" (backed by another Williams standard, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry") made the pop Top 40 and the easy listening Top Ten.
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When Tillotson returned to recording in early 1963, his new self-written single, "Out of My Mind," was another country-style ballad, although it did not reach the country charts and peaked at number 24 on the Hot 100 in April. "You Can Never Stop Me Loving You," which followed July, was more of a pop song, and it returned Tillotson to the Top 20. (Its B-side, "Judy, Judy, Judy," which Tillotson co-wrote with Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, was featured in the singer's film debut, the B-picture Just for Fun, which opened in June.)
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Although he had renewed his contract with Cadence for an additional three years in April 1961, Tillotson was released from his obligation as the label wound down in 1963; it went out of business in 1964...[allmusic]
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RICK PRICE - TALKING TO THE FLOWERS (GEMINI 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 12 bonus

2011-04-20T02:10:00.005+03:00

Rick Price is probably the least famous member of the Move (with whom he had a stint in the late '60s and early '70s), and it comes as a surprise even to some major Move fans to learn that he recorded a solo album shortly after leaving the group. If the equally obscure LP he'd done with Mike Sheridan in 1970 (This Is to Certify That...) sometimes sounded, in a good way, like Move-lite, Talking to the Flowers was yet milder, though not at all bad. Traces of the poppiest sides of the Move and late Beatles are highly audible on this likable if low-key set, sometimes with slight country and orchestral pop tinges to the arrangements. Price doesn't have the greatest voice in the world -- you can hear why he wasn't going to displace Roy Wood, Carl Wayne, or Jeff Lynne as a primary vocalist in the Move, for instance -- but it has an acceptably pleasant tone that's not far afield from those singers' styles. His songs (some written with Mike Sheridan) are nice slices of non-saccharine, occasionally Paul McCartney-esque early-'70s British pop/rock, too, mixed with less impressive but acceptable covers of songs by Tim Hardin and Neil Diamond, as well as a version of an obscure Everly Brothers song in the title track. It all adds up to something worth hearing for Move fans.
The bonus here is an unreleased solo album Price recorded shortly after Talking to the Flowers that's similar, but less impressive and developed; and some other non-LP material from the era.
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THE MAGIC SOUND OF THE "IDLE RACE","MOVE", & "E.L.O." FAMILY.
LISTEN...
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RICK PRICE & MIKE SHERIDAN - THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT... (GEMINI 1970) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 3 bonus

2011-04-20T02:04:00.005+03:00

Rick Price is probably the least-known member of the Move, if only because he never really established a well-defined musical (or personal) identity of his own, as the other members did. In the latter regard, Ace Kefford can be pigeonholed (fairly or not) as a drug/acid casualty, Roy Wood as a genius, Jeff Lynne as a pop genius, Trevor Burton as a frustrated rock & roller, the late Carl Wayne as a pop/rock crooner, and Bev Bevan as one of the two or three best drummers ever to come out of Birmingham. But who, apart from some really inquisitive Move fans, really knows anything about Rick Price? His most visible work from the most widely covered part of his career, the Rick Price & Mike Sheridan collaboration referred to as This Is to Certify: Gemini Anthology, released at the start of the 1970s, seems hardly to have sold at all in its own time. And since then, he's had to stand in the shadow of the similarly named Australian vocalist.
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An astonishingly good collection of the post-Move recordings of Rick Price, both solo and in his collaboration with Birmingham rock singer Mike Sheridan, originally cut for Gemini Records and released circa 1970. The music is an often appealing mix of psychedelia, pop/rock, and art rock, rather McCartney-esque at times but in the best possible way -- think of the production on "Martha My Dear" and "Your Mother Should Know," and the texture of the Move's "Beautiful Daughter" from the Shazam album and you've got the idea...is a vital addendum to the Move's history, and at least as essential listening as the first ELO album.[allmusic]
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THE MAGIC SOUND OF THE "IDLE RACE","MOVE" & "E.L.O." FAMILY.
LISTEN...
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BRUCE COCKBURN - BRUCE COCKBURN (TRUE NORTH 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-04-13T02:31:00.003+03:00

Immensely popular in his native Canada, singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn has found only cult success south of the border, in spite of a rich, varied body of work and considerable critical nods. He has won numerous Juno Awards and has kept the quality control on most of his albums at a high level. Cockburn's first decade of work (1970-1979) is largely literate, singer/songwriter folk-rock, often with a strong Christian tone and mystical, devotional lyrics. In 1979, Cockburn had his only major U.S. single, "Wondering Where the Lions Are," which peaked at number 21. The accompanying album, Dancing in the Dragon's Jaw, saw him augmenting his music with worldbeat rhythms, an approach he would continue over his next few albums
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Bruce Cockburn's self-titled debut's blend of diversity, enthusiasm, and innocence never quite resurfaced again in his work, especially in his more clinical, politically inclined tracts of later decades. The opening number, "Going to the Country," still evokes that hippie-esque, back-to-the-earth movement as well as any song ever recorded, complete with a sly wink that keeps it fresh to this day. And since this was 1970, the album also comes equipped with some of those quaint excesses of the period; try the nasal tone poem gracing "The Bicycle Trip." "Musical Friends" remains a lively, happy-go-lucky classic with piano signature lifted from Paul McCartney's playbook; it's difficult to picture the dour Cockburn of more recent years ever having this much fun. In contrast, "Thoughts on a Rainy Afternoon" offers a trance-like, introspective atmosphere reminiscent of British folkie legend Nick Drake.[allmusic]
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PENTANGLE - BASKET OF LIGHT (TRANSATLANTIC 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 4 bonus

2011-04-13T02:12:00.006+03:00

One of the most significant bands of the late 1960's Pentangle along with Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention defined the whole of the folk rock movement and helped to influence a whole generation of musicians and guitarists. Bert Jansch, John Renbourne and Danny Thompson had few equals and Jaquie McShee's achingly pure vocals were the perfect counterpoint to their sensational ensemble playing. "Basket of Light" was by far their most commercially successful release and still sounds as fresh and bold as it did four decades ago.
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Although Sweet Child is usually cited as the group's high-water mark, Basket of Light finds them at their most progressive and exciting. Highlights of this album -- which actually reached the Top Five in the U.K. -- include the buzzing jazz dynamics of "Light Flight," their moving rendition of the traditional folk song "Once I Had a Sweetheart," their reinvention of the girl group smash "Sally Go Round the Roses," and "Springtime Promises," one of their finest original tunes...
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KENNY RANKIN - MIND-DUSTERS (MERCURY 1967) JVC K2 mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-04-09T00:45:00.004+03:00

A pop and standards singer during his long career, Kenny Rankin debuted in 1967 with his first album, Mind Dusters, which featured the soft rock hit "Peaceful." Over the course of the early '70s, Rankin slowly built up a following with a steady stream of records and performances that balanced originals, new songs, and standards. As the decade drew to a close, he began to return to his singer/songwriter roots, particularly on After the Roses, his 1980 debut for Atlantic Records. He continued to perform during the '80s, but he only recorded sporadically. In 1991, he recorded a pair of albums, Hiding in Myself and Because of You, for two separate labels. Three years later, he signed with Private Music and released Professional Dreamer, an album that found him concentrating on standards.
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An ideal representation of the acoustic and ethereal side of the early, winsome singer/songwriter sound, this promising debut only hints at Rankin's traditional pop and world music vision. The Tin Pan Alley and ethnic roots of the music he grew up with in New York City are obscured by his alignment with the sounds of some of the artists he covers on the record, including Bob Dylan ("Mr. Tambourine Man"), Gordon Lightfoot ("Song for a Winter's Night"), and, most successfully, Fred Neil ("Dolphin"). "Cotton Candy Sandman" perfectly captures the gauzy, warm glow of mellow love that permeated the musical mood of 1967. The highlight of the album is Rankin's own composition, the inviting "Peaceful," which foreshadows his later work. While the long-out-of-print album only shows glimpses of his full abilities, it has a quaint, antiquated '60s charm and even includes liner notes from none other than Johnny Carson.[allmusic]
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HATFIELD & THE NORTH - HATFIELD & THE NORTH (VIRGIN 1974) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 3 bonus

2011-04-06T05:02:00.005+03:00

Hatfield and the North were the supergroup of England's Canterbury progressive rock scene, with bassist and vocalist Richard Sinclair from Caravan, guitarist Phil Miller from Matching Mole, keyboardist Dave Stewart from Egg, and drummer Pip Pyle from Gong and Delivery. This brilliant and inventive debut album is a cross between sophisticated, precisely executed jazz-rock and dry-humored, often surreal pop. The album consists of short pieces blended into a Zappa-like collage, providing a thematic work that bests even the most eccentric jazz-rock by bands like Soft Machine.[allmusic]
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HATFIELD & THE NORTH - THE ROTTERS' CLUB (VIRGIN 1975) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 3 bonus

2011-04-06T04:58:00.004+03:00

Hatfield and the North's second LP stands as a high watermark for the prog rock associated with England's Canterbury scene and, while filled with stunning musicianship, demonstrates both the strengths and some of the weaknesses of the Hatfield style. Dave Stewart on keyboards, Phil Miller on guitar, Richard Sinclair on bass and vocals, and Pip Pyle on drums (supplemented by a few guest instrumentalists and the ever-ethereal Northettes with their "la la" backing vocals) generally show an admirable sense of restraint and, like their Canterbury peers, are careful to avoid the pomposity and bombast of better-known prog rockers of the era, such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes. But the Hatfields might actually have been light to a fault, particularly whenever a segue from one of their convoluted instrumental passages into a Richard Sinclair vocal vehicle occurred. Sinclair shares a bit of Robert Wyatt's singing approach, or at least Wyatt's more whimsical side, but his polite and mellow croon, while pleasant, is less idiosyncratic and ultimately rather bland. And, don' t look for much importance from the songs' nearly empty lyrical content; perhaps this was another conscious attempt to steer clear of the pretentiousness of the typically overbearing prog rock song style, but the words leave precious little to sink the listener's teeth into. Things actually get off to a relatively strong start with "Share It," a catchy little number with Sinclair expressing some idealistic and hard-to-criticize Brit hippie sentiments. At the several other places where vocals crop up, however, it's all a bit empty-headed and self-referential. Thankfully, these songs are few and far between, but they're still rather hard to avoid; the Hatfields were masters of the segue and the most masterly demonstrations of instrumental technique wind up bleeding into some pretty dumb stuff from Sinclair's pipes. (In fairness, he isn't credited with writing all the words he wound up singing.) Nevertheless, Stewart, Miller, and Pyle all make some wonderful statements, as does Sinclair on bass for that matter. Particularly noteworthy are Miller's two short jazzy instrumentals, "Lounging There Trying" and "Underdub," which, with their sparkling electric piano work from Stewart, have a light and airy improvisational feel despite rather thorough scoring; Pyle's propulsive "Yes No Interlude" with its furious melding of Stewart's keyboards and the sax of guest Jimmy Hastings; and Stewart's 20-minute opus "Mumps." The latter is particularly impressive, with everything anyone would want from an extended-form Canterbury-style workout. The piece ebbs and flows through nimbly executed thematic passages and variations, featuring one of Stewart's most compelling themes and also one of the best fuzz organ solos that he (or Mike Ratledge or David Sinclair for that matter) ever recorded. Then, smack dab in the middle of it all, here comes Sinclair with a throwaway tune using letters of the alphabet as words; it really interrupts the flow. Everything is retrieved with a dramatic instrumental coda, though, melding spacy effects, more great organ playing from Stewart, and spectacularly executed unison lines from Miller and Hastings in crescendo before the final fade...[allmusic]
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BO HANSSON - THE LORD OF THE RINGS (CHARISMA 1972) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 1 bonus

