sexta-feira, 31 de julho de 2015

Ted Lucas - Ted Lucas 1975

Detroit musician Ted Lucas spent decades quietly pursuing musical greatness in and around his hometown. Throughout the '60s and '70s, Lucas' name was attached to several regional rock bands, session work for Motown before they left Detroit for Los Angeles, and even time spent studying the art of raga with Ravi Shankar. He continued playing up until his death in 1992, leaving behind only scattered documentation of his various output, the most lasting and visible article being this self-titled album from 1975, first released by Lucas himself on his OM Records imprint. Recorded largely in his attic apartment, the album is divided into a first side of six spare tunes of soft psychedelic folk and a second side with two instrumentals and a wandering blues jam.
The first half is a non-stop string of winners, beginning with the looming minor-key proclamation "Plain and Sane and Simple Melody" and continuing through to the grinning, sing-song mellowness on tracks like "It's So Easy (When You Know What You're Doing)" and "It Is So Nice to Get Stoned," or the more weary, broken feelings on "Now That I Know" and "I'll Find a Way (To Carry It All)." These subtly composed tunes are on par with some of the best "lost classic" psych folk albums of the era, Lucas' multi-tracked layers of his own harmonies reaching the same sometimes spooky, often beautiful heights as those of Judee Sill, and the entire album shares the same psychedelic hitch-hiker feel as Skip Spence's Oar does. Lucas' musicianship is masterful but never showy, even when stretching out on the woozy "Love and Peace Raga" that closes the album. Instead, he chooses straightforward arrangements that better serve the themes of idealism and compassion that sit at the center of even the most heartbreaking tunes. The shift in presentation between the near-perfect acid folk of side one and the more instrumental-minded expansion of side two makes for a somewhat polarizing listen, but both are valuable looks into Lucas' talents, even the jammier tracks feeling like deliberately placed statements instead of filler to reach full album length. Though the album lingered in deep obscurity during his lifetime, a reissue campaign in the 2010s brought the album to a new audience hungry for just this type of privately pressed '70s psych folk; the kind that is so captivating it's a mystery as to why it didn't catch on in its time. Ted Lucas' album is a perfect example of this trope, ranking up there with Nick DrakeIndexthe Contents Are,Anonymous, and other artists who made astonishing albums that got lost in the shuffle in their day. While a lot of those private press albums are fascinating in the context of their histories, Ted Lucas' sole album borders on timelessness in its best moments and soars from start to finish. AMG.

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Van Der Graaf Generator - H To He, Who Am The Only One 1970

The foreboding crawl of the Hammond organ is what made Van Der Graaf Generator one of the darkest and most engrossing of all the early progressive bands. On H to He Who Am the Only One, the brooding tones of synthesizer and oscillator along with Peter Hammil's distinct and overly ominous voice make it one of this British band's best efforts. Kicking off with the prog classic "Killer," an eight minute synthesized feast of menacing tones and threatening lyrics, the album slowly becomes shadowed with Van Der Graaf's sinister instrumental moodiness. With superb percussion work via Guy Evans, who utilizes the tympani drum to its full extent, tracks like "The Emperor in His War-Room" and "Lost" are embraced with a blackened texture that never fades. The effective use of saxophone (both alto and tenor) and baritone from David Jackson gives the somberness some life without taking away any of the instrumental petulance. H to He is carpeted with a science fiction theme, bolstered by the bleak but extremely compelling use of heavy tones and the absence of rhythms and flighty pulsations. This album, which represents Van Der Graaf in their most illustrious stage, is a pristine example of how dark progressive rock should sound. AMG.

