Mix90 #2 - "...I Do What I Do, Indeed I Do..."

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created & released: November 2007. 

Tracklisting: 
Steve Miller Band - Good Morning
Lighthouse - Love Of A Woman
Spooky Tooth - Waiting For The Wind
Family - The Weaver's Answer
Egg - A Visit To Newport Hospital
Touch - Down At Circe's Place
East Of Eden - Northern Hemisphere
The Sorrows - Take A Heart
Ambrose Slade - Knocking Nails Into My House
Cat Stevens - Granny
Dana Gillespie - You Just Gotta Know My Mind
Buffalo Springfield - Rock & Roll Woman
Bonzo Dog Band - What Do You Do
Godley & Creme - dialogue excerpt from 'Consequences'
The Fairytale - Guess I Was Dreaming
White Noise - Your Hidden Dreams
Manfred Mann Chapter III - One Way Glass (Soundhog Extended-Edit)
Frank McDonald & Chris Rae - Power Surge
Nik Kershaw - Wouldn't It Be Good (acoustic)
Georg 'Jojje' Wadenius - Kalles klätterträd
The Shadows - The War Lord
The Moody Blues - Go Now
Vince Guaraldi - It's Your Dog, Charlie Brown
Stereolab - Ping Pong
The United States Of America - The American Metaphysical Circus
Kling Klang - Radium
The Soft Machine - We Did It Again
Touch - Down At Circes Place
The Electric Light Orchestra - First Movement
Mary Hopkin - Earth Song
Sleeve notes >>>

Record to a low noise C90 compact cassette for best effect, and keep
Dolby noise reduction switched off.

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Track notes, Side 1:

Steve Miller Band - Good Morning

Some people call him the Space Cowboy.  Some people call him The Gangster Of Love. Some people call him the bloke who did that "Abracadabra" record.  Let's get going with the opening track from Steve Miller's fifth album, entitled (ooh!) Number 5. Miller was given his first guitar lessons by the legendary Les Paul, and formed The Steve Miller Blues Band in the late '60s, with his school friend Boz Scaggs in its ranks. The first few albums were a bit of an unsatisfying experience, bogged down in studio trickery and the typical San Franciscan acid flourishes of the time.  Number 5, released in 1970, started the upturn with stronger writing and more direct (but never dull) production.  Three years later "The Joker" would see Miller's career enter a new phase.


Lighthouse - Love Of A Woman

Lighthouse were Canada's answer to the late '60s "brass rock" trend, epitomised by the likes of Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears. The band first came together in Toronto in 1968/1969 and lasted until 1976, during which an unbelievable number of musicians had passed through the group... over 20 horn players for a start. "Love Of A Woman" opens their eponymous 1969 first album, and is as good a track as most in its field (although I personally can only handle so much). They reformed in the '80s for a short while, and I believe they still have a devout following in their home country.


Spooky Tooth - Waiting For The Wind

Spooky Tooth's roots go back to 1963, when a local R&B band "The VIPs" came together. After a few ears they changed their name to "Art", got signed to the rapidly evolving Island label, and released one of the first genuine UK psychedelic albums "Supernatural Fairy Tales". Soon after, with the addition of American Gary Wright on addtional vocals and keyboards, the band mutated into Spooky Tooth.

Their first album pushed a bit further than 'straight' psych, but 1969's "Spooky Two", from which this track is taken, completed the transformation into grinding riff heavyweights. After a less than wholly successful collaboration with French electronic composer Pierre Henry, the band split. They were back together soon enough, but the line up was constantly hanging, and by their final album in 1974 only Gary Wright was left from the original fivesome. Wright would later have a huge FM radio hit with "Dreamweaver".


Family - The Weaver's Answer

Another R&B band who changed with the tides in the late '60s, Family originally hailed from Leicester, where they had once been local heroes "The Farinas". A bit of an acquired taste perhaps, mostly due to Roger Chapman's distinctive vocal style, but the band were well respected in the 'underground' scene and made quite a few impressions on the UK charts. Again, their first album was full on head-spinning psychedelia for the most part, and by the second album "Entertainment" had branched out into more 'progressive' directions.