2011-04-06T04:53:00.004+03:00

The best of Bo Hansson's albums, and one of the few progressive rock instrumental recordings that still holds up on repeated listening. J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy provide the inspiration for a series of strange, other-worldly tracks that transcend their source material. Hansson's keyboard playing is quite unlike the work of such rivals as Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman, less heavy and "gothic" and more oriented toward jazz. His guitar work as is flashy and aggressive as his keyboards ("The Black Riders/Flight to the Ford" is a great showcase for both), and the backing by sax, flute, and drums creates an overall rich sonic palette.[allmusic]
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HORSLIPS - THE TAIN (OATS 1973) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-04-06T04:48:00.004+03:00

The most ambitious and successful of their early albums, Horslips' most progressive creation, and maybe the most successful rock concept album ever done. The Tain is rock put into the service of epic storytelling (or is it the other way around?), based on the Irish saga Tain Bo Cuailgne ("The Cattle Raid of Cooley"), part of the Ulster Cycle of Heroic Tales. It tells of war and carnage brought about over the possession of a white bull, inspired by events estimated to have taken place around 500 B.C. This is a long way from Chuck Berry or Little Richard, but it does rock hard, and unlike a lot of progressive rock, The Tain displays considerable tension and momentum. Some listeners will detect modest similarities to Jethro Tull's work (especially on "Charolais"), but there's a lot less meandering here than there is on any Tull album, the flute playing is better, and the material moves forward in a fairly nimble fashion. It would be easy to praise John Fean's guitar, but Jim Lockhart's flute is just as impressive, Charles O'Connor's violin playing is gorgeous, and Eamonn Carr's drumming is dazzling. And the vocals are quite good too, sweet but earthy and honest, and not self-consciously profound -- these boys had ambition, but they weren't full of themselves or too given to pretensions.[allmusic]
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SEEDS - RAW & ALIVE IN CONCERT (GNP CRESCENDO 1967) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-04-06T04:42:00.007+03:00

The Seeds were an exceptional band that never achieved the success that they inspired. This album has a truly psychedelic cover with too-dark-for-pastel colors, swirling letters over eerie faces, and dynamic black and white photos on the back. If you want to see the image of Iggy Pop clothed, just look at Sky Saxon in the bottom right photo on the back cover with the screaming girl holding a flower grabbing at him. He had the image down, as well as the music. "900 Million People Daily All Making Love" sounds so much like the Doors and Jim Morrison's "When the Music's Over," one has to wonder which came first, or did they copy each other? "Mumble and Bumble" is a trippy "Alabama Song," but where Morrison is looking for the next whiskey bar, Saxon is off looking for flowers and magic mushrooms. The band has great energy which is pierced by annoying canned applause a la the Rolling Stones' Got Live If You Want It. This is a record album, not a situation comedy TV show, after all; what's the point of overdubbing an audience onto what is really good music? Sure, "No Escape" is a prelude to the closer and hit "Pushin' Too Hard" with a tip of the hat to Martha & the Vandellas, while "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" is placed nicely in mid-set, a song after the truncated "Up in Her Room." The revelation that is this "concert" album is what a great band the Seeds really were, and how Sky Saxon's vocals have a gritty edge that he held back on us in many of the studio recordings. "Gypsy Plays His Drums" has a great chug-chug guitar, nice off-key backing vocals, and a driving pulse which is present throughout the performance. If you can ignore the extraneous additions, a song like "Forest Outside Your Door" shows really how creative and influential this pioneering band was, while "Satisfy You" is Saxon's direct sexual rock to Mick Jagger's "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." Sky claims he can get satisfaction, and can satisfy you at the same time. He then veers off into more familiar psychedelic territory with "Night Time Girl" which combines the sex and the psychedelia. If they taught rock & roll in school, "Raw & Alive" would have to be the textbook for image, design, and content.[allmusic]
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SKY SAXON BLUES BAND - A FULL SPOON OF SEEDY BLUES (GNP CRESCENDO 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-04-06T04:38:00.005+03:00

With liner notes by Muddy Waters, a cover of Water's tune "Plain Spoken," and two titles written by Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson, the trend-conscious Sky Saxon takes his Seeds into a world far removed from punk and garage rock. This may be the only album that doesn't contain a variation of the "Pushin' Too Hard" riff, and that might not be a good thing. Six minutes and four seconds of Sky Saxon's "Cry Wolf" is too long for blues this lightweight. Saxon plays a cool harp, but his Sam the Sham-style vocals are not going to cause Buddy Guy any sleepless nights, nor would George Guy find them amusing. This is one of the great garage rock bands of all time fooling around, and that GNP Crescendo gave them so much latitude is absolutely amazing. Muddy Waters' "Plain Spoken" gets a reverent treatment, and perhaps that's all one could ask. There was a search on for Howard Tate and when he was rediscovered the reviews for his latter-day work were outstanding. This album won't have DJs and blues enthusiasts seeking out the Seeds to do a national House of Blues tour, but the funny thing is, decades after this was recorded, they might actually have earned the right to attempt working in such sacred territory. "The Gardener," at four minutes and 57 seconds, sounds as long as "Cry Wolf." Saxon gives us some cool keyboards and wailing mouth harp, but his vocals really are more suited to a Seeds/Standells/Strawberry Alarm Clock class reunion, and halfway through the track you'll have had enough. Having the intuition to cover two Luther Johnson songs, "Pretty Girl" and the up-tempo "One More Time Blues," is commendable. Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson performed with Muddy Waters and Otis Spann, and the inclusion of his material adds a legitimacy. "Creepin' About" is amusing, but would have been more so had Sky Saxon actually got Luther Johnson or Muddy Waters or Etta James to guest star on his material. They look like the Seeds on the cover, and it is just too bad they didn't borrow a few ideas from Big Brother & the Holding Company and put some psychedelia into the grooves. Marcus Tybalt totally missed the mark in producing this, but it does have some merit for reasons already mentioned.[allmusic]
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GLASS PRISM - POE THROUGH THE GLASS PRISM (RCA VICTOR 1969) Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-03-17T03:50:00.004+02:00

Glass Prism was a psychedelic group out of Pennsylvania.They released two albums on RCA, 1969's "Poe Through The Glass Prism" and 1970's "On Joy and Sorrow". Their second album has a dark and heavy vibe, really great guitar work sometimes with fuzzy sounds, more on the sorrow side of life than on the joy side. " Your joy is your sorrow unmasked". They were one of the originators of progressive concept-based rock, and have many loyal fans to this day.
This debut release sets the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe to grandiose psychedelic arrangements -- the concept's more than a bit suspect, of course, but there's no denying the album's ambition or its execution. Both Tom Varano and Augie Christiano are imaginative composers skilled at folding classical and jazz precepts into the hard rock idiom, and their nuanced arrangements (dominated by chiaroscuro shades of funereal organ) artfully convey the melancholy and macabre at the heart of Poe's verse. Equally impressive are Glass Prism's four-part harmonies, employed most effectively on songs like "El Dorado."
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GLASS PRISM - ON JOY AND SORROW (RCA VICTOR 1970) Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-03-17T03:45:00.005+02:00

For Glass Prism's second album, 1970's On Joy and Sorrow, the band abandoned the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations of their 1969 debut Poe Through the Glass Prism for straightforward songs blending psychedelic hard rock and soul. This gave the Scranton, Pennsylvania band the chance to showcase bassist Augie Christiano's husky soul-rock singing, balanced by songs on which drummer Rick Richards took lead vocals; B3 rock organ in the spirit of bands like the Spencer Davis Group, Procol Harum, and Vanilla Fudge; and Tom Varano's versatile lead guitar, which was equally accomplished at fuzzy hard rock riffs and deft jazz-influenced picking...
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JANIS IAN - JANIS IAN (VERVE FORECAST 1967) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-03-17T03:42:00.004+02:00

This is the eponymous debut long-player from Janis Ian, who had already written and recorded this disc of completely original material at the tender age of 15.
In early 1967 this album was released, revealing the depth of Ian's craft. While her roots are decidedly folky, her material traverses through a number of genres. One of the more prominent motifs is the dark Baroque flavor accompanying tracks such as "Society's Child," "Janey's Blues," and the stunningly poignant "Hair of Spun Gold" -- a deliciously noir tale that had been published in 1963 by the acclaimed and revered folk music journal Broadside when Ian was a mere 12 years old. There are also a couple of trippy blues-rockers, such as the precocious "Too Old to Go 'Way Little Girl" and the punky protest-filled "Younger Generation Blues." However, the vast majority of Janis Ian is steeped in the acoustic-based folk music that she had immersed herself in during her concurrent sets in and around Greenwich Village at venerable venues such as the Gaslight Cafe and Kettle of Fish. "Then Tangles of My Mind" and the Dylan-esque "I'll Give You a Stone if You'll Throw It" are both intimate examinations. Also noteworthy are the teen prostitution "Pro-Girl" and "New Christ Cardiac Hero," a biting satire of the ambiguous social role that was being acted out by most organized religions of the time in an attempt to remain relevant to an increasingly disenfranchised youthful audience. The confrontational nature of much of the material on this disc would carry over into her three remaining efforts on Verve/Forecast, as well as become a touchstone for Ian's future works.[allmusic]
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JANIS IAN - FOR ALL THE SEASONS OF YOUR MIND (VERVE FORECAST 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2011-03-17T03:38:00.004+02:00

