THE APPLE
An Apple A Day (Acme; LP)
A welcome return on vinyl for this old friend. Ever since the appearance of 'The Other Side' and 'Buffalo Billycan' on the
Chocolate Soup series at the dawn of the 1980s, The Apple have been a staple of any beginners guide to British pop music of the late 1960s. First up, 'Let's Take A Trip Down The Rhine' almost has (as does 'Photograph') an 'I Am The Eggman' quality about it, its chorus bursting to cry out 'goo, goo, ga choo'! Innocently enough, singer Dennis Regan extols the virtues of the sights to be seen on a boat cruise down the Rhine, for which the (West) German tourist authority might have wanted to thank him, but exactly what kind of 'trip' young Dennis was referring to is
perhaps still open to conjecture. 'Doctor Rock' is an almost Micky Most-ish stomping (all clap along to the chorus) pop rocker that oozes good times and good hooks. The legendary 'The Other Side' is just as potent a melancholic pop-psych pearl as ever it was. Still one of the 1960s most atmospheric and affective songs, with its bittersweet adieu to this mortal coil (or is it simply a song about emigration??) that prefigured Ian Curtis and Joy Division's 'Dead Souls' by a decade. A song of surrender or redemption? It's just a state of mind perhaps, but it still bristles the hairs on the back of my neck.
'Mr Jones' is a superlative pop psycher with a verse structure not a million miles from The Herd's 'Miss Jones', I wonder if by chance they are related? The looser and funkier one chord dominated 'The Mayville Line' invites everyone to feel the groove whilst 'Queen of Hearts Blues' is anything but a blues, rather a late era Beatles-esque orchestrated pop delight. Three pedestrian tracks on side two rather spoil the party, 'Rock Me Baby' is by the numbers blues rock, competently rendered though it is, 'Psycho Daisies' doesn't have the showpiece rationale of Beck & co's version and so whilst perhaps lending the side a little pace, passes by without leaving much impression. Worst of all is the turgid and terminally slow blues version of 'Sporting Life'. However, the side is saved by the other rightly lauded Apple number 'Buffalo Billycan', a catchy pop-psych floater for any age. Additionally and in similar vein are 'Photograph' with its lightly inflected orchestral string backing and 'Pretty Girl Love You', which is more Rubble-friendly pop with its chorus 'ba ba ba bas' and a driving rhythm. In the round,
An Apple A Day is an absolutely essential album to own and wonderful to have it back in vinyl in an exact reproduction sleeve. Oh and forget any hype about the inclusion of the 'rare colour insert' This is and always was just a marketing leaflet from the Apple & Pear Development Council, useful if you want to know how to ripen you pippins though!
Paul Martin
THE BEATNIKS
Outside Chance (Misty Lane; 10" EP)
Tropicalia is the scene that most associate with Brazil, but before it came The Jovem Guarda (The Young Guard), which stemmed from instrumental combos like The Shadows
and The Ventures and succumbed to Beatle Invasion. The Beatniks like all of these bands started out as an instro combo and worked their way up the ranks as the '60s progressed. Alongside some tepid covers of The Kinks ('Tired Of Waiting'), Cliff Richard ('In The Country') and Bacharach ('The Empty Place') comes the astounding '68 soul-punk-a-thon 'Alligator Hat', And man, is it absolutely wild and untamed, or what. 'Gloria', 'Fire' and 'Outside Chance' are all tackled with imagination, but if you come back to this LP again and again, believe you me, it'll be for the band's god-send original 'Alligator Hat'. That one cut alone is worth buying this for.
http://crea.html.it/sito/NOWSOUND/
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
BLOND
The Lilac Years (Swedish Universal; CD)
Blond were formed from the ashes of Swedish pop gods Tages and on the evidence of this, their 1969 debut album, simply added some muscle and continued where Tages left off.
Driven by Göran Lagerberg's thunderous lungs, Lasse Svensson's powerhouse drumming and an
energetic and eclectic batch of songs, Blond made the transition from the '60s to the '70s with more purpose and panache than most of their former beat group contemporaries who either chucked in the towel or eventually morphed into world conquering megastars.
The bulk of the songs here are rooted in the slick commercial pop style so typical of 1969. From the teasingly complex 'Sailing Across The Ocean' to the frantic 'I Pick Up The Bus' and the bouncy hit-in-waiting 'I Wake Up And Call' (familiar from it's inclusion on The Tages anthology), these guys could have given The Hollies, The Herd or The Move a serious run for their money. Along the way they confidently try their hands at Deep Purple-esque hard-rock ('Six White Horses'), blue-eyed soul ('Don't You Forget The Lady'), overblown orchestrated mysticism ('The Lilac Years') and not forgetting the obligatory stoned blues workout ('Caroline').
This re-issue also includes CD-ROM video footage of the band performing three tracks live on Swedish TV in 1969. Sadly my copy doesn't play so I can only imagine how the watertight performances and intelligent arrangements transferred to a live setting.
Andy Morten
THE BOLD
Gotta Get Some (Misty Lane; 4-Track EP)
Isn't 'Gotta Get Some' one of the most firey garage-punk records ever? It fully epitomises youthful arrogance and male sexuality. It's a winner from the first to last note. We all know it. We all love it. And having it as the lead track on a 45 makes it that much easier
to put on whenever a shot of feral teen-punk is required. What could possibly follow 'Gotta Get Some'? The flip is a frat-pop ditty called 'Robin Hood', not altogether unlikeable, but a lot like anything else one would expect from a teen keg-party band. Still, 'Train Kept A Rollin'' is the finest recorded version of the song I know. It's visceral and searing, and everything a garage-punk record should be. It comes as a close second to the brilliance of 'Gotta Get Some' and as one would suspect, flipside 'Found What I Was Looking For' is no competition. Standard 12-bar is all it is, and as soon as the stylus leaves the disc you won't want to return.