"The Weaver's Answer" kicks the album off, and pretty much became the band's signature song. Writer, harmonica and sax player Jim King was asked to leave soon after (bass player Ric Gretch also jumped ship, joining the ill-fated supergroup Blind Faith) and the music changed again. The had a few single hits, and subsequent albums did well enough, but they never really recaptured the eclectic spark of the first two LPs. They finally called it a day in 1973.


Egg - A Visit To Newport Hospital

Egg were one of the most unusual sounding bands to come out of the 1969-1972 era. Originally a four-piece, featuring Steve Hillage on guitar, but when he left the band at the start of 1969 the remaining three decided to carry on, changing their name in the process. The four did reunite later that year, and recorded an album as 'Arzachel' using pseudonyms.  Egg recorded three albums between 1969 and 1972, although the final of these didn't see the light of day until 1974.

With a total lack of electric guitar, heavily multitracked keyboard parts and a bewlindering array of constantly changing time signatures, they were hardly commercial material - in fact their record label were reluctant to put out the second album "The Polite Force" after poor sales of the first (although Decca's rubbish promotional activities didn't really help). "A Visit To Newport Hospital" is the first track on that album, part ultra-sludge-riff, part dazzling melody, with lyrics that recount the early days of the band. Unfortunately I've had to cut the track down so much (it's over eight minutes long) I've had to lose all the vocal sections, so you'd better seek out the album to get the full picture!

Keyboard player and vocalist Dave Stewart later joined Hatfield & The North, and would have a No.1 UK hit a few years later with a version of "It's My Party", alongside Barbera Gaskin (who was a backing singer in the Hatfields...) The two still record together, providing music for many of Victor Lewis-Smith's TV and radio productions, and Stewart was responsible for producing 'Neil's Heavy Concept Album', starring Nigel Planer as his Young Ones character in a lovely send up ofpast-their-sell-by-date hippie-isms.


Touch - Down At Circe's Place

Touch only recorded one album, which saw the light of day in 1969.  The band were brainchild of Don Gallucci, who had been the keyboard player responsible for driving The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" into every home in America in 1964, and his next band 'Don & The Good Times' decided to record 'the ultimate recorded psychedelic experience'. They spent most of 1968 holed up in a run down mansionhouse, working on their epic. But by the end of the project the money had run out, they were burning the furniture and fittings to keep warm, and the album had missed its moment in the cosmic scheme of things. Nobody noticed it, let alone bought it, and Galucci moved into production for Elektra, the second Stooges album "Fun House" probably being his best known achievement in that role..

The Touch album actually turned out to be a bit of a flawed masterpiece, with "Down At Circe's Place" the most striking track on it. This first part is brilliantly bombastic, but we're only just getting started...


East Of Eden - Northern Hemisphere

Bristol based, but with members from all over the country, East Of Eden were one of the "head's favourites" in the late '60s and early '70s. Combining many influences, with studio experimentation and Dave Arbus' wild violin playing, they were a tricky group to pin down. Their sole hit in 1970 was "Jig-A-Jig", which was a fairly straight instrumental fiddly-diddly number, but carried off with great style and a fantastic break in the middle which I'm amazed hasn't been sampled to death(my 2004 Rinse Mix features a rare instance of me doing 'turntablism stuff' with two 7" copies, by the way...) Arbus contributed his fiddling to The Who's evergreen "Baba O'Riley" in 1971, but EastOf Eden were finished by the mid '70s.


The Sorrows - Take A Heart

If you're after a definition of what was coined 'freakbeat' in the 1980s, this isn't a bad place to look. Coventry's Sorrows played R&B with an aggressive, distorted edge - too much for the R&B and pop record buying crowds of the time, even with the likes of The Pretty Things tearing up the scene - and "Take A Heart" manages to translate all of that onto vinyl. Vocalist Don Fardon would have chart success a few years later with the singles "Indian Reservation" and "Belfast Boy".


