LOS
BELKINGS
Instrumental Waves
1966-1973 (Nuevos Medios;
CD)
When Hank B Marvin travelled south and formed The
Drifters/Shadows, I doubt he realised quite how far south the
group's unique for the time sound would travel. Los Belkings
are another great
Peruvian group (see also the Laghonia review below). There's a
definite Shads influence which founder Juan De Pablos eagerly
attests to in the liner notes (which appear in both Spanish
and English). However, given the span of the set (and the
tracks are non-chronological), other influences inevitably
apply. There's the American surf guitar style of the Ventures,
Dick Dale et al and, as in the kick off tracks from the
latter period, the shadow of Carlos Santana amongst others
looms large. This might sound like it doesn't add up to much,
but you'd be very wrong, dear reader. What we have here is a
cauldron of 25 guitar licking instros that map the progress of
sixties styles with aplomb. This bunch were no slouches and
they tackle psychedelia and exotica as casually as if they
were born to it. I was knocked out by this set and there is
genuinely something for everyone here; surf, Shads, fusion,
psych and beat, not a duffer amongst them and something else
Peru can be justly proud of. The faint hearted amongst you
don't even have a 'language barrier' to contend with, it's all
instro and it's all strong stuff.
You can even order it on Amazon so don't let me keep you any
longer!
www.senhorf.com.br/sf3vs/MATERIAS32/belkings.htm
Paul
Martin
JOHN CARTER
A Rose By Any Other Name
(Rev-Ola; CD)
Most
Shindig! readers already know Carter as the main man
behind The Ivy League and The Flowerpot Men, and that he
co-wrote such classics as 'Let's Go To San Francisco', 'Little
Bit 'O Soul', 'Beach Baby' and the original version of the
Sagittarius 
psych-pop masterpiece
'My World Fell Down' but betcha didn't know that Carter was
for a time a member of The Ohio Express (of course given the
fact that calling anyone a “member” of this studio creation is
a dubious proposition)! This last fact, along with other
verbal and musical pearls of wisdom, can be found on A Rose
By Any Other Name, a collection of Carter-penned (and
mostly performed) tunes, circa
1969-1975. Like Jonathan King and Tony
Rivers, Carter was wont to create some silly pseudonyms, and
on this collection you can find tracks by groups with such
delightful handles as Butterwick, Running Jumping Standing
Still Band and Stormy Petrel. Carter shows himself to be a
master of virtually every style of music that graced the Top
40 airwaves during the period. You get UK bubblepop on
Butterwick's 'My Sweet Potato', earthy Americana on 'Boats Of
Angel Bay' by Fat Man's Music Festival, glitter on Kentucky
Freeway's 'Take Off', reggae on 'The Power Of Advertising' by
Omega Theatre, the country-rock of
'Let It Roll' by former Honeybus drummer Pete Kircher, the 50s
flavoured 'Sweet Talkin' Mama' by Red Line Explosion and the
childlike TV jingle 'Please Yourself' by The Tots, as well as
many other like-minded gems.
There's nothing groundbreaking within the circumference of
this disc, but you'll certainly find that there are very few
artists who could create consistently good pop confections as
could John Carter.
http://www.revola.co.uk/
David
Bash
GENE CLARK
Set You Free: Gene Clark In The
Byrds 1964-1973 (Raven;
CD)
Gene Clark has always
been severely underrated and under credited as both a song
writer of substantial merit and as one of the founding fathers
of country rock. Raven have constructed a compelling
collection that proves that Gene Clark was more than the
tambourine man of The Byrds.
Most
Byrdmaniax will already own all of these tracks spread across
numerous Byrds and Gene Clark CDs. Hearing all of these
powerful Clark performances on one CD is yet 
further proof that he
was the strongest song writer in The Byrds. The Byrds would
never be the same after he walked away to his ill fated solo
career in 1965. If you don't already own the early Byrds canon
and Clark's Roadmaster compilation, then this is a
handy one-stop-shop for the best of Gene's work with his
fellow Byrds.
