Jan Dukes de Grey - Mice And Rats In The Loft 1971

Jan Dukes de Grey was a strange progressive folk-rock outfit who were one of the last acts of their kind signed to England's Decca Records -- not to the Deram imprint, which had started out as a progressive label before getting sidetracked and muddled, but on the Decca Nova line, a short-lived, true progressive rock label. The group started out as a duo of Michael Bairstow and Derek Noy, multi-instrumentalists who stood midway between Tyrannosaurus Rex (the pre-T.Rex Marc Bolan acoustic outfit) and Jethro Tull, doing all original material by Noy, very short all-acoustic songs, some with strange lyrics and highlighted by odd, dissonant flute passages. Their debut album, Sorcerers, was filled with interesting and sometimes memorable melodies, but its sound was so spare, almost minimalist, that there was no hope of getting serious airplay or sales.

For their second album, Mice and Rats in the Loft recorded for Transatlantic in 1971, Jan Dukes de Grey became a trio with the addition of drummer Dennis Conlan and also assumed a more progressive approach to their work. The album had three extended tracks, all highlighted by flashier playing, but their continued low-wattage approach to progressive music made Jan Dukes de Grey less than competitive against the likes of the Strawbs and other ex-folk outfits. Mice and Rats in the Loft wasn't much more successful than Sorcerers, and Jan Dukes de Grey disappeared during the early '70s. AMG.

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Thorinshield - Thorinshield 1968

In any given era, there are numerous albums by rock musicians who've obviously assimilated styles and ideas from many leading figures of the period but don't synthesize them in a particularly interesting way. Such was the case with Thorinshield's only album, where elements of the psychedelic Beatles, the Byrds, California harmony pop groups, and singer/songwriters jostle side by side, but the songs themselves aren't too notable. It's pop-folk-rock sung, played, harmonized, and produced with late-'60s Los Angeles craftsmanship, and if you're looking for stuff that's well-executed with those traits, it has its pleasing qualities. You'd be hard-pressed to say much about what makes this stick out from the crowd, however, and at times the inspirations become kind of obvious. "Brave New World" sounds like a mating of the Byrds, Donovan, and the Mamas & the Papas, for instance; "The Best of It" shades those colors with something of a more mainstream pop slant to the songwriting; "Prelude to a Postlude" nods to earnest singer/songwriters of the time by Bob Lind, Tim Hardin, and the like, though again with a more mainstream approach; and "One Girl" is a pretty blatant, if decent, cop of 1966-1967 Donovan. [The 2006 CD reissue on Fallout adds brief historical liner notes and both sides of the 1968 non-LP single "Family of Man" b/w "Lonely Mountain Again."] AMG.

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Steamhammer - Speech 1972

Musically, Steamhammer was the cream of the crop of all rock bands from their thriving primordial era. In the realm of power rock trios, they were comparable to Cream. Yet this band is far superior in every way, but they failed to get the rave reviews and critical attention that the flashier Cream garnered. Diverging from the typical power rock style on Speech, their fourth and final album, the band found themselves in a dilemma without their vocalist, who had left after the previous release, Mountains. This led to a radical development for the band. Instead of hiring a new singer, the rest of the group picked up the slack, and reduced the role of the vocals significantly, opting for a progressive jam style that was hugely innovative for its time. Guitarist Martin Pugh offers a crashing, furious style that mixes Jimmy Page with early Robert Fripp. When Pugh seeks passages of beauty and tranquility, he finds them with ease, but when he aims for intensity, watch out! He literally attacks the listener, pounding them with his mammoth, perfectly executed riffs. Meanwhile, bassist Louis Cennamo is so talented and innovative that he single-handedly brought the bow into rock music with his bowed bass intro to the album. Several years before Page would pick up the bow for "Kashmir," Cennamo uses the bowed bass as means to an end, not for simple effect. Just as a normal bassist alone, masters within the genre owe their lifeblood to him. For he is able to play along with just about the toughest, most technical drumming around, that of drummer Mick Bradley, who is easily the most accomplished musician of the trio. To state that he is rock's greatest drummer is simply not enough. His energetic approach to the drum kit helped him become one of the first and only drummers in rock history, along with King Crimson's Michael Giles, to use polyrhythmic drumming, a style commonly used by jazz drummers. His dynamic performance on the primarily instrumental "For Against," blows away John Bonham's "Moby Dick" and Ginger Baker's "Toad" in a heartbeat. On this album, there was a rumor that the band received some secret vocal and lyrical help from Yardbirds vocalist Keith Relf. Whether or not this is true remains a mystery, but what is a fact, sadly, is that not long after this album Mick Bradley succumbed to Leukemia and passed away. This marked the end of Steamhammer, but the other two members forged on, forming a band called Armageddon. Speech is one of rock's finest and most creative hours, and one tends to wonder where Steamhammer could have gone from this point on had it not been for obscurity and sudden tragedy. AMG.

