Happy Feeling – USA 1970

A little on the cheesle side, but it’ll make you smile if you’re hipped to those groovy sixties sounds, mates. Can’t believe them for a nanosecond when they sing a chorus of “I’m from London Town.” (Where is that, anyway? The far side of Kensington!?) The crew is as American as can be, and with that kind of dialectic in tow, for pop-psych, we know what to expect: harmony vocals, supportive backdrop, and an organ peeking out from the corners of the crooning. Rhythmic, mellow, and endearing. If you like this sort of ear-to-ear smile thing, and a love song, this bag will have you crinkling the wrapper and chomping heartily. It sure won’t be on special at your local burger mart – the only chugging is from the thing with black and white keys – yeah, right there in the endgame. Go ahead, taste it, it’s a little sweet, but the eclectic formulation pops it’s caboose in, here and there. Oh, and did I mention that it has a bluespsych-stomper number, I guess I just did? What about that country rock track, you hear about that one yet? All in all, worth taking a few nibbling bites at the picnic table, but not a whole plate, leave some for everyone else to dabble their haggle into.

Outcome:
Pretty o.k. for what it is.
- ~ -
Alright, pegs itself for it’s time, totally worth putting to wax, though.

::8/15 – slightly above average::

Research 1-6-12 – In Research – USA 1968

Pretty cool record, certainly an artifact of the late 60′s. Hard to find an original vinyl, not necessarily worth a big bundle, but nice to hear. Has nice melodic elements, clear vocals, a few keen moves on the guitar type expression and able support from a capable rock band. Some tunes have tasty West Coast air about them and others delve into country-rock-psych. Fortunately, that pumpkin-eating pastiche is only in the beginning… as the album progresses, they cast off into a wonderful breezy stride. It actually takes a turn to the dreamy as it closes out, it’s no Gandalf, but they could have opened for them, back in the day, and no one’d shirk.

The last track, though, brings back an angle on the twangle. I guess, in the time it was going down, a little Flying Burrito Brother never hurt anyone.

Outcome:
Has moments that shimmer like a sunset in California, or Texas, depending.
- ~ -
Worth checking out, like borrowing a cup of sugar.

::9/15 – pretty good::

Jimi Hendrix – Electric Lady Studios, Mixing and Overdubbing Session 8/14/70

There’s something poignant about looking in on Jimi so close to his death, this particular session, assumedly for First Rays of the New Rising Sun. No doubt about it, but he was getting on with things and it’s tragic that he never got to finish this album before he passed on and the record companies began scavenging. I found this session extremely familiar, almost to the point where I felt one listen to be enough, but in trying to remember most of what was here all I could think of were albums like Crash Landing, Cry of Love, or, of course, the posthumous document bearing the same name as Jimi’s unfinished album. Here, it’s like listening to the music perhaps a step or two off of what was released; the quality is good, most of the downside seems to be the age of the tapes.

Henry Cow with Robert Wyatt – Paris, France 5/25/75

Wyatt’s collaborations with Henry Cow may have been more involved in a different session, for the most part this sounds like it could have been outtakes from the Concerts album. Sound quality wise this is about what you’d expect, maybe just good enough to hear what’s going on, but the sound is still saddled with some generational issues. Musically it covers most of their current work from “Nirvana for Mice” to the In Praise of Learning collabs with Dagmar Krause. About par for the course for the era.

Black Sabbath – Tucson Comm Center Convention Hall 3/16/72

Unfortunately muddy show from the Vol. 4 period with the band in fine form. There are relatively few surprises here other than a rather over the top Tony Iommi solo, this could have been a set list from a reunion band. At this point in the game, they were playing with such vigor and intensity that I found it a shame the quality was so poor.

Picchio dal Pozzo – Abbiamo Tutti i Suoi Problemi

Released in Japan many years ago, the second Picchio dal Pozzo has finally been remastered and released and I’m feeling glad I waiting this long to pick it up as this sounds pretty fantastic. It’s interesting how this seems to be a band who have a fanbase for their first and s/t album and then one for the second, with some crossover. I’m fortunate to be in the crossover area, although I’m going to need some work with this to see it as a classic like the first is. There’s so much of a change, it’s different to even explain how this is so, for one thing, the first album was pretty sprawling in a cosmic sort of way, why the songs on the second seem much tighter in focus. While the first album worked themes for all they had, the second includes more themes in a piece. If I thought about it more and compared the two I could probably spend some time talking about the benefits of both while how different they are. But now, with a Bob Drake job on hand, some of the vibrancy of the record has obviously returned, not to mention, a lot of those Italian progressive rock albums come from vinyl, so it’s kind of rare to hear one in this sort of quality. I’ve got this album at an 11 as it is, but it’s looking like I’m going to get another point and more about it. There’s something very beguiling about the album as if the density and sheer originality of it promise some deep unfolding.