The CD works it way
chronologically from 1964's Jim Dickinson produced
Pre-Flyte recordings through the psychedelic piece
de résistance, 'Eight Miles High'. Fellow Byrds Roger
McGuinn and David Crosby have both stated that they were
jealous of Gene for buying a new Ferrari in 1965 with the
royalties from his prolific song writing talents. It's hard to
believe that a gem like 'She Don't Care About Time' could be
relegated to a B-side! The set also includes the superb 'The
Day Walk' that was first uncovered for the Never Before
LP and one wonders why it was left off of the Fifth
Dimension album.
The
collection includes the absolutely stunning 1970 Byrds reunion
(of sorts) tracks 'She's The Kind Of Girl' and 'One In A
Hundred'. Legal ranglings prevented this tremendous single
from being released at the time but it would eventually see
the light of day on the Dutch Roadmaster compilation in
1973. These two cuts demonstrate just how powerful a reunited
Byrds produced by Jim Dickinson could have been at that time.
A real reunion would have to wait until until the laborious
self-titled 1973 Asylum album from which the final three
songs, 'Changing Heart', 'Cowgirl In The Sand' and 'Full
Circle' bring this collection full circle (sorry for the pun).
Fittingly this Crosby dominated reunion's stand out tracks
were all Clark's. Sadly, Clark died in 1997 without really
ever truly reconciling with McGuinn and Crosby and he's yet to
receive his dues for the groundbreaking work he cut with The
Byrds and as a solo artist.
Perhaps this digitally remastered 22 track collection, with
liner notes by Clark expert Sid Grffin, will alert a new
millennium of fans to the quiet kid from Tipton,
Missouri.
http://www.ravenrecords.com.au/
Mark
A Johnston
FUSCHIA
Fuschia (Night Wings Records;
CD)
A musical realisation
by Tony Durant, Fuschia is as nectar to the ears.
Originally released in 1971 via the indie Kingdom label,
Durrant describes his vision of Fushia as wanting to make
string parts integral to the song, not something that was
added 
afterwards as
embellishment. This he achieved majestically by engaging the
services of three young classically trained female string
players, Madeleine Bland (Cello), Janet Rogers (violin) and
Vanessa Hall-Smith (viola). This was pre- ELO, let alone
anything else and whereas girlie string sections are happily
prevalent in pop today, in 1971 they were still pretty left
field. With co-writer Robert Chudley, Durant and the girls
crafted an album's worth of breathtaking music. Durant wanted
to take pop beyond the confines of the three minute single and
this he did successfully. However, he retains the melody and
hooks of a pop songwriter and the meld of pop intuition and
progressive melody and form makes Fuschia a classic and
even defining moment in early 70s progressive music. The
nearest analogy I can think of is of a heavily orchestrated
Fairfield Parlour. Orch-pop fans should love it for its form
and flow, prog fans as an antidote to the emphasis of 'rock'
in prog, Fushia made progressive music crisp and intelligent,
dignified and sophisticated way beyond the pretensions of some
of their heavier and indeed lighter contemporaries. In my
book, this is a must own album. Night Wings have 24 bit
digitally remastered the original tapes and the sound quality
is immaculate as is the delicious
digi-packaging.
A beautiful album
for long winter evenings - buy it now!
http://www.nightwings.org/
Paul
Martin
TIM HOLLIER
Tim Hollier (Nightwings;
CD)
This is possibly the
first anthology that Tim Hollier has enjoyed. His 1968
Message To The Harlequin album has been picking up
admirers from across various sixties genres as 
has his second
self-titled album. Now Night Wings have provided a good
sampler from Hollier's most essential work for the benefit of
those curious but unable to easily source his original albums
(or the means to play them!).
Of
the 23 tracks, the first seven are taken from his debut. This
album has garnered plaudits not least because of its delicious
orchestration. It sits comfortably alongside early Peter
Sarstedt, Duncan Browne and Nick Garrie. Indeed Hollier played
on Sarstedt's first two albums. Co-written with friend Rory
Fellowes (who wrote the lyrics, whilst Hollier wrote the
music), all seven cuts are wonderous lightweight orch-pop. On
the ten tracks culled from the second album, the orchestration
is far less prevalent and the acoustic guitar more dominant.