So yeah, the two songs we all know are the undoubted winners, but this 45 is still pleasing and serves as a warm-up for the soon to be released full-length Bold CD featuring their later more psych orientated material.
http://crea.html.it/sito/NOWSOUND/
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
DOUGLAS DILLARD
The Banjo Album (Revola; CD)
Or… bluegrass music for the hippy generation. Not only had Doug become a pal with the hippest Hollywood swingers (playing with Gene Clark and The Monkees) he also brought in progressive bluegrass making the music hip to pop musicians who were becoming interested in their nation's roots. All
of a sudden country music was hip again! Everyone from Monkee Michael Nesmith to The Byrds and Dylan were extolling its virtues. 1969 was the right year for
The Banjo Album. Essentially it's thoroughbred bluegrass in the same school as Flat And Scruggs and Bill Monroe, but it being on Curt Boettcher's Together label, and featuring such diverse instruments as tablas and harpsichords, hinted that this was something a bit different. A traditional music cut from a different cloth. Doug had already experimented with country-rock on the wonderful Dillards' album
Wheatfield Suite and his work with Gene Clark, and on this album of sole instrumentals although he was playing a strictly traditional music form he played it the way a hip young thang would. Just as John Renborun with his
Lady & The Unicorn album, or more so the way that modern day jazz musicians may stray into dance music, Dillard wasn't afraid of breaking boundaries or at being sneered at by his contemporaries for breaking the chain of how things had to be done.
But less of the history lesson… whatever way you look at it, this is a magnificent album featuring highly accomplished playing and wooden shack load of great tunes.
www.revola.co.uk
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
THE FIVE AMERICANS
The Best Of (Sundazed; CD)
The consistency of their song craft can't hold a torch up to The Beatles (what can?), The Monkees or Association but nevertheless this Texan group recorded some wonderful 45s
that belong in the late-60s garage-band pantheon: 'I See The Light', 'Western Union' and 'Don't Blame Me' are right up there. Where the band's talent lay was how easily they could bounce from melodic pop into scorching garage-punk that give all of the one-shot
Pebbles bands a hefty run for their money.
This 25 track CD packs in all of the sides you want/have to hear with lesser celebrated discs, unreleased tracks ('You Can't Win' (1966) is a Byrds/Beatles jangle fest, whilst 'Letters, Pictures, Melodies' is a delicate foray into psych-pop) and the three tracks from the fragmented final album
Now And Then air the band as a sumptuous string-pop act that will appeal to everyone with a penchant for the
Fading Yellow albums.
From the light to the gnarly, and featuring lots of harmony and jangle, The Five Americans didn't only look the part (see booklet) but they sounded it too.
www.sundazed.com
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
THE GALAXIES
The Galaxies (Misty Lane; 10")
Wide eyed and innocent folk-punk-garage-beat from San Paulo, Brazil, from '68 with a nerdy British rich kid on guitar (good player too) and vocals and a cute-but-little-flat sounding Claudette Longet-styled female
vocalist, who works as a singer in a Meg White (White Stripes) kinda way on
Da Capo covers 'Orange Skies' and 'Que Vida', but sounds a little absurd on 'I'm Not Talking'. However, this a good representation of what rich kids were playing in South America and represents a suburban late '60s garage band who weren't allowed to grow their hair long and freak out.
http://crea.html.it/sito/NOWSOUND/
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
THE HAWKS
Perfect World Radio (Not Lame; CD)
Power pop is a broad term, and while the majority clearly favour the early '70s variety that re-invented The Beatles, Move and Who or the late '70s take that infused harmonies over the top of buzzsaw guitars certain
fans of the genre have the ability to listen through the criminal early '80s production and herald such bands as The Hawks as forgotten heroes. And yes, the production and occasional fan fare synths can be sickening for those with musically weak stomachs, but this bunch of safe looking chaps did have a knack for harmony and subtle '60s arrangements that recall everything from The Beatles and Beach Boys through to Todd Rundgren and Bruno from
The Kids From Fame.
File somewhere between The Raspberries and REO Speedwagon.
www.notlame.com
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
THE HEARD / THE ONLY ONES
Lone Star State '60s Texas Punk: The Heard Meet The Only Ones (Break-A-Way; 10" EP)
Here's another ten-incher from German garage reissue label Break-A-Way. This time round with an EP of two Longview, Texas group's sole 45s from 1967 and 1966 respectively. The Heard were formed in 1965 by twin brothers Andy and Randy Clendenen. They pressed
up the statutory 500 copies of the 45 on their own vanity label 'One Way' and sold mostly at gigs. The top side 'Exit 9' is pure unadulterated snotty garage-psych (and a fave from the
Texas Flashbacks series). It kicks in with a fuzz tone vengeance; it's fast, fresh and has a biting fuzztone guitar solo. The overall ambience (and especially building towards its finale) is of a Teen trash B movie horror soundscape that really connotes all that
Back From The Grave/Rudi Protrudi style garage reissue cover art well. It ends with some creepy vocal intonations and a crashing fuzztoned power chord that'll make you wanna go right back and play it again. The Heard's take on 'You're Gonna Miss Me' is played straight. Andy Clendenen gives pretty good Roky on the verses and the wailing harp parts are substituted with fuzz tone guitar. The Elevators distinctive jug sound is emulated by a rolling bass line which actually does the job pretty well. This cut stands up ok, but 'Exit 9' is the real keeper.