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Steve Tilston - An Acoustic Confusion 1971

An instantly captivating, all-original acoustic album of great depth and incredible maturity, the debut album (1971) by acoustic guitarist and songwriter, Steve Tilston. As for the making of the album: “It was Ralph McTell who very kindly contacted Ian Anderson of Village Thing on my behalf," Tilston explained. "I followed it up and secured a meeting with Ian and a gig at the Troubadour Folk Club. I’d met Ralph through Wizz Jones at Les Cousins in Soho, and he’d been very complimentary about my playing and writing.” One hears echoes of Tilston’s mentors and contemporaries in England’s vibrant folk scene of the time: Bert Jansch (the fifth track, ‘Train Time,’ sounds to these ears eerily like early Jansch); John Renbourn; Ralph McTell; Wizz Jones; Davey Graham; and Nick Drake. Solo guitar and vocals, all recorded without over-dubbing, plus group performances with Village Thing label-mates Dave Evans, John Turner (Hunt & Turner), and others. The end result was an important piece of Britain’s folk tapestry, which launched Tilston into the limelight, and onto Transatlantic Records, just in time for their implosion. This deluxe edition of “An Acoustic Confusion” includes five bonus tracks, including three not included on any previous editions, in-depth notes by Tilston himself, lyrics, excerpts from Mark Jones’ fascinating Bristol Folk book, plus a mini-history of Village Thing by label co-founder Gef Lucena; there’s also a Village Thing discography to round out the twenty-eight pages of information. “At twenty, I was pretty single-minded in my quest to make an album; looking back, probably a bit pushy with it, but I was sitting on this powder keg of songs and it felt like I had to get them recorded or I’d explode.”