Bobby Hutcherson feat. Harold Land – Now!

I’d noticed in seeing live shows appear at the usual places, that some Hutch and Harold Land shows had been popping up. I don’t know Hutcherson as well as I ought to (I’m happy just waiting for them to come out one at a time), so I didn’t know what this era of his career looked like. I had a similar feeling upon listening to the Horace Silver 3 on 2 that is roughly contemporary to this with all the vocals, a feeling that this was a rather intimidating patchwork of influences involved. Looking back it’s almost as if jazz kind of broke at the end of the 60s, as if there were a myriad ways it was trying to appeal to a different generation. I suppose it’s a bit early to say if Now! worked, my gut feeling would say no on a first run, but unlike the Silver material of the early 70s with vocals, Now is still tilted in favor of the instrumental work.

Grant Green – I Want to Hold Your Hand

I saved this as last to listen to of the three Grant Green/Larry Young trio in the mid 60s, it looked the least interesting and if expectations create, they left a rather typical question: Beatles song + jazz = cheese? Grant did several project albums like Goin’ West where he set American standards to jazz and after a few listens, despite its rather hokey nature, I grew to like it. “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” in a way, sets Grant’s course for the end of the 60s, but without those killin’ jams to predict the other half of the future. This, like Goin’ West, at first strikes me as a little weak, but with Grant it’s not so easy to tell right off the bat. I’ve barely heard a bad one yet.

The Meters – The Kingfish, Baton Rouge, LA 10/1/76

I’m slipping a bit behind on Outer Music posts of late, so my comments on a few of these may be brief. The Meters may have started in the late 60s and lasted a while reforming every so often, becoming the Funky Meters and such, but I seem to be getting pieces of the puzzle in smaller batches. I’ve loved everything I’ve heard so far, I guess I’m something of a sucker for funky grooves and upbeat jamming. However, there was something about this 76 show that didn’t stick with me quite as well, maybe too much of a concentration on later material without as much of a feel. I’m thinking it could have just been my mood of the time, because I’m batting a thousand when it comes to these guys so far.

Badfinger – BBC  In Concert 1972-3

Before I listened to a lot of the things I write about here, way back as a teenager, I used to be (and still am) really interested in psych and classic rock, which makes me wonder how I managed to entirely skip Badfinger’s music for so long. It may be because I’d only heard them spoken of as Beatles clones, but they’re really so much more (and really, Beatles influences are one thing you tend to have to forgive rock groups for – they couldn’t help it). What I noticed on this live BBC collection was the number of excellent guitar solos throughout, even before I noticed how good the songcraft was. I think Badfinger’s on the rise in my book.

Astor Piazzolla – Tango Zero Hour

Piazzolla seems to have garnered a lot of attention among avant-garde fans, something you think might be kind of weird for a tango master, but his albums do seem to have moments of dissonant polyphony and invention. This title is one I hear quoted as a starting point, and it might have been mine had I not been sidetracked, and it would have made a better introduction than the one I heard, this seems to be music that hops from playful to serious and back, while pushing the limits of a form I had no idea could sound quite like this.

Van Morrison – Los Angeles 5/26/73 (It’s Too Late album 3)

I take it this is the rest of the long concert that Van Morrison released as his first live album, and in a way it’s kind of a shame they didn’t just finish the rest of these tracks off and release the whole show, as I believe most of it would have fit on two discs, like the 20-bit remaster. On the other hand, these definitely don’t feel like the better material, so maybe such a thing would have only appealed to completists. I tend to prefer Van’s studio albums to his live ones, there’s something a little, I dunno, Blues Brothers-ish about his live sets at times and that generous helping of celtic mysticism that adds a layer to his early ouevre seems largely missing. I’ll give it another spin, but this is something of an afterthought.

