Over Vol.18 installments the series is curated by leading experts on rare psych. Sometimes the volumes might dig into a specific country or theme, but mostly they're just a way to collect fine tunes. Busy Bee presents this 18th volume that includes gems from all over the world, including an unreleased song by Howling Wind (pre-Candle), an obscure Rhodesian 45 and a Danish cover of Keith West's 'On A Saturday' among other treats.
Artists - Tracks - Origin
The Kool - Look At Me Look At Me (UK) - 2:20
The Teenmakers - On A Saturday (Denmark) - 3:23
The Pussyfoot - Mr Hyde (UK) - 2:31
The Jay Five - It’s Raining (Germany) - 2:27
Paul Osborne - Ice (UK) - 3:56
The Shanes - Without Your Love (Sweden) - 2:32
Ice - Memories (UK) - 3:19
Jon Mark - All Neat In Black Stockings (UK) - 3:03
Science Poption - Back In Town (Sweden) - 2:36
Maxwell And Nicholson - Virgin (UK) - 2:18
Unknown Artist - The Bedd (UK) - 2:40
Pamela - Je T’aime Un Peu...Beaucoup... Passion ment (Belgium) - 2:28
Howling Winds - Meditating (Sweden) - 3:31
I Fantoms - Katia (Italy) - 3:04
Jack Grunsky - Julie Knows (Austria) - 3:09
The Moonlighters - Mary Wilkins (Sweden) - 3:59
Ted Mulry - I Love You (Australia) - 2:32
The Maximillian King Trio - Indigo (Rhodesia) - 3:21
Volume 17 of the compilation series which have named an own genre of '60s styled sunshine psych pop called simply 'Fading Yellow'. This time including US and some Canadian 45's from 1965 to 1971. A magical smörgåsbord of songs with that special FY vibe. Among many highlights is the original version of 'Kites' made famous by Simon Dupree and the Big Sound, The Rooftop Singers did the original version. Limited edition of 500 copies with 8 page booklet with info about the tracks and pictures.
Artists - Tracks
1. The Avant-Garde - Yellow Beads - 3:02
2. Alan Lorber - Congress Alley - 2:51
3. The Poppy Family - I'll See You There - 3:23
4. J.C. Cole - I Found Me Today - 2:27
5. The Rooftop Singers - Kites - 2:24
6. A Small World - I See You - 1:48
7. Space - Radio Song - 3:06
8. James, John And Francois - Carolina - 2:51
9. The Fifth Estate - Love Is All A Game - 2:27
10.The Celtics - Looking For You - 2:30
11.The Hobbits - Artificial Face - 2:32
12.The Surprise Package - The Other Me - 2:14
13.The Magpies - The Ballad Of Samuel Oscar Beasley - 3:37
14.The Looking Glass - Love Is Not Everything - 2:52
15.The Marshmellow Highway - I Don't Wanna Live This Way - 2:33
16.Bucky Wilkin - I Wanna Be Free - 2:11
17.Sound Carnival - I Wish I Could Tell You - 2:30
18.The Swiss Movement - Inside Of Me - 2:36
19.The In-Keepers - The Cobwebs Thread Of Autumn - 2:57
Few years since the last volume. This time it´s all LP tracks from the US, UK and one from down under. Starting off with the lovely "Man of many faces" by Gary And Stu, proceeding with more magic gems including tracks by West, Hudson-Farnsworth, Wings (not the Paul McCartney group), Saint Jacques, Alexander Rabbit and more
Artist - Title
1. Gary And Stu - Man Of Many Faces - 3¨09
2. West - Sad About The Times - 2:34
3. John Wonderling - Jessica Stone - 3:56
4. Hudson-Farnsworth - Come To See My Lady - 2:07
5. The Open Window - Jack And Jill - 2:17
6. Bruce Woodley - New England Lady - 3:19
7. Tranquility - Nice And Easy - 3:10
8. Hobo - Open Up - 3:02
9. Saint Jacques - Susan - 2:49
10.Wings - That’s Not Real - 3:26
11.Cross Country - Just A Thought - 3:20
12.Ed Welch - Clowns - 3:38
13.Yellowstone And Voice - Lady Rita - 3:38
14.Hudson-Farnsworth - Lay Down Sheep - 2:15
15.Puff - Changes - 3:37
16.Michael Konstan - Long Before - 2:26
17.Alexander Rabbit - My Woman - 4:20
18.Willow - Evening - 4:10
19.Kind Hearts And English - A Wish For All Seasons - 6:34
This self titled album by Randolph Marr presents mellow pop sike sounds with loads of strings and horns. A hidden treasure of the 70’s.