Ambrose Slade - Knocking Nails Into My House

Long before Slade became one of the biggest, and most underrated, bands of the 1970s glam explosion and beyond, they were a hard-nosed Wolverhampton R&B combo known as The N'Betweens. Relying heavily on covers, the changed their name to Ambrose Slade, signed to Fontana Records in 1968, and delivered them album "Beginnings" the following year. Many tracks suffer from over (or under) ambitiousproduction, such as the almost-classic opening instrumental "Genesis", but some tracks worked well. These included versions of The Mothers Of Invention's "Ain't Got No Heart", and this track.

Penned by future Move and ELO frontman (and fellow West-Midlander) Jeff Lynne, and originally recorded by his band of the time "The Idle Race", it's a great bubblegum psych song. Should have been a hit. Twice. Chas Chandler (ex-Animals bassist and Hendrix manager) was watching. The Ambrose would soon be ditched, the long hair shaved off (for a while) and Slade went back to basics, resulting in a total domination of Top Of The Pops between 1971 and 1974, and *that* bloody Christmas song.


Cat Stevens - Granny

In modern times he's an envoy for Allah. In the 1970s he was a thought provoking singer songwriting megastar, his bearded image hanging on the bedroom wall of almost every 18-23 year old girl in the country. In 1966, he was a self-assured pop genius. Classic songs seemed to fall from his pen effortlessly - Matthew & Son, I Love My Dog, I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun, The First Cut Is The Deepest... er... The Laughing Apple? Well, nobody's perfect. With the production and arranging skills of Mike Hurst (one time member of The Springfields), top notch Decca studios and session players, he couldn't fail.

Unfortunately the relentless treadmill of the pop industry, and the partying that goes with it, quickly took it's toll on the young Steven Georgiou. He contracted tuberculosis, and spent many reflective months in hospital. The Cat Stevens that emerged was a much changed person, both personally and musically, and ironically became a yet bigger success. However, his earlier work still shines brightly when it gets the chance. 'Granny', from his first album, is as good an example as any.


Dana Gillespie - You Just Gotta Know My Mind

An instant convert to the call of the 1962 blues scene, Dana found herself romantically attached for a short time to some bloke called Bob Dylan, during his first visit to the UK. Through this, she got closer to folk music, struck up a friendship with Donovan and started recording. By 1966 she was making accomplished records in both genres, and this Donovan-penned, Jimmy Page produced track is an absolute stormer. She would later appear on the West End stage in Jesus ChristSuperstar, sing backing vocals for David Bowie's most defining albums, and is still a top attraction in blues clubs across the country.


Buffalo Springfield - Rock & Roll Woman

One of the most pivotal groups from the West Coast music scene in the mid 1960s. Featuring Stephen Stills and Neil Young, they had a short and fractious existence (just over two years in total), and the band was already in tatters by the time their second album "Again" came out at the end of 1967. A sprawling and disparate collection of songs, with every band member pulling in seemingly opposite directions, in fact Young's two tracks on the LP were recorded without the rest of the band's input. Even so, the album has many high points, of which this is one.


Bonzo Dog Band - What Do You Do

Forming in 1962 at art school, and taking their inspiration from early 20th century British lunacy, horn gramophones and straw boaters, the Bonzos were one of the most original, distinctive and downright brilliant groups the world has ever seen. Their early recordings were covers of discarded 78 RPM shellac discs, one of the many remnants from the era of the British Empire, which were easy to come by in post-war junk shops. This combination of trad-jazz and silly behaviour formed the basis for their own compositions and the resulting album "Gorilla" in 1967, but they soonstarted jetting off into other territories.

By 1969 the fun had worn thin, and the album "Keynsham" has a strange bleakness about it. The humour is often dark, the sounds often aching. It's a fascinating and rewarding listen from start to finish, and Neil Innes' "What Do You Do" should touch the soul of anyone actually in possession of one. The surviving members of the band recently got back together, with help from some celebrity admirers (including Stephen Fry, which says it all as far as I'm concerned) and they've still "got it". Seek out everything they ever did. That's not a suggestion, it's an order.


