Del Close & John Brent
How To Speak Hip/The Do It Yourself Psychoanalysis Kit
Wisecrack CD
www.cherrryred.co.uk
Latterly a member of the Merry Pranksters, spoken word artiste extraordinaire Del Close's 1961 meisterwerk How To Speak Hip is both a painfully sharp send up and a merciless put down of the glut of language instruction records that were all the rage at the time.
Formatted as a course in basic and more advanced instruction in the nuances of hip talk the album has the unrelentingly hip Geets Romo (John Brent) being questioned by the ultra square (Close) on such concepts as the loose wig, the riff, the hang up, the put on, the put down, the come on, the come down and cool and uncool. For those in need of further guidance the album comes complete with its very own Hip Manual.
By way of a companion piece this reissue also includes Del Close's ’59 solo opus The Do It Yourself Psychoanalysis Kit which showcases Close as the de rigeur German-accented shrink and narrator. Yadig !
Grahame Bent
DOUGLAS DILLARD
The Banjo Album
Sierra CD
www.sierrarecords.net
Doug Dillard is a rock ’n’ roll wildman trapped in the body of a gifted banjo picker. Amidst his collaborations with Gene Clark and around the time he was taking on studio and touring side jobs for various name pop and rock outfits, he recorded this set of traditional bluegrass material.
Released in 1969 on the short-lived Together label, this was the first album to be labeled a Doug Dillard solo project. But Dillard was far from alone in laying down the Flatt & Scruggs/Stanley Brothers-influenced tracks: playing along are the likes of Gene Clark, Bernie Leadon, Byron Berline, Vassar Clements and John Hartford.
The performances are something that would bring a smile to the face of your overall-clad Grandpa. But there’s also a frenzied feel to the whole thing and the occasional bit of Eastern instrumentation, so that it comes off at times as bluegrass seen through the vision of a punk rock Ravi Shankar.
Brian Greene
Endle St Cloud
Thank You All Very Much
International Artists/Charly CD
www.internationalartistsrecords.com
Endle St Cloud's bizarrely off the wall album has the distinction of being the final long player to appear on International Artists before the label folded in 1970.
The overspill from label mates Lost And Found – both in terms of personnel and material – is clear with the line up including Peter Black and two of the album tracks ('Professor Black' and 'Come Through' ) originally having been written for what would have been the second Lost And Found album.
Constructed around the distinctly off kilter Endle St Cloud on piano and vocals, the album's baroquely scattershot approach includes a series of eccentric vocal and piano interludes which preceed each of the album's eight tracks.
This deluxe limited edition digibook reissue adds both sides of Endle St Cloud In The Rain's ’68 debut 'Tell Me One More Time (What's Happening To Our World)?'.
Grahame Bent
JANIS IAN
Janis Ian
Now Sounds CD
www.nowsounds.co.uk
Best known for the controversial ‘Society’s Child’, a hauntingly Spectoreqsue Shadow Morton production later covered by Spooky Tooth, Janis Ian was a talented 15 year old with a knack for rich melodies and social commentary.
Her self-titled 1967 debut is a sheer delight, commandeered by Morton and featuring the skill of top session men that included Joe Mack and Vinnie Bell (the inventor of the electric sitar, which can be heard here on ‘Go ‘Way Little Girl’ – covered by pre-King Crimson Britpsych act The Shame).
Moving from bare protest-themed pieces to her more dense creations Ian’s sweet voice drifts from 17th Century folk singer to knowing street girl, her lyrics portraying far more insight than her tender age could ever suggest.
Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills
Ill Wind
Flashes
Sunbeam CD
www.sunbeamrecords.com
Originally released on ABC in 1968 Ill Wind's sole album came produced by Tom Wilson of electric Dylan, the Velvets and the Mothers Of Invention fame however, in many ways, the album seems to have been jinxed from the word go. First the band were excluded from the final mixing sessions by Wilson then the band's original choice of cover artwork was rejected by the label before the final insult saw the first pressing of the album was notoriously released with a pressing fault on the track 'High Flying Bird'. For a Boston-based band Ill Wind repeatedly exhibit surprisingly strong echoes of the contemporary West Coast scene – specifically Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead in their particular blending of folk and psychedelic influences.
Disc two of this deluxe double disc reissue takes the form of a 15 track miscellany of previously unreleased material in the form of demos, tracks recorded for Capitol in ’67, a live recording and assorted of basement tapes.
Grahame Bent
Lost And Found
Everybody's Here
International Artists/Charly CD
www.internationalartistsrecords.com
Houston's Lost And Found's connections with The 13th Floor Elevators almost define their lone album. Produced by Lelan Rogers and originally released on International Artists in 1967 as the label's first stereo only album, it features Peter Black's Roky-esque howl and an intruiging reworking of the Elevators' 'Don't Fall Down'.
Other influences here are Love and The Byrds – the latter most obvious on the closing 'Eight Miles High' cop 'Living Eye' – which may be explained by the band's residence for a time on the West Coast prior to recording the album.
