Category Archives: Music Reviews

Sorry things have petered out slightly over here. I’ve actually been buying as much music as ever – thanks to an increase in disposable income and the proximity of my current contracting job to a very good and inexpensive record shop (Fopp near Leicester Square in London). But the volume of work has really mushroomed; sorry about that… I will be back.

Another consequence of working a lot is that it may have broadened my taste somewhat. I picked up 2 different compilations of 80s ‘indiepop’ (formally known as ‘indie’) and ‘post-punk’ very cheaply at the aforementoned shop. Both were put together by Rough Trade shops. Not surprisingly, I got very into lots of the tracks on the ‘indiepop’ one, revisiting my days as a jangly guitar loving 15 year old. The post punk one did slightly less for me – some of these ‘classic’ songs seemed very stiff and serious and unplayful to me. There were some corkers though, such as ‘Georges V’ by Les Georges Leningrad, which is available to download here. Totally ridulous and mental unmusical indescribable nonsense. What has happened to me?! I also dug up Sonic Youth’s ‘goo’, just to hear the hopeless screaming on ‘Mildred Pierce’.

But don’t worry, I’m still listening to more Bacharach/Morricone etc than is healthy.

Misty Roses are out on the road starting June 1st. I’ve been practicing hard and am looking forward to it. Hopefully see some people there. Patrick Wolf who we’re supporting is pretty cool too!

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Just heard the Marcos Valle track ‘Garra’ for the first time in what seems like years. This track (and the entire album actually) was on heavy rotation back in 2000. And I still really like it. That moment when the track reaches a crescendo and he just starts scatting is so joyful! That said, I can imagine a time when I will like this less – it’s so peppy that I can imagine some people finding it cheesy. You have to love a bit of Marcos though.

Sorry for the abject silence. I’ve been working like a dog! And buying records, but I have very little time to talk about them. In a nutshell, I’m still on a bit of a Roxy Music binge, and I’m also buying all kinds of charity shop records, occasionally unearthing gems.

Lots of Misty Roses news though!

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Between my trip to the US and some trips to charity shops in England, I’ve picked up quite a few records recently. I’m also still working through my stash from earlier in the year. I’m completely running out of space, and have selected about 100 to give away. I have to keep rotating or I won’t be able to sit down in my apartment!

Andre Previn: 'The Popular Previn - Plays Today's Hits' (LP; CBS; 1966)
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A very nice LP with a cool cheesecake cover. There's actually a clue to the record's content on the cover - while there's a large grand piano with a reclining girl on it, Andre actually sits at a harpsichord, which sounds very cool and can be heard on several tracks.

The arrangements are by Marty Paich, and are excellent. There are a several different themes on the album. There's a strong bossa nova presence, with very tasty versions of 'One note samba', 'Corcovado', 'The Girl from Ipanema' and 'Manha de Carnaval'. 'One note samba' and 'Girl from Ipanema' highlight the harpsichord. There are three excellent jazzy originals, 'Kiss Me Stupid', 'Never you mind' and 'Goodbye Charlie'. 'Kiss me stupid' has some silly girly 60s vocals which are entertaining. 'Never you mind' is excellent - a moody piece with jazz piano, percussion and strings. 'Goodbye Charlie' starts off like a Lalo Schifrin big band piano piece, but then brings on the 60s female vocals as well.

An interesting LP. I would like to hear more of Previn's work from the late 60s.

Bernard Herrmann: 'The Four Faces of Jazz' (LP; Decca; 1973)
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It's hard to find much to say about this one. Quite nicely done bits of Weill, Gershwin, and Stravinsky. Perhaps because it's not particularly 'song shaped', it kind of passed me by.

Bobby Goldsboro: 'Brand New Kind of Love' (LP; United Artists; 1973)
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Fantastic title track. Less good rest of album.

Hal Hester: 'Music from Your Own Thing' (LP; RCA; 1968)
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A very fun, mostly upbeat record. Late 60s pop with wordless vocals. 'Latin Rock' in the same sense as Claus Ogerman's Latin Rock album is Latin rock. This means beaty 60s discothequey style dance music with nice latin percussion.

Johnny Harris Dance Band: 'Sounds Super' (LP; Rubber Records; 1977)
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Before you ask, no, it turns out that this isn't the Johnny Harris who created the amazing Movements album, and who did fantastic arrangements for people like Petula Clark and Shirley Bassey. Instead, this is a bloke from Northamptonshire in England. If that wasn't obvious from the cover, it becomes clear soon after you put the record on. While the musicians are all quite good, there's something about the intonation and general production values that make this sound more like a school band record than a professional production.

