THE GURUS
… Are Hear! (Sundazed; CD)
     The Beatles brought in the sitar vibe with Rubber Soul, The Stones followed with 'Paint It Black' and the floodgates for exotic tinged pop music opened. Veteran of the Greenwich Village folk scene Ron Hafkine, clearly inspired by this new trend in music, dreamt up the idea of fabricating a band that would blend middle-eastern rather than Indian motifs with pop. Hand picking a fine selection of local young musicians Hafkine promptly introduced guitarist Pete Smith to Arabic instrument the oud in order to bring in the distinctive exotic emblem. Liberally sprinkled over the recordings the instrument's sound became the band's trademark and The Gurus were sold to United Artists on the strength of their "new, happening sound" and released two great singles in late 1966. An album, which was advertised for release in early 1967, had also been recorded, but the label shelved it and the band promptly crumbled. Like so many late '60s unfortunates The Gurus just weren't lucky. They did have quite a few good songs though - 'Contact' (penned by the great New York writer Gary Bonner, who would later write hits for the Turtles) is a soulful garage pop number, oddly enough not featuring the oud whilst band original 'Breakaway', on the other hand, is saturated with middle eastern riffing and frantic percussion, possessing the temperament of 'Paint It Black'-as-if-sung-by-The-Music-Machine's-Sean-Bonniwell. But when stripped of the eastern overtones and energy as heard on 'Rainy Day In London' and the cover of the Critters 'It Just Won't Be That Way' the band sound far more comfortable being an above average pop band who didn't have to try their hardest to sound weird and enticing. That's not to say that The Gurus didn't make their mark though.
www.sundazed.com
Jon 'Mojo' Mills

LULA REED 
I'll Drown In My Tears (Ace Records; CD) 
     One of the real unsung stylists of rhythm & blues and early soul, Lula Reed finally gets a CD compilation of her classic King Records tracks from 1951 to 1955, produced with Ace's usual care and style. Her only Billboard R&B chart hits were her earliest recordings here from December 1951; the wonderfully soulful blues ballads "Let's Call It A Day" (picked up by Ike Turner in 1956) and "I'll Drown In My Tears" (a deserved chart-topper for Ray Charles in 1956), but the rest of the 24 tracks here are well up to those standards. Personal favourites include the jumping "Going Back To Mexico", "Sick and Tired", "Watch Dog" and "Bump On A Log" - a previously unissued alternative take of the latter is included - as well as the two gospel songs "Just Whisper" and (the far from) "Quiet Time With Jesus" which both feature undocumented duets with a powerful male singer. The backing, from husband Sonny Thompson's well-drilled septet, is immaculate and there is plenty of churchy piano from Thompson and plangent blues guitar from Clarence Kenner and Bill Johnson.
     Hopefully Ace will see fit to issue a second volume to mop up some of the remaining tracks and her duets with blues guitar god Freddy King, but until then this set, with its attractive 12-page booklet and notes by singer/songwriter and R&B fan Billy Vera, will do very nicely indeed, thank you!
www.acerecords.co.uk
Dave Penny

THE MOJO MEN
There Goes My Mind (Sundazed; CD)
     Originally recorded for Warner Bros and intended to be completed with orchestrated over dubs, the material included here, even without the proposed orchestration, sounds like a finished product that saw the band moving towards a slightly heavier, piano and organ groove. A single from these unreleased sessions was released in 1969 as their final release; the flip side, from which this CD takes it's title. 'There Goes My Mind', is a wonderful mid-tempo number featuring the male/female duo's Jefferson Airplane-like soaring vocals, supported by a prominent danceable piano riff, and superb organ solo, that signaled the move away from delicate flower pop to an almost psychedelic rock styling. 'When You're Down' further used this format to great effect. If a little more psychedelic The Mojo Men may well have won over the San Fran freaks. However, not intent on becoming part of the underground, the commercial pop sensibility was still intact. Across this period the band could have been so much better if they made even more use of Errico's fine vocal prowess and stuck with more pastoral material. 'Watch You Walk Away' is a yearning attempt at British tinged folk-rock, and is very different to the rest of the album, its classically phrased harpsichord and piano passages and Errico's heartfelt vocal sound uncannily like the Sandy Denny era Fairport Convention, and the song stands head and shoulders above the enjoyable but rather samey safe psychedelic pop/rock. 
     Although featuring strong vocals and hooks aplenty, this is a little lacking in any truly memorable songs. 
Jon 'Mojo' Mills

