Dillinger was formed by the Harrison brothers - Jacques (vocals, flute, sax, organ) and Robert (drums) in 1973. Although they were originally from Montreal, they'd moved to Toronto to try and access a bigger rock and roll audience, and along with guitarist Paul Cockburn and Terry Bramhall on bass and accordian, they worked the circuit and Cliff Hunt agreed to manage them.
They were spotted playing one night by Frank Davies, president of Daffodil Records. He signed them to a deal and produced their self-titled debut album in 1974. The music was highly progressive with psychadelic undertones, heavy on organ and guitars. But with only four tracks, including the 17-minute epic "Live and Return," only their cover of Spirit's "Nature's Way" was short enough for radio airplay. It didn't get it, and no singles were released. Although the lead-off "People" however did wind up on a Daffodil compilation album later that year, the album came and went without a whimper.
After another year of constant touring around the central Canada region, they returned with DON'T LIE TO THE BAND in '76. With Davies again at the helm, this time it featured Terry Brown (Klaatu, Rush, and a million others) and John Woloschuk helping in the studio. Recording had been over four months in the process, and the music was shifting toward a more accessible sound. Like its predecessor, the bulk of the material was written by either Cockburn or Jacques Harrison, but also featured a cover of The Beatles' "Taxman" and Spooky Tooth's "Two Time Love." The tender ballad "Coming Home" also showed a new side of the band. The songs were shorter, were generally moving towards a heavier and simpler sound, and were more radio friendly, but no singles were released.
Dillinger was a Canadian progressive band from Toronto, Ontario. The band's debut self-titled album was originally released on the Daffodil Records label in 1974. The album contains three original songs composed by the band and a superb cover of the song "Nature's Way," originally done by Spirit on The 12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus album.
Dillinger's music is a complex, guitar-and-organ fronted progressive sound which moves from jazz to blues and features a variety of instruments including piano, synthesizers, flute, sax, acoustic and electric guitars bass, and percussion. In places the band sounds like Santana, while in other places like Iron Butterfly or Emerson, Lake & Palmer.Dillinger has a unique sound for a Canadian band that attracted more attention in Europe than it did in North America.
With long songs and drawn-out solos, Dillinger is more or less one of your typical early-'70s progressive bands, nothing special, but nonetheless interesting and typical of the genre. This release by Unidisc is a straight reissue of the original album at a budget price and contains no bonus tracks.
by Keith Pettipas
Tracks
1. People (Jacques Harrison) - 6:14
2. City Main (Jacques Harrison) - 4:50
3. Nature's Way (Randy California) - 3:17
4. Live and Return (Paul Cockburn, Jacques Harrison) - 17:02
Dillinger
*Jacques Harrison - Keyboards, Vocals, Sax, Flute, Organ
*Robert Harrison - Drums, Percussions, Vocals
*Paul Cockburn - Electric, 12, 6 Strings Acoustic Guitars
*Terry Bramhall – Bass, Vocals With
*Bruce Ley - Piano, Synthesizer
*R.M.I. - Piano
*David Classic - Trombone
*John Stewart - Vocals
*Carla Jansen - Vocals
*Judy Donnely - Vocals
Guitarist Allan Callan with Eddie Clarke, keyboard player Nicky Hogarth, and drummer Chris Perry, attended a recorded jam session at Command Studios in Piccadilly. As a result of the tracks from this session, the quartet secured a deal with Anchor Records, and called the band Blue Goose. With a recording contract secured, Clarke, Hogarth and Perry left Zeus to focus on their own project with Callan.
An argument soon erupted between Clarke and Callan, because Callan did not have any amplifiers. Clarke had allowed him to share his during rehearsals, but Clarke then found he could not hear his solos because Callan was drowning him out. The argument ended with Clarke being sacked. Still short of amps, the band asked him to re-join a few days later. Clarke refused, feeling that they were doing Anchor Records an injustice because they had been paid an advance to record an album, but had done nothing productive towards making it.
Blue Goose finally released their eponymous album through Anchor in 1974, crediting an instrumental track, entitled "Over The Top", to Clarke-Hogarth-Perry. A jamming crunchy guitar rock, strong vocal presence, great dynamics, keyboards and harmonica, shame this was a one-off!. The group didn’t last so they disbanded soon after.
