Saturday, April 19, 2014
The Monks - Black Time (1966)
The Monks were the precursor to PUNK rock mixing psychedelic and rock into an aggressive new form of music. Today this album is considered a treasure and an essential additional to any fan of punk rock.
Lou Donaldson - Hot Dog (1969)
April 25, 1969
Lou Donaldson (varitone alto saxophone, vocals), Ed Williams - trumpet
Charles Earland (organ), Melvin Sparks (guitar), Leo Morris (drums)
Jimmy Smith & Dave "Baby" Cortez - Organ Greats (1965)
I snagged this album down in the US last year for a couple of bucks and man what a groovy one it is !!!!!
Side one is mr. Jimmmah Smith while side two is mr. Cortez
Friday, April 18, 2014
Johnny Rivers - Rewind (1967)
Rewind is one of the early albums by US singer /songwriter Johnny Rivers who delivers here a pretty cool pop-psych recording. With a big, clean production, and quality L.A. session musicians, Rewind is a great collection of blue-eyed soul and rock.
The album was produced by Lou Adler, arranged by Jimmy Webb, featuring Joe Osborne on bass, Larry Knechtel on piano, and Hal Blaine on drums.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Stomu Yamashta - Go Live (1976)
With contibutions from Steve Winwood, Al Di Meola, Pat Thrall and Klaus Schulze this album is a subtle textured album that will float you high into the heavens.
This double vinyl set captures the energy and prowess of Stomu and his cast of friends in a live setting featuring some pretty cool spacey moments. Klaus Schulze is awesome as always with his vast array of analog synths and vintage keyboards.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Donald Byrd - Electric Byrd (1970)
I have been a Huge fan of Donald Byrd for some time now and his music never grows weary nor tired sounding. "Electric Byrd" finds Donald Byrd far from his nest playing in a very "Miles Davis" fusion vein with a certain spacy, floating feeling throughout reaching the psychedelic heights of that found on "Bitches Brew".
Byrd draws on tons of improvisation and add loads of amplification brass effects and creates a certain nebular cosmic effects throughout. Helping Byrd along the way are some good friends including Airto Morreira (percussion), Duke Pearson (electric piano) and Pepper Adams (sax). In fact, Byrd has hooked up with 11 others who help create these lush cosmic
There are three huge space numbers on this album which makes the album absolutely essential and 100% relevant.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Sly and the Family Stone - There's A Riot Goin' On (1971)
There's A Riot Goin' On was the fifth album released by Sylvester Stewart and Funk master Sly Stone and marks a big departure form their earlier albums. In sharp contrast this album marks a much darker and more forboding soundtrack of America's culture circa 1971!
This fantastic album is my personal fav of the lot of Sly Stone releases and clearly they had something to say. There are some major deep grooves here and some truely funky moments that will keep your toes tapping and your fingers slappin!
My fav Sly Stone tune is the funk-a-fried classic "Africa Talks To You" which grooves in at almost nine minutes and features some crazy bass tones and beats (not to mention the best SACD treatment on the disc).
I am sure there are much deeper reviews of this masterpiece album, but if you are into funk then this album is in your wheelhouse!
I was surprised to find this album on SACD from Epic Records from 2013 (last year!)......i had to check a few times myself....
There are no real liner notes to show who remastered this to SACD nor literature beyond original scroll. This is definitely not an audiophile recording and I was surprised to find it on SACD format. Having said that this is not a sonic flop although not a signature disc either. I think the SACD brings out in fact many of the imperfections and mis-adventures on the original master recordings. To my ears this SACD sounds muddy and often filtered and less than dynamic. There are moments where something really stand outs as clearly defined....like a guitar lick or percussion bit. However the whole album seems pretty flat to my ears and a bit too homogenous. There is also a lot of hiss on this SACD version and distortion which much have been on the original recording.
Overall i was dissapointed in this version and am glad I only shelled out $9.99 for this recording.....a great album and a lack lustre remix to SACD.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Ten Years After - Ssssh. (1967)
"Ssssh was released at the same time as they appeared at the Woodstock Festival in August, 1969. This album showcased Alvin Lee's guitar work and surrounded this with some pretty psychy vibes.