This definitive digibook edition includes three bonus tracks from ’68: '25 MPH' which was recorded for a possible second album and the superb second single 'When Will You Come Through' / 'Professor Black'.
Grahame Bent
Mij
Yodelling Astrologer
Jackpot LP
www.jackpotrecords.com
Originally issued on ESP-Disk as an extremely limited pressing, Mij’s lone outing – recorded in a three-hour session back in January 1969 – is now enjoying its first re-appearance.
Mij (actually Jim Holmberg) inhabits a peculiar world where colours and sounds behave differently for him, the apparent result of head injuries sustained in a car crash. So Yodelling Astrologer has to be, and very much is, a particularly strange beastie, with some bursts of celestial beauty.
Shades of Holmberg’s strumming and vocal lilt are almost Donovanesque in their structural simplicity. But it’s the spacey, echo-ridden vortex in which he’s chosen to place his creations that still remain, whirling around your head long after both sides have been spun.
Remastered from the original tapes onto high-quality vinyl, and housed in a sturdy sleeve, this is a truly rambling and very weird folk encounter.
Lenny Helsing
The Panicks
The Complete Recordings
Gear Fab CD
gearfab/swiftsite.com
From the get-go this Ohio group lets rip with some ace teen punk action. Chunky, often spangly guitars dominate, occasionally organ, complemented by the locked groove of bassist and drummer. Bill Sobecki’s vocals are raw yet pleasingly melodic and we’re tormented now and again by some stinging fuzztone. Even the slower ‘Each To His Own’ and ‘Love You So’ are rendered cool by their tough Stonesy feel. All bar four of the fully-realised 12 cuts are unreleased, with opener ‘Don’t Pick On Me’ among the strongest. The remaining selections are mostly instrumental run-throughs.
It’s not all in pristine fidelity but don’t let that get in the way. And hey, you can never tire of hearing their superfine take on The Vacels’ ‘You’re My Baby’ (three to pick from here, one a searing live take). The ‘66 45 version rules – which may or may not feature the talents of a young Joe Walsh on lead.
Lenny Helsing
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Lost Souls Volume 2: Garage Psychedelic Rock From Arkansas And Beyond 1965-1971
Psych Of The South CD
www.psychofthesouth.com
Clearly, this is part of a worthy and ongoing local history project to trace and document the garage and psychedelic music of Arkansas in the 1960s.
Listening from the inside, this is something to be proud of, coming as the music does, from unreleased reel to reel tapes in private collections. From a wider perspective however, it does not, to my ears at least, maintain the same consistency of its predecessor. Its strength lays in the first 12 tracks. The Models’ ‘Leave My House’ is a garage cruncher and there’s soulful and acid fuzz in tracks by The Dust, The Right Track and Saturday’s Children. Much of the second half though, is punctuated by indifferent mid-paced instrumentals and so-so melodies.
There’s a period warmth and glow about it as a package though which helps make it more than the sum of its parts.
Paul Martin
Various Artists
Moonage Timequake
Righteous CD
www.cherryred.co.uk
Compiled to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the NASA moon landing of July 1969, this inspired anthology of orchestral exotica, freaky instrumentals, wigged out rockabilly and cosmic jazz unearthed from the outer limits of vintage vinyl stashes vividly recalls the mental landscape of ’50s America as defined by its sci-fi and B-movie fuelled fascination with outer space, alien invaders and general otherwordliness.
On planet rockabilly Buck Trail's 'Knocked Out Joint On Mars', Billy Mizer's 'Planet Named Desire' and Rusty Wellington's 'Rockin' Chair On The Moon' are all priceless examples of a long gone and short-lived sub genre. Orchestrally speaking, the tracks from Jimmie Haskell, Frank Comstock, Thomas Dissevelt, Ron Goodwin, Dr Samuel J Hoffman, Bobby Christian and Col Frank Erhardt atmospherically evoke the spirit of the age while the two selections from Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra truly inhabit a cosmos all of their own. Space is truly still the place !
Grahame Bent
VARIOUS ARTISTS
San Francisco Roots
Collectors’ Choice CD
www.collectorschoicemusic.com
Long gone musical visionaries “Big Daddy” Tom Donahue and Bobby Mitchell were popular San Francisco based AM Top 40 dee-jays, concert promoters, horse racing devotees and club owners as well as local act-based, record label founders. Named Autumn Records and benefiting greatly from the musical and production talents of Sylvester Stewart (later Sly Stone), the pair struck gold immediately with the still vastly under-rated Beau Brummels and ‘Do You Wanna Dance’ rock ’n’ roller Bobby Freeman’s pulse-pounding ‘C’mon And Swim’. Other highlights among the generous 16 tracks (with Ralph Gleason’s original, scene-setting liners alongside a behind-the-scenes label history lesson by essayist Richie Unterberger) are all five Brummels selections (including ‘Laugh Laugh’ and ‘Sad Little Girl’), ‘Somebody To Love’ and ‘Free Advice’ by the Grace Slick-led Great Society and The Mojo Men’s rocking garage classic ‘Dance With Me’. The Knight Riders, The Vejtables and The Tikis also have their moments.
Gary von Tersch
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