Tracks
1. Struttin' Stuff - 5:12
2. The Chorus - 6:42
3. Call On Me - 4:32
4. Loretta - 3:47
5. Snowman - 4:48
6. Over The Top (Chris Perry, Eddie Clarke, Nicky Hogarth) - 2:27
7. Let Me Know - 3:38
8. Inside Yourself - 9:20
All songs by Alan Callan except track #6
The Blue Goose
Allan Callan - Guitar, Vocals, Harp, Synthi
Nicky Hogarth - Keyboards
Chris Perry - Drums
Nick South - Bass
Mike Todman - Acoustic, Electric Guitars With
Alexis Korner - Vocals
Steve Marriott - Vocals
Sean Locke - Drums
With a pedigree that includes playing with Caravan, Quantum Jump and Curved Air as well session work on albums by highly regarded artists such as Anthony Phillips and Gordan Giltrap, the name of bassist John G Perry will be familiar to many. What may not be so well known is that Perry recorded a solo album way back in 1976 that was somewhat lost in the musical climate of the time. The various bands he had played in and the musicians he had met during sessions allowed him to assemble an impressive cast of friends to perform on the album, among which were Caravan bandmate Geoffrey Richardson, producer and multi-instrumentalist Rupert Hine, arranger, conductor and future founder of The Penguin Cafe Orchestra Simon Jeffes, percussionist extraordinaire Morris Pert, original King Crimson drummer Michael Giles plus two members of Italian progressive band Nova, saxophonist Elio D'Anna and guitarist Carrado (or Corrado) Rusticci.
Competing in the market place against debut albums by The Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned, the rural airs and graces of the largely instrumental Sunset Wading never really stood a chance. The four vocal numbers are all very brief: I Wait My Friend features Beryle Streeter who does a remarkable impression of a theremin on this plaintive opening number. Confusingly, the words to How Goes The Night? feature in the song Devoke Water and the spoken poem On The Moor is recited in Morning Song! Thankfully the words to Sunset Wading are sung during the song of the same name and form a quite mellow end to the album with a track that is charmingly beautiful and serene.
The rest of the album is a mixture of various textures, from the piano and flute of Birds And Small Furry Beasts, the musical storm of, er Storm, the rocky Ah Well, You Can Only Get Wet! and the jazz fusion of Etude, there are certainly enough styles to keep one's interest alight. Throughout, the playing is exceptional, with hats off in particular to Simon Jeffes whose arrangements for the string quartet are entirely sympathetic to the music performed by the rest of the band. Perry himself contributes some fine bass playing in a variety of styles creating rhythms that are often funky and always great. The second side of the album, starting with Dawn, is a musical concept undoubtedly inspired by the Rupert Hine poem The Land Of The Lakes. Based around a day in the Lake District, and featuring unedited sound backdrops recorded on location and revealing "the first cock-crow at Down-in-the-Dale to the last breakfast hungry farm hound". Much of the music has a feel of being improvised or jammed, but with musicians of such calibre that is not a criticism, but a bonus, particularly as there maintains a cohesion between tracks, despite the different styles. That has a lot to do with the work of Richardson who, I feel, has always been immensely undervalued as a musician.
Sunset Wading is an album that fits in neatly with the music of Perry's most famous previous band mates, that of Caravan. Although not some great long lost classic album, it does provide 40 minutes of largely unchallenging, familiarly rural and interesting music. Had it been released a few years earlier then it would have undoubtedly made a bigger impact, but as is the case for a large number of albums that were out of their time, it has largely laid unnoticed for many years. Now's the time for rectification!