Recording sessions began in 1969 with Nilsson at the helm. He produced backing tracks for two of the songs that would eventually appear on the record: a cover of his own “1941” and Marr’s haunting “Pity the Man.” But when trying to get vocal performances out of Marr, Nilsson became frustrated and gave Gary Osborn a shot. Pleased with the results, Nilsson passed the project on to Osborn who produced the remaining ten tracks with Hank Cicalo on board as engineer. The album was released on the Warner Brothers label in 1970 with album design by Dean Torrence (of Jan and Dean)”
Harry Nilsson was originally set up to produce this album but passed the baton to Gary Osbome to finish the job after being impressed with some of his results. Other than that the only thing about this record I can gather is that there was a promp single released (Hallelujah b/w 1 Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now) at an undisclosed date
The album itself is a mix of various styles most often accompanied by orchestral arrangements with occasional electric guitar and gospel backing vocals. Nicely produced. It really is one of those songs that wraps self around your senses and removes you from your surroundings if you have the ear for this type of thing Lush strings, distinct acoustic fingerpicking and prominent harpsichord provide a perfect backdrop to Marr's haunting and mysterious lyrics
Tracks
1. Hallelujah (Dave White, Johnny Caswell) - 2:40
2. 1941 (Harry Nilsson) - 2:42
3. I Wonder Who`s Kissing Her Now (Frank R. Adams, Joseph E. Howard, Will M. Hough) - 2:59
1975 marked the return to the recording scene for Steve Young. Honky Tonk Man, released on Wisconsin's tiny Mountain Railroad Records, was his first recording since Seven Bridges Road in 1971 (which had been reissued in 1973). This is the most straight-up country record Young ever cut. He handles both lead and rhythm guitar chores with a band of fine session players, including Kamau Gravatt, who did double duty with Weather Report. Other than redos of Utah Phillips' "Rock, Salt & Nails" and his own "White Trash Song," Young sticks somewhat close to the canon of classic country with a few surprises -- at least on side one; side two is mostly his own material.
The deep blues read of Bob Wills' "Brain Cloudy Blues" is radical and as far from Western swing as it gets, but it also showcases Wills' own roots in the blues. The title cut is a version of the Johnny Horton classic with swinging fiddles by Craig Ruble and Cal Hand's warbling pedal steel kept in line by Bill Petersen's electric bass. Young's vocal is a reedy baritone that gets to the heart of matter -- that this is a drinking playboy's anthem. Side one eclipses with a high, lonesome take on Hank Williams' "Ramblin' Man" that is as cur-dog low as it is restless and a cover of Robbie Robertson's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." Young's version is pastoral and slow; it's as mournful as a funeral song and comes across as a folk elegy for the Deep South at the end of the Civil War.
Side two is marked by Young's own stunner, "We've Been Together on This Earth Before," "Vision of a Child," and two live cuts done with Doc Watson of the traditional "Sally Goodin'" and the spooky country of "Travelin' Kind." Like Seven Bridges Road, Honky Tonk Man is a fine outing from Young, though it is hampered a bit by somewhat shoddy recording. But the material and his performance of it are top-notch.
by Thom Jurek
Tracks
1. Honky Tonk Man (Johnny Horton, Howard Hausey, Tilman Franks) - 2:23
2. Brain Cloudy Blues (Bob Wills, Tommy Duncan) - 4:48
Warren Schatz is a music industry veteran who details his life in the music business as an artist, engineer, producer, arranger and more. Warren has produced classic records like Turn The Beat Around and Express Yourself, Memories, To Sir With Love and many more, Executive Produced Evelyn "Champagne" King's hit "Shame." He arranged "Our Day Will Come" for Frankie Valli and Tony Orlando as well as signing some of the biggest acts in the recorded music business including like Bonnie Tyler, Triumph, Krokus and more.
