ASSOCIATION - BIRTHDAY (WARNER BROS 1968) Jap mastering + 3 bonus

Birthday is a strong record. Vocally, the intricate harmonies shine, and there is a lyrical depth on some songs that challenge the Association's reputation as a mere pop group. Granted, there are some light moments, such as the opening cut, "Come On In" (though the vocals do stand out on this cut). And "Toymaker" and "Hear in Here" show the vocal limitations of the lead singers. But "Like Always" does an excellent job of wryly commenting on the loss of a relationship, with the usual fine vocal interplay. "The Time It Is Today" mixes the political and personal in an effective way. And "Everything That Touches You" (their final Top Ten ) is one of their finest love songs, if not one of their best songs, period. The vocals are as intricate as the arrangement, and the sincerity of the lyrics is very apparent. Production by Bones Howe gives the record a very commercial, clean sound that fits well with the material presented. ~ Michael Ofjord, All Music Guide
.....................................
Released in March 1968, Birthday was probably the Association's most pop-sounding album, as producer Bones Howe and the group polished their trademark harmony sound to a brilliant sheen. And, like on Insight Out, studio musicians extraordinaire Blaine and Larry Knechtel lent expert accompaniment. This album spawned the top 10 hit "Everything That Touches You" and another top 40 hit in "Time for Livin'". Later that year, the group released a self-produced single, the harder-edged "Six Man Band". This song is also one of the three bonus tracks here...
Here

THE CEYLEIB PEOPLE - TANYET (VAULT 1967)

...POSTED BY REQUEST
Ry Cooder's Ceyleib People are arguably one of the more innovative groups of the late 60s. Taking the loping blues romp of Captain Beefheart and filtering it through Indian music, the group created a very short album, what would be an EP now, of two 10-11 minute parts. For 1967, this is definitely hippy experimental music, hopping from guitar riffs to sitar drones to mellotron rambling and back without regard for convention. It's almost as if there was an intent to fuse the influences of Ravi Shankar with those of the old blues legends, except that rarely is there any true juxtaposition of both styles, instead one will start out and then give way to another, segment by segment. It's as if someone gave a studio the masters for several Ravi Shankar and Captain Beefheart albums, asked them to splice them together, and then left, only to have the engineer play a joke by adding parts of Days of Future Passed in as well. Overall, it's a pretty successful experiment especially considering its age.
.................................
The reissue of the album gives you two new versions of the two pieces, "Aton" and "Aton II," supposedly processed, but not really sounding all that much different from the first two.
While this might not have been so impressive had it been from a few years later, its presence in 1967 is quite prescient...[Mike McLatchey Gnosis 2000]
.................................
Amazing psych-raga bluesy rock from this underrated "classic" project by Ry Cooder. With a lot of inventions and variations, this music conciliates eastern buzzing ragas to rocking energy and synth progressive orchestrations. The opening track (divided into 5 parts) features a catchy bluesy vibe, nice percussions parts and evocative, dreamy like flute passages. Rapidly, the composition explores in a meditative style sitar / flute combinations...after 3 minutes, we have the return of Ry Cooder's typical guitar sound, communicating with inspired "ethereal" keyboards and buzzing sitar strings. It finishes with violin like strings with some expeditive classical covers...really enigmatic and passionate song. The second composition (for 6 parts) also alternate bluesy rock interludes and raga sonorities...featuring very catchy melodies and rhythms. Impressive bluesy-folky-psych raga fantasias!..[net]
Here

HONEYBUS - STORY (DERAM 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 13 bonus