THEM
Time In! Time Out For Them (Revola; CD)
     This has to be one of the greatest should have been, could have been but never was classic '60s albums ever. Taking its stylistic cue from their previous Tower album Now And Them's 'Square Room' (several alternative and abridged versions of which appear here in the bonus tracks), Time In is a corker of an album from beginning to end. Many of the albums numbers are east meets west sitar confections; others are west coast influenced psych rock groovers with soulful vocals. There are some delicious mod-jazzy rhythms such as opener 'Time Out Time In' and the coolest 3/3 time signature I've yet heard in 'Waltz Of The Flies'. The psych / rock numbers like 'Bent Over You', 'She Put A Hoax On You','We're All Here To Help' or 'Market Place' have an effortless groove and a strong confident vocal reminiscent of The Lemon Dips (think 'Who's Gonna Buy' or 'Poor Lonely Woman'). The sitar dominated tracks are beautiful (again the opener is one), 'Black Widow Spider' with its breathy vocal and jiggy ragga segways is a real winner ("Is fantasy real?"... you get the picture). 'Just A Conception' has a definite Ananda Shanka vibe going on, tablas to the fore. Elsewhere, 'The Moth' blends mandolin and orchestration which is reminiscent of (but of course predates) Lindesfarne's 'Lady Eleanor'. 'Young Woman' features nicely sustained guitar notes pulsing throughout and lyrically revisits The Electra's (not Them's) 'Dirty Old Man', but this time from the dirty old man's perspective!.
     JJ Barnes's northern soul floor filler 'But It's Alright' is rendered by Them as a great fuzz-toned rock version (a 45 edit also features as a bonus track). The extra tracks are useful, especially the original 45 version of 'Dirty Old Man (At The Age Of 16)' which is so much more punk than the re-recording (which is also good). 'Corina' is what The Black Crowes would have sounded like twenty years before their time, (nascent southern rock) whilst 'Dark Are The Shadows' has a catchy commercial edge to it which should have hit. Liners are provided by Shindig ('Daddy') Jon 'Mojo' Mills which do well in recapping the course of Them's career post-Van Morrison split and navigating the course of events leading to Time In. Additionally, Kenny McDowell adds his own memories of the time to these. 
     Overall, this is prime Them. Had this stuck with the public, who knows what might have happened? All I need now is a copy of the Epilogue CD of Truth's 'Of Them And Other Tales' (recorded in 1969, but not reissued until 1995) to complete the picture. Time In! Time Out is a stunner of a CD, buy it and play it with pride.
www.revola.co.uk
Paul Martin

