Ace - Five-A-Side 1974

“How Long,” the song that broke Ace and by many measures defines them, doesn’t necessarily present the most accurate picture of the band or its 1974 debut, Five-A-Side. Sure, Ace had a knack for a soft soulful groove that distinguished them from their pub rock brethren and in Paul Carrack they had perhaps the best blue-eyed soul singer the scene produced (Frankie Miller being a close contender for the title), but neither are the focal point on Five-A-Side, a record evenly balanced between the singer and quintet, as the title implies. Most of the ten-track record doesn’t ride the same easy rhythm as “How Long"; “The Real Feeling” and “Why” come close, containing some of the same ‘70s polyester sheen, but those bear stronger resemblance to the rest of the record, the songs that are heavily rooted in American roots rock, some of which are not sung by Carrack. Ace deftly mimicked the bluesy country-rock of Delaney & Bonnie, choosing to emphasize R&B over shaggy country-folk, thereby sounding quite different than their Band-loving peers. All this gives Five-A-Side a smooth, relaxed quality even on Ace’s relatively harder-rocking numbers like “Sniffin’ About” and that laid-back groove is appealing, partially because there’s just enough grit in their interplay to keep this from being lazy, partially because the songs -- chiefly written by Carrack, who bears eight songwriting credits -- are so strong, excellent pieces of straight-ahead rock & roll and blue-eyed soul that make this album something of a minor gem of its time. [Cherry Red’s 2011 expanded reissue adds a disc of bonus tracks, beginning with the amiable instrumental outtake “Tastes Like Fish,” running through a Peel Session from November 1974, then concluding with a Bob Harris Session from the following month. All the BBC sessions are first-rate, capturing a band just a little rawer and looser than on record, a band making the most of its pub rock classification.] AMG.

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Country Joe & The Fish - I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die 1967

Country Joe & the Fish's second album, "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die", is quite similar to their first in its organ-heavy psychedelia with Eastern-influenced melodic lines, but markedly inferior to the debut, and much more of a period piece. There's more spaciness and less comic energy here, and while the bandmembers were undoubtedly serious in their explorations, some of these songs are simply silly in their cosmic naïveté. To be crueler, there is no other album that exemplifies so strongly the kind of San Francisco psychedelia that Frank Zappa skewered on his classic We're Only in It for the Money. The weeping, minor-key melodies, liquid guitar lines, and earnestly self-absorbed quests to explore the inner psyche -- it's almost as if they put themselves up as a dartboard for the Mothers to savage. For all that, the best songs are good; "Who Am I" and "Thursday" are touching psychedelic ballads. But more notably, the title cut -- whose brash energy is atypical of the album -- was a classic antiwar satire that became one of the decade's most famous protest songs, and the group's most famous track. AMG.

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Al Kooper - A Possible Projection of the Future - Childhood's End 1972

A Possible Projection of the Future / Childhood's End is American musician Al Kooper's fifth album, recorded for and released by Columbia Records in 1972. Begun with a vague storyline that failed to survive beyond the two title tracks, the album was recorded in London, England at George Martin's AIR Studios with one outtake from New York City (You're A Woman). Six original tracks were surrounded by covers of Bob Dylan ("The Man in Me", which Kooper had originally produced), Smokey Robinson ("Swept For You Baby"), and even Jimmy Cliff ("Please Tell Me Why"). The album cover showed Kooper as an eighty-year-old man, decrepit and clutching a Fender Jaguar guitar.