Their debut single, "Delighted to See You," which was cut with the help of Roulettes members Bob Henrit and Russ Ballard, sounded more like the Beatles than anything heard in British pop/rock since the Searchers had faded from view in early 1966. The B-side, "The Breaking Up Scene," could have been the work of the Jimi Hendrix Experience or the Creation. Actually, if anything, they sounded a great deal like the Bee Gees, who had just begun establishing themselves as something more than Beatles sound-alikes -- the difference was that the Bee Gees were a performing band as well as a top-notch studio outfit, fully capable of doing (and willing to do) most of their output on-stage Then Honeybus hit with their third release, "I Can`t Let Maggie Go," in March of 1968, which rode the British Top 50 for three months and peaked at number eight. One of the most fondly remembered examples of psychedelic pop/rock to come out of England in 1967, with a richly textured, reed-dominated arrangement (with a bassoon very prominent and a break played on oboes and clarinets) and a pleasant McCartney-esque lead vocal surrounded by gentle high harmonies, all wrapped up in a melody that wore well on repeated listening. The record should have made the group, but instead it shattered them. All three of the songs are on this cd.
...................................
"Honeybus` sole album was recorded in 1969 and released in early 1970, by which time "I Can`t Let Maggie Go" was fading from the memory of the British public, original leader Pete Dello was long gone, and the band themselves had been inactive for months. It`s therefore not entirely representative of what the group was about. They did show themselves to be one of the few bands that could emulate the lighter and quieter sides of the 1968-69 Beatles with a degree of competence, although as is usual when the Beatles were imitated, the songs and execution were much more lightweight than what the Beatles themselves recorded. At times it sounds like Badfinger without the muscle or occasional outstanding songs that made Badfinger recall the Beatles without sounding like tepid wannabes. The Beatlesque harmonies are nice and the lyrics sometimes clever, and the arrangements are tasteful, sometimes employing substantial traces of country music and subtle orchestration.
Here

FAIRPORT CONVENTION - FAIRPORT CONVENTION (A&M 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 3 bonus

The best British folk-rock band of the late '60s, Fairport Convention did more than any other act to develop a truly British variation on the folk-rock prototype by drawing upon traditional material and styles indigenous to the British Isles. While the revved-up renditions of traditional British folk tunes drew the most critical attention, the group members were also (at least at the outset) talented songwriters as well as interpreters. They were comfortable with conventional harmony-based folk-rock as well as tunes that drew upon more explicitly traditional sources, and boasted some of the best singers and instrumentalists of the day.
..................................
Sandy Denny's haunting, ethereal vocals gave Fairport a big boost on her debut with the group. A more folk-based album than their initial effort, What We Did on Our Holidays was divided between original material and a few well-chosen covers. This contains several of their greatest moments: Denny's "Fotheringay," Richard Thompson's "Meet on the Ledge," the obscure Joni Mitchell composition "Eastern Rain," the traditional "She Moves Through the Fair," and their version of Bob Dylan's "I'll Keep It With Mine." And more than simply being a collection of good songs (with one or two pedestrian ones), it allowed Fairport to achieve its greatest internal balance, and indeed one of the finest balances of any major folk-rock group. The strong original material, covers of little-known songs by major contemporary songwriters such as Dylan and Mitchell, and updates of traditional material were reminiscent of the blend achieved by the Byrds on their early albums, with Fairport Convention giving a British slant to the idiom. The slant would become much more British by the end of the 1960s, though, both gaining and losing something in the process.
.....................................
Confusingly, What We Did on Our Holidays was titled Fairport Convention in its initial US A&M release, with a different cover from the U.K. edition, although Fairport's very first US album from 1968 had used the title Fairport Convention but on a different label (Cotillion), as well. This reissue adds three bonus tracks from the same era, one from a BBC broadcast, one from a non-LP B-side, and one a studio outtake....
Here

RODRIGUEZ - COLD FACT (SUSSEX 1970)

