Ray Manzarek - The Golden Scarab 1974

More than Full Circle and Other Voices, The Golden Scarab is the best embodiment of the Doors by one of the three surviving members, and it is amazing it wasn't a huge underground smash. With mentions of moonlight drives, tightrope rides, and titles of past Doors tunes in "The Solar Boat," drummer Tony Williams, guitarist Larry Carlton, bassist Jerry Scheff, and producer Bruce Botnick generate an eerie sound behind the singer, creating a title track as mysterious and fun as anything by Morrison and company. With intense rhythms and tons of creativity, Ray Manzarek brings us on a musical journey as unique as The Phantom's Divine Comedy, and if Robbie Krieger brought the commercial element to the Doors' gravy train, it is clear here that the eldest of the quartet had more a hand in the development of the Doors persona than he may have been given credit for. One can't fault Krieger and John Densmore for stretching out with Butts Band, but there is a certain responsibility hit artists should have to their audience. The Bright Midnight releases finally address those concerns, but decades before the opening of the Doors tape vaults, that sound from L.A. Woman was most obvious on "The Purpose of Existence Is?" on this solo effort. Yes, Ray Manzarek veers off into his jazz leanings; given the players on this, how could he not? But he gives enough of a taste of past glories to make The Golden Scarab accessible, spoon feeding his musical styles to those who couldn't get enough of the music he was associated with. It's dramatic and cohesive, making more sense than Jim Morrison much of the time, with more controlled insanity. It is amazing that such a fine work as The Golden Scarab escaped the masses, and shameful that classic hits stations don't add this to their incessant repertoire. Had Jim Morrison lived, this is the path the music of the Doors should have taken. Smooth and demanding of repeated spins. AMG
 

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Matthews Southern Comfort - Matthews Southern Comfort 1969

This is a transitional album for Matthews. Having recently exited Fairport Convention, this record pays tribute to that period of his career in both material ("A Castle Far") and in the choice of musicians who back him (many of them from Fairport Convention). At the same time, songs like "A Commercial Proposition" indicate where Matthews is headed on 1971's Later That Same Year. AMG.

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John Entwistle - Whistle Rymes 1972

After making a surprisingly effective debut with Smash Your Head Against the Wall, Who bassist John Entwistle consolidated his solo success with Whistle Rymes. Like its predecessor, this album combines catchy, straightforward, pop-tinged rock with dark, often bitingly sarcastic lyrics; good examples include "Thinking It Over," a witty, waltz-styled tune about a potential suicide having second thoughts while preparing to jump off a building, and "Who Cares," a punchy, piano-driven rocker about a man who deals with the problems of life by refusing to take it seriously. However, Entwistle's finest achievement in this respect is "I Feel Better," a devastatingly sarcastic tune that features the singer putting down an ex-lover by listing all the things all the things he does to get back at her. Viciously witty yet full of emotion, this poison-pen gem ranks up there with Harry Nilsson's "You're Breaking My Heart" as one of rock's ultimate post-breakup songs. Whistle Rymes further benefits from a stylish production job by Entwistle that judiciously adds extra instrumental layers to the album's basic rock style to subtly broaden its sonic palette; for instance, "Thinking It Over" is anchored by a thick synthesizer bassline and "I Wonder" allows Entwistle to indulge his skill with brass instruments by overdubbing himself into a virtual big band brass section. It's also interesting to note that this album features a pre-solo fame Peter Frampton turning in some searing guitar riffs throughout the disc. All in all, Whistle Rymes is an entertaining and consistent rock album that balances energy with ambition. It may be a little too dark and eccentric for the general listener but is well worth the time for any hardcore Who fan. AMG.

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Q65 - Afghanistan 1970

Q65 was a Dutch garage rock and psychedelic group formed in 1965, that is often considered one of the more prominent bands associated with the Nederbeat rock wave that took place in the Netherlands in the 1960s. 

