International


LOS BLUE CAPS Paraguay 1969-1972 Groovie CD www.groovierecords.com


One of the poppiest and, consequently, one of the most popular South American groups, Los Blue Caps would enjoy disc successes in Argentina for EMI Odeon


and RCA in the late ’60s and early ’70s. However, as the majority of their hits were in the “portenada” style (read: crooner with easy pop- rock backing), Groovie (in their wisdom) have instead decided to share with us the more robust beat flavours that turned up on the group’s flipsides and LPs. Though there’s nothing too startling, original


or incredible to report, there are some pretty enjoyable moments nonetheless. These come with less cheese – though there’s plenty of that –and some interesting fuzz and other stylised guitar effects, which nicely spice up the likes of ‘No Me Dejes Solo’, ‘Hechicera’ and a few others besides. Cool pictures and historical sleeve notes also


included. Lenny Helsing


BOJOURA Night Flight, Night Sight Rev-Ola CD www.revola.co.uk


Bojoura’s 1968 debut is a Dutch product but it has more in common with France’s Yeh-Yeh movement than it does the Nederbeat scene. The 20-year-old chanteuse


performs eight songs written for her by The Golden Earrings’ George Kooymans and Rinus Gerritsen, and her well-chosen covers include renditions of Donovan’s ‘Hampstead Incident’ and The Bee Gees’ ‘Holiday’. The sound is pure mid-to-late ’60s baroque


pop, and vocally very close to what Marianne Faithfull was doing at the time. Bojoura sings in a style best described as a controlled caterwaul. What comes out is something like a mildly hysterical Francoise Hardy. Imagine Claudine Longet interpreting Scott Walker’s post-Walker Brothers albums, and you’ll be close. Her high- pitched voice is an acquired taste that sometimes threatens to render the album novelty fodder, but the good songs and truly cool style save this from being mere camp entertainment. Brian Greene


THE BUBBLES Raw and Unreleased Groovie CD


www.groovierecords.com


Like everywhere in the universe at the time, The Beatles and the Stones had a tremendous impact on many aspiring young groups. A Brazilian teenage aggregation


calling themselves The Bubbles were no exception. In 1966 they released their take on ‘Get Off Of


My Cloud’ and a version of The Shakers’ wonderful beat concoction ‘Break It All’. Then, at the end of the decade, they let loose with ‘Get Out Of My Land’ and ‘The Space Flying Horse And Me’. Attributed to an almost completely different line- up, these provide the biggest thrill here, with great wodges of fuzz and loopy bass runs fighting for space. The lack of sonic power is perhaps the only drawback as the sole transfer source available was a VHS of a film (Salario Minimo) in which the group appeared. Containing mono and stereo versions of their


scant recording legacy, this LP ends on a high with both sides of the ’71 single released as A Bolha and full of excellent heavy psych-rock crunch. Lenny Helsing


Tryp Around The World PAUL MARTIN scours the furthest-flung corners of the planet in his quest for the best international psych sounds.


Cloud Cuckooland (Finders Keepers CD/2-LP) is the curate’s egg for sure. If you fully embrace all aspects of the early ’70s krautrock/kosmiche sound, then this will keep you amused for hours. What Finders Keepers have always excelled at is separating the


hard wheat from the flaccid chaff. On this occasion, they’ve chosen to document the pre-1974 output of the German Kuckuck label. The stars are Ihre Kinder (Our Children) whose three tracks are prime funky krautrock. Together with Sam Spence’s moog- meets=Morricone ‘Water World’ and the jam-o-rama of Armageddon’s ‘Oh Man’ you’ve got the highlights. As for the experimental ambient tinklings of Deuter and Ernst Schultz (the close-micing of a piece of paper being screwed up, anyone?) get me outta here!


Next, the heat is on with Absolute Belter (Finders Keepers CD/2-LP). Belter was Spain’s biggest independent label in the ’60s and ’70s. Its output was so diffuse and prolific that it is estimated there was barely a Spanish home that didn’t own at least one


record on the label. Finders Keepers have put together a representative selection from the groovier end of its bulging roster. Some inclusions are so familiar as to be classics in their own right (Albert Band, Top Show, Sonya’s ‘Get Off My Cloud’) but that’s not all. Fusioon’s three cuts come from their Belter Progressivo imprint LP whilst Los Hurricanes take a warhorse like ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ and turn it into the hippest ’60s workout you ever heard. Doomed Vampyros Lesbos actress Soledad Miranda offers up the earliest track here from her one and only ’65 EP whilst trumpeting supper club entertainer Rudy Ventura turns in a few surprise belters of his own.