Sixto Diaz Rodriguez (also known as Rodriguez or as Jesus Rodriguez) is a US folk musician, born in Detroit, Michigan on the 10th of July 1942. He was named 'Sixto' because he was the sixth child in his family. Rodriguez's parents were middle-class immigrants from Mexico, who left in the 1920s. In most of his songs he takes a political stance on the cruelties facing the inner-city poor. In 1967 (under the name Rod Riguez) he released the single ‘’I'll Slip Away’’ though the small label ‘Impact’. He didn’t produce anything for another three years until he was signed to Sussex Records; an offshoot of the Buddah label. It was after the move to Sussex he changed his professional name to just Rodriguez. Rodriguez recorded two albums with Sussex - "Cold Fact", in 1970, and "Coming to Reality" in 1971. But after mixed reviews and low album sales he was later dropped from the label, which would later fold in 1975.
...........................................
It s one of the lost classics of the 60s, a psychedelic masterpiece drenched in colour and inspired by life, love, poverty, rebellion, and, of course, jumpers, coke, sweet mary jane . The album is Cold Fact, and what s more intriguing is that its maker a shadowy figure known as Rodriguez was, for many years, lost too. A decade ago, he was rediscovered working on a Detroit building site, unaware that his defining album had become not only a cult classic, but for the people of South Africa, a beacon of revolution. It s crushingly good stuff, filled with tales of bad drugs, lost love, and itchy-footed songs about life in late 60s inner-city America. Gun sales are soaring/Housewives find life boring/Divorce the only answer/Smoking causes cancer, says the Dylan-esque Establishment Blues. But the album sank without trace, thanks, in part, to some of Rodriguez s more idiosyncratic behavior, like performing at an industry showcase with his back to the audience throughout. As his music career became a memory, Rodriguez s legend was growing on the other side of the world. In South Africa and, to a lesser extent, Rhodesia, Australia and New Zealand, Cold Fact had become a major word of mouth success, particularly among young people in the South African armed forces, who identified with its counter-cultural bent. But Rodriguez was an enigma not even the label knew where to find him and his demise became the subject of debate and conjecture. Some rumors said he d died of a heroin overdose or burned to death on stage. But the tide began to turn in 1996, when journalist Craig Bartholemew set out to get to the bottom of the mystery. After many dead ends, he found Rodriguez alive, well, free and perfectly sane in Detroit, ending years of speculation. Rodriguez himself had no idea about his fame in South Africa (the album had gone multi-platinum, Rodriguez has received not so much as a Rand in royalties), and embarked on a triumphant South African tour followed, filling 5,000 capacity venues across the country. Rodriguez was still largely unknown in the northern hemisphere until 2002, when Sugar Man, the album s extra-terrestrially wonderful lead track, was picked up by David Holmes. The DJ discovered the album in a New York record store, and included it on his Come Get It, I Got It compilation...
Here

WILLIAM TRUCKAWAY - BREAKAWAY (REPRISE 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

After leaving the "SOPWITH CAMEL" singer/songwriter William Truckaway recorded one of the great lost singles of the early '70s, "Bluegreens." It is an insanely catchy ditty built around a chunky synthesizer and simple hippy-dippy sentiments with a multi-tracked Truckaway and the Stovall Sisters providing some truly blissed-out vocals. It was enough of a hit that Taco Bell used it for an ad campaign and it got Truckaway an album deal with Reprise. Breakaway, which contains "Bluegreens," was released in 1971 and it is a wonderfully sweet and mellow album from a guy who sings like he could charm the leaves off the trees in the summertime. The album has a relaxed and easygoing sound with plenty of gentle strumming and tender vocalizing but also inventive arrangements (synths, sitars, congas, flutes, strings, backing vocals) that give his thoughts about getting out of the city ("Hard," "Cold City Life"), going slow ("I Go Slow"), finding Jesus ("Leave It There") and love lost ("Where's My Baby") and found ("Way to My Heart," "Be the One") -- an extra punch that many of his contemporaries lacked. You could compare Truckaway without much of a stretch to John Sebastian, since the Sopwith Camel and the Lovin' Spoonful shared a sound and a producer (Erik Jacobsen, who also fulfills those duties with Truckaway here). Breakaway isn't a lost classic by any means but it is a satisfying and interesting listen that deserves to be reissued outside of Japan. ~ Tim Sendra, All Music Guide
........................................................
By William "Truckaway" Sievers:
... "Bluegreens was not about algae from Oregon, but rather based on various events and Zen philosophies found in Winnie the Pooh. The record was a tour de force of vocal overdubbing, unusual sounds, and a unique utilization of the synthesizer, which was a hot new item at that time. Reviewed as a sure hit in Billboard, this record actually received airplay in France and certain parts of New Mexico. It also became a Big Hit with the advertising agency handling the Taco Bell account, which proceeded to use parts of it in a Taco Bell commercial. I later wrote and recorded an entire album for Reprise entitled "Breakaway" with Camel drummer, Norman Mayell and brilliant bassist Doug Kilmer plus some outstanding guest artists such as Charles Lloyd, Richard Green and Buddy Emmons. The Truckaway album had some good tunes on it too, even though it didn't make the charts or ring the Taco Bell again" ...
Here