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Tim Maia - Tim Maia 1972

Tim Maia (born Sebastião Rodrigues Maia; September 28, 1942 – March 15, 1998) was a Brazilian musician, songwriter, and businessman known for his iconoclastic, ironic, outspoken, and humorous musical style. Maia contributed to Brazilian music within a wide variety of musical genres, including soul, funk, disco, jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, romantic ballads, samba, bossa nova, baião and música popular brasileira (MPB). He introduced the soul style on the Brazilian musical scene. Along with Jorge Ben, Maia pioneered sambalanço, combining samba, soul, funk and rock and roll. He is recognized as one of the biggest icons in Brazilian music.

Tim Maia recorded numerous albums and toured extensively in a long career. After his death in 1998, his recorded oeuvre has shown enduring popularity. A theatrical retrospective of his career, the popular musical Vale Tudo, was first staged in Rio de Janeiro in 2012.

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Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou Dahomey - Le Sato 1974

Acid Jazz Records' ongoing licensing agreement with legendary Benin label Albarika Store turns out another treasure here. This one shines a light on traditional voodoo ceremonial music from Orchestre Poly Rythmo De Cotonou Dahomey. It was rebased in 1974 as one of Albarika's earliest offerings and finds the band playing on a large ceremonial Sato drum, which is played with wooden stick beaters and reserved only for special ceremonial occasions. Full of traditional rhythms and ritualistic grooves, it's a deeply spiritual funk sound that cannot help but connect on a deep level.

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Hot Tuna - The Phosphorescent Rat 1973

Hot Tuna's first album made after the breakup of Jefferson Airplane found Jorma Kaukonen taking a firm hand: he's the author of nine out of 10 songs. The walking tempos and familiar soaring, psychedelic guitar solos are in place, but much of the music is given over to Kaukonen's reflective lyrics, sung in his matter-of-fact voice, and there are strings on a couple of tracks. Although the approach would produce Kaukonen's most impressive record the following year when he made the acoustic solo album, and although critics have pointed to The Phosphorescent Rat as among Hot Tuna's better efforts, the group's fans, devoted as they were to its extended versions of blues standards, seem to have been unimpressed: the album was Hot Tuna's lowest charting among those released during its 1970-1978 heyday. Probably a lack of enthusiasm at RCA, due to the demise of Jefferson Airplane, didn't help in the album's promotion, either. AMG.
 

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Arte & Ofício - Faces 1979

Arte & Ofício were a Portuguese band from Oporto, found in the summer 75' by Antonio Garcez (vocals) and Sergio Castro (bass). They built a national status through various gigs and massive singles, recorded between 1976-78, and despite some line-up changes they made it to the end of the road, recording the full-length album ''Faces'' in 1979 (Discos Orfeu).Garcez and Castro were supported by original drummer Alvaro Azevedo, guitarists Fernando Nascimento, Sergio Cordeiro and keyboardist Antonio Pinho with thr help of Rui Cardoso on sax. The story says they were a pretty unique group, combining elements of Prog Rock, Jazz, and Fusion into an attractive amalgam, but things are rather different, as exhibited on ''Faces''.They shared a common love for Jazz, Pop, and Funk and that does not necessarily make their sound progressive. They were a rather radio-friendly band and the only proggy elements found in ''Faces'' are limited to some inspiring Gentle Giant-like tunes (as on the very good ''Lobster society'') and most of them recall the wrong period of the band, same goes for some Premiata Forneria Marconi echoes circa-''Passpartu''. Actually, the only consistent thing on this work is the excellent and clean English vocals, because the music is pretty commercial with short, vocal-driven pieces, showered by bluesy guitars, jazzy sax, and electric piano, and poppy melodies. When Cordeiro and Garcez left the band shortly afterward, Arte & Ofício lost much of their popularity. ''Danza'' from 1981 was even more accessible and less inspiring and they disbanded a couple of years later, performing during the last years with a vastly different crew by apps79.