Like The Heard, The Only Ones were formed by two brothers, Jim & John Axberg when only in their early teens. Given their age they were unable to gain access to the night clubs where the older kids played, but were confined to yard and swimming pool parties. Their lone 45 was bankrolled by a local store owner and a local policeman who believed in them. Again, 500 copies (on their own vanity label, Brumble) sold out of the back of a car boot at gigs was the how they shifted their wax. But both they and The Heard, managed to make #1 on the local charts of Centre, a small Texas town. The Only Ones went in for more of a plaintive harmony vocal approach and both their offerings feature a staccato beat in parts of the verses. Their top side 'Another Place' has a slight Painted Ship feel to it, with keyboards to the fore, harmony vocals and tambourine emphasising the hi-hat, a good and broody garage mid-pacer. 'Can't Trust A Woman' has a vague 'I'm A Living Sickness' feel to its introduction but which soon gives way to a pulsing bass and again, harmony vocals sounding almost west coast in essence. As with all the Break-A-Way releases so far, there are copious (6x10"pp) liner notes that give the full lo-down and no shortage of period pics. A more competent and complete package of these two groups you'll never find and a must for all garage fans.
www.break-a-way.de
Paul Martin
MIKE HURST
Drivetime (Angel Air; CD)
In the late '60s and early '70s hugely orchestrated variations on the BIG films themes and TV shows and ornately arranged versions of pop hits were the business; phase four stereo records (a Decca studio invention that neglected the central mix and panned recording to the left and right channels - a
primitive, but effective early version of surround sound) sold cartloads. These albums allowed the wealthy owners of stereo systems to show off their new toy to great effect, and Easy Listening was in full bloom. If people weren't hip enough to own 'Good Vibrations' by The Beach Boys, they more than likely had an easy version that was suitable as background music for dinner parties! Easy Listening was the hippest unhip sound for the over 30s… and it was a money maker! When Mike
Hurst (usually a pop producer) was invited to record an album of music that could be used in advertising in the States by an old business buddy he gathered the finest players and orchestra leaders in the business to record a set of soped up instrumental versions of TV themes, movie classics and pop hits. 30+ years on this quality cheese sounds great! It's all done in the brassiest possible taste!
If your life is lacking colour then this set of ridiculously camp pieces should turn your drab existence into a scene from an old TV show that was shot in the London surrounds.
www.angelair.co.uk
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
THE JACKPOTS
Jack In The Box (Swedish Universal; CD)
The Jackpots' 'Jack In The Box' has been a firm favourite of this reviewer since its appearance on
Rubble 15: 10,000 Seconds Over Toyland. Barely two minutes of crystalline 1968 pop-psych featuring an irresistibly hair-raising tune, multi-layered harmonies drenched in backwards reverb and so much
damned charm it threatens to dwarf the rest of the compilation. Imagine The Idle Race after a particularly euphoric dose of orange sunshine trying out every gizmo in Abbey Road with a hyperactive George Martin at the controls and you'd be halfway there.
Then, some ten years later, a cut entitled 'King Of The World' shows up on the wonderful
Fading Yellow comp credited to The Jackpots. It doesn't necessarily sound that much like 'Jack In The Box' and one could easily be forgiven for assuming it was by an unrelated namesake band. However, it's the same act and it soon becomes my favourite cut on a collection overflowing with exceptional tunes. 'King Of The World' is a warmer, maturer piece, which is elevated to classic status by bucket loads of heart-stopping hooks, dreamy fairytale lyrics and a spine-tingling horn solo.
I then discover The Jackpots were Swedish and cut two albums in 1967 and '68. A few well-aimed enquiries result in a CDR of their 1968 album
Jack In The Box landing on my doorstep the very same day that a friend delivers this CD, also titled
Jack In The Box, purchased in Sweden the day before. It's like buses - you wait ages for one and then 24 arrive at once.
So naturally it was with high hopes that I approached this collection, the first official Jackpots collection and part of a series of '60s retrospectives from Swedish Universal. I figured I'd be incredibly lucky to be presented with 18 selections bearing all the hallmarks of those two tunes and I was right.
The Jackpots were undoubtedly fine singers and musicians (and even managed to look fairly comfortable in assorted paisley Nehru tunics and sculpted blond bouffants) but essentially they dealt in pedestrian harmony pop and predominantly cover versions. Most of this stuff would stand head and shoulders above the rest on a Scandinavian
Ripples CD. They turn in respectable versions of The Four Seasons ('Walk Like A Man'), Beach Boys ('The Little Girl I Once Knew') and Ivy League ('Funny How Love Can Be') but these hardly vindicate any listener seeking silky pop-psych revelations.
That said, there are of course some moments of interest and a couple of fleeting signs of greatness. These include 'Back To The City' and 'Miss Judith Lee' which should both appeal to fans of bendy late '60s pop and a bouncy 'Shadows And Reflections' plainly cribbed direct from The Action's version. Sadly missing is the edgy, folk-psych hybrid 'Herbane's Sacrifice' from the original
Jack In The Box album.
Overall, an essential purchase if you don't own 'Jack In The Box' and 'King Of The World' and worthy of investigation for fans of late 60's Euro-pop.
