I've always had a fascination with Northern Europe. I've had many dreams about it and tried to visualize sitting in front of a fireplace in Denmark or Sweden or Finland in winter with warm friends and a warm fire glowing. Some of the most outstanding music in the world has come not just from Western Northern European countries like Germany and Holland, but also from Sweden, Denmark, and Finland with also a few classics from Norway (mostly bad, but the first 3 Titanic albums are unbeatable. Also check out the AOR band Da Vinci who I may write up in the near future).
Ache And Finland's Elonkorjuu (the translation is Harvest) are among the very best. In fact, I'd go all out and say that Ache's 1976 masterpiece Pictures From Cyclus 7 may be the most brilliant progressive album ever to be recorded by a band from Northern Europe.
Ache had some successes early on with their single "Shadow Of A Gypsy" lifted off their 2nd album Green Man and you got to give credit where credit is due psychedelic heaviness never got more ambitious than their debut De Homine Urbano (The Urban Man) where just 2 sidelong tracks one vocal one instrumental graced the album. By Pictures... only two original members were in the band- driving force keyboard player/harmony vocalist Peter Mellin and guitarist Finn Olafsson. Joining them for this ambitious concept album were Stig Kreutzfeldt (Lead vocals, percussion), Johnnie Gellett (Lead vocals, percussion, guitar), Steen Toft Andersen (bass) and Gert Smedegaard (drums). So a 6 piece band now from what was formerly a four piece and a completely different sound.
Pictures From Cyclus 7 is a pretty dark and impenetrable concept album, but it is here that all similarities with their earlier work end. Instead of long psychedelic guitar and organ solos the sound is a heavy yet very melodic progressive rock/pop with lyrics from Bo Lillesoe and a dark moody vibe full of expressionistic imagery and some pretty creepy moments that manage to not dissuade from the highly melodic lush music on this brilliant album. The English vocals are sung really well with harmonies and smooth softly sung leads a very impressive feature. The music can at times bring to mind Procol Harum, Yes, and a bit of Lonesome Crow Scorpions (although that's more the vocal chants in "Still Hungry (Vampire Song"), and some of the best German bands of the early to mid 70s era. You also may detect a little of Genesis and Uriah Heep. However, having said that the sound here is unique. I bought this album in a trade with record guru Bill Paquin (still my friend after 20 years) 13 years ago and it never left my collection. I haven't found anything comparable to it. So I suppose now I should mention some of the songs...
The Cyclus 7 Introduction: A beautiful melodic pop/progressive crossover with upbeat rhythmic structures and sweetly sung vocals. Picture Yes if they went completely pop or Denmark's The Floor if they lasted into the progressive era. This is the perfect way to begin an album. The music comes off as unpretentious and without any contriving. It's pure, natural, and says "Come On In And Have A Listen" pretty much literally,
Roses (Registering)- I still don't know what this song is supposed to really say. It's very dark sounding in comparison to the introduction with more mellow vocals and some strong Yes-alike harmonies. The guitar takes on a heavy fuzz/phased sound which Finn will use for the entire album. A wonderful progressive epic this song builds and builds and goes through subtle changes with no problem. Ache master prog rock here.
For Still Hungry (Vampire Song) I have a strange tale to relate here. This album came to me in 1998 and I instantly associated the lyrics about waste, destruction, pollution, and decay with an evil looking man who looked just like Dick Cheney! Little did I know that the master of pollution, sickness, evil, and disease would be this stupid country's vice president! This is by far the darkest, creepiest song on the album and doesn't spare you from a lot of disturbing imagery and Gothic overtones. It stays melodic, very melodic, but is very unsettling. It is about a Vampire who carries a sack full of waste and poison to destroy the earth. The theme is destruction and pollution leading into What Can We Do which is about killing the vampire. Here Ache are back to their upbeat and melodic sound with a very European vibe. It's a brilliant little two part suite within a concept as its tied to "Still Hungry"
Still Registering is a soft folksy melodic ballad very short and with beautiful vocals.
Side Two all flows together like one big symphony whilst avoiding any of the hideously pretentious trappings of overblown symphonic prog which this mostly certainly is not. Symphonic yes, progressive yes, overblown not one bit. The lyrics go into a dark mode for the whole of Side Two and the energetic, but very laidback playing and strong urgency make for a brilliant experience. Ache (pronounced like the word "ASH" by the way and short for the river in Hell called Acheron) were now a band without long solos and similarities to late 60s British psychedelic rock of the more out there kind. They had become a truly progressive/psychedelic/pop crossover with atmospheric songs, strong melodies, and beautiful vocals. If you like your progressive rock with lots of atmosphere and a bit on the dark side, but you also crave harmonious vocals and strong melodies then look no further. For the sheer adventurousness and close attention to detail alone nothing can touch this album. It has gone up in value, yet remained obscure and one can only speculate how things may have worked out for Ache had they continued in this direction and not dismantled their career with a native tongue (Danish) folkrock album two years later. Ache have a website now and they seem to be one of those sad cases of heroes in their own country and virtually unknown outside of collectors circles in the rest of the world. This album won't be cheap, but it will cost you a lot less than the overrated rubbish of bands like Old Man And The Sea from Sweden and I honestly prefer this album to the good but derivative Hurdy Gurdy from Denmark. Along with The Floor's 1967 popsike masterwork 1st Floor Pictures From Cyclus 7 by Ache is a masterpiece, about the best progressive album in the world certainly the best from Denmark.
Finland's an interesting country. It is mostly uninhabitable, very cut off from the rest of the world, has a very difficult language, and yet it produces great athletes (for ice hockey at least) and some amazing music. Stratovarius, a Finnish band from recent years, have combined symphonic progressive with melodic heavy metal to startling effect over the years and I wonder if they heard Elonkorjuu, a band whose name is Finnish for "Harvest" and who recorded just one insanely expensive record in 1972 for Finnish EMI Parlophone.
Harvest Time, this brilliant band's one album, was reissued quite some years back with horrible sound quality, but more recently Shaddocks the pricey German label reissued the album with surprisingly good sound quality for a label whose sound is usually mediocre.
Guitar and a druggy, detached, trippy progressive vibe with much classical influence dominate the band's one classic, brilliant album, and you can hear a bit of the most symphonic of Ritchie Blackmore's playing in much of the solos and riffs on this album. Am I hinting at something? Yeah, I am. Deep Purple had 4 great musicians in the band. They also had a shit vocalist in Ian Gillan and hardly any good songs. Later on this kind of metal mediocrity would reach a new low with Yngwie Malmsteen's blatantly poor imitations of the masterful Blackmore. I have always tried to just tune Gillan and the bad songs out and focus on Ritchie, but I can't. So I'd say that Deep Purple aside from the few classics they produced (namely "Black Knight," "Child In Time," "Highway Star," and a few other bits of Machine Head) during the MK II era were much better with David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes on Burn- an exceptional melodic hard rock record. If Elonkorjuu can be compared to English bands of their era however Jethro Tull would probably be more apt than Deep Purple, but in a unique way they don't sound influenced by anybody.
Comprised of two guitarists/multi instrumentalists, bass, drums, and vocals, and with lyrics written by Esko Saarinen Elonkorjuu base all their music around classical influences bringing to mind the amazing Swedish group Rag I Ryggen. However, keyboards and flute just add some nice touches here while guitars lead the barrage. Not to say this is as heavy as you may have been led to believe it is. Elonkorjuu are definitely a heavy progressive band and not a heavy hard rock band in the straight sense of that word. You can hear the odd trace of Sabbath, but the resigned, slow, and gloomy sound here is too European to really bring British or American bands into the description. The vocals are obviously struggling with English, and sometimes Heikki Lajunen struggles to sing, but you got to give them full marks for trying really hard. The playing of Jukka Serenius and Ilkka Poijarvi on guitars is flawless and also Eero Rantasila and Veli-Pekka Pessi are a brilliant young rhythm section. The songs themselves are very strange and all try to make big statements about all the things that really matter including taking swipes at hunters and war mongering/war in general. This album was made from love. That is what makes it a masterpiece in the end I would say. This is a band who believe in their music and their message. They don't come on with any false pretentious and attempts to sound like whoever was in the charts somewhere else. They're Finnish and that's how you will perceive them. They are here to take you on a trip with them into Finland and into your mind. If you like heavy music that also can offer a retreat from overbearing bombast then look no further. While at times the songs seem to lack structure and even abandon it that only makes this album more unique and special. It has a warm sound that makes you think the musicians who created it are very loving people. Also, the classical influences in the playing are astonishing. Virtuosity is the word for the guitars as they frequently quote from the classics and yet even then there is no pretension here. I would recommend and say even that you have to find the expensive Shaddoks reissue of this album. The songwriting is a little uneven, but the amount of love in the music and the brilliant playing make it essential for any collection. One can only wonder how great this band were in concert where they could jam.
These two are two of the most impressive and enjoyable albums ever made. Find them and treasure them and remember that love is what should drive everything, especially music.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
SPERRMULL and ELECTRIC SANDWICH- GREEN BRAIN'S BEST 2
I haven't yet mentioned any bands from Europe on my blog that I can think of. In fact I'm nearly sure I haven't. Well, funny thing is I listen to just as many bands from Germany and Northern Europe in general as anywhere else and I more than acquired the taste for German Rock with many favourites and a real admiration for the music that country turned out in the 70s. It all would go way downhill and become intolerable come the metal era, but even there are a few bright spots of melodic hard rock.
But let's get to the point. I DO NOT use the term "Krautrock" I find it appalling and disgusting. What if I were to use the term "Yankrock" for all Amerikan bands??? See My point.
On to the music.
Brain is probably Germany's most collectable label for it's early to mid releases on the "Green Brain Label." Distributed by the already impressive Metronome Brain like British labels Vertigo, Deram, and Regal Zonophone was meant as an outlet for progressive exciting new talent.
Aside from Gash and the rather odd signing of the overblown Dutch progsters Light Brain was a pretty consistent label.
The ultra rare and collectible one-off releases by the Lower Rhine band Sperrmull and the Bonn based Electric Sandwich are two of the most impressive, adventurous, and revolutionary albums ever made from any band anywhere. They, like it seems all German 70s bands, have been thrown into the category of which I will not use the despicable name.
Sperrmull like Electric Sandwich are a quartet playing a distinctly Teutonic brand of psychedelic heaviness that bears also certain resemblances to British groups of that same early era. They were a talented band who built their unique and often humourous songs around a joyful, spirited mix of heavy keyboards and bashing fuzz toned guitars. I would say of the two bands here Sperrmull are more of a rock 'n roll band at heart than the very psychedelic Electric Sandwich who borrow more from the Amerikan Westcoast and blues-rock of bands like Cream.
Opening track here "Me And My Girlfriend" is based around a rollicking Mandolin riff and good upbeat jaunty vocals. The lyrics seem to deal with his girlfriend going from serving an inedible meal to a great one:
"Oh How Wonderful She Cooks The Meal/It Tastes So Bad But We Didn't Feel/But For Me And My Girlfriend..."