by Mark Hughes
Tracks
1. I Wait My Friend - 2:24
2. How Goes the Night? - 0:15
3. Devoke Water (John G. Perry, Michael Giles, Rupert Hine, Simon Jeffes) - 4:51
4. Birds and Small Furry Beasts (Corrado Rustici, Elio D'Anna, John G. Perry, Rupert Hine) - 3:19
5. As Clouds Gather - 3:45
6. Storm - 2:59
7. Ah Well, You Can Only Get Wet! (Corrado Rustici, Elio D'Anna, John G. Perry, Michael Giles, Morris Pert, Rupert Hine) - 1:56
8. Dawn (John G. Perry, Michael Giles, Rupert Hine, Simon Jeffes) - 7:05
9. Morning Song (John G. Perry, Simon Jeffes) - 3:09
10.On the Moor (Corrado Rustici, Elio D'Anna, John G. Perry, Michael Giles, Morris Pert, Rupert Hine) - 1:53
11.Roundelay - 0:51
12.Etude - 3:33
13.A Rhythmic Stroll (Corrado Rustici, Elio D'Anna, John G. Perry, Michael Giles, Morris Pert, Rupert Hine) - 1:12
14.Sunset Wading - 2:35
All compositions by John G. Perry except where noted Personnel
*John G. Perry - Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
*Elio D'anna - Wind
*Michael Giles - Drums,
*Roger Glover - Synthesizer
*Rupert Hine - Celeste, Keyboards, Moog Bass, Piano, Synthesizer, Vocals
*Simon Jeffes - Conductor, Koto, String Quartet
*Morris Pert - Marimba, Percussion, Vibe Master
*Geoff Richardson - Flute, Viola
*Geoffrey Richardson - Flute, Viola
*Corrado Rustici - Guitar
*Beryl Streeter - Sangbe Drum, Vocals
*Gavyn Wright - Violin
The history of one of Germany's most successful bands of the 1970's was shaped by numerous changes in the line-up, a willingness to take stylistic risks, and an attitude towards their work that was characterised by honesty and professionalism. The naked figures read like this - twelve albums with total sales exceeding two million and an average of 150 concerts each year, each of them usually sold out.
Musically speaking, Jane were never a band to do the expected, but they still had some recognisable trademarks. Breathtaking guitar solos, powerful keyboards, polished and mighty arrangements and an almost constantly dragging tempo added up to the typical Jane touch and were characteristic for a melodic hard rock that had no equal in Germany.
Jane were formed in October of 1970 in Hanover out of the remains of the band Justice Of Peace. Klaus Hess (g), Peter Panka (dr) and Werner Nadolny (org) were looking for a new challenge and got together with Charly Maucher (b). In the Spring of 1971, they were joined by Bernd Pulst, a singer with a powerful voice. Shortly after that, the quintet signed a long-term record contract. After almost one year of work, Jane's debut album "Together" was released in the spring of 1972. The German rock world reacted positively to the technically well-versed newcomers and their "unvarnished style of making music"
For the second LP, Wolfgang Krantz had to fill in for Maucher, who was sick, and Panka took the place of Bernd Pulst as lead singer. The initial success and their convincing live performances made Jane an attraction on the national touring scene. The band constantly commuted back and forth between stage and studio and absorbed numerous changes in the line-up effortlessly and without any quality loss.
Tracks
1. Redskin - 8:55
2. Out In The Rain - 5:43
3. Dandelion - 2:19
4. Moving - 3:56
5. Waterfall - 4:27
6. Like A Queen - 2:37
7. Here We Are - 5:38
8. Here We Are (Singe Edit) - 3:50
9. Redskin (Single Edit) - 2:40
All songs by Klaus Hess, Peter Panka, Werner Nadolny, Wolfgang Krantz.
Bonustracks 8-9
If you ever wondered what the love child of the Bee Gees and Crosby, Stills and Nash would sound like, wonder no more – the pointy-headed creature would sound like Tranquility.
The story of short-lived career of Tranquility is a difficult one to track; now largely forgotten, the band has neither a biography at AllMusic or a Wikipedia page. A fairly short history of the band’s 1971-1974 duration can be found on a page dedicated to Vanity Fare, but aside from that, little exists on the Internet about Tranquility.
The dichotomy of a band that references the Bee Gees and CSN in equal measure is not surprising, considering the band’s origins. According to the Vanity Fare page:
“The band was formed in 1971 by Ashley Kozak, formerly Donovan’s manager, and built around the song writing abilities of Terry Shaddick. Kozak had long wished for a “…gentle tranquil band that could create it own hybrid of pop, rock and English folk music” (CBS Inner Sleeve Issue III, 1973), and in Shaddick, he saw the focal point for creation of just such a band.”