THE TRENCHMEN / THE LOST SOULS
North Dakota Garage: The Trenchmen Meet The Lost Souls (Break-A-Way; 10")
     This may be Break-A-Way's strongest sounding slab o' wax since their inaugural release by The Ringers. Two teen bands with three 45s between them comprise this platter (As & Bs). The Trenchmen only got one shot at a 45, but boy is it a doozie! Recorded in '67 'Chains On My Heart' is a splendid example of a garage take on psych when based in an isolated area like North Dakota! The (Farfisa?) organ takes the lead in this pacey pop pleaser and comes across like Stingray on happy pills! The futuristic sounding keyboard weaves its magic in and out of this number with a strong vocal and melody line. It justifies the cost in itself, go get it! 'Travel With Me' it's flip is more conventional fare with a strong probing bass line and syncopated drum pattern. Slightly acidic guitar flourishes in parts lifts it above of purely garage repetition. Both these sides are in fact polished performances.
     The Lost Souls managed to shots at waxing of which only 'Sad Little Girl' sounds pedestrian (a garage ballad). 'It's Not Fair' has a good loping riff and garage lyrics par excellence "It's not fair...You're always putting me down..." This and their other occasionally comped title 'Artificial Rose' (composed by Ernie Maresca and Jimmy Curtis and picked up by Liberty who did little with it) are their strongest numbers. A nice organ led take of the instrumental 'Enchanted Sea' finishes off this most enjoyable mini-collection. The full story of both groups is told (with pics) in the double-sided 10" sized b/w insert. If you're a fan of the kind of output Misty Lane for instance specialise in, you'll love this.
www.break-a-way.de
Paul Martin

VARIOUS ARTISTS
The Golden Age Of American Rock 'n' Roll: Special Novelty Edition (Ace Records; CD) 
     Over the past dozen or so years Ace have issued ten single CDs and one "special edition" in their Golden Age Of American Rock 'n' Roll series; the premise of the series was to make available "US hits before the British invasion - hard to get Hot 100 hits from 1954-63". As the series has progressed, these self-imposed rules have become a little lax to the point of featuring some very easy to get American rock 'n' roll and also tracks from long after The Beatles first US success, while the first "special edition" was a Country Special which, although featuring some great tracks, seemed to make a nonsense of the series title.
     This latest set - while containing a generous 30 tracks and a massive 32-page booklet annotated by the always reliable Rob Finnis - is possibly as much of a misnomer as that country set. The occasional manically-inspired song with a true rock 'n' roll sensibilty ('Ape Call', 'Long Tall Texan', 'Mr Custer', 'I Want My Baby Back', 'Psycho', and 'They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!') is over-powered by the sheer amount of inane kiddie pop and MOR novelties which, although recorded in the requisite time period and attaining Billboard chart placings, really have as much to with rock 'n' roll as 'Tubby The Tuba' and 'I Taught I Taw A Puddy Tat'.
     Rock 'n' roll began as a wild and dangerous music that changed the musical landscape forever in the mid-1950s. Almost immediately the establishment began trying to make the revolutionary music acceptable by injecting large doses of pop and childish novelty into it, and it is such clumsy dilution that is largely on offer here. But on the other hand...
www.acerecords.co.uk
Dave Penny

VARIOUS ARTISTS 
King Rock 'n' Roll (Ace Records; CD) 
     ...this is the real deal! Passionate, torrid, real vintage rock 'n' roll - learned at the knee of Daddy Elvis, not Auntie Pat Boone - with screaming guitars and a heavy backbeat and proper lyrics about the new music, dancing and sex - just generally enjoying oneself without any forced hilarity or cartoony insincerity! 
     Not quite as consistently wild as Ace's first volume from a year or two back, King Rockabilly, this 24-tracker (again with a fine 16-page booklet by Rob Finnis) apart from one or two cuts, features tracks that have lost the acoustic sound - the "'billy" - of mid -950s rockabilly, while a few of the tracks include vocal group or chorus backing; a no-no as far as authentic rockabilly is concerned. The selection has, nevertheless, mainly been carefully considered and well chosen by Finnis and the resulting compilation hangs together very well for the first twenty tracks; I can understand why the last four tracks were not amalgamated with the rest of the compilation, being three country and one mid-1960s cut, but they do come as a bit of a culture shock after all that rock 'n' roll and give the impression of being bolted on at the last minute to make up the numbers. 
    For old rockers, though, such compilations as this remind us what started our long-term love affair with the real, original rock 'n' roll music; even if latter day record emporiums have resigned it to the "easy listening" section (sob!). As Bruce Channel (yes, he of 1962's 'Hey! Baby' fame) so aptly puts it on his 1960 track featured here - "Boy! This Stuff Kills Me".
www.acerecords.co.uk
Dave Penny