THE WAY WE LIVE - A CANDLE FOR JUDITH (DANDELION 1971) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 11 bonus

This band founded in Rochdale, Lancashire, England by guitarist/vocalist Jim Milne and drummer Steve Clayton in 1971. Both had been members of a beat group, The Way We Live since 1966. They are notable both for their appreciation by John Peel and Julian Cope, but also for their longevity because as of 2007, they are still performing. The third member of the recording band until 1972 was manager and sound engineer John Brierley, who was replaced in late 1972 by Alan Burgess as recording engineer and Chris Hewitt as manager and live sound engineer.
In the early days, the main marketing tool of unsigned hopeful bands was to send demo tapes to sympathetic DJs. Accordingly a tape was sent to Peel who had a fondness for Rochdale, having worked in a cotton mill there before becoming a DJ. Peel sent his label manager, Clive Selwood, from London to Rochdale in order to sign up the band.
The group was booked into London's Spot Studios and finished the sessions within two days, and in January 1971 the band's debut album, A Candle for Judith was released, credited to The Way We Live. The release, named after Clayton's then girlfriend, later wife, earned immediate critical acclaim "...impeccable in both technique and emotion"... Al Clark writing in Time Out in London in 1971.
Meanwhile Peel, who had previous links with Rochdale, bought the band recording equipment and a stereo PA system. He also convinced the band to change their name. Looking out of his kitchen window at Peel Acres in Suffolk, he spied a tractor in the fields adjacent to his house and recommended it as a name to them. Tractor's first release after the name change from The Way We Live was a 7 inch maxi single -- "Stoney Glory"/"Marie"/"As You Say" -- for Dandelion. They also backed up another Dandelion act called Beau -- led by C.J.T. "Beau" Midgley -- on the album Creation. All of this recording was done in an attic and bedroom studio of a terraced house in Edenfield Road Rochdale, which John Peel named Dandelion Studios,Rochdale to tie in with his record label Dandelion Records...
Here

JAN & DEAN - SAVE FOR A RAINY DAY (J&D Record 1966) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 13 bonus

.....BY REQUEST!
Unlike their friend Brian Wilson, who had previously guided the Beach Boys from surf band to cutting-edge pop/rock outfit without totally abandoning the band's signature sound, Jan & Dean didn't really have the capacity or songwriting chops to make the transition to serious and sophisticated pop. Nevertheless, when the architect of the duo, Jan Berry, was incapacitated in early 1966 by a terrible car accident that ultimately left him brain-damaged, Dean Torrence took up the business and musical reins of the band and made a nearly convincing one-shot stab at progressive pop with Save for a Rainy Day. In a sense, the album is still more commercial acquiescence than legitimate artistic statement, yet it is perhaps the most interesting musical stretch in the duo's catalog although it is a Jan & Dean album in name only rather than in practice, as Berry understandably does not appear on the album in any capacity. The album is conceptual, in the loosest sense of the word, in that each song is about or refers to rain and is held together like a song cycle by thunderstorm sound effects. In addition, most of the tracks were also created by Joe Osborne and Larry Knetchel, as well as another of Torrence's friends and neighbors, James Burton. As opposed to an opulent studio creation, however, most of Save for a Rainy Day was stitched together in Osborne's garage. Jan & Dean's version of Gary Zekley's "Yellow Balloon" uses the very same backing track that Zekley made for the group Yellow Balloon, and is nearly as good as that version, while "Lullaby in the Rain" is a heartbreakingly pensive hymn. On the other hand, the music occasionally dips into uncomfortably sappy sentiment and easy listening sounds. Nevertheless, the album really is a lovely Californian artifact and worthy blue afternoon listen. This Japanese reissue nearly doubles the length of the original album with bonus cuts, most of them instrumental tracks and stereo versions of the album songs.
Here