Klaus Schulze – Timewind (remaster, 2 disc)

Timewind is, to my ears, one of the greatest albums ever created and possibly the best electronic album, so a remaster of it was something I antcipated greatly. For a while. There’s something that bothers me about the Inside Out remasters and I’m not quite sure what it is, something about them sounds just a little too modern for the source material, as if there’s an envelope to the sound that doesn’t belong. This bothered me more for Mirage than it did for X, possibly because I felt my earlier copy of Mirage was a little warmer, while I had the vinyl of X, so the switch from vinyl to CD didn’t bother me as much. Timewind seems to have the same issues, although for anyone still holding onto a Caroline version, well you should have dumped that for the Brain a long time ago. This isn’t necessarily a package worth upgrading for, even with a second disc of bonus pieces, you’re largely getting what is basically like an alternate version of Timewind as bonuses and I’d have to carefully chart out any differences before writing about them, as the versions tend to be very close (there’s also something of a tribute at the end, which is superfluous and anachronous for the package). I remember thinking something similar when the Historic Edition set came out, that some of the 75 material was very close to Timewind. Not this close. If the extras don’t sound interesting and you have the Brain version of Timewind, I’m not sure I’d recommend upgrading, for the moment I’m hanging onto both.

War – Why Can’t We Be Friends?

This is the War album with “Lowrider,” one of those songs that TV commercials have overkilled. When it comes on later in the album, I almost felt thrown out of my chair. I’ve been meaning to stretch out and explore more of the War canon after triggering “The World as a Ghetto,” which grooves mightily. This album is a few years later and a little more varied in style. When I first heard Ghetto it did little for me, so I feel I’ll need another few listens to see whether I warm to Friends or not.

The Isley Brothers - 3 + 3

More early 70s recyclable TV commercial music on this album, including the slick ”Who’s that Lady” which used to be the theme to one of the most irritating makeup commercials I’d ever seen. I’ll probably never like it, but it barely makes a black mark on the rest of the album. Like Funkadelic, the Isleys have a smokin’ guitar player who really livens up the band in spots, although unlike Funkadelic the Isleys play things pretty straight. So this is kind of a mix-up, but one that averages out a lot higher than I’d think with “Who’s That Lady” aboard.

Metallica – FCP Stadium, Pforzheim, Germany 8/30/87
Metallica – Power Metal demos

METALLICA DUDE. I grew up with this group from the time they were the shaggyheaded underground favorites with the Jump in the Fire EP (“C’mon!”) whose cover used to scare the neighborhood’s parents. The Power Metal demos have always been somewhat legendary to the fans (I believe this was when Dave Mustaine was playing with them), capturing a very early stage of the band doing versions of Kill ‘em All material and covers that would show up on the Garage Days EP. If you can imagine listening to a high generation tape of this sitting on a hill about 500 feet away, you can get an idea of the sound quality. The 87 show is quite a bit better, the band still not quite out of their prime, with lots of Ride the Lightning and Puppets numbers. “Ahhhm   Creeepin’ Deaaaayyythhh”  “Bow to the Lepah Messiaaarrrgggh” It all makes me feel like an adolescent again.

Oz Knozz – Ruff Mix. 1975. One of the better US private press progressive (alliteration allegation) rock albums from the 1970s. Coming from Houston, but having that amateurish production, vocal style (Id’s “Where Are We Going” leaped to mind) and overall approach of any US 1970s group from anywhere. Like most bands of the era, the idea was to throw out a few different styles to see if something would stick. Of course a major label would hear their private album by chance and want to sign them up for a 5 album contract so they could open for Led Zeppelin or Foghat’s next US tour. What separates Oz Knozz from the others, is a strong compositional component, with plenty of original ideas and superb instrumentation (especially the guitar work). My favorite track though, has to be the groovy and infectious horn rocker, which sounds as dated as the movement itself and easily could’ve been from 1969. The fact these guys tried that in 1975 is the equivalent of Genesis releasing a “Foxtrot” like album in 1982. Which explains why Oz Knozz disappeared practically without a trace. Love it.

Leaf Hound – Grower of Mushrooms. 1971. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin and more Led Zeppelin. LZ’s star power was enormous by this time and every one who had a blues background and loud amps tried a turn at it. But Leaf Hound didn’t have the magic ingredients like Plant’s voice, JP Jones’ multi instrumental capabilities, Bonham’s madness on the kit – and of course Page’s guitar. I’ve always been stern towards this album, but in retrospect it has all the elements of a good hard rock album. Creative riffs, good solos, a tough blues vibe. Not bad at all.

