Soul


ILL WIND Flashes Sunbeam CD www.sunbeamrecords.com


Originally released on ABC in 1968 Ill Wind's sole album came produced by Tom Wilson of electric Dylan, the Velvets and the Mothers Of Invention


fame however, in many ways, the album seems to have been jinxed from the word go. First the band were excluded from the final mixing sessions by Wilson then the band's original choice of cover artwork was rejected by the label before the final insult saw the first pressing of the album was notoriously released with a pressing fault on the track 'High Flying Bird'. For a Boston-based band Ill Wind repeatedly exhibit surprisingly strong echoes of the contemporary West Coast scene – specifically Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead in their particular blending of folk and psychedelic influences. Disc two of this deluxe double disc reissue


takes the form of a 15 track miscellany of previously unreleased material in the form of demos, tracks recorded for Capitol in ’67, a live recording and assorted of basement tapes. Grahame Bent


LOST AND FOUND Everybody's Here International Artists/Charly CD www.internationalartistsrecords.com Houston's Lost And Found's connections with The 13th Floor Elevators almost define their lone album. Produced by Lelan Rogers and originally released on


International Artists in 1967 as the label's first stereo only album, it features Peter Black's Roky-esque howl and an intruiging reworking of the Elevators' 'Don't Fall Down'. Other influences here are Love and The


Byrds –the latter most obvious on the closing 'Eight Miles High' cop 'Living Eye' –which may be explained by the band's residence for a time on the West Coast prior to recording the album. This definitive digibook edition includes


three bonus tracks from ’68: '25 MPH' which was recorded for a possible second album and the superb second single 'When Will You Come Through' / 'Professor Black'. Grahame Bent


MIJ Yodelling Astrologer Jackpot LP www.jackpotrecords.com


Originally issued on ESP-Disk as an extremely limited pressing, Mij’s lone outing – recorded in a three-hour session back in January 1969 – is now enjoying its


first re-appearance. Mij (actually Jim Holmberg) inhabits a


peculiar world where colours and sounds behave differently for him, the apparent result of


head injuries sustained in a car crash. So Yodelling Astrologer has to be, and very much is, a particularly strange beastie, with some bursts of celestial beauty. Shades of Holmberg’s strumming and vocal


lilt are almost Donovanesque in their structural simplicity. But it’s the spacey, echo-ridden vortex in which he’s chosen to place his creations that still remain, whirling around your head long after both sides have been spun. Remastered from the original tapes onto high-quality vinyl, and housed in a sturdy sleeve, this is a truly rambling and very weird folk encounter. Lenny Helsing


THE PANICKS The Complete Recordings Gear Fab CD


gearfab/swiftsite.com


From the get-go this Ohio group lets rip with some ace teen punk action. Chunky, often spangly guitars dominate, occasionally organ, complemented by


the locked groove of bassist and drummer. Bill Sobecki’s vocals are raw yet pleasingly melodic and we’re tormented now and again by some stinging fuzztone. Even the slower ‘Each To His Own’ and ‘Love You So’ are rendered cool by their tough Stonesy feel. All bar four of the fully-realised 12 cuts are unreleased, with opener ‘Don’t Pick On Me’ among the strongest. The remaining selections are mostly instrumental run-throughs. It’s not all in pristine fidelity but don’t let that


get in the way.And hey, you can never tire of hearing their superfine take on The Vacels’ ‘You’re My Baby’ (three to pick from here, one a searing live take). The ‘66 45 version rules – which may or may not feature the talents of a young Joe Walsh on lead. Lenny Helsing


VARIOUS ARTISTS Lost Souls Volume 2: Garage Psychedelic Rock From Arkansas And Beyond 1965-1971 Psych Of The South CD www.psychofthesouth.com


Clearly, this is part of a worthy and ongoing local history project to trace and document the garage and psychedelic music of Arkansas in the 1960s.