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Mod Meeting Volume 2 (Dr. No; LP)
     The second volume in this series offers us a wider variety of groups than did volume 1's St Louis Union and Richard Kent Style. It's a good collection of soul beat and mod, predominantly unreissued. The Kirkby's kick off (previously comped on a Rare '60s Beat Treasures CD volume and elsewhere). It's a classic, almost effortlessly stylish and catchy number from Jimmy Campbell's (see last month's Why is This Not Out Yet rant!) debut group. Good mid-paced R&B belters like Chris Kerry's 'Seven Deadly Sins' and Kevin 'King' Lear's 'Mr Pearly' rub shoulders with soul-beaters like the horn led Clayton Squares, whose two offerings here 'Imagination' and 'There She Is' are worth the price of admission alone. A more modern jazz style club soul is present in a Mose Alison bag in the form of The Rats 'Sack O' Woe' and Johnson McPhilbry's 'She's Gone'. The Nashville Teens do a take of 'That's My Woman' a la V.I.Ps, with brashness and fuzztone and more guitar frenzy ensues in The Zephyrs 'She Laughed'. In general a well worthwhile comp for modernists of all persuasions. If you like soulful beat and gravel bottomed vocals, you'll want to pick this platter up pronto.
Paul Martin

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Ooh Bop Sha Boo - King Vocal Groups Vol 1 (Ace Records; CD) 
     Not as renowned for its group harmony (The Dominoes not withstanding) as for its peerless stable of R&B shouters and screamers - from Wynonie Harris to James Brown - the Cincinnati-based King Records has nevertheless been the subject of several abortively-planned series for the label's doowop recordings. In the late 1990s, both the UK-based Sanctuary and Westside labels issued "volume ones" of projected King doowop recordings without either making it to a volume two. Perhaps Ace will break that duck, but in the meantime they have produced a fairly entertaining compilation of some of King's biggest vocal groups (Otis Williams and The Charms, The Swallows and The Five Keys) mixed liberally with some deliciously obscure names (The Guytones, The Californians and The Temptations) and all points in between. Similarly, the whole gamut of 1950s group harmony is run here from early Orioles-styled drama, through nonsensical uptempo fluff and contemporary cover versions to heartbreakingly beautiful ballads and passionate birth-of-soul stompers. All very exciting for doowop buffs, I'm sure, but it may prove to be a little too varied a menu for novices. As it is, it doesn't win my recommendation for "most enjoyable" or even "most thoughtful" vocal group compilation - it certainly illustrates the yawning abyss of talent between the label's most experienced harmony groups and the youthfully exuberant, but ultimately uninteresting also-rans.
www.acerecords.co.uk
Dave Penny