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Mapleoak - Mapleoak 1971

The first real inkling Ray Davies had that Peter Quaife (b. 31 December 1943, Tavistock, Devon, England)was serious about leaving The Kinks was when someone drew his attention to an article in the centre spread of NME magazine and its headline: "KINKS SPLIT - says Peter Quaife". The story, which appeared in the issue ending the week 5 April 1969, included a smallphoto of Quaife sitting contentedly on Hampstead Heath with three unidentified musicians. To say it was a shock to Ray Davies and the other Kinks would be an understatement. To Quaife, however, the separation was something he'd been planning for sometime.
Four months later, and half a world away, the Toronto Telegram ran an expose on Quaife's new band and the reasons behind the bass player's shock departure. In the article "A place to stay in England", Quaife spelt out his dissatisfaction with The Kinks and his reason for leaving. "I hadn't been happy with The Kinks for well over a year before I split," he told journalist Bill Gray. "For one thing we just never played anywhere. Ray Davies hates live shows, hates touring, so most of the time, we just sat around at home collecting our royalty cheques. It was an easy life but not a very fulfilling one."
For Quaife, who'd grown up watching his childhood friend take over every aspect of the band's running, from writing and arranging all of the material to singing all of the songs and doing all the talking, there was no opportunity for him (or the other Kinks) to express themselves. "I felt totally stifled under those circumstances and finally had to get out."
The Toronto newspaper's interest in Quaife's new project was understandable given that The Kinks were one of the most respected British Invasion groups. But that is only part of the story. At closer inspection, it revealed Quaife's unnamed group to contain a number of local musicians who had "cut their teeth" on Toronto's vibrant rock scene before moving to the UK (as it turned out literally a few days before the NME photo shoot).
Child actor, turned musician Stan Endersby (b. 17 July 1947, Lachine, Quebec) had been playing lead guitar professionally in Toronto since the early 1960s, most notably with local R&B outfit, The Just Us. Over the course of the next three years, Endersby worked extensively on the local scene, remaining with the group as it morphed first into The Tripp and then Livingstone's Journey.
When the group foundered in the early months of 1968, the young guitarist decided to leave Canada and check out the music scene in England. Endersby's father was English and had been in the RAF during the war. Flying to London that spring, Stan stayed with his brother Clive, an aspiring actor, who had appeared in Mickey Spillane's "Girl Hunters" among others and was doing a lot of television work for the BBC.
"It was really amazing because I hadn't seen my brother in about six years and he sounded totally English," Endersby told this author in an interview for Ptolemaic Terrascope in 2001. "It was around eleven o'clock at night and I told him I was going out to see what was going on. He warned me that everything was closed but I went out anyway. I remember walking around Piccadilly Circus and I heard this music coming from this club called Hatchettes."
As he was walking past the club, Endersby remembers the owner mistaking him for an American. Embarrassed by his error, the club owner invited Endersby into the club, sat him in the VIP section and bought him a drink. He soon realised that Endersby was a musician and after Endersby asked if anyone ever sat in with the house band, the club owner stood up and told the musicians to let him sit in.
"When I finished this guy comes up to me and says: 'My name's Bill Fowler and I am from the Arthur Howes agency'. He said Peter Quaife of The Kinks was there and wanted to have a word with me."
Quaife, who recalled the Hatchettes meeting in the Bill Gray interview for the Toronto Telegram, says that Endersby immediately stood out. "I'd been looking around for a couple of months for someone who would fit into my conception of a group, but I was really getting nowhere until one night I saw Stan gigging on guitar with this terrible band. What he was doing really knocked me out, so I introduced myself and we started talking and found that we had a lot of the same ideas."
Endersby recalls Quaife asking him to call round at his place in Muswell Hill the next day to discuss his plans for the new group. "He said he was unhappy with The Kinks and was thinking of leaving the band," explains Endersby. "He asked me if I would be his lead guitarist and singer in a new band. I didn't really know if I was going to stay in England or go back to Canada, but I was interested in the idea."
Quaife had contractual obligations to fulfil with The Kinks so over the next couple of months, Endersby hung around London, picking up live work here and there.
Playing with the likes of Horace Faith's soul band, Endersby made enough money to get by but decided to return home to Toronto that autumn and wait for Quaife's call. He immediately landed on his feet. Commissioned to write the soundtrack music to an American TV show called The Cube, which was being filmed at CFTO for NBC and produced by future Muppets creator, Jim Henson, Endersby cast about for suitable musicians to help out.
His first thoughts were of two talented players that he had known for years from the local scene - keyboard player Marty Fisher (b. 26 December 1945, Vancouver) and drummer Gordon MacBain (b. 5 August 1947, Toronto). Both had worked together since 1964 in local bands, Bobby Kris & The Imperials and then Bruce Cockburn's short-lived outfits, The Flying Circus and Olivus. The threesome clicked well on a musical and personal level.
