1970s
VARIOUS ARTISTS Boddie Recording Company, Cleveland, Ohio Numero 3-CD/5-LP box set
Thomas and Louise Boddie ran their studio from 1958 to ’93 and recorded countless hours of unissued tapes there. Their clients
ranged from local aspiring psychedelic funksters (look up ‘Crystal Illusion’ by Creation Unlimited on Youtube) to church gospel choirs and soul singers of various styles. All of whom are represented here. The focus is on the late ’60s to mid- 70s and the emphasis is on funk – even the gospel choirs are all extremely funky! The clearly talented, but not quite thought- through nature of some of the material is epitomised by a local Marvin Gaye & Tammy Terrell type duet entitled ‘Don’t Make Me Kill You’!
All 57 tracks are at least good, many are excellent. The fat booklets and overall presentation in both formats is superb and encase a slice of otherwise forgotten local life and enterprise that deserves to be remembered. Paul Martin
VARIOUS ARTISTS Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984 Chocolate Industries CD
An unspeakably fine offering from the esoteric Chicago imprint takes the current penchant for weird, subterranean soul obscurities to
the outer limits by giving a glimpse of what happened when new technology opened the gates for bedroom black music.
Of course, no rhythm-box could replace
a live funky drummer, but the combination of cold, robotic groove and warm Rhodes keys, shimmering guitar and impassioned voice can veer between Otis G Johnson’s eerily soul-baring ‘Time To Go Home’ and
the mesmerisingly sonorous mantra of Spontaneous Overthrow’s ‘Money’ – soul stripped of orchestration or production sheen. It can also be riotous fun, as on Starship Commander Woo Woo’s Mastership, or steamy when US Aries get down with the machines on ‘Are You Ready To Come?’ That’s only four tracks out of 17 emotion-straddling try-outs, experiments and personal statements. Despite the machines, as raw and lonesomely-created as soul gets. Kris Needs
VARIOUS ARTISTS Wheedle’s Groove: Seattle’s Finest In Funk And Soul 1965-1979 Light In The Attic 10-45 box set
1980s/90s
KS CHITHRA WITH ILAIYARAAJA KS Chithra With Ilaiyaraaja Finders Keepers 2-LP/CD
Revered by fans in Southern India as Little Nightingale, this anthology of KS Chithra collects some of her
recordings from the
A whole other and until recently, forgotten music scene beyond ’60s garage and ’90s grunge once gripped Seattle: funk. Here we have a reproduction 10 single box that documents it, with most sides coming from the ’70s. The majority of these sides are as tight as hot pants, bite hard and sound hungry for recognition. Pile driving horns and earth quaking bass and drums dominate. However, the set should have stuck though to the scene’s heyday in the early to mid-70s. The last three singles mark the eclipse of the hard funk sound during the disco era. Gone are the deep bass loops and punching horns, replaced by mellow keyboards and smoother vocals. The first three quarters of the box though are absolutely essential. Add the bonus 23-minute, five-track CD of unreleased songs from ’75 and a near 100 page book and your booty will be well and truly shaken! Paul Martin
late ’80s and early ’90s. Although this might sound alarmingly out of place here, these are all film music compositions by maverick experimenter Ilaiyaraaja. His previous Finders Keepers collection, Solla Solla, explored his amazing ’70s legacy. In moving forward his vision did not dull. He employs contemporary digital synthesiser sounds but these actually compliment rather than dominate, his composing and meld with the analogue sounds he crafted the previous decade. Atop all this, Chithra’s high pitched vocals soar and shine making for a possibly unique musical hybrid. All 17 tracks manage to convey a stylistic commonality and yet maintain a discreet differentiation within themselves. This speaks to the depth of Ilaiyaraaja’s compositional skill and Chithra’s consummate interpretive ability. Global groove fans should find this a
rewarding investment. Paul Martin
ROKY ERICKSON & THE ALIENS Roky Erickson & The Aliens (AKA 5 Symbols) Mojo CD
The ravages of ECT and Erickson’s obsessive
fascination with sci- fi and B-Movie horror films were clearly evident in
the song titles by the time this was recorded in 1980. Just check out ‘I Walked With A Zombie’ or ‘Creature With The Atom Brain’. Liberally sprinkled with references to demons, vampires, zombies and the like, lyrically and musically, 5 Symbols is darker and heavier than The Thirteenth Floor Elevators ever were.
From the blistering opening track ‘Two Headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer)’ to the last, ‘Bloody Hammer’ (one of two excellent bonus tracks – the other being ‘The Wind And More’), Erickson’s clearly palpable sense of paranoia never lets up. He’s always had a soft spot for country- orientated tunes too, ‘I Think Of Demons’ being a prime example. Given Erickson’s recent rehabilitation, both mentally and musically, this is a welcome and reasonably timely rerelease then, and fully deserves to be part of Mojo magazine’s new Buried Treasures series. Rich Deakin
ChurchOfHarrison
COTTON MATHER Kontiki: Deluxe Edition Star Apple Kingdom 2-CD
The mid-to-late ’90s was a good period for aficio nados of bright, ’60s- tinged US guitar pop. Wondermints,
Apples In Stereo, Shazam, Cherry Twister and countless others kept us in hooks and harmonies for what felt like a golden couple of summers. But even in this climate, one record stood head, shoulders and big pointy hat above the rest: Kontiki by Cotton Mather. Fifteen years later, the album’s sucker-punch pop manifesto still takes your breath away.
Recorded at dozens of ad-hoc, homespun sessions during 1997 – mostly in a shed just outside Austin, Texas – by a nucleus of singer/songwriter Robert Harrison and guitarist Whit Williams, the pieces were then painstakingly stitched together by producer/engineer Brad Jones. From these humble origins was born a monster – a 40-minute white knuckle ride that throws Revolver-era Beatles, prime pop-art Who and Smiley Smile harmonies at Guided By Voices’ lo-fi art-rock and emerges sounding more vibrant and electric than any of them. Fawning reviews followed, particularly here in the UK, and the band was flung into promotional overdrive, celebrity endorsements and an Oasis tour
Wheedles wobble but they don’t fall down 83
support that it never recovered from. The thought of Cotton Mather playing ‘Aurora Bori Alice’ to a stadium full of pissed Gallagher worshippers still sends a shudder down the spine.
This deluxe edition is the result of a campaign spearheaded by Harrison in which the record’s fans – celebrity or otherwise – funded and enabled the reissue. The extras – presented in the same speaker-shredding analogue fidelity as the album – include thrilling, full-band four-track demos (these are demos?), early stabs at later album tracks, and bona fide out-takes. While these may be stylistically and sonically in keeping with the album, Harrison’s decision to jettison them was well judged – they’d have felt like too much pudding. Harrison’s lengthy essay on Kontiki’s
genesis manages to be funny, insightful and full of illusion-bursting altruisms (not to mention a DIY recording nut’s wet dream). Whit Williams, whose sinuous SG lines inform much of the album’s character, has this to say: “Our time spent recording is mostly a blur… where Robert is frenetically moving around the tiny room, patching and unpatching cables, tweaking knobs like some mad scientist, shouting out a lead vocal take while running a power drill… and all the while I’m standing quietly nearby, just along the outer bands of this creative cyclone.” Just like we all imagined then, eh? Andy Morten
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