Sssssh was their first hit album in the U.S. and peaked at number 20 that year. Fans of TYA regard this album as one of the pinnacle albums. Alvin Lee was one of the true guitar mavericks of the 60's and no question this album gets to showcase his talents.
The gatefold album is one of the psychy'est of them all with a cover and centerfold that you will never forget which was photographed by Graham Nash. This album contains two of my fav TYA tunes with good mirning little schoolgirl" and "I woke up this morning".
Flaming Ember - Westbound #9 (1970)
The Flaming Ember were originally from Detroit Michigan and had a number of big hits in 1969 and 1970 before disbanding. Westbound #9 was the first full length album released under the name the Flaming Ember (they had two) which contains a number of hits including the title track and a song that they would change their name to "Mind, Body and Soul".
Musically this is beautiful sunshine pop psych with a heavy Motown soul vibe thoughout. Lead singer (and drummer) Jerry Plunk had a great soulful voice and on "Shades of Green" you can hear his wide emotion lead over the speakers.
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers (1971)
Along with "Some Girls" and "Let It Bleed" I would say that "Sticky Fingers" is in my top Stones albums. On Sticky Fingers the Stones laid down a personal album of weary- blues rock infused heavily with drug culture references. Songs like "Sister Morphine" and "Brownsuger" make obvious references to those nasty addicts and seems to fit the overall mood of the album.
This album is famous for having been recorded and written in multiple locations over a long period yet seems to be very consistent and well suited. Brian Jones dies in 1969 and was replaced by Mick Taylor who does a fantastic job on these recordings.
The laid back mood of the album is perfect for both Mick Taylor's guitar work and the heavy emotive voice of Mick Jagger. The last three songs on side two of "Sister Morphine," "Dead Flowers" and "Moon Light Mile," is an incredible sequence featuring Mick, Keith, Mick Talyor and Ry Cooder.
No "rock" is unturned on this album!
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Marillion - Brave
I will never forget the excitement i had waiting for my copy of Brave to arrive in the mail. I loved it then and I still adore this album and personally consider it one of Hogarth eras best!
A crazy story line concept album involving a girl lost in her mind as the band unveil her story musically. Brave contains some of. Marillion's best songs like "the great escape" and "living the big lie".....in fact the whole album is fantastic.
Babe Ruth - First Base (1973)
First Base is one of my favourite 70's rock albums of all time.....and it is only now that I am getting around to reviewing this gem! I remember hearing "The Mexican" on the radio a long long time ago and had to go and find this band and album.
Jennie Haan has a great powerful female rock voice that fits this music to perfection with the great guitar work of Alan Shacklock (who sadly only did the one album). The songs are very memorable and have some pretty catchy stuff going on....lots of great riffs for you to air guitar to!
I think this album has everything....classic rock....prog...folk and superb songs! The art work was done by Roger Dean who also did many of the classic Yes albums.
Jean-Luc Ponty - Enigmatic Ocean (1977)
It was at University when I discovered the music of Jean-Luc Ponty! It all started later for me with his awesome album "individual choice" and then I was hooked. Over the years I have been picking up Ponty albums as I find them to fill in my collection. Not one bad album in the lot !
INHO 1977's Enigmatic Ocean is one of JLP's finest albums with jazz , fusion, rock and prog tendencies. Ponty also assembled a star studded line up with Genesis' Daryl Stuermmer on guitar, Allan Holdsworth on guitars and Steve Smith (Vital Information) on the drums and percussion.
Musically this album ebbs and flows with some fantatstic keyboard space fusion over which Stuermer and Holdsworth add great guitar bits and Ponty paints with his arsenal of violins. At times this album sounds like Genesis aka Lamb Lies Down without any vocals and with violin...however crazy that sounds!
Carla Bley - Night-glo (1985)
The creative musical mind of Carla Bley has been of interest to me and on "Night- glo" she teams up with ECM fellow mate Steve Swallow and trumpet wizard Randy Brecker. Bley's organ and synths are ever present but never at center stage and instead are used to help shape the overall sound.
"Night-glo" is a short but fantastic album with softly challenging ECM-like jazz fusion songs that stretch out to new creative ends. There is some fantastic oboe, horns and trombone work too on this album. The song "Wildlife" is a scrumptious number with again a very relaxed fusion feel yet huge wall of sound.
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