Godley & Creme - dialogue excerpt from 'Consequences'

I can't even begin to describe Consequences here. Suffice to say it's a a triple concept album that tells the story of nature's fight back against mankind. G&C spent two years locked in a studio with a massive supply of dope (not a lazy TEH DRUGS!! observation, Kevin Godley is on record as saying so), surrounded by piles of tape loops and other gadgetry, and the godlike genius Peter Cook plays Mr. Blint.


The Fairytale - Guess I Was Dreaming

Another short lived band form the class of '67, The Fairytale hailed from Warrington, Lancashire. They managed to release two singles over the course of August and September of that year, both accomplished slices of psychedelic pop (with this track, the first A side of the two) featuring some wonderfully doomy piano to pepper the trip with a dark edge. Neither single was a hit, and when the stark black and white realities of 1968 began to club the previous year's technicolour dreams into a bloody red pulp, the band disappeared.


White Noise - Your Hidden Dreams

Take two employees of the BBC's legendary Radiophonic Workshop, add one American visionary, a jazz drummer, some inexperienced vocalists, a couple of hundred miles of 1/4" recording tape, some bespoke electronics, a few dozen razor blades and £2000 of Island Records' money. What do you get? Possibly the biggest sonic headfuck of 1969, that's what. The RW's Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson were already moonlighting on other projects away from their day jobs, and when they met up with classical musician and physicist David Vorhaus, things got really serious.

Many hours work followed, chopping up and processing both electronic and organic sounds using magnetic tape, and reassembling these elements into (almost) conventional music. They took the masters to Chris Blackwell at Island, hoping for perhaps a 7" single release. Blackwell threw them a cheque and told them to make a full LP. The threesome went into overdrive, taking their experimentation as far as possible.  The results ranged from twisted three minute pop songs to a ten minute stereophonic epic about a motorcycle crash and a girl being visited by the ghost of the rider. After a year, Island got worried, and insisted the album was finished and delivered to them yesterday, so the remaining time on the vinyl was filled up with a quickly assembled, yet unbelievably intense, sonic picture of "An Electric Storm" in hell - which also gave the LP its title.

Not exactly a chart stormer on initial release, this is an album that has spread by word of mouth over the almost-40 years since its first release. Superficially some tracks sound amateurish (mainly due to the vocals), and 'Here Come The Fleas' is downright comedic. But tracks such as The Visitation, An Electric Storm and Your Hidden Dreams are a different matter entirely. The work involved in producing the tracks almost beggars belief today. Every note you hear on this bassline is a separate, small length of recording tape (eight inches at the most, probably), carefully measured and stuck with sticky tape onto the previous one. And that's just the bassline. No wonder it took a year. But sometimes, the extra effort involved in working with such "outmoded" technology produced results far beyond the scope of what most of us could accomplish with all the digital wonderment of today. It all boils down to ideas and talent...




Manfred Mann Chapter III - One Way Glass (Soundhog Extended-Edit)

After six years of being pop chart stars, the band that keyboard player Manfred Mann gave his name o had had enough. The members scattered to various projects during 1969, with Mann and his longest musical collaborator Mike Hugg (vibes, drums) getting on board the 'progressive' bus and forming Manfred Mann Chapter Three. Two albums resulted, released in 1969 and 1970 respectively.

They were not huge sellers, and Mann latter commented that it was a deliberate over-reaction to everything they'd done before, but the better deals that were forged in this "new era" of pop music meant that they could continue with their chosen paths. Chapter Three disbanded in 1971, and Mann went on to greater success with various incarnations of this "Earth Band". One Way Glass is taken from the first Chapter Three album, and I've taken the liberty of extending it's awesome bass/drum groove by a minute or two and adding some little effects here and there. It's what I do...


Frank McDonald & Chris Rae - Power Surge

Hopefully this should be instantly recogniseable (in style, at least) to any fan of 'gritty' 1970s TV dramas like The Sweeney. A short but perfectly formed slice of heavy library music from the coffers of the legendary De Wolfe label. The drums continue as...