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James Talley - Tryin' like the devil 1976

On Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got a Lot of Love, James Talley established himself as a songwriter of true substance and a purveyor of relative truth. There was no cynicism in his vision, and like Mickey Newbury, he understood that the image in a song communicates everything and all language should be directed to conveying it. On Tryin' Like the Devil, Talley digs deeper into his blues roots, and deeper into his portrayal of the image, so that the listener gets an actual picture in her or his mind. The rambling, pastoral "Deep Country Blues," with its whining dobro, lonesome harmonica, and Travis-style guitar picking, offers a tale of simple backcountry love amid the plenitude of the land and the absence of money. But like all innocence, it breaks down into a reality not expressed here, yet referred to as a gazer through the past where the scar on the heart is plainly visible. The waltz that is "Give My Love to Marie" comes from the mouth of a black-lung miner on his deathbed, who recounts his inability to resolve the fact that there are "millions in the ground, but not a penny for me."  Economics is also the theme of "Are They Gonna Make Us Outlaws Again?," not Willie and Waylon. Here is Woody Guthrie's ghost speaking through the mouth of fellow Okie Talley with a dobro, a thumping standup bass, and an acoustic guitar leading the séance. The title track, with its electric guitars and modern honky tonk riff, is a snapshot of pot-bellied truckers, whiskey, red-headed waitresses, and lonely midnights all engaged in reconciling broken dreams yet not giving up on life. They're all separate, all inseparable: "A lot of lonely people just like me." Johnny Gimble's fiddle solo soars in the bridge. "Nothin' But the Blues" is one of Talley's most covered songs, but its easy-swinging Bob Wills-style execution in his gorgeous tenor makes it a late-night lounge lizard's anthem full of wheel-spinning-in-a-rut blues. The set ends on the up though, with "You Can't Ever Tell." It's a strutting honky tonker with Talley exhorting his lover to say the hell with everything in order to go out on the town and raise some hell. This is a fitting end, considering this has been an album about the tough side of the working and loving life, and this small bit of relief is all anyone has a right to expect after all. AMG.

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Chico Buarque - Calabar 1973

Of the early stars of MPB (música popular brasileira), Chico Buarque was one of the first to become a certifiable pop star. With his warm, nasally croon, elegant phrasing, and considerable skill at lyric writing, Buarque (who is handsome to boot) became extremely popular with women, who loved his understated sensuality. However, Buarque was uncomfortable playing the role of pop star, preferring to be seen as a serious artist. Throughout his career, he's managed to have the best of both worlds, but not without some significant bumps along the way. Still, he remains a towering figure in Brazilian pop music, one of the country's greatest singer/songwriters and interpreters of the samba.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1944, Buarque spent his early youth in Sao Paulo and Italy. Upon returning to Brazil, Buarque artistic development was greatly enhanced by the friends of his father (the historian Sergio Buarque de Holanda) who were prominent in the early bossa nova movement. Although he immersed himself in music, specifically the new bossa nova sounds of João Gilberto, Buarque decided that a college education was more practical and he decided to study architecture at the University of Sao Paulo. That turned out to be a short-lived career choice and it wasn't long before Buarque was cutting classes and hanging out with Sao Paulo's bossa nova cognoscenti.

Buarque was 21 when his career began to take off. He recorded the single "Pedro Pedreiro," composed music for a theatrical production, and, perhaps most importantly, had three of his compositions recorded by the undisputed queen of bossa nova, Nara Leao. Not an openly polemical performer, Buarque's material did not lack social consciousness, but it did seem stylistically conservative when compared to the late-'60s sounds of the tropicalistas such as Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Os Mutantes. Despite the charges of aesthetic conservatism leveled against him (by Gil and Veloso) Buarque took a huge career chance in 1968 writing and scoring a bleak, existential play entitled Roda Viva that was critical of obsessive fan culture. The play's pop star protagonist is torn limb from limb, his flesh consumed by his fans. In a move that sounds lifted from Julian Beck's radical Living Theater, the performers would offer the audience pieces of the dead pop star's flesh to eat (it was chicken meat). Needless to say, with a military dictatorship in power, this was considered extremely controversial stuff and soldiers were sent out to disrupt performances of Roda Viva, which included destroying sets and assaulting performers, Buarque himself was jailed briefly. After the disaster of Roda Viva, Buarque returned to Italy for a year only to return to Brazil to find most of the stars of tropicalia in exile or severely circumscribed by government censorship. In 1971, he recorded the album Construction which was a decided break from his earlier bossa nova records. This was the start of the second half of Buarque's career, which saw him writing more intense songs with complicated lyrical layers revealing social and political protest. Forced to submit his material to government censors, nearly two-thirds of his work was rejected. And from 1974-1975, the censors approved almost nothing he wrote. On a more positive note, the rift between Buarque, Veloso, and Gil was settled upon their return to Brazil in 1972, and Buarque went on to record with both of them in the mid-'70s. In the '80s, Buarque was given more compositional leeway and recorded some stunning music, along with branching out into other artistic endeavors that included writing plays and novels, as well as scoring films, all of this work consistent with his desire to re-examine Brazil's cultural past, its relationship with the present, and its limitless possibilities for the future. Through the rest of the decade indeed through the end of the century, Buarque continued to record and tour at the amazing pace of roughly a release a year. Some of these included Dança da Meia-Lua in 1988, Para Todos in 1993, 1995's Uma Palavra, and 1997's Terra. Buarque kicked off the 21st century with Cambaio in 2001, followed by a long series of live recordings and concert DVDs. He returned to the studio and released the acclaimed Carioca in 2006. He toured the album, and issued a concert version of it in 2007, then went into retreat and authored his first novel, Leite Derramado. In 2010, Buarque completed a new studio album simply titled Chico; it was released in Brazil in the summer of 2011, and in the fall was released worldwide via DRG.