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Soft Sounds For Gentle People Vol.2 (Pet Records; CD)
     Well, Soft Sounds Vol. 1 along with the Fading Yellow series have been responsible for loudly ringing my bell as far as sixties soft pop is concerned. Here we have a sunshine filled Soft Sounds Vol. 2 that bids us give an empathetic hug to some old friends from Vol. 1 plus a bunch of new folks who've come to join the show. Like many others who sparked with the first venture, I've been out hunting down the albums that songs were taken from on original LPs, CD-Rs, reissues whatever way I can find them. Consequently I come to Vol. 2 with a wider aural intake in-between volumes. Interestingly, some of these artists now sound like long-time companions rather than the comparatively recent discoveries that they are, and I warm to them all the more so because of it. Indeed, there has been something of a soft pop mini-industry blooming in recent months with a double Get Easy Sunshine Pop CD set on Universal (the content looks better than the title), Rhino handmade's upcoming two CDs of sunshine pop and west coast popsike respectively from the Warner archives and Rev-Ola's two volumes of Phantom Jukebox looking at the output of the White Whale and BT Puppy labels. Where some may scoff at the lack of perceived r'n'r cred (no fuzz guitars or street attitude for instance), I for one rejoice in this interest in these newly resurrected gems. 
     So where's the good vibes at on this platter? Like Vol. 1, the emphasis is on strong vocal harmonies, orchestrated tunes and entrancing production. You get some like Queen Anne's Lace's 'The Happiest Day Of My Life' or The Lewis & Clark Expedition's 'Why Must They Pretend' (from a film soundtrack, not their LP as on Vol.1) which are all breathy vocals. Then there's FY faves the Holy Mackerel's 'Wildflowers' (from their eponymous LP, try and find it if you can, it's great!) which is all phased vocal and sitar and even has a plaintive viola solo! Thorinshield's sole post-LP 45 'Lonely Mountain Again' is a nice ragga-ish jam for the most part whilst Stone Country whose 'Mantra' was a high point of Vol.1 (and their album is still awaiting reissue and well worthy it is for such as well) return with 'Time Isn't There (Anymore)', a B side from a 45 that seems to be a somewhat different mix or arrangement from their LP version, and still stunning. 
     The Moorpark Intersection reappear with the flip to their 'I Think I'll Go And Find Me A Flower' from Vol.1, 'Yesterday Holds On' which is the antithesis of it's A side, here all broody and underlying. The Sounds Of Modification's 'Carry On Carole' is a sublime pop mover with plenty of light and shade to keep your attention and a non CD anthologised track by The Spikedrivers 'Drink Up The Wine' also pushes things along. On the novelty front there's The Family's 'San Francisco Waits', a flower-power exploito single by session players, but sounding none the worse for that, The Growing Society's 'Just For Fun' a pleasant enough instrumental that rounds the disc off and the curious Smoky & His Sister whose rather under produced 'In A Dream of Silent Seas' has all the youthful pretensions and charm you might expect from the title. Ultimately, if you like the west coast soft pop sound, none of these 21 tracks can really disappoint. Vol. 3 is in the pipeline and two other collections Mystic Males and Sounds Of She are also promised shortly. Making more room on the CD shelf seems like a good idea at the moment!
petrecords@hotmail.com
Paul Martin

LOS YORKS
Los Yorks '68 (MAG; LP)
     Fans of Los Yorks 1966-'67 recordings will also want this LP for sure. Hewn seemingly from the rawest of material, Peru's premier sixties group, Los Yorks, deliver an album which collects garage, pop and psychedelia in their own special way. There are two  covers (I spotted anyway); a 100 second rendition of The Mersey's 'Sorrow', replete with shimmering guitar which rather gives it their own slant and a generic 'Sunshine Of Your Love' (the album's low point perhaps). Other than which the album pulses variously between garagey Animals-a-like screamer such as opener 'Solo Pido Amor', brooding beat ballads like 'La Punta De Mi Lengua and quality pop such as 'Vallery' and The Teddy Robins 'Magic Colours' sound-a-like 'Se Que No Cambiaras'. All of these are rendered with such style they are lifted from the purely garage to a higher plateau. 
     The two standouts however are the psychfests that close Side 1,  'Mira Tu' and open Side 2,  'Abrazame Baby'. 'Mira Tu' is an exercise in mesmerising the listener with its two chord riffing delivering a psychotic raga with distended chords and vaguely haunting echoed vocal underlay. It periodically fades down to virtually nothing only to re-emerge phoenix like back into the riff. All the while experimental slide and string sustain is lashing over the top like some demented Misunderstood wannabes! 'Abrazme Baby' kicks off with some killer freakbeat fuzz guitar in a stalking, menacing riff. This is surmounted by some very throaty vocals the whole coming off like The Stereo Shoestring meet Beck era Yardbirds via Screaming Lord Sutch (heavy friends indeed!). Therefore I humbly submit you NEED this album now, I kid you not!
Paul Martin