Janis Ian followed up her self-titled debut with the appropriately trippy For All The Seasons Of Your Mind (1968). Her no-nonsensical approach and bellicose lyrical style was poignantly defined by the widely banned single "Society's Child", which dealt with interracial relationships. This refreshing candour was also featured on a number of other edgy sides from her previous disc such as the teenage hooker blues that Ian titled "Pro-Girl" or the socially and sexually combative "Too Old To Go ‘Way Little Girl". On this disc, the singer/songwriter allows for a bit of psychedelic poetry to colour her commentaries. Again, she is accompanied by studio musicians whom Ian gives full and respective credit for their contributions -- a rarity for many solo artists in the late ‘60s. The band provide Ian with a variety of sonic pallets ranging from the sitar twang of the opening title track to the baroque orchestration that graces the instrumental introduction of "Insanity Comes Quietly To The Structured Mind". There are several introspective and more traditional folk tunes including the stark "There Are Times", which foreshadows Laura Nyro's "New York Tendaberry" and the scathing observational statement on the status of the aged on "Shady Acres". The quiet and personal "Evening Star" hearkens toward Ian's future jazz-inspired works. She maintains a delicate command of the stirring and moody piano inflections that trickle all around her vocals in a sort of improvisational dance. The track also has the maturity of a pop music standard from the likes of Gershwin or Cahn. Ian slightly bends the piano voicings to replicate her own soulful intonations. One of the hidden gems on the LP is the more contemporary minor chord masterpiece "Bahimsa". The performance evokes a distinct European flavour that might suggest the Incredible String Band or Pentangle. These more sombre and developed compositions make for somewhat schizophrenic bedfellows beside the funky electric soul of the derisive "Honey D'ya Think" or the awkward coming of age brass band waltz "And I Did Ma".[allmusic]
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MARMALADE - SONGS (DECCA 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 10 bonus

2011-03-17T03:34:00.004+02:00

Before this album guitarist and songwriting partner of the singer Dean Ford, Junior Campbell left the band and the Marmalade replaced him with Hugh Nicholson for this album. Without his writing partner Dean Ford only contributed three songs to this album. The gentle folk rock numbers "Mama", "Lovely Nights" and "Just One Woman" which are all highlights and stand out as strong compositions which proved that he himself was a great songwriter and didn't have to rely only on Campbell. Nicholson wrote the rest of the material, except the great soul rocker "Empty Bottles" which was written by the bass player Graham Knight and was recorded shortly before Junior Campbell's departure. The opening hard rock number "Bad Weather" starts the album on a perfect note. The other hard rocker "I've Been Around Too Long" as well as the soft country influenced "Sarah" and the beautiful album closer "Ride Boy Ride" make this album one of the best ones I've ever heard...[rateyourmusic]
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COLIN BLUNSTONE - ONE YEAR (EPIC 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 2 bonus

2011-01-16T17:13:00.004+02:00

As the lead singer of the Zombies, Blunstone was one of the greatest '60s rock vocalists, pacing the group's minor-key masterpieces with his inimitable choked and breathy vocals. After retiring from the business briefly in the late '60s (to work in the insurance industry, of all things), he went solo in the early '70s with a string of interesting pop/rock albums that were more of an extension of the late Zombies sound than the more well-known work of Argent, the other Zombies spin-off act. The Zombies connection is hardly incidental; chief Zombie songwriters Rod Argent and Chris White gave Blunstone some songs, as did Argent member Russ Ballard, though Blunstone penned much of his material himself. With their moody melodies and Baroque touches of muted keyboards, classical guitars, and inventive string arrangements, his early-'70s albums sometimes sounded like a mellower take on the direction the Zombies pursued with their pop-psychedelic masterwork Odessey and Oracle. Blunstone managed some small British hits with "How Could We Dare Be Wrong," "I Don't Believe in Miracles," and the Top 20 single "Say You Don't Mind," a cover of a tune written and recorded by Denny Laine after he left the Moody Blues and before he joined Wings. Blunstone's first album, One Year (1971), was his best, though the follow-ups Ennismore and Journey also had their moments.[allmusic]
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MAMA CASS - DREAM A LITTLE DREAM (ABC-DUNHILL 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 2 bonus

2011-01-16T17:09:00.004+02:00

At the time the Mamas & the Papas broke up in 1968, it was painfully obvious that Dunhill Records was placing all their bets on Elliot as far as a successful solo recording career. They certainly had good reason. While Elliot wasn't always the lead voice on the hits (Denny Doherty usually was), she provided the sound that brought the vocal majesty together, as well as an image. The "final" Mamas single, "Dream a Little Dream," was now billed as a "Mama Cass" single, and Dunhill quickly brought her into the studio for an album. The result is one of her finest, and an important sociological record, too. It can easily be described as the sound of Laurel Canyon in 1968, with songs by Graham Nash (whom Elliot was in the process of introducing to Stills and Crosby), John Sebastian, and Robbie Robertson. John Simon exquisitely produced this album, employing his "nuts and bolts" technique that was so effective on his work with the Band. It was a great start for her solo career. Unfortunately after this, Elliot fell into the record industry machinery, and quickly began turning out bubblegum hits that weren't really where she was at. This sounds like a place closer to her heart, and to listeners' hearts as well.[allmusic]
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ALVIN LEE & MYLON LEFEVRE - ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM (CHRYSALIS 1973) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 1 bonus

2011-01-16T17:05:00.005+02:00

Alvin Lee known for his lightning fast licks on guitar, soulful bluesy tunes and amazing live performances throws us a curve ball with his first solo album. Much more mellow and melodic than his work with Ten Years After, but with great feeling and depth. He shares the vocalist duties with American gospel singer Mylon LeFevre and Mylon also belts out some very nice songs of his own.
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Each song utilizes the various noteworthy musicians (including the entire Traffic cast), with Alvin Lee playing guitar on almost all of the tunes. It has a variety of music styles as well, with a very country tune “Funny”, to an almost gospel like tune “Lay me Back” to a very nice traditional rock and roll jam “Rockin’ Til The Sun Goes Down”. The title track is a deceptively simple prime cut with its searing guitar, solid drumming, tasteful piano, a rousing melody.
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The combination of Alvin Lee’s fabulous talent and that unmistakable voice of Mylon LeFevre make an interesting album.
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SEEDS - FUTURE (GNP-CRESCENDO 1967) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 2 bonus

2011-01-16T17:02:00.004+02:00

The "A Thousand Shadows" 45 rpm from this album, Future, came in a pink sleeve decorated by gray four-leaf clovers and a negative picture of the Seeds next to a sign that says "Wishing Well - Help Us Grow." "A Thousand Shadows" is the melody as well as the feel of their Top 40 1967 hit "Pushin' Too Hard." Breaking no new ground, the band insisted on revisiting its formula, reinventing new versions of "Pushin' Too Hard" like "Flower Lady & Her Assistant." This is a sophisticated package with a gatefold which includes lyrics over pastel sunflowers as if the band was Joni Mitchell. Three colorful pages come inside the album, including two beautiful photos of the group along with single flowers representing the songs on the disc with instructions: "Cut out paste on whatever" for grade schoolers or those so strung out on LSD they have regressed to that point. "Six Dreams" is Black Sabbath's Ozzie meeting George Harrison in some biker film soundtrack with weird sound effects and a sitar. The harp on "Fallin'" underscores Saxon's passionate garage vocal. Imagine, if you will, Brian Jones during the recording of Satanic Majesties deciding to bare all the excesses of rock stardom. This album is a trip, not because it reflects the ideas captured in the Peter Fonda film of the same name, but because a band had the audacity to experiment with record company money and make something so noncommercial and playful. Droning organ sounds penetrate "Fallin'," the seven minute, 40 second final track. Saxon writes in the inner-sleeve essay "Originations of the Flower Generation" "...The farmer lives by the elements alone, the sun, the rain, and the earth, but the earth needs its seeds to sow the flower generation of the leaf...." It's heady stuff, and the melody and sound of "Pushin' Too Hard" permeates incessantly. Hardly a Future, as the title proclaims, this is actually the Sgt. Pepper of the flower-power set, a reinvention of past efforts, but no "Strawberry Fields" or "Day in the Life" to bring it out of its cult niche. Very listenable, highly entertaining, and totally not for the mass audience.[allmusic]
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EARLY BRITISH ROCK & ROLL (EMI Recordings 1956 - 1961) 2CD [64 songs]

2010-12-23T02:22:00.018+02:00

This double-CD set lives up to its title, at least as a representative compilation of the period it covers -- no vinyl compilation ever aspired to offer anything like the 64 tracks presented here, all dug out of the EMI vaults. Conceptually this is a killer collection, representing early dawning years of British rock, when acts like Vince Taylor & the Playboys, jazz trombonistDon Lang, and be-bop drummer Tony Crombie and his group the Rockets all competed for the public's attention, and the book was still being written on how to make (or succeed in) rock & roll. It all predates the Beatles as a recording act, though a handful of names came through the transition wrought by the Liverpool quartet and are recognizable today (albeit not always for rock & roll, as in the case of Jim Dale) -- the Shadows, Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, and Adam Faith (who does a killer rendition of "High School Confidential" years before he became a success with a smoother brand of rock & roll) are among those who survived to rock another day. But as obscure as Janice Peters (who sounded like a British version of Jo Ann Campbell) or the Five Chesternuts may be today, the music here is all eminently enjoyable, and on a lot more than a historical basis -- these acts could rock out, and if they weren't as original or creative as the Americans whose sounds they emulated, they did put on a great show.

Two acts here, Dickie Pride and Bobby Angelo and the Tuxedos, are a genuine surprise, delivering as good a rock & roll sound as anyone ever heard on this side of the Atlantic. The influences that abound are fascinating, the near-ubiquitous sound of Elvis Presley (and, to a lesser degree, Jerry Lee Lewis) vocally, on the part of most featured singers, vying for prominence with the boogie-woogie-inspired jazz origins of Bill Haley, with some influence also felt from Jerry Lee Lewis' band. Nobody, at least at EMI's various labels, apparently ever considered trying to re-create Chuck Berry's or Bo Diddley's sounds. Speaking of sound, it ranges from the very good to the startlingly excellent, nice and loud with a lot of presence and sharper than the records ever were. There are a few gaps, like the absence of Janice Peters' "A Girl Likes," and it seems a little unnecessary to have included Johnny Kidd & the Pirates' "Shakin' All Over," except to give purchasers at least one familiar hit. But considering that the contents are limited to the EMI vaults, the quality and consistency of the contents across two hours of listening is astonishing. And the notes by Dave Travis are practically worth the purchase price by themselves. ~ Bruce Eder

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE - THE USE OF ASHES (REPRISE 1970) remastered