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Genya Ravan - Urban Desire 1978

Urban Desire is Genya Ravan creating music on her terms after artistically successful work with producers Richard Perry, Jimmy Miller, and Jim Price, along with the three strong albums she recorded with Ten Wheel Drive. As producer of the prototypical punk band the Dead Boys and their classic single "Sonic Reducer," Ravan was an essential part of the new wave explosion of the '70s, which was a blend of punk rock and power pop. Urban Desire is the quintessential new wave album, and though it caused a stir, it has never fully been recognized as the groundbreaking work it is. A driving cover of the Supremes hit "Back in My Arms Again" has guitarists Conrad Taylor and Ritchie Fliegler fragmenting Deep Purple's "My Woman from Tokyo" riff under Ravan's brilliant New York party atmosphere. That comes right after her duet with Lou Reed, a tune called "Aye Co'lorado," one of the album's highlights written by Ravan and keyboard player Charlie Giordano. Classic girl group vocals, blues sensibilities, and the hard edge of underground rock & roll are the ingredients that propel "Jerry's Pigeons" and "Cornered," while a John Cale signature tune, "Darling, I Need You," becomes a barroom brawl -- and that's thanks to the band assembled for this: Bobby Chen on drums, Don Nossov on bass, along with the aforementioned Fliegler, Taylor, and Giordano. Ravan's harp playing pushes "Messin Around," which keeps up the intensity -- and volume. Joe Droukas, who would author the successful "Junkman" duet with Ian Hunter on Ravan's next outing, ...And I Mean It, brings the disc to a close with his third composition on Urban Desire, a tune called "Shadowboxing." Genya gets mellow with this performance, which feels like Ten Wheel Drive meets the Rolling Stones at the "Memory Motel." A bit of a different groove from the equally profound ...And I Mean It, which was released a year later. Both recordings would make a fine combination on CD. AMG.

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Hard Stuff - Bulletproof 1971

Fated never to rise to any heights at all, Hard Stuff -- formed by guitarist John Du Cann following his unceremonious firing from Atomic Rooster -- had already been through two names before they were signed to Deep Purple's Purple label; Daemon lasted a few rehearsals; Bullet survived a single; they became Hard Stuff after another Bullet fired a legal complaint at them, and Bulletproof was their riposte. It is heavy and it is loud. Period reviews mused on the Purple influence and they are not far from the mark, but only if organ were excised from the mix, to be replaced by guitars, guitars, and more guitars. Du Cann showboats through the album, a ferocious assault that is at times reminiscent of a lot less bluesy Cream or Taste, but fellow Rooster alumni Paul Hammond (drums) and veteran bassist John Gustafson are equally on the ball, to create an album that was hallmarked by virtuosity as much as volume, and truly deserved to be heard. Instead it slipped away, alongside a second single ("Jay Time"), and Angel Air's 2011 remaster, with 45-rpm bonus tracks intact, marks its first reappearance in 40 years. It is a welcome return. AMG.

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Guitar Slim Green with Johnny & Shuggie Otis - Stone Down Blues 1970

Guitar Slim Green wasn't a prolific bluesman by any means. He recorded several sides in the '40s, '50s, and '60s, including a pair of singles for Johnny Otis' Dig, but perhaps his best-known recording is 1970's Stone Down Blues, his only full-length record. That's entirely due to who supports him on the album, produced by Johnny Otis, who also played drums on the record and brought in his son Shuggie to play bass and the occasional guitar, forming something of a power trio with Guitar Slim. Certainly, father and son help push Green away from his comfortable wheelhouse -- a wheelhouse that's firmly indebted to T-Bone Walker, whose influence can be heard on Guitar Slim's fluid single-line leads -- and into slightly funkier territory. The Otis rhythm section is loose and gritty, something that's readily apparent on the jumping opener "Shake 'Em Up" and that swing pops up elsewhere, including the John Lee Hooker homage "Old Folks Blues." One of the attractive things about Stone Down Blues is how the Otises continue to goose Green along in sly ways, urging him to sing Johnny's protest tune "This War Ain't Right" and mixing up shuffles ("Make Love All Night") with slow 12-bar blues ("My Little Angel Child"), piano blues ("You Make Me Feel So Good"), and urbanized country blues ("Big Fine Thing"). Green's gravelly voice and mellow presence help tie this all together and the whole album feels something like a casual triumph: Johnny Otis is paying his old friend a favor and, in doing so, finds an unwitting intersection between the old and modern blues at the turn of the '60s. AMG.