And onto Psicotronica: Spanish Cinematic Grooves And Funky Soundtracks, Volume 1: 1968-78 and Volume 2: 1971-76 (both Hundergrum LPs). The Spanish film industry between the late ’60s


60


and late ’70s was quite prolific. In those final years before Franco’s death and increasingly so afterwards, a strip film period (“El Destape”) along with erotic and comedy films known as “Landismo” (named after one of its principal actors, Alfredo Landa) flourished. It’s from this


period that these two volumes are compiled. As the liners note, much of the actual music from these films was never committed to vinyl and so a raft of records by relevant composers that sound like they have come from such films has been sourced. Volume 1 has a “Costa Fleming Sound” side full of funky grooves whilst the flip features the “Dabada Sound”. Essentially these are bossa and other light Latin vibes, nice for the summer but rather irksome in comparison to the funky wah-wah blaxploitation moves on side one. Volume 2 picks up where Volume 1’s first side let off and runs with it for the whole album. A few composers’ names– Adolfo Waitzman and Jou Cogra, for example – crop up consistently across both. Anyone into Past & Present’s Instro Hipsters A Go-Go series or French and Italian library music of the period will relate to these titles. There are album-sized inserts with detailed notes in both Spanish and English, although the font size is minute.


Originally released on the tiny Katema label in ’69, you can expect to pay up to £500 for an original copy of awesome instrumental unit EDEN ROSE’S fabulous French LP, On The Way To Eden (Guerrsen LP). Blink and you’d have missed these guys before they became the


slightly better-remembered progsters Sandrose –think Brian Auger & The Trinity minus Julie Driscoll and with Ollie Halsall on guitar.This eight track 34-minute LP is a legitimate reissue with very good sound quality. ‘Faster And Faster’, ‘Travelling’, ‘Obsession’ and ‘Feeling In The Living’ conjure up the wide-eyed expression of provincial ’60s youth encountering the delights of urban night life for the first time – bright, fast and bewitching.A tremendous brew of swirling Hammond organ, frenetic drumming and stinging guitar work, once heard, you’ll immediately want to listen to again.


The title of Zulu Stomp: South Africa Garage Beats (No Smoke LP/CD) presumably alludes to the wild and savage nature of the beat music contained within, as this is a collection of apartheid-era white boys. Many of the inclusions are cover versions, but most


are far from generic. The Upsetters’ take on ‘Daddy Rolling Stone’ is especially ferocious, Freedom’s Children’s rendition of ‘Satisfaction’ almost reinvents the old warhorse and The Hoochie Coochies’ version of ‘I’m A Boy’ climaxes in a Beck-era Yardbirds rave-up. All 18 tracks are pretty visceral with sharp, stinging guitar work throughout. Some names are familiar from the emergent South African reissue scene: A-Cads, Freedom’s Children, John-E Sharp, The Bats and Finders Keepers (whose ‘Man Of The Sea’ is an out of left-field pleaser). A fun collection and the perfect companion for your Savage Sounds From South Africa LP.


Volume two of Psych Bites (Past & Present CD) is a largely European collection, with a few exceptions. The Messengers’ US flip ‘The Jungle’ is a strident and forceful workout; both sides of Nigerian (via London) OFO The Black Company’s excellent Decca Afro


freak-rock 45 are present; Germany is represented by good and eclectic tunes from The Rattles, Orange Peel and Kannibal Komix, while France adds Blackbirds 2000 and Madeleine Chartabrand (via Canada) whose stomping, sitar-inflected, anthemic ‘Ani-Kuni’ is a must-hear. Other keepers come not surprisingly from The Netherlands – the obscure Dave Dean with his 1:59 worth of ‘Jamaica’ from ’73 turns from funky song into a wah-wah freak out and The Revells, whose ’69 B-side take on the perennial ‘Indian Rope Man’ is an absolute delight. Other than the pointless Janie (Jones) novelty tune, this is a solid set of freakery. Enjoy!


www.finderskeepersrecords.com www.forcedexposure.com/labels/hundergrum.spain.html www.guerssen.com


TAGES Studio RPM CD


www.rpmrecords.co.uk


We love Tages here at Shindig! (see this issue’s six page feature if you don’t believe us!) and the scarcity of their back catalogue on CD (EMI Sweden’s 1964-68! set


and three-disc Complete Recordings being long gone) has been driving us to distraction of late. So it’s with salivating urgency that we welcome RPM’s reissue of Studio, the band’s fifth and final long- player from late ’67. Forget the lazy “Swedish Sgt Pepper” clichés –


they’re untrue (it’s way better than that) and probably haven’t helped the album’s cause during its absence. If anything it’s more akin to the timeless psych/soul hybrids of UK acts like The Small Faces and Timebox delivered with the instrumental muscle of The Hollies, the knowing pop savvy of The Move and captured on the best recording technology kronas could buy. By eschewing the UK and USA’s predilection


for eastern mysticism and its accompanying rent- a-sitar production motifs and heading instead toward their own country’s past, Tages crafted a


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76