The project, however, was only a stopgap. With the recording finished, Endersby played a couple of dates with a local group called Leather before replacing future Chris de Burgh guitarist Danny McBride in Transfusion, the house band at Toronto's top club, the Rock Pile in January 1969. The following month, the band assumed the name Crazy Horse (not to be confused with Neil Young's backing group) and played one of its most notable shows, opening for Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention on 23 February. A month later though, a more attractive option landed on the table.
Pete Quaife had fulfilled his obligations with The Kinks and was intent on putting a new band together with his Canadian friend. "I got a call from Peter saying he was leaving The Kinks and to come over," remembers Endersby. "He sent my fare and I brought Marty (Fisher) with me."
On April Fool's day, Endersby and Fisher arrived in London to join Quaife and English drummer Mick Cook (who may have been the same guy who was in The Blue Rondos and later Home) in the new group. Quaife's outfit was revealed to the world in NME's centre spread less than a week later and was a complete surprise to the other Kinks, who were unaware of their bass player's musical plans.
Adopting the name Mapleoak (a combination of the two countries' national emblems - the Canadian Maple Leaf and the English Oak), the quartet quickly rehearsed at the Marquee and the Angel Pub in north London and then played one of its earliest shows at the Factory in Birmingham on 5 May.
Thanks to Quaife's contacts in Denmark, the group landed a month's work in Copenhagen, playing at venues like the La Carousel. "That's where the guys had the big beer mugs and they used to smash them on the dance floor," laughs Fisher looking back. (Endersby remembers seeing them eating glass too!)
It was a great experience for everyone except Mick Cook, who was given the elbow before the band's return to England in June. "Mick got a little crazed with the whole thing," explains Fisher. "He was nice though. He let us stay at his place for a bit when we first arrived. He hooked up with some girl in Denmark and was going to stay."
Looking around for a new drummer, Endersby and Fisher had only one person in mind - Gordon MacBain. "It seemed an obvious choice because I had worked with both Marty and Gordon on The Cube," explains Endersby.
Since the TV show, MacBain had enrolled at art school and was starting to write songs. To make some money, he had also agreed to take part in a reformed Bobby Kris & The Imperials and had just finished a series of gigs at the Night Owl, running from 19-21 June, when the call came from England.
With MacBain onboard, Mapleoak received some firm offers of a recording deal - one from Liberty Records and the other from Decca. While the group chose to go with Decca, Fisher rues the decision to turn down another offer made by Island Records, which he believes would have been better in the long run. "Muff Winwood came to see us and really liked the band. He said, 'I can't give you much of an advance but we can help with equipment and give you all the time you need in the studio'."
MacBain agrees with Fisher's assessment. "That was probably the turning point in the whole Mapleoak saga. [Personally] that was the biggest mistake we made. Muff Winwood was a superb guy and he loved the band. He wanted to really develop us. He had lots of ideas and he was a real hands-on guy. Decca - they couldn't have cared less, they didn't give a damn. You know, it was like, 'Okay, these guys have got Peter Quaife in the band, give them some money, throw them in the studio and see if anything happens'. [Not going with Island] was the most stupid thing that we could have done. I regret it to this day."
At this stage, the group's repertoire was fairly diverse, mixing recently composed band originals with covers of material by Bob Dylan, The Band, Tim Hardin, John Sebastian and fellow Canadian, Bruce Cockburn, who had played with Fisher and MacBain in the aforementioned Flying Circus and Olivus.
The group was popular with audiences and during the latter part of 1969 Mapleoak found a steady stream of bookings both on the continent, where they played in Brussels and Antwerp in Belgium and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and also in the UK.
During this period, Mapleoak appeared at the Marquee on Wardour Street, sharing a bill with Keith Relf's post-Yardbirds band, Renaissance. "I [also] remember hearing James Taylor [there]," says Endersby. "Peter said there was this American guitar player that wanted to check out Stonehenge so we heard him play (probably on 15 June). He was wonderful and we went to Stonehenge. We took him out in our Cummer van and his songs just blew me away."
Mapleoak also played at the Roundhouse every Saturday afternoon. "Elton John was playing there at the time and he was a nobody," remembers MacBain. "We used to see his little bus parked with the name plate on the front that said, 'Elton John' and we used to think it was a band."
"Ginger Johnson, a South African guy, would play and his band was fantastic," adds Endersby. "I think he did all the drumming on The Stones' 'Sympathy For The Devil'. We really enjoyed playing with his group. We also played with Curved Air and J. J. Jackson."
MacBain remembers playing at the Speakeasy on one occasion and also performing at the London Palladium on a bill featuring Matt Monroe and Roger Whittaker, which according to Fisher was televised. "They told us we couldn't talk in between songs or introduce songs or anything like that," says MacBain. "You were supposed to go on stage, play your songs and then get off. First thing we did when we got up there was I said, 'Hi everybody, this is a song called...' and the producer was over in the wings jumping up and down."
In early 1970, the group entered Decca's Hampstead studios, abetted by manager Derek Cooper and engineer Mike Hutson, to record some material for a prospective single. For some unknown reason, some of the songs, including a cover of Bruce Cockburn's "Morning Hymn" and "Flying Circus", which Fisher and MacBain had originally performed when they were with Olivus, were subsequently canned and remain unreleased to this day.