The most entertaining track is the band's take on Van McCoy's 'The Hustle', which sounds pretty interesting when arranged in the big band style. I don't envy the sax player, who must have got pretty tired after playing this one. The rest of the album is pretty run-of-the-mill. I wish there had been more interesting hybrid disco tracks, but overall the album is better than expected.

Nelson Riddle: 'Vive Legrand: Nelson Riddle Salutes Michel Legrand' (LP; Daybreak; 1973)
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Hey, lots of us have felt the need to salute Michel Legrand at one time or another. I know I have. This apparently little-known album is absolutely brilliant - probably up there with his other 70s albums on MPS for me, and recorded about the same time. The first track, 'I was born in love with you' is fantastic - superb rhythms and delicate piano - just totally vibrant and colorful. These qualities sometimes take longer to be teased out in other tracks, but they pretty much always make it in the end.

As I mentioned in a previous post, It's wonderful to hear how Riddle updated his style from the big band arrangements of the 1950s to the easy listening/rock hybrid he presents here. There's very prominent bass and percussion, as well as superb piano and strings. It sits very well with contemporary work by Les Baxter, as well as British arrangers like John Schroeder and John Gregory.

Riz Ortolani: 'The Yellow Rolls Royce' (LP; MGM; 1967)
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I had to buy this for fifty cents, but any record that includes two tracks called 'Military Band' probably isn't going to do much for me. There are a few vocal tracks by Katyna Ranieri. There are two versions of 'Forget Domani', both of which are quite charming, although not at all hip sounding (although the film was from 1968, it's set in the 20s); the slower tempo one is particularly nice. 'Now and then' is a nice slow ballad with guitar accompaniment. The main theme is quite nice.

Not one to go out of your way to acquire.

Compilation - Riz Ortolani/Giancarlo Chiaramello/Roy Budd: 'Dino De Laurentis Presents Original Soundtracks from The Valachi Papers/Crazy Joe/Stone Killer' (LP; Project 3; 1974)
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Three excellent soundtrack extracts on a Project 3 LP from 1974. Not bad for $1! The Roy Budd was the one I was most excited about, but actually the other two are fantastic too.

Sam (the man) Taylor: 'Blue Mist' (LP; MGM; 1963)
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I've always been a bit of a sucker for the droney, smokey, saxophone-led instrumental easy listening of Sam the man taylor. This one is cool too. The tracks are pretty much all standards, and the whole thing is reassuring and familiar, even when the sax is wailing.

Sonny Lester: 'How to Belly Dance for your Husband' (LP; Roulette; 1964)
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The only record bought on this trip for more than $1.00! Sounds great; more to come.

The Sandpipers: 'Guantanamera' (LP; A & M; 1966)
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A mint mono copy for $0.50. Strange to find a mono copy! This was reissued on CD in about 1995 and used to be everywhere. I quite like the Sandpipers, but I could probably boil them down to about 10 tracks. And I'm not sure if many of those tracks are on this record. But it's still quite enjoyable. Just very quiet!

It's kind of like a novelty LP with famous songs sung in a wimpy soft pop style in Spanish.

'Carmen' is particularly amusing, and I'm always partial to 'angelica', whoever's singing it (although obviously I'd like it to be Scott Walker).

Most of the best tracks seem to be arranged by Nick DeCaro; Mort Garson, Tommy LiPuma and Bruce Botnick are also involved.

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Smile

Brian Wilson was great. I will give a more full report along after I see Lee Hazlewood tomorrow night. In the meantime, here’s some recent vinyl purchases.

Alzo & Udine: 'C'Mon and Join Us' (LP; Mercury; 1969)
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This album is just too much fun; I had to get hold of a copy. Discovered via that amazing Musical Taste site. The title track is wonderful - a latin-bee gees -funk style jam, and at least three or four of the other tracks are essentially the same song. But that's not a problem.

Billy Pepper and the Pepperpots: 'Merseymania' (LP; Pickwick; 1964)
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Rubbish exploitation album. Cool cover though, and probably the earliest Pickwick budget album in my collection.

Blossom Dearie: 'That's Just the Way I Want to Be' (LP; Fontana; 1970)
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One of those albums that somehow sounds better now I have the original LP. Very nice late 60s pop/bossa; far more varied than I remembered it. Most well known for the storming percussion on the final track, 'I like London in the rain' (an appropriate song for today, incidentally).