Perhaps somewhat more folky and less instantly likeable, these
cuts are nonetheless highly enjoyable. Tracks 18-23 are from
the 1971 Skysail album which sees a return to a more
orchestrated approach (at least on the tracks chosen here) and
has to some extent an updated Harlequin feel to it.
More singer-songwritery than its predecessor, Skysail
achieves a maturity in both the execution and delivery of the
songs which implies a much advanced confidence. Hollier made
one final album in The Story of Mill Reef in 1974 but
it's the trio of LPs sampled here that represent his most
crafted work. The full Tim Hollier story is related in detail
in the accompanying booklet.
Folkies, orch-poppers and singer-songwriter acolytes will find
plenty to enthuse about here.
http://www.nightwings.org/
Paul
Martin
JOE & BING
Daybreak (Rev-Ola;
CD)
Originally issued in
1971, Daybreak has been bootlegged before on vinyl (an
original copy sold for $770 on Ebay), but this is
the official CD reissue and is
accompanied by a bevy of bonus cuts. William "Bing" Bingham
met Joseph "Joe" Knowlton as students at 
Taft School in
Watertown, Connecticut in 1962. They soon teamed up and began
playing folk clubs as a duo. As ever, the draft split them up
for the prime part of the 1960s, but were reunited towards the
end of the decade and began writing and playing together
again. Their beautiful Daybreak album was
released in 1971 and sunk without trace although the duo
continued to make a living in music through jingle writing
etc.
What's on offer here
is in large part a pop-folk approach to soft pop. Very
acoustically based with subtle backing instrumentation and
sympathetic string arrangements allowing their appealing
harmonised vocals to ride across the whole. There are
exceptions; their arrangement of the traditional folk
favourite 'Fennario', a stripped-down funky ride through
Stephen Stills' 'Love The One You're With' and the gorgeous
'Sail' which boasts a bossa flavour, not surpising given that
the album was co-produced by the impeccably pedigreed
Brazilian Eumir Deodato and Harry Lookofsky, father of The
Left Banke's Michael Brown. This is a Sunday morning record
and very pretty on the ears. The bonus tracks include
pre-orchestrated versions of perhaps the albums finest moment
'If Love's In Season' and also 'Summer Sound', along with
mainly purely acoustic demos of unissued tracks including
Harry Nilsson's evergreen 'Without Her'. The liners include an
in-depth commentary by Joe and Bing
themselves.
Soft pop people
everywhere will enjoy this delicious disc.
http://www.revola.co.uk/
Paul
Martin
LAGHONIA
Unglue (Re-psych-led;
CD)
Laghonia were simply
one of the best products ever to come out of Peru - fact!
Evolving from the former New Juggler Sound, Laghonia developed
a very impressive and harmonious acid psych sound. They left a
legacy of two superb albums in Etcetera and
Glue. Unglue is a 54 minute re-assembly of
rehearsals for Glue. I have no hesitation in 
recommending this
over-amped collection unreservedly. However, you should not
start here if you're not already familiar with Glue,
currently available on reissue along with Etcetera. You
can also check them out on the South American volume of
Love, Peace & Poetry where killer title track
'Glue' resides alongside a New Juggler Sound single. If you
know and love Glue, then the Unglue sessions are
the perfect accompaniment to it, just as The Outsiders' CQ
sessions are to CQ.
Essentially, there's a lot of wild guitar flailing going on,
psych rock of a high order with lead vocals in the background,
sometimes instrumental entirely. There are maybe one or two
tracks you don't need (a chord learning session for a song is
rather frustrating to sit through) but in general, this is a
sonic attack of over-amped but well recorded guitar power. Two
takes of 'Glue' alone, one a full-on assault, the other a twin
guitar run through, make this a joy. A fab way to hear how
such a regional classic psych rock album came about. Good
riffs and competent playing make this a great listen with only
minimal recourse to the skip button.