Two tracks were earmarked for release and on 3 April 1970, Decca released Mapleoak's lone single, which coupled MacBain's rousing "Son of A Gun" with Endersby's "Hurt Me So Much". It was a promising start but then the single sank without a trace. "[Son of a Gun] wasn't getting played," points out Fisher. "It may have had something to do with a gig we played at one of the top clubs in London, a place to be seen. The biggest DJ in England was there and Peter Quaife made some insulting remark - 'the audience wouldn't appreciate the music we're playing' or something like that. It was really a bad thing to say. I walked out in disgust.
"Peter was losing interest when the single didn't take off," continues Fisher on the bass player's sudden departure from the band in the summer of 1970. "Peter thought for some reason that it was going to go on the charts but it didn't. [He] said, 'Well nothing's happening'. Peter was losing his flat. He'd already sold his car and he wasn't able to keep up the payment on his combo that he'd bought."
Reduced to a trio, and with Fisher providing the bass parts on the keyboards, the band began sessions for an album at Decca's Hampstead studio. The experience proved to be a major disappointment.
Fortunately, the group had signed a publishing deal with UA and Mike Hutson set the band up to record at De Lane Lea studios in Dean Street where they completed the album under the guidance of engineer John Stewart.
While Marty Fisher was pretty pleased with the album's final production, he remained critical of the rest. "It's not strong enough," he complains. "The writing's not strong enough [and] none of us were really strong singers at the time."
"The album didn't really work," adds MacBain. "One song that really gelled on that record was 'Sail Away' and it cooked. "Flying Circus" and "Frankly Stoned" were good but some of the other stuff was substandard. We didn't have enough time, we were young and inexperienced."
MacBain feels that things would have been a lot different if the band had gone with Island in the first place. "It probably would have been a lot better than it was if we had had someone like Muff Winwood steering the ship because he would have said, 'Hey, you know what guys that doesn't make it or hey run with that, that's good, go in that direction'. Because he knew, he was a musician, obviously a very brilliant musician/producer and he would have been producing us."
While Endersby chips in with the opening number "Guitar Pickers" and Fisher contributes "All These Times", MacBain pens most of the original material. Band associate Mike Hutson meanwhile contributes "Down Down".
With the recording complete, the band awaited its release but Decca, with no explanation, postponed it for several months. Finally, it appeared in early 1971, and is arguably one of the first (if not the first) country-rock albums to be recorded in England.
Together with the band's original material, which for some inexplicable reason didn't include the two sides of the single, the album also contains a number of Bruce Cockburn and Bill Hawkins's songs from Fisher and MacBain's time with The Flying Circus, including "Frankly Stoned" and "Flying Circus".
By the time the album appeared, however, the group had returned to Toronto, and, following a few dates at the Night Owl, broke up. Fisher subsequently jobbed around with various local artists and then fronted his own band, Meltdown before dying from a heart attack in August 2005.
A year before his death, Fisher spoke fondly about his Mapleoak experience, noting that "England was great but it was a scuffle." However, he has no doubts about why Mapleoak never broke through. "Decca Records didn't put any financing behind [the album] and the manager just took all the money we did get; money that should have been spent on promoting the band. He bought a TV and new curtains for his house but we were starving to death. When I came home back from England I weighed 114 pounds. I looked like I was from Biafra. People thought I was a heroin addict."
MacBain agrees with his assessment of the band's manager. "Basically, I think what he did was he saw Peter Quaife as a cash cow and filled his head full of dreams and delusions and took him away from The Kinks. In my opinion at the time, I thought it was like leaving The Beatles to go join the band up the street."
Following Mapleoak's demise, Endersby went solo before playing with Rick James's Heaven and Earth. Over the next few years he played with a number of Toronto groups, including The Village with Keith McKie and Bruce Palmer before heading to Los Angeles and working with former Love guitarist Bryan MacLean among others. During the mid-1980s he toured with Buffalo Springfield Revisited and later recorded with the legendary Toronto blues band, The Ugly Ducklings. He is currently recording his own material.
MacBain found work playing with a number of local groups. More recently, he has developed his song writing skills and has put his songs forward to a number of artists, including Chris de Burgh and Aaron Neville. He is waiting to hear back on whether any of his songs will be recorded.
Peter Quaife, who moved to Denmark after splitting from Mapleoak, later relocated to Belleville, Ontario where he worked as an airbrush artist. In 2005, he moved back to Denmark and continues to paint.
A year before, Decca in Japan had issued the Mapleoak album on CD, although it chose not to include the single in the package. While the release highlights the growing interest in the band, it also underlines the need for a comprehensive package, bringing together all of the group's recorded output together with detailed liner notes and photos. Hopefully, this article will be a step in that direction.