Chappel AV Series: 'Dance and Pop' (LP; Chappell; 1986)
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'This disc features dance and pop music based upon the styles & sounds of the mid 1980s' Pretty cool stuff! All tracks are written and produced by Steve Jeffries

Chappel AV Series: 'Sea/Water' (LP; Chappell; 1986)
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Chris Payne: 'Drama/Horror' (LP; Chappell; 1985)
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D. Farnon/R.Walter: 'Soft Sounds & Gentle Movements' (LP; Conroy; 1974)
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A great album that got me enthused, probably for the first time, about library records and production music. The first side is by Dennis Farnon, and has nice strings and gently groovy basslines. The second side is by 'R. Walter', and is more percussive, with that great open snare sound and some groovy tracks. Fantastic stuff, and with that added psychological bonus that since hardly any of these were pressed, I feel like I really have something rare and unheard here. That's probably bollocks, but hey...

Esquivel: 'Latinesque' (LP; RCA; 1962)
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I kind of wish I had the beautiful original US release of this one, but I'm happy to have any at all. And this later UK pressing seems to be of a high standard. This was one of the few Esquivel albums I had yet to pick up (well, of the reasonably common ones, anyway), and it's very cool - the classic zu-zu vocals and wailing brass are there, and I still haven't grown tired of them.

Isaac Hayes: 'Truck Turner' (LP; Stax/Pye; 1974)
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Very cool soundtrack double album. Nice to have some solid funk like this on vinyl.

John Fox Symphonic Orchestra: 'Pomp and Glory - the best of Edward Elgar' (LP; Sonoton; 1985)
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Half of this is 'condensed' (ie popsong-sized) arrangements of Elgar. The other is synthesizer versions of the same arrangements. I've only listened to it once, and I don't know when I'll listen again. But I couldn't leave it in the charity shop, could I...

Jorgen Ingmann: 'Min Ballon/Katten Og Musen' (45; Metronome; 1962)
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I bought this because the cover looked kind of cool and one of the tracks was a Billy Mure composition. But it's a kind of chipmunk style novelty record and hasn't exactly been stuck to my turntable.

Julie Driscoll/Brian Auger: 'Jools/Brian' (LP; MFP; 1967)
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This album seems much too groovy and cool to have been found in a charity shop, but that's what happened. It also seems too cool for the MFP label. It's a mixture of Julie Driscoll's late 60s dramatic pop ballads (with a bit of a Scott Walker/Dusty Springfield flavour) and Brian Auger/Brian Auger Trinity organ tracks, which are mostly smoking soul style instrumentals.

Very nice stuff! Shame my copy is more or less trashed. But dig the way my cover still has someone's 60s wrapping paper attached to cover up the price!

Michel Legrand: 'Violent Violins' (LP; Mercury; 1964)
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I coveted this UK reissue of Michel Legrand's 'Plays for Dancers' LP for years, mainly because of its very cool cover. Fisheye effect, a sparkly catsuit, S&M, a cool 50s atomic style font; this one has it all!

The LP is quite cool (I actually already have the US issue). The famous compiled tracks, 'Digue-ding' and 'Come ray and come charles' are the standouts, but it's all good fun.

Richard Anthony: 'Richard Anthony' (LP; Pathe; 1966)
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Surprisingly groovy and enjoyable French 60s rock'n'roll album, with originals and also cover versions of Dusty Springfield, Rolling Stones, and Holland-Holland-Dozier tracks.

Stanley Black: 'Festival in Costa Rica' (LP; Decca; 1961)
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Nice early Stanley Black album. It's 50s style sanitised Latin easy listening music. The album includes 6 Lecuona tracks and is really quite enjoyable.

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Another death: Claude Nougaro has left us (there’s a note about it at his official site). I don’t think that Nougaro is very famous outside France. I discovered him via a 45 EP that a penpal of my girlfriend’s mother had sent her in the 1960s. I was struck by it immediately. Nougaro’s style was expressive and extravagant, and married with jazzy backings from Michel Legrand, with whom he was working at the time, the effect was rather striking. In particular, the track ‘Le cinema’ (the instrumental version of which was sampled by Dimitri from Paris) stood out. I subsequently picked up the LP (a Canadian pressing that I found at the WFMU fair in NYC), as well as another, Petit Taureau, on CD. Claude continued to sing and tour well into the 1990s and beyond.