Warren Schatz, at 25, brings to his debut solo album a sense of honesty and the focused personal awareness that are the framework of his generation. He is, in his life and in the songs that surround him, something akin to the magician's cup that never empties, always expressive of open joy in life and the sunshine of a lover's heart. There is beauty in his songs, just shaded with a Scorpionic acceptance of ultimate nightfall.
The Warren Schatz of today, bushy, mustached, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 3, 1945. His father was an early sound enthusiast who stood in front of blasting professional speakers at home conducting recordings from an orchestral score.
Warren was started on a song repertoire for entertaining guests at two, and really hasn't stopped since. In his mid-teens he booked himself as "Ritchie Dean," a singer-guitarist for fraternity dances in and around New York, and organized a succession of groups for both live dates and recordings. New York area audiences saw him as part of The Pendants, The Petrified Forest, The Warmest Spring, The Shapes of Things and The Whispers.
At the same time he was beginning to handle recording sessions as a recording engineer at Associated Recording Studios in New York. To this ten years of direct and continuous experience both as a performer and as an engineer he has added his most immediately apparent quality, the dynamism and electricity of a charismatic human being. At last year's International Popular Song Festival in Tokyo he galvanized a usually-restrained audience of more than 30,000 to an uproarious ovation.
Warren credits his drive and energy to early encouragement from his teacher, Ruth Roberts, a loving and open person whose advice he often credits.
The songs on this album, like Warren himself, reveal a gentle, open person, joyful, loving, perceptive, often softly saddened, suddenly angry, honest and unashamed always. His message is a good one.
by Marshall Phillips (liner notes)
Tracks
1. Give A Little Love - 4:56
2. Sorrow (Warren Schatz, Robert Norval Langworthy) - 4:09
3. The Sky Keeps Fallin' Down - 3:22
4. Ain't That What Love's All About - 3:43
5. If I Could Find A Way - 6:04
6. The Ride Has Just Begun - 2:12
7. Good Morning - 2:09
8. Free My Mind - 5:29
9. Willow Song - 3:22
10.I Always Sang For My Father - 2:31
11.Happy Man - 3:29
Words and Music by Warren Schatz except where noted
Within about a minute of the start of “Wherefore & Why,” the opening track on Gordon Lightfoot’s Did She Mention My Name?, you knew something was a little different. This third album, released in April 1968, featured the fast-rising Canadian troubadour’s first use of strings, to elegant effect. But the essence was the same: Lightfoot, 29 at the time of the LP’s release, seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of top-drawer compositions to call upon. By the time it emerged, he had already written more than 200 songs.
The new batch was arranged by John Simon, who took over as Lightfoot’s producer, for this album only, at a time when he was becoming one of America’s hottest studio properties. He had just overseen the Songs of Leonard Cohen album, released a few weeks earlier, and as 1968 went on, Simon would also produce the equally hallowed Music From Big Pink by The Band, Blood, Sweat & Tears‘ Child Is Father To The Man, and Big Brother & the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills.
Lightfoot’s new set contained some of the most memorable songs of his early years, including the intense “Black Day In July,” written about the Detroit riots (“pulsating rhythm item with compelling lyric content,” said Billboard) and the gorgeous, heartbreaking “The Last Time I Saw Her,” which would attract a hit country cover by Glen Campbell. Its words eloquently described the end of an affair: “The last time I saw her face/Her eyes were bathed in starlight/And her hair hung long/The last time she spoke to me/Her lips were like the scented flowers/Inside a rain-drenched forest.”