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My Solid Ground - My Solid Ground 1971

This obscure Krautrock record from 1971 has long been considered a classic of the genre, and the first track, the 13-minute "Dirty Yellow Mist," certainly lives up to its reputation, as the group goes into dark space rock that sounds like something between Pink Floyd and Thirsty Moon, with lots of long keyboard drones, a crunchy guitar riff, some acid guitar licks, and some distorted spoken vocals, as well as some higher-pitched wordless chanting. Unfortunately, much of the rest of the record does not live up to the promise of that first track, coming off like a typical early-'70s hard rock band, with belted vocals and maybe some occasionally interesting guitar work. "That's You" has enough energy to be proto-punk, and certainly its chorus of "do you wanna die" doesn't weaken that impression. Far more notable is the track "The Executioner," a sinister piece that alternates between echoed-spoken vocals and intense guitar solos. The rest of the original album is too mainstream, but thankfully the CD adds another album's worth of bonus tracks, and some of these are really good, especially the original full-length version of "Flash," a 24-minute tour de force of guitar solo blitzkrieg between a variety of segued pieces, some of which are far better than the two-minute cut that ended up on the LP. Other bonus tracks include some instrumental versions of songs and a stripped-down version of "Dirty Yellow Mist." AMG.
 

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People - Ceremony~Buddha Meet Rock 1971

In a very real sense, Ceremony: Buddha Meet Rock is a knockoff album, a producer's attempt to cash in on a trend. But it's also an undisputed classic of the Japanese psychedelic underground. Given that a major locus for the said underground was the tumultuous, never-staged Japanese production of the musical Hair, maybe this shouldn't be that surprising. Credited to "People," the disc was organized by Hideki Sakamoto, Teichiku Records' A&R director, in an attempt to create a fresh version of what Polydor chief Ikuzo Orita had done on his so-called super-session LPs under band names like Foodbrain and Love Live Life + One. Creating a vague concept for the LP -- Buddhism! -- Sakamoto enlisted Orita's house guitarist, Kimio Mizutani, arranger Yusuke Hoguchi, and poet Naoki Tachikawa. For a super-session LP, though, and especially one featuring Mizutani, there is precious little shredding. Instead, the album focuses on gentle, droning jams. On "Prayer, Pt. 1," Mizutani's acoustic fingerpicking propels wordless harmonies, sounding more like freak folk than freak-out -- at least until "Prayer, Pt. 2," though, when Mizutani kicks out the jams while women moan orgasmically. For the disc's epilogue, Sakamoto semi-accidentally became arguably the first of many producers to sample jazz-funk arranger David Axelrod, though more out of necessity than invention. Reportedly, the project went over budget, and was completed by adding bird sounds and a few fresh layers of jams to Axelrod's 1968 recording "Holy Thursday." Like the album's broader knockoffery, it works astonishingly well. AMG.
 

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The Freak Scene - Psychedelic Psoul 1967

The one and only Freak Scene record is just one chapter in the strange saga of entrepreneurial psychedelic pioneer/journeyman Rusty Evans, whose first album was the Deep's 1966 release Psychedelic Moods. Like that project, the Freak Scene was strictly a studio outing staffed by sidemen, not a full-fledged band at all. Nevertheless, Psychedelic Psoul's reputation as a psych-exploitation album is unjust; while the trippy themes and production techniques employed here would become clichés of psychedelic-era rock, they weren't clichés in 1967, when the style was still in its infancy. In fact, a strong case could be made for Evans being ahead of the curve. "Mind Bender," for instance, with its Dadaist recitations, throbbing pulse, and scrappy guitars, predated the Velvet Underground's very similar "Murder Mystery" by a couple of years. The combination of tape manipulation and exotic world music influences on the short instrumental "Grok!" seems rather prescient in retrospect as well. Besides, even if the most cynical opinions turned out to be true, and the backwards guitars, fuzztones, and "far out" effects overflowing from most of the tracks on Psychedelic Psoul were incorporated strictly in the interest of bandwagon-jumping, it was all done skillfully enough that it doesn't really matter, especially so many decades after the fact. Psychedelic Psoul stands as an evocative sonic time capsule, although "topical" spoken word pieces like "When in the Course of Human Events" admittedly haven't aged as well as the album's more conventional, melodic compositions. Followers of Evans' journey -- after the Freak Scene, he went on to make an excellent, atmospheric psych-folk album under the alias Marcus -- may be interested to note that Psychedelic Psoul's opening track, "A Million Grains of Sand," appeared in different versions on both Psychedelic Moods and the Marcus album. AMG.