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I regret having been so silent recently, because I have been discovering lots of incredible music, often unexpectedly. Last week I downloaded an unknown foreign-language version of Lee Hazlewood’s ‘Houston’. After some research, it turned out that it was in Finnish, and I was led to the absolutely amazing Database of The Finnish Institute of Recorded Sound 1901 – 1999. This site has details over 277000 records released in Finland, all kept in a well-designed database. What this means is that you can search on song title, composer etc. and bring out a list of all (well, most) Finnish recordings of that song or by that composer. Many of these are examples of a phenomenon that is always fascinating to me: foreign-language versions of English-language pop songs. I stayed up pretty late the night I first found this database, and I’ve already discovered some artists that would otherwise have remained forever lost to me. More on these in the coming weeks.

I’ve also had a bit of a resurgence of interest in late 1950s/early 1960s sleazy rock/jazz tracks. That wasn’t a very good description. I’m talking about the kind of stuff featured on the Swing for a Crime compilation. I discovered the amazingly sleazy and brilliant singer Kay Martin a few months ago. But oddly enough what brought me back to Swing for a Crime was an album by Albert Van Dam (not to be confused with Art Van Damme, the accordianist) that I found last week. I gather that Albert was a sleazy orchestral bandleader, working from the 50s through to (at least) the 80s. The record I bought was a rather ridiculous 1975 effort described below, ‘dedicated to beautiful women’, but it turns out that his earlier work was in that rocking 50s style.

Another artist featured on Swing for a Crime is Cozy Cole. As far as I can tell, Cozy was an organist who liked to say the name of the song in a deep voice at the beginning of the track. ‘Topsy Part 2′ is a superb track that I’ve just found on 45.

Finally (well, that’s not all, but it’s all for today), I’ve been listening to two different ‘songbook’ style compilations of the work of Roger Nichols, one put together by Musical Taste member eftimihn, and the other by another person somewhere on the web. Very interesting stuff.

Albert Van Dam: 'Soft Shoulders and Dangerous Curves' (LP; Unknown; 1975)
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I'm afraid this album had to be bought. A whole album of original 'musical fantasies about women', one of which is called 'Lesbos-a-nova' was simply more than I could resist.

Not surprisingly, the album disappoints as much as it entertains. Overall, it has an excellent sleazy mid-70s Bilitis/Emmanuelle-style groove, with strings and sparse electronic effects. But it's not always very tasteful, and the aforementioned 'Lesbos-a-nova' track is particularly disappointing. The best tracks are the opener, 'Soft Shoulders and Dangerous Curves' (which has a brief disco section in the middle), and 'Supergirl'.

The arrangements are by well-known UK conductor Simon Park. The album appears to be a private pressing.

Evinha: 'Eva 2001' (LP; Odeon; 1968)
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I discovered Evinha only recently. She was a contemporary of Claudia on the Odeon label in Brazil, and thus her albums have similar arrangements. Evinha went on to form the Trio Esperanca, but it was with this album that she recorded what I think was her first big hit, 'Casaco Marron'. This beautiful and tender ballad opens the album. The whole thing is very pleasant, with a couple of lesser-known Marcos Valle/Paulo Sergio Valle tracks thrown in as well. Evinha's voice is not particularly strong, but it has a kind of vulnerable sound to it that appeals to me. The backings and orchestrations are superb.

Probably the 'grooviest' track is 'Vou Seguindo,' but the whole album is a winner.

Franck Pourcel: 'L'Enfant Roi' (LP; Pathe; 1970)
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This was my final French easy listening purchase of the day, and unfortunately it has little to recommend it. I was encouraged by the fact that one track was composed by Morricone and another by Polnereff. But that wasn't enough. I've had good Pourcels before, but I think overall Paul Mauriat is the better arranger

Franck Pourcel: 'Paraphonic' (LP; EMI-Pathe; 1969)
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I bought this album many years ago in Amsterdam, attracted by both its beautiful cover and the version of 'Daydream'. Of course, the whole 'daydream' thing is a bit of a minefield. Most 60s versions of 'Daydream' you find are covers of the John Sebastian/Lovin' Spoonful hit. Some others are the Duke Ellington 'Day Dream'. Good as these are, I'm more interested in digging up versions of the Wallace Collection's Belgian hit (recommended over at musical taste). This was recorded far less often, so I was pleased to add this excellent icy, moody version to my collection. The rest of the album is a bit up-and-down; there's a nice version of 'Good morning starshine', but not a lot else.

