Reissue CDs
Kieron Tyler
In 1966, the combo fronted by French sax player Barney Wilen issued an album of musical interpretations of each sign of the zodiac. In the US in 1969, Mort Garson released 12 albums, each dedicated to a single sign. Two years earlier Garson was behind the one-sign-per-track Cosmic Sounds album, credited to The Zodiac. Back in 1945, bop pianist Mary Lou Williams made an album – over six 10-inch discs – titled Signs Of The Zodiac.Taking inspiration from the signs of the zodiac wasn’t unusual. But Wilen’s album approached what could have been cheesy from a perspective acknowledging that this was Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Beverley’s was an ice-cream shop and restaurant on Orange Street in Kingston, Jamaica. Records were on sale too. In 1961, an aspiring singer-songwriter named James Chambers turned up there with a song he’d written called “Dearest Beverley.” If it was recorded, it’d give its creator a leg-up on the music scene and also might be good promotion for the business.One of the ice-cream concern’s owners agreed. James Chambers became Jimmy Cliff and with Leslie Kong, who turned his attention the business of music rather than ice cream, founded the Beverley’s label. Over 1961 to 1971 – the label ceased Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
By 1970, John Barry had composed music for Born Free, The Lion in Winter, Midnight Cowboy, You Only Live Twice and about 38 other films. His work with cinema began in 1960 and averaged around five films a year. In 1965, eight films were released with his music. He was busy.Yet when the album Ready When You Are, J.B. appeared in 1970, its liner notes said “he’s invisible most of the time.” Although he had recently appeared briefly in the film Deadfall, Barry was principally a backroom presence; his name less prominent than those of the songs or films he contributed to. Earlier, he’d hit the Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“Touched by Rodin in a Paris Museum” is a 14-minute consideration of exactly what its title says: the impact of encountering Auguste Rodin’s work in person. The composition features piano only. There are nods to Debussy and Ravel. The playing is measured and minimal yet still full-bodied. At odd points, there are seconds of complete silence.Taped in 1970, this recording was meant to feature on an album which was never issued. It would have been the third by Patty Waters, following-up her ESP-Disk LPs Sings (1965) and College Tour (1966). After these, Waters seemed to have vanished. Actually, Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“Ramonic buzzsaw impressionism guitars lovingly poured like a truckload of Quaker Oats over the indecipherable lyrical content that sounds like a rancid moggie that has snorted too much Pro-Plus.”So that was a possible thumbs-up from NME’s Tony Parsons in his review of 999’s August 1977 debut single “I’m Alive.”In October, the same music weekly’s Bob Edmands pondered their second single, “Nasty Nasty.” “The words and riff hurtle past at a preposterous speed, so fast that all concerned seem to have lost control. That should be impressive, in a crazed perverse sort of way, but it isn’t.”999’s Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Over January, February and early March 1975, British music fans could buy tickets for what was titled The Naughty Rhythms Tour. Three bands were billed, with the running order changing each evening. The tour was the idea of Andrew Jakeman, who worked for one of the bands, and Chris Fenwick, the manager of another: on their own, each band couldn’t fill larger venues. Together, more tickets would be sold and fans would be picked up.Jakeman was working for Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers, one of the three bands. Fenwick managed another: Dr. Feelgood. The third outfit on the tour was Kokomo Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
First on were The Supremes with “Baby Love.” Next, The Miracles performed “You Really Got a Hold on me.” After this, Stevie Wonder’s “I Call it Pretty Music But the Old People Call it the Blues,” The Temptations’ “The Way You do the Things You do” and Martha & The Vandellas’ “Heatwave.”The opening section of the Ready Steady Go! episode broadcast on 28 April 1965 was hot – really hot. The show was titled The Sound of Motown and its guest host was Dusty Springfield. She sang a song solo, and one with Martha Reeves.Those involved with the show knew Springfield was a high-profile ambassador Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“The Method” by The Method Actors was issued as the top side of a single in July 1981. Although recorded in London during September 1980 and only released by a British label, the band – a duo of guitar/vocals and drums/vocals – were from Athens, Georgia.It didn’t get much attention at the time but its wandering guitar figure, blurry, hard to parse vocals, splashy drums and unyielding forward motion bear a striking resemblance to the early R.E.M., whose first single “Radio Free Europe” was also in shops in July 1981. The shops where they came from – which also happened to be Georgia.Chicken Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
What’s in the groove isn’t necessarily the end of the story. Sound is fixed into a record when it’s pressed. Get it revolving on a turntable, dump the needle onto it and what’s heard is what’s intended to be heard. It’s fixed. Nonetheless, DJs realised a record can be part of the route to something else, something which becomes their creation.Saturno 2000 - La Rebajada de Los Sonideros 1962-1983 celebrates a previously obscure form of sonic manipulation. In Mexico, DJs were playing records at a lower rpm than the standard 33 1/3 or 45 bringing their tempo down to make them more easy to dance Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Fat Man’s Music Festival. The Haystack. Red Line Explosion. Stormy Petrel. Butterwick. Sweet Chariot. Names which don't immediately spring to mind.The factor linking them is also common to 1967’s “Let’s go to San Francisco” hit-makers The Flower Pot Men, The First Class, who charted in 1974 with “Beach Baby,” and The Ivy League, who went Top Ten in early 1965 with “Funny How Love Can be.”Then, there are well-known songs like “Hip Hip Hooray,” “Knock Knock Who’s There,” “My Sentimental Friend” and “Winchester Cathedral” which, respectively, were hits for The Troggs, Mary Hopkin, Herman’s Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
It was going to be great. Birmingham’s Digbeth Rag Market was hosting 1977’s highest-profile punk festival on 17 July. The Clash were headlining. Also billed were The Heartbreakers, Rich Kids, The Saints, Shagnasty, Stinky Toys, Subway Sect and Tanya Hyde & the Tormentors.Two days before it was meant to happen, the city council cancelled it. A gathering of punks was prevented. Even so, The Clash and the less-lauded Shagnasty came to town and after meeting pissed-off ticket holders went to local venue Barbarella’s to put on an impromptu show. They used equipment borrowed from the band Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Motown and its related labels have been heavily collected and meticulously scrutinised since the early Sixties. There ought to be nothing left to say. Yet here this is, a smart, 24-track collection of Motown instros which includes five previously unreleased tracks.It’d be reasonable to assume that there was nothing more to give, that every tape vault everywhere had already been scoured. The download-only tracks which appeared last decade under the banner “Motown Unreleased” ought to have been it. Nonetheless, an unreleased quintet from 1961, 1963 and 1964 have surfaced. OK, three are by Read more ...