Plebb – Yes It Isn’t It. 1979. Plebb is another classic example of how poorly thought out hype can cause missed expectations, and thus ruin the impact of an album. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t be better that we heard music without knowing who it is first. So this “Swedish Yes-like” record is nothing of the sort, but rather a very nice US styled hard rock album with nice twin guitar work. If I tell you it’s a private hard rock album from Atlanta, then I think it’ll meet that expectation. The only Swedish band I can recall here is Ravjunk, and only in the way some of the guitar jams get intense – in an almost space rock way. It’s this quality that makes the album better than average.

Rag I Ryggen – s/t. 1975. Even though I was warned by plenty of people that Rag I Ryggen’s only album wasn’t up to its lofty collector reputation, I wasn’t deterred. The reasons why others were put off, weren’t likely to bother me. For one I just happen to like Swedish hard rock, especially if sung in the native language. Labels like Uriah Heep and Deep Purple are also not considered red flags around here. I found Rag I Ryggen to be pretty fat sounding, with nice organ breaks and loud lead guitar solos. Plenty of room allowed for instrumental jamming. Good vocals, though the tracks in English are not as natural sounding (as usual). I think those that dig bands like Blakulla and Saga (post November group), will find plenty to like here. I was pleasantly surprised. Typically great reissue from Transubstans with informative liner notes, photos and good sound.

Izvir – s/t. 1977. Of all the obscure Yugoslavian progressive rock albums, I think Izvir remains the most elusive. It’s also the final album on my Yugoslav “curiosity list” for me to hear. Starts out in spacey psychedelic territory ala Igra Staklenih Perli, but oddly enough abandons that sound altogether after about 4 minutes and opts for a funky fusion direction. Somewhere between mid 70s Santana (notable in the song craft, guitar and organ sounds) and “Dunajska Legenda” era Fermata, you’ll find the music of Izvir. This one is a grower, as the disco era melodies hold a certain nostalgia pull. Lots of clavinet, almost defining the funky sounds within. Nice one, though typically misrepresented in catalogs.

Witch – Lazy Bones!!. 1975. It may have been when OMD was still a private list that I reported, after some research, on the unusual amount of fuzz boxes sold in Zambia during the 1970s. Recent Shadoks discovery Witch is the latest to prove that theory. Take away the cool guitar sound though, and you have nothing but a skeleton of a basic rock album with little creativity in the arrangements, melodies or instrumentation. There’s nothing else here to distinguish the album’s heritage – could have been from London too. Still neat to dig stuff up like this. Sort of like finding old dinosaur bones that would only be on display in the minor league museums.

Titan – A Raining Sun of Light & Love, for You & You & You

This is a CD that comes with very little information that isn’t on a sticker on the wrapper. You gather that being on Tee Pee records makes them stoner rock and for the first five minutes or so you’d be right, the music sounding very much in the same realm as Mystick Crewe of Clearlight, they’re instrumental, have organ and heavy riffery. But I certainly wouldn’t have done so much as flinch on the choice of whether to spend more money on the style, but given a friend’s recommendation and the availability of tracks on their my space page (titanaut), it took me about five minutes to appraise and covet this new album. You see, after the first five minutes, all bets are off and what sounded like was going to be yet another stoner rock album, ended up being one of the premier psychedelic journeys since the kosmische era. Titan seem to be a band with a multiplicity of influences. Jumping from High on Fire to Genesis to Ash Ra Tempel to Neu over the course of an album might be ill-advised elsewhere, but Titan have managed to draw it all in to a coherent vision, and rather than an Estradasphere-like patchwork quilt, we are shown just what it’s like to use variations of styles to up the ante, to thicken the plot, to release. The proggy bits almost come out of left field here, often to increase the tension the psychedelic jams have worked up. The days of Ohr and Pilz and the Cosmic Couriers come to life at times, never are there the excesses of Acid Mothers Temple where things get so spaced out it’s hard to suss out any dynamics. And then it’s over and it’s just way too soon, imagine being left wanting more. And I now hear the first one is even better.