From the meager info provided by AllMusic, it appears that Shaddick had a hand in all of the songs featured on Tranquility, and satisfied the intent of Kozak’s wishes, if not the spirit; Shaddick and company rarely hybridize pop, rock and English folk, but hit each of the points individually, song-by-song.
The best songs on Tranquility lean more toward folk; album opener “Try Again” is all innocuous confessional lyrics married to acoustic guitars and tight harmonies. Likewise, “Look at the Time, It’s Late” mimics the best of the Bee Gees’ late-60s-early 70s pop. Just as many times, the album aims for CSN or the Bee Gees and misses; “Lady of the Lake,” “Ride Upon the Sun,” and “Walk Along the Road” are pleasant but forgettable.
“Oyster Catcher” and “Black Current Betty” are almost jarringly out-of-place on an album full of CSN-lite offerings. Both songs recall 1967-68, when, inspired by Sgt. Pepper, every British album had to include a few music hall-type numbers full of twee Angliophilia. Of the two songs, “Black Current Betty” (which I’m almost certain should be “Black Currant Betty,” and the writer on the Vanity Fare page agrees) is the most listenable, even if “Penny Lane,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” or even “Hello Hello” by Sopwith Camel got there first and more memorably.
Tranquility is hardly a buried classic, even if the Vanity Fare page claims that the band “blew more than one big-name U.S. band off the stage.” All this begs the question: are some bands/albums better lost to history?
In the case of Tranquility’s 1972 self-titled debut, that depends on your tolerance for an album that veers wildly between introspective singer-songwriter offerings featuring CSN-type harmonies and English pop that would have sounded at home on Chad & Jeremy’s Of Cabbages and Kings.
Tracks
1. Try Again - 4:34
2. Ride Upon The Sun - 4:32
3. Where You Are (Where I Belong) - 6:24
4. Look At The Time It's Late (John Presley, Terry Shaddick) - 2:31
5. Lady Of The Lake - 3:24
6. Walk Along The Road - 3:24
7. Thank You (Tony Lukyn, Terry Shaddick) - 3:55
8. Oyster Catcher - 4:32
9. Black Currant Betty - 2:50
10.Saying Good-Bye - 5:42
All songs by Terry Shaddick except where stated
Tranquility
*Eric Dillon - Drums, Percussion
*Tony Lukyn - Vocals, Piano, Organ
*John Perry - Vocals, Guitar
*Terry Shaddick - Vocals, Lead Guitar
*Berkeley Wright - Vocals, Lead Guitar
Raised in rural Georgia, Johnny Jenkins was a hard-driving guitarist with a bellowing voice who played with a young Otis Redding in a blues group called the Pinetoppers. Jenkins' raw, firebrand vocals and enviable guitar-picking gave his solo debut, Ton-Ton Macoute!, a wallop that might've made him a star — if only slide guitarist Duane Allman and several other members of his backing band hadn't left to form the Allman Brothers. In Jenkins' capable hands, Bob Dylan's "Down Along the Cove" and Dr. John's "I Walk on Guilded Splinters" (later sampled by Beck for "Loser") can get even the stiffest legs shakin'
by Reed Fischer
Johnny Jenkins' Ton-Ton Macoute is a fine bowl of Southern gumbo. Aided and abetted by the likes of Duane Allman (this started as an Allman solo disc, but when he formed the Allman Brothers Band, Jenkins put his vocals over the tracks best suited), Dickey Betts, and those great guys from Muscle Shoals, Jenkins cooks on such cuts as "Down Along the Cove" from the pen of Bob Dylan, and Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone." But it is Dr. John's "I Walk on Guilded Splinters" which shines here and is the one which folks will recognize as the basis for Beck's hit "Loser." On the slippery "Blind Bats & Swamp Rats" you can almost feel the heat and humidity rolling out of the bayou. This reissue also includes the mighty fine bonus cuts "I Don't Want No Woman" and "My Love Will Never Die." Great Southern funk & roll for the discerning listener. It even includes educational liner notes which tell the tale behind each cut.