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Wool - Wool 1969

This 1969 release by Watertown, New York’s Wool proves that even when you have strong talent and all the right connections, sometimes it
still isn’t enough to get your band to break.

The group formed in the early ’60s, and were originally known as Ed Wool and The Nomads.  Ed Wool, who was a master guitar prodigy and
excellent songwriter, was influenced early on by the new British Invasion sound and later on by the cream-of-the-crop of soul/R&B.
Ed Wool and The Nomads were huge in the mid-60s’ thriving Northern/Upstate New York music scene, even sharing the stage with bands such
as Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels, The (Young) Rascals, and The Rolling Stones.  In 1966, Ed and The Nomads scored a recording contract with RCA Victor and made one single, “I Need Somebody” b/w “Please, Please, Please,” which flopped.
Several line-up changes ensued as the ’60s progressed, but with Ed Wool still as the main focal point. The group was known as “The Sure Cure” for a brief amount of time, releasing the Feldman/Goldstein/Gottehrer penned “I Wanna Do It” for the Cameo-Parkway label, which also flopped.  Next, as “The Pineapple Heard,” Ed’s group even had the chance to be the first group to record the Boyce & Hart tune “Valleri” in 1967, a year before The Monkees had a hit with it.  That single, released on the tiny Diamond label, again, flopped.  Starting circa 1968, Ed Wool finally settled with a new and final line-up, which included his younger sister Claudia on vocals, and began going by the simple, unique name “Wool.”  The group traveled to New York City and began laying down tracks for their lone eponymous album for ABC Records.

This time around, the group managed to establish a songwriting connection with Neil Diamond, and had folk/pop songwriter and musician Margo Guryan at the helm for production help.  Surely, this should’ve been a recipe for success. Unfortunately, the album went virtually unnoticed nationally, and scored at the very bottom of the Billboard Top 200.  In Upstate/Northern NY, the album was a hit, with several of the tunes being played constantly on local radio stations.  Although it was largely unknown, one can assume that a lack of promotion from ABC Records was likely to blame for the album not being a hit.  It’s a shame, because the music contained on the album is downright good, with even some moments of greatness.
The album is a super tight blend of psych-rock, pop, and funk.  The album’s biggest highlight, a cover of Big Brother & The Holding Company’s “Combination Of The Two” absolutely blows the original out of the water in every aspect. Both the music and vocals make Big Brother’s version sound…dare I say…weak?!  One should especially pay attention to the wild vocals of Claudia Wool and the jaw-dropping fuzzy bass solo, courtesy of Ed Barrella.  The second highlight of the album is an Ed Wool original, entitled “If They Left Us Alone Now.”  A stark piece of psych-pop balladry, the tune belonged in the Top 40.  The Neil Diamond-penned “The Boy With The Green Eyes” also had hit written all over it.  Their cover of “Any Way That You Want Me,” which was better known by The Troggs, The Liverpool Five, and later Evie Sands, may be the best recorded version.  The album closes with the nine-and-a-half minute cover of Buffalo, NY’s Dyke & The Blazers’ “Funky Walk”
 and perfectly showcases Ed Wool’s superb guitar chops.
After Wool released this album, they recorded a handful of singles for Columbia (yet another major label!), all of which fell upon deaf ears.  Ed Wool is now based in Albany, NY playing blues-rock with a new line-up.  Wool reunited in 2007 for a concert at the famous Bonnie Castle Resort in Alexandria Bay, NY playing some of their old ’60s songs.  As for this album, it was definitely Wool at their peak of creativity. Wool has become a cult classic of sorts, and can be a bit pricey on eBay.  Luckily, in 2006, the UK’s Delay 68 label reissued a remastered version of the album on CD with plenty of photographs and liner notes, and is available for purchase on Amazon.  If you have the extra cash, pick this little gem up.  It will not disappoint the average ’60s rock fanatic.

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Sugar Bear - Sugar Bear 1970

Another private pressing from the 70s, this time a charming chunk of rural rock from the sunshine state. Originally released on No Label
Recordings, this four-piece from Florida (named after the hip American 70s singin'n'guitar-playin' cartoon character, Sugar Bear) have
managed to produce an album of high originality which defies categorization.

In terms of musical styles, the ''rural rock'' probably covers just about everything, from rock'n'roll to the blues and plain ol' country
rock in the style of The Outlaws or Pure Prairie League, of course there are some psychedelic touches, think a cross line betwwen Jefferson
 Airplain and Byrds with drops of Santana.

Today’s “Sugarbear” consists of Ivan Bailey on bass, John McLaughlin on lead guitar, and Eric Chick on drums. Ivan and John have been
together about 44 years. Started out in Miami as “The Goldtones”, later changed to “The Roustabouts”. Moved to the Ocala area and became
“The Merger” and in 1972 changed the name to “Sugarbear”.