Definitely more than an archival
entry, you need to hear this!
http://www.repsychled.com/
Paul
Martin
THE RECORDS
Crashes (On The Beach;
CD)
The Records
were certainly the quintessential UK power pop band, long
known for their tight harmonies, strong backbeat and guitar
interplay, and their marvelously hooky 
songs. The lion's
share of their fine reputation comes from their classic tune
'Starry Eyes' along with the debut album from which that song
comes. However, many fans would vote the second Records album,
Crashes, as their best. No doubt that Crashes,
reissued here with several bonus tracks, is a fine piece o'
vinyl (or PVC in this case), as it features some of The
Records' best tracks including the warm, twangy 'Hearts In Her
Eyes' (made popular by The Searchers during their amazing
comeback), the Jam-esque, new-wavey 'Rumour Sets The Woods
Alight' and the stuttering 'Man With A Girlproof Heart',
classic power poppers like 'Girl In Golden Disc' and 'Guitars
In The Sky' and one of the prettiest songs you'll ever hear by
anyone, 'Hearts Will Be Broken'. If that one doesn't make you
weep, well sir, you're not a real
man!
The bonus tracks include 'I'm
Sorry' the neat B-side of 'Hearts In Her Eyes', a couple of
pretty good Crashes out-takes, “Injury Time” and
“Vamp”, and nifty early versions of 'The Same Mistakes' and
'Man With A Girlproof Heart'.
Crashes is definitely a must for power pop fans of all
shapes and sizes.
http://www.therecords.com/
David
Bash
SANDIE SHAW
Nothing Comes Easy (EMI; 4-CD
box)
Ummmm, lovely. This
is just delicious. I am just so pleased it exists! It's
unfortunate that the hit-Brit sixties girls get carelessly
repackaged and lumped together like some ersatz ear fodder.
Someone has finally done the decent thing and properly
compiled this 
wonderful box (or
more correctly book) set. Lulu's sixties sides are also set
for a similar treatment early in '05 so keep 'em peeled for
that as well. Ms Goodrich's complete UK single As and Bs are
all present and correct spanning three CDs and the years 1964
to 1988. A fourth CD is full of delightful rarities and
unreleased material.
Discs one
and two cover the years 1964-71 and are packed with 54
(largely) excellent Brit-girl numbers. Yes, there are a few
like 'Puppet On A String' 'Rose Garden' and 'Those Were The
Days' which you may not want to hear especially, but in
context they don't sound half as bad as you expect (actually
Sandie sings 'Those Were The Days' much better in German -
seek it out!). Compare her debut 45 from '64, 'As Long As
You're Happy Baby' and it's flip 'Ya-Ya-Da-Da' to its
follow-up '(There's) Always Something There To Remind Me' –
it's like a different singer as liner writer Tristram Penna
notes. 'As Long..' is any wannabe Sixties girl singer and all
the more fascinating for it given the quickly acquired
sophistication that followed in many of Sandie's recordings.
You can reel 'em off, but despite what Sandie Shaw herself
might think of them (she has been famously dismissive of much
of her back catalogue in the past), as a listener they all
just put a big smile on my face: 'Don't You Know', 'I'll Stop
At Nothing', 'Message Understood', 'Tomorrow', 'Run', 'You've
Not Changed', 'Today', 'One More Lie', 'Voice In the Crowd',
'Think It All Over', 'Heaven Knows I'm Missing Him Now' (to be
reworked as '...Miserable Now' by Morrisey and The Smiths).
Gem after girl-pop gem to my ears. Man, that Chris Andrews
(her writing partner at this time) sure knew how to pull a
killer pop tune out of any hat! The later titles such as
'Maple Village' and 'Wight Is Wight' are interesting and
vaguely wobbly pop and as near to hippyness or whimsy as
Sandie ever got.
