Larry Saunders - Stranger 1976

Larry Saunders, aka The Prophet Of  Soul, is best remembered on the rare  soul scene for his Northern Soul, crossover classic, “On The Real Side”. It was originally recorded in 1974 at Soul Sound Studios, Englewood, New Jersey, for Joe and Sylvia Robinson’s All Platinum subsidiary Turbo. The song also saw a UK release in the same year on London Records. Soul man Saunders, son of Blues singer Johnny Ace, signed to All Platinum in ’73 and recorded a number demos, with in-house writer/producer Tommy Keith, including two unreleased numbers “Good Luck Charm” and the featured B side “Sweet Sweet Lady”. A rare, sought after, and pricey album “Larry Saunders – Stranger”, (+250.00 when market offered, and sells at such every time). Current market availibilty at this time presents soul/sweet soul collectors the opportunity to obtain the lost soul treasure lp, on cd. The album, released in the early 70s, on the small, obscure Soul International Records label was recorded at Muscle Shoals Studios during it’s glory years. Not a lot is known about the singer, there was a subsequent release “Larry Saunders & Others – Free Angela”, but Larry’s voice, style, and the production work at Muscles Shoals are what carried this lp to extremely sought after legacy! Thanks to FunkMySoul!

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Saint Steven - Saint Steven 1969

Saint Steven's only solo LP from 1969 is a pretty unique concept album kind of totality. The record is quite a short one and the material is very enjoyable psychedelic rock with some clear psych folk elements here and there. The recording is divided into two suites “Over The Hill” and “The Bastich”.

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The Main Ingredient - Bitter Sweet 1972

Bitter Sweet introduced new Main Ingredient member Cuba Gooding with a bang. Gooding added power to Tony Silvester's and Luther Simmons' mellow vocal blends. "Everybody Plays the Fool" paid immediate dividends, going all the way to number three Pop. A flute plays a catchy intro, the lyrics are accessible to all and Gooding's dynamic lead keeps you glued. A stuttering beat makes "You've Got to Take It" interesting; it's reminiscent of "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" by the Magictones. Heavier-than-usual backing voices accent "No Tears," which finds Gooding as excitable as ever on a tune marred by over-orchestration. They do the pop favorite "Who Can I Turn To?" in traditional style, showcasing Gooding's powerful crooning. A good debut for Gooding, who surpassed late lead singer Don McPherson vocally but lacked his songwriting skills. AMG.

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New Dawn - There´s A New Dawn 1970

The New Dawn's "There's A New Dawn" has been hailed as one of the rarest and best psych albums to come out of the late 60s and early 70s. The band recorded and released their private press album "There's A New Dawn" in July of 1970. The songs were composed in the studio and were recorded late at night after gigs. Initially five hundred copies were pressed, but it's estimated that only around 200 may still exist. Their one chance at the big time came in 1971 when the ABC-Dunhill Records label expressed a serious interest in the demo of three of their new heavier sounding songs. Considering the success ABC-Dunhill had with Steppenwolf, these demo tracks (included on this collection) demonstrate what a great fit the band could have been for the label and gives us a glimpse into what might have been for The New Dawn. 

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Phantasia - Phantasia 1971

Reissue of US psychedelic ultra rarity recorded 1971/72. The original albums (a complete one and a one-sided) are legends for all psychedelic/garage collectors, only 25 copies pressed of each -- not many people have the pleasure of having seen a copy. The music is creeping slowly and sensitively in your mind, whether stoned or not φ it takes you wherever you want. Those are the complete sessions, 55mins in mastertape quality presented the first time to the public -- extremely informative booklet (20 sided), with outstanding artwork and colour photos.

One of the best Psychedelic albums, playing in the same league as Fraction, Music Emporium, Hunger, Mystic Siva, Damon. Later the band changed into Trizo 50! Here are the complete sessions in mastertaped quality with 20sided informating booklet, including outstanding artwork and photos! Thanks to Rockasreia!