Nik Kershaw - Wouldn't It Be Good (acoustic)

...plays. I'm expecting some people are baulking at the very idea of Nik Kershaw, but you'd be idiots or uneducated snobs to do so. Stripped of its '80s production (although frankly that's not even necessary), 'Wouldn't It Be Good' reveals itself as a pop song of the highest order in this version from 1999. Kershaw has been releasing some top notch albums over the past few years which haven't had a sniff of the recognition they deserved, while Kershaw did his very best to avoid having to peddle on the ironic 1980s nostalgia scene doing the rounds. Ok, so 'The Riddle' is pretty annoying (and means fuck all, as we all suspected and Nik recently confirmed) but just shut up and let this tune play - it's bloody great.


Georg 'Jojje' Wadenius - Kalles klätterträd

Wadenius first came to prominence in his native Sweden in the late 1960s, writing a clutch of children's songs while also being a constantly in-demand session uitarist. He moved to the USA in the early '70s, joining Blood, Sweat & Tears (that's the second time they've been mentioned... oof!) and later becoming part of the house band on post-Python comedy show Saturday Night Live, while remaining as in-demand as ever as a session-er well into the early 1990s. He now runs his own studio in Oslo.

'Kalles klätterträd' may not mean much to that many people outside of Sweden, it's the theme tune to a 1969 children's animated cartoon series of the same name. However, that cartoon series was actually shown in the UK in the late 1970s, with an English voiceover by ex-Goodie Graeme Garden, and retitled "Charlie's Climbing Tree". Well, I always remembered it, and I always remembered its terrific theme tune. So here it is. I just wish it was longer.


The Shadows - The War Lord

It comes as a surprise to many to find out just what a big deal The Shadows were in the pre-Beatles days of the early 1960s. After starting life as Cliff Richard's band (originally called The Drifters, name changed for obvious reasons) they struck out as a group in their own right with the 1960 smash 45 "Apache". For the next couple of years or so, they were not only Britain's foremost instrumental group, they were Britain's foremost group "period", as an American person might say. Foot Tapper, Shindig, FBI, Kon-Tiki, Man Of Mystery, Dance On... top notch guitar twang-a-thons, every single one of 'em. The band suffered changes in the rhythm section on a few occasions, but the core duo of hank and Bruce kept it together.

As Merseybeat started to destroy everything in it's way in 1963, The Shads started singing on a few numbers, and although their power was dented somewhat, they managed to hit the top 20 singles chart with a pretty good regularity. However by the end of '65 things were changing too much, and although they continued as a popular band until 1968 the end was inevitable, and they split up at the end of the year on their 10th anniversary - although the band minus Bruce Welch did record one album and undertake a Japanese tour under the Shadows name in '69, but this was purely for financial purposes and not considered a successful artistic venture.

The band reformed and split in various capacities during the '70s to the '90s, at times recording some worthwhile tracks, and other times pissing on their legacy from a great height. In the '80s they left EMI for the Polydor label, but EMI wouldn't relinquish their back catalogue. This resulted in the band re-recording a good chunk of their '60s output for repackaging purposes - they probably did their best, but the results sound shit, digital and lifeless compared to the real
deal. Proof (as if it were needed) comes in this track from 1965, in proper loud mono, which turned out to be their last top 20 hit of the decade - showing the band could get as heavy and powerful as anyone else at the time, jingle bells notwithstanding.


The Moody Blues - Go Now

Talking of Birmingham, here's the first single from that city's first R&B/pop/rock band to really hit big nationally (and internationally). The original Moody Blues were an outright R&B band, featuring future Wings member Denny Laine on vocals and guitar.  They missed with their first single, but their second went all the way to the top. "Go Now" is a cover version, the original version being recorded by American singer Bessie Banks earlier in 1964, and possibly holds the title of the most distorted recording of the era. Not ideal for hi-fi listening perhaps, but it sounds pretty good when you listen to an original 7" on a period 'portable' record player and crank it right up.