Disc three covers
the years 1972-88 and is necessarily more patchy because of
this. The first six tracks date from '72 and are much slower
in pace and exploratory in lyrical content as was the trend of
the singer-songwriter of the period. All of them are highly
worthwhile 'Where Did They Go?', 'Look At Me', 'Pity The Ship
Is Sinking' and 'Still So Young' all allow Sandie to vocally
stretch out and for the orchestration to be more than merely
decorative. There's a hiatus of a few years which is followed
by the near disco funkism of 'Just A Disillusion' which
becomes more likeable after a few plays as the difference in
style to its predecessors is so great. There then follows
Sandie's take on Bacharach and David's 'Anyone Who Had A
Heart' which I never really liked as a song, regardless of who
is singing it. The instrumental version that follows only
compounds this for me. Then there's the 80s renaissance via
one Stephen Morrisey which in some cases works miracles and in
other falls dreadfully flat. Ups are 'Hand In Glove', 'Go
Johnny Go!', 'Please Help The Cause Against Loneliness',
'Lover Of The Century' and 'Nothing Less Than Brilliant'.
These all work with a feistiness that lifts them above the
norms of the time. Downs are 'Like A Star', 'I Don't Owe You
Anything', 'Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken' and 'Frederick'.
The latter is not a bad tune in itself but as with the others,
it is ruined by the awful production and instrumentation
values of the 1980s. Nonetheless, there's more to adore than
abhor on the disc as a whole.
Disc four is full of unissued and rare sides and all but the
last three are sixties delights. The re-make of 'As Long As
You're Happy' is great to compare to the original, more
confident and strident in tone. Then there's beauties like
'Surround Yourself With Sorrow', 'Ask Any Woman', 'Gypsy
Eyes', 'I'll Cry Myself To Sleep', 'The Comedy' and 'I Can't
Go On Living Without You' which are mid-paced and graceful to
a fault. Bob Stanley' introductory essay really nails the
context and the times and is written with a fan's insight.
Sandie herself adds notes and narrative to the liners on a
song by song basis and there's lavish period photos, ephemera
and label shots a-plenty on the glossy booklet - so what's not
to like!! Fans will swoon, and any self-respecting girl-pop
fan should own this like a bible.
Ooh I must take me shoes off!
www.sandieshaw.com/index2.php
Paul
Martin
THE SYN
Original Syn (Yes Services;
2-CD)
Of course there's no
point in reviewing a CD that is already sold out and
unobtainable, as is the case with this set. However, most of
the music contained herein, will be made available again as a
single CD in 2005, hence the review/preview. This edition of
The Syn's collected recordings was a limited edition offered
by the Yes information website in 
November. Initially, a
numbered and signed edition of 300 were produced but demand
was such that more (presumably uncertified or signed) copies
were made, all of which have been
distributed.
Although disc one
clocks in at a meagre 37 minutes, if this is really all the
original 60s Syn material there is, it is right and proper
that it exists as a collection in one place. This disc kicks
off with 'Mallard Way' an inconsequential 30 second ivory
tinkler that has no right to be called a track in its own
right. Then we move on to the four recordings proper, compiled
on numerous occasions in recent years 'Grounded', '14 Hour
Technicolour Dream', 'Created By Clive' and 'Flowerman', all
from the masters and sounding pristine and excellent (although
I still prefer The Attack's take on 'Created By Clive'). Of
the newly available stuff there are some beauties. 'The Last
Performance Of The Royal Regimental Very Victorious And
Valiant Band' is an excellent piece of toy town pop with cod
military march rhythms which sounds like Mark Wirtz could have
written it - excellent stuff. 'Mr White's White Flying
Machine' sounds like you think a song with a title like that
ought to, although this version is sung by Ayshea Brough (of
TV's Lift Off With Ayshea fame) from her 1970 self-titled LP
on Polydor (the rest of which is well worth a listen as well).