"Oh The Wine And Beer Is Fine/Better Is Her Meal But I Don't Mind/But For Me And My Girlfriend..."
Wery Vunny (Sorry!)
This track makes you want to dance. It has a liberating air that just makes you feel good and forget about your hangups.
The rest of the album is quite different. I don't like Pink Floyd. I in fact don't find hardly any of their music enjoyable, exciting, or of any interest at all. Sometimes the track "No Freak Out" is compared to Floyd. I have to disagree. Whilst Pink F. (draw your own conclusion) is all depression and bitching and moaning "No Freak Out" is again a joyful though very bent psychedelic heavy metal rock track with druggy echoed vocals, spacey floating organ, inventive rhythms, and some exhilarating wild ass guitar solos. I do admit that there are two Floyd albums I can dig- Their first Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and the excellent Meddle. This track if like any Floyd song is like something updated from Piper At The Gates Of Dawn perhaps "Astronome Domine".
It makes me think of what the Pink Floyd may have sounded like had they not taken themselves too seriously, but I don't hear much of them in this song or this album.
Sperrmull are a rock band- a hard rock band with psychedelic and progressive sensibilities. I would much more think of Australia's Masters Apprentices or Sheffield England's Shape Of The Rain only changed into a German brew of that same guitar based wizardry when describing Sperrmull.
For an album produced by the band under the pseudonym "Chazadu" this is a pretty remarkable recording. Every track is a winner so onto the end of Side One. "Rising Up" is a marching song. It is driven by jumping pumping rhythms, a happy sounding vocal, and more brilliant studio effects and soaring guitar and organ battles. For Germany's best look no further than this. I wish Eloy could have churned out something this exciting rather than show us flashes of brilliance on their first 3 albums and then a steady slide towards mediocrity. The liveliness of the performances and compositions here is more exciting than almost anything to come out of Amerika in the 70s. There is a distinct, strong German vibe that is both exotic and exciting.
Side Two is 3 more straightforward hard rockin' tracks with the 9 minute "Right Now" combining all sides of Sperrmull's music brilliantly. The psychedelic edge is not lost, but here it is more raucous rock and roll. "Right Now" doesn't drag once. Like the also amazing Lonesome Crow by the seminal German rockers The Scorpions this album was made for love of music and personal discovery- not money or fame or showing off. However, both closing tracks "Land Of The Rocking Sun" and "Pat Casey" would have made excellent singles and have an appeal to them that crosses and cuts through any country's borders. This album has me feeling good when I hear it. I would go right out and say it's one of the most impressive albums in my collection and the best on Brain along with....
Electric Sandwich.
This one's a little harder to describe. Electric Sandwich were, together with the above Sperrmull, one of Brain's earliest signings. Their music is rather dark and bluesy with definite influences from both Cream and more surprisingly The Doors. There is no Manzarek alike organ riffing yet the gloomy, stalking, creepy vibe of Jim Morrison and CO. comes through nearly every track except the opening instrumental brain blaster "China." "China" is a really amazing jam. The effects help create an inviting sound that has any guitar freak or psychedelic rock fan glued to every second of the track.
The rest of the album beginning with "Devil's Dream" is much more built around Eric Clapton influenced guitars, both heavy and laidback at the same time rhythmic structures, and a sound that is both spooky and comforting which in and of itself is very unusual. I've always wondered what Jim Morrison would have sounded like had he survived and continued with music. Somehow the vocals on this album may answer that question for me, save for the fact that the vocal range is much better here and that Electric Sandwich are for all intents and purposes immersed in a kind of Teutonic rebelliousness. Every track is very strong on here with much brilliant playing, some interesting passages for Saxophone and bluesy harmonica, and lots of atmospherics. I am reminded of the British band Titus Groan at times or also British band Raw Material, but with the bluesy psychedelic sound of guitar and ever changing rhythms prevailing Cream is the best point of reference. Electric Sandwich are a band you have to let come to you. Unlike Sperrmull you can't dance to this. It's more sit down and take a trip without the perils or stupidity of dropping acid. I would say that if to make an album's worth of strong material and a very dark and impenetrable sound was the aim of these guys they more than succeeded. This album is together with Sperrmull and Curly Curve the best of the very collectable Green Brain recordings. You may just have to lay back and let this one come and warm itself to you more than the Sperrmull record, but I love the sounds here and aside from "Archie's Blues" the lyrics are of a surprisingly high standard. Electric Sandwich is one of the most expensive German albums especially for one that used to be overlooked. If you can find this it will blow your mind. And that's a fact. You won't find a better psychedelic heavy record from anywhere else in Europe that also leans towards the California sound of the 60s and the Cream inspired blues.
Both these albums dispel the fact that Germany is a questionable country for music. Think of what they went through to get here! I leave you to think about how much love and dedication to making great music and excitement happen that went into the music Germany gave us. I also suggest you remember who landed The Beatles with their first taste of success... Enough Said.
But let's get to the point. I DO NOT use the term "Krautrock" I find it appalling and disgusting. What if I were to use the term "Yankrock" for all Amerikan bands??? See My point.
On to the music.
Brain is probably Germany's most collectable label for it's early to mid releases on the "Green Brain Label." Distributed by the already impressive Metronome Brain like British labels Vertigo, Deram, and Regal Zonophone was meant as an outlet for progressive exciting new talent.
Aside from Gash and the rather odd signing of the overblown Dutch progsters Light Brain was a pretty consistent label.
The ultra rare and collectible one-off releases by the Lower Rhine band Sperrmull and the Bonn based Electric Sandwich are two of the most impressive, adventurous, and revolutionary albums ever made from any band anywhere. They, like it seems all German 70s bands, have been thrown into the category of which I will not use the despicable name.
Sperrmull like Electric Sandwich are a quartet playing a distinctly Teutonic brand of psychedelic heaviness that bears also certain resemblances to British groups of that same early era. They were a talented band who built their unique and often humourous songs around a joyful, spirited mix of heavy keyboards and bashing fuzz toned guitars. I would say of the two bands here Sperrmull are more of a rock 'n roll band at heart than the very psychedelic Electric Sandwich who borrow more from the Amerikan Westcoast and blues-rock of bands like Cream.
Opening track here "Me And My Girlfriend" is based around a rollicking Mandolin riff and good upbeat jaunty vocals. The lyrics seem to deal with his girlfriend going from serving an inedible meal to a great one:
"Oh How Wonderful She Cooks The Meal/It Tastes So Bad But We Didn't Feel/But For Me And My Girlfriend..."
"Oh The Wine And Beer Is Fine/Better Is Her Meal But I Don't Mind/But For Me And My Girlfriend..."
Wery Vunny (Sorry!)
This track makes you want to dance. It has a liberating air that just makes you feel good and forget about your hangups.
The rest of the album is quite different. I don't like Pink Floyd. I in fact don't find hardly any of their music enjoyable, exciting, or of any interest at all. Sometimes the track "No Freak Out" is compared to Floyd. I have to disagree. Whilst Pink F. (draw your own conclusion) is all depression and bitching and moaning "No Freak Out" is again a joyful though very bent psychedelic heavy metal rock track with druggy echoed vocals, spacey floating organ, inventive rhythms, and some exhilarating wild ass guitar solos. I do admit that there are two Floyd albums I can dig- Their first Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and the excellent Meddle. This track if like any Floyd song is like something updated from Piper At The Gates Of Dawn perhaps "Astronome Domine".
It makes me think of what the Pink Floyd may have sounded like had they not taken themselves too seriously, but I don't hear much of them in this song or this album.
Sperrmull are a rock band- a hard rock band with psychedelic and progressive sensibilities. I would much more think of Australia's Masters Apprentices or Sheffield England's Shape Of The Rain only changed into a German brew of that same guitar based wizardry when describing Sperrmull.
For an album produced by the band under the pseudonym "Chazadu" this is a pretty remarkable recording. Every track is a winner so onto the end of Side One. "Rising Up" is a marching song. It is driven by jumping pumping rhythms, a happy sounding vocal, and more brilliant studio effects and soaring guitar and organ battles. For Germany's best look no further than this. I wish Eloy could have churned out something this exciting rather than show us flashes of brilliance on their first 3 albums and then a steady slide towards mediocrity. The liveliness of the performances and compositions here is more exciting than almost anything to come out of Amerika in the 70s. There is a distinct, strong German vibe that is both exotic and exciting.
Side Two is 3 more straightforward hard rockin' tracks with the 9 minute "Right Now" combining all sides of Sperrmull's music brilliantly. The psychedelic edge is not lost, but here it is more raucous rock and roll. "Right Now" doesn't drag once. Like the also amazing Lonesome Crow by the seminal German rockers The Scorpions this album was made for love of music and personal discovery- not money or fame or showing off. However, both closing tracks "Land Of The Rocking Sun" and "Pat Casey" would have made excellent singles and have an appeal to them that crosses and cuts through any country's borders. This album has me feeling good when I hear it. I would go right out and say it's one of the most impressive albums in my collection and the best on Brain along with....
Electric Sandwich.
This one's a little harder to describe. Electric Sandwich were, together with the above Sperrmull, one of Brain's earliest signings. Their music is rather dark and bluesy with definite influences from both Cream and more surprisingly The Doors. There is no Manzarek alike organ riffing yet the gloomy, stalking, creepy vibe of Jim Morrison and CO. comes through nearly every track except the opening instrumental brain blaster "China." "China" is a really amazing jam. The effects help create an inviting sound that has any guitar freak or psychedelic rock fan glued to every second of the track.
The rest of the album beginning with "Devil's Dream" is much more built around Eric Clapton influenced guitars, both heavy and laidback at the same time rhythmic structures, and a sound that is both spooky and comforting which in and of itself is very unusual. I've always wondered what Jim Morrison would have sounded like had he survived and continued with music. Somehow the vocals on this album may answer that question for me, save for the fact that the vocal range is much better here and that Electric Sandwich are for all intents and purposes immersed in a kind of Teutonic rebelliousness. Every track is very strong on here with much brilliant playing, some interesting passages for Saxophone and bluesy harmonica, and lots of atmospherics. I am reminded of the British band Titus Groan at times or also British band Raw Material, but with the bluesy psychedelic sound of guitar and ever changing rhythms prevailing Cream is the best point of reference. Electric Sandwich are a band you have to let come to you. Unlike Sperrmull you can't dance to this. It's more sit down and take a trip without the perils or stupidity of dropping acid. I would say that if to make an album's worth of strong material and a very dark and impenetrable sound was the aim of these guys they more than succeeded. This album is together with Sperrmull and Curly Curve the best of the very collectable Green Brain recordings. You may just have to lay back and let this one come and warm itself to you more than the Sperrmull record, but I love the sounds here and aside from "Archie's Blues" the lyrics are of a surprisingly high standard. Electric Sandwich is one of the most expensive German albums especially for one that used to be overlooked. If you can find this it will blow your mind. And that's a fact. You won't find a better psychedelic heavy record from anywhere else in Europe that also leans towards the California sound of the 60s and the Cream inspired blues.