by James Chrispell
Tracks
1. I Walk On Guilded Splinters (Dr. John) - 5:50
2. Leaving Trunk (Sleepy John Estes) - 4:20
3. Blind Bats And Swamp Rats (Jackie Avery) - 4:45
4. Catfish Blues (Muddy Waters) - 5:20
5. Sick And Tired (Dave Bartholomew, Chris Kenner) - 4:42
6. Down Along The Cove (Bob Dylan) - 3:25
7. Bad News (J.D. Loudermilk) - 4:08
8. Dimples (John Lee Hooker, James Bracken) - 2:56
9. Voodoo In You (Jackie Avery) - 5:05
10.I Don't Want No Woman (Don Robey) - 2:12
11.My Love Will Never Die (Otis Rush) - 5:32 Personnel
*Johnny Jenkins - Vocals, Guitar , Harmonica, Foot Stomping , Lead Guitar
*Duane Allman - Electric Guitar, Slide Guitar, Dobro, Rhythm Guitar
*Berry Oakley - Bass
*Jai Johanny Johanson - Timbales
*Butch Trucks - Drums
*Paul Hornsby - Wurlitzer Piano, Hammond B-3 Organ, Rhythm Guitar
*Eddie Hinton - Cowbell
*Tippy Armstrong - Cabasa
*Pete Carr - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
*Robert Popwell – Bass, Timbales, Shaker , Woodblocks
*Johnny Wyker – Shaker, Woodblocks
*Jimmy Nalls - Guitar
*Ella Brown - Vocals
*Donna Jean Godchaux – Vocals
*Jeanie Greene - Vocals
*Mary Holliday - Vocals
*Ginger Holliday - Vocals
*Johnny Sandlin - Drums
Johnny Harris is a composer, arranger, conductor and producer whose musical career spans more than 60 years. He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, specialising in trumpet and piano, and spent his early career in the 1950s playing in dance bands. Towards the end of that decade, he had his first opportunities to arrange as part of Cyril Stapleton’s band. His time at Pye Records in the 1960s saw him work with Petula Clark, Lulu and Françoise Hardy as well as a host of less familiar acts whose recordings have since been rediscovered by fans of Northern Soul and British girl singers.
For two years at the end of the 1960s, Harris was Tom Jones’ musical director. The two men formed a dynamic partnership, with Harris himself attracting a lot of attention as a result of his energetic conducting style. In 1970, he helped turn around the career of Shirley Bassey, with whom he recorded ‘Something’ and an LP of the same name which went on to become Bassey’s biggest selling to that point. The two recorded a total of six albums together, with the singer telling the NME in 1971 that in Johnny Harris she had found her ‘husband in music’. Harris moved to the USA in 1972 where he began a long musical relationship with Paul Anka, as well as working with George Hamilton, Lynda Carter, Diana Ross and many others.
by Graham Tomlinson
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Despite ambitions to write and record his own work, Harris principally made his name as a musical arranger. His 1970 album, Movements, comprised mellifluous brass and woodwind, combined with the then novel VCS3 synthesizer, on treatments of standards such as ‘Paint It, Black’ and ‘Light My Fire’. Harris began his musical career by arranging two legendary British soul singles - Lorraine Silver’s ‘Lost Summer Love’ and A Band Of Angels’ ‘Invitation’ - both staples of the Wigan Casino all-nighters.
1970 "Movements" is his most sought after release and it's aimed to please fans of soundtrack funk, groovy easy listening, and brit pop psychedelia. Highlights include the heavily comped "Fragments of Fear," the flutastic percussive groover "Stepping Stones," and his moody instrumental interpretation of the Stones' "Paint it Black" that is bound to excite the most seasoned of beat diggers.
Tracks
1. Fragments Of Fear - 4:08
2. Reprise - 1:10
3. Stepping Stones - 5:22
4. Something (George Harrison) - 6:14
5. Give Peace A Chance (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 5:55
6. Footprints On The Moon - 3:11
7. Light My Fire (Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger) - 4:49
8. Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb) - 3:30
9. Paint It Black (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) - 3:55
10. Lulu's Theme (Mono 45 Mix) - 2:25
11. Footprints On The Moon (Mono 45 Mix) - 2:57
All compositions by Johnny Harris except where stated
Fragments Of Fear" and "Stepping Stones" from the Columbia motion picture "Fragments Of Fear"
Bob Downes is a talented multi-instrumentalist and composer and this album was one of his incursions into the world of jazz-rock, although he was equally at home playing in a free jazz context with his acoustic Open Music trio. Originally released on Polygram's Vertigo label, Electric City boasts the cream of British jazz musicians including Ian Carr, Kenny Wheeler, Harry Beckett, Chris Spedding, Ray Russell, Daryl Runswick and Harry Miller.