“It’s about the breakup of a marriage,” wrote Lightfoot in the liner notes to 1999’s Songbook. “In a way, you’re predicting what’s going to take place, and then it happens. In some sense you play the scene out in your mind, and after the fact, it hits you how close you were to the mark. It makes it a little tough to perform sometimes, but not tough enough to keep a great song down. In a way, it covers the same ground as ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ did years later.”
The album also featured the whimsical “May I,” the much-played “Pussywillows, Cat-Tails,” the unusually brassy “I Want To Hear It From You,” and the more folk-based title track, of which Lightfoot said: “It goes back to your high school sweetheart. You know you’re never going to date her again, but you meet up with a friend from the home town and you ask after her, and about all the other things you’ve missed since you moved away. You want to reconnect with your roots.”
Like its predecessor The Way I Feel, released 12 months earlier, the new LP featured lead acoustic guitar by Red Shea and bass by John Stockfish. Joining the team were widely-traveled drummer Herbie Lovelle and another hugely in-demand studio man, lead guitarist Hugh McCracken.
Lightfoot’s achievements in his home country were recognized at the MIDEM music industry fair in Cannes. He was given the MIDEM International Trophy Award as “bestselling Canadian male singer” in the year between July 1966 and June 1967. Did She Mention My Name? achieved a Canadian chart position, at No.21, and his live engagements included folk festivals in San Diego and San Francisco – the latter his West Coast debut – and a residency at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in April.
In March, he was also the subject of a Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) Show of the Week TV special called Wherefore & Why, after the LP’s opening song, in which he featured with Toronto scenester “Rompin’” Ronnie Hawkins and folk singer Bonnie Dobson, all signing Gordon’s songs. Hawkins had recently released a single of his countryman’s “Home From The Forest,” a track from The Way I Feel.
Covers of Lightfoot’s expanding catalog were coming from all angles: his friend George Hamilton IV recorded another track from that set, “Song For A Winter’s Night,” while 20th Century Fox signings the Raftsmen cut “Hands I Love,” as had Harry Belafonte a few months earlier. The singer-songwriter’s success was spreading to the big screen, too: he wrote and sang the theme tune for the 1968 movie Fade In, starring Burt Reynolds.
Canadian trade magazine RPM was sounding justifiably proud of the artist’s ever greater profile in a January 1968 report, just before he won Top Male Vocalist in the publication’s annual music poll. “The Lightfoot explosion is just about the most exciting thing that has happened to the Canadian music scene,” they wrote. “He has an over-abundance of talent as a composer and artist and the world is just beginning to realise it.”
As 1968 came to an end, Gordon Lightfoot would celebrate his 30th birthday with a great sense of satisfaction. His busy year, and an intense period of creative and commercial growth, culminated in a fourth studio album, Back Here On Earth, that would prove to be his last studio set for United Artists. The name of the gifted singer-songwriter was now on lips far beyond just his native Canada.
Another album meant another change of producer, as Lightfoot, again recording in Nashville, now worked with New Yorker Elliot Mazer. Like John Simon, who oversaw Did She Mention My Name?, released at the beginning of the year, Mazer would count The Band among his credits, as well as Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, and Neil Young. As earlier, the new set included songs that the artist would revisit when his profile was even higher, notably the sorrowful and elegant “The Circle Is Small,” which he revived for Endless Wire almost a decade later.
The LP had a more simple, acoustic feel, with support only from guitarist Red Shea and bassist John Stockfish, but given extra depth by Lightfoot’s own accompaniment on both six and 12-string guitars. Another track, the haunting “Affair On 8th Avenue,” drew on his frequent visits to the US, where he was now playing clubs such as the Bitter End in New York and the Cellar Door in Washington.
“Cold Hands From New York” was another diary entry by a stranger in Manhattan. “I came down through Albany to New York to find what I’d been missin’,” he wrote, in a travelog with references to such landmarks as the Lincoln Tunnel and Central Park. “I came down to live alone in New York, the city of the living/There were fortunes at my feet but most of men were taking, none were giving, or forgiving.”