2010-12-23T01:32:00.004+02:00

For their second Reprise Records outing, Pearls Before Swine worked primarily with Nashville-based musicians, including a small orchestra who provide a stately feel to the highly intimate nature of the material. According to Tom Rapp's comments in the liner booklet accompanying the Jewels Were the Stars (2003) box , the songs were written while he and his wife were living in the Netherlands, which Rapp said contributed significantly to the air of romanticism throughout. "Jeweller" opens the album with an exquisite tale that exemplifies Rapp's remarkable abilities to draw upon disparate metaphors such as shining coins and worshiping God, both involving the Use of Ashes -- hence the title. The rural mood created by the notable Music City USA stalwarts effortlessly fuses with David Briggs' baroque-flavored harpsichord on the delicate "From the Movie of the Same Name," featuring Rapp and spouse Elisabeth on non-verbal vocalizations as they "da-da-da" the melody. Although "Rocket Man" predates the Elton John cut by a couple of years, Bernie Taupin cites it as his inspiration for the lyrics behind John's 1972 Top Ten hit. The words are credited as having been influenced by a Ray Bradbury novella that dealt with the universal emotion of loss. Again, Briggs' keyboard runs relate the story with subdued refinement. By contrast, "God Save the Child" is one of the more amplified inclusions, making good use of session heavies Kenneth A. Buttrey (drums) and Charlie McCoy (guitar), especially when placed against the restrained string section. Another sonic texture in the tapestry is the jazzy "Tell Me Why," shimmering with an uncredited vibraphone lead gliding beneath Rapp's whimsical lines. These tracks are offset by the noir "When the War Began," the ethereal love song "Margery," and the mid-tempo retelling of the "Riegal," a ship whose 4,000 inhabitants perished during World War II. Rapp's juxtaposition of stark imagery reveals that while Pearls Before Swine might not have continued the bombastic direction set about on their earlier protest works "Uncle John" or "Drop Out," they maintained social and political relevance.
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PEARLS BEFORE SWINE - THESE THINGS TOO (REPRISE 1969) remastered

2010-12-23T01:28:00.004+02:00

By early 1969, the original line-up of Pearls Before Swine - which had only ever performed in the studio, never live - was disintegrating around its leader and mainstay, singer and songwriter Tom Rapp. Original members Lane Lederer and Roger Crissinger had left, and Rapp had married Dutch traveller Elisabeth (surname unrecorded), whom he had met in New York when recording the album Balaklava. Original member Wayne Harley remained in the group, but left shortly after These Things Too was recorded.
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The group had now left ESP-Disk and joined Reprise, a major label, and Rapp and producer Richard Alderson recruited studio musicians to play on the album. Chief among these was Jim Fairs, formerly of garage band The Cryan’ Shames, who acted as co-producer and arranger as well as musician. Other musicians included violinist Richard Greene, later of Seatrain, and jazz drummer Grady Tate.
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These Things Too has been described as Rapp’s ”dreamy” album, and it is generally less well regarded by critics than the albums which immediately preceded and followed it, Balaklava (1968) and The Use of Ashes (1970). Rapp stated that it was the first Pearls Before Swine album which reflected drug use in the writing of the songs.
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The album sleeve showed a 15th century painting of Christ by Giovanni Bellini. The picture was removed from the version of the album issued in Germany because it showed Christ’s nipple exposed
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PEARLS BEFORE SWINE - BALAKLAVA (ESP 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-12-23T01:25:00.004+02:00

For this second album, original group members Tom Rapp, Wayne Harley and Lane Lederer were joined by Jim Bohannon, who replaced Roger Crissinger. Like the group’s previous LP on ESP-Disk, "One Nation Underground", it was recorded at Impact Sound in New York City. Recordings probably took place in early 1968 – although some CD reissues state that it was recorded in 1965, this appears to be an error. Lederer left the group during, or shortly after, the recordings, and the basic group was augmented by studio musicians.
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Rapp has stated that he wanted to produce a themed anti-war album, and chose the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava in 1854 as an example of the futility of war. The album was dedicated to Private Edward Slovik, the only US soldier executed for desertion in the Second World War. The front cover, a detail of "The Triumph of Death" by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, showed a grotesque allegorical depiction of the horrors of war, while the back cover showed a photograph of a young girl at an anti-war protest. The cover also included the quote ”Only the dead have seen the end of war” by George Santayana, together with surreal and horrific drawings by Jean Cocteau. Incidentally, the cover contributed to the mystique surrounding the group - there were few if any photographs of its members published, and Pearls Before Swine did not perform in concert before 1971.
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The album itself starts with a recording of “Trumpeter Landfrey” (his name was in fact Martin Lanfried), one of the original buglers from the 1854 battle. Together with the recording of Florence Nightingale later on the album, this was taken from an archive 1890 cylinder recording, which had been reissued on 78rpm records in the 1930s.
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"Images of April", in contrast, is an evocation of nature, featuring dubbed bird song. After "There Was A Man", a simpler story-based folk song, another highlight is "I Saw The World". Its innocent but heartfelt lyric (Rapp was just 21 at the time) - "I saw the world spinning like a toy / Hate seems so small compared to it all, so why don’t you do joy ?" - is supplemented by overdubs of natural sounds including waves, as well as wind chimes and a lush string arrangement. "Guardian Angels" is a ballad recorded deliberately to sound as it if it were on a scratchy 1920s 78rpm record, and was presented as such ("recorded in Guadelope, Mexico, in 1929…" ) on the sleeve.
The generally less artistically successful second side of the original LP starts with a version of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" , followed by Rapp’s original "Lepers and Roses", a complex ballad full of allegorical classical references. After the archive recording of Florence Nightingale, the final track, "Ring Thing", is a dramatic evocation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings with crashing gongs and bagpipe drones. At the end, the sound of a tape spooling backwards through the album takes the listener back to "Trumpeter Landfrey" – the message seeming to be that the cycle of war and confusion is destined to continue.
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The album repeated its predecessor’s critical success on the underground college scene of the late 1960s, and has subsequently been regularly rated most highly of all Rapp’s albums. Following the album's release, Rapp extricated himself from his ESP contract and signed with Reprise Records...
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PEARLS BEFORE SWINE - ONE NATION UNDERGROUND (ESP 1967) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-12-23T01:21:00.005+02:00

Psychedelic-folk debut from one of the most erudite, literate minds in rock, Thomas D. Rapp (and the first of his ever-changing Swine). Although the songs here lack some cohesion, this is still a stunning piece of work, from the nightmarish sleeve art -- the "Hell Panel" from Hieronymus Bosch's 15th century painting "Garden of Delights" -- to the strange yet powerful songs. "Another Time," the most memorable selection, is an understated acoustic song, the first that Rapp ever penned, based on his experience in a horrific car crash where he walked away unscathed. Of similar mood is the beautiful "Ballad of an Amber Lady." "Drop Out" is a straightforward song built around a popular credo of the '60s. "Uncle John" is one of the earliest protest songs about the Vietnam War. Strangest (and funniest) of all is "(Oh Dear) Miss Morse," where Rapp adopts a Victorian persona and sounds out the Morse code spelling of F-U-C-K, accompanied by banjo and Farfisa organ.
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Considering Rapp's fascination with history, it's not surprising that one of the songs here, "I Shall Not Care," features a co-writer credit to "Roman Tombs." The cryptic words that comprise this song's title were discovered on a tomb that dates to the final days of the Roman Empire.
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It was recorded at Impact Sound in New York City, between May 6-9, 1967, by the Florida-based group, which at that point comprised main songwriter and singer Tom Rapp, Wayne Harley, Lane Lederer, and Roger Crissinger. Percussion was by session musician Warren Smith.
The album presents a mixture of styles - "psychedelic folk reminiscent of Donovan collides with Farfisa-driven punk and hard-to-categorize repetitive minimalism, all thrown together with the undisciplined, creative exuberance of youth"...
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B.J. THOMAS - I'M SO LONESOME I COULD CRY (SCEPTER 1966) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 5 bonus

2010-12-15T18:16:00.004+02:00

B.J.Thomas was raised in and around Houston, Texas, graduating from Lamar Consolidated High School in Rosenberg. Before his solo career, Thomas sang in a church choir as a teenager then joined the musical group The Triumphs. During his senior year he made friends with Roy Head of Roy Head and The Traits. The Traits and the Triumphs held several Battle of the Bands events in the early 1960s featuring Head and Thomas.

In 1966, B. J. Thomas and The Triumphs released the album, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Pacemaker Records). The album featured a hit cover of the Hank Williams song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. In the same year, Thomas released a solo album of the same name on Scepter Records.
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What distinguishes I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry is the title tune, B.J.’s take on the Hank Williams classic. The original single was a big hit in his hometown of Houston, TX, and as such led to his contract with Scepter Records.
The record features another Hank cover, “There’ll Be No Teardrops Tonight,” a weepy ballad that Thomas gives his all to. As was the rather common practice for a new artist in 1966, B.J. recorded a few other well-known songs, including versions of “It’s Not Unusual,” and “In The Midnight Hour.”
A songwriting friend of B.J.’s from Houston, Mark Charrone wrote five songs that were included on I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry. One of his specialties was in the art of the one word song title: “Mama,” “Wendy,” “Terri,” and “Maria.” The fifth? Two words: “I Wonder"...
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BERT JANSCH - NICOLA (TRANSATLANTIC 1967) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 2 bonus

2010-12-15T18:13:00.003+02:00

Jansch's third solo album is perhaps too lightly dismissed by both folk critics and the artist himself. Bowing slightly to commercial pressures, he allowed orchestration to be used on five of the 12 tracks. Actually, the orchestrated cuts aren't that bad at all, and the remainder are pretty much keeping with the character and high standard of his other '60s work. Nine of the 12 cuts are Jansch originals, and ably display his nimble guitar work, incorporation of blues, traditional British Isles folk influences into a contemporary style, and his Donovan-esque vocals. For the first and only time, he played both electric and acoustic guitars on this LP; it's also his first work to feature drumming. Some of the orchestrated numbers, especially "Woe Is Love, My Dear," were actually deemed to have potential as singles. That didn't happen (the cut "Wish My Baby Was Here" would have been a better choice in any event), but that doesn't take away from their fey period charm.
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An orchestrated version of 'Train Song' was attempted during the Nicola sessions but, while fondly remembered by arranger David Palmer, did not make the finished product. Neither did two further outtakes 'In This Game' and 'Dissatisfied Blues' (both of which he performed live during the city hall tour of early 1967) although they later appeared on Box Of Love - The Bert Jansch Sampler Vol. 2 (1972), issued on Transatlantic shortly after Bert had left the label. They have also been resurrected on the new reissue of Nicola...
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PENTAGLE - SOLOMON'S SEAL (REPRISE 1972) Jap DSD mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-12-15T17:56:00.004+02:00