There does not seem to be an extant version by The Syn
although it is one of their songs. Ayshea's version is
excellent. 'Cadillac Dreams' is just a piano/vocal run through
and doesn't really register but 'Merry Go-Round' catches The
Syn at their earliest in 1965 and they sound as gnarly and
snotty as any US garage band of the same vintage - a great
piece of beat and with Chris Squire's bass chops already
sounding above average. The three-part rehearsal tape of 'The
Gangster Opera' (all that survives as a fragment) is also a
pretty cool piece of 1967 era underground. The rather
superfluous band member chattering could have been left off,
it serves little purpose, but the 'Chorus' and 'Legs Diamond'
segments are glorious and a real shame they do not survive in
completed version. The Selfs (who merged with The High Court
to form The Syn) get two goes at post-functional survival in
the from of a tame version of The Who's 'I Can't Explain' and
'Love You' which is more interesting. This is all that you can
expect to hear on the new single CD
edition.
The second disc contains
a suitably (for a prog piece) 14 minute long version of
'Illusion' by Syn vocalist Steve Nardelli and Peter Banks. I'm
not a progger by any means, in fact the approach of which
tends to make me adopt the persona and appearance of Edward
Munc's painting The Scream! However, 'Illusion' is no bloated
prog monolith - it's an intelligent
and well crafted, not to mention tuneful and groovy roller
coaster ride and I love it! The Syn (or parts thereof) have
reformed and are recording a new album next year. I don't
usually put much store in these kind of reformations and
resurrections, but if 'Illusion' is any gauge as to what's
coming, I'll be up for the first available copy. Disc two also
contains a new 45 minute interview with Chris Squire about The
Syn and the context and times they were playing in etc.
All in all this is a great
package. If you don't suffer from musical sectarianism, I can
recommend the single disc version of this set. It is more than
just archival, it's revealing and that's got to be good.
http://www.synmusic.net/
Paul
Martin
TOL-PUDDLE MARTYRS
Tol-Puddle Martyrs (Secret Deal
CD)
Nothing to do with
the early inspiration for UK trade unions and certainly not
from Tolpuddle in Dorset, but from Bendigo,
Australia!
Starting life in 1964 as Peter
& The Silhouettes, the band were one of many teenage Oz
acts that pounded the local dance halls all across Victoria.
In late 1965, the group was 
asked by local
dancehall promoters to record two original tracks, 'Claudette
Jones' and 'Natural Man' for a compilation album entitled
The Scene from Northern Victoria (available now on CD
from rock historian Chris Spencer at moonlight@impulse.net.au).
'Claudette Jones' is a classic Pretty Things/Primitives style
fuzzed up garage thumper about a woman who gives the singer
cars and money and “drives a big black Cadillac/coloured TV in
the back!” Young, loud and snotty. The B-side of this first
single, 'Natural Man', is a slow 'House Of The Rising Sun'
groove about not wanting to be a “hard working man like my
dad.”
By 1966, the band needed a
name change to keep up with the changing times: Band member
Peter Rechter explains in the liners that when he studied
British history and the Tol-Puddle Martyrs were one of the
subjects he had to study. Guitarist Kevin Clancy thought we
should hyphenate Tolpuddle. Why not? The band recorded two
Peter Rechter originals, 'Time Will Come' and 'Social Cell'
for their then manager's own Spiral label in 1967. The single
reached number six on the top 40 Central Victoria charts.
'Time Will Come' is a haunting and psychedelia-drenched social
commentary number with an eerie Farfisa organ backing. 'Social
Cell' is more of an angst-ridden protest number with a 'You're
A Better Man than I' inspired feel. The 1968 single 'Love Your
Life” is poppy and less in the garage style of the previous
single while the far more interesting flip side, 'Nellie
Bligh' demonstrates a 'Sunny Afternoon' vibe. The Martyrs
recorded two more tracks in 1969 that were never released and
have yet to be located. As the decade ended, so did the
Tol-Puddle Martyrs.
The only
downside to the CD is that it is all over far too soon
and you are left wishing there was more. Filling out what is
essentially an EP are surprisingly interesting updated
versions (I know, I know) of 'Claudette Jones' and 'Time Will
Tell'. However, the CD is interactive and contains the band's
complete web site the only surviving film clip of the
Martyrs.
http://www.secretdeals.com.au/SecretHome1.html
Mark A Johnston
The TROLL
Animated Music (Radioactive;
CD)
Animated Music
has long been a favourite here at Shindig Towers. It's
a mesmerising collection from a Chicago quartet whose previous
45s such as 'Every Day And Every Night' 
and 'There Was A Time'
barely hinted at the rampantly assured strain of psychedelic
pop that forms the backbone of this stunning 1968 long
player.