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The Nice - Five Bridges 1970

Five Bridges is a delectable representation of early-'70s progressive rock. Its makeup contains all of the elements needed to complete a solid prog album: a heavy intermingling of synthesizer and electric guitar, strong punctuation of both bass and drums, a central concept, and the fusing of rock and classical music, which in this case employs the Sinfonia of London. The eight tracks, centered around Newcastle's urban structure and life in a blue collar society, are as colorful as they are intricate. "Intermezzo" from Sibelius' Karelia Suite, and Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" are marvelous examples of classical and rock commingling, with the spotlight focused on Keith Emerson's keyboard virtuosity. The second movement from Fantasia is a sparkling model of improvisational use containing various rock & roll rhythms and time structures, while the third track entitled "High Level Fugue 4th Bridge," was inspired by Guida's "Prelude and Fugue" and incorporates assorted jazz techniques and boogie-woogie styles into a classical recipe. "Country Pie/Brandenburg Concerto, No. 6" unites Dylan with Bach for a most extraordinary illustration of instrumental creativity. Each example of genre merging is pristine and fluid, making the actual overlapping of multiple styles completely transparent. Five Bridges may rank just a tad below The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack or Ars Longa Vita Brevis on the patience scale, but it does demonstrate how Emerson's work with ELP came into fruition. AMG.
 

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Kim Fowley - Outrageous 1968

One of the most colorful characters in the annals of rock & roll, Kim Fowley was, over the course of his decades-long career, a true jack-of-all-trades: singer, songwriter, producer, manager, disc jockey, promoter, and published poet. He was also the catalyst behind much of the pop music to emerge from the Los Angeles area during the 1960s and '70s, guiding several of his associates and protégés to fame and fortune, while remaining himself a shadowy cult figure well outside the margins of the mainstream.

The son of actor Douglas Fowley (who appeared in Singin' in the Rain), Kim Fowley was born July 27, 1942, in L.A., and made his first recordings with drummer Sandy Nelson during the late '50s. After working with a number of short-lived groups including the Paradons and the Innocents, Fowley found his first taste of success by producing the Top 20 hit "Cherry Pie" for schoolmates Gary S. Paxton and Skip Battin, who performed under the name Skip & Flip. With Battin, Fowley next created the group the Hollywood Argyles, who topped the charts in 1960 with the novelty smash "Alley Oop." The duo subsequently masterminded Paul Revere & the Raiders' first hit, "Like Long Hair," and in 1962 helped launch the Rivingtons, scoring with the classic "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow." Another novelty hit, B. Bumble & the Stingers' "Nut Rocker," reached number one in the U.K. (and would be covered by Emerson, Lake & Palmer), and in 1964 Fowley even began handling promotional chores for singer P.J. Proby; that same year, he also produced the girl group smash "Popsicles and Icicles" by the Murmaids. In the mid-'60s, Fowley became immersed in the Los Angeles counterculture, befriending Frank Zappa and his band the Mothers of Invention, and later appearing on their Freak Out! LP. A prolific songwriter, he also composed material recorded by the Byrds, Cat Stevens, Them, and Kiss, and produced the likes of Gene Vincent, Warren Zevon, Soft Machine, and Helen Reddy. Finally, in 1967 Fowley issued his own solo debut, Love Is Alive and Well, a record that found him closely aligned with the flower power movement. (Fowley also claimed to have staged the first "love-in" in Los Angeles.) A series of solo records followed, including 1968's suitably titled Outrageous, 1970's The Day the Earth Stood Still, and 1973's International Heroes, but none garnered the commercial success of so many of his other projects.
In 1975, after completing the LP Animal God of the Streets, Fowley returned to his Svengali role by assembling the notorious Runaways, a teenage hard rock girl group featuring a young Joan Jett, Lita Ford, and Cherie Currie. Designed as equal parts manufactured novelty and bid for female rock & roll domination, the group didn't sell many records in their original run but proved to be massively influential, and after the original group splintered, Fowley even launched another Runaways in the '80s. (Another girl group, the Orchids, was his idea as well, as were the Hollywood Stars, conceived as the L.A. answer to the New York Dolls.) 