Both these albums dispel the fact that Germany is a questionable country for music. Think of what they went through to get here! I leave you to think about how much love and dedication to making great music and excitement happen that went into the music Germany gave us. I also suggest you remember who landed The Beatles with their first taste of success... Enough Said.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
For Every Famous Band There's An Obscure One Way Better
There are bands you can't put down- they are sacred. They are the classics and without them nothing you listen to would have been possible. There also are artists who are sacred and classics you have to acknowledge as the "Greats." For Blues it would be Muddy Waters, B.B King, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Robert Johnson- the forerunners of true rock and roll like Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Ben E. King, Ike And Tina Turner, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Duane Eddy, Jerry Lee Lewis and the way underrated Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Rock disappeared for awhile and it was scary what took its place. The American hit parade churned out disgusting naff offensively inoffensive rubbish like "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?" while the British were planning how to invade us and shoot right through us like a shot from 23000 machine guns. The New Rock And Roll came with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, The Move, and the promising yet never quite fulfilling of their promise Pretty Things.
Here is where things get a little trickier and get interesting. After so much music of so much merit some bands who took liberties with poor vocals, bad songs, and shit faced stupid ass production to their self-righteous music started coming on. In England you'd have those very sub British Invasion Invasion bands like Gerry & The Pacemakers, Freddie & The Dreamers, Herman's Hermits et all. These bands weren't inventive and weren't rock and roll at all. While in England they'd be heroes bands like The Move and earlier The Hollies never would break as big in the States, but are undeniably adventurous and creative bands who wrote great songs and sang from the heart. The Hollies managed some big hits in America, but The Move never took off except as a cult band here while in England they were downright massive stars. With The Koobas a perfect example success would not be forthcoming in England nor in America. Despite building off their Liverpool foundation with Brian Epstein as their manager and much hard work from the band The Koobas just flopped. It was one bad break after another in the UK while the band were forced to concentrate on Spain. Then future Genesis manager Tony Stratton-Smith (rest very much in peace) came along and tried everything. All that ended up happening were more bad breaks until finally their album appeared just as they threw the towel in. A psychedelic hard rock/pop masterpiece it was an astonishingly mature collection of hard rock and melodic pure British pop with even some progressive leanings. Too bad it was all over at that point for them. In a similar circumstance only 3 big hits were scored by The Zombies, but who could deny the talent of writers/arrangers organist/pianist Rod Argent, bassist Chris White, and vocalist supreme Colin Blunstone? They would release one of the most endearing yet oh so sad album landmarks in Oddysey And Oracle yet when the single lifted off that record "Time Of The Season" became a smash they would not reform. Despite threats and fake bands using their name and even a false statement of the death of Colin Blunstone they moved on. White and Argent got together on the project called simply Argent- a new exciting progressive/pomp band with the melodic nucleus of The Zombies much intact. Colin Blunstone after a brief period of pseudonyms and insurance salesman limbo came out with a great first 3 solo albums. One Year, Ennismore, and Journey are all essential classics. The two apart would achieve the success they deserved. In America Jimi Hendrix had to go to England to make it and then blow us out of our minds as he reconstructed everything to do with the electric guitar. Together with Hendrix Arthur Lee and Love showed us the gloom and doom and all the hope and promise of the 1960s on their masterful Forever Changes. Jim Morrison and The Doors broke a lot of rules as the forcefully melodic and passionate progressive psychedelia they created on their first two albums would be music that never tarnishes with age. And who would survive of the successful not to mention obscure American psychedelic circus? Jefferson Airplane the worst band ever along with The Strawberry Alarm Clock both of whom didn't ever know when to go away. The Airplane had some credentials before Grace Slick. They were a hard working inventive folkrock band who were turning their folk past on its head and into a happening. After the classic Surrealistic Pillow and the lukewarm, but sometimes good After Bathing At Baxters all Hell broke loose on the morbid, violent, pretentious, inept and sick Crown of Creation and the equally poor followups. Just so I don't sound too biased for the British all the time at least one thing came out of the Airplane and definitely came with the fantastic Janis Joplin which was an opening of the door for female fronted bands and given time we'd have Pat Benatar and Stevie Nicks to make up for Grace Slick's destruction. In England there would be another turning of folk on its head as first Judy Dyble and then Sandy Denny fronted the amazing Fairport Convention- one of the most exciting bands ever and as potent today as then on their first 3 brilliant albums. Success would elude them in America, but in England Sandy Denny was the Star along with Ian Matthews.
Come 1969 and the entire decade of the 1970s things became much more ruthless in the music industry. Confusion spread like mad and all of a sudden bands were either "Underground" or "Mainstream" and while some of the pop music was downright depressing so was some of the "Underground." I can't listen to Deep Purple anymore. I can't see anything in Ian Gillan or their horrible songs. So who would we have to fill the gap they opened? Stonehouse, Asgard, Uriah Heep, Free, Pluto and many more bands even less heard of than Pluto. Europe all of a sudden in their own quarters were causing a musical revolution. German and Swedish bands heard Deep Purple and read into the virtuoso organ and guitar work of Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore classical music. Soon Germany would produce more great bands along with England in the 1970s who went commercially nowhere than anywhere else in the world. The Dutch proved themselves worthy and so did Denmark and Sweden. As bands contented themselves with small followings in their respected countries the music scene blossomed and "Pop" didn't mean hit singles anymore by hideous bands like The Flying Machine ("Smile A Little Smile For Me") or all the American schlock. Now we had bands playing "Hard Pop" and "Progressive Pop," AOR, and Pomp Rock. Starting with The Sweet, Slade, and especially Queen the crossover hits would lead to America's own brand of excitement as Styx showed us their Crystal Ball and Grand Illusion, Journey's former roadie Steve Perry reinvented rock/pop vocals as did Foreigner's Lou Gramm who replaced the amazing yet lesser acknowledged Ian Lloyd who had been the frontman for the fantastic Stories. As demand grew high for crossover appeal soon bands began to think too much of the flash side of things and the music scene became fragmented. Out of this destruction rose Punk which was not a good thing. A war seemed to be going on between bombastic or inept with somewhere in between talented, wonderful bands who couldn't earn a living. As the 1970s turned gloomy around 1977 with disco and Punk what of Trickster? What of Trillion? What of Money? What of Quartz who would make 4 albums and what of Magnum? Magnum would breakthrough BIG in England/Europe and still exist today. Trillion, from the American Midwest inexplicably wouldn't make the kind of money horrible Kansas would and Trickster were buried alive while Quartz were demoted to cult status. Money only made one album First Investment- a masterpiece yet their label Gull mismanaged and destroyed their career. I'm not saying this wouldn't happen also back in the 1960s, but come the 1980s cutthroat double dealing and destruction through record companies and fanzines would lead Iron Maiden to be stars and their Proto Fascist Neo Nazi war mongering filth cluttered up the British Airwaves along with the same right wing filth of Saxon making it big. These two worst of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal together with the thankfully unsuccessful Witchfynde and Witchfinder General would give one of the most exciting and delicious movements in musical history a bad name. Someone had to save the day for the charts and that would be Def Leppard. However, bands like Airrace, Lionheart, Snowblind, Wolf (Of Cheshire who released just the one psychedelic hard rock masterpiece Edge Of The World), and Wildfire formed by previous Iron Maiden vocalist (for only roughly a year) Paul Mario Day proved that NWOBHM was really synonymous with tough melodic hard rock. As the 80s went on Duran Duran would stay a vital and exciting pop/rock group and bands like Glass Tiger and Brummies Shy would combine hard melodic pop with the image and video techniques pioneered by Duran Duran, The Fixx, et all. I am not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here on this blog, but I gotta say in conclusion if you can't face the facts that successful sales don't mean great music although they sometimes do and nothing is black and white than tough luck. Go out on your own journey and find what I've found. Don't buy into hype. Keep an open mind. I would recommend this bit of advice: Try the less successful bands and artists, but also don't thumb your nose at great bands from Abba to Asia to the afforementioned Duran Duran and Pat Benatar who made it. Music is a magical thing. And magic is never predictable.
Here is where things get a little trickier and get interesting. After so much music of so much merit some bands who took liberties with poor vocals, bad songs, and shit faced stupid ass production to their self-righteous music started coming on. In England you'd have those very sub British Invasion Invasion bands like Gerry & The Pacemakers, Freddie & The Dreamers, Herman's Hermits et all. These bands weren't inventive and weren't rock and roll at all. While in England they'd be heroes bands like The Move and earlier The Hollies never would break as big in the States, but are undeniably adventurous and creative bands who wrote great songs and sang from the heart. The Hollies managed some big hits in America, but The Move never took off except as a cult band here while in England they were downright massive stars. With The Koobas a perfect example success would not be forthcoming in England nor in America. Despite building off their Liverpool foundation with Brian Epstein as their manager and much hard work from the band The Koobas just flopped. It was one bad break after another in the UK while the band were forced to concentrate on Spain. Then future Genesis manager Tony Stratton-Smith (rest very much in peace) came along and tried everything. All that ended up happening were more bad breaks until finally their album appeared just as they threw the towel in. A psychedelic hard rock/pop masterpiece it was an astonishingly mature collection of hard rock and melodic pure British pop with even some progressive leanings. Too bad it was all over at that point for them. In a similar circumstance only 3 big hits were scored by The Zombies, but who could deny the talent of writers/arrangers organist/pianist Rod Argent, bassist Chris White, and vocalist supreme Colin Blunstone? They would release one of the most endearing yet oh so sad album landmarks in Oddysey And Oracle yet when the single lifted off that record "Time Of The Season" became a smash they would not reform. Despite threats and fake bands using their name and even a false statement of the death of Colin Blunstone they moved on. White and Argent got together on the project called simply Argent- a new exciting progressive/pomp band with the melodic nucleus of The Zombies much intact. Colin Blunstone after a brief period of pseudonyms and insurance salesman limbo came out with a great first 3 solo albums. One Year, Ennismore, and Journey are all essential classics. The two apart would achieve the success they deserved. In America Jimi Hendrix had to go to England to make it and then blow us out of our minds as he reconstructed everything to do with the electric guitar. Together with Hendrix Arthur Lee and Love showed us the gloom and doom and all the hope and promise of the 1960s on their masterful Forever Changes. Jim Morrison and The Doors broke a lot of rules as the forcefully melodic and passionate progressive psychedelia they created on their first two albums would be music that never tarnishes with age. And who would survive of the successful not to mention obscure American psychedelic circus? Jefferson Airplane the worst band ever along with The Strawberry Alarm Clock both of whom didn't ever know when to go away. The Airplane had some credentials before Grace Slick. They were a hard working inventive folkrock band who were turning their folk past on its head and into a happening. After the classic Surrealistic Pillow and the lukewarm, but sometimes good After Bathing At Baxters all Hell broke loose on the morbid, violent, pretentious, inept and sick Crown of Creation and the equally poor followups. Just so I don't sound too biased for the British all the time at least one thing came out of the Airplane and definitely came with the fantastic Janis Joplin which was an opening of the door for female fronted bands and given time we'd have Pat Benatar and Stevie Nicks to make up for Grace Slick's destruction. In England there would be another turning of folk on its head as first Judy Dyble and then Sandy Denny fronted the amazing Fairport Convention- one of the most exciting bands ever and as potent today as then on their first 3 brilliant albums. Success would elude them in America, but in England Sandy Denny was the Star along with Ian Matthews.