GRASSROOTS - FEELINGS (ABC-DUNHILL 1968) + 2 bonus

...BY REQUEST
The name "Grass Roots" originated in 1965 as the name of a band project by the Los Angeles, California songwriter and producer duo of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. Sloan and Barri had written several songs in an attempt by their record company, Dunhill Records to cash in on the budding folk rock movement. One of these songs was "Where Were You When I Needed You," which was recorded by Sloan and Barri and a now forgotten line-up of studio musicians. Sloan provided the lead vocals and played guitar. The song was released under "The Grass Roots" name and sent, as a demo, to several radio stations of the San Francisco Bay area.
When moderate interest in this new "band" arose, Sloan and Barri went to look for a group that could incorporate The Grass Roots name. They found one in a San Francisco group named "The Bedouins" and cut a new version with that band's lead vocalist, Willie Fulton. In 1965, the Grass Roots got their first official airplay on Southern California radio stations, such as KGB(AM) in San Diego and KHJ in Los Angeles with a version of the Bob Dylan song, "Mr. Jones (Ballad Of A Thin Man)." For some months, The Bedouins were the first "real" Grass Roots — but the partnership with Sloan and Barri broke up when the band demanded more space for their own more blues rock-oriented material (which their producers were not willing to give them). Willie Fulton, Denny Ellis and David Stensen went back to San Francisco, with drummer Joel Larson the only one who remained (he was to become a member of a later Grass Roots line-up, as well). In the meantime, the second version of "Where Were You When I Needed You" peaked in the top 40 in mid-1966; an album of the same name sold poorly, probably because there were no Grass Roots anymore to promote it at the time of its release.
.............................
The group's third — and by far most successful — incarnation was finally found in a Los Angeles band, called The 13th Floor (not to be confused with the 13th Floor Elevators). This band consisted of Creed Bratton, Rick Coonce, Warren Entner and Kenny Fukomoto and had formed only a year earlier before submitting a demo tape to Dunhill Records.Rob Grill was recruited into the band when Fukomoto was suddenly drafted into the army. The band was offered the choice to go with their own name or choose to adopt a name that had already been heard of nationwide.
They had their first top 10 hit with "Let's Live For Today" in the summer of 1967 as The Grass Roots. With Rob Grill as lead singer, they recorded a third version of "Where Were You When I Needed You." The band continued in a similar hit-making vein for the next five years ('67-'72). In the beginning, they were one of many U.S. guitar pop/rock bands, but with the help of Barri and their other producers, they developed a unique sound for which they drew as heavily on British beat as on soul music, rhythm and blues and folk rock. Many of their recordings featured a brass section, which was a novelty in those days among American rock bands, with groups like Chicago just developing.
The Grass Roots songs hitting the radio in these times include "Things I Should Have Said" (1967), "Midnight Confessions" (1968), "Bella Linda", "Lovin' Things", "The River Is Wide", "Wait A Million Years", "Heaven Knows" (1969), "Walking Through The Country", "Baby Hold On", "Temptation Eyes" (1970), "Sooner Or Later" (1971) and "Two Divided By Love" (1972).
Here

MERSEYBEATS - MERSEYBEATS (FONTANA 1964) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 18 bonus

