BEAT BOYS
Beat Boys
LENO
Vida e Obra de Johnny McCartney
Both Lion CDs
www.lionproductions.org
Two very different albums stemming from both pre and post Tropicalia periods.
The Beat Boys’ self-titled LP from 1968 was released on RCA Victor and benefits from a major label production that opened the doors for Tropicalia. Although Argentinean, the group was based in Sao Paulo and had been courted by future stars Caetano Veloso, Gilbert Gil and Gal Costa early on. Their blend of Portuguese sang covers and well-produced plaintive garage pop (at times fuzzy and upbeat), do sound somewhat out of date and don't match the boundary breaking Os Mutantes, but they did point the way, particularly with their long hair and wild clothes. LP closer ‘Torta De Morangos’ (a band original) hints at what they would have liked to, and should, have been doing.
Leno had been a clean cut pop singer in The Beatles-mode in mid-60s Brazil (part of the so called “Jovem Guarda” movement [the young guard]), but the fine LP he cut for CBS in ’70 was not released due to censorship of lyrical content. Intended to herald the next step from Tropicalia, Viva e Obra de Johnny McCartney – eventually released in ’95 – is an excellent record that mixes funky, fuzzy rockers (‘Sentado No Arco-Iris’) with tunes that harked back to the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll, delicate pop (’Lady Baby’) and epic schmaltzy balladry (‘Pobre Do Rei’). It mixed a lot of influences together to great effect, and the arrangements and production are to die for.
Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills
THE BOOTS
Here Are The Boots/Beat With The Boots
SPV 2-CD
www.spv.de
Berlin’s The Boots were a super-cool ’60s Eurobeat outfit that deserve more space and attention than they ever get. All covers, their first LP Here Are The Boots, from ’66, is a scintillating collection, with some righteously killer moves.
Here Are… includes thrill-filled treatments of Them’s ‘Gloria’, the Pretty Things/Cops ’n’ Robbers nugget ‘But You’ll Never Do It Babe’, ‘Jump Back Baby’ and, in contrast, ‘Walking In The Sand (Remember)’. The CD is accompanied by a few bonus tracks including ‘Watch Your Step’ and ‘I Wish You Would’ plus a 20-minute Boots picture slideshow.
1967’s Beat With The Boots LP contains a pulverizing little beat-punker called ‘Gaby’. Also released as a 45, this is their absolute crowning achievement, at least when it comes to the kind of fuzz-soaked mod-style freakbeat so many of their contemporaries excelled at. The rest of the disc is packed with popular covers of the day – ‘Green Onions’, ‘Barefootin’ and Allen Toussaint’s fabulous ‘Get Out Of My Life, Woman’.
Bonuses on this CD include a few live tracks recorded at Berlin’s famous Liverpool Hoop Club in ’65, and culminates with ‘Aber Ich Blieb Kuhl’, a hilarious scat-jazz beater from a ’66 compilation LP Beat bis zum wecken, perhaps more famous in its original guise as ‘But I Stay Cool’ by Tony Ashton & The Remo Four.
Lenny Helsing
THE DEVIL’S ANVIL
Hard Rock From The Middle East
Rev-Ola
www.rev-ola.co.uk
Fate wasn’t kind to The Devil’s Anvil’s one and only album at the time of its original release on Columbia in 1967. By a quirk of fate the Arab-centric Hard Rock From The Middle East was released the very day the Arab-Israeli war kicked off with the result that the album immediately sunk without trace.
But, despite its title, rather than hard rock the album is in reality rather more folk-ethnic-rock dressed in the trappings of contemporary pop/rock production. With all tracks based on traditional Middle Eastern themes, sung in Arabic, Turkish and Greek and arranged by The Devil’s Anvil’s musical director and bass player Felix Pappalardi and with instrumentation including electric oud, bouzouki, tambouri, and durbeki alongside fuzz guitar the ingredients clearly scream “out there”. Just to confuse things further, it’s worth mentioning that the album closes with a reworking of Dick Dale’s ‘Misirlou’… sung in English!
Grahame Bent
JACQUES DUTRONC
Et Moi Et Moi Et Moi: 1966-1969
RPM CD
www.rpmrecords.co.uk
Can this really be the first British compilation of this Gallic pop genius? Apparently it is, and thus long overdue.