Andy Morten
THE RICHARD KENT STYLE / ST LOUIS UNION
Mod Meeting (Dr. No; LP, 500 only)
This slab o' wax brings together the collective A & B sides of two of the UK's second division mod groups who's brief oeuvres have existed only on the fringes of the reissue compilation scene. This therefore is a useful exercise in exhumation. So, what exactly has been dug up? Side one takes in the eight sides of four of the RKS's 45s. Omitted for some reason is their 1968 MCA 45 'Love Will Shake The World Awake' b/w 'Crocodile Tears'. Nonetheless, these platters spanning 1966-69, are worth giving ear time to. Contemporary with (but not as good as) The Untamed, RKS kick off with their debut 45 for Columbia from '66 'Go Go Children' (previously comped on the
Echoes From The Wilderness collection on Paranoid records a few years back). This is a groovy, bass-heavy pusher with a repetitive call and response style chorus (in the style of 'Daddy Longlegs' for instance). 'No Matter What You Do' is a mildly fuzz toned backed and pacey mod pop pleaser as is 'You Can't Put Me Down' both which have a strong Neil Christian flavour to them. 'All Good Things' is heavier on the fuzz tone but is otherwise a brassy soulful groover in a Memphis soul style. 'I'm Out' is plain and simple whilst 'Marching Off To War' is a chart aimed pop soul number. RKS's take on the Carter-Lewis 'A Little Bit Of Soul' is a strident version with party noises in the background. The final number from '69 'Don't Tell Lies' is a commercially edged progressive pop number which reminds me of the Mike D'abo era Manfreds in places and is clearly a departure from the horn soaked Alan Bown Set-like club soul sound of the rest of their recordings.
St Louis Union seem only to have ever recorded three 45s, all for Decca and all in '66. However, in addition here you get two unreleased tracks to even the sides up with the RKS which makes you then wonder what else might be around. SLU kick off with generic cover versions on their first two sider 'Respect' and 'Girl', neither of which inspire much to say about them, although the singer gives pretty good Otis on 'Respect'. Their next 45 was a far greater achievement, a veritable two-headed mod monster in their cracking take on Bob Seger's 'East Side Story' (previously comped on one of the Decca 'Scene' series CDs). This is coupled with a Tony Clarke written and produced freakbeater 'Think About Me' which sounds like something The Birds forgot to record, a classic. Next up is their finest moment in my opinion, a lovely take on the Graham Gouldman track 'Behind The Door'; overtly
Fading Yellow friendly, a great flute inflected pop builder that sounds two years ahead of its '66 issue date. The whole album is worth getting just for this and 'Think About Me'. 'English Tea', a groovy guitar / organ instro follows (it moves in the general direction of King Curtis's 'Memphis Soul Stew and was comped on
Instro Hipsters A Go-Go Vol.2) and there is also an unissued 'alt' version which features some distinctly Marriot-esque sounding vocal inclusions absent on #1. 'I Got My Pride' is another unissued and good sounding number which has a cool Georgie Fame-ishness about, organ groover that it is. SLU also feature on the front cover which reveals them to be a good looking six piece bunch of hipsters. Again, their stuff is flavoured (sometimes heavily) by a horn section. If you're an Alan Bown Set fan you'll love this LP. Second division The Richard Kent Style and St. Louis Union may have been but not second rate, and it is good to have these groups work made accessible again.
Paul Martin
LOVE
Out There (Big Beat; CD)
This cream-of-the-crop comp of Love's Blue Thumb Period
(Out Here [1969] and False Start [1970]) was originally released in 1990 by Big Beat with a different sleeve and liner notes. 13 years on and Arthur Lee is big business again, so why not re-release it with new sleeve and liner notes culled from a new interview with Lee by Love expert, and annotator of the
previous four released albums on CD, Andrew Sandoval? Why not indeed. It does seem to make sense! Some of the younger amongst you have probably missed out on this first time around, so here it is again. The fourteen songs are uniformly great from Lee's Hendrix inspired moments to some uncanny
Forever Changes-alike instances.
Unfortunately for Lee his entire career has been judged by
Forever Changes but when listening to such equally compelling material as 'I Still Wonder' (mellow psych, with a CSN vocal refrain, written by guitarist Jay Donnellan), 'Listen To My Song' (the haunting ghost of Forever Changes), 'Nice To Be' (complex soft-pop following the
De Capo Latin-tinged theme), 'Willow Willow' (astounding ballad), 'Love Is More Than Words Or Better Late Than Never' (freak-out, mind-melt acid-rock), 'Love Is Coming' and 'The Everlasting First' (Hendrix-y Gospel, soulful heavy rock ) and 'Gather Round' (heart wrenching folk/country rock) it is proof enough that the man didn't dry up after that legendary album.
www.acerecords.co.uk
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
THE MOTIVES
The World Is A Trapezium (4 track CDR EP; Sweet Floral Albion)
This is an interesting and worthwhile artefact. Five servicemen stationed near the Dutch border at RAF Wildenwrath in West Germany formed a band in late 1965 which by 1967 when this EP was recorded were playing as The Motives. The full story was recalled in
Sweet Floral Albion #13 in the form of an interview with Motive's bassist Barry Beaumont-Jones. The text of which forms the majority of the liner notes in this well packaged and presented item along with some cool pics inc. singer / songwriter Tom Winter with his groovy hand-defaced Hofner 4560 guitar. The EP was released on the tiny Dutch Telstar label, sinking without trace. Only one copy is known to exist from which the CDR as been (very cleanly) dubbed.