Songs such as the opening "No Time Like The Present" might have invited speculation that Polygram perceived Downes' eclectic music as something of a Trojan horse into the lucrative rock market—indeed, it was also released as Downes' only 45 rpm single (backed with "Keep Off The Grass")—but this material's jazz element confounds any accusations of selling out. "Gonna Take A Journey," for example, begins as a free blowing session, culminating in a heavy jazz-rock jam underpinned by assorted guitars and drum,s and an ensemble riff over top.
Whilst the vocal tracks—half the album features singing—may not be to everyone's taste, Downes nevertheless manages to impart a feeling of fervent, almost naïve honesty and a considerable amount of tenderness, as in the ballad "In Your Eyes."
The ensemble arrangements are excellent and the solos—mainly taken by Downes and the guitarists (particularly Spedding and Russell)—are positively gripping. Downes is a virtuoso flautist, as evidenced by tracks like the bluesy "Keep Off The Grass," but he also demonstrates some fiery free-blowing saxophone work on numbers like "Crush Hour." Resplendent with cover art reminiscent of Zappa's Burnt Weeny Sandwich (Ryko, 1970), this is an essential piece of psychedelic jazz history.
by Roger Farbey
Tracks
1. No Time Like The Present - 3:02
2. Keep Off The Grass - 2:46
3. Don't Let Tomorrow Get You Down - 2:56
4. Dawn Until Dawn - 4:28
5. Go Find Time - 2:40
6. Walking On - 5:00
7. Crush Hour - 3:20
8. West II - 3:27
9. In Your Eyes - 2:20
10.Piccadilly Circus - 2:52
11.Gonna Tale A Journey - 7:09
All compositions by Bob Downes
On their eponymous second album, Out of Focus further develop their progressive jazz-rock sound, at the same time pushing in other directions as well. The rhythm section is still as upbeat and funky as ever, with those repetitive but odd rhythm patterns. There is now more sax in the mix, as well as the flute riffing, guitar wails, and chunky organ chords, with each instrument allowed ample soloing and no instrument over-dominant. If anything, this one dispenses with some of the heavy rock sound to get closer to the jazz influences.
They slow down the pace on the strange folk song "It's Your Life" as well as the even stranger "Blue Sunday Morning" with its airy flute, church organ, and bizarre song narration. Lyrics are even sharper, whether ripping into the banality of television or the hypocrisy of religion, with the dark-edged humor more firmly in place. On the suite "Fly Bird Fly"/"Television Program," the group veers from soft to full in-your-face intensity while staying on a bouncy riff. On long tracks like this one and "Whispering," they throw a lot of variation over repetitive grooves to create mesmerizing jams that are both incredibly loose and far more focused than the average jam band.
by Rolf Semprebon
As Mario Rossi’s excellent liner notes make clear, by the summer of 1971 and the release of their sophomore album, the self-titled Out Of Focus, the band have quite dramatically eschewed the loose, amateurish rawness that characterised Wake Up! in favour of a more structured, professional approach.
In it’s place, Out Of Focus have adopted a more jazz-rock oriented style in the songwriting. Neumüller has jettisoned the lead role for the flute on this album and he now shares his woodwind duties between flute and saxophone. I’ll come straight out and say it, however. I find the sax work on this album incredibly unsophisticated and grating. Neumüller demonstrates little mastery of the instrument but uses it extensively as a tonal layer in the arrangements, often in tandem with Hennes Hering’s organ lines and sometimes in unison with Drechsler’s guitar lines. Musically, I find it repetitive and unimaginative. Of course, I say this with the benefit of hindsight and the use across the decades of a sax by many rock and prog acts in thrilling ways. Let’s just say Theo Travis he is not. I suppose it stands as a legitimate experiment with a brassy, hard-bop sound that would come to ultimate fruition a year later on Four Letter Monday Afternoon. Nevertheless, what I’m hearing here is, to me, an annoying intrusion in some interesting compositions.