The Merseybeats were formed in 1961, in Liverpool under the name of The Mavericks which comprised of Tony Crane (lead guitar, vocals) Billy Kinsley (bass, vocals) working as an Everley Brothers influenced duo around the clubs and pubs of Liverpool. They soon became a four piece with the addition of David Elias(rhythm guitar, vocals) and Frank Sloane (drums). For a short while they changed name to The Pacifics and in 1962 The Mavericks were re-named The Mersey Beats, by Bob Wooler, M. C. of the famous Cavern Club. Later that year the group was re-titled THE MERSEYBEATS and Sloane was replaced by John Banks and Elias by Aaron Williams.
They were originally signed to Brian Epstein, but he failed to supply The Merseybeats with the same classy suits that he had given The Beatles, dispute between artist and management. brought an end to their relationship, the spilt with Epstein is something the group regret to this very day. On the Fontana label, The Merseybeats received their first big hit in 1963 with ‘It’s Love That Really Counts’ followed in 1964’ by their million selling recording ‘I Think of You’ which raced up the top ten and presented them with their first gold disc. The Merseybeats adopted their own distinctive style of fashion, the sartorial elegance they would have liked under Epstein. New tailoring saw them credited as the ‘Best Looking Group’ dressed in tight fitting suits with bolero jackets and frilly shirts, their outfits complete with high heeled zip boots provoked hysteria from their female fans. They received further success with two more major hits, ‘Don’t Turn Around’ and ‘Wishin & Hopin’, Other successful recordings include ‘Last Night’ ‘Don’t Let It Happen To Us’ ‘I Love You Yes I Do’ ‘I Stand Accused’. ‘Mister Moonlight‘ ‘Really Mystified‘ ‘The Fortune Teller‘ ‘Lovely Loretta’ and ‘It’s Love That Really Counts’. The Merseybeats appeared regularly at Liverpool’s world famous Cavern Club and they hold the unique distinction of appearing with The Beatles on more occasions than any other band from that era. Their success brought them international recognition, 1964 saw The Merseybeats appearing in Germany, the U.S.A. and even having their own Merseybeats Show on Italian television.In 1964 Billy Kinsley left to form The Kinsleys and was replaced by the legendary Johnny Gustafson, the line up changed again when Billy returned to the group a few months later.
Here

ELMER GANTRY'S VELVET OPERA - S/T (DIRECTION/CBS 1967) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 8 bonus

Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera picked up on the British psychedelic movement after supporting The Pink Floyd as a soul/blues band called 'The Five Proud Walkers', the lineup was Richard Hudson (Hud) on drums, Colin Forster on lead guitar, Jimmy Horrocks (Horovitz) on organ and flute, John ????? (bass) and Dave Terry on vocals and harmonica. The boys took inspiration from the experience and it wasn't long before the change of both music and image. They gigged for a while playing blues based material,but gradually got interested in more free-form stuff. John ???? was replaced by John Ford and the band searched for a new name. Velvet Opera was chosen initially, which was amended to Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera within days after Dave turned up to a session wearing a long black cape and a preachers hat and had to endure some piss-taking from the rest of the band (Elmer Gantry was the fictional hero of a Sinclair Lewis novel and 1960 film about a preacher). The name stuck and Dave became Elmer. By this time Elmer, influenced by the music of John Cage, was making experimental taped backing sounds and using signal generators on stage in the act. The band began to get quite a following and played clubs and university gigs all over the country and at London venues like the Marquee and 100 club and Electric garden. They would also occasionally play at the Speakeasy where Jimi Hendrix would jam with them, also people like Jeff beck and Eric Burdon. The band had been recorded independantly for a while by Southern Music Publishing, who had their own, four -track, studio in Denmark Street, and it wasn't long before they had secured a record deal with CBS's "Direction" label. The problem was that Southern Music had originally signed them as a bluesy/jazzy band and they were not very keen on trying to get new, more riotous stage act on disc.
......................................
The group were persuaded to do more "regular" material. The first recording was the song, written by Elmer, that the band were best known for, 'Flames'. The record was on jukeboxes all over the country and was covered live by bands as diverse as "The Joe Loss Orchestra" and "Led Zeppelin", in fact Jimmy Page recently told Elmer that Flames was the only non-Zep number that they included in their early stage-act (Robert Plant also included it in his 2001-2002 tour). However, for the average radio listener the song was too far ahead of its time and despite live popularity and numerous radio plays the song only managed to achieve number 30 in the charts. Direction did however, take faith in the band to record second and third singles and more importantly a self-titled album. The group's second single, "Mary Jane" was taken off the BBC playlist after they realised that the song was the slang term for Marijuana. The third single, Volcano, was written by Howard & Blakely, who had written hits for Dave Dee etc. After three singles and the album, major success had still not been achieved....[to be continued]
Here