Fowley became a mover and shaker in the early days of the Los Angeles punk scene, creating yet another manufactured band, Venus and the Razorblades, and staging "New Wave Nights" at Hollywood clubs, one of which spawned the early live album from the Germs, Germicide. Fowley's standing within the musical community faded over the course of the following decades, though he never truly went away, and in his later years, he worked with the likes of Ariel Pink and BMX Bandits. He continued recording for his small but avid cult following, most notably with 1980's Hollywood Confidential, 1993's Hotel Insomnia, and 1995's Kings of Saturday Night (a collaboration with Ben Vaughn), as well as two albums with a rotating cast of Detroit-based musicians, Michigan Babylon and Detroit Invasion. Fowley also partnered with Norton Records to release several collections of rarities from his catalog, and their affiliated publishing house Kicks Books issued a collection of his writings, Lord of Garbage. Fowley died on January 15, 2015 in West Hollywood, California after a battle with bladder cancer; he was 75 years old. AMG.

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Gaslight - Gaslight 1970

This mega-rare, dark sounding folk-psych rarity, recorded and privately released in 1970, sees its debut CD release. Accomplished musicianship with wandering violin, guitars, and moody vocals on a mix of original, trad, and classic folk tunes.

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Faine Jade - Introspection A Faine Jade Recital 1968

 

It's hard to imagine that a 20-year-old New York guitarist fresh out of garageland would have been infatuated with Syd Barrett in 1968. However, Faine Jade's 1968 album sounds as if he was besotted with Pink Floyd's first LP, which was barely known in the States at the time. Jade's vocals and songwriting uncannily evoke an American Syd Barrett with their evocative, cryptic lyrics, thick organs, and psychedelic guitar lines. "On the Inside There's a Middle" and particularly "Cold Winter Sun" never fail to inspire comparisons to Barrett when played for those unfamiliar with Jade. Faine, it's fair to say, is somewhat blunted in comparison to Barrett's madcap edge. More laid-back and grounded, he also deals more explicitly with hippie-era concerns like being hassled for being different and the necessity of being compassionate toward your brother, without being sappy or preachy. [Reissues contain remasterings from the first-generation tapes by Faine himself, and also add a few bonus cuts: backing instrumental demo tracks for a few of the songs, the previously unreleased brief instrumental "Piano Interlude," and a 1993 "reunion" performance. The extra tracks are of only minor interest, and it's disappointing that the Introspection-era demos released on It Ain't True were not included as well.]

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Fela Kuti - Kalakuta Show 1975

By the time of 1976's Kalakuta Show, Fela Kuti's releases seemed not so much like records as ongoing installments in one long jam, documenting the state of mind of Nigeria's leading contemporary musician and ideological/political dissenter. Thus, any one album works better on its own than it does when it has to bear comparison with the rest of his mountainous output. The track "Kalakuta Show" was unexceptional by his own standards, though it was a respectable lock-groove song that followed the usual graph of Kuti's song progressions. The lyrics, at any rate, go far outside the usual funk/pop spectrum, detailing his harassment at the hands of the Nigerian police. "Don't Make Garan Garan" was musically more effective, particularly in its use of the artist's characteristically eerie, out-of-sync-sounding electric keyboards. AMG.
 

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Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs - Live At Sunbury 1972

Aztecs Live! At Sunbury was a double live album released in August 1972 by Australian hard rock group Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, which was recorded at the inaugural Sunbury Pop Festival in late January. 

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