The Jeff Kaiser Ockodektet – 17 Themes for Ockodektet

I found this single album release to be quite a bit more absorbing on a first listen than the double. Kaiser’s got something of a left coast all star team going here with people like Wayne Peet, G. E. Stinson and Vinny Golia in the band, although this isn’t as much like, say, Dave Holland’s big band, with loads of solo spots, this seems to be more an exercise on how freejazzers and avantcomposers can work together to create a polyphony of noise. Seems like something I’m going to warm to over time, there seemed to be some occasional thematics that made it a bit more easy to absorb than my last Kaiser release. It’s really quite incredible how much great independent music comes out of the California jazz scene these days. [I ended up getting the title wrong, 17 Themes is the single disc I was referring to - 2/23]

McCoy Tyner – Kimball’s East, Emeryville, CA 2/1/91

I listened to a couple Tyner audience shows over the last week or so and both were those type of recordings where the taper is kind of far back from the stage. Sure, the music is fairly clear, but it competes with too much audience ambience. This set, with the ever dependable Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, suffers a bit from volume problems, the kind of problems that make it difficult to get an impression of the vibe of the show. I’ve seen Tyner on several occasions, the first was with Bobby Hutcherson who just blew me away on the vibes, it really seems important to be able to feel them to get the whole gist of the instrument’s capabilities. That doesn’t happen here, so I’m left wondering how good this was.

Miles Davis – Shinjuku Kohseinenkin Hall, Tokyo 6/19/73

This was the night before the show recorded on video where Liebman allowed the Force to inhabit his being for an hour or so. I didn’t notice Liebman quite as much on this previous night, but it’s fairly typical for multi-night stints to get better as they go. This was quite amazing in itself, beautifully recorded and casting a wide net timbrewise. Paradise!

Os Mutantes s/t

It strikes me as odd how often I see this Brazilian psychedelic/tropicalia band pop up, but with a fairly recent reunion tour and a resurgence of interest in psychedelia, it’s not too much of a stretch to see a remaster of this. I gave an older version of this a few listens years ago and didn’t warm to it, but this newer copy sounds a lot more clear and I’m beginning to appreciate what it is that they do. Mutantes, at least this early, feel both in and out of psychedelia, it’s not as if their style hopping consistently sits within the genre, they touch on some loungy pop music as well as having the occasional experimental tendencies. Enjoyed it enough to put it back in rotation for now.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Fillmore East, NYC 6/6/70

I’ve talked about some CSN&Y trainwrecks in the past, but this gig, not long before Miles rolled into town (and the band actually acknowledges him at some point), is much better than I would have expected. I was watching some Pure Reason Revolution clips on utube the other night and was musing on how difficult it is to get perfect vocal harmonies in a live setting. Without a perfect mix it’s far too easy to have the second or third vocal line sound loud enough to be the main melody. CSN&Y, quoted as an influence on PRR’s harmonies, also had the same issues at times and this is a band who practically wrote the book on ensemble vocals. However, when it comes to live material, particularly soundboards that don’t come through quality control, the fault often lies with the sound engineer who may have enough trouble trying to get everything to blend perfectly. It’s no easy task, so on a night like this when things to come together (IIRC, this one opens with their masterpiece Suite Judy Blue Eyes), it ought to be noted. Yeah, the whole rotation of solo acts through all four guys gets a bit tiresome, but it doesn’t hurt when they’re generally in fine form. The Neil Young set was particularly impressive and I wouldn’t call myself a fan.

Miles Davis – Neue Stadthalle, Dietikon, Switzerland 10/22/71 inc. second show

I’ve seen this show in about a half dozen different formats, for instance it’s known as “Live Directions” on one of those quasi-legit, non-Columbia releases. It’s also managed to be upgraded once or twice in trader’s circles, although it’s unlikely there’s a perfect version. I found it a bit interesting that this version was marked second show, but have never sat down and done the comparisons to see if maybe the earlier versions took from the first show. I mention this specifically because this gig hasn’t done as much for me in the past, but I was really taken with it this go around, which may have as much to do with my recent immersion in live Miles. It might be that there’s just a thin patina of distortion going on that this style often benefits from. Maybe I’ll figure out what it is next go around.

Black Sabbath – Asbury Park Convention Center 8/5/75

This is one of the better sounding Black Sabbath shows and given the band’s general concentration on the first couple albums both early on and in the many reunion shows, I always find hearing Volume 4 and SBS material in the live setting a great pleasure. There’s something a bit urgent about Sabbath with Ozzy at the helm in concert, besides you usually get to hear Tony Iommi stretch out his chops, a man who seems a bit more sedate in the studio. Definitely a neat item.