PEDDLERS - BIRTHDAY (CBS 1969) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 3 bonus

...by requests!
.........................
A brief biography again!..
Though short of "teen appeal', this seated, short-haired jazz-styled combo was appreciated by other artists for their stylistic tenacity and exacting technical standards. For much of 1964, the polished jazz pop concoctions of ex-Tornados Tab Martin (b. 24 December 1944, Newcastle, England; bass), ex-Faron's Flamingos Trevor Morais (b. 10 October 1944, Liverpool, England; drums) and the Dowlands' former backing guitarist Roy Phillips (b. 5 May 1943, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset, England; Hammond organ/vocals) were heard nightly at London's exclusive Scotch of St. James" club - and, the following January, their arrangement of Teddy Randazzo's "Let The Sun Shine In", delivered by Phillips in a blues-tinged snort, slipped fleetingly into the UK Top 50. It took over four years for the three to come up trumps again when an invigorating CBS Records contract launched Freewheelers into the album chart. This was the harbinger of a Top 10 strike with the self-penned "Birth", a stunningly innovative composition. The follow-up, "Girlie", was a minor success and the Peddlers fared well in the album lists with Birthday. The long-term benefits of this commercial Indian summer included the broadening of the group's work spectrum - notably in providing musical interludes for television chat-shows - and the command of larger fees for their stock-in-trade cabaret bookings.
..........................................
After Birthday, the Peddlers returned to Philips Records again. In 1971, Philips issued Georgia on My Mind, followed a year later by Suite London.
Morais left the trio during an Australian tour in 1972, and the Peddlers disbanded in 1976. In 2002, Columbia/CBS released the double album CD anthology, How Cool Is Cool...The Complete CBS Recordings, which contained the songs from their three albums, their singles and B-sides, and a pair of previously unissued tracks.
Here

VENTURES - THE FABULOUS VENTURES (DOLTON/LIBERTY 1964) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve [stereo + mono]

The Ventures enjoyed their greatest popularity and success in the US and Japan in the 1960s, but they have continued to perform and record up to the present. With over 110 million albums sold worldwide, the group remains the best selling instrumental rock group of all time. 38 Ventures albums (including a seasonal Christmas album) charted in the US, and six of fourteen chart singles made it into the Top 40, with three making it into the Top 10. Of their 38 chart albums, 34 of them occurred in the 1960s, and The Ventures rank as the 6th best pop album performer for that decade, according to "Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Albums".
Among their achievements in America, in 1963 The Ventures had five LPs in the Billboard Top 100 at the same time. Additionally, they released a series of instructional LPs entitled Play Guitar with The Ventures and Play Electric Bass with The Ventures. Four LPs were released in this series, the first of which reached the Billboard Top 100 Album Chart—an achievement previously unheard of for an instructional LP. In a novelty achievement, The Ventures were the first act to place two different versions of the same song in the Top 10, those being "Walk Don't Run" (#2) and "Walk Don't Run '64" (#8).
While they predated the advent of the terms surf guitar and surf rock, and they do not consider themselves a surf rock group; they were a major building block of surf music, if not the first to play the style. Guitar Player, in an article titled "20 Essential Rock Albums", cited elements of their 1960 "Walk Don't Run" album which presaged the then-coming surf trend.
Also the Ventures were among the first rock acts able to sell albums based on a style and sound without needing hit singles on the albums. They are also credited by The All Music Guide To Rock with the early formulation of the concept album.
............................................
This is one of The Ventures' most famous albums. In a legue of its own, riding high with Telstar, Ventures In Space, Batman, Hawaii Five O, and Walk Dont Run Vol 2 in popularity. Perhaps the most well known song on this album is Journey To The Stars, written by a member of The T-Bones, a recording group for Liberty Records. Don Wilson, on the Live In Japan 65' album says, before they play this number on the album that is was from The Ventures In Space Album. It certainly sounds like a "space" tune, just the name of it alone. Who knows if he made a mistake or the song simply got moved to this album. Pink Panther Theme is also a highlight here...
Here

