New and recent releases and reissues.
Soul purists disdain this album because of two repertoire choices and the presence of guitarist Duane Allman, but those are good things. Lots of soul singers were trying to capture the rock audience with covers of rock hits, but few hit with the power of Pickett’s version of the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” because few (very few!) sang with his power AND had Allman’s wailing guitar backing. Pickett’s cover of Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” may be less well known, but if anything it’s even better – the most macho of the Southern soul singers makes it seem like it was written for him alone. There are plenty of tracks that will make the purists happy, though, including the classic brag “A Man and a Half” and songs penned by Isaac Hayes, Don Covay, Bobby Womack, George Jackson, and more.
Florida Funk 1968-1975 (Now Again)
Reed Roberts of the Mighty Dog Catchers is quoted as saying, “I wasn’t listening to no local bands, the only band I was influenced by was James Brown’s. Straight up.” Based on this compilation, he wasn’t the only Floridian who felt that way. The focus is on obscure artists (the only “name” is Blowfly) and tiny labels, with most