The feel and sound is not far removed from Complex's self-titled first album (reissued on Tenth Planet LP and Wooden Hill CD) but with maybe trippier lyrics and a more fluid guitar style in parts. All four songs have a keyboard and guitar rhythm and a rather laconic lead vocal. Lead track 'God Save Our Gracious Cream' slides along with a soulful 'on the offbeat' organ rhythm and a lead guitar line tracing the vocal pattern. There's bluesy acid rock guitar interplay throughout which gives it some lift. 'I Can Hear Colours' ("I can hear colours, I can see sounds"... "This can't be right, my hair is so bright") is a softer affair, a slow moving number led by acoustic guitar and keyboard. It almost presages the coming of UK folk rock, but then suddenly there's a bluesy rock guitar break before picking up on the mellower verse structure again. The closing refrain of hallelujah has a
'Still I'm Sad'-ness about it as the song cuts to fade.
'Ice Woman' is perhaps the real keeper on the disc. A mid paced smoker which builds up nicely on its "get up and look at the sun before it's too late" section. Lightly wah-wah'd guitar laces in and out of the tune, which is a moody and restless creature throughout. 'Baby of The May' is a slow, wistful and broody number with 'of the period' time signature changes here and there. It is also vaguely reminiscent of The Koobas 'Circus' from their self-titled 1969 album in places. The CDR comes with the face side shammed up as a 7" single (like a lot of those Bear Family CDs are) and looks very attractive. We learn also that The Motives later became Opus (and as a band recorded from 1967-71) and that they have appeared elsewhere on reissues in the past ('Baby Come On' on
Circus Days Vol.4 LP; 'Angela Grey' on Incredible Sound Show Stories Vol.11: Crimson Valley Creatures In Your
Zoo; 'Master Of My Fate' on the Dutch Op Art label's double 10" Fantazio Daze set and 'I Can Hear Clouds' on Distortion's
Waterpipes And Dykes compilation).
As a package this has the integrity and style you would expect from something bearing the
Sweet Floral Albion imprint (it is available exclusively through them as an 'on demand' collectors edition) and all the profits go the band members. If you like the slower, bluesier, lightly acid guitar type of psych sound and want a classilly packaged reissue of a genuine UK rarity (albeit only ever released in Holland), then this will suit you to a tee.
satin_odyssey@hotmail.com
Paul Martin
THE PRISONERS
A Taste Of Pink (Big Beat; CD)
In my mind this is thee highlight of the early '80s garage-band explosion. The Prisoners were British for a start. They had no idea about The Chesterfield Kings, Lyres or Fuzztones. They may or may not have even heard
Nuggets. They were Jam fans who didn't want to sound like The Jam. Mods who grew their hair. Young, young lads who played garage music 'cuz that's where they were at… This
was no pretence. No formula was followed!
A Taste Of Pink is the best "garage" album of the '80s!
Graham Day as a writer veered from the incongruously simplistic 'Creepy Crawlies' to the incredibly tender and mature 'There Can't Be A Place'. The now legendary James Taylor was mastering his craft, yet still shining on the Go-Go-tastic 'Come To The Mushroom', Crockford added harmonies and a forceful bass, whilst the young Drummer Symons attacked the kit with the relish of a teenaged Keith Moon. At times the oeuvre of Weller creeps into play (and what's wrong in that? The Jam records the boys grew up with were exceptional) but the overall feel is like putting The Pretty Things (crucial ingredient: the vocal nuances of Phil May), The Small Faces, early Kinks and US psych/garage bands (that the guys may have even not heard) into a liquidiser. It's an exceptional effort; naive and primitive, yet confident, assured and arrogant! This is an album that still sounds incredible - and it must be said most US garage bands from the '80s now sound exactly what they were: horrid '80s bands trying to be a pastiche of the garage-band movement!
This expanded edition also includes NINE bonus tracks. 'Baby Come Alive' was recorded at
the A Taste Of Pink sessions. It's not a highlight, but it works in a haphazard manner as it shows the band toughen up the soulful sound that was in vogue with '80s mod bands. Yet it still sounds Prisoners! 'Pretend' and an early version of 'Somewhere' are culled from radio sessions, and the band sound phenomenally powerful. A recorded live in the studio version of the French single 'There's A Time' is an outtake from the spilt album that they shared with buddies The Milkshakes - and it smokes. Perhaps even more exciting are the four Cecil Road demos, that although ragged are rendered in perfect garage-fidelity. Two were never recorded: 'Lilac Reflections' is a Small Faces style mod-psycher, whilst 'Talking About My Baby' is a dirty blues number on which Day shreds his throat in true punk-blues style, somewhat like The Pretties in a head on collision with the kings of Medway The Milkshakes! Finally a rather chaotic version of EP cut 'Love Changes' taken from a live Canterbury show closes the set.
A re-issue of the album would have been good enough, but as it stands Ace have done all they can with this one. And in doing so have released a very special package indeed.
www.acerecords.co.uk
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
TINA PEEL
Pajama Party (Misty Lane; LP)
Like messrs Connolly and Prevost, Rudi Prutudi was no young kid on the block when the garage revival came into being. In fact, like his contemporaries he'd been around the block a few times before he acquitted himself to 1966 for eternity! Tina Peel, a band he formed with Fuzztone organist Deb O'Nair in 1977, already aired influences of '60s teen-er-ama ala The Raiders and Tommy Roe… there was a punk energy, but in
essence this was uncomplicated melodic pop music. The band's bright clothes also shunned the generation X outlook of the punks. It's puerile, sure. But that was the point. Like The Fleshtones, this was seventies music that harked back to a time that was seen as unhip.