Come 1969 and the entire decade of the 1970s things became much more ruthless in the music industry. Confusion spread like mad and all of a sudden bands were either "Underground" or "Mainstream" and while some of the pop music was downright depressing so was some of the "Underground." I can't listen to Deep Purple anymore. I can't see anything in Ian Gillan or their horrible songs. So who would we have to fill the gap they opened? Stonehouse, Asgard, Uriah Heep, Free, Pluto and many more bands even less heard of than Pluto. Europe all of a sudden in their own quarters were causing a musical revolution. German and Swedish bands heard Deep Purple and read into the virtuoso organ and guitar work of Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore classical music. Soon Germany would produce more great bands along with England in the 1970s who went commercially nowhere than anywhere else in the world. The Dutch proved themselves worthy and so did Denmark and Sweden. As bands contented themselves with small followings in their respected countries the music scene blossomed and "Pop" didn't mean hit singles anymore by hideous bands like The Flying Machine ("Smile A Little Smile For Me") or all the American schlock. Now we had bands playing "Hard Pop" and "Progressive Pop," AOR, and Pomp Rock. Starting with The Sweet, Slade, and especially Queen the crossover hits would lead to America's own brand of excitement as Styx showed us their Crystal Ball and Grand Illusion, Journey's former roadie Steve Perry reinvented rock/pop vocals as did Foreigner's Lou Gramm who replaced the amazing yet lesser acknowledged Ian Lloyd who had been the frontman for the fantastic Stories. As demand grew high for crossover appeal soon bands began to think too much of the flash side of things and the music scene became fragmented. Out of this destruction rose Punk which was not a good thing. A war seemed to be going on between bombastic or inept with somewhere in between talented, wonderful bands who couldn't earn a living. As the 1970s turned gloomy around 1977 with disco and Punk what of Trickster? What of Trillion? What of Money? What of Quartz who would make 4 albums and what of Magnum? Magnum would breakthrough BIG in England/Europe and still exist today. Trillion, from the American Midwest inexplicably wouldn't make the kind of money horrible Kansas would and Trickster were buried alive while Quartz were demoted to cult status. Money only made one album First Investment- a masterpiece yet their label Gull mismanaged and destroyed their career. I'm not saying this wouldn't happen also back in the 1960s, but come the 1980s cutthroat double dealing and destruction through record companies and fanzines would lead Iron Maiden to be stars and their Proto Fascist Neo Nazi war mongering filth cluttered up the British Airwaves along with the same right wing filth of Saxon making it big. These two worst of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal together with the thankfully unsuccessful Witchfynde and Witchfinder General would give one of the most exciting and delicious movements in musical history a bad name. Someone had to save the day for the charts and that would be Def Leppard. However, bands like Airrace, Lionheart, Snowblind, Wolf (Of Cheshire who released just the one psychedelic hard rock masterpiece Edge Of The World), and Wildfire formed by previous Iron Maiden vocalist (for only roughly a year) Paul Mario Day proved that NWOBHM was really synonymous with tough melodic hard rock. As the 80s went on Duran Duran would stay a vital and exciting pop/rock group and bands like Glass Tiger and Brummies Shy would combine hard melodic pop with the image and video techniques pioneered by Duran Duran, The Fixx, et all. I am not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here on this blog, but I gotta say in conclusion if you can't face the facts that successful sales don't mean great music although they sometimes do and nothing is black and white than tough luck. Go out on your own journey and find what I've found. Don't buy into hype. Keep an open mind. I would recommend this bit of advice: Try the less successful bands and artists, but also don't thumb your nose at great bands from Abba to Asia to the afforementioned Duran Duran and Pat Benatar who made it. Music is a magical thing. And magic is never predictable.
Monday, June 27, 2011
NORTHWIND BLOWS TO EARTH ISLAND
There was for around a decade long fascination with American bands in the UK and for me these bands fell into one of two categories. On one hand there are amazing bands who just so happened to have been knocked out by CSNY in particular Neil Young and the Westcoast Folk Rock movement that also spawned much earlier The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and later some of the more "epic" sounds of Quicksilver Messenger Service and or the electric period of Bob Dylan. While I am not a fan of the Bay Area bands in general nothing was wrong with getting it together in the country or in following Dylan's trend of story telling lyrics. It really was Dylan and the Band and Paul Simon who made an impact. On bands like Northwind and Dog That Bit People and The Parlour Band the influences were of this former category and the music something that can never be matched. On the other hand there are pale imitations of Americana and bad singer songwriters like Ralph McTell were around in profusion. You unfortunately had to weed through about 50 to 60 English Leonard Cohens to get to Northwind and that other side. The painfully insincere sincerity of bad country rock albums was sadly a disease that bit a lot of bands everywhere. Where Earth Island fit in is an American band who sounded English with an American LA slant. They could have been mistaken on many of their tracks for the British Kaleidoscope which is a damned sight more splendid than the American band of the same name who brought us at least 4 albums of musical boredom.
Northwind were one of the first UK bands to become unbelievably expensive. Not only was the album at the $500 to $600 mark in 1995-1996 it was impossible to find. I first heard Sister Brother Lover.... the Glasgow Scotland area's sole album on CD and couldn't make sense of it before falling in love with it. What I heard and still hear very much in Northwind is some strange kind of sexuality and easiness- a laid back groove with a very sinuous kind of ethereal sensual power. It's hard to describe. Brian Young's voice and the combination of two guitars (Young on acoustic/electrics and Hugh Barr on electric a lot of the time slide) and organ lead to a tight and yet very carefree sound that is as commercially viable as radio could have been at that time yet which never found an audience thanks to the poor distribution of the EMI Regal Zonophone label. While their album is at times an epic work of progressive psychedelic folkrock some songs are so damned catchy that you wonder how they managed to miss a hit in the UK and how this went by without a US release. They would have been fucked because the label in the States probably would have done them no service, but on listening to my original copy and the CD Northwind continue to stun me with how much potential they had for stardom and how it all escaped them in what seems like a split second. Most American dealers rate this one really low. Well, most Yanks don't understand music if it bit them on the ass.... While a million bad private press singer songwriters and jam band wannabes get huge raves from the likes of Acid Archives Northwind aren't just unpopular with the idiots who prefer American rubbish, they're downright hated by them. I spent $500 on a copy and considered it a great deal. That's a bargain compared to the going price of 700 to 1000 for it. The album can fetch over 500 pounds! Northwind's inability to make any noise outside their Scottish rural fan base is probably both the band's and the label's lack on their part to try and build a foundation on which they at least could have had the chance of making a dent in the history of successful British bands. Scottish bands have always had a rough time of it. The few that break through are great bands like The Marmalade, Pilot, and Blue- bands that have superb songs and great memorable hits, but for every Pilot or Blue there's about 20 bands who never move out from Scotland and who perish because of that. Most of these bands unfortunately can't hold a candle to the Mainland competition and I'd be one to put Heavy Pettin', Holocaust, and earlier Tear Gas down as laughable attempts at "Heavy Scottish Style." Unfortunately, while bands like Clouds and Beggar's Opera damage our view of Scottish music there is the isolated masterpiece such as Hate or Northwind- especially the latter. Northwind's tight ensemble playing, creative arrangements, and Epic Westcoast atmospheres are the best thing this side of The Parlour Band, Dog That Bit People, and the best of The Marmalade's work, but while they are a collectors group like the first two bands just like how bizarre and sad the lack of success of those bands is with Northwind it is downright staggering. I would have to give this the "Classic To End All Classics" as there isn't one note I'd change on Sister Brother Lover... The cover is a lovely thick leather textured thing of beauty to hold in your hands, but the music speaks for itself and speaks volumes. Find it, pay any price for it, for it does not get any better.
So all my raves about UK bands probably have you thinking I hate all American bands. Well, I don't, but I must admit that I'm wholly unimpressed with most of them. This makes Earth Island as important for what they are not than for what they are. They are a band forgotten by time, neglected by collectors, and even in the current "Hype Everything" mood of dealers barely even touched. The album went from somewhat hard to find to a real rarity, but I don't even know what the current price on this gem is. I frankly don't know anything about Earth Island save for the album came out on US Phillips and was a Kim Fowley connected production making it even more shocking that nobody knows about it. Now, I won't praise Kim Fowley too much- he was a hack who destroyed the careers of a lot of talented artists, but the recording on We Must Survive by Earth Island is absolutely brilliant. Earth Island's serene beautiful 4 part harmonies meet very engaging song structures and well written environmentally aware lyrics on their one album. The sound is I would say a cross between British Kaleidoscope and some of the more forward moving American albums like say Green's excellent 1st and the softer parts of the amazing Over The Hills by Saint Steven. While most American psych is uninspired jump on the flowers and acid trip bandwagon nonsense with horrible vocals and dreadful songs if they even qualify as that here is a breath of fresh air amongst all the smog and pollution. It ain't a secret that LA had better bands, but together with Love and the great first two Doors albums Earth Island were like an American Northwind almost in the sense of being the best and getting no recognition at the time for their amazing contribution to music. It does not get better and if you love The Beatles around SGT. Pepper and Abbey Road this is compulsory listening. Particularly fans of Kaleidoscope upon hearing this would have to agree that the vocal sound is uncannily similar to that of their mastermind Peter Daltrey. I'll freely admit that I don't think American bands can do heavy psych any justice hardly ever and prefer softer more introspective bands like Earth Island, but Earth Island also are not complete softies. They have energy, they have enthusiasm, they have a strong and direct and very together sound. While most bands from the States come oozing out of your speakers with inept horrible vocals, nonexistent songs, pretentious lyrics, and a sound as outdated as a bad too much fudge and frills ice cream sundae here is something you can sink your teeth into without vomiting. An American psych band who don't make me feel nauseous is pretty rare for me. I have my favourites and I have my least favourites and if I stacked them up against England and Germany the Yanks wouldn't come close, but Earth Island are right up there with world class killers both American like Gandalf and Kak, German like Epitaph's 1st 3 albums, and all the great British psych toytown albums. This album demands attention- listen to and you'll be amazed at just how good it is. Nuff Said.