Leroy Holmes: 'Once Upon a Time in the West' (LP; United Artists; 1968)
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I was pleasantly surprised by this album. To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan in the world of spaghetti western music, although I enjoy it when I'm in the mood.

This is a bit of a cash-in album, taking advantage of the fact that many of the original scores that the tracks were taken from had not yet been released.

Although the title track is slightly disappointing, with a bizarre tempo, there are some real winners here. The real standout is the first track, 'The Days of Anger', which has a superb funky groove and some incredibly spooky vocal glissando effects. Jerry Goldsmith's '100 Rifles' is also a winner. Throughout, the guitar work, which I'm sure is by Al Caiola (although it doesn't say), is superb.

Meirelles e sua Orquestra: 'Brazilian Beat' (LP; London; 1970)
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This is a 70s reissue from Bolivia, one of the few records I was able to find in La Paz when I was there nearly 6 years ago. Time flies. Some Meirelles records are very sought after. I don't think this is one of them, but it's very nice all the same. Extremely percussive. The best track to my ears is the tasty piano-led version of 'Mas que nada'. It's similar to the Sergio Mendes version, except with some more prominent harmonies added in the chorus by the brass.

Nuoveformesonore: 'Nuoveformesonore' (LP; Curci; 1974)
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I'm out of my depth with this one. It's extremely strange experimental modern classical music from Italy. It sounds pretty mental, with instrumentation that consists of vocal, flute, trombone, cello, percussion and guitar. I would make a great music critic, huh...

Paul Mauriat: 'Theme from a Summer Place' (LP; MGM/Verve; 1972)
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They were closing up the Salvation Army shop, so I had to choose a selection from the seemingly huge collection of French easy listening LPs quickly. I'm glad I picked up this one. It's hardly an outstanding LP, but the arrangements are quite interesting, and the final track is a real jewel.

Ever since I heard it on a compilation made by a friend, I had wondered who in the world made this incredible version of 'Day by Day'. Over the years, I've bought maybe 5 different albums in an attempt to locate it. As it turns out, it's right here. The track starts out as nice simple sparkly early 70s mood music piece, but then explodes half-way through and becomes really outstandingly funky and energetic. I'd say the album is worth picking up just for this track.

Mine is a US issue, but I gather that some of these tracks (including 'day by day') were issued in the UK on Philips as Summer Memories. Tantalizingly, this issue contains a version of what I presume is Gainsbourg's 'La Decadanse'.

Raymond Lefevre: 'Soul Symphonies' (LP; Barclay; 1973)
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I knew this double album of pop adaptations of classical pieces wouldn't be much good, but I still had to buy it when I saw it at a charity shop.

I was right, the arrangements just aren't quite beaty and interesting enough to really hold my interest, but it's still not completely without value. The version of Grieg's 'In the hall of the mountain king,' featuring bongoes and a huge beat, is quite fun, although the Psycho effect of the strings can be a bit trying.

Roberto Menescal: 'The Boy from Ipanema Beach' (LP; Kapp; 1964)
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A tasty mid-60s instrumental jazz album featuring Roberto Menescal on guitar, along with Eumir Deodato (some of whose compositions are featured), Joao Palma, Sergio, Hugo Marotta, and Henri. A Brazilian recording packaged for the American market, this isn't particularly wild, but it's extremely nicely done. The opening track is an early instrumental version of 'Nao Bate Coracao', which Astrud Gilberto did so nicely on her Beach Samba album

The Michael John Mood: 'Songs for Swinging Sweethearts' (LP; Marble Arch; 1967)
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I picked this up in a charity shop last week. I was hoping for some groovy bossa nova sounds, but was mostly disappointed. The arrangements are by Pete Moore, and the whole thing sounds very British. The mood is far more mid-60s than late 60s though, and some of the tracks are so peppy that they're rather maddening. A few of the tracks do have a Brazilian flavour, and 'Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars' is probably the best of those. I can almost imagine a few of these tracks popping up on one of those Japanese 'Cafe Apres-Midi' compilations, but perhaps they're not quite late enough. The liner notes imply that this is going to be a jazzy vocal LP, and while it is, the group vocals and track choices give it more of a Mike Sammes Singers feel than I would have liked.

