Reissue CDs
Kieron Tyler
“John Coltrane, he’s a major influence on this record. The instrumental on the A-side is an abstraction of the jazz musician named John Coltrane. That’s C-o-l-t-r-a-n-e.”The Byrds’ David Crosby was spelling it out on 28 March 1966 at a New York press conference called to promote – and explain – his band’s new single “Eight Miles High,” issued nine days earlier. His fellow Byrd Roger McGuinn told journalists that Allen Ginsberg had played them Coltrane: that he “wanted that to come out in our music.” A tape was made of what Ginsberg was urging them to assimilate.
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Kieron Tyler
“My Ice Queen” immediately makes its case. A mid-to-low tempo chugging rhythm underpins choppy guitar, a contemplative, distant vocal and a general air of disassociation. Brief sections of the song feature – albeit muted – guitar mangling and feedback. The lyrics tell of a “heartbreak machine, coolest girl you’ve ever seen.” Icy? Absolutely.Then take the similarly restrained “Life Goes on,” so hazy a rumination it seems to have materialised from the mists enveloping Venus.
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It isn’t all so crepuscular. “Song For John” – seemingly an Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“Promise me delight” is a tantalising entreaty. One which – in its particular way – this captivating 17-track compliation delivers on. Promise Me Delight - Italo Disco and European Pop from the Golden Age digs into what its title articulates, with the golden age in question spanning 1982 to 1988, with an emphasis on 1983 to 1986.A specific form of Continental European pop is celebrated. One which was dancefloor oriented, with electropop leanings and an emphasis on tunes as much as on atmosphere and rhythms designed to move body and feet. Not much of this pulse-quickening, often-fervid, almost Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Really Into Somethin' - Brit Girl Sounds and Styles 1962-1970 is an explicitly titled 89-track, three-CD clamshell box set. Take one of its terrific tracks at random: Adrienne Poster’s “The Way You do the Things You do.” A February 1965 B-side, it’s a cover version of the Temptations’ US hit. Recognisably a British production it, at this remove, sounds like a UK chart certainty. There had, though, already been a British adaptation issued a month earlier by Elkie Brooks, hence the B-side status for Poster’s version. Neither single was a best seller.
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Kieron Tyler
“Love Train” is first up. Rather than the 1972 O’Jays’ hit, this totally different song was originally released as the B-side of a 1971 single – though it’s often credited as a 1968 release. By The Lovemasters, a Chicago band active under that name from 1970, it’s an absolute winner – vaguely along the Temptations line, with a circling guitar figure, subtle piano fills and a loose funkiness. Their founder member Edith Andrews had been active in Chicago’s music from the late 1950s.
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The label which issued the Lovemasters 45 was Jacklyn, Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Quicksilver Messenger Service were central to what emerged from San Francisco as 1966 unfolded – the psychedelic-dance-ballroom scene. They first played the city’s Avalon Ballroom on 13 May 1966, and were there a further 74 times. Before this, the band had been on stage at the also-Family Dog-promoted Fillmore on 26 February, and over 25 to 27 March. Their initial booking for the city’s other main promoter Bill Graham was also at the Fillmore, on 19 March.These early shows – of a band which debuted live in December 1965 – ensured that QMS was moving fast, seemingly as much so as their the Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“A rich and occasionally irritatingly gimmicky album…less perfectly realised than Autobahn, though there are some quite pretty tunes. People often charge electronic music with being ‘mechanical,’ confusing machines like clocks and other wind-up toys with devices which operate in ways more analogous to the human brain, which create quite different musical problems from, say, musical-boxes. What is wrong with Kraftwerk, however, is that their music is in fact mechanical, creating a contradiction between form and content which eventually destroys its artistic credibility and any hint of a soul Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Last year, Paul Weller compiled a collection of his favourite soul tracks. A highlight of That Sweet Sweet Music was Jon Lucien’s affecting “Search for the Inner Self.” Originally issued on 45 in September 1971, it’s a long-time favourite of deep-digging soul enthusiasts. As is Lucien’s dance floor-filler “We got Love.” However, the latter cut was not issued when it was recorded – or even soon after.“We got Love” was first propagated by the DJ Snowboy. He’d played percussion for Lucien at a London show in 1995. Lucien gave him a home-made CD including tracks which had never been issued. Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Evil Grave were from Malta. They were a going concern between December 1971 and around May 1977. Despite their longevity, they released no records. However, there were ad hoc recording sessions: at the studio of the island nation’s TV company Rediffusion in March 1973 and, at a home studio, in either April or May 1977. These provide what’s heard on the extraordinary Death From Malta.The band’s name drew from the Black Sabbath songs “Evil Woman” and “Children of the Grave.” To an extent, this points to where Evil Grave – at least on the evidence of Death From Malta – were coming from. “Optica Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“Do You Believe in Magic.” “You Didn't Have to be so Nice”. “Daydream.” “Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind?” “Summer in the City.” “Rain on the Roof.” “Nashville Cats.”The first seven singles by The Lovin’ Spoonful are all great, really great, and all were hits. Top Ten in the band’s US home. International hits too. Arriving in a torrent over July 1965 to November 1966, they help define Steve Boone, Joe Butler, John Sebastian, and Zal Yanovsky as integral to America’s riposte to the Beatles-kindled British Invasion of the US charts. The Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man” had been released in Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
The opening track is Hoyt Axton’s “Evangelina.” After first appearing on the 1976 album Fearless it was re-recorded and issued as a flop UK single in July 1980. The new version had also been an OK-selling US single in 1980. The reason this deeply atmospheric, velvety, yearning country marvel had UK sales potential after it came out on minor-league British imprint Young Blood was due to radio play: radio play on the BBC’s Radio 2.“Evangelina” illustrates exactly what Wednesday Morning 6AM - Radio Hits From The Small Hours 1970-1983 is about: the musical continuum defined by a maverick aspect Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Blackpool Cool is the third and last album by Glasgow’s Head. Issued in 1977 on the band’s own Head Records label, it was preceded by 1973’s GTF and 1975’s Red Dwarf. Blackpool Cool is rare – and sought after. A first pressing in OK shape will cost at least £70. One in close-to mint condition – if one can be found, that is – can fetch £220. Head issued no singles. The reissue of this Scottish jazz band’s final release is welcome.This particular Head are not to be confused other bands of the same name, from the proto-trip-hoppers formed by former Pop Group member Gareth Sager to the Read more ...