COLD BLOOD - SISYPHUS (SAN FRANCISCO 1970) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve

Sisyphus -- Cold Blood's second release for Bill Graham's San Francisco label -- was a shift to a more aggressive and decidedly funkier sound. Taking their cues as much from James Brown's J.B.'s as from their Bay Area contemporaries and labelmates Tower of Power, Sisyphus is a much more cohesive and concentrated effort compared to their 1969 eponymous debut. The infusion of strong original material certainly did not hurt either -- as five of the disc's six tracks are credited as original band compositions. From the opening edgy/up-tempo instrumental "Shop Talk," the change in Cold Blood's direction is evident. This extended jam showcases the entire ensemble -- sans vocalist Lydia Pense -- including the band's latest addition, Sandy McKee (drums/percussion). The track also features notable assistance from original Santana bandmember Chepito Areas (congas/timbales). The driving rhythms are punctuated by the three-piece brass section, whose contributions are infinitely less obtrusive, especially during the dramatic segue into "Funky on My Back" -- one of Cold Blood's most definitive compositions. Highlighted by Pense's dramatic and sensual vocals, the track recalls the laid-back, soulful style of their first album. Another throwback is the slightly gospel-influenced cover of "Your Good Thing" -- originally performed by Stax diva Mable John -- which also features background vocals from the Pointer Sisters. The second half of Sisyphus consists of up-tempo groovers "Too Many People," "Understanding," and "I Can't Stay," which is not only the hardest-rocking track on the disc, it also features a lead vocal from percussionist McKee. The song actually comes off sounding like an early Santana cut rather than anything else on the album. This probably has to do more with the frenetically inspired fretwork of Larry Fields than the absence of Pense...
Here

D.R.HOOKER - THE TRUTH (ON 1972) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 6 bonus

........BY REQUEST!
D.R. Hooker was a man slightly askew with his time: from the robes he wears on the cover to the quasi mystical lyrics, he's very much connected to the hippy era, and given that this album was recorded in 1972, in a time post-Charles Manson, he was brave to associate so strongly with all the imagery pertaining to cults. Musically, Hooker looks beyond the parameters of the hippy movement, dipping into a more ambitiously studio-oriented sound than Hooker's half-troubadour, half-prophet image on the sleeve might suggest. The noisy, fuzzy elements are particularly effective, and surprisingly intricate in their arrangement and recording.
'Forge Your Own Chains' takes this to an extreme, expertly deploying advanced loungey jazz figures with an onslaught of brass. This all sounds far more ambitious and accomplished than the vast majority of private press releases that tend to emerge, and there's certainly a strong case to be made for this record being one of those precious few curiosities from the private press movement to feel like more than a kitsch comic aside. Well worth your investigation.
......................................
One of the rarest US psych LPs, The Truth, recorded in Connecticut in 1972, might very well be the ultimate North American acid rock album ever.
Everything is absolute perfection, the wailing fuzz guitar, the psychy arrangements, his awesome voice, layers of instruments and well-crafted songs. One of those LPs that keeps revealing new depths even when you've played it a hundred times.
Here