It wasn't for sometime that Protrudi found his calling card, but this set of songs do prove that he was ahead of the game of the revival. And for that he must be praised.
http://crea.html.it/sito/NOWSOUND/
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
TONTO & THE RENEGADES
Little Boy Blue / I Knew This Thing Would Happen / Anytime You Want Some Lovin' / Easy Way Out (Misty Lane; 4-Track EP)
When a bunch of kids write a song it's gonna be dumb and primal, but that's not to say that it'll be junk. 'Little Boy Blue' is a
classic (and one of the fondest remembered Back From The Grave cuts)! The simplistic melody, the hoarse vocals… it may not be Lennon singing 'Twist And Shout', but it's not that far off the mark. One take primitive records are spur of the moment, and it seems that Tonto and co found that moment. The
record's flip is a pleasant garage-ballad, not unlike Larry & The Bluenotes slower paced numbers. More surprising are the two tracks on side two, taken from the band's second (and last) single, produced by local Michigan legend Dick Wagner. It's clearly the following year, the band have perfected their playing, the singing is better and they sound like a POP band rather than a GARAGE band. 'Easy Way Out' is a stunning pop disc, a little Monkees, a little Rascals and a little Buckinghams. Horns as well as some wonderful psychedelic guitars feature and in my mind it sounds swell. So here goes, I'll be a garage heathen. The later stuff is better.
http://crea.html.it/sito/NOWSOUND/
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
YMAC SUMAC
Voice Of The Xtabay & Other Exotic Delights (Revola; CD)
Revola has supported the weird and exotic as much as the hip, and this re-release of the 1995 compilation of one of '50s America's most intriguing, over the top and plain out-there icons Yma Sumac is further proof that the label were right to let this stuff out of the closet. Sumac, who was (according to AMG): "A singer with an amazing four-octave range, [and who was] said to have been a descendant of Inca kings, an Incan princess that was one of the
Golden Virgins. Her offbeat stylings became a phenomenon of early '50s pop music. While her album covers took advantage of her strange costumes and voluptuous figure, rumours abounded that she was, in actuality, a housewife named Amy Camus. It mattered little, since there has been no one like her before or since in the annals of popular music." And true, there was and still hasn't been anyone like her. This form of entertainment was something that could only have arisen in post-war boom time USA. For some reason, average schmoes wanted to fantasise about a world a million miles away from their uniformed new homes, big cars and cocktail shakers; and didn't composer Les Baxter just know it. As did others like Korla Pandit.
The music possesses a kitsch quality that makes me think of the sort of music that the tarty resident of Tim Burton's
Edward Scissorhands would absolutely love. It's the music for lowest common denominator America. A place painted pink. A place where John Waters could be king. Sure, Sumac could sing, but the haphazard mix of folk, native music and the plain weird is just absurd. It's like the set of an old swashbuckler film directed with camp abandon. It's pure Tiki… pure schlock. And, oddly enough it's beautiful in the same weird and wonderful sense as that painting of the blue Asiatic lady that every Brit bought in the '70s to achieve the taste of the exotic.
www.revola.co.uk
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Chartbusters USA Vol. 3 (Ace; CD)
Do you have a CD in your car, a portable for the beach, or a discman for that tedious journey or for entertainment at that tedious job? 
Do you want a 29 track collection that features the finest American hits that however much you play 'em will still sound as fresh as the first time you, or your pals, heard 'em? Does the thought of '(I'm) A Roadrunner' (Junior Walker & The All Stars), 'The Letter' (The Box Tops', 'Born To Be Wild' (Steppenwolf), 'Ode To Billy Joe' (Bobbie Gentry), 'Little Bit O'
Soul' (The Music Explosion', 'The Pink Panther Theme' (Henry Mancini), 'Lies' (The Knickerbockers) and many more on one disc sound good? I think so… It won't be new to you, but it's timeless stuff and great to have on just one CD.
Volume three of Rob Finnis' carefully chosen series is as good as its predecessors, and will lead even the most jaded music snob to realise how truly wonderful pop was in the era when kids first heard these records over the crackly airwaves of a tinny transistor.
www.acerecords.co.uk
Jon 'Mojo' Mills
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Fading Yellow Volume 4: Light, Smack, Dab (Flower Machine; CD)
Fading Yellow is not so much a collection as an archive or sound library of overlooked late '60s popsters, it is one of the most important compilations dealing with this kind of music on the market (with e.g.
Pop In, Spinning Wheel and Sweet Floral Albion bolstering the bows!) and has significantly contributed to the renascence of interest in the lighter sounds of the second half of the 1960s. Is this sheer hyperbole? Well pick some of 'em up and judge for yourself.
Both volumes Four and Five are dedicated to (as was Vol.1) UK pop and pop-psych anomalies.