It was the last album recorded by the original Pentangle line-up, before the band split in 1973. Jacqui McShee has stated that it is her favourite Pentangle album. The album title refers to the Seal of Solomon — a mythical signet ring with magical powers, sometimes associated with the pentagram symbol adopted by Pentangle.
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Solomon's Seal was recorded at Sound Techniques studio, London, between February and March 1972. Pentangle's contract with Transatlantic had expired and, amid a dispute with Transatlantic over royalties, the band had switched allegiance to Warner/Reprise, who had been their U.S. distributor. The album was released in September 1972, to coincide with the start of new tour. However, by the start of 1973, the band had split and sales of the album were disappointing, leaving the band members still paying off their debts, against the album's advance royalties, into the early 1980s.
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The album opens with their version of Cyril Tawney's song of a sailor's lost love: "Sally Free and Easy". Unlike its usual rendition as a sea shanty, Pentangle treat this to a slow bluesy rhythm. The remainder of the album is divided between traditional songs and the band's own compositions.
It includes some thoughtful arrangements (the use of sitar and recorders in "The Snows", for example) and displays production values of ensuring that every instrument is audible but balanced in the whole sound. However, it lacks some of the riskier features of early Pentangle albums: there are no improvised jazz duets between the two guitarists and no double bass solos, for example. As such, it could be praised for being a very "polished" sound or criticised for lacking the exciting creative edge of earlier Pentangle work. Colin Harper wrote "Solomon's Seal is a record of people's weariness, but also the product of a unit whose members were still among the best players, writers and musical interpreters of their day."
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SEEDS - A WEB OF SOUND (GNP-CRESCENDO 1966) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 1 bonus

2010-12-15T17:53:00.003+02:00

‘A Web of Sounds’ shows The Seeds continuing with the same caliber tracey Garage Rock they injected into the California rock & roll circuit with their debut. Though it was not much of a progression, it is easy to hear their influence on the upcoming psychedelic scene of 1967.
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Apart from the inclusion of instant Garage Rock classic ‘Mr. Farmer’, one of the most important, yet least impressive tracks on ‘A Web of Sound’ is ‘Up in Her Room’. THE SEEDS did have the longest recorded extended jam on a Rock & Roll LP on their debut with the 6 minute ‘Evil Hoodoo’. Since then, THE ROLLING STONES released their own extended jam titled ‘Goin’ Home’ on the LP ‘Aftermath’. Sky was obviously not satisfied with THE STONES retort and extended ‘Up in Her Room’ to 14.5 minutes. Their title would be taken forever a mere 4 months later when LOVE dedicated an entire side of their upcoming sophomore release ‘Da Capo’ to one song (‘Revelation’).
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Seed's music was a big influence on many popular bands of the day including THE DOORS. The seeds are often lumped into the NUGGETS crowd of 'One-Flop-Wonders' but with a little more awareness these guys could easily attain the current status that a band like, say, the MC5 have today. They were equally as important & ‘A Web of Sound’ makes that obvious...
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THE SEEDS - THE SEEDS (GNP-CRESCENDO 1966) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 1 bonus

2010-12-15T17:48:00.005+02:00

The Seeds were formed in 1965 with Saxon joining as a response to an advertisement. Keyboardist Daryl Hooper was a major factor in the band's sound; the band was one of the first to utilize keyboard bass. Guitarists Jan Savage and Jeremy Levine with drummer Rick Andridge completed the original quintet, but Levine left shortly after the first recording sessions for personal reasons.
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Their first single, "Can't Seem To Make You Mine", was a regional hit in southern California in 1965. The song was also played regularly on AM rock stations in northern California (and probably elsewhere), where it was well received by listeners. The band had their only national Top 40 hit, "Pushin' Too Hard", in 1966 (#44 in Canada). Three subsequent singles, "Mr. Farmer" (also 1966), a re-release of "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" (1967) (#33 in Canada), and "A Thousand Shadows" (1968) achieved more modest success, although all were most popular in southern California. Musically uncomplicated and dominated by Saxon's vocal style and flair for simple melodic hooks, their first two albums are today considered classics of '60s garage music. A later album was devoted to the blues (with liner notes by Muddy Waters), and another (Future, 1967) was full-blown psychedelic rock, with ornate flower-themed graphics to match.
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By mid-1968, with their commercial popularity flagging, the group's personnel began to change; the band was renamed "Sky Saxon and the Seeds" in 1969, by which point Bob Norsoph, guitar, and Don Boomer, drums, had replaced Savage and Andridge. Saxon continued to use the name "The Seeds", using various backup musicians, at least through 1972; the last major-label records of new material by The Seeds—two non-charting singles on MGM records—were released in 1970.
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"Pushin' Too Hard" was named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
"Pushin' Too Hard" was featured in one episode of the television situational comedy The Mothers-In-Law. A character in the show became the manager of a band known as "The Warts." The band was actually the Seeds.
"Mr. Farmer" was featured in the end credits of the documentary "King Corn".
"Pushin' Too Hard" was featured in the opening sequence of the movie "Air America".
"Can't Seem To Make You Mine" has been covered by seven different groups...
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BEN SIDRAN - FEEL THE GROOVE (CAPITOL 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-12-10T02:26:00.004+02:00

A rare Capitol Records outing from Ben Sidran – and one of his best from the early years! The album's a quirky batch of tracks that also gets nice and funky at times – and some of the best cuts have a tightly snapping feel with plenty of breaks – so much so that the album's been a beathead classic for years! But even the cuts without the breaks are great – straighter jazz, but with a really nice edge – and really in the frontiers of jazz vocal work – hardly the stuff that might have been recorded a few years before. Most instrumentation is small combo, with a mixture of electric and acoustic instrumentation – and titles include the sublime groover "About Love", plus "Poor Girl", "Leo's My Name", "Spread Your Wings", "My Wife", and "That Fine Day"[Dusty Groove America]
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At the time of the first release for “Feel The Groove” back in 1971 Ben was very much aprt of the rock world due to his extensive involvement with THE STEVE MILLER BAND both as musician, co-writer and eventually producer.
“Feel Your Groove” features many well know guests including fellow STEVE MILLER accomplice BOZ SCAGGS, HUMBLE PIES PETER FRAMPTON & GREG RIDLEY, CHARLIE WATTS of THE ROLLING STONES, Jazz Trumpeter BLUE MITCHELL, MIMI FARINA (sister of JOAN BAEZ, session giant JIM KELTNER and numerous other well known West Coast and Texas musicians.
A Great Album! Don't miss it!
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BOB DOWNES OPEN MUSIC - ELECTRIC CITY (VERTIGO 1970) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-12-10T02:21:00.003+02:00

One of the hippest albums of the British jazz rock generation – a set that stretches out in ways the definitely live up to the "open mind" in the title! Bob Downes heads up the group on vocals and saxes – and he's working here with a great array of players who include Kenny Wheeler, Harry Beckett, and Ian Carr on trumpets; Chris Spedding and Ray Russell on guitars; and the great Latin player Robin Jones on percussion! Although many tracks have a rock-like structure and composition, there's also a fair bit of jazzy influences going on here too – especially on the album's funkier moments, which often mix some great work from the larger horn section from tighter rhythms at the core of the ensemble. Downes handled all arrangements, and often shows a vision that's not unlike that of Johnny Cameron at the time on similar projects. Groovers include the jazzy "Dawn Until Dawn", the Latiny groover "West II", the guitar/drum workout "Go Find Time", and the modal "Crush Hour" – plus "Don't Let Tomorrow Get You Down", "In Your Eyes", and "Gonna Take A Journey"[Dusty Groove America]
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INNER DIALOGUE - INNER DIALOGUE (RANWOOD 1969) Jap/Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-12-10T02:15:00.004+02:00

A superb sunshine pop album, with some baroque touches. Two women singers and their intertwining vocals weave complex vocal parts around top rate arrangements. This record could give Free Design a run for their money any day.
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Yes, it is very good sunshine pop that manages to not cross over the line into…saccharine embarrasment. Never as elaborately conceived and just out and out radical as The Free Design at their best, nor as perfectly realised as the Curt Boettcher produced Eternity’s Children…this, if you are into sunshine pop with that ever so slightly subversive element, is a thoroughly worthwhile purchase and as good if not better than some of the major names in this odd and wonderfully time-locked genre. (RYM Reviews)
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Hello!!!....Back home again!

2010-12-10T02:03:00.007+02:00

Back home again after a couple of month's work in the village. (Collecting olives is a hard work but I suppose it's worth the money!)
Here are some photos...
These gigantic mushrooms (last photo) growing there in large numbers under the trees but I can't tell for sure if they are good for eating! I better stay away!!

MARC ELLINGTON - MARC ELLINGTON (PHILIPS 1969) Jap/Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-09-20T02:50:00.003+03:00

Marc Ellington's debut album on Philips in 1969.
A Scottish folksinger and multi-instrumentalist who has guested with Fairport Convention on the latter group's recordings, starting with providing some vocal support on the Unhalfbricking album in 1969. Additionally, he worked with Matthews Southern Comfort on their self-titled 1969 LP, playing percussion, and recorded his debut album that same year, which featured his singing, guitar work, and bagpipes. The latter album, recorded on the Ampex label, also included contributions from Fairport alumni Simon Nicol and Richard Thompson. Ellington subsequently contributed to several of Thompson's recordings, and sang on Linda Thompson's 1996 Dreams Fly Away. He has appeared at the Cropedy Festival organized around Fairport, and as of 2007 was the Deputy Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire and a member of the Heritage Lottery Fund Committee for Scotland. ~ Bruce Eder
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LEVITT & MCCLURE - LIVING IN THE COUNTRY (WARNER BROS 1969) Jap/Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-09-20T02:46:00.004+03:00

Dan Levitt (a later guitarist of The Beau Brummels) and Marc McClure (of Joyous Noise) worked hand in glove and released this distinguished folk & country rock album in 1969.
Produced by Ron Elliott who also contributed a couple of songs to the album...
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SOFT SOUL TRANSITION - S.S.T. (TRANSITION 1970) Jap/Kor mastering cardboard sleeve + 7 bonus

2010-08-26T01:15:00.005+03:00

Not SST as in the LA hardcore label, or the sound of a jet – but SST, as in Soft Soul Transition, a very groovy group with a Sunshine Pop sort of sound! The trio has some wonderful harmonies in their music – echoes of more familiar pop of the late 60s, but presented here in a cool, stripped-down sort of way – with a quality that's similar to some of the best work by Roger Nichols & The Small Circle Of Friends – intimate enough to get past some of the more commercial modes of the time. Many cuts are originals by the group – and singer Chris Demilo plays a lot of great keyboards on the grooves – creating a wicked sound that would have been right at home in the A&M scene of the late 60s. Titles include "Gotta Move Along", "Soft Soul Transition", "Put Love First", "Don't Turn On Me", "It's Love", "Happy With You Girl", and "Lights Of Freedom". CD features 7 bonus tracks too – including "Dreamweaver", "Banyan Bay"...
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BUDDY BOHN - A DROP IN THE OCEAN (PURPLE 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-08-01T15:19:00.006+03:00