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John Martyn - London Conversation 1967

In 1967, John Martyn became the first white solo act to sign with Island Records. While this is notable in the history of the label, his initial release, London Conversation, on the other hand, stands as a mere footnote. The record, though incorporating touches of blues and his characteristic guitar and vocal, doesn't really prepare you for what's to come from Martyn. The album is a basic, no-frills, guitar and voice effort, although one track, the droning dulcimer and flute-driven "Rolling Home," shows Martyn's urge to stretch, which would become much more evident in the coming years. His vocal delivery is traditionally British, while his playing is steeped in the eclectic folk of British artists such as Davey Graham and Bert Jansch, as well as American blues and folk. London Conversation, whose material (written primarily by Martyn) reflects the era and his age (18 years old), comes across as a young, although soon be an important artist looking for a voice. AMG

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B.T. Express - Non Stop 1975

When one thinks of the cultural contributions that Brooklyn's African-American neighborhoods made in the 1980s and 1990s, the people who immediately come to mind range from director Spike Lee to major rappers (the Fat Boys, Big Daddy Kane, MC Lyte, Biz Markie, among many others) to soul/urban contemporary singer James "D-Train" Williams. But back in the 1970s, Brooklyn was known for its disco-minded brand of funk. Brooklyn funk wasn't the kind of hardcore funk that you expected from James Brown, George Clinton's P-funk empire (Parliament/Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins, the Brides of Funkenstein, etc.), the Gap Band, Rick James, or the Ohio Players -- it was funk-disco, and Brooklyn outfits like B.T. Express, the Crown Heights Affair, and Skyy were huge in the clubs (especially black clubs). When B.T. Express' second album, Non-Stop, came out in 1975, Scepter assumed that it would fare well in dance clubs -- and sure enough, club DJs went wild over this record. However, Non-Stop contained some major radio hits as well, including "Peace Pipe" and "Give It What You Got" (both of which reached number five on Billboard's R&B singles chart). Meanwhile, "Still Good, Still Like It" and "Discotizer" are among the tracks that weren't big radio hits but grabbed the attention of club jocks. The LP's only ballad is a cover of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David favorite "Close to You"; although B.T. Express' version is pleasant enough, the fact remains that romantic ballads were never its strong point. Up-tempo material is what defines Non-Stop and makes it one of the band's finest, most essential albums. AMG.