Volume 4 has some varied styles of shiny pop jewels to offer us. The pop-psych quotient is perhaps a little more overt than on
Volume 1 with some wonderful standouts. Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon's 'Animal Song' at 2:17, is nothing less than pure, distilled UK pop psych of the lightest variety (think UK Nirvana in their gentler moments). The complete opposite of its happy-go lucky poptastic A side 'Beside Myself' (comped on
Colour Me Pop Vol.1), 'Animal Song' sounds as if it would break if you moved whilst listening to it. Sublimely and cleverly worked with a 'make your guitar sound like a sitar' motif recurrent throughout, Kevin Godley (for it is he and Lol Creme moonlighting from the Mockingbirds) composed the Alice In Wonderland lyrics, which like their assumed names on this number, are quintessential of UK pop psych:
"The parrot is learning the words of a song
The music is sweet but the grammar's all wrong
He'll sing to a porpoise who lives in a tree
and charm all the fish in a faraway sea"
In a similar vein Toyshop's beautiful B side 'Send My Love To Lucy' would like to inform us that:
"With expanded mind imagination forms
coloured raindrops in the season of the storm
...And then you focus on a sea of silver deer
with golden swordfish that swim into your sphere"
Charming, beguiling and the epitome of the introspective and childlike pop aesthetic of the latter 1960s (as are the excellent graphic artworks drawn by Gavin Deanda for the sleeve inserts - he also designed our editor's band Little Bare Big Bear's 45 cover), these two numbers alone entrance the listener more with each play. There is also Martin Martin's 'Imagine' (no, not that 'Imagine'!) to consider. A Canadian who formed Rings And Things (of 'Strange Things Are Happening' fame) they also appear here on this lysergic pop floater. David McNeil's 'Linda' also has that lysergic inflection which so many late 60s pop records borrowed, as he comes across like Donovan's evil twin ("next time bring your little sister" he urges Linda as the song cuts to fade) and ups the beat beyond that which the hurdy gurdy man himself would have been often comfortable with! Then there are pacey pop pleasers that would be right at home on a
Colour Me Pop or Pop In comp, such as Finders Keepers' 'Light', The Californians' 'Can't Get You Out of My Mind' and Robbie Curtice's 'Soul Of a Man'. Others also delight such as Candlelight's lovely orchestrated baroque take on Carter-Lewis's 'That's What I Want', John Bromley's chamber orchestra sated 'If You Are There For Me' (think Roy Wood's 'Dear Elaine'), the Australian ex-pat Gibsons' 'You Know I Need Your Loving' which is reminiscent of the later Twilights with its flute lead, harmony vocal and strong beat. Both Dave Berry and Wayne Fontana, vocalists from a bygone age by the time their contributions here were recorded, also feature. Berry's song is pleasant but his voice is swathed in phasing right the way through where perhaps a more judicious use of the effect would have made more aural impact. However, both Fontana's offerings please to the utmost. Firstly his take on Graham Gouldman's 'The Impossible Years' (which Gouldman himself recorded on his US only
The Graham Gouldman Thing LP) is impeccable as is 'In My World', both of which are accomplished and sophisticated pop ballads with a slightly surly attitude. We end with another Robbie Curtice number, this time a home demo in the shape of 'Gospel Lane' and another great pop pleaser.
This latest addition to the Fading Yellow canon is a beautiful cornucopia of unheralded pop gems. It serves to show how much quality material of the period there still is out there to be given the exposure it deserves.
Paul Martin
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Fading Yellow Volume 5: Gone Are The Days - Timeless UK Popsike & Other Delights 1970-1973 (Flower Machine, CD)
In a very real sense, Vol. 5 is the perfect companion piece to
Vol. 1. Not in the sense that it is more of the same, but rather that Vol. 5 displays where the sounds and sentiments displayed on Vol. 1 went as the '60s turned into the '70s. The first half of
Vol. 5 shows how the early part of the 1970s can be musically heard as the outer fringe of the late 60s without the seams showing. Herein reside some truly beautiful soft pop tunes and still with a high popsike element evident in them. Thus, High Society's 'Tell Me Now' which kicks off the set, displays a nice line in wobbly orchestrated
strings and Tuesday's 'Sewing Machine' (championed in
Sweet Floral Albion) may date from 1972, but sounds four years behind its time, and really is a peerless warped pop beauty. Sunchariot's 'You're Lovely' is a hazy busy bass lined pop floater, Vigras & Osborne's 'Forever Autumn' convinces that it always will be and Gracious's 'Once On A Windy Day' is the best song The Moody Blues never recorded. The childlike introspection of UK popsike is still evident in Rock Candy's multi-hued lullabyish 'Magic Horse': "There's a magic horse up in the sky, but he'll disappear if he sees you cry..." There is even an Episode Six-ish inclusion in Design's wonderful 'The Minstrel's Theme.
The second half of Volume 5 offers us another direction into which the soft pop and popsike aesthetic developed in the early '70s. Here, songs are dominated by duo vocals, acoustic guitars and flute solos, and as the late Kenny Everett would have it, 'all done in the best possible taste!' The folk pop stylings of Almond Marzipan's 'Summer Of Love' Maxwell & Nicholson's 'Trees And Things' and Billy Nichol's 1973 B side 'This Song Is Green' are good examples of this idiom. The popsike element is reborn as acid folk and nowhere better demonstrated than in Marvin, Welsh & Farrar's 'Tiny Robin' who's perhaps unpromising title does injustice to its mesmerising and atmospheric contents. It simply demands your attention and aurally hypnotises the listener in doing so! Eclectic solo singers with big backing sounds are represented by Garry Benson's 'Holly' and Richard Barnes's 'High Flyin' Electric Bird' both mighty fine and sophisticated pop gems. Cats Eyes do a very respectable 'Come Away Melinda' and Micky Jones & Tommy Brown (previously aka The State of Micky & Tommy) turn in a luscious stringed and fine arrangement in 'Alice'.
Fading Yellow Vol. 5 is a work of art both in its contents, performance and compilation and has a more even and linear content than
Vol. 4 (though that is not meant as a criticism!). There is a seamlessness that runs throughout which makes the whole so much more than the sum of its parts. It should be taken as a (and in my opinion, the leading) part of a new reissuing front that is now exploring the early-mid 1970s with new insight and interest (others include comps such as
Velvet Tinmine, Ebeneezer Goode and Spacegirl and Spaceman).