For nearly 40 years, Chico Buarque has been an artist struggling with pop music and pop stardom. Always challenging, always conscious of cultural history, he remains, deservedly, a towering figure in Brazilian music. AMG.

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Federal Duck - Federal Duck 1968

Munster Records presents a reissue of Federal Duck's self-titled album, originally released in 1968. It would be difficult to overlook the eye-catching colorful cover, designed by Abe Gurvin, who was also responsible for the very appealing artwork on Tito Rodriguez and Gene Pitney's releases on the New York-based Musicor label. However, this self-titled LP was soon forgotten after not having any singles released as promotional support to the album and also, maybe, due to the complete absence of covers in the tracklist. Federal Duck was one of many college bands to pop up during the psychedelic years. It consisted of Tony Shaftel (vocals, bass), Jack Bowers (guitar), George Stavis (guitar, vocals, and songwriting), Huck White (guitar, French horn), Ken Stover (keyboards, tuba), Bob Stern (bass, vocals), and Timmy Ackerman (drums, percussion). They met at Haverford College, just outside Philadelphia, and working under other names (Stomp Jackson Quintet and The Guides) the band members came up with a new name one night when they were lying on the bank of the campus duck pond and some ducks started waddling toward them in what looked like a purposeful and menacing way as if they were working for the government -- or so they thought. They played many gigs over the four years of the band's short life and made a name for themselves as skilled musicians who would be able to play all night long if required. The album was recorded at Groove Sound Studios, NYC, in 1968 and included a number of quality tracks, mixing elements of jazz, country, and soft-psychedelia. "Tomorrow Waits For Today" stands out as a wonderful piece of jazzy pop-psych that easily rival the best recordings of the genre. But some will find "Bird" the most accomplished song on the album, featuring fierce guitars and energetic drums, bordering on hard psych, that eventually leads into a long jazzy piano solo in the middle of the 5+ minute song. "While You're Away" keeps similarly high levels of energy, echoing harmonies reminiscent of bands like The Byrds. But it is the soft psych approach as on tracks like "Friday Morning" or "Dawn Comes Slow" that best describes the overall sound of the album. "Circus In The Sea," the closing track, successfully mixes a varied combination of sounds and deserved to have made a bigger splash when originally released. Federal Duck is reissued here on vinyl for the first time, with facsimile artwork and 180g vinyl pressing.