From the opening 'Satin
City News' with its cheeky role call of characters and hard
rockin' fuzzed-up delivery, you can sense this ain't your
average fallen-off-the-radar late 60s anomaly. 'Mr Abernathy',
'Everybody's Child' and 'I've Only Myself To Blame' are
wondrous creations overflowing with lush layered vocals,
outlandish guitar sounds, full-on orchestration and, well, the
proverbial kitchen sink to be honest. 'Professor Pott's
Pornographic Projector' eclipses its jokey lyrics and faux
1920s vocal effects to become an endearing slice of
whacked-out anglophile psych-pop. Come to think of it, there's
a strong Brit influence running throughout, particularly in
the crystalline Sgt Pepper/Odyssey And Oracle Abbey
Road production values and attention to detail. It's a shame
then that the Dick Van Dyke mockneyism of 'Have You Seen The
Queen?' (“Have you sane the quane?”) falls flat on its
harpsichord-shaped arse, it's the album's only weak
track.
Psych fans, and I mean
real psych fans, will go nuts over 'Mourning Of The
Day' and 'Werewolf And Witchbreath', two of the most intense
and unsettling slabs of out-there gonzo acid rock this side of
the mushroom. One can't help but conclude that the crew who
captured this shit on tape were winging it from start to
finish and that figuring out phasing, tape delay, varispeed
and expert bouncing was a happy accident. It certainly adds to
my enjoyment of the record to think
so.
There are no liners or bonus
tracks but the sound quality is excellent compared to
Flashback's mid-90s distorted pressing. Highly
recommended.
www.blueorchardrecords.com/page.home
Andy Morten
TRUCK
Surprise! Surprise! (Guerssen; LP)
For a start Truck were
Malaysian, not English. And Surprise! Surprise! was
released in '73 not '67. Nevertheless, UK psych connoisseurs
are sure to be impressed by this rare 
“surprise”.
Unbefitting of their heavy moniker and unfashionably out of
date by Western standards, Truck stuck with the precise,
bouncy melodies and the innocent man-child vocal delivery that
McCartney favoured in '67. Truck really loved the Beatles,
even going as far to remodel the synth line from 'Maxwell's
Silver Hammer' into practically every one of their songs! But
to dismiss them as a behind the times tribute band would be
heresy. Opening track 'Surprise Surprise' is a cocky rocker,
resplendent with overdriven guitar and an almost progressive
synth emblem whilst their carefully crafted ballads resonate
with genuine heartfelt passion, giving early '70s Bee Gees and
Gilbert O'Sullivan a good run for their money. Like their
Chilean contemporaries We All Together, Truck took the
innocent nature of late '60s soft pop, added a little
something of their own, and made some truly mesmerising music
along the way.
Testosterone free
and entirely better off for it!
http://www.guerssen.com/
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
VARIOUS ARTISTS
The History of Norwegian
Rock Volumes 1-6 (NRK;
CDs)
Sweden and Denmark
have had and continue to enjoy a copious reissue programme of
their sixties musical output. By comparison, Norway has been
ill served. Only the excellent double LP 'Raveyard Paradise'
has really made it's way beyond the national border and left
me for one, 
wanting more. The NRK
(Norwegian Broadcasting Company) have done here, what EMI did
in Sweden with the three CD Stora Popboxen set some years
back, in anthologising the countries rock history. I have
currently volumes three, four and six in this series. These
comprise of beat and garage (many featured on Raveyard
Paradise, but are here cut from the masters in superb
sound quality) on volume three, club/mod soul moves and
progressive pop with a touch of psych on four and, to my ears,
the best of all three in the progressive music on volume six.