After this major success, things didn't really work out. Subsequent singles failed to chart, the debut album didn't do that well, and the band lost members like TNT Carriers lose confidential government data CDs today. That'll date these notes... Anyway, the core of the band recruited new members and battled on, but by the end of '66 they were reduced to playing chicken-in-a-basket cabaret clubs. However they still owed Decca one album on their contract, and a fair bit of cash. A plan to quickly cut a pop version of Dvorak's 'New World Symphony' was jettisoned in favour of some new material they'd been working on, a Mellotron keyboard gave the single "Nights In White Satin" a certain something, and The Moody Blues quickly became one of the biggest groups of the late '60s and '70s. Funny how things work out sometimes.


Vince Guaraldi - It's Your Dog, Charlie Brown

Vince Guaraldi was already a popular and well respected jazz musician in 1963, when he got a call from Bill Melendez asking if he'd consider scoring an upcoming documentary featuring Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" characters. Guaraldi obliged, and although that 1963 film never made it to air at the time (now out on DVD) the relationship was cemented. Starting with 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' in 1965, and continuing right up to 'It's Arbor Day' in 1976, Guaraldi delivered the perfect soundtrack to each animated special.

Originally the works were strictly acoustic jazz, but in the early '70s he expanded his choice of instruments to include electric guitar and piano, with some scores featuring a serious funk influence (such as the criminally unavailable soundtracks to 'There's No Time For Love' and 'It's A Mystery'). Guaraldi's premature death in 1976 brought an abrupt halt to things, he died a few hours after completing the 'Arbor Day' soundtrack, aged 47. The animations continued, but the soundtracks supplied by later composers such as Ed Bogas were absolute crap - corny and kiddie, the very things that Guaraldi's work wasn't.

This track is from a 1968 album, "Oh Good Grief" which Guaraldi recorded for the Warner Brothers/Seven Arts label. The original soundtracks to a few of the animations were issued by the Fantasy label previous to this release, but here Vince re-recorded many pieces, taking a more uptempo approach and utilising some extra instruments, such as electric harpsichord as can be heard here. The title is a bit weird, the cartoon is actually called "He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown", but it says "It's" on the record label so that's what I'm calling it here.


Stereolab - Ping Pong

One of the most under-appreciated bands in the UK over the last 17 years, probably because they've always just 'been there', putting out a constant stream of music with no fuss or fanfare. Formed in 1990 by Tim Gane and his partner Lætitia Sadier after his former band McCarthy split, Stereolab took McCarthy's left wing text lyrics and welded them to a different sound. Originally this sound was heavily influenced by the one-chord motorik side of the early '70s German alternative music scene - Kraftwerk, Faust, Neu! and Harmonia - but would soon develop an almost unrivaled sense of melody. With the addition of the late Mary Hansen on backing vocals, and Sean o'Hagan from The High Llamas contributing orchestral arrangements, Stereolab turned into something quite unique... and they remain so. (edit - of course, they've goen on an indefinite hiatus since I wrote this originally)

This, and also their total understanding of the way a music product should be something that people want to own, has seen their (relatively) small, but enthusiastic, fanbase keep them going to this day, while countless other acts have been chewed up and spat out of the industry machine. 219 copies on one sided orange vinyl 10", with a sticker sheet, in a unique wallpaper sleeve housed in a poly bag? Yes, please. Ping Pong is from 1994's Mars Audaic Quintet album, and is a perfect representation of where they were at the time.


The United States Of America - The American Metaphysical Circus

One of the most 'underground' albums you could ever hope to hear. The USA were the invention of Joseph Byrd, a jazz player and experimental composer. Byrd gathered together a group of similarly inclined musicians, and formed possibly the most unique act of 1967. Far out-weirding the likes of The Mothers and the VU, their sound featured fretless distorted bass, a violin played through a ring-modulator, much tape manipulation, Dorothy Moskowitz's haunting vocals, and a selection of songs which aimed an experimental, satirical dart at American society (although this satire can sometimes be hard to pinpoint - perhaps you had to be there at the time). Scarily, Ed Bogas (whose later work I comprehensively 'dissed' earlier) played on the album and became a full member of the band for a short while later. He did music for some Commodore 64 games in the 1980s as well. It was crap. Er, getting back on track...

