INTERNATIONAL May-Jun 2009

JON ‘MOJO’ MILLS delves into some recent titles from the weird, wired and wonderful world of Barcelona’s Wah Wah label.

The good people at Barcelona’s Wah Wah label have wonderfully eclectic taste with no boundaries. Their latest slew of vinyl has more or less something for all Shindig! readers… and beyond.
For the latter, take JOSEF CUNNILL’s Rabbit Rumba, an incredibly rare LP from 1972 that embraces the then Catalan Rumba scene. It may reek of waiters with huge moustaches and an eye for the ladies, but be reassured, after two bars of the opening cut you’ll be gyrating your hips like a Latin lover.
On Saga records, the label that made other budget labels seem like big spenders, comes a beautiful version of THE MAGIC MIXTURE LP This Is Magic Mixture. Yes it may sound weak and thin… and the lack of overdubs leave it in the garage psychedelic canon at best. Yet, there’s a youthful quality about the whole album with the honed ‘Living On A Hill’ in particular deserving a major production. As it is, the biscuit tin drums have charm, and the meaningful vocals and staggering guitar leads of Terry Thomas steal the show entirely. A UK psych-rock classic by no means, but a rather cool set nevertheless.
Recorded in Italy and released on Saga imprint Pantonic in ’70 the effervescent freak grooves of THE UNDERGROUND SET recall those crazed fierce Hammond, proto rock guitar instros The Prisoners would later make their own. Think the club scene in Get Carter. Wonderful!
THE EQUINOX and their not entirely cleverly titled ’73 LP Hard Rock attempt to mirror the heavy music of ’73, and what at first sounds clumsy soon takes on its own identity. The overwrought vocals don’t get close to Plant or Gillan, but Mike Shedd does sound uncannily like contemporary hippy rockers Howlin’ Rain’s Ethan Miller. The songs are varied, the playing quite cool… and in a way as Magic Mixture did for psych-rock The Equinox do the same for ’70s rock. Coincidentally, the LP cover doesn’t feature the band members at all! That’s Saga all over for ya. Budget!
Earlier on Saga were cashing-in on Swinging London’s ephemeral club scene, and studio project THE 4 INSTANTS’ Discotheque says it all really. The LP title, choice of covers and that “guitar impression” Steve Marriott does of Steve Cropper is all over the place. It’s raw, wild and brimming with modness. In this case the bargain recording even adds to it too.
THE DAVE DAVANI FOUR had no problems when it came to playing in a professional manner with good studio production. But then they were seasoned young jazzers, not a quick cash in. Released in ’65 on Parlophone, Fused! is any self-respecting mod’s dream record; blending modern jazz and soul/R&B to give Fame, Auger and Bond a good run for their money.
Bristol and Cardiff both had a good local folk scenes in the late ’60s and early ‘70s. STEVE TILSTON has become a respected player over the last 30 years, but few remember his debut, An Acoustic Conversation, which was released on the small Saydisc label in ’71. Borrowing liberally from the early Stringband, Bert Jansch, Wizz Jones and Donovan etc, Tilston brings something of his own to the table... namely youth, dextrous finger picking and a pile of memorable songs. He has also has a honey-warm voice that does wonders to the soul.
HUNT & TURNER, released Magic Landscape on Saydisc the following year and were also staples of the Bristol Troubadour. Theirs was a more produced West Coast (American rather than British) sound that has similarities to the likes of Crosby, Stills & Nash, although it remains distinctly English all the same, at times recalling Magna Carta or Stealers Wheel. Comparisons aside, Magic Wheel is a superb album of predominantly original material, made all the better by strong vocals and excellent musicianship. Their cover of ‘Mr Bojangles’ is a winner too. Moving across the Severn to Cardiff, but still on Saydisc, are the incredibly hippified duo THE VILLAGE THING and their quaintly deranged The Sun Also Rises – an album that clearly depicts them as followers of the String Band.
It wasn’t only the Brits either, Germans in particular had a clear understanding of consciousness improvement via quickly strummed acoustic guitars, meandering lead breaks, flutes and gently sung male and female vocals. Bloody ’ippies, eh? BROSELMASCHINE had all of this going on plus mandolins and sitars and they do a very convincing job of sounding just like their Brit contemporaries, with a dose of San Fran added for good measure. Their ’71 debut is at the top of the Krautfolk ladder and worth inspection. The rather brilliant HOLDERLINS also shared a Broselmaschine member on their ’72 debut Holderlins Traum, and at times sound somewhat like them, yet they also often veer off more towards Krautrock’s progressive division with Mellotron and flute a plenty. Accomplished and very effective.
So there we have it… a diverting clutch of vinyl, nicely mastered, well designed and destined for all LP loving Shindiggers’ collections. Oh yes, if you missed the exceptionally good VANICA DOBLE (two freaky Spanish hippy girls) LP a few years ago it’s now available on CD with a satisfying amount of bonus material. You can find a lengthy review of it on the website.
www.wah-wahsupersonic.com