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The Surprise Package - Free Up 1969

The Surprise Package was one of the top 60's Northwest contemporary psychedelic rock bands from the greater Seattle area. They were originally called the Viceroys, and had a Northwest instrumental hit called Granny's Pad. The band consisted of Greg Beck (guitar, vocals), Kim Eggers (lead vocals & Sax), Michael Rogers (piano, organ, bass, vocals) and Fred Zeufeldt (drums, vocals). In 1966 after doing some Dick Clark Where the Action Is tours and shows with their friends Paul Revere and the Raiders, they recorded some songs on Columbia Records, produced by Jerry Fuller. During a mixdown session, Lou Adler (the Mamas and Papas producer) suggested the name 'The Surprise Package' to replace the dated 'Viceroys' handle. They recorded four songs under Fuller's production: Eastside, Westside, Going Out of My Mind, The Merry Go Round, and The Other Me, written by Jimmy Griffin and Michael Z. Gordon in 1967. Unfortunately, Columbia apparently had too many artists to market, so The Surprise Package got very little promotion. In late 1967, Kim Eggers left the band and singer Rob Lowrey was hired to replace him. In 1968 they recorded an album called Free Up for Lee Hazlewood's LHI-label, which spun off two singles as well: the title track and their version of MacArthur Park in 1969. In 1970, Mike Rogers left the band, they then added Gene Hubbard on keys and became American Eagle.

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P.F. Sloan - Measure of Pleasure 1968

With famed Atlantic engineer Tom Dowd as producer, P.F. Sloan turned his sound in a bluesier, funkier direction on Measure of Pleasure. His songs were less lyrically direct, and less melodically pop-savvy than his earlier work on Dunhill. While it could be said that his singing was getting better than ever, especially on the upper register twists in songs like "New Design," the material simply wasn't as memorable, although it wasn't bad. On tunes like "How Can I Be Sure" (not the same as the Rascals' hit) and "And the Boundaries Inbetween" (one of the best tracks), there's a folk-rock-blues-jazz fusion reminiscent of Tim Hardin, amplified by the touches of vibrating guitar (which Hardin also used in his late-'60s arrangements). There's a much more distant similarity to the late-'60s country-folk-rock-blues mixture of Tony Joe White. It's not a bad album, and Sloan fans will find it worth picking up. It's just different than, and not on the same level as, his first two LPs. AMG.

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Images - Images 1977

The 1977 record named Images is a rare French progressive folk/rock album by the band Images, It's worth listening to.

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Flamin' Groovies - Supersnazz 1969

The Flamin' Groovies' debut album went almost directly into the cut-out bins within a year or so of its 1969 release. Fortunately, the band survived the neglect heaped on that record, and has survived in one form or another into the 21st century. And in the ensuing years, Supersnazz has achieved an exalted reputation among not just Groovies fans, but lovers of rock & roll in general, having held up extraordinarily well across the decades and still able to make its own case for greatness as an astonishing document of straight-ahead rock & roll circa 1969 -- fully contemporary to its time (and, by extension, almost timeless), with none of the artificial period nostalgia (and parodying) that was already creeping into the "oldies" scene. But it's also a lot of fun; in fact, based on the evidence, Supersnazz may well have been the most fun record of 1969. Roy Loney, Cyril Jordan, Tim Lynch, George Alexander, and Danny Mihm run through a quirky mix of Loney and Loney/Jordan originals and standards, encompassing styles from proto-'70s punk (want to bet the Ramones wore out copies of this album?) to '50s New Orleans R&B, country music, and even ragtime, and while a small bit of it is compromised by the presence of some too-prominent clarinet and saxophone, the whole record is a rollicking good time, made even better by the sequencing, which offers a full range of surprises, even on the fourth or fifth listen -- one can never settle in with this record before something weirdly wonderful comes along to draw the listener in yet another direction. From the fiery, Brian Jones-era Stones-style, fuzztone-driven opener "Love Have Mercy," the band shows what it can do in everything from straight-ahead boogie to slow ballads ("A Part from That") and '50s rockers ("The Girl Can't Help It," "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu"), country ("Brushfire"), and R&B, all done with a unique array of stylistic flourishes that made this one of the most original long-players of 1969. By the ninth track, the pounding, punk-driven "Somethin' Else/Pistol Packin' Mama," the whole album achieves a kind of otherworldly continuum, like something out of a strange and wonderful corner of the universe that -- though none knew it at the time -- pointed the way to a coming decade of achievement by the likes of the Ramones, Jonathan Richman, et al, not to mention the Groovies themselves. AMG.

