Blodwyn Pig - Ahead Rings Out

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Still a good album

Well, this took me back - and it has aged pretty well, I think.  I was 15 when Ahead Rings Out came out and had a mate who was bonkers about Blodwyn Pig.  (The only reason I remember the French for pig is that he once wrote a piece for French homework about his favourite group, Blodwyn Cochon.)  I heard this a *lot* as a result and liked some of it very much, while I wasn't so keen other parts.  Nearly 50 years on, that's still the case.

I agree with other reviewers that this is a very good album of blues/jazz. For me the strongest tracks are the straight-up blues like Dear Jill and The Change Song (both superb) and a lot of the funkier fusion tracks are also good.  I still struggle with the more modern-jazz parts (I've never been able to cope with The Modern Alchemist, for example) but that's just me.  There is quality music-making throughout and that is what gives this album such durability.

The remastering is excellent.  Personally, I can take or leave the bonus material because I like to hear an album as the set list was originally conceived, but I know plenty of people will enjoy it and overall this is still a very recommendable, enjoyable album.

The Perfumed Garden (5CD Box Set)

Rating: 5/5

Review:

A track list for this very good set

This is an extraordinary set.  There are a lot of very good psych/underground compilations available from this period but I think this is probably the one I like best of those I have.  That's mainly because I have very little of it anywhere else.  (I have added a track list to the end of this review because there isn't one on this page.)

The Perfumed Garden really does find some obscurities.  I was aged 11 to 18 when this music was coming out and a pretty diligent listener to John Peel and other radio which played out-of-the-mainstream stuff, but I didn’t know an awful lot of what's on here.  In all honesty, in some cases that turns out not to have been much of a loss, but the vast majority is good stuff, with the occasional real stand out – which is exactly what I'd expect from a big compilation like this.  And, of course, you will have different loves and dislikes from me.

In short, this is a really good box.  The transfers are good; the slightly mushy sound on a few track is just how some records sounded then and reflects the original recordings (and to me is extremely evocative).  You get an awful lot of music for your money and almost all of it is good, so if you have an interest in 60s/early 70s psych, then I can warmly recommend this.

Disc 1
1. Factory - Try A Little Sunshine
2. Eyes - You're Too Much
3. Syn - Grounded
4. Nimrod - The Bird
5. Smoke  - Sydney Gill
6. Birds - No Good Without You Baby
7. Shy Limbs - Reputation
8. Game - It's Shocking What They Call Me
9. Frame - Doctor Doctor
10. Mandrake Paddle Steamer - Strange Walking Man
11. French Revolution - Nine Til Five
12. Vamp - Floatin'
13. Syndicates - Crawdaddy Simone
14. Sands - Listen To The Sky
15. Tintern Abbey - Vacuum Cleaner
16. The Craig - I Must Be Mad
17. Open Mind - Magic Potion

Disc 2
1. Kult - No Home Today
2. Eyes - When The Night Falls
3. Poets - Baby Don't You Do It
4. Ace Kefford Stand - For Your Love
5. Rupert's People - Reflections Of Charles Brown
6. Thane Russal & Three - Security
7. Deviants - I'm Coming Home
8. Fleur-De-Lys - Liar
9. Kult - Mister Number One
10. In-Be-Tweens - You Better Run
11. Uglies - I See The Light
12. Glen Athens & The Trojans - Let Me Show You How
13. Gary Leeds & Rain - Francis
14. Les Goths - Turn Over
15. Drag Set - Day & Night
16. Fleur-De-Lys - Mud In Your Eye
17. Accent - Red Sky At Night

Disc 3
1. Longboatmen - Take Her Anytime
2. Miller - Baby I Got News For You (Oak Version)
3. Les Goths - Out Of The Sun
4. Shyster - Tick Tock
5. Majority One - Get Back Home
6. Groundhogs - Sad Go Round
7. Herbal Mixture - Please Leave My Mind
8. Pete Sully & The Orchard - Evil Woman
9. Adams Recital - No Place For The Lonely People
10. Cedars - For Your Information
11. Wolves - Lust For Life
12. Actress - It's What You Give
13. Reign - Line Of Least Resistance
14. Barry Mason - Over The Hills
15. Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup - Which Dreamed It
16. Andwella's Dream - Felix
17. Serendipity - Through With You
18. Rupert's People - Hold On