Born Walter Moro Bohn on August 21, 1939, in Evanston, IL; son of Jack (a competitive bike racer) and Charlotte McCoy (an actress).
Having learned of the troubadour's code--performing in exchange for basic needs like food and housing--while a teenager, Moro took the code to heart and made a name for himself around the world. Originally known as Buddy Bohn, Moro traveled across continents for the price of a heartfelt song played on his guitar. He has played for kings and queens, actors and artists as well as cooks, smugglers, and American troops stationed in Laos. During his travels he also recorded three albums, on three different labels, on three separate continents. His international hit "Vermouth Rondo" helped him build his home and recording studio in Bodega Bay, California, where he continues to record. For 22 consecutive years, the popularity of his music has earned him recognition from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) for consistent play of his compositions.
In 1963, after having traveled throughout Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, Moro ended up in Australia. It was here that he recorded his first album, Buddy Bohn--Folksinger. In 1965 Moro appeared on the Andy Williams Show, a popular variety show during the 1960s. In 1967 he toured with the New Christy Minstrels, a popular folk group, as a guest guitarist. From 1968 to 1970, Moro played for the private Los Angeles club owned by Paul Newman called the Factory. Remembering that time, Moro told Contemporary Musicians, "It was possibly the mellowest and most artistic-feedback-rewarding of all the steady engagements I ever played." He added: "It might be topped only by the occasions when I played personally for Pablo Picasso in a cafe in Aix-en-Provence, sitting only two feet from him, and when I gave a private performance for Howard Hughes."
In 1970 he recorded his second album, Places, in Los Angeles on the Happy Tiger label. In 1972 he recorded his third album, A Drop in the Ocean, in the United Kingdom, performing with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. One of Moro's compositions from A Drop in the Ocean, "Vermouth Rondo," went on to become an international hit. Moro used the money he received on royalties from this album to build his home and recording studio in Bodega Bay, California. In 1975 Moro changed his professional name from Buddy Bohn to Moro, his middle name. Since 1976 he has recorded five albums on his own Budwick Music Company label.
Moro's music reflects the extent of his travels and the influence they have had on him. As William Ellis stated in reviewing Moro's 1995 album Amilucience for American Record Guide, "It's more folksy than you might expect and conjures the Orient ... as much as Andalusia." Continuing to compose, play, and perform, Moro has also begun writing a memoir as well as a screenplay about his life.
by Eve M. B. Hermann
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CURTISS MALDOON - CURTISS MALDOON (PURPLE 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 4 bonus

2010-08-01T15:15:00.004+03:00

Curtiss Maldoon (Dave Curtiss, Clive Maldoon (real name: Skinner)) is a singer-songwriter duo from England.They first began working together in the band Bodast in 1968 which also featured Steve Howe (Yes, Asia, GTR) on guitar and Bobby Woodman Clarke on drums. They recorded one album produced by Keith West whom Howe had worked with in U.K. psych band Tomorrow (known for their hit 'My White Bicycle') but it remained unreleased until it came out in truncated and remixed form in 1982 as 'The Lost Bodast Tapes'. A full re-issue featuring the original 1969 mixes came out under the title 'Spectral Nether Street' on the RPM label in the 1990s. Although not very active on the live circuit as they preferred to spend their time writing and rehearsing, Bodast played a legendary show called the Pop Prom in 1968 where they were on the bill with the Who and acted as Chuck Berry's back-up band for the night. Curtiss Maldoon were on Purple Records, the label started by Deep Purple. Their connection to Deep Purple came out of Dave Curtiss short-lived involvement with an early incarnation of the band known as 'Roundabout' where Curtiss was the vocalist (and Bobby Woodman Clarke was the drummer). No recordings have come to light of this line-up. Dave Curtiss (under the name Dave Curtis and the Tremors) recorded several 'beat' singles in the mid 60s for various labels.
Madonna's "Ray of Light" is based on the duo's track "Sepheryn," although beyond the first verse, the comparisons are loose...
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RUPERT HINE - UNFINISHED PICTURE (PURPLE 1973) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 1 bonus

2010-07-21T16:59:00.010+03:00

... By 1975, Rupert Hine was already beginning to gain credibility as a producer and session musician, but he had also released two of that era's most cryptic solo albums in Pick Up a Bone and Unfinished Picture. The latter in particular demonstrated that Hine had few peers when it came to shaping elaborate instrumental textures and atmospheres without departing from a song-based format. Most listeners' overriding feeling on hearing them, however, was one of perplexity, and sales were correspondingly minuscule. But throughout his career, Hine has shown himself perfectly willing to rein in his more experimental tendencies for the sake of shifting a few more units...[allmusic]
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These are two of my favorite albums on this label ...The more you listen the more you love these LPs ... Whatever genre you can imagine... (prog,pop,psych,folk,singer-songwriter) is here!...listen carefully...
The tribute to "Purple Records" will continue next week possibly with two other rare & also beautiful albums (Buddy Bohn & Curtis Maldoon)
I guess the most of you, know my musical criteria very well so you don't expect me to end this tribute by posting albums like the "Silverhead" or the "Hardstuff" ..OMG!!!...lol!!!
Georgie+++

RUPERT HINE - PICK UP A BONE (PURPLE 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 1 bonus

2010-07-21T16:52:00.006+03:00

Although also a recording artist in his own right, Rupert Hine earned perhaps his greatest notoriety as one of the most successful and prolific producers of the synth-pop era. As half of the duo Rupert & David, he made his recording debut at the age of 16 with the 1965 single "The Sound of Silence"; it was not a success, and so he maintained a low profile until 1971, venturing out as a solo performer with the LP Pick Up a Bone. After issuing his second solo effort, 1973's Unfinished Picture, Hine turned to production with Kevin Ayers' Confessions of Dr. Dream. In 1976 he began fronting the trio Quantum Jump, debuting that year with a self-titled album and releasing the follow-up Barracuda a year later. Around 1978 he began accepting more and more production work, helming albums from Anthony Phillips, the Members and Camel, guiding the latter to their most successful effort, I Can See Your House from Here.
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JACKSON HEIGHTS - THE 5th AVENUE BUS (VERTIGO 1972) Jap DSD mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-07-15T01:58:00.005+03:00

The second album by Jackson Heights wasn't as nondescript as many similarly obscure efforts from bands led by musicians -- in this case, ex-Nice guitarist/bassist/singer Lee Jackson -- who pretty much vanished from the limelight after their stint with a famous group. Jackson also deserved some credit for being bold enough to move into directions in which the Nice weren't associated; 5th Avenue Bus is much more oriented toward singer/songwriter-type, folk-rock songs than the Nice ever were, with little of the art rock that the Nice helped pioneer in sight. Nonetheless, the record and its songs were kind of nondescript, as mildly pleasing as some of the singing and melodies were. Often the songs used vocal harmonies with a Crosby, Stills & Nash/America flavor, though here sometimes used with mainstream early-'70s British rock arrangements, a combination that wasn't all that arresting. Other cuts like "Luxford" had a more suitable acoustic soft rock sound, though the songs themselves weren't knockouts. Ex-King Crimson drummer Michael Giles played on the record, though he didn't stretch his prog rock chops here too often, and there are only flashes here and there -- perhaps in "Sweet Hill Tunnel," and the tensely wistful parts of "Pastor Roger" -- of the somber grandeur to which the Nice had once aspired.[Richie Unterberger]
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JONATHON ROUND - JONATHON ROUND (WESTBOUND 1971) Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-07-05T16:50:00.006+03:00

Overbaked cackling. Sound effects of hellish winds and thunder. Lyrics recited like a mad actor more than sung like a rock star. Wow, what a great version of "Sympathy for the Devil!"
The "Devil" was the only song that interested critics when Jonathan Round's album arrived. That is, if anybody reviewed it at all. A few also commented on Round's album actually being die-cut in a round shape, which was quite an uncommon trick. Even so, the years passed, the album disappeared, and so did the artist.
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The Rolling Stones cover version is the best thing on the album, although the rest isn't bad journeyman rock. On a gospel shout like "Don't it Make You Wanna Go Home" he aims for a male Janis Joplin (modern listeners might say this ground Round sounds like Meatloaf.) The throaty soul affectations dominate the rock tunes, but on a softer folkie piece, like "Tolu" (all about "saving karma," man) he sounds like he could've been a slightly hoarse warm-up act for Gordon Lightfoot or Cat Stevens. [http://illfolks.blogspot.com/]
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JUST OTHERS - AMALGAM (PRIVATE PRESSING 1974) Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-07-02T02:20:00.006+03:00

Amalgam was recorded, making the utmost of the most basic equipment in the spring and summer of 1974. Just 250 copies were pressed, and the record was sold only at gigs. What kind of album did Just Others make? For sure, there are songs on Amalgam that manage to convey a variety of human feelings. And there is an all-pervading feeling, part optimism, part melancholy, that makes this a uniquely interesting addition to any serious collection of acoustic music of the period. The cross-fertilization between their separate enthusiasms and previous musical experience goes a long way toward explaining the uniquely distinctive blend to be heard on Amalgam. Highly recommended for fans of British folk rock including Tir Na Nog and John Renbourn.
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This is a rare UK private press folk LP from 1974, only 250 made, and the record was sold only at gigs. Just Others was an English band, consisting of Geoff Twigg and Brian Rodgers. Their music is a nice blend of pop and folk with incredible lyrics, amazing voices and fine guitar work.
A REALLY GREAT ALBUM!!!
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STRAY - SUICIDE (TRANSATLANTIC 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-07-02T01:10:00.004+03:00

REQUEST No 5
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One of the most consistent and popular bands of the 70s, Stray trod a fine line between Hard Rock, Prog, and harmony-driven Boogie, their powerful playing, hook-laden melodies and accomplished harmonies appealing equally to all three audiences. Formed in 1966 by guitarist Del Bromham, who still fronts the band today, they were originally a Mod combo, inspired by the likes of The Small Faces. They built up a reputation on the West London circuit and by the late 60s they'd moved a long way from R&B and Soul covers, eventually writing their own songs and embracing fullblown Psychedelia. By the turn of the 70s they were well established at the forefront of the Underground/Progressive circuit, with a massive following in Europe, and they continued to thrive until the Punk explosion abruptly terminated the Prog scene. After splitting in 1977 they reformed in the early 80s, and they continue to tour and record.
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London, England's Stray yielded a prolific career yet managed to elude the fame enjoyed by contemporaries like Cream, Thin Lizzy, or even Mountain. Formed in 1966, the hard rock, prog, and R&B outfit comprised of vocalist/guitarist Del Bromham, vocalist/guitarist Steve Gadd, bass player Gary Giles, and drummer Ritchie Cole signed to Transatlantic Records and released its debut, self-titled album in 1970. The group flirted with success throughout the '70s, releasing nine more records and even recruiting Charlie Kray -- the brother of the notorious Kray twins -- as their manager. In 1975, just prior to the release of Houdini, Gadd was replaced by Peter Dyer, who injected some much-needed life into the band, though the end was near for the financially strapped rockers. They released their last record, the ambitious Hearts of Fire, in 1976 on the Pye label, and proceeded to splinter off into various solo projects. Bromham re-formed the group in 1997 as a three-piece with newcomers Dusty Miller and Phil McKee, renaming the band Del Bromham's Stray, and released a live record called Alive and Giggin' on Mystic Records.[allmusic]
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JULIE LONDON - YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY (LIBERTY 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-07-01T20:03:00.005+03:00