Northwind were one of the first UK bands to become unbelievably expensive. Not only was the album at the $500 to $600 mark in 1995-1996 it was impossible to find. I first heard Sister Brother Lover.... the Glasgow Scotland area's sole album on CD and couldn't make sense of it before falling in love with it. What I heard and still hear very much in Northwind is some strange kind of sexuality and easiness- a laid back groove with a very sinuous kind of ethereal sensual power. It's hard to describe. Brian Young's voice and the combination of two guitars (Young on acoustic/electrics and Hugh Barr on electric a lot of the time slide) and organ lead to a tight and yet very carefree sound that is as commercially viable as radio could have been at that time yet which never found an audience thanks to the poor distribution of the EMI Regal Zonophone label. While their album is at times an epic work of progressive psychedelic folkrock some songs are so damned catchy that you wonder how they managed to miss a hit in the UK and how this went by without a US release. They would have been fucked because the label in the States probably would have done them no service, but on listening to my original copy and the CD Northwind continue to stun me with how much potential they had for stardom and how it all escaped them in what seems like a split second. Most American dealers rate this one really low. Well, most Yanks don't understand music if it bit them on the ass.... While a million bad private press singer songwriters and jam band wannabes get huge raves from the likes of Acid Archives Northwind aren't just unpopular with the idiots who prefer American rubbish, they're downright hated by them. I spent $500 on a copy and considered it a great deal. That's a bargain compared to the going price of 700 to 1000 for it. The album can fetch over 500 pounds! Northwind's inability to make any noise outside their Scottish rural fan base is probably both the band's and the label's lack on their part to try and build a foundation on which they at least could have had the chance of making a dent in the history of successful British bands. Scottish bands have always had a rough time of it. The few that break through are great bands like The Marmalade, Pilot, and Blue- bands that have superb songs and great memorable hits, but for every Pilot or Blue there's about 20 bands who never move out from Scotland and who perish because of that. Most of these bands unfortunately can't hold a candle to the Mainland competition and I'd be one to put Heavy Pettin', Holocaust, and earlier Tear Gas down as laughable attempts at "Heavy Scottish Style." Unfortunately, while bands like Clouds and Beggar's Opera damage our view of Scottish music there is the isolated masterpiece such as Hate or Northwind- especially the latter. Northwind's tight ensemble playing, creative arrangements, and Epic Westcoast atmospheres are the best thing this side of The Parlour Band, Dog That Bit People, and the best of The Marmalade's work, but while they are a collectors group like the first two bands just like how bizarre and sad the lack of success of those bands is with Northwind it is downright staggering. I would have to give this the "Classic To End All Classics" as there isn't one note I'd change on Sister Brother Lover... The cover is a lovely thick leather textured thing of beauty to hold in your hands, but the music speaks for itself and speaks volumes. Find it, pay any price for it, for it does not get any better.
So all my raves about UK bands probably have you thinking I hate all American bands. Well, I don't, but I must admit that I'm wholly unimpressed with most of them. This makes Earth Island as important for what they are not than for what they are. They are a band forgotten by time, neglected by collectors, and even in the current "Hype Everything" mood of dealers barely even touched. The album went from somewhat hard to find to a real rarity, but I don't even know what the current price on this gem is. I frankly don't know anything about Earth Island save for the album came out on US Phillips and was a Kim Fowley connected production making it even more shocking that nobody knows about it. Now, I won't praise Kim Fowley too much- he was a hack who destroyed the careers of a lot of talented artists, but the recording on We Must Survive by Earth Island is absolutely brilliant. Earth Island's serene beautiful 4 part harmonies meet very engaging song structures and well written environmentally aware lyrics on their one album. The sound is I would say a cross between British Kaleidoscope and some of the more forward moving American albums like say Green's excellent 1st and the softer parts of the amazing Over The Hills by Saint Steven. While most American psych is uninspired jump on the flowers and acid trip bandwagon nonsense with horrible vocals and dreadful songs if they even qualify as that here is a breath of fresh air amongst all the smog and pollution. It ain't a secret that LA had better bands, but together with Love and the great first two Doors albums Earth Island were like an American Northwind almost in the sense of being the best and getting no recognition at the time for their amazing contribution to music. It does not get better and if you love The Beatles around SGT. Pepper and Abbey Road this is compulsory listening. Particularly fans of Kaleidoscope upon hearing this would have to agree that the vocal sound is uncannily similar to that of their mastermind Peter Daltrey. I'll freely admit that I don't think American bands can do heavy psych any justice hardly ever and prefer softer more introspective bands like Earth Island, but Earth Island also are not complete softies. They have energy, they have enthusiasm, they have a strong and direct and very together sound. While most bands from the States come oozing out of your speakers with inept horrible vocals, nonexistent songs, pretentious lyrics, and a sound as outdated as a bad too much fudge and frills ice cream sundae here is something you can sink your teeth into without vomiting. An American psych band who don't make me feel nauseous is pretty rare for me. I have my favourites and I have my least favourites and if I stacked them up against England and Germany the Yanks wouldn't come close, but Earth Island are right up there with world class killers both American like Gandalf and Kak, German like Epitaph's 1st 3 albums, and all the great British psych toytown albums. This album demands attention- listen to and you'll be amazed at just how good it is. Nuff Said.
Monday, May 23, 2011
MUSIC OF THE SACRIFICE- KIP TREVOR AND BLACK WIDOW
In or around about 1969 there were some major changes going down in the world of music and the world as a whole. Before there was Ozzy Osbourne there was a cat named Kip Trevor. And Kip would continue to be a sort of opposite to Ozzy in the band who gave Sabbath the most fear of heavy competition and even rivaled them thanks to an outrageous stage show. That band was of course Black Widow.
I have interviewed Kip about the beginnings, the fun part of it, the down part of it, and his successes after Black Widow working behind the scenes with big names as big as The Rolling Stones! He now runs an online music publishing company called websongs.co.uk to help young artists realize their dreams, but I will take you back to his time in the Leicester legends Black Widow.
In 1969 music was rapidly undergoing some serious changes and upheavals. So too was the culture that musicians from their respected countries delved into. In England a strong interest in the Occult was taking place as works by authors such as Alistair Crowley, the Gothic fantasy novelist Mervyn Peake, and others were becoming popular with aspiring artists and musicians. Black Widow would emerge together with Black Sabbath as two polar opposite bands of the Occultist vanguard. While Sabbath were essentially a Christian outfit warning against the perils of Satanism Black Widow were celebrating it, almost making it seem inviting. Their sound wasn't characterized by bombastic guitar riffs and wailing vocals that evoked terrifying visions of opening the door to sacrifices and practice of the black arts. Instead Black Widow tried to show us into a world where one could learn about the workings of Satanism and the practice of it through a rock opera that told an elaborate story through words and music. Remember that The Pretty Things had made a huge impact on musicians in the know with S.F Sorrow, but even more so a lot of bands were looking to The Beatles for inspiration on how to create conceptual music. The innocence of the flower power era was dying out nearly completely. To simply state the fact of the matter would be that thanks to Arthur Brown and his ilk either you were "Progressive" or "Underground" or you weren't. Black Widow would enter the charts amazingly with the single "Come To The Shabbat" in 1970 and then they would become a household name in England with a debut album sporting the very unsubtle title Sacrifice.
But it would take even them time before they would reach that oh-so unusual year of 1969 where Satanism started to become prevalent in the music that was coming out of the British Underground. We in the States had the horrible band Coven, but Black Widow were something else- they weren't a gimmick or a band who lacked chops. Starting out as the Club/Soul act Pesky Gee and releasing a horrendously rare album called Exclamation Mark of seedy Soul/Jazz/blooz rock they were jazz players, soul players, and they had a blues/soul vocalist. When Kip Trevor and Kay Garnett and the band delved into an interest in the occult you had to be sharp with what you'd come out with. Bands like Bulldog Breed were introducing the outlandishly occult into the rock idiom while bands as stupid as Harsh Reality played with the imagery without having anything to do with the anti Christ.
Fast forward to early 1970, Black Widow had lost Kay after recording an at the time unreleased version of their debut later put out on CD as Return To The Shabbat. In 1970 with Kip handling all lead vocals, Jim Gannon on acoustic/electric guitars, heavy Hammond organist Zoot Taylor, Beatnicky Clive Jones on lead sax and flute and the bass and drums of Clive Box and Bob Bond the group released Sacrifice and scared the Hell out (no pun intended) of nearly anyone who became aware of the album. If the tepid, menacing, trippy, and otherworldly jazzy progressive rock of the album that culminated in the tremendously terrifying "Attack Of The Demon" and the Yardbirds styled rave up of 13 minute length "Sacrifice" weren't enough then the band's stage show pushed everything right off the precipice and word soon spread like wildfire this band were dangerous. The group used dry ice before anyone else. They clothed themselves in Medieval robes and Kip Trevor wore at times white face paint and black leather. It was Kip who was the focal point- pulling out a huge sword and sacrificing a naked woman in the role of Astaroth Queen Of Heaven Queen Of Hell at the end of the act. This caused so much uproar because no one had dared to go as far as BW went then. When photographers and publicity were banned from the group's show at The Lyceum in London nobody could have predicted that at that gig and the peak of intensity that cameras would shockingly go off somehow and cause Black Widow and Kip Trevor to be a sensation. For a good year long period they were a wild, dangerous bunch, but changes had to be made first to the personnel. Clive Box and Bob Bond simply just couldn't cut it as the rhythm section. Geoff Griffith would come in as the virtuoso bass player and West Indian drummer supreme Romeo Challenger came in.
Soon Black Widow were beginning to feel a bit uneasy about their enthusiasm for The Man Downstairs. They started to see, much like how I can see violence doesn't solve things, that Satanism could be really, really scary, Still, they would stick to their occultist guns going into the studio to make their second album this time just called Black Widow.
A massive step forward vocally, musically, and lyrically the album remains one of the greatest achievements of the early Underground progressive era with excellent vocals from bluesy, melodic voiced Kip. In fact, the only real similarity with Sabbath was two fair haired singers who had different approaches to that, but who could go from raving to mellow and reflective. Black Widow now were playing fantastic progressive heavy hard rock a bit like a much improved Deep Purple although The Yardbirds, Traffic, and Led Zeppelin all were more of what BW was about. There is lots of excellent electric guitar from Jim Gannon, epic song structures merged with more straightforward ones (the long heavy Blues Rock scorcher "Poseur'), and the album closes out with the opus "Legend Of Creation" which brings to mind both early Yes and Trespass period Genesis. Seek their first two albums out, especially this one, and you'll be very much rewarded.
Unfortunately, it just wouldn't last. Problems with egos in the group and some of the members wanting what others despised namely moving completely away from their past led to Jim Gannon who was the soul and principle writer leaving the group. Kip Trevor felt that the group now were a diluted version of what they had been. He'd only stay on for one more album. Soon it all would be revealed to be something sadly lost for any hope of greatness again as the pompous, overweight prog of Black Widow 3 proved. I had a sentimental attachment to this album for a long time, but as you'll hear from Kip he had no interest or enjoyment coming out of the band at all anymore. You can hear his unhappiness on the unimpressive anti Soldier rant "The Battle" and his songwriting input was down to 2 songs. Black Widow had run their course, but obnoxiously with NO INVOLVEMENT from Kip Trevor or Jim Gannon some members tour with bogus line ups trying desperately to cling to a past that will outlive their foolish attempts to rake in money on them. Black Widow will live through the music on their first two albums- music that was made by a young and hopeful group who would for a brief moment shine in the rock and roll light as an underground sensation.