Disc 4
1. Flies - Magic Train (Demo Version)
2. Joint - Dinosaur
3. Blonde On Blonde - Spinning Wheel
4. Magic Mixture - When I Was Young
5. Tucky Buzzard - Time Will Be Your Doctor
6. Timebox - Barnabus Swain
7. Simon's Secret - I Know What Her Name Is
8. Please - The Road
9. Orang Utan - Magic Playground
10. Arcadium - Poor Lady
11. Flaming Youth - Pulsar
12. Monument - Give Me Life
13. Five Day Week - Straw People - Does It Rain
14. John Mclaughlin - Siren
15. Animals - Gratefully Dead
16. Arzachel - Leg
17. Deviants - Jamie's Song

Disc 5
1. July - The Way (Long Version)
2. Pacific Drift - Feelin' Free
3. Camel - Where Is My Mind

4. Bulldog Breed - I Flew
5. Wynder K Frog - Eddie's Tune
6. Aynsley Dunbar - Warning
7. Will Malone - Love In The Afternoon
8. Dear Mr Time - Your Country Needs You?
9. Complex - Self Declaration
10. Twink - Fluid
11. Eyes Of Blue - Crossroads Of Time
12. Dogfeet - Mr Sunshine
13. Bram Stoker - Extensive Corrosion

Cara Dillon - Wanderer

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A lovely album

This is a lovely album.  Cara Dillon is a very fine singer and she has put together a collection of beautiful songs in largely acoustic arrangements which suit both the songs and her voice very well.

The songs are mainly traditional, with just a couple of (very good) original pieces and they are all very well done.  It takes a brave artist to tackle Blacwater Side, for example, given the greatness of existing versions by Bert Jansch and others, but this is terrific; like every song here it is heartfelt, thoughtful and musically excellent.

If I have a quibble with Wanderer, it's that it's a little relentlessly melancholy, with a preponderance of songs of heartbreak, betrayal and yearning for home.   Each track is lovely of itself, but as an album I think it could do with just a little more of an emotional lift in places.  Listening to it all through it can begin to sound just a little samey – which is a shame for such lovely music.

Nonetheless, this is a fine album of lovely songs, excellently performed.  Recommended.

Chris Smither - Leave The Light On

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Brilliant

This is a brilliant album.  How have I not come across Chris Smither before?  He's been making superb records since the late 70s and I am deeply indebted to Mark Barry for introducing me to him a little while ago.  (Do check out Mark's excellent "guidebooks" to great recordings – I have found them a rich source of great recommendations.)

Chris Smither is a brilliant guitarist in a blues/alt-country-ish genre.  Echoes of people like Doc Watson, Leo Kottke and John Fahey are detectable in his style, but he has his own marvellous, smooth and apparently effortless way with the guitar which is just a joy to listen to.  Combine this with a great vocal delivery which is somewhere between JJ Cale and Leon Redbone and excellent, often witty songwriting and you have someone who should be far, far better known than he is.

Leave The Light On is a terrific album from 2006 with a fine variety of songs from the quiet and touching Father's Day, through things like the great blues playing and singing on Shilling For The Blues to the brilliantly witty Origin Of Species.  It's just an album of fine songs, brilliantly performed and which I keep going back to.  I strongly, strongly recommend giving this a try; I'll bet that, like me, you love it and then search out Smither's other work.  This is a rare, top-quality treat.

Fotheringay - Fotheringay 2

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Genius singing, less good in other ways

I know that many people regard Fotheringay as a truly great album by a great group, but for me, this album confirms what I have thought since I bought their first album all those years ago: that Fotheringay were a competent band with an absolute genius as a singer. It's really good in places, but when Sandy Denny isn't singing, I think it's pretty ordinary.