To speak in broad strokes, Out Of Focus have slowed down a lot. The tracks on this album possess a much more open sound, allowing their musical ideas more space in which to breathe. There’s a subtlety to the playing beyond the soft/loud dynamics of their debut. Many of the melodic sensibilities of Wake Up! have been retained but developed to offer a broader harmonic palette. Fly Bird Fly is a wonderfully tuneful example of the way in which they have reconsidered their songwriting. Everything is so much more controlled and restrained. This is particularly notable in Klaus Spöri’s much more delicate drumming and even more so in Neumüller’s vocal delivery. On this album he comes over as a heavy-lidded performance poet channelling Mick Jagger to vent his anti-establishment spleen; but he is distant, detached, almost astral in his sonic position and it’s a whole lot more palatable. What he is saying does now sound a tad juvenile, but back then, this was real and avowedly counter-cultural.
What Can A Poor Boy Do [But To Be A Street Fighting Man] offers a hint in its title. That we ought to expect something reactionary but it doesn’t actually manifest itself in this track. With its high-tempo, infectious and repetitive rhythm, this could just have easily have been on a Blue Note Recordings release a decade earlier. Or perhaps Out Of Focus were inspired by the De Patie/Freleng cartoons of The Pink Panther with Henry Mancini’s iconic theme tune because there are clear echoes of that too. I imagine that this must have been an audience favourite at the time, just because it’s fun. It’s Your Life also has its tongue in its cheek as it gently see-saws its way along like a children’s nursery rhyme, but with a lyric like “No more whipping your bottom/When you’re gasping, longing for it”, I don’t suppose it was in any way intended as children’s entertainment.
Things start to get serious with Whispering, which is primitive and barely listenable unless you’re under the influence of psychoactive drugs. Essentially the same four notes again and again for its 14 minute duration; it’s as underground and dingy and seedy as I imagine 1971 Munich ever got. It still has its counterpart today in the kind of minimalist, downtempo techno you’ll hear in the chill-out rooms of dance clubs all over Europe. For me to get the desired effect required four HobNob biscuits eaten quickly and dry one after the other, no liquid to cleanse the palate, then lie back and let the sugar do its work. What a trip, man. Genuinely. This is what was great about the underground psychedelia of its day; played by heads for heads. It is shamanic and intoxicating if you can find the time and the mood to go with it.
Blue Sunday Morning continues the lysergic theme with Jesus being bored in heaven and desperate to come down to Earth and partake of some weed, but by the time Television Program loops its repetitive, though likeable, motif round and round my head, I feel a little browbeaten. The biscuits have obviously worn off, and without those sugar-laden receptors in my brain firing off, it’s really quite difficult to keep focussed on the music.
Like Wake Up!, this is undoubtedly a product of its times but it’s also something that can transcend those temporal boundaries and have some relevance for our modern anodised and commoditised ears. This album reminds us how great analogue can sound and once again, Ben Wiseman’s remaster superbly and faithfully recaptures the thrumming warmth of valves and the simple chemistry between five musicians. The fin de siècle doom-mongery of the debut has been replaced with a certain joie de vivre. Or maybe they were just on better drugs? They certainly seem to be having fun and enjoying what they are doing a bit more. As psychedelic albums go, this is one of the better ones I’ve heard. It also compares with some of The Doors early recordings. Just as Jim Morrison is ‘retiring’ to Paris after the recording of L.A. Woman, and four years after The Doors were asked to change the word ‘higher’ to the word ‘better’ in their rendition of Light My Fire on The Ed Sullivan Show, Out Of Focus are stoned out of their brains and carrying Morrison’s ‘scrambled-egg mind’ torch to a logical apotheosis. The Germans are more hardcore than I think the Doors could ever have dreamt of, even with Morrison in their midst, but they are also quite an influence on the Germans.
by Jon Bradshaw
Tracks
1. What Can A Poor Boy Do - 5:52
2. It's Your Life - 4:31
3. Whispering - 13:34
4. Blue Sunday Morning - 8:20
5. Fly Bird Fly - 5:09
6. Television Program - 11:45
All songs by Out Of Focus
Out Of Focus
*Remingius Drechsler - Guitar
*Hennes Hering - Organ, Piano
*Moran Neumüller - Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Lead Vocals
*Klaus Spöri - Drums, Percussion
*Stephen Wishen - Bass