No fewer than eight of the LP’s 11 tracks attracted covers, including one the following year by Waylon Jennings, who gave it an attractive, slowed down country ballad treatment with vocal accompaniment from the Kimberleys. Another cut from Back Here On Earth, “Gypsy,” gained a 1974 rendition by Petula Clark.
Lightfoot’s touring in support of the album included a show at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles, where Robert Hilburn of the L.A. Times wrote: “He weaves folk, country and mainstream pop influences into a distinctly contemporary style of his own. His lyrics, melodies and delivery share a common honesty and intensity.” Time magazine afforded Lightfoot prestigious coverage as the record emerged, and early in 1969, his preeminence was underlined as he won RPM’s Best Folk Singer title, keeping Joni Mitchell in second place and Leonard Cohen in third.
by Paul Sexton, January 1, 2024 and November 1, 2023
Tracks
1. Wherefore And Why - 2:54
2. The Last Time I Saw Her - 5:11
3. Black Day In July - 4:13
4. May I - 2:17
5. Magnificent Outpouring - 2:28
6. Does Your Mother Know - 3:36
7. The Mountains And Maryann - 3:35
8. Pussywillows Cat Tails - 2:49
9. I Want To Hear It From You - 2:21
10. Something Very Special - 3:17
11. Boss Man - 2:05
12. Did She Mention My Name - 2:26
13. Long Way Back Home - 3:05
14. Unsettled Ways - 1:52
15. Long Thin Dawn - 2:59
16. Bitter Green - 2:43
17. The Circle Is Small - 3:26
18. Marie Christine - 2:52
19. Cold Hands From New York - 4:17
20. Affair On 8th Avenue - 3:26
21. Don't Beat Me Down - 3:14
22. The Gypsy - 2:46
23. If I Could - 4:11
All Music and Lyrics by Gordon Lightfoot
Tracks 1-12 from 1968 LP "Did She Mention My Name?"
Kush came together around late 1971, emerging out of the 20-piece Barry Veith Big Band. Duff was the last to join and he went through the usual audition process, impressing the other musicians with his voice ("I think they liked my voice because I didn't sound like Joe Cocker or someone like that," Duff recalled recently) and his dress sense! So the original line-up was: Duff (Vocals, percussion), John Ellis (Alto & baritone sax, clarinet; band leader/musical director), Roger Pell (Guitar), Ron Anderson (Tenor sax, flute, piano), John Santos (Trumpet, Flugel horn), Colin Chapman (Trumpet, Flugel horn), Rob Matthews (Bass) and Larry Kegn (Drums).
John Ellis recalled recently, "When we were auditioning singers and Jeff came in, we had our wives and girlfriends there listening and a lot of them instantly said 'that's the guy you've gotta have'. I loved Jeff's voice because it reminded me of David Clayton Thomas. The other guys liked some of the other, more commercial singers because at that stage we were doing all covers like 'Proud Mary' and 'River Deep Mountain High'. I'd done most of the arrangements and John Santos had done some arrangements, like for Blood Sweat & Tears' 'Spinning Wheel'. We held out and said Jeff is exactly what this band needs, a singer with a voice a bit different. Seeing it was my band, I'd formed it and John was the other arranger (so) we won and Jeff came in. And then we probably started doing more and more Chicago and BS&T songs because of Jeff's voice."
Duff had an interesting early career; he'd started singing and drum lessons by the time he was 12 years old. His earliest bands (around 1966 and 1967) included Why and Not Only But Also. By late 1969 and into 1970 he was fronting Melbourne pop band The (New) Avengers. The Avengers had been around in one form or another since 1967, but by the time Duff joined there were no original members left in the ranks. The guitarist then was David Briggs who later went on to international fame with the Little River Band. The Avengers had broken up by the end of 1970. Incidentally, at the time Duff was known as Jeff Black.