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The Bob Seger System - Noah 1969

For reasons never entirely explained, Bob Seger suffered a bit of a breakdown shortly after Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, so he decided to bring Tom Neme, a guitarist/pianist, into the Bob Seger System to help lighten the load and share the burden. Thing is, Neme wound up taking over the band. It's hard to tell whether Seger endorsed his mutiny or if he was just so disinterested that he didn't put up a fight, but all the same, the second Seger album, Noah, is one strange affair. The band makes no secret of the change, stating on the back cover that "Seger will always be Bob Seger, (but) any change must come from the System and Tom Neme." So, the liner notes seem like a way to gloss over a real lack of leadership or a coup, depending on your point of view. This release holds together better than it would seem, but it's still an awkward album that's never sure where it wants to go. Ironically, Neme tries to replicate Seger's hard-driving rock songs several times throughout the album while Seger sounds more comfortable with the folky shuffle of the title track. Of course, he can still tear it up with "Innervenus Eyes," and he delves deeper into darkness than he ever has with the weirdly intense, claustrophobic closer, "Death Row." No matter how good these individual cuts may be -- and they're certainly worth the time of any devoted fan -- they still are isolated moments on the only album where he sounds tentative, confused, and disinterested. In other words, the only album where Seger doesn't seem like he'll always be Seger. AMG.

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Wilburn Burchette - Opens The Seven Gates of Transcendental Consciousness 1972

American musician (guitar, synthesizer) and "mail order mystic". Born in 1939 in California (USA). Found dead in 2023 (aged 84) in the home he shared with his brother Kenneth (also found dead, aged 76) in El Cajon near San Diego (USA). Burchette was a largely self-taught guitarist and self-taught mystic, whose fascination with the occult began around the age of 12 when he "had been transfixed by the parapsychological, spending as much time reading books on Tibetan mysticism fundamentals as he did practicing guitar, the vibrations of which he used to create tonal pictures and patterns." After time spent teaching classical guitar, he constructed an Impro guitar with 6 different woods, with mahogany for the base, soft pine, elder, and rosewood. The neck was inlaid with abalone shells. Then, in the 7 years between 1971 and 1977, he released 7 albums of guitar and synthesizer music, mostly via his Burchette Brothers label (run jointly with his brother Kenneth, a chemist). He advertised these albums via mail order ads, hidden in the back pages of Fate Magazine, Beyond Reality, and Gnostica News. On offer: Burchett’s seven-part, block-printed “Psychic Meditation Course,” designed to teach people how to listen to music. To go along with his lessons: his instrumental guitar and electronic records featuring ornate hand-drawn cover designs, complete with listening instructions from the master himself. After 1977, he abruptly burnt and discarded everything related to his musical explorations. 

