domingo, 24 de fevereiro de 2019

Nirvana - Rainbow Chaser The 60s Recordings (The Island Years)




















Nirvana - Rainbow Chaser The 60s Recordings (The Island Years) - 2018

By Matt Mead from Lowderthanwar.com

Psychedelic trailblazers of the ’60s, Nirvana were a remarkable outfit. One that thought nothing of going to the edge and jumping straight off into the artistic unknown. They were the first band signed to the Island label. They were the only UK act to ever perform live with Salvador Dali. They released what is generally considered to be the first concept album. They were the first to use an electric cello on a rock album, and among the first to use phasing as a production technique.

But that doesn’t even begin to tell the remarkable tale of this cult symphonic-rock band – essentially a duo of Irishman Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Greek musician Alex Spyropoulos. Following a chance meeting in London during the summer of 1965, they took a long, strange trip together, united by their backgrounds. Says Campbell-Lyons, “The Greek and the Celt had an unwritten, unexplainable, unconditional awareness and understanding of what was going down.”

This double-CD set brings together the first two Nirvana albums – The Story Of Simon Simopath & All of Us or, to give it its full title (take a deep breath) The Existence of Chance Is Everything and Nothing While the Greatest Achievement Is the Living of Life, and so Say ALL OF US – featuring 52 tracks with 27 previously unreleased out-takes, demos and alternative versions. Rainbow Chaser was their biggest hit, while Tiny Goddess was a big favourite of John Peel’s and French chanteuse Francoise Hardy had a hit throughout Europe with her version.

Bonus tracks include songs from their third album Dedicated To Markos III (recorded for Island but released by Pye), including the epic Love Suite which was sampled by DJ Shadow on his Endtroducing album for the track Stem. DJ Shadow is not the only famous fan of Nirvana’s work – Salvador Dali, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Cliff and the Everly Brothers were admirers too.

The quality of these recordings is second to none – Patrick and Alex insisted on recruiting the best players and voices in the studio. With arrangements under the guidance of conductor Syd Dale accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra, many of Nirvana’s recordings featured legendary UK session stalwarts Clem Cattini on drums, Alan Parker (guitar), Herbie Flowers (bass), Alan Hawkshaw on organ plus the vocal talents of Sunny and Sue Wheetman (who also appeared on Joe Cocker’s With A Little Help From My Friends), Lesley Duncan, Kay Garner and Madeline Bell.

The prolific Jimmy Miller (Rolling Stones/Traffic/Spooky Tooth) contributed, working alongside Island Records founder Chris Blackwell on production duties and playing drums on Tiny Goddess, while studio wizards Tony Visconti (Bowie/T.Rex) and Muff Winwood (Spencer Davis Group/Sparks) added sonic flourishes to Nirvana’s already enchanting sound.

Nirvana’s debut album, The Story Of Simon Simopath – regarded as the first narrative concept album – was the tale of a boy who, unpopular at school, dreamed of growing wings to escape from reality. When he becomes an adult he has a nervous breakdown and ends up boarding a rocket, where he befriends a centaur and a tiny goddess called Magdalena. She works at the Pentecost Hotel, and the two fall in love and get married… and you can’t get more Prog Rock than that.

Their second album,  All of Us, was recorded in 1968 and released in August that year. A step forward from their debut LP and spawning the classic single Rainbow Chaser, it is widely regarded as a psych-pop classic. Listening to them today, Nirvana’s music sounds as fascinating and informed as it did in the late ’60s and their influence continues to this day.

CD 1
01. Wings Of Love
02. Lonely Boy
03. We Can Help You
04. Satellite Jockey
05. In The Courtyard Of The Stars
06. You Are Just The One
07. Pentecost Hotel
08. I Never Had A Love Like This Before
09. Take This Hand
10. 1999
11. I Believe In Magic
12. Feelin' Shattered
13. Flashbulb
14. C Side In Ocho Rios
15. Requiem To John Coltrane
16. Lonely Boy (Instrumental Version)
17. I Never Had A Love Like This Before (Instrumental Version)
18. Tiny Goddess (1967 Version)
19. Life Ain't Easy (Mono)
20. Goodbye Baby Bunting
21. Omnibus
22. Oscar (Oh! What A Performance) (Long Version #1)
23. Oscar (Oh! What A Performance) (Long Version #2) [feat. Spooky Tooth]
24. Goodbye Baby Bunting (Demo)
25. City Of The South (Instrumental Version)
26. Trapeze (Demo)
27. Darling Darlane (Long Version - Take 3)