The singer was also attending Swinburne Art College around this time where he came into contact with future members of Madder Lake. Duff's first vocal appearance (backed by the Madder Lake guys) on record was on the college-produced flexi- disc 'Swinburne Bestiary', which he recalls must have been a performance that was recorded and pressed up by the Student Union as an end-of-year memento.
Snow White... and the Eight Straights vindicated the band's heightened profile by reaching #5 in Melbourne. It was a glorious album, mixing campy jazz pop ('Easy Street'), hard jazz rock ('All Right in the City', 'Satanic Deity', 'Klue', a re-recorded version of 'Wait') with dramatic, highly arranged and immaculately played epics ('Christopher John', 'McArthur Park').
With regards to the album title, the guys recalled a live review by Ian 'Molly' Meldrum in the pages of Go-Set magazine in which he'd referred to the band as "Snow White and the Eight Straights". It was an obvious choice as it encapsulated the band's presence in one simple, straightforward phrase.
While the songs generally kept a tight focus, there was much scope in the arrangements for extended soloing (‘All Right in the City', ‘Satanic Deity', ‘Christopher John'). Alternatively, as a mark of the band's intuitive sense of togetherness, the ensemble playing during the instrumental section of 'McArthur Park', for example, is truly spectacular, in particular the syncopation between drum patterns and the towering horn lines. Also, there was no other singer on the Australian scene who could have carried the song's demanding vocal with such charisma, commanding presence and sheer lung power as the indefatigable Jeff Duff. He'd obviously taken much inspiration from the original Richard Harris sung version, really getting to grips with the actor's great oratorical delivery of the enigmatic lyrics. Duff's phrasing throughout is exceptional. This version of 'McArthur Park' is a classic that still demands the listener's attention.
The album's centrepiece is the emotional 'Christopher John', a multi-part suite written by Herzog that never gets bogged down in over-dramatic indulgence. Each part has a distinct flavour with memorable hooks and seamless arrangements that make for an uninterrupted flow. The denouement comes close to the 10 minute mark, taking the listener back to the opening musical theme and thereby tying the whole thing together with consummate ease. The highlight surely must be Ron Anderson's beautiful flute solo in the dreamy mid-section; simply stunning.
by Ian McFarlane
Tracks
1. Wait Overture (David Herzog, Jeff Duff) - 2:03
2. Easy Street (Steve Ball) - 3:49
3. All Right in the City (Don Dunn, Tony McCashen) - 2:54
4. McArthur Park (Jim Webb) - 7:34
5. Wait (David Herzog, Jeff Duff) - 4:52
6. Satanic Deity (David Herzog, Jeff Duff) - 8:50
7. Christopher John Suite: Birth/Life/Death/Infinity (David Herzog) - 10:13
8. Klue (David Herzog, Jeff Duff) - 5:23
9. Peter Gun (Henry Mancini) - 2:31
10.Sky Is Falling (Jim Peterik) - 3:00
11.Can't You Hear Me Calling (Ian Mason) - 2:56
12.Wait (David Herzog, Jeff Duff) - 3:52
13.Introduction (Terry Kath) - 4:39
14.Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? (Robert Lamm) - 2:54
15.Beginnings (Robert Lamm) - 5:37
16.Interview with Jeff Duff - 2:10
Tracks 1-8 from the LP “Presents Snow White... And The Eight Straights“ recorded at Bill Armstrong Studios, South Melbourne, 1974
Tracks 9-12 recorded at Bill Armstrong Studios, South Melbourne, 1973
Tracks 13-15 Live In The Studio, recorded live at Bill Armstrong Studios, South Melbourne, 1973
One of those unusual litle records on the Ampex label at the start of the 70s – a groovy rock group with a nice current of soul in the instrumentation – almost a Muscle Shoals sort of vibe – topped with nice vocals from Carol Breval, who's got this deep vibe that sounds nice next to the Hammond and horns!