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As a performer and as a producer, Oliver Sain exerted an influence on the evolution of St. Louis soul and R&B that is rivaled only by that of his close friend and infrequent collaborator Ike Turner. Born March 1, 1932, in Dundee, MS, Sain was the grandson of Dan Sane, the guitarist in Frank Stokes' legendary Memphis blues act the Beale Street Sheiks. (The spelling discrepancy was the result of a birth certificate error.) The product of a Delta sharecropping family, Sain was raised near the homes of blues icons Robert Johnson and Son House -- he first picked up the bugle and then the trumpet before settling on drums, and in 1949 he relocated to Greenville, MS, to join his stepfather, pianist Willie Love, in a combo fronted by Sonny Boy Williamson. Soon after, Sain signed on with Howlin' Wolf, drumming behind the blues great off and on throughout the decade to follow; in 1950, he relocated to Greenwood to join the Claude Jones Band, and a year later was backing Clarence Hines. In late 1951 Sain was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving his boot camp stint at Oklahoma's Fort Sill before he was sent to Korea. He returned to Greenville in 1952 to rejoin Love, now backing singer Little Milton Campbell -- at this point, influenced by his great admiration for Charlie Parker, Sain adopted the saxophone, which would remain his instrument of choice for the rest of his career. In 1955 Sain moved to Chicago, reuniting with Howlin' Wolf, befriending Chess Records owners Phil and Leonard Chess, and later playing with the legendary Elmore James as well as an obscure Windy City musician known only as "Cool Breeze." He remained in Chicago until 1959, when Little Milton asked him to sit in at a gig at the East St. Louis nightspot Club Manhattan -- he never left, becoming Campbell's musical director and occasionally sitting in with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm. Sain soon exhibited an uncommon knack for discovering new talent, hiring Fontella Bass as the band's pianist -- only later did he find out she could sing, installing her in the lead vocalist slot on a night when Campbell failed to show up on time. When Sain and Campbell parted ways, the former took Bass with him, naming her lead vocalist in his newly formed Oliver Sain Soul Revue alongside another discovery, singer Bobby McClure. The group made its recorded debut in 1964 with the Bobbin label release "Heavy Sugar"; a year later, Sain wrote and produced Bass and McClure's Top Ten R&B duet "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing," recorded in Chicago at Chess Studios and issued on the Chess subsidiary Checker. Although Bass left the Soul Revue later in 1965, Sain wrote a handful of the songs recorded for her debut solo effort, including "Soul of a Man," the B-side to her blockbuster "Rescue Me"; her replacement in the group was Barbara Carr, who soon after also signed a solo deal with Chess despite remaining with Sain until 1972. With revenue earned thanks to the success of "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing," Sain founded his own recording studio, Archway, in 1965 -- there he would produce an innumerable number of acts in the years to follow, ranging from soul harmony group the Montclairs to avant-garde saxophonist Julius Hemphill to aspiring gospel singers who lived in the neighborhood. Over time he developed a distinctively full, dynamic sound that would come to help define the St. Louis soul aesthetic, earning the nickname "The Man With the Golden Horn" from his peers. Sain continued honing his approach over the span of singles like "Tanya" and "On the Hill" (sampled decades later on Puff Daddy's "Young G's"), issued via his own Vanessa label -- during the late '60s, he also began licensing material to the Abet label, resulting in singles like "St. Louis Breakdown" and "Scratch My Back." In 1972, Abet released his first ever full-length effort, Main Man; Bus Stop followed two years later, and when the title cut became a U.K. chart smash, Sain mounted his first British tour. With 1975's Blue Max, Sain finally cracked the American charts via the disco-flavored "Booty Bumpin'," which reached number 78 on Billboard's R&B charts; the follow-up, "Party Hearty," was an even bigger hit, rising to the number 16 spot. In the spring of 1977 Sain returned to the R&B charts one last time when "Feel Like Dancin'" squeaked in at number 100. His next album, So Good (In the Morning), did not appear until 1981, and two years later he released his final studio LP, Fused Jazz. He remained an in-demand producer, and in 1982 helmed Larry Davis' Funny Stuff, which won the W.C. Handy Album of the Year award; Sain also toured regularly, even officially representing the city of St. Louis during one of his European junkets. Around 1994 he was diagnosed with cancer of the bladder, but the illness did little to slow him down and he remained an institution of the St. Louis live music circuit, playing each Thursday evening at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups until his death on October 28, 2003. In the months prior to his death Sain was reportedly working on a new LP -- as of this writing, the sessions remain unreleased. AMG.
 