Kip, really good friend of mine, gave me a wonderful interview this past winter and I have tried to integrate the knowledge I learned from his story into this write up. I will try to publish the full interview later on as there unfortunately isn't the space for the whole story on this blog. I will just say in closing that Kip Trevor is a down to earth, intelligent, and very talented guy who is still involved with music for all the right reasons. He will soon appear on another epic recording- an album based around the works of my namesake William Blake! Rock on Kip!
I have interviewed Kip about the beginnings, the fun part of it, the down part of it, and his successes after Black Widow working behind the scenes with big names as big as The Rolling Stones! He now runs an online music publishing company called websongs.co.uk to help young artists realize their dreams, but I will take you back to his time in the Leicester legends Black Widow.
In 1969 music was rapidly undergoing some serious changes and upheavals. So too was the culture that musicians from their respected countries delved into. In England a strong interest in the Occult was taking place as works by authors such as Alistair Crowley, the Gothic fantasy novelist Mervyn Peake, and others were becoming popular with aspiring artists and musicians. Black Widow would emerge together with Black Sabbath as two polar opposite bands of the Occultist vanguard. While Sabbath were essentially a Christian outfit warning against the perils of Satanism Black Widow were celebrating it, almost making it seem inviting. Their sound wasn't characterized by bombastic guitar riffs and wailing vocals that evoked terrifying visions of opening the door to sacrifices and practice of the black arts. Instead Black Widow tried to show us into a world where one could learn about the workings of Satanism and the practice of it through a rock opera that told an elaborate story through words and music. Remember that The Pretty Things had made a huge impact on musicians in the know with S.F Sorrow, but even more so a lot of bands were looking to The Beatles for inspiration on how to create conceptual music. The innocence of the flower power era was dying out nearly completely. To simply state the fact of the matter would be that thanks to Arthur Brown and his ilk either you were "Progressive" or "Underground" or you weren't. Black Widow would enter the charts amazingly with the single "Come To The Shabbat" in 1970 and then they would become a household name in England with a debut album sporting the very unsubtle title Sacrifice.
But it would take even them time before they would reach that oh-so unusual year of 1969 where Satanism started to become prevalent in the music that was coming out of the British Underground. We in the States had the horrible band Coven, but Black Widow were something else- they weren't a gimmick or a band who lacked chops. Starting out as the Club/Soul act Pesky Gee and releasing a horrendously rare album called Exclamation Mark of seedy Soul/Jazz/blooz rock they were jazz players, soul players, and they had a blues/soul vocalist. When Kip Trevor and Kay Garnett and the band delved into an interest in the occult you had to be sharp with what you'd come out with. Bands like Bulldog Breed were introducing the outlandishly occult into the rock idiom while bands as stupid as Harsh Reality played with the imagery without having anything to do with the anti Christ.
Fast forward to early 1970, Black Widow had lost Kay after recording an at the time unreleased version of their debut later put out on CD as Return To The Shabbat. In 1970 with Kip handling all lead vocals, Jim Gannon on acoustic/electric guitars, heavy Hammond organist Zoot Taylor, Beatnicky Clive Jones on lead sax and flute and the bass and drums of Clive Box and Bob Bond the group released Sacrifice and scared the Hell out (no pun intended) of nearly anyone who became aware of the album. If the tepid, menacing, trippy, and otherworldly jazzy progressive rock of the album that culminated in the tremendously terrifying "Attack Of The Demon" and the Yardbirds styled rave up of 13 minute length "Sacrifice" weren't enough then the band's stage show pushed everything right off the precipice and word soon spread like wildfire this band were dangerous. The group used dry ice before anyone else. They clothed themselves in Medieval robes and Kip Trevor wore at times white face paint and black leather. It was Kip who was the focal point- pulling out a huge sword and sacrificing a naked woman in the role of Astaroth Queen Of Heaven Queen Of Hell at the end of the act. This caused so much uproar because no one had dared to go as far as BW went then. When photographers and publicity were banned from the group's show at The Lyceum in London nobody could have predicted that at that gig and the peak of intensity that cameras would shockingly go off somehow and cause Black Widow and Kip Trevor to be a sensation. For a good year long period they were a wild, dangerous bunch, but changes had to be made first to the personnel. Clive Box and Bob Bond simply just couldn't cut it as the rhythm section. Geoff Griffith would come in as the virtuoso bass player and West Indian drummer supreme Romeo Challenger came in.
Soon Black Widow were beginning to feel a bit uneasy about their enthusiasm for The Man Downstairs. They started to see, much like how I can see violence doesn't solve things, that Satanism could be really, really scary, Still, they would stick to their occultist guns going into the studio to make their second album this time just called Black Widow.
A massive step forward vocally, musically, and lyrically the album remains one of the greatest achievements of the early Underground progressive era with excellent vocals from bluesy, melodic voiced Kip. In fact, the only real similarity with Sabbath was two fair haired singers who had different approaches to that, but who could go from raving to mellow and reflective. Black Widow now were playing fantastic progressive heavy hard rock a bit like a much improved Deep Purple although The Yardbirds, Traffic, and Led Zeppelin all were more of what BW was about. There is lots of excellent electric guitar from Jim Gannon, epic song structures merged with more straightforward ones (the long heavy Blues Rock scorcher "Poseur'), and the album closes out with the opus "Legend Of Creation" which brings to mind both early Yes and Trespass period Genesis. Seek their first two albums out, especially this one, and you'll be very much rewarded.
Unfortunately, it just wouldn't last. Problems with egos in the group and some of the members wanting what others despised namely moving completely away from their past led to Jim Gannon who was the soul and principle writer leaving the group. Kip Trevor felt that the group now were a diluted version of what they had been. He'd only stay on for one more album. Soon it all would be revealed to be something sadly lost for any hope of greatness again as the pompous, overweight prog of Black Widow 3 proved. I had a sentimental attachment to this album for a long time, but as you'll hear from Kip he had no interest or enjoyment coming out of the band at all anymore. You can hear his unhappiness on the unimpressive anti Soldier rant "The Battle" and his songwriting input was down to 2 songs. Black Widow had run their course, but obnoxiously with NO INVOLVEMENT from Kip Trevor or Jim Gannon some members tour with bogus line ups trying desperately to cling to a past that will outlive their foolish attempts to rake in money on them. Black Widow will live through the music on their first two albums- music that was made by a young and hopeful group who would for a brief moment shine in the rock and roll light as an underground sensation.
Kip, really good friend of mine, gave me a wonderful interview this past winter and I have tried to integrate the knowledge I learned from his story into this write up. I will try to publish the full interview later on as there unfortunately isn't the space for the whole story on this blog. I will just say in closing that Kip Trevor is a down to earth, intelligent, and very talented guy who is still involved with music for all the right reasons. He will soon appear on another epic recording- an album based around the works of my namesake William Blake! Rock on Kip!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
FATHER TO SON THE UNINTENTIONAL BIRTH OF A VINYL ADDICT
It's hard to be a vinyl addict in my family. It's hard for me when I simply can't stop and need to save for a trip. It's hard when endless arguments and aggro come into play all the time over the purchase of expensive albums online. You also have to worry about the vigilance of who you deal with. Sometimes the grading is picture perfect, but there are dealers who don't know shite about grading albums. Back when I first started collecting it was a different world. Really it was Stuart, my father, who got me into the kind of music I collect when I was just a small lad who knew very little about what Real music was. He and other older friends who remembered the 1960s and 1970s were my encyclopedia then before I became a walking, talking, living, loving book of world records on ultra obscure stuff and more famous bands. Stuart brought me up surrounded by music and even if he hadn't been nurturing me with it I was very aware of it from an early age. I had a small interest as a little boy, but as I grew older music would become more a part of my life. When I started collecting seriously I was 16. Now at 35 many things have changed since then. There is the internet and occasional record stores and insane people like the mail order freak brigade as I could call them are nearly completely dead. This is a good thing. I could tell you all about the absolute maniacs who used to run this whole show, but I won't bore you with the details. Onto some factual information about how this all began.
Stuart Patterson Mitchner (Father) and Leslie Carol Mitchner (Mum) were a part of the 1960s counterculture and were dubbed "The Happy Hippy Couple." They were introduced to each other by none other than Ben Van Meter who did the light shows for the Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms and thus named me Ben with the Blake stemming from English poet/artist/visionary hero William Blake.
Thus Benjamin Blake Mitchner was brought into the world on April 28th 1976.
Stuart wasn't slow in introducing me to music. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bowie, The Incredible String Band, it all was a part of childhood and one of my most traumatic memories is the assassination of John Lennon in 1980- it would be a full decade before I could listen to the Beatles again.
Fast forward to then. At 14 years old in 1990 I'd gotten bored with new music for the most part and Dad stepped in with suggestions- Traffic, Family, The Zombies who I was enthralled by thanks to "She's Not There." Two years later at 16 and 3 years later at 17 these bands were a staple of my diet of vintage brewed 1960s and early 1970s magic.
The big revelation came in 1989 when I was a 13 year old metalhead. I was finding heavy metal increasingly uninteresting and beginning to wonder if something else could be more satisfying to me than the numerous bands who were on MTV and the radio 24 hours every day and night. My answer came in two bands. First I bought a copy of Death Walks Behind You by Atomic Rooster and then after listening pinned to the floor by the title track, John Cann's dark Gothic voice, his blazing guitars, Vincent Crane's heavy pounding mesmerizing organ, Paul Hammond's thundering drums throughout the album I hated Metallica and continue to hate them. I knew I wasn't gonna make it anymore with the trendy metal kids at school who knew nothing. Stuart then had a massive collection of records. I had read in an interview with her that Doro Pesch of Germany's Warlock's favourite band and song was Procol Harum's only chart entry "A Whiter Shade Of Pale." Yes had by now become a favourite, but to put a final cap on modern mass marketed rubbish Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade" and the whole album did the trick. Soon I was in another world. I learned how to draw and I had to own up that I'd been mainly into the classic stuff like Angel, Scorpions, UFO and all these new bands were nonsensical. Stuart came into the picture to offer suggestions. Traffic and Steve Winwood were one of his first, but his first success along with Procol Harum were McCartney's best solo works and a revisit to The Beatles. I had a dream when I was about 14 I would guess that The Beatles were safe to go back to and it snowballed from there. Now, of course, I know that you just can't argue against The Beatles and Stu was right all along. Anyone who hates the Fab 4 needs to have their head re-examined. I was an idiot at 14 and 15. I did really bad things to other kids. I was shy, goofy, completely Unhip, terrified of England (soldiers especially thanks to a premature rendezvous with "The Knife' by Peter Gabriel and Genesis), blurry, unable to communicate with other kids on any level, and pretty much a fool. I was learning, though, at least about artwork and sounds. Sounds always affected me. From the beginning they did. It was certain sounds when I was a kid that bothered me and got me "horny and uncomfortable and moody" when I was really really young. I would run screaming because of these sounds while others delighted me. Music wasn't my main interest. I was into video games and then wanted to be a botanist. All that would give way to rock and roll over time. By the age of 16 I had gone through a massive Frank Zappa phase and he had taught me some good lessons. Poor Frank was dying then. He'd die that December of 1992 leaving me no time to get over the loss of another hero brought to me by father Freddy Mercury Of Queen who'd died the previous November. Stu had bought me a copy of A Night At The Opera and after completely missing the point it then sunk in. Still I am a dyed-in-the-wool Queen freak. Another acquired wonderful taste passed down from him was the idiosyncratic progressive group Earth Opera- a band who may have created Prog Rock or some form of it. This band possessed a singer and writer named Peter Rowan whose voice could tear the paint off walls and send your mind to some pretty strange places. I would grow to love them and him.