Sandy's vocal work on Fotheringay 2 (compiled from recordings made in 1970) is just fantastic. Her distinctive timbre, her beautiful phrasing and genuine feeling are there in everything she does, and it's a poignant reminder of what we lost by her death. Even thoroughly well-worn songs like Wild Mountain Thyme become truly moving when she sings, even with a slightly unsympathetic backing. The rest is…well, it's OK. Knights Of the Road, for example, doesn't feature her and it's perfectly decent, but for me doesn't stand out from the huge swathe of similar stuff from around that time.

So, a qualified recommendation from me, although plenty of people think far better of it than I do. For me it's some welcome Sandy Denny but not much more – but it's still well worth hearing.

John Moreland - Big Bad Luv

Rating: 5/5

Review :
A very good album

This is a really good album.  I tried it (like a lot of other people) having seen John Moreland supporting Jason Isbell a while ago.  I liked his set then, but there is so much good Americana around at the moment that I wasn't sure this would stand out.  I was wrong - it really does stand out: good tunes, fine singing and intelligent, thoughtful lyrics engaged me on first hearing and the album has grown on me since then.

Moreland's voice and style has echoes of both Isbell and Springsteen to me, but he's his own man with his own stories and insights.  The tone is rather downbeat (although there's a very moving expression of hope and redemption in the last few lines of the closing track) but it's never depressing.  Moreland has fine a lyrical gift, often expressing things freshly – like this little example from the excellent Lies I Chose To Believe:

"Good luck finding your peace of mind

Being born into these gruelling times;

These days I don't pray when I close my eyes,

I just bite my tongue a bit harder."

or this fine, arresting opening from another standout, No Glory In Regret

"Did you hear the Devil laughing as the ambulance passed

Or was that just my troubled mind?"

I think these are very classy lyrics throughout which, combined with fine, straightforward tunes, very good arrangements and performance and a great vocal delivery make this a really good piece of work.

Big Bad Luv is one of my albums of the year so far, and I don't say that lightly.  If you like Americana, make sure you give this a try.  Personally, I'm going to have a good look at Moreland's back catalogue; on this evidence he's a class act and I can recommend this album very warmly.

Blue Angel - Blue Angel

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Fine vocals from Cyndi Lauper

This is a pretty good album.  I missed it completely when it came out in 1980, but tried it now because I wanted to hear Cyndi Lauper's early work and I'm glad I did.

What lifts this above the ordinary is Lauper's vocals.  The band is decent but nothing special and the material is pretty generic stuff, with nothing to stand out.  However, Cyndi Lauper brings a touch of real class here, with her slightly quirky but very powerful and often quite soulful delivery.  Without her, this would be a very forgettable effort, I think, but the singing makes Blue Angel an album which I'll keep listening to.

So, not a classic, but a decent effort made into a good album by a genuinely star singer.  Recommended.

Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs Present English Weather

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A terrific compilation

This is a terrific compilation.  There's a mixture of fairly well-known bands and (to me, anyway) very obscure stuff, and it gives a really good picture of the prog scene as the 60s moved into the 70s.

I turned 16 in 1970, so this is pretty much the sound of my adolescence.  I knew some of this music at the time, largely through listening to people like John Peel on Top Gear (later excitingly retitled Sounds Of The Seventies), but some of it was entirely new to me.  As with any compilation, I like some more than others, but it's a very intelligent and lovingly compiled selection, much of which is surprisingly melodious with some very lovely harmonic work, too.  Prog could be a pretty hard slog sometimes, but I found little of that here and most of it is very listenable without ever being facile.  (I'd forgotten quite how many flutes there were at the time – and not a Jethro Tull track in sight on this album, either.)  It's both musically intelligent and an enjoyable listen.

If you have any interest in the prog/underground music of the late 607s and early 70s, I can warmly recommend this disc.