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Michael Stanley Band - Cabin Fever 1978

1978's Cabin Fever is one of the most interesting albums in the Michael Stanley Band catalog due to the circumstances of its recording and the music contained within. It was MSB's first release on Arista Records and it was produced by up-and-comer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who would helm AC/DC's Highway to Hell the next year and quickly become one of the most important and successful producers of the 1980s and beyond. Originally, Bob Ezrin was supposed to produce the album, but Stanley isn't sure why that plan fell apart. Cabin Fever was recorded in Wales and England and Stanley remembers plastering the control room with photos of Blondie's Debbie Harry and sharing Trident Studios with Genesis in London. Gary Markasky replaced Jonah Koslen as lead guitarist, and it was the first studio album for keyboardist Bob Pelander, but the last album for bassist Daniel Pecchio. "Baby if You Wanna Dance" is the appropriately boisterous opening track. "Long Time (Looking for a Dream)" is a gentle pop ballad and the string section was directed by Electric Light Orchestra arranger Lou Clark. "Misery Loves Company" rocks along with an upbeat sound despite depressing lyrics. The piano-based ballad "Why Should Love Be This Way" is pleasant, but its creation was a bit convoluted as Stanley explains in the Razor & Tie CD reissue liner notes. Arista boss Clive Davis didn't like the original version, so MSB re-recorded the lead vocals and piano and remixed it; Lange, Davis, and Rick Chertoff are credited as co-producers. The original version is included as a bonus track on the Razor & Tie CD. "Slip Away" includes bright rhythm guitar and strong all-around vocals. The off-kilter beat of "Only a Dreamer" features a complex arrangement and nice organ and guitar work. AMG.

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Exuma - Do Wah Nanny 1971

Exuma's debut album was a real odd piece of work, even by the standards of the late '60s and early '70s, when major labels went further out on a limb to throw weird stuff at the public to see what would stick than they ever had before or have since. Roughly speaking, it's kind of like a combination of the Bahamian folk of Joseph Spence with early Dr. John at his most voodooed-out, though even that nutshell doesn't really do justice to how unusual this record is. Often it seems more like eavesdropping on a tribal ritual than listening to songs. Some of the tracks, indeed, have little or less to do with conventional "songs" than with tunes and lyrics; they're more akin to Mardi Gras street percussion jams airlifted to the Caribbean islands. Exuma and his accompanists make quite a spooky clamor with their various bells, foot drums, chanting, gasps, sighs, shouts, and other percussive instruments, creating a mood both celebratory and scary. He's not totally averse to using more standard song forms, though, singing about "zombies walking in the broad daylight" in "Mama Loi, Papa Loi"; devising a simple, fairly singable soul melody for "You Don't Know What's Going On," his most famous song due to its inclusion in the movie Joe; and setting "The Vision" to an appealing, if again quite simple, folk melody. Exuma's rough, unschooled vocals cut off any prospect of mainstream accessibility, but they get the job done in getting both his uplifting and ominous spirituality over. It's a little surprising that this stuff hasn't undergone a sizable cult revival; many artists of lesser talent and idiosyncrasy have, and perhaps the 2003 CD reissue on Repertoire, with reasonably informed liner notes, will aid in its rediscovery. AMG.

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Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick 1972

Jethro Tull's first LP-length epic is a masterpiece in the annals of progressive rock, and one of the few works of its kind that still holds up decades later. Mixing hard rock and English folk music with classical influences, set to stream-of-consciousness lyrics so dense with imagery that one might spend weeks pondering their meaning -- assuming one feels the need to do so -- the group created a dazzling tour de force, at once playful, profound, and challenging, without overwhelming the listener. The original LP was the best-sounding, best-engineered record Tull had ever released, easily capturing the shifting dynamics between the soft all-acoustic passages and the electric rock crescendos surrounding them. AMG.
 

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