REQUEST No 4
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Pop standards vocalist/actress Julie London was definitely at a transitional phase in her career when she cut Yummy, Yummy, Yummy (1969) -- the final entry in her decade-and-a-half long relationship with Liberty Records. Modern listeners will revel in the obvious kitsch factor of a middle-aged, old-school female who is crooning rock & roll. Rightly so, as the two musical universes rarely collided with a lucrative outcome. However, just below the genre-bending veneer lie interesting interpretations of concurrently well-known selections with the occasional sleeper gem thrown in. The lush and admittedly antiquated orchestration doesn't mask London's smoky and smouldering pipes, and some scores definitely work better than others. The opening cover of Laura Nyro's "Stoned Soul Picnic," the adaptation of the Beatles' "And I Love Her," and the remarkably evocative "Hushabye Mountain" from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) are each superior matches of artist with repertoire. Less successful is Harry Nilsson's "Without Him" [aka "Without Her"] as it lacks the urgency of Blood, Sweat & Tears' rendering or the pithy of Nilsson's original. The remake of Spanky & Our Gang's "Like to Get to Know You" is similarly short on soul, although it lends itself to the middle-of-the-road (MOR) feel, as does "It's Nice to Be With You." That said, the latter is infinitely more tolerable in this context than it was on the Davy Jones' warbled Monkees' single. The seeming incongruity of London's take on the Doors' "Light My Fire" isn't all that odd until she lets her hair down (so to speak) and slips into something right out of The Graduate's Mrs. Robinson. There are several instances of 'What were they thinking?,' such as the practically surreal "Mighty Quinn (Quinn, The Eskimo)" which sounds like it was the result of a Quaalude-related encounter. By the time we roll around to the title track, one can't tell if London is trying to be sexy or is simply hung over. "Sunday Morning" -- the second nod to Spanky & Our Gang -- also makes London come off as either bored or sleepy, either of which will be the effect that a majority of the album will inevitably have on 21st century ears. ~ Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide
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"Yummy, Yummy, Yummy," the album's title track, was a very recent Top 5 bubblegum hit for Ohio Express that featured the adenoidal vocals of the song's co-writer, Joey Levine. The listener will immediately note that, unlike the original, which sounds like a children's song, London's rendition of "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" seems quite serious. The apparent absence of irony makes this recording an exceedingly dry joke, a visionary feat of interpretation, or both. The real irony is that "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" has become London's second best-remembered single after "Cry Me a River"--it was reissued on one of Capitol's Ultra-Lounge compilations in the '90s and, more recently, was included on the soundtrack of the HBO television series Six Feet Under.
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FOLKLORDS - RELEASE THE SUNSHINE (ALLIED 1969) Jap edition

2010-07-01T20:00:00.004+03:00

REQUEST No 3
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This pretty if somewhat low-key album is a nice piece of folk/sunshine pop with resonant Autoharp and guitar, a kind of reflective male/female vocal mix that recalls the first Jefferson Airplane album, and some diverting psychedelic lyrics. Not knowing the Folklords' Release the Sunshine won't make you a failure in '60s music lore or trivia, even in Canada, whence they hail, but hearing it isn't the worst way to spend 40 (or 80) minutes of your time. "Forty Second River" has a spacy quality that's pretty diverting and "Windows" a stark lyricism that's a bit like the Signe Anderson-era Airplane, before the latter's wattage got boosted. Some of it is a little on the lugubrious side ("Pardon Me Judas"), while other songs seem like potential singles ("Thank You for Your Kindness"). ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
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THE INNOCENCE - THE INNOCENCE (KAMA SUTRA 1967) JVC K2 mastering cardboard sleeve + 3 bonus

2010-07-01T19:55:00.005+03:00

REQUEST No 2
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In 1966 Peter Andreoli (aka Peter Anders) and Vincent Poncia, Jr. members of the Tradewinds changed their name to The Innocence, recorded a full-length eponymous album, and had two further hit singles, “There’s Got to Be a Word!” (U.S. #34, 1966) and “Mairzy Doats” (U.S. #75, 1967). Following the LP release the duo released another album under the name Anders & Poncia on Warner Bros. Records in 1969, and shortly after broke up. (Wiki)
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DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK & TICH - TOGETHER (FONTANA 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 14 bonus

2010-07-01T19:50:00.006+03:00

REQUEST No 1
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"Together", originally released in 1969, was the fourth and the last album to be released as Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mich & Tich. Throughout 1966-68 the songwriting team Howard/Blaikley had written most of their material and thus given them 10 top-twenty hit-singles. Most of these songs were really great and are still very listenable.There had been a great varity in style among these hit-singles and this trend continued on their 1969 recordings. But somehow it seems the inspiration had run dry, because, though both "Snake in the Grass" and "Don Juan" reached the 23 spot, it's like the charm and magic isn't there anymore. The Howard/Blaikley songs on "Together" are simply not up to their usual standards; a tendency which already could be sensed on the previous album.
Of course there are a few exceptions, which make the album worthwhile. "Love is a Drum" is a good song, with a great arrangement, and though "First Time Loving" is pretty light-weight it has its charm. "Run Colorado" is also okay.[Morten Vindberg-Amazon]
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DOUG RANDLE - SONGS FOR THE NEW INDUSTRIAL STATE (KANATA/CBC 1970)

2010-06-04T04:10:00.006+03:00

A stunning collection of songs for and about the time we live in from the Canadian musician. Though the album was originally released in 1971, it's musical themes sound modern and timeless nearly 40 years after the album's original release. Songs was an introspective look at ever-dominant corporations, the cutthroat advertising world, our consumer society, decaying environment, and his own personal condition. The results crossed the epic studio creations of David Axelrod's Capitol output with Free Design vocal harmonies from notable vocalists Tommy Ambrose and Laurie Bower.
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This unique and curious piece of work from Canadian composer and arranger Doug Randle represents a song cycle based upon a dystopian vision of our consumerist future (or rather, our present). Each song cradles its barbed message within a package of sweet vocal harmonies and the kind of big band arrangements that would rival David Axelrod's output. "Doug was, and still is, a writer, arranger, musician, and conductor with roots deep in the Canadian jazz scene of the 1950s. After a lengthy spell working in England during the first half of the 1960s, he returned to Toronto and took up an in-house position at the government sanctioned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), where in 1970 he recorded his very own What's Going On. Commercially released by the short-lived Kanata Records label, Songs was an introspective look at ever-dominant corporations, the cutthroat advertising world, our consumer society, decaying environment, and his own personal condition."[boomkat]
A Great Pop-Psych Album...don't miss it!

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MILLER ANDERSON - BRIGHT CITY (DERAM 1971) Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-06-04T04:06:00.005+03:00

Songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Anderson first came to promenance in the late 60s as a member of the jazz/rock unit the Keef Hartley Band. Anderson grew in stature as a member of that band and was present for five albums. He was signed by Deram as a solo artist and released one credible album, Bright City, in 1971. Many of his former Hartley sidemen were present on the album, including record producer Neil Slaven. Junior Campbell arranged some exquisite strings for the title track and there was beautiful flute from Lynn Dobson on ‘Shadows ’Cross My Wall’. Following this album Anderson formed Hemlock with James Leverton (bass) and Eric Dillon (drums), who made one album with Deram. Anderson teamed up with Hartley in 1974 as Dog Soldier and also had spells with Savoy Brown, Canned Heat and T. Rex. He continues to perform regularly in the UK and Europe and in the mid-90s the re-release of his album on CD, together with a reissued Hartley catalogue, indicated that his star was in the ascendant. His present solo act features an excellent version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Copper Kettle’, but his finest moment is a blistering acoustic version of ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’; his voice on this track can strip wallpaper and break lightbulbs. In 1997 Anderson was touring with a revamped version of the Spencer Davis Group.[Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin.]
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JOE SOAP - KEEP IT CLEAN (POLYDOR 1973) Kor mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-06-04T01:05:00.004+03:00

Joe Soap was a band comprised of John Tennent and David Morrison. Their second album, "Keep It Clean" (as Joe Soap) (Polydor 1973) featured Jimmy McCulloch (guitar, Stone the Crows) Jerry Conway (drums, later in Jethro Tull) and Mike Kaminski (violin, from ELO).
The album features ten tracks composed by John and David with help of Sandy Robertson (producer). Two guys with rather thick but fascinating voices diffuse strong masculine beauty in all tracks. In addition to it, a mastermind violinist Mike Kaminski's scattering violin features on most of the tracks especially on Feel Strange and On The Wing are just superb. Jimmy McCulloch's intense guitar domains on every track as well. Overall, the album is an awesome combo set of typical British rock classics with strong American southern rock flavor.
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John Tennent and David Morrison's second and last effort (as JOE SOAP) after the first album released previous year. With support of best British studio musicians, Keep It Clean slightly differs from Tennent & Morrison. Backing up piercing electric guitar and intense violin, the album is way solid but it also has thick and moody moments appeared on the first album. First time on CD. Paper Sleeve Mini Vinyl LP Replica with OBI, Liner Note Included, 24 Bit Digital Remastering.
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RENAISSANCE - ILLUSION (ISLAND 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 4 bonus

2010-05-17T02:26:00.005+03:00

The second Renaissance album is the least-known in the group's entire output, having originally failed to get released anywhere except Germany. Although it is a much less bold, more smoothly commercial album, Illusion was also the work of at least three distinctly different lineups representing the group, Jim McCarty dropping out from playing after an illness, and Keith Relf and Louis Cennamo exiting the performing lineup soon after, while Jane Relf played some gigs with John Hawken acting as leader of a new ensemble. It was around this time that the words of lyricist Betty Thatcher started turning up in the group's work and on this album, and guitarist Michael Dunford started writing as well. The results here aren't quite as hard rocking as the previous album -- acoustic guitars supplant electric and Jane Relf's vocals are hooked around a mix of art rock and art pop melodies, without any trace of the psychedelic or freakbeat echoes of the previous album's work. One song, "Mr. Pine," contains an instrumental bridge that Dunford later folded into "Running Hard" in a more developed guise. The lighter textures anticipate the sound of the later lineup of the group, while some of the pop-oriented material harkens back to what Relf and McCarty had in mind for a sound in 1969.~ Bruce Eder
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THE MILLENNIUM - BEGIN (COLUMBIA 1968) Jap mastering Blu-Spec CD + 9 bonus