Listening from the inside, this is something


to be proud of, coming as the music does, from unreleased reel to reel tapes in private collections. From a wider perspective however, it does not, to my ears at least, maintain the same consistency of its predecessor. Its strength lays in the first 12 tracks. The Models’ ‘Leave My House’ is a garage cruncher and there’s soulful and acid fuzz in tracks by The Dust, The Right Track and Saturday’s Children. Much of the second half though, is punctuated by indifferent mid-paced instrumentals and so- so melodies. There’s a period warmth and glow about it


as a package though which helps make it more than the sum of its parts. Paul Martin


VARIOUS ARTISTS Moonage Timequake Righteous CD www.cherryred.co.uk


Compiled to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the NASA moon landing of July 1969, this inspired anthology of orchestral exotica, freaky instrumentals,


wigged out rockabilly and cosmic jazz unearthed from the outer limits of vintage vinyl stashes vividly recalls the mental landscape of ’50s America as defined by its sci-fi and B- movie fuelled fascination with outer space, alien invaders and general otherwordliness. On planet rockabilly Buck Trail's 'Knocked


Out Joint On Mars', Billy Mizer's 'Planet Named Desire' and Rusty Wellington's 'Rockin' Chair On The Moon' are all priceless examples of a long gone and short-lived sub genre. Orchestrally speaking, the tracks from


Jimmie Haskell, Frank Comstock, Thomas Dissevelt, Ron Goodwin, Dr Samuel J Hoffman, Bobby Christian and Col Frank Erhardt atmospherically evoke the spirit of the age while the two selections from Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra truly inhabit a cosmos all of their own. Space is truly still the place ! Grahame Bent


VARIOUS ARTISTS San Francisco Roots Collectors’ Choice CD www.collectorschoicemusic.com Long gone musical visionaries “Big Daddy” Tom Donahue and Bobby Mitchell were popular San Francisco based AM Top 40 dee-jays,


concert promoters, horse racing devotees and club owners as well as local act-based, record label founders. Named Autumn Records and benefiting greatly from the musical and production talents of Sylvester Stewart (later Sly Stone), the pair struck gold immediately with the still vastly under-rated Beau Brummels and ‘Do You Wanna Dance’ rock ’n’ roller Bobby Freeman’s pulse-pounding ‘C’mon And Swim’. Other highlights among the generous 16


tracks (with Ralph Gleason’s original, scene- setting liners alongside a behind-the-scenes label history lesson by essayist Richie Unterberger) are all five Brummels selections (including ‘Laugh Laugh’ and ‘Sad Little Girl’), ‘Somebody To Love’ and ‘Free Advice’ by the Grace Slick-led Great Society and The Mojo Men’s rocking garage classic ‘Dance With Me’. The Knight Riders, The Vejtables and The Tikis also have their moments. Gary von Tersch


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BOBBY FREEMAN Give My Heart A Break: The Complete King Recordings Ace CD www.acerecords.com


San Francisco-born pianist/singer and songwriter Freeman is pushing 70 now (and still active) but at age 14 he was singing doo-wop with The Romancers for


Dootone Records. As a solo artist he then had a string of rock


’n’ roll and ballad hits for the Josie label in the late ’50s –including the immortal ‘Do You Wanna Dance’ –but in 1960 made the mistake of signing with Syd Nathan’s King empire. He scored almost immediately with ‘Shimmy Shimmy’ but the remainder of the fine soulful sides he cut (18 in all) have been largely unissued until now. In addition to further self-penned, crackerjack titles like the fervid ballad ‘You Don’t Understand Me’, up-tempo bouncers like ‘There’s Gonna Be A Change’ and ‘Be My Little Chick-A-Dee’ and the ballad masterpiece ‘Please Stay By Me’, Freeman also stirringly revives favorites by Sonny Thompson (the title track), James Brown, Donnie Elbert, Larry Williams and Little Willie John.


The enclosed booklet puts it all in perspective. Gary von Tersch


CAROL WOODS Out Of The Woods Fantastic Voyage CD www.futurenoisemusic.com


The church has given generously to secular soul music over the years. One such gift is listening to Carol Woods walk Out Of The Woods for the first time on


CD.


Before Woods, the granddaughter of a Pentecostal minister and former gospel choir star, became a successful actor, walking the boards in numerous Broadway musicals and appearing on screen with Eddie Murphy, the native New Yorker was a struggling singer and registered nurse who cut this excellent slice of sophisticated soul for Ember, the small independent label founded by the owner of London's Flamingo Club, Jeffrey Kruger.


Recorded in New York and London between


1970 and ’72, Woods's debut LP was given a UK-only release and gradually slip-slided away, only to become a sought-after item for collectors of ’70s soul. Listening to Woods' sassy and classy


lessons in love, whether it's the finger- poppin' love rush 'Bigger Than I', the smooth- to-the-groove heartbreaker 'Why You Wanna' or the gospel-inflected take of The Chiffons' 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?' as her voice rises ever higher over sweeping strings, it's not hard to understand why crates were being furiously dug the world over. Alan Brown


63


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