BOSSA RIO
Bossa Rio
Rev-Ola
www.cherryred.co.uk
This first-time UK reissue of Bossa Rio’s debut originally released – where else – on bossa-friendly A&M in 1969 introduces a sextet who magically dust everything they touch with a generous coating of easy going vibes and effortless musical sophistication. Produced by Sergio Mendes and recorded in LA, Bossa Rio featured vocalist Gracinha Leporace (AKA Mrs Sergio Mendes) and organist and arranger Manfredo Fest among their ranks. Their talents are showcased across the album’s eleven tracks which smoothly blend Brasil ’66-style bossa reworkings of recent US pop hits including ‘Do You Know The Way To San Jose’ and ‘Up, Up and Away’ with rootsy yet groove-laden versions of a selection of standards from such Brazilian songwriting royalty as Jorge Ben, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Caetano Veloso, Mario Telles, Edu Lobo and Milton Nascimento. All that remains is for someone to reissue the band’s long unavailable second album Alegria! originally released on Blue Thumb in ’70 and the magic will be complete.
Grahame Bent

SERGE GAINSBOURG
Histoire de Melody Nelson
Light In The Attic CD
www.lightintheattic.net
Singer/songwriter Gainsbourg was France’s pop-rock bad boy since the late ’50s, really picking up steam (in every sense of the word) after his involvement with actresses Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin in the late ’60s and the release of the 1969 classic ‘Je Taime… Moi Non Plus’, featuring Birkin’s scandalously erotic heavy breathing.
The much darker and more provocative concept album Histoire… followed in ’71. Realised in conjunction with arranger, conductor and co-conspirator Jean-Claude Vannier and a tight, hand-picked crew of top shelf UK session musicians in addition to the indispensable Miss Birkin, Gainsbourg proffers a seven-part song cycle that was light years ahead of its time — the more ambitious, lengthier tracks like ‘Melody’, ‘L’Hotel Particulier’ and the closing, visionary ‘Cargo Culte’ are the most rewarding. Histoire is often cited as Gainsbourg’s magnum opus, an essential album for the discerning music lover.
Gary von Tersch

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Dim Dam Dingue! Completement Made In France
Cosmopol LP
Here’s an excellent assortment of uncompiled Gaelic foot tappers that’ll sit just nicely alongside your two volumes of Wizz!. Jaques Filh is a manic shouter, like Dutronc in disguise perhaps? His ‘Je Drague Au Drug’ would suggest so.
Tony Mark delivers a growling vocal and his Markmen play a mean fuzz guitar on ‘Cinque Balles Dans le Rouge’. Richard Eden presents a great fuzz-toned go-go dancer in ‘A La Lune’ as do Beretta & Bordeaux in ‘London’s Bar’.
The girls are not neglected either – both Marie-France Loubet and Michele Mercier turn in some silky voiced vibes. There’s some slower rather oddball numbers like Hubert’s ‘Lola’ and Nato’s ‘L’amour Interdit Par La Loi’. Add some solid jerk friendly hip wigglers et voila!
Being French, the whole comp is augmented by cool orchestration or blaring brass. Very cool… addictive even. I hope for a volume two – you can never have too much of this stuff.
Paul Martin

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Midnight Massiera: The B-Music Of Jean-Pierre Massiera
Finders Keepers
www.finderskeepersrecords.com
More B-spoke goodness from Finders Keepers in the form of a thoroughly welcomed anthology of producer Jean-Pierre Massiera, who was strangely strange and anything but normal. As both pioneer and personality he managed to maintain masterful control of his splintered psyche as is evident on opening track ‘Visitors’ by the infamous French prog outfit of the same name, where Massiera compliments the song’s mean guitar lines with grand strings over backing sounds of women, wailing and moaning like virginity’s a sin and hell’s the place to be. A production trend bucked on more than one occasion here by his use of technicolour backing vocals (most notably on Chris Gallbert’s excellent ‘Sing Sing’), which are cinematic and unworldly in unequal measure.
Whatever it is that separates genius from madness, from library to lounge, garage to that back room no one ever goes in, he painted European music indescribable and above all else, fantastical
Richard S Jones

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Sound Of Wonder: The First Wave Of Plugged-In Pop At The Pakistani Picture House
Finders Keepers
www.finderskeepersrecords.com
This latest release by Finders Keepers finds them decamping to Pakistan in search of the finest in forgotten Lollywood (Bollywood’s domestic relative) treats and instantly apparent, aside from the glorious vocal work of leading Lollywood singers such as Nahid Akhtar are the beats and breaks on offer. An impressive draw and, like FK’s Yamasuki LP, are entirely made up not by machines but by the indigenous talent of some of the finest musicians you’re ever likely to hear. That these songs were originally used to accompany and ultimately cash-in on a wide variety of low-budget films, collected together, we have a surprisingly eclectic set with everything from Shadows fashioned rock ’n’ roll to exceptional Europop songs (‘Good News For You’). And a label whose ethos and reputation just keeps on getting more and more intriguing with every new discovery.
Richard S Jones