CD 2
01. Rainbow Chaser
02. Tiny Goddess
03. The Touchables (All Of Us)
04. Melanie Blue
05. Trapeze
06. The Show Must Go On
07. Girl In The Park
08. Miami Masquerade
09. Frankie The Great
10. You Can Try It
11. Everybody Loves The Clown
12. St John's Wood Affair
13. Oh! What A Performance
14. Darling Darlane
15. Rainbow Chaser (Alternate Version)
16. The Touchables (All Of Us) (Instrumental Version)
17. The Show Must Go On (Bouzouki Version)
18. Frankie The Greqat (Alternative Version Take 6)
19. You Can Try It (Alternative Take)
20. Everybody Loves The Clown (Alternative Take)
21. The Touchables (All Of Us) (Female Vocal Version)
22. Excerpt From "The Blind & The Beautiful" (Alternative Take)
23. 15:41 21/02/201915:41 21/02/201915:41 21/02/2019Black Flower (Alternative Take)
24. Love Suite (Instrumental Version)
25. Melanie Blue (2017 Version)





+@320

quinta-feira, 21 de fevereiro de 2019

Slim Chance - New Cross Road

















Slim Chance - New Cross Road - 2018

Slim Chance, the band formed by the late great Ronnie Lane soon after he quit the Faces is releasing an outstanding new album ‘New Cross Road’ on their own label, Fishpool Records distributed by Cargo Records in November 2018. 

The band has been active for 7 years championing and adding to Ronnie’s legendary musical legacy and this is their third album since then. Over that time their work has received widespread critical acclaim and delighted Slim Chance fans throughout the country. 

Original members, Steve Bingham, Charlie Hart and Steve Simpson are joined by three top class musicians: Brendan O’Neill on drums, Billy Nicholls (ex Who) acoustic guitar and vocals, and Bob Dylan’s favourite, the phenomenal Geraint Watkins, on keys and vocals. 

The new album features four songs of Ronnie’s including a classic version of ‘Debris’, a Pete Townshend approved version of ‘Squeezebox’, and some fine originals from the band one of which, ‘Flossie Lane’, was written in honour of Ronnie’s namesake the notorious Shropshire publican. 

01. Let’s Go Home
02. Flossie Lane
03. Chicken Wired
04. Annie
05. Squeezebox
06. Debris
07. Kew
08. Mr. Jones
09. Spiritual Babe
10. Roll The Dice

+@320

sexta-feira, 15 de fevereiro de 2019

Richard Ashcroft - Natural Rebel (DeLuxe)



















Richard Ashcroft - Natural Rebel - 2018 

Richard Ashcroft is following the Gallagher brothers’ solo efforts of 2017 with his own album, Natural Rebel. It’s the former Verve frontman’s followup to his 2016 comeback record These People, which saw him tackle everything from war and revolution to internet trolls. Natural Rebel, sadly, is paint-by-numbers singer-songwriting. For a 10-track album (12 this version), it feels hideously overindulgent – only two songs fall under the four-minute mark, and those still feel drawn out by plodding, bog-standard riffs. 

01. All My Dreams
02. Birds Fly
03. Surprised by the Joy
04. That's How Strong
05. Born to Be Strangers
06. That's When I Feel It
07. We All Bleed
08. A Man in Motion
09. Streets of Amsterdam
10. Money Money
11. Rare Vibration
12. Guilded Halls


+@320

domingo, 10 de fevereiro de 2019

Derek Miller - Blues - Volume 1



















Derek Miller - Blues - Volume 1

Derek takes a break from song writing on this album to pay homage to the Blues greats, and some of his favorite musicians overall.

He has hand-picked legendary tracks to cover such as Boom, Boom, Boom by John Lee Hooker, Hidden Charms by Howl’n Wolf and recorded by Willie Dixon.

Subsequently, Miller joins a rich list of others who have recorded this song such as Can-Con icon Colin James, Elvis Costello and Derek’s muse and musical inspiration Link Wray and the Raymen.

Have no fear Blues purists. Miller does nothing to these classic tracks that you will not like.

Rather than regurgitate a song that’s been learned and rehearsed, Miller owns his renditions. We hear it and feel it as the album progresses.

There is nothing inauthentic here. Derek is simply taking the inherent blood and blues breath inside him to record, for the record, a set of great blues songs for a new generation.

According to Derek, the Blues came to Six Nations through the adoption of the Tuscarora Nation when they brought the slave-based call and response work songs to the Haudenosaunee .

Other Six Nations musicians credit the Ongweoweh people themselves having influence over “Black-based” blues stating the traditional shuffle beat in our social dance songs is the root of the blues rhythm.

READ MORE HERE

01 Hidden Charms
02 Boom Boom
03 I’m Ready
04 Champagne And Reefer
05 Baby, Please Don’t Go
06 Howlin’ For My Darlin’
07 My Babe
08 I Can’t Quit You Baby
09 My Weakness
10 Gimme Back My Wig

Derek Miller – Vocals, Guitars, Percussion
Ritchie Franzen – Bass
Andrew Mackay – Drums
Marty Miller – Back Vocals

+@192