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Christopher - Christopher 1970

From the psychedelic tribal blues opener "Dark Road" through to the end of the album, Christopher shows just how strong the second-level psychedelia of the late '60s could be. There was no shortage of great musicians hailing from Texas during the era, and the ones who remained in the state were forming some of the most idiosyncratic bands of the swirling, inventive times: top-flight bands such as Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Lost & Found, the Golden Dawn, and Christopher. Christopher, though, cannot exactly be lumped together with those peers. They had to leave Texas for California to make their mark, and indeed, Christopher owes a good deal to the music of that state -- songs such as "Magic Cycles" and "In Your Time" are informed by the dreamier qualities of the San Francisco sound, especially the extended atmospherics of Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. There are also hints of fellow Los Angeles bands the Doors and Spirit throughout the album, and like the best music coming out of California, the songs on Christopher sound somehow revolutionary and foreboding, as if there is something dark lurking just beneath the surface of the music. Occasionally, Christopher occupied similar musical territory as Cream. They were not unfamiliar with the blues, and, like the British supergroup, they were an absurdly powerful three-piece with an abundance of ability in both instrumental and songwriting proficiency. In addition, Doug Walden's vocals are a dead ringer for Jack Bruce. With that said, the album actually sounds quite different from Cream. Christopher are somehow both more mystical and earthy. "Dark Road" starts out with a loping, jazzy blues groove before being propelled forward by a tempo change and some brilliant, musical drumming. "Wilbur Lite" seems grounded by some slashing chording by Richard Avitts, but then an open-ended melody and upward bass progression raise the song up off its legs. "Queen Mary" rolls along on top of a choppy drum beat and bass groove until Walden's phenomenal spine-tingling vocals soar above the music, uncontainable. The music itself, however, never spins out of restraint. The songs are all relatively succinct, never growing excessive or dull, and Avitts' guitar playing is economical. The lyrics can get a bit pretentious here and there, but that doesn't even really qualify as a minor flaw since it is a product of ambitiousness and the era. Christopher is one of the finer albums to have fallen completely through the cracks of the '60s, and Christopher is one of the era's best-forgotten bands. One wishes that they had stuck around long enough to create more music. AMG.

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Blodwyn Pig - Ahead Rings Out 1969

None of Jethro Tull's progressive rock tendencies or classical influences followed Mick Abrahams into his creation of Blodwyn Pig, even with the inclusion Jack Lancaster's sax- and flute-playing prowess. Instead, Abrahams built up a sturdy British blues-rock sound and used Lancaster's horn work to add some fire to the band's jazzy repertoire. Ahead Rings Out is a stellar concoction of gritty yet flamboyant blues-rock tunes and open-ended jazz centered around Mick Abrahams' cool-handed guitar playing, but it's the nonstop infusion of the other styles that makes the album such a solid listen. After only one album with Jethro Tull, Abrahams left to form this band, and it's evident that he had a lot of pent-up energy inside him when he recorded each of the album's tracks. With a barrage of electrifying rhythms and fleeting saxophone and woodwind excursions, cuts like "Sing Me a Song That I Know," "Up and Coming," and "Backwash" whip up highly energetic sprees of rock and blues. Most of the tracks have a hearty shot of rock up the middle, but in cuts like "The Change Song" and "Backwash," the explosive riffs are accompanied by a big band style of enthusiasm, adding even more depth to the material. Andy Pyle's bass playing is definitely distinct throughout each track and is used for anything but a steady background, while labeling Ron Berg's drumming as freewheeling and intemperate would be an understatement. It's apparent that Blodwyn Pig's style is indeed distinct, releasing a liberated and devil-may-care intensity while still managing to stay on track, but the fact that each cut convokes a different type of instrumental spiritedness is where the album really gains its reputation. Wonderfully busy and even a tad motley in some places, Ahead Rings Out shows off the power and vitality that can be channeled by combining a number of classic styles without sounding pretentious or overly inflated. A year later, Blodwyn Pig recorded Getting to This before Abrahams left the band, and although it's a solid effort, it falls just a smidgen short of Ahead Rings Out's bluesy dynamism. AMG.