FY5 opens our eyes to the beauty and eloquence of some of the choicest soft pop stylings that were around but unappreciated at the time and for that we should give heartfelt thanks.
Paul Martin
Editor's comment on Fading Yellow:
Thanks to Paul for in-depth critiques of the two latest
installments. I however, could not let this month's reviews go up without me having at least a minor say on these wonderful albums. If you struck gold with
Rubble… you know the old saying by now… well, you've just unearthed a horde of platinum with these two "unafraid to be pop" compilations. I just can't stop playing 'em and highly recommend them to all SD readers… these are how comps should be and I, for one, can't wait for the following volumes...
ALBUM(S) OF THE MONTH!
pages too large to fit on the monitor screen, on mine anyway!). But whatever The 4 Renders, ('Walkin' The Dog'), Mersey Kings ('I'm A Hog For You Baby'), Sound Riders ('Send You Back To Walker'), Dynamites ('Nadine'), Tony Hendrik 5 ('I Ain't Got You'), Mascots ('40 Days'), all offer a charm of their own which elevates them from the generic and makes them sound fresh and individual. Of the other 20 tracks on this LP (yep, that's right 20!), the usual whacked out
Prae Kraut taste predominates. So we have Andy Nevison (another ex-US GI) & The Rhythm Masters telling us about 'White Woman' ("don't roll your big blue eyes at me"), a weird contribution to the civil rights movement presumably, it's a great beat number with an excellent riff. The Jack Five's 'Swingin' Berlin' (apparently recorded at the behest of the tourists board!) has a similar groove as The Dynamite's 'Nadine' but despite it's appeal, it didn't help replace London as was hoped in the campaign to attract a hipper tourists trade! There is a cool psych quotient in Lord Nelson & His Crew's 'Station Girl', a non-fuzzed up lightly wah-wah'd guitar rhythm with Who-ish high pitched vocal refrains, and which is in essence a kind of garage pop-psych number and Adam & Eve's 'Desert Song'. A one chord riff enchanter in an eastern modal scale which comes over rather like Sonny & Cher on acid! You have to read the liners re 'Adam' (aka John Christian Dee) author of The Pretty Things' 'Don't Bring Me Down' and The Fairies' 'Get Yourself Home'. He turns out to have been a pimp (kicked out fo the UK for procuring) who stabbed his girlfriend nearly to death and then escaped from a German prison...only on a
Prae Kraut comp could this turn up! 
First I bought See For Miles' The Great British Psychedelic Trip Volume One (it was a quid cheaper and had more songs) and spent an intense fortnight with the album on repeat play, scrutinising the liner notes and trying to absorb every last detail. This intoxicating blend of obscure rose-coloured 60's pop, beat and psychedelia felt like the doorway to another world. 'Baked Jam Roll In Your Eye' was baffling yet amusing, 'In Your Tower' exotic yet homespun and 'Vacuum Cleaner' fascinating and sinister. 'Tales Of Flossie Fillet' became my theme tune.
adored for and Dennis Payne's jangle fest 'I'll live Today' could give prime time Byrds a run for their money; 'Grandma Funderbunk's Music Box', 'Tuff & Stringy', 'Last Date' (on which White plays a sitar), 'Buckaroo' and 'Tango For A Sad Mood' are all instrumentals that display the scope of White as a melodic soloist; Darrell Cotton's 'Don't Talk To Me' is a tough garage-country record that would have been an apt focal point for Mike Nesmith during his tenure as a Monkee; 'Why Can't We Be' by The Love Trip is probably the least country-inspired piece on the set, nevertheless, at that, it is actually one of the best, and is a soft-pop/psych gem, whilst Jan & Clarence's 'Nature Boy' is similarly mellow with a lyric that mentions "hippy" and "psychedelic". From short haired country-star to long haired hippy country-rocker, there really was no one else quiet like Clarence.
The album's convoluted origins in Townshend's ill fated and frankly impenetrable
Lifehouse concept has been documented in depth over the years. Therefore, the prospect of an expanded edition of
Who's Next suggests that the multitude of presently scattered recordings made during
Lifehouse's gestation would finally be collated into some kind of semi-cohesive whole, ideally with their author's involvement. This would surely be a far more appealing proposition than Townshend's own alternative, the monstrous 6-CD
Lifehouse Chronicles box set.
(recorded in 1969) is the far superior of the two. Here the band revisit their finest moments, whilst the only new addition to their canon is a wonderfully gentle reading of Fred Neil's 'The Dolphin'. The album is a wonderfully light jazzy folk-rock affair, with Young's vocals always impressing; but it is also a reminder of how long it had been since the band had released a studio album featuring all new material. Alas the studio albums that followed weren't to feature much new material either. Both featured a collection of songs that the band had enjoyed and grown up with, ranging from soul to doo wop and country and R&B.
Good & Dusty did feature two new Yong compositions 'Drifting & Drifting' ( a not particularly interesting blues) and the soulfully impressive 'Light Shine'. Although certain covers like 'Circus Face' were performed with deft affection, relying on bar room standards didn't help the band at all. Last album
High On A Ridge featured a more interesting selection of covers, with their mellow version of Dylan's 'I Shall Be Released' offering a lighter touch to The Band's working and The Beatles' 'She Came In Through The Bathroom' is re-worked as a bluesy boogie that works quite well, but as is to be expected the album's highlight is the sole Young composition 'Dreamboat', which is a soulful love song that wouldn't have sounded out of place on
Elephant Mountain. But do we really want to hear covers of 'Donna' and 'La Bamba'?