The resulting album was quite a critical success when it finally saw the light of day in March 1968, but sales didn't follow and the band broke up soon after. The album sold 'quite' well in the UK, mainly as a result of one (totally unrepresentative) track being included on the CBS budget sampler album "The Rock Machine Turns You On". But like the White Noise album, it was the kind of record that spread by word of mouth and home-recorded cassettes throughout the '70s and '80s. In the '90s, bands like Broadcast would emerge whose sound owes everything to The USA. 'The American Metaphysical Circus' opens the album, and sets the tone for the following half hour admirably.


Kling Klang - Radium

Words cannot express how much I love this band. Originally a three piece, then a five piece, currently four (it seems), they specialise in a kind of Krautrock influenced music, where any cosmic trips are shot out of the sky with a riff-gun and then hammered into the ground with monophonic anaolgue synthesizers played through fuzz pedals. Early tracks were made with Casiotones and Yahama Portasounds, later they acquired a Jen SX1000, Roland SH-101, a couple of guitars and a human drummer.

After releasing a couple of tracks on split 7" singles, and Mogwai's Rock label put out the "Superposition" 12" EP (from where Radium originally comes), the band fell apart. The members went back to their "day jobs" in bands such as Part Chimp, Mugstar and a.P.A.t.T. and it looked to be all over. Happily they're back, with a CD released of their recordings so far ("The Esthetik Of Destruction"), and playing a few gigs during 2007 with a good smattering of new material. Fingers crossed that these new tunes will be put down on tape before the band decide to vanish for another 3 years... (2010 edit - wishful thinking indeed. Don't mention the Germans.)


The Soft Machine - We Did It Again

The area around Canterbury, in Kent, produced something of a microcosm music scene in the 1960s. A collection of local musicians were influenced by Robert Wyatt, who had in turn been influenced by the jazz record collection of the Australian Daevid Allen, who took up lodgings at his parent's house in the early 1960. This jazz basis was mixed with folk and pop, and resulted in a band called The Wilde Flowers. A large collection of musicians drifted in and out of the band in the early to mid 1960s, and this roundabout of talent would end up forming both Soft Machine and Caravan, who in turn would generate yet more bands in a similar style.

Soft Machine were the first to take off, featuring Wyatt, Allen, keyboard player Mike Ratledge and bassist/vocalist Kevin Ayers. They quickly became part of the 1966 underground scene in London, playing venues such as the Roundhouse alongside a formative Pink Floyd. A single on Polydor was released in 1967, but after a short series of gigs in Europe, Allen found his re-entry to the UK blocked as an 'undesireable', and he ended up relocating to Paris. The remaining trio signed up with Chas Chandler, and ended up supporting Jimi Hendrix on several tours as well as a chance to record their debut album in New York. "We Did it Again" is taken from that first album, and in concert the band were known to sometimes stretch the track out to nearly half an hour...

The band was proving successful, but the showbiz lifestyle was too much for Ayers, and he left the band in late 1968. He remained friends with the band, who soon regrouped with Hugh Hopper taking over bass duties. Soft Machine then headed full-steam into jazz-rock territory, producing a couple of definitive works in that field in 1970 and 1971, with Ayers embarking on an errectic but rewarding career as a solo artist.


Touch - Down At Circe's Place

I've already given you the story and the first part of the track.  Here's the pay off. I first encountered this when I was about 16 years old, and frankly I nearly shat myself on that initial
hearing.  Never was the term "freak out" so applicable.  What made it even worse, is that I first
heard it on a 1969 Decca sampler album, "Wowie Zowie - The World Of Progressive Music".  On that album they messed up the master tape, so that about 15 seconds after the final gong hit faded away, instead of the gentle tones of John Mayall coming in to soothe the atmosphere, the last 25 seconds or so of the track suddenly cut back in without warning at full volume.  Obviously for years I (and many others, no doubt) thought that was how it was meant to be...  indeed, perhaps it was better that way...