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Spooky Tooth - Spooky Two 1969

Spooky Two is this British blues-rock band's pièce de résistance. All eight of the tracks compound free-styled rock and loose-fitting guitar playing, resulting in some fantastic raw music. With Gary Wright on keyboards and vocals and lead singer Mike Harrison behind the microphone, their smooth, relaxed tempos and riffs mirrored bands like Savoy Brown and, at times, even the Yardbirds. With some emphasis on keyboards, songs like "Lost in My Dream" and the nine-minute masterpiece "Evil Woman" present a cool, nonchalant air that grooves and slides along perfectly. "I've Got Enough Heartache" whines and grieves with some sharp bass playing from Greg Ridley, while "Better by You, Better Than Me" is the catchiest of the songs, with its clinging hooks and desperate-sounding chorus. The last song, "Hangman Hang My Shell on a Tree," is a splendid example of the bandmembers' ability to play off of one another, mixing soulful lyrics with downtrodden instrumentation to conjure up the perfect melancholia. Although Spooky Tooth lasted about seven years, their other albums never really contained the same passion or talent collaborating by each individual musician as Spooky Two. AMG.

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John Mayall - Moving On 1973

Following the 1972 album "Jazz Blues Fusion", John Mayall decide to record a live concert featuring the same line-up of his precedent studio album but with an extended horn section. They took the stage of Whisky Agogo in Los Angeles and produce a great concert. Mayall is always at ease with great musicians he has some very sure taste and knows how to get the most out of everyone. Freddie Robinson, the guitar player is particularly hot on this record. As usual in a jazz band, he takes regularly a chorus and his playing is really inspired by the extended "Worried mind" tune and "Moving on". Among the gems of this recording "Moving on" is my favorite with Blue Mitchell chorus on trumpet and of course Freddie on guitar. Mayall is up to the talent of his musicians and sings with lots of feeling and swing.

"Worried mind" is also a great number extending up to 8mn45s with the chorus from John, Blue Mitchell, Charles Owens on the soprano, Victor on upright bass, Keef for a drums break, and finally Freddy. Overall the quality of the recording is excellent, warm, and with a nice response from the audience. AMG.

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Dire Straits - Dire Straits 1978

Dire Straits' minimalist interpretation of pub rock had already crystallized by the time they released their eponymous debut. Driven by Mark Knopfler's spare, tasteful guitar lines and his husky warbling, the album is a set of bluesy rockers. And while the bar band mentality of pub-rock is at the core of Dire Straits -- even the group's breakthrough single, "Sultans of Swing," offered a lament for a neglected pub rock band -- their music is already beyond the simple boogies and shuffles of their forefathers, occasionally dipping into jazz and country. Knopfler also shows an inclination toward Dylanesque imagery, which enhances the smoky, low-key atmosphere of the album. While a few of the songs fall flat, the album is remarkably accomplished for a debut, and Dire Straits had difficulty surpassing it throughout their career. AMG.

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Diana Ross - Diana Ross 1970

Her self-titled debut LP (later retitled Ain't No Mountain High Enough after the single became a hit) was arguably her finest solo work at Motown and perhaps her best ever; it was certainly among her most stunning. Everyone who doubted whether Diana Ross could sustain a career outside the Supremes found out immediately that she would be a star. The single "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" remains a staple in her shows, and is still her finest message track. AMG.

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Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera - Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera 1967

Although labeled a psychedelic band in their day, the Opera never sat comfortably in that strawberry field, partially because of the diversity of their sound, but also due to the simple fact they were just too far ahead of their time even for the psyched-out crowd. In fact, Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera continued to sound thoroughly modern for decades, while their myriad musical meanderings took them down wayward byways that later became stylistic highways -- at least in their native U.K.. So it's no surprise then, that this band would have slotted perfectly into the Britpop scene, or going back further in time, into the R&B-drenched mod scene. The Opera's admiration for R&B is evident on "Intro," an homage to Archie Bell & the Drells, while their equal respect for bluesy jazz is showcased on a fabulous cover of Oscar Brown's "I Was Cool" which absolutely smokes. "Flames," in contrast, fires the band straight into rockabilly, and boasts a thumping intro bassline that, coincidentally enough, would also storm through the Jam's "Town Called Malice." So where's the psychedelia? Well "Air" languidly drifts on sitars across India, but it's heard most magnificently on the instrumental freak-out "Walter Sly Meets Bill Bailey." The rest of the 13-song set, in contrast, slides into gentler, harmony drenched numbers reminiscent of the Kinks, early Small Faces, and of course the Beatles. [The Akarma label's reissue of the album appends the Opera's trio of singles released between 1967 and 1969. Thus we find the 45 rpm versions of "Flames" and "Mary Jane," as well as the driving non-album "Volcano," accompanied by their B-sides. It's a welcome return for a seminal album, and makes it all the harder to believe Gantry himself would later turn up in 1975 fronting one-hit U.K. wonders Stretch, while the Opera's rhythm section itself would resurface in the Strawbs.] AMG.