Recorded in London, England, and released by a New York record label. Who could guess this group came from Québec? The sole hint is the predominance of French names in the lineup (which includes the pianist Pierre Nadeau, two years prior to his involvement with Ville-Emard Blues Band). Their sole eponymous album offers individual photos of all band members without specifying their respective instruments. Alongside Nadeau are Paul Morin, Jean Morin, Andre Morin, Jo Trivisonno, Paul Dalonzo, jr, Francois Petrari and Robert Turmel as well as singer Carol Breval. (similar to a french version of Janis Joplin).
This is jazz rock similar in vein to the Chicago Transit Authority, with expected sprinklings of psych, folk-rock and R&B. Most of the songs on the album are written by either Lanny Meyers or Rick Kunis (the band's arrangers, with the latter producing the album. The excelent track "Those Years Have Gone By" sports a soul feel with chord progressions not unlike a young Pink Floyd, accompanied by a swing-jazz-rock interlude. The folk-rock feel of "Anniversary", filled with somewhat unpredictable chords is complemented by the appearance of a pedal steel guitar. The album closer "I Can't Believe It" is a tour de force clocking in at almost 12 minutes, travelling through several different modes (of which some predict the stylings of VEBB). In closing, a little known, but well-performed, album that merits as much a listen for it's arrangement as for it's inclusion in Pierre Nadeau's recorded resume.
Tracks
1. Hands Of Children (Lanny Meyers) - 4:33
2. Those Years Have Gone By (Paul Morin) - 5:13
3. Don't Need Your Love (Bob Bilvk, Marty Butler) - 3:48
4. Anniversary (Lanny Meyers) - 5:59
5. Feel Better (Lanny Meyers) - 2:50
6. Crow Bait (Rick Kunis) - 3:10
7. If You Don't Call That Love (Lanny Meyers) - 5:45
Out Of Focus was a German “Krautrock” band, formed in 1968 in Munich. By 1972 they released three fantastic albums with a distinctive style of blending heavy rock with jazzy overtones.
The band’s lyrics reflected socio-political events. After the band split, Remigius Drechsler went to Embryo for a while before forming his own project, Kontrast. Today we can find six albums with the core lineup of Remigius Drechsler (guitar), Hennes Hering (organ, piano), Moran (sax, flute, lead vocals), Stephan Wisheu (bass) and Klaus Spöri (drums), later Ingo Schmid-Neuhaus (alto,- baritone sax), Peter Dechant (classical guitar), Wolfgang Göhringer (guitar).
by Klemen Breznikar
Palermo 1972 is Out of Focus’s third album, and what a progressive rock journey it is. Consisting of six tracks, recorded live at the Teatro Biondo, Palermo, Italy, on the twenty-six of May 1972, all of which flow in the style of Soft Machine or Kollective, with Saxophones, Flutes, Organs, and Drum solo’s a plenty. It is pure Progressive Rock, often spacey, mellow, chaotic, and all the while it takes the listener on a definite journey somewhere, to where is totally up to the listener. But rest assured that it does spin the head, which obviously is a must for me! The quality of the recording is very good and the ambience of the concert has been captured beautifully. Also, according to the accompanying booklet, this was the best gig of their 1972 tour of Italy, and luckily, all channels on the recorder worked perfectly, as other gigs it did not function on all channels. So, what we have here is Out of Focus at their best, and it is a joy to listen to the creative energy that flows from the recording.
The album is over seventy minutes in length and it rarely pauses between tracks, giving almost constant music throughout. Most of the tracks are jazzy in a fashion; mixing rousing Sax freak out’s with tight and imaginative organic instrumental sections, and it is for this reason that I mention The Soft Machine as a likeness, although Out of Focus are not totally instrumental, there are vocals, which are not my cup of tea as I much prefer the instrumental stuff. Nevertheless it is well worth a listen.
by Albert Pollard
Tracks
1. Whispering (Remigius Drechsler, Hennse Hering, Moran Neumüller, Klaus Spöri, Stephen Wiesheu) - 10:15