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Claudia

Although I’ve been being quiet, I’ve actually been listening to lots of music that I had never heard before. I have developed a mini-obsession with the Brazilian singer Claudia, an obsession that is pretty frustrating because of the generic nature of her name. It’s about as easy to find out information about her as it is for the Italian singer ‘Christy’. The good news in the case of Claudia however is that unlike Christy, she did put out several albums, including at least four in the years 1967 to 1972. I now own a couple of these (Voce and Deixa eu Dizer), and have heard one more that completely bowled me over (Jesus Christo). None of these other than Voce have been released on CD (and even the Voce CD seems to be impossible to get hold of), but they are all pretty superb, with a particular kind of jerky, brassy late-60s pop sound that seems to have been peculiar to Brazil in the late 60s and early 70s. Here‘s a little mp3 file (from Claudia’s ‘Frente Fria’) to illustrate the kind of sound I’m talking about.

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Yet another Ennio Morricone remix project is out, this time from Compost records. I hope it will be good, but I have a feeling I’m more into their reissues than their new stuff. Still, there are some excellent track choices, so you never know… The new Mondo Morricone compilation has been released, and the earlier ones re-released, by Cinesoundz. They seem to have redesigned the covers, which amazes me, since the original designs, by Stefan Kassel, are just about the best CD covers I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure if he did the new ones as well; the release seems to be a joint one with Royal Ear Force, a label founded by the excellent Stereo Deluxe.

In other news, we got one of our first reviews the other day at Score Baby!. He seems to quite like the record, which is cool.

I also read this interesting story about the resurgence of big bands in Taiwan.

Danny Guglielmi and Dena: 'Adventure in Sound' (LP; TOPS; 1955)
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A great album. Kind of a Les Paul/Mary Ford knockoff, but with a charm all of its own. It features early multitrack taping techniques, interesting sound effects, and ethereal vocals.

I know that a campaign was underway to have this album reissued, but sadly I don't think it came to fruition. Classic 50s cover that almost mirrors Alvino Rey's My Reverie.

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Savoury Dream Cake

The image above is key. Some time in the last year, I had a dream (or dreamy nearly-asleep thought, I can’t remember) about a cake made of potatoes with spears of asparagus coming vertically out of the top of it like birthday candles. What you see above isn’t that cake exactly, but rather a first draft at it. The cake itself is larger and not quite so deep. And the asparagus spears were perfectly vertical. I must remember not to cook them so much next time. Do you think it would make a good record cover?

101 Strings: 'The Exotic Sounds of Love' (LP; Astor; 1970)
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This one is quite hard to get hold of, so I jumped at the chance to buy it recently. Why am I obsessed with porno records? I don't think I really am. But they do amuse me, so I tend to pick them up when I see them.



It's great to have this LP as a companion to The Sounds of Love. The cover designs are obviously done as a series, but while the cover star of The Sounds of Love has a kind of soft-focus 60s Playboy look to her, the cover star here looks like she's ready to get right down to it.



The music has stepped up a gear from The Sounds of Love as well. There are a couple of tracks from Les Baxter's great Que Mango album, but the standouts are 'Karma Sitar' and 'Whiplash', which appeared as bonus tracks on the 101 Strings Astro sounds from beyond the year 2000 CD. There also some other entertaining tracks that don't appear on any other records I have, such as 'I believe' and 'don't leave me like this'. Perhaps these are also on their Sounds of today LP; I'm not sure.



Overall, I enjoyed the LP quite a bit, mainly because the string sound is smooth in that great late 60s/early 70s way, with a nice groove to the rhythms in the background.

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Only Shallow

I had a strong desire to buy records today. The ones I had in mind were Nicola Conte‘s ‘Forma 2000′ (?) and Gerardo Frisina‘s ‘Ad lib’. So I went all the way down to Other Music, only to find that they didn’t have the Frisina, and the Conte was available only as some cheesy American edition, renamed ‘bossa per due’ for the domestic market, with an ugly cover. I know now that I am fickle, because looking like that, I suddenly didn’t want to buy it at all. I went to Tower Outlet instead and spent less money.

Another band practice tonight. I’ve started putting a new website together for the band. At the moment there’s just a graphic there, but soon there will be more (mp3s, bios), as I try to promote the gig we have on August 28th. The site is at stretchercase.com.

Compilation - Francesco De Masi: 'Film Music, Volume 2' (CD; Vivi Musica; 1961-1984)
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Hmm. I bought this on the strength of the Easy Tempo compiled 'diamond bossa nova', and at 5 bucks it seemed a good deal. Alas, it's essentially an unstylishly put together mix of reasonably generic sounding film music. The disc includes selections from six different films. Although none of the others are bad exactly, only the last film, 'il racconto della giungla' is really to my taste - it has some cool organ and percussion and quite a nice groove to it...

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