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Tonton Macoute - Tonton Macoute 1971

They got their names from the Haitian dictator Papa Doc Duvallier's brutal presidential guard that was named Tonton Macoute. Why, I am not sure but if that name is original, so is their sole album released on rare and collectable Neon Record (also Spring and Indian Summer). Paul French on kbs and vocals is not to be confused with the awesome Pete French singer in Atomic Rooster and Cactus and Leafhound. The rest of the band consist of Chris Gavin on bass and guitars, Dave Knowles on winds and vocals, Nigel Reveler on drums.

Their record is full of jazz-inspired prog rock with long instrumental interplay in even longer tracks. Their music oozes fun and good-natured moods and should please most everyone, even the ones wary of jazz-tinged music, as this is hardly their only inspiration. Highly recommended to the progheads that seek to deepen their knowledge of early 70's prog rock and looking for unknown gems such as this one.

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Burnin' Red Ivanhoe - Burnin' Red Ivanhoe 1970

Burnin' Red Ivanhoe was formed back in 1967, and that makes them one of the first scandinavian prog bands. Their style was quite original from the start, blending jazz-rock with R&B, blues, psychedelia etc.. their debut from 1969 (double album) "M 144" sounds somewhat like THE WHO with jazz influences. Most of Burnin' Red Ivanhoe's albums have that certain scandinavian touch to it, similar to early 70's prog groups such as WIGWAM, Culpeper's Orchard and Tasavallan Presidentti. In 1971, the band released the album "WWW", which is probably a good place to start (for proggers), as it contains some of their most progressive and interesting work. The self-titled album they released in 1970 (another gem!), also contains the track "Secret Oyster Service", and quite soon after that, a new, even more jazz-orientated group was formed, called Secret Oyster. Burnin' Red Ivanhoe was disbanded in 1972 (although they released one more album in 1974), and as a result, most members moved over to Secret Oyster. Burnin' Red Ivanhoe is recommended for fans of early scandinavian prog rock. 

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MIJ - Yodeling Astrologer 1969

Jim Holmberg aka MIJ/the Yodeling Astrologer neither yodels nor espouses precepts from signs of the Zodiac. This recording, originally title "Color by the Number" is a time capsule of the hippie days in the late '60s, when existential free love ideals and loose morals were justified simply by individuality. In retrospect, where these principles still exist for all the right reasons, the banal musicality of MIJ (Jim spelled backwards) is a clear and telling aspect. Not at all incompetent or untalented, Holmberg takes his cues from period Bob Dylanthe Byrds, and specifically Donovan. What he does beyond those folk-rock icons is to mess with the sonic textures of his music, using natural reel-to-reel tape feedback and echo, sometimes to extreme measures. This forced psychedelia in a primitive way is unique unto itself, though not entirely innovative. "Grok (Martian Love Cal)" exploits reverberation while adding space whistling, clanging guitar chords, and screams. Obsessed with processing, "Look into the (K)night" is a kinda mindless acid trip -- far out, man! A simple guitar framework identifies "Door Keys" on as trivial a subject as possible. But hope arises as echoed tongue clicks, ringing guitar, and metaphysical lyrics cement "Two Stars." "Romeo & Juliet" offers more of a different storytelling perspective, but a thinly veiled statement on the Vietnam war, despite the stereo imbalance for the vocals of "Little Boy," feigns Country Joe's "Fixin' to Die Rag," handling the sentiment in an insular, internal fashion. "Two Stars" is closest to Donovan, as are the pretty tune "Planet of a Flower" using a slight reggae inflection, while the naive "Love So Deep" somehow exudes sweetness. It is hard to discern whether this recording is more skillful than serious, or whether this is simply an amateur just fooling around. There's meritorious musicianship and spotty brilliance framed by innocence and wide-eyed, but seemingly stoned wonder. AMG.

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Astrud Gilberto - Look To The Rainbow 1965

This was a beautiful bossa nova record of Astrud Gilberto's vocal stylings...All the material (32:13) here, with the exception of "Learn to Live Alone" and "Pretty Place," which were arranged by Al Cohn, were arranged by Gil Evans. With the exception of a Johnny Coles trumpet solo, the personnel was uncredited on this 1966 recording. Discographies have credited Bob Brookmeyer (valve trombone), Kenny Burrell (guitar), and Grady Tate (drums), but except for a few bars of sax, there was no solo indivdualism in this large Creed Taylor-produced orchestra. AMG.