Jacques Dutronc was already established in France as a guitarist, songwriter and arranger before stepping up to the mic in 1966. His debut EP sold 300,000 copies and, notwithstanding an abundant sex appeal, propelled him to instant success and stardom.
He married his music to Jacques Lanzmann’s mischievous lyrics, blending the chanson traditions of his homeland with garage-beat à la Dylan, The Kinks, The Troggs and, latterly, Hendrix. The harvest was a canon of magnificent pop songs, ballads and dance-floor psychedelia. ‘Les Gens Sont Fous, Les Temps Sont Flous’, ‘On Nous Cache Tout, On Nous Dit Rien’, ‘Sur Une Nappe de Restaurant’, ‘Les Cactus’, ‘La Métaphore’ and ‘Le Responsible’; heck, this is a great body of work.
Don’t know Dutronc? Do you love The Kinks? Love Nuggets? You’ll love Jacques Dutronc.
Vic Templar
JOHNNY HALLYDAY
Johnny Hallyday
Cherry Red CD
www.cherryred.co.uk
Check the bearded, bandana-wearing hipster on the album sleeve and you instantly know this is le Johnny caught up in the spirit of the late ’60s. Produced by Glyn Johns with arrangements by Johnny’s long standing collaborators Mick Jones and Tommy Brown, who also co-wrote six of the songs, this self titled magnum opus from 1969 (also known by it’s French title Riviere... Ouvre Ton Lit) includes the last known recording session to feature The Small Faces immediately prior to their split in early ‘69. Despite Johnny’s undisputed status as France’s home grown rock ’n’ roller par excellence, there’s nevertheless an
unmistakably Anglophile fin de decade mix of hard rock, blues and psychedelia audible on this, his 14th album. Tracks include three Steve Marriott/Ronnie Lane originals in ‘Amen’ (AKA ‘Bang Bang’), ‘Regarde Pour Moi’ (‘What You Will’) and ‘Reclamation’ (‘News Report’) the latter two of which were re-recorded for the first Humble Pie album a matter of months later.
Grahame Bent
POWERHOUSE
Powerhouse
Erebus Records
I had high expectations for this release, an embryonic outing for Shinki Chen (Speed Glue & Shinki, Foodbrain) as well as George Yanagi from the mighty Flied Egg. However, the end result is a big disappointment; an exercise in turgid blues rock and pointless Beatles covers.
The main problem with Powerhouse besides sounding completely uninspired and lacking a clear understanding of their chosen genre is that they sluggishly remain in first gear during the record’s duration and Mr Chen never really lets the six-string sparks fly as he did just a few years later.
If I’m to look for a highlight it would be their version of ‘Spoonful’, which, at 15 minutes, gives the band enough time to wipe the sleep from their eyes and get mildly Cream-tastic. But sadly not enough to save this turkey.
Eric Colin Reidelberger
SCIENCE FICTION CORPORATION
Science Fiction Dance Party: Dance With Action
Finders Keepers CD
www.finderskeepersrecords.com
Heribert Thusek and Horst Ackermann’s second cinematic kitschfest is a fascinating journey to a milky ice planet where silver-booted girls’ hair cascades in zero gravity, their luscious… sorry, wandered off there. Influenced by TV’s Robbi Robot and Perry Rodan, these library overlords bing and boing around your speakers a la Hyman and Dissevelt, evoking low-budget classics from Devil Girl From Mars to Zeta One. Sounds like Sunday afternoon at my house.
As with Meek and Perrey’s pioneering works, there’s a very loose concept, although ‘Hit Parade In The Light Year 25’ deviates from it entirely. Darker happenings prevail with ‘Murder In The Space Station’ and the daft ‘Man Out Of A Test Tube’, but the standout remains ‘Flirtation On Venus’, featuring choice dialogue concerning what to do upon encountering girls on said planet.