When I was 16 Stuart and I could agree about 1960s music nearly completely. He brought home a tape of Quicksilver Messenger Service's 1st album and the twin guitar heroics of John Cipollina and Gary Duncan convinced me to get serious about playing the guitar. Stu found a rock and roll wonder kid guitar teacher named Jim MacGuire and thanks to Jim I studied hard at the instrument spending hours of practice to master it. At age 35 now and 19 years later I can say I am a fully equipped guitarist. Stu, never one to quit while he was ahead, then introduced me to the wonderful and strange beautifully twisted music of Arthur Lee and Love. Forever Changes- the sound of all that was going on in the 1960s both the beautiful and frightening side to it and of it.
Stoggie or Doggie is now how I refer to Stuart, but when he was still Stuart or Stu or Badger he bought me a copy of The Time Of The Zombies and Kak for Christmas of 1992. We were reading All Quiet On The Western Front in English class and soldiers were starting to have a big impact on me. Oddysey and Oracle, album 2 of the double set, blew me away. There was a really horrific song about World War 1 and an opening track that joyfully told of a loved one coming home from prison. There were songs of love and loss, of imagination run wild and hypocrisy. I was hooked. Well, there was no stopping from there. Stoggie may want to go back and change things now but he can't.
On my own accord some strange experiences led me to where I am today. In early 1993 things were really ugly in the Former Yugoslavia. The UN had sent British soldiers in as peacekeepers to try and do something about the genocide against the Bosnians by the despicable Serbs. After lies from our English teacher about soldiers which people who believe them still should be shot for the truth was revealed. We were told in class that they had no feelings or emotions and did nothing but go off and fight wars and that was it. A young Cheshire Regiment (Now Mercian Regiment) soldier was in tears on the Tele and I was staring at him with a horrified expression. The truth started to hit. No longer would I be ashamed of my emotional personality. I wanted to travel to England.
Years later now I've been to England 14 times and am hoping for a 15th if I can get my buying under control for awhile. All my best friends and closest allies besides Mum and Dad are British Soldiers and I want to thank them for the tremendous job they've done in making my life worth living. God Bless. Many hugs and maybe even a kiss. The same would go to Music. I know of nothing more moving, more powerful, more exciting, more alchemic, more poisonously addictive than the sounds that come out of old records. Now I'm open to all the music that passed me by when I didn't know about The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, Pomp Rock, and AOR (Album Oriented Rock.) Bands from Snowblind to Wildfire to Skagarack to Shy to Treat (these guys are really good) to Glass Tiger prove that music was being kept alive when I thought it was dead. Of course, and rather sadly, the airbrushed images, flamboyance, airs and graces of hair bands and Pomp rockers would be killed off by Grunge which is another word for Shite. One of the few truly heavy HM bands from back in my early days Diamond Head knocked Stoggie out and continue to. He always knew good music. He always knew real music. I can't help but wonder how he feels about my jumping ahead of him into the obscure. Now Obscure can be bands who once had a following or chance of making it or bands who died out as quick as they came. I would advise you to start with a slightly more famous band. Choose Yes or Uriah Heep or Procol Harum or early Genesis. Choose Traffic, The Beatles, or The Zombies or Yardbirds. Then you dig really deep into the record racks, online sights, and record shops and become a vinyl collector. Stoggie and I drove into NYC last week listening to Procol Harum and The Beatles. It all comes around in circles. I just bought loads of expensive and rare records to come in the mail in the now and near future. If you can support yourself and it's your Own cash maybe this is more fun. With Stoggie he grudgingly feeds my love for the rare, the obscure, and the expensive and then appreciates the music as much as I do. From Stoggie to Ben from Father to Son- he's handed down a wonderful kind of magic as Queen would have said.
Stuart Patterson Mitchner (Father) and Leslie Carol Mitchner (Mum) were a part of the 1960s counterculture and were dubbed "The Happy Hippy Couple." They were introduced to each other by none other than Ben Van Meter who did the light shows for the Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms and thus named me Ben with the Blake stemming from English poet/artist/visionary hero William Blake.
Thus Benjamin Blake Mitchner was brought into the world on April 28th 1976.
Stuart wasn't slow in introducing me to music. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bowie, The Incredible String Band, it all was a part of childhood and one of my most traumatic memories is the assassination of John Lennon in 1980- it would be a full decade before I could listen to the Beatles again.
Fast forward to then. At 14 years old in 1990 I'd gotten bored with new music for the most part and Dad stepped in with suggestions- Traffic, Family, The Zombies who I was enthralled by thanks to "She's Not There." Two years later at 16 and 3 years later at 17 these bands were a staple of my diet of vintage brewed 1960s and early 1970s magic.
The big revelation came in 1989 when I was a 13 year old metalhead. I was finding heavy metal increasingly uninteresting and beginning to wonder if something else could be more satisfying to me than the numerous bands who were on MTV and the radio 24 hours every day and night. My answer came in two bands. First I bought a copy of Death Walks Behind You by Atomic Rooster and then after listening pinned to the floor by the title track, John Cann's dark Gothic voice, his blazing guitars, Vincent Crane's heavy pounding mesmerizing organ, Paul Hammond's thundering drums throughout the album I hated Metallica and continue to hate them. I knew I wasn't gonna make it anymore with the trendy metal kids at school who knew nothing. Stuart then had a massive collection of records. I had read in an interview with her that Doro Pesch of Germany's Warlock's favourite band and song was Procol Harum's only chart entry "A Whiter Shade Of Pale." Yes had by now become a favourite, but to put a final cap on modern mass marketed rubbish Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade" and the whole album did the trick. Soon I was in another world. I learned how to draw and I had to own up that I'd been mainly into the classic stuff like Angel, Scorpions, UFO and all these new bands were nonsensical. Stuart came into the picture to offer suggestions. Traffic and Steve Winwood were one of his first, but his first success along with Procol Harum were McCartney's best solo works and a revisit to The Beatles. I had a dream when I was about 14 I would guess that The Beatles were safe to go back to and it snowballed from there. Now, of course, I know that you just can't argue against The Beatles and Stu was right all along. Anyone who hates the Fab 4 needs to have their head re-examined. I was an idiot at 14 and 15. I did really bad things to other kids. I was shy, goofy, completely Unhip, terrified of England (soldiers especially thanks to a premature rendezvous with "The Knife' by Peter Gabriel and Genesis), blurry, unable to communicate with other kids on any level, and pretty much a fool. I was learning, though, at least about artwork and sounds. Sounds always affected me. From the beginning they did. It was certain sounds when I was a kid that bothered me and got me "horny and uncomfortable and moody" when I was really really young. I would run screaming because of these sounds while others delighted me. Music wasn't my main interest. I was into video games and then wanted to be a botanist. All that would give way to rock and roll over time. By the age of 16 I had gone through a massive Frank Zappa phase and he had taught me some good lessons. Poor Frank was dying then. He'd die that December of 1992 leaving me no time to get over the loss of another hero brought to me by father Freddy Mercury Of Queen who'd died the previous November. Stu had bought me a copy of A Night At The Opera and after completely missing the point it then sunk in. Still I am a dyed-in-the-wool Queen freak. Another acquired wonderful taste passed down from him was the idiosyncratic progressive group Earth Opera- a band who may have created Prog Rock or some form of it. This band possessed a singer and writer named Peter Rowan whose voice could tear the paint off walls and send your mind to some pretty strange places. I would grow to love them and him.
When I was 16 Stuart and I could agree about 1960s music nearly completely. He brought home a tape of Quicksilver Messenger Service's 1st album and the twin guitar heroics of John Cipollina and Gary Duncan convinced me to get serious about playing the guitar. Stu found a rock and roll wonder kid guitar teacher named Jim MacGuire and thanks to Jim I studied hard at the instrument spending hours of practice to master it. At age 35 now and 19 years later I can say I am a fully equipped guitarist. Stu, never one to quit while he was ahead, then introduced me to the wonderful and strange beautifully twisted music of Arthur Lee and Love. Forever Changes- the sound of all that was going on in the 1960s both the beautiful and frightening side to it and of it.
Stoggie or Doggie is now how I refer to Stuart, but when he was still Stuart or Stu or Badger he bought me a copy of The Time Of The Zombies and Kak for Christmas of 1992. We were reading All Quiet On The Western Front in English class and soldiers were starting to have a big impact on me. Oddysey and Oracle, album 2 of the double set, blew me away. There was a really horrific song about World War 1 and an opening track that joyfully told of a loved one coming home from prison. There were songs of love and loss, of imagination run wild and hypocrisy. I was hooked. Well, there was no stopping from there. Stoggie may want to go back and change things now but he can't.
On my own accord some strange experiences led me to where I am today. In early 1993 things were really ugly in the Former Yugoslavia. The UN had sent British soldiers in as peacekeepers to try and do something about the genocide against the Bosnians by the despicable Serbs. After lies from our English teacher about soldiers which people who believe them still should be shot for the truth was revealed. We were told in class that they had no feelings or emotions and did nothing but go off and fight wars and that was it. A young Cheshire Regiment (Now Mercian Regiment) soldier was in tears on the Tele and I was staring at him with a horrified expression. The truth started to hit. No longer would I be ashamed of my emotional personality. I wanted to travel to England.
Years later now I've been to England 14 times and am hoping for a 15th if I can get my buying under control for awhile. All my best friends and closest allies besides Mum and Dad are British Soldiers and I want to thank them for the tremendous job they've done in making my life worth living. God Bless. Many hugs and maybe even a kiss. The same would go to Music. I know of nothing more moving, more powerful, more exciting, more alchemic, more poisonously addictive than the sounds that come out of old records. Now I'm open to all the music that passed me by when I didn't know about The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, Pomp Rock, and AOR (Album Oriented Rock.) Bands from Snowblind to Wildfire to Skagarack to Shy to Treat (these guys are really good) to Glass Tiger prove that music was being kept alive when I thought it was dead. Of course, and rather sadly, the airbrushed images, flamboyance, airs and graces of hair bands and Pomp rockers would be killed off by Grunge which is another word for Shite. One of the few truly heavy HM bands from back in my early days Diamond Head knocked Stoggie out and continue to. He always knew good music. He always knew real music. I can't help but wonder how he feels about my jumping ahead of him into the obscure. Now Obscure can be bands who once had a following or chance of making it or bands who died out as quick as they came. I would advise you to start with a slightly more famous band. Choose Yes or Uriah Heep or Procol Harum or early Genesis. Choose Traffic, The Beatles, or The Zombies or Yardbirds. Then you dig really deep into the record racks, online sights, and record shops and become a vinyl collector. Stoggie and I drove into NYC last week listening to Procol Harum and The Beatles. It all comes around in circles. I just bought loads of expensive and rare records to come in the mail in the now and near future. If you can support yourself and it's your Own cash maybe this is more fun. With Stoggie he grudgingly feeds my love for the rare, the obscure, and the expensive and then appreciates the music as much as I do. From Stoggie to Ben from Father to Son- he's handed down a wonderful kind of magic as Queen would have said.