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It's All Meat - It's All Meat 1970

It's All Meat came from Toronto, Ontario, and released a superb but little-known album on the Columbia label in 1970. The band consisted of Rick Aston (bass), Jed MacKay (organ, piano), Rick McKim (drums), Wayne Roworth (guitar), and Norm White (guitar). MacKay and McKim both previously played together with Toronto's Underworld, whose lone single, "Go Away," released in 1968, is considered one of Canada's most sought-after garage band songs. The music of It's All Meat most often sounds like the Doors ("Crying into a Deep Lake," "Self-Confessed Lover"), while at other times the band is a dead ringer for the Rolling Stones ("Make Some Use of Your Friends"). This reissue, the second CD release on the Hallucinations label, features the entire It's All Meat album along with six previously unreleased bonus tracks and demos recorded by the band between 1969-1971. It also features the band's first non-LP single, the garage punk rocker "Feel It" released in 1970. This package of 15 songs is an excellent example of early-'70s keyboard-dominated psychedelia, garage punk, and haunting keyboard sounds. The CD packaging reproduces the original album graphics, but the only drawback to the set is that it is, unfortunately, missing an essay or some sort of biography on the band. The sound has been digitally remastered and for the most part it appears to have been taken from a vinyl source, as there is occasional vinyl static in places, but the sound quality is fairly good overall. Considering the rarity of the original It's All Meat album, this release should be welcomed by any fan of early-'70s garage and psychedelic sounds. AMG.

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The Human Instinct - Pins In It 1971

This is at least an improvement over the interminable Stoned Guitar, with a much more concerted attempt to write songs and go for a somewhat more wide-ranging scope of early-'70s progressive rock than the heavy blues-psychedelia that dominated their first albums. This may have been due to the absence of songs by non-member Jesse Harper, who wrote much of the material on the first two Human Instinct LPs. It's still not that good, however. It is routine hard-progressive-psychedelic early-'70s rock, perhaps good enough to give them headliner (and later cult) status in New Zealand but bottom-of-the-bill ranking in the U.K and U.S. The decision to cover Pink Floyd's "The Nile Song" is certainly unusual; this would have been considered kinda nuts in England and America, but perhaps not as odd in more remote New Zealand, where audiences would have been less likely to be familiar with the original version. It doesn't match the Pink Floyd rendition, though. AMG.

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V.A. - Rock Machine I Love You 1968

Sometimes sampler albums really work, and this is a case in point. Columbia was notoriously shaky when it came to these packages, but someone here obviously took some time and came up with something cool. Promoting their hipper titles to the English market, Rock Machine: I Love You really succeeds. They had a hell of a lot of great ammunition, too. With tracks by Simon & Garfunkel("America"), Laura Nyro ("Stoned Soul Picnic"), Big Brother & the Holding Company ("Ball and Chain"), and numerous others, it showed the hip side of a very large conglomerate label, and made listeners feel like they were being properly addressed. There are some interesting curios as well, including Dino Valente's "Time" and John Simon's "My Name Is Jack," which is from the cult doper classic You Are What You Eat. These are difficult titles to find, and if you're specifically looking for them, you'll find a lot more entertainment on this record. AMG.

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