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Daughters of Albion - Daughters of Albion 1968

Daughters of Albion is happy Californian pop/rock music, imbued with streaks of the kind of weirdness that only cropped up in otherwise normal pop/rock records in the late 1960s. Some of the harmonies are good, if a little on the super-sweet and high side. The odd interjections of orchestration and weird little effects -- most likely producer Leon Russell was a strong contributor in this regard -- make this more interesting than you might expect from the basis of the songs alone. If you're looking for rough ballpark cult figures that might indicate whether you should seek this out, it's kind of between the albums of the era by Millennium and the Judy Henske-Jerry Yester duo. With its frequent good-time bounce, it's closer to Millennium than the darker and more resonant Henske-Yester collaboration, though it doesn't sound extremely close to either act, and isn't as good as either. Still, the better tracks, like "Candle Songs," conjure an appealing never-never fairyland, far more innocent than those devised by psychedelic peers like the Jefferson Airplane on "White Rabbit." AMG.

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Claire Hamill - October 1973

Claire Hamill released her first album in 1971, called One House Left Standing. Her next album was entitled October, and was released two years later. The following year, Hamill released Stage Door Johnnies. Abracadabra came out in 1975. When her career started to lag due to punk rock fever in the music business, she joined up with Wishbone Ash, recording two albums with them. She left that group in 1981, returning to her solo career. The first fruit of that labor was Touch Paper, which came out in 1983. Her follow-up, Voices, came out in 1986. Four years later, her next disc was released, Love in the Afternoon, followed by 1998's Summer. AMG.

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Bobby Bare - Constant Sorrow 1965

Bobby Bare fought to secure control of his own recordings years before Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson pulled their outlaw coup, and, after Johnny Cash, he was among the first country artists to look at the album as a thematic collection rather than simply a hodge-podge of hits and throwaway tunes. In the 1960s, he concentrated on folk-tinged country, and in the 1970s he mixed novelty songs, rowdy honky tonkers and casual working-class tributes -- occasionally on the same album, like 1973's Lullabys, Legends and Lies, his most successful LP. He helped Jennings get his first record deal, and was among the first to champion country singer/songwriters Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Shaver, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Shel Silverstein, and Rodney Crowell. His low-key, laid-back personality may be one of the reasons he hasn't received the recognition he deserves. In 1962, Chet Atkins signed him to RCA Records. By the end of the year, he had a hit with "Shame on You," which was notable for being one of the first records out of Nashville to make concessions to the pop charts by featuring horns. The production worked, as the single broke into the pop charts. The following year, he recorded Mel Tillis and Danny Dill's "Detroit City," which became his second straight single to make both the country and pop charts. Bare followed up the single with a traditional folk song, "500 Miles from Home." It was another big hit for the singer, peaking in the Top Ten on both the country and pop charts. Bare continued to rack up hits in 1964 and 1965, as well as appearing in the Western movie A Distant Trumpet.

As the '60s progressed, Bare continued to blur the lines between country and folk, as he was influenced by songwriters like Bob Dylan, recording material by Dylan and several of his contemporaries. Not only did he explore American folk, but Bare traveled to England, where he was popular. In 1968, he recorded an album with a Liverpool country band called the Hillsiders (The English Country Side), which signaled his artistic drive. AMG. 

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Gil Scott-Heron - Pieces Of A Man 1971

Gil Scott-Heron's 1971 album Pieces of a Man set a standard for vocal artistry and political awareness that few musicians will ever match. His unique proto-rap vocal style influenced a generation of hip-hop artists, and nowhere is his style more powerful than on the classic "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." Even though the media -- the very entity attacked in this song -- has used, reused, and recontextualized the song and its title so many times, the message is so strong that it has become almost impossible to co-opt. Musically, the track created a formula that modern hip-hop would follow for years to come: bare-bones arrangements featuring pounding basslines and stripped-down drumbeats. Although the song features plenty of outdated references to everything from Spiro Agnew and Jim Webb to The Beverly Hillbillies, the force of Scott-Heron's well-directed anger makes the song timeless. More than just a spoken word poet, Scott-Heron was also a uniquely gifted vocalist. On tracks like the reflective "I Think I'll Call It Morning" and the title track, Scott-Heron's voice is complemented perfectly by the soulful keyboards of Brian Jackson. On "Lady Day and John Coltrane," he not only celebrates jazz legends of the past in his words but in his vocal performance, one that is filled with enough soul and innovation to make Coltrane and Billie Holiday nod their heads in approval. More than three decades after its release, Pieces of a Man is just as -- if not more -- powerful and influential today as it was the day it was released. AMG.

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