Monday, May 16, 2011
INDIAN SUMMER AND SHAPE OF THE RAIN- THERE IS PERFECTION!
I've always thought of the word "Perfect" and anything to do with "Perfection" completely ludicrous. It doesn't make much sense that there is a definition of something that barely, if at all, exists. I have found, though, while nothing is as imperfect as life nothing is less than "Great" when it comes to Great Music.
Still, this whole perfection thing doesn't ever seem to come up with any real actuality or fact. There is no perfect record collection, no person who doesn't have a slight little flaw, and all. Well, Indian Summer and Shape Of The Rain may prove that at least in the case of music there are some perfect albums.
Indian Summer and Shape Of The Rain both appeared in striking sleeves which I will try to upload soon and both were released in 1971 on the RCA Progressive subsidiary Neon. Neon's track record is pretty high with brilliant releases such as Spring and Raw Material's seminal Time Is... going for over $1,000 for originals and the two I'm reviewing going close to over the $500 mark if you don't get lucky like I did.
Indian Summer were a Coventry quartet who were managed by and produced by the same team (Tony Hall Enterprises) that brought us Black Sabbath. Their keyboard player Bob Jackson sang lead whilst the others contributed with guitars, bass, drums, and harmony vocals. Their album is of the psych into progressive classic sound with complex guitar passages borrowing from jazz and big dramatic harmonies and mellotron bringing to mind both Asgard and label-mates Spring. I can't think of another album of progrock more quintessentially "English" than this one. It all seems to be coming out of the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, the first Family album, dark Gothic imagery, and wet foggy days where you stroll down the winding streets in Bristol or go looking for ghosts of Victorian or Edwardian mysterious characters in London or anywhere else you happen to be there. One also very impressive feature is that for an album of generally very slow and atmospheric songs there is a high sense of drama and complexity bringing to mind the one great album by one of the worst bands ever to come out of England- Supertramp's 1st (the one with the surreal "Flowerface" as I call it cover). Now, as much as I hate them they hate that album and one could see why- it sounds like this one a bit and not at all a bit like Supertramp!
Enough digression there, let's get back to Indian Summer. The first track sticks it to religion and gives it a big middle finger as the cause of war, racism, and ignorance in the world with the title of "God Is The Dog!" I wonder if Rob Halford was listening to this band. The screaming falsetto shrieks of Bob Jackson are comparable to both Halford and Arthur Brown, but more controlled. The playing by the entire group is flawless- never a note wasted and not a single dull second. Even the instrumental "From The Film Of The Same Name" is a masterpiece of progressive rock. While it is clear to see that Indian Summer would not write or record commercial material and that is the hallmark of most progressive bands it also would be the downfall of many, but not Indian Summer. Whilst serious sounding they aren't self serious. Whilst adventurous one could never accuse them of pretentiousness. Also, I may say to close my rave that this album is nearly an hour long on playing time and never tiresome! For the best dark and Gothic epic progressive music look no further than this album and stellar tracks like "Glimpse" and "Secrets Reflected." Astonishing underrated MASTERPIECE!!!
Shape Of The Rain, though different, is another album where I'd have to use the word perfect. Formed in Sheffield in the mid 60s they recorded enough material for an unreleased tracks CD that I'd love to track down and the band was very much a musical family. Keith and Len Riley played guitar and bass whilst their cousin Brian Wood played guitar/steel guitar and they were rounded off by drummer Tag Waggett. So, the album is called Riley Riley Wood and Waggett. Keith and Brian do all the vocals and Eric Hine adds some smashing electric piano.
Again the cover is amazing- a brilliant snapshot of England in an earlier, grander, more mysterious time and the music on the album of guitar based melodic psych/melodic progressive power pop is up there with the likes of The Parlour Band, Dog That Bit People, Northwind, and The Masters Apprentices' classic Choice Cuts. I can hear a lot of different contrasting influences here and I've always detected a strong love of Badfinger and The Beatles in this group. While the guitars rock and the vocals soar with prime melody and hooks a plenty like Badfinger there is a "Progressive" leaning that goes into surreal gnarling guitar jams and there also is something psychedelic about the songs. When I first heard this album it was merely rare and not hugely valuable, but with rarity and word of mouth spreading a factor now it is just as expensive as any other class UK release. The thing is, I can point the finger at a lot of German bands being too histrionic as much as there are loads of great bands from there and a lot of American bands unable to write good melodies and having a flat overall sound, but as you'll notice from all my write-ups I go for the British bands as the best overall. Some bands would find a happier home or just more hospitable home elsewhere (Nektar and the obscure unrelated to the Andy Latimer group Camel the Underage album Camel), but their music would always have that English vibe. Shape Of The Rain give us an album of strong material, brilliant production from Kingsley Ward, and an immense amount of joyfulness that harkens back to the 1960s era when everything seemed possible. Whether the songs are driven by soaring dual guitars or big sounding acoustic riffs there is always a really creative anything-goes sound to this album. They jam, yet they are tight. I personally prefer this album over The Open Mind who could have made the best psych album in the world, but were done in by a producer and label (Phillips) who didn't care. Also, you can hear a bit of the UK Kaleidoscope sound in Shape Of The Rain which is always a plus. No matter how hard you have to search for these two do so and you'll be at the same conclusion I've arrived at- perfection happens every once in 3,000 blue moons, but it does happen at least twice a century and it happened on these two. Good night, cheerio, and God Bless!
BEN
Still, this whole perfection thing doesn't ever seem to come up with any real actuality or fact. There is no perfect record collection, no person who doesn't have a slight little flaw, and all. Well, Indian Summer and Shape Of The Rain may prove that at least in the case of music there are some perfect albums.
Indian Summer and Shape Of The Rain both appeared in striking sleeves which I will try to upload soon and both were released in 1971 on the RCA Progressive subsidiary Neon. Neon's track record is pretty high with brilliant releases such as Spring and Raw Material's seminal Time Is... going for over $1,000 for originals and the two I'm reviewing going close to over the $500 mark if you don't get lucky like I did.
Indian Summer were a Coventry quartet who were managed by and produced by the same team (Tony Hall Enterprises) that brought us Black Sabbath. Their keyboard player Bob Jackson sang lead whilst the others contributed with guitars, bass, drums, and harmony vocals. Their album is of the psych into progressive classic sound with complex guitar passages borrowing from jazz and big dramatic harmonies and mellotron bringing to mind both Asgard and label-mates Spring. I can't think of another album of progrock more quintessentially "English" than this one. It all seems to be coming out of the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, the first Family album, dark Gothic imagery, and wet foggy days where you stroll down the winding streets in Bristol or go looking for ghosts of Victorian or Edwardian mysterious characters in London or anywhere else you happen to be there. One also very impressive feature is that for an album of generally very slow and atmospheric songs there is a high sense of drama and complexity bringing to mind the one great album by one of the worst bands ever to come out of England- Supertramp's 1st (the one with the surreal "Flowerface" as I call it cover). Now, as much as I hate them they hate that album and one could see why- it sounds like this one a bit and not at all a bit like Supertramp!
Enough digression there, let's get back to Indian Summer. The first track sticks it to religion and gives it a big middle finger as the cause of war, racism, and ignorance in the world with the title of "God Is The Dog!" I wonder if Rob Halford was listening to this band. The screaming falsetto shrieks of Bob Jackson are comparable to both Halford and Arthur Brown, but more controlled. The playing by the entire group is flawless- never a note wasted and not a single dull second. Even the instrumental "From The Film Of The Same Name" is a masterpiece of progressive rock. While it is clear to see that Indian Summer would not write or record commercial material and that is the hallmark of most progressive bands it also would be the downfall of many, but not Indian Summer. Whilst serious sounding they aren't self serious. Whilst adventurous one could never accuse them of pretentiousness. Also, I may say to close my rave that this album is nearly an hour long on playing time and never tiresome! For the best dark and Gothic epic progressive music look no further than this album and stellar tracks like "Glimpse" and "Secrets Reflected." Astonishing underrated MASTERPIECE!!!
Shape Of The Rain, though different, is another album where I'd have to use the word perfect. Formed in Sheffield in the mid 60s they recorded enough material for an unreleased tracks CD that I'd love to track down and the band was very much a musical family. Keith and Len Riley played guitar and bass whilst their cousin Brian Wood played guitar/steel guitar and they were rounded off by drummer Tag Waggett. So, the album is called Riley Riley Wood and Waggett. Keith and Brian do all the vocals and Eric Hine adds some smashing electric piano.
Again the cover is amazing- a brilliant snapshot of England in an earlier, grander, more mysterious time and the music on the album of guitar based melodic psych/melodic progressive power pop is up there with the likes of The Parlour Band, Dog That Bit People, Northwind, and The Masters Apprentices' classic Choice Cuts. I can hear a lot of different contrasting influences here and I've always detected a strong love of Badfinger and The Beatles in this group. While the guitars rock and the vocals soar with prime melody and hooks a plenty like Badfinger there is a "Progressive" leaning that goes into surreal gnarling guitar jams and there also is something psychedelic about the songs. When I first heard this album it was merely rare and not hugely valuable, but with rarity and word of mouth spreading a factor now it is just as expensive as any other class UK release. The thing is, I can point the finger at a lot of German bands being too histrionic as much as there are loads of great bands from there and a lot of American bands unable to write good melodies and having a flat overall sound, but as you'll notice from all my write-ups I go for the British bands as the best overall. Some bands would find a happier home or just more hospitable home elsewhere (Nektar and the obscure unrelated to the Andy Latimer group Camel the Underage album Camel), but their music would always have that English vibe. Shape Of The Rain give us an album of strong material, brilliant production from Kingsley Ward, and an immense amount of joyfulness that harkens back to the 1960s era when everything seemed possible. Whether the songs are driven by soaring dual guitars or big sounding acoustic riffs there is always a really creative anything-goes sound to this album. They jam, yet they are tight. I personally prefer this album over The Open Mind who could have made the best psych album in the world, but were done in by a producer and label (Phillips) who didn't care. Also, you can hear a bit of the UK Kaleidoscope sound in Shape Of The Rain which is always a plus. No matter how hard you have to search for these two do so and you'll be at the same conclusion I've arrived at- perfection happens every once in 3,000 blue moons, but it does happen at least twice a century and it happened on these two. Good night, cheerio, and God Bless!
BEN
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)