The Electric Light Orchestra - First Movement

Jeff Lynne gets mentioned twice?  My word...  The Move had been the brightest stars of the '60s
Birmingham music scene, regularly assaulting the charts with classics such as 'I Can Hear The Grass Grow' and 'Fire Brigade' between 1966 and 1969.  At the turn of the decade, the band had suffered badly and was reduced to singer/writer/guitarist Roy Wood and drummer Bev Bevan.  Lynne's band The Idle Race had recently split, and Wood offered him the chance to join The Move.  For two years the new Move recorded some brilliantly skewed pop music (get hold of the excellent album 'Message From The Country' for proof), but all the while they were planning something different.  This kicked off when Wood found himself in possession of a cheap cello, and he started "playing Jimi Hendrix riffs" on it.

The early ELO was far removed from the international sensation (and dirty word, amongst poseurs and fascist music bores) it became in later years.  We all know that Paul Weller ripped off "10538 Overture" wholesale for one of his album tracks in the mid 1990s, but if "First Movement" wasn't achieved without a huge dose of Mason Williams' "Classical Gas" then I'm a mash-up lover.  Which I'm not.  The twin leadership of Lynne and Wood wasn't to last, and Wood went off to indulge in Phil Spectorisms (and *that other* bloody Christmas song) with Wizzard, while Lynne found his winning pop streak and ELO became absolutely massive.


Mary Hopkin - Earth Song

Born in the Swansea valley in 1950, it could be argued that Mary Hopkin's career never reached its "full potential", probably as a result of her beind portrayed as too damned nice.  She learned
guitar at an early age, and had put out some Welsh language recordings on the tiny Cambrian label by the time she appeared on revered/reviled ITV talent show "Opportunity Knocks" in 1968.  Legend has it that '60s model icon Twiggy was watching the show, and phoned up Paul McCartney, suggesting she might be suitable material for The Beatles' soon to be launched 'Apple' record label.

McCartney phoned up a disbelieving Hopkin at her home, and soon she was signed up to Apple, despite the objections of her father, who stipulated certain clauses in her contract to 'protect her'. Her career got off to a good start, the memory of 'Op-Knox' still clear in the public's minds and the kudos of the Fab association meant that her first single 'Those Were The Days' was a massive hit.  Her first album contained lots of pop-folk numbers, with acoustic backings from McCartney and Donovan.  However as 1969 and 1970 progressed, she found herself being given increasingly twee-songs to record, and Apple cultivated a clean-cut image for her which she not only found it difficult to shake off, but she actively grew to hate.  She was at the centre of the music world and all its delights, yet she wasn't even allowed to drink a glass of beer in case someone took a photo of her doing so.

McCartney's interest dwindled as The Beatles imploded, and Hopkin still found herself being pushed into uncomfortable situations (such as being the UK representative in 1970s Eurovision Song Contest).  Apple itself was in bad shape by this point, the companies original utopian model resulted in various chancers and hippyshits bleeding the coffers dry in a very short space of time. Hopkin recorded a final album for the label in 1971, and 'Earth Song, Ocean Song' is very nearly a masterpiece.  With backing musicians featuring Danny Thompson and Ralph McTell, and songs written by Gallagher & Lyle and Cat Stevens amongst others, the album stands up easily against any work by 'more credible' artists of the day, but not enough people took it seriously.  She soon married producer Tony Visconti, and withdrew from the music business for a while in 1972.  She has recorded occasionally in subsequent years for various labels, both solo and in collaboration with others, while keeping firmly out of the public eye.

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I hope you enjoy the selection, and if anything particularly catches your ear, please seek out and
buy the full releases if you can.  Many of the artists in this mix have either taken their music
into their own hands, or had it reissued on small specialist labels who deserve support.

cheers

/ ben sH - 21/11/07