Darius Drewe Shimon
THE VAMPIRES OF DARTMOORE
Dracula’s Music Cabinet
Finders Keepers
www.finderskeepersrecords.com
Despite resembling the pranks played in my Delerium days, where nonexistent artists like Coconut Narco Puppy and Flurble were invented to relieve the boredom of existence, this album is the work of two very real jazzers, Heribert Thusek and Horst Ackermann, commissioned by library labels to cash in on cinematic trends including krimi, gialli and good old Gothic gore.
Here, Hammond ’n’ sax jostle with screams, creaks, demonic voices (on ‘Horror Chamber Of Dr Sex’ and ‘Hello Mr Hitchcock’) and SFX (‘The Soaked Body’): a wet dream for lovers of macabre movies and freak sounds, exhumed by Andy Votel from its unquiet grave and allowed to walk abroad. Freddie Francis would have been proud.
Bonus tracks include ‘Frankenstein Greets Alpha 7’, where we forsake the tomb for outer space. In terms of earthbound horror music though, Dracula’s Music Cabinet is priceless, and my reissue of the year.
Darius Drewe Shimon
VARIOUS ARTISTS
All Killer
Finders Keepers CD
www.finderskeepersrecords.com
Los Angeles DJ The Gaslamp Killer has been given the enviable task of mixing together highlights from the first twenty releases on the Finders Keepers label. Given that there hasn’t been one duffer in that label’s quest to find and reissue the heaviest psych, funk, folk and weirdness from around the globe, the potential problem with All Killer is that you can’t really improve on these records, but you can ruin them.
Fortunately, a bit of obligatory show-off scratching aside, these tracks are glued together sensitively. There’s nowhere outside of the Finders Keepers catalogue that you’d find Hungarian diva Sarolta Zalatnay and nutty Germans The Vampires Of Dartmoore having a face-off, and it’s great to hear them all in the mix like this. This CD is a solid introduction for those curious about Turkish surf music or spacey Pakistani disco, and – a warning – purchase of it could lead to severe wallet-emptying on those first 20 albums.
Jeanette Leech
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Artificial Faces: Mutant Freak-O-Delic Sounds For The New Psych Generation
Crazy Apple Boutique CD/LP
Yes, it’s another selection of Euro DJs’ ’60s dance-floor friendly finds. The likes of Erasmo Carlos and Byron Dunkettle may be strangers to you now, but once heard, they’ll become bosom pals.
Prizes include the original and very different version of John Wonderling’s ‘Midway Down’, also recorded by The Creation. Two versions were released and this one as far as I know has never been compiled – a great find. Oversized instros like The Skins’ ‘Equina’ will have break freaks drooling.
There’s a strong Jimmy Curtiss quotient with both The Bag and The Hobbits making an appearance but it’s the Euro unknowns (to me anyway) like Camilo Sesta’s ‘To Be A Man’ and French freak-rockers Cameleon that really cut the proverbial rug
Paul Martin
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Cazumbi Volume 2
No Smoke CD/LP
Another dose of African ’60s sounds. This time Ghana, Cameroon and Madagascar Join Mozambique, Angola and South Africa for the ride.
Os Impacto extemporise ‘That’s What I Want’ very effectively with alternate guitar and organ passages. Could the drums be any more upfront here? On the other hand, the breath-and-you’ve-missed-them outros of H20’s ‘Death Of A Clown’ and Os Inflexo’s ‘I Feel Fine’ redefine the term “stripped down”. Elsewhere, Ghana’s Tall Emma & His Skipper’s ‘Hammatan’ and Angola’s Vum Vum’s ‘Monami’ for instance are simply great. Add Cameroon’s Les Kilt’s cigarette promo 45, ‘Jerk Bastos’, and there’s a good time to be had by all.
Paul Martin
VARIOUS ARTISTS
You Heard Them Here First: Rock’s Icons Before They Were Famous
Ace CD
www.acerecords.com
If you’ve ever wondered what Neil Young, Lou Reed, Gram Parsons, David Bowie, Joe Cocker, The Byrds, Peter Frampton, Cher and Arthur Lee sounded like before their careers took off, look no further.
Among 24 tracks are early sides from Crazy Horse, Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal (with The Rising Sons), Dan Penn, P F Sloan as well as true curios from The Monkees’ Mike Nesmith, Warren Zevon (as half of Lyme & Cybelle) and Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin.
Gary von Tersch |