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Manfred Mann's Earth Band - The Roaring Silence 1976

The reason that The Roaring Silence became Manfred Mann's Earth Band's best-selling album may have been because of both Bruce Springsteen-penned singles, but its instrumental makeup, by way of Mann's keyboard manipulation coupled with Chris Thompson's chiseled singing, had just as much of an affect. "Blinded By the Light" and "Spirit in the Night" gave the band hits at both ends of the Top 40 spectrum, with "Blinded" going to number one while the mysteriously-sounding "Spirit in the Night" edged in at number 40 six months later. Outside of the singles, The Roaring Silence is made up of clean-cut, well-established synthesizer and guitar work, with touches of techno psychedelia that are sometimes lengthy but never messy. Tracks such as "Questions," "This Side of Paradise," and even "Starbird" uncover the band's creativity and instrumental wit. Mann is careful not to stray too far with his keys, and his compliance with Thompson's vocals are noticeable in almost every track. Aside from the music, The Roaring Silence basks in veiled poetry, cryptic but at the same time intriguing, verging on the complexities of progressive rock but far from its pretentiousness. Eventually achieving gold status, The Roaring Silence both commercially and artistically became the group's finest effort. AMG.

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Amanaz - Africa 1975

In the early '70s, the Southern African nation of Zambia was mired in political instability and dire poverty with little if any outside assistance, so the mere fact that the country had a rock music scene is remarkable, let alone that any recordings have survived of Zambian rock bands of the era. Amanazwere a five-piece combo from Lusaka who traveled to Chingola (one of Zambia's biggest cities) and recorded an album titled Africa in 1973; almost 40 years after the fact, their sole album has finally made its way to the West. On first listen, what's most surprising about Africa is that most of it doesn't sound especially "African"; this music is based in deep, bluesy grooves (anchored by bassist Jerry Mausala) with a strong psychedelic undercurrent and thick layers of fuzz guitar from Isaac Mpofu andJohn Kanyepa, and though flashes of traditional influences can be heard in Watson Lungu's drumming and Keith Kabwe's vocals, it's clear that American and British rock of the late '60s and early '70s was what fueled Amanaz's imagination. (Three songs are performed in the African language of Bemba, but the rest are in English.) If the flaws in the recording and mix tend to send the guitars into the distance and flatten out the sound of the rhythm section, Africa does confirm that Amanaz were a talented band with a unique and powerful style; "Amanaz," "Making the Scene," and "Big Enough" are tough, primal rock tunes full of raw and fuzzy lead guitar, "Khala My Friend" recalls Jimi Hendrix's more introspective moments, and "Sunday Morning" and the title cut turn down the tempo without sacrificing the emotional force of the music. Amanaz were a group that eagerly embraced the music of the West, but just enough of their own sound and perspective comes through to make Africa compelling listening as well as a fascinating artifact of an almost unknown rock scene. It's good enough to make the band's short lifespan seem like a sad, almost tragic waste of talent and potential. AMG.

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Lynyrd Skynyrd - Street Survivors 1977

Street Survivors appeared in stores just days before Lynyrd Skynyrd's touring plane crashed, tragically killing many members of the band, including lead singer and songwriter Ronnie Van Zant. Consequently, it's hard to see Street Survivors outside of the tragedy, especially since the best-known song here, "That Smell," reeks of death and foreboding. If the band had lived, however, Street Survivors would have been seen as an unqualified triumph, a record that firmly re-establishedSkynyrd's status as the great Southern rock band. As it stands, it's a triumph tinged with a hint of sadness, sadness that's projected onto it from listeners aware of what happened to the band after recording. Viewed as merely a record, it's a hell of an album. The band springs back to life with the addition of guitarist Steve Gaines, and Van Zant used the time off the road to write a strong set of songs, highlighted by "That Smell," "You Got That Right," and the relentless boogie "I Know a Little." It's tighter than any record since Second Helping and as raw as Nuthin' Fancy. If the original band was fated to leave after this record, at least they left with a record that serves as a testament to Skynyrd's unique greatness.  AMG.

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