2010-04-27T02:05:00.004+03:00

Begin is the only album ever released by the collective known as The Millennium during its lifetime (though there have been several compilations since the group's demise).
Begin has gained notoriety throughout the years as being the most expensive album that Columbia Records had released by that time, though critics generally agree that the money was well spent. It is now generally considered to be a classic of sunshine pop.
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Influenced by psychedelia and California rock, pop/rock producer Curt Boettcher (the Association) decided to assemble a studio supergroup who would explore progressive sounds in 1968. Millennium's resultant album would find no commercial success and only half-baked artistic success, but nonetheless retains some period charm. Influenced in roughly equal measures by the Association, the Mamas and the Papas, the Smile-era Beach Boys, Nilsson, the Left Banke, and the Fifth Dimension, Boettcher and his friends came up with a hybrid that was at once too unabashedly commercial for underground FM radio and too weird for the AM dial. It would have fit in better on the AM airwaves, though; the almost too-cheerful sunshine harmonies and catchy melodies dominate the suite-like, diverse set of elaborately produced '60s pop/rock tunes. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
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EGGS OVER EASY - GOOD N' CHEAP (A&M 1972) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 4 bonus

2010-04-27T01:28:00.005+03:00

Historically renowned as the band which launched the entire British pub rock scene, the all-American Eggs over Easy originally arrived in the U.K. to cut a record with producer Chas Chandler in 1970. Sessions at Olympic Studios went well, but escalating problems with the group's American backers, Cannon Films, saw the project run aground in the new year and the group moved onto the live circuit while they sought a new deal. They played a number of college gigs around the country, but it was at the Tally Ho pub in London's Kentish Town neighborhood, just around the corner from the band's communal home, that they made their reputation -- and forged an entire new musical movement.
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Originally booked to play the traditionally slack Monday night at a venue which had hitherto favored jazz performers, Eggs over Easy's reputation quickly spread, not only to the public but also among other bands. The members of Brinsley Schwarz were early admirers, frequently attending the band's Tally Ho dates and often joining them onstage -- before long, Brinsley Schwarz, too, was concentrating their attention on the pub circuit. With other bands hastening to join them, by early fall 1971, interest and enthusiasm was so high that Eggs over Easy was able to organize a city-wide tour of Inde Coope brewery pubs. They followed through with a 12-date U.K. tour supporting John Mayall, Eggs over Easy's country rock-flavored repertoire offering a fascinating counterpoint to Mayall's then rampant jazz-blues fixation.
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The group's U.K. sojourn was coming to an end, however. Despite having recorded an album, a record deal remained elusive, while the band's work permits were also expiring. On November 7, 1971, Eggs over Easy played their final Tally Ho show, then returned to the U.S. They would disband shortly after, but before they did, they signed with A&M and finally consigned a fraction of their repertoire to vinyl -- according to Brinsley Schwarz's Nick Lowe, the band had over 100 songs at their fingertips. Just one-tenth of that catalog appeared on Good'N'Cheap; the band has also been enshrined on EMI's Naughty Rhythms: The Best of Pub Rock CD anthology. ~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide
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UNIT 4+2 - UNIT 4+2 (FONTANA 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 12 bonus

2010-04-07T02:40:00.005+03:00

POSTED BY REQUESTS...
Unit 4+2 was a one-hit wonder that probably deserved better. As one of the better acoustic-electric bands of the mid-'60s, the group stormed the charts with one memorable hit, "Concrete and Clay," scoring on both sides of the Atlantic, but they were never able to come up with a follow-up that was as catchy.
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...Their 1966 release "I Was Only Playing Games" had some proto psychedelic elements, and a heavy orchestral accompaniment that rather anticipated elements of the sound that the Moody Blues would perfect at Decca early the next year. Unit 4+2 was less successful in their orchestral-psychedelic experiment, and after three failed attempts at another hit, they left Decca in 1966 and signed with Fontana Records. They continued to record pop-flavored singles (and the label subsequently put out an LP), all of which seemed less and less attuned to the times in which they worked.
Garwood, Halliday, and Meikle exited in 1967, and were replaced by Ballard and Henrit (the Roulettes having broken up that year). The band continued as a quintet, strengthened in some ways by the new lineup; the Roulettes had been a first-rate rock & roll band, with a great ear for hooks and first-rate material, and Ballard and Henrit toughened up the sound of Unit 4+2. In 1968, the band made a valiant effort at getting in front of the pop music pack with a cover of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere," which failed to compete with the version by the Byrds.
They moved back into a full-blown psychedelic mode in 1969 with their final single, ""3.30" b/w "I Will," filled with harpsichords and lavish orchestration. It failed to chart, and the group disbanded in 1969 -- Ballard and Henrit hooked up soon after with ex-Zombie Rod Argent in the band Argent, which had exactly the kind of heavy, arena rock-type sound needed to compete in the early '70s.[allmusic]
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TURTLES - TURTLE SOUP (WHITE WHALE 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

2010-04-07T01:28:00.005+03:00

POSTED BY REQUESTS...
Though many remember only their 1967 hit, "Happy Together," the Turtles were one of the more enjoyable American pop groups of the '60s, moving from folk-rock inspired by the Byrds to a sparkling fusion of Zombies-inspired chamber pop and straight-ahead, good-time pop reminiscent of the Lovin' Spoonful, the whole infused with beautiful vocal harmonies courtesy of dual frontmen Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. Though they hit number one in 1967 with the infectious "Happy Together," the Turtles scored only three more Top Ten hits and broke up by the end of the '60s. Kaylan and Volman later joined Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention during the early '70s and also recorded themselves as Flo & Eddie, but were on the oldies circuit with a revamped Turtles by the mid-'80s.
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The group's final album, produced by Ray Davies, is a modestly enjoyable collection of good-time rock, occasionally with a slight progressive or satirical edge. The Turtles always seemed to harbor some serious ambitions, but the fact was that their only true forte was catchy pop/rock singles; when they aimed for more, the results were merely pleasant...There aren't any hit singles missing in action here, except maybe "You Don't Have to Walk in the Rain...
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AL KOOPER - I STAND ALONE (COLUMBIA 1968) Jap mastering

2010-04-07T00:50:00.007+03:00

POSTED BY REQUESTS...
Kooper’s debut should really be heard by more people. This record was released by Columbia in 1968, sometime after Kooper had left the original Blood, Sweat and Tears. Casual listeners know Kooper as a mid-60’s Bob Dylan sideman, sometimes Mike Bloomfield/Shuggie Otis collaborator, respected record producer and keyboard player in the legendary underground New York City group, the Blues Project. Kooper left behind many fine solo records in the late 60’s and 70’s but I Stand Alone is something special, a disc that captures it’s place and time very well.
I Stand Alone is one of those records that’s inventive in a post Sgt. Pepper way, ambitious in its wide array of styles, experimental within a pop context and bound to confuse at least a few listeners. It’s amazing that Kooper’s solo work and the first Blood, Sweat and Tears record have never been reassessed for the great records they are. I Stand Alone is a strong listen all the way through, divided evenly between originals and well chosen covers. The disc opens with the title track, which was recorded in Nashville and is one of Kooper’s signature tunes. Had this strange but wonderful Nashville blue-eyed soul hybrid been released as a single it may have had a chance at reaching the charts. About half the tracks are in a pop sike vein. Kooper does a nice job covering Nilsson’s One and stretches out with the Kooperfone on an excellent reading of Traffic’s Coloured Rain. Song and Dance for the Unborn, Frightened Child is somewhat similar to one of the more arty, psychedelic cuts on Blood, Sweat and Tears debut, it’s an excellent, elaborate production though and proof that strings and horns can work well in the rock n roll format. Other tracks see Kooper cover classics by Sam & Dave (Toe Hold), Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff (Hey, Western Union Man) and Bill Monroe (Blue Moon of Kentucky). Blue Moon of Kentucky, which Elvis also covered in 1969, is a wild bluegrass rockabilly take on the classic that was clearly a homage to the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo.
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All the covers are great and Kooper gives his own individual stamp on each song but of course it’s the originals that grab your attention. The Stonesy swagger of Camille and the dreamy Impressions-like I Can’t Love A Woman are killer soul songs and two of Al Kooper’s best in this particular style. Another classic on the album, Right Now For You, sounds like a really good British psychedelic track with very trippy Kooperfone which sounds well ahead of it’s time. This is an undeniably great album by an artist who should really be looked at with the same esteem as say a John Cale, Captain Beefheart or Frank Zappa.
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JACKIE LOMAX - IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT? (APPLE 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 5 bonus

2010-04-01T01:56:00.003+03:00

...In early 1962, Jackie Lomax left Dee and the Dynamites to join Merseybeat band The Undertakers. They followed the same route as The Beatles through local venues before setting out for Hamburg, Germany and finally securing a record deal. From that point onwards, they were dogged by ill-luck and lack of success. They signed with Pye Records and released four singles which only managed to place one week on the British charts between them. In 1965 they moved to America to try their luck there.
After two years in America with The Undertakers and a couple of other groups, Jackie Lomax's latest band, The Lomax Alliance, were taken back to Britain in 1967 by Brian Epstein to showcase them at the Saville Theatre in London. He arranged for a single and an album to be recorded and they signed to CBS. Epstein's untimely death ruined the plans for the band. During that period CBS released two Lomax Alliance singles and one solo Jackie Lomax single. More than enough tracks for an album were recorded but it was never released.
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As 1968 opened, however, opportunity beckoned for Jackie Lomax, with the founding of Apple Records by the Beatles. George Harrison remembered the singer well from the other end of the decade in Liverpool, and in March of that year, the Beatles guitarist recorded Lomax on a pair of songs, "Little Yellow Pills" and "Won't You Come Back." He was happy enough with the session to have Lomax back to record a song he'd written specifically for him in India, called "Sour Milk Sea," in what amounted to a busted Beatles session featuring Harrison and Lomax on rhythm guitars, Eric Clapton on lead, Paul McCartney on bass, Ringo Starr at the drum kit, and Nicky Hopkins on piano. Backed with Lomax's "The Eagle Laughs at You," the song came out in August of 1968. Buoyed by positive reviews and an enthusiastic response on the radio, it seemed to herald great things for Lomax, so much so that Harrison recorded three additional songs with him in London during August and September, and six more songs in Los Angeles in October, this time availing themselves of Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, and Joe Osborn as session musicians. The result was the Jackie Lomax LP Is This What You Want?, issued in March of 1969 -- the latter never charted but, thanks to the single, good word-of-mouth, and the presence of an all-star lineup, it did sell gradually and steadily. In March of 1969, Paul McCartney took over producing Lomax on a cover of the Coasters' song "Thumbin' a Ride" and a Lomax original, "Going Back to Liverpool." And in April of 1969, Lomax produced himself on his own "New Day," which became the A-side of "Thumbin' a Ride." All of these records attracted attention but none charted, and following one last Harrison-produced single, "How the Web Was Woven," in October of 1969, Lomax's history with Apple came to an end...
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