All three collections are sung in English. There are
additionally a rock'n'roll volume, a folk volume (sung in
Norwegian I believe) and a rock volume. All collections come
with colour booklets which whilst written in Norwegian, have
plenty of colour picture sleeve and artist
photos.
Volume three sports 29
tracks, a suitably long play disc for short beat songs
featuring such acts as The Clinkers, Jan Groth & His
Voodoos, Bente Lind & The Lunic Group, The Hugger Muggers
and the oddly named ****Cats. The music ranges from standard
covers of the day ('No,No,No', 'Shakin' All Over', 'Watch Your
Step') to interesting originals in Zak's 'Take Speical Care',
The Wizards' 'See You Tonight' and The Meswick Group's 'She
Won't Sing'. Great sound quality makes this a winner for beat
fans. Volume four is subtitled R&B and Psych. The
R&B via blue eyed soul is present and correct, if a little
flat at times and the band names and song titles tell their
own story; The Rhythmic Six's 'Action', Little Earl & The
Sapphires' 'Night Trippes', The Public Enemies' 'Believe Me'.
There are then some more progressive (but not really psych)
numbers such as UFO's 'Jumbo', Dream's 'Night Of The Lonely
Organist And His Pals' and the most psychedelic number on
offer in Hippie's 'Marianne'. This twenty tracker is a
pleasurable listening experience but not that essential.
Volume six is subtitled Progressive and it is that of
course, but in a very positive way. Very little noodling going
on here. All 18 tracks have something of value to offer and
there are some blinders on here in the form of Prudence's
'Tomorrow Maybe Vanished', Titanic's 'Sea Wolf', Ruphus's
'Colored Dreams', Popol Vuh's 'Queen of All Queens' or Hole In
The Wall's 'Restless Man'. These songs are a sort of
prog-psych crossover in many instances and most are comparible
to such vinyl comps as Star Girl And Spaceman and
Here Lies Ebenezer Goode.
You may want to try asking around the usual mail order sources
for these discs as the NRK web site is only in Norwegian.
They're worth persevering for though!
butikken.nrk.no/butikk/product375.html
butikken.nrk.no/butikk/product376.html
butikken.nrk.no/butikk/product378.html
Paul
Martin
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Unearthed Merseybeat Volume 2
(Viper; CD)
There are two
types of people who are really going to enjoy this. First and
fourmost (ha ha!) will be those who are of the time and/or
place from which this collection emanates (mainly 1961-3).
Secondly, regional historians and beat fanatics who will want
it for archival purposes. 
A good number of
these tracks are transfers from reel-to-reel tapes or acetates
of practice tapes made in Mum's parlour. Thus you can hear
probably the earliest ever recordings by Gerry & The
Pacemakers (a rather sweet and affecting original in 'Why Oh
Why') and The Merseybeats doing two Everly Brothers covers. If
you want to get back to the primal musical swamp from which
Merseybeat arose, here it is. However, it's not really beat
music you have here of course. Given the vintage this is still
third-rate rock 'n' roll and blues (with honourable exceptions
such as Rory Storm & The Hurricane's take on Carl
Perkins's 'Lend Me Your Comb' for instance). The bulk of the
content is comprised of stuff like The Swingin' Blue Jeans
live in 1961 and The Delmonts 1962 take on 'Before You Accuse
Me'. Head and shoulders above the rest stand two fab Kirkbys
tracks, 'Penny In My Pocket' and 'Bless You', which would be
worth the price of admission alone if it were not for the fact
they have also been compiled on the very recent
Kirkbys/23rd Turnoff anthology The Dream Of
Michaelangelo (see review here).
Unlike volume one, this collection stops right at the time I
want it to start, 1966. So there's no equivalent of The
Swinging Blue Jeans' take on Jimmy Campbell's 'Keep Me Warm
'Til The Sun Shines' here. Essentially if you have a
fascination with the pre-beat Mersey sound or have a
historical archivist's approach to vintage pop, this will be a
useful addition to your
collection.
If you just want to
get your rocks off to some great rock 'n' roll, look
elsewhere.
http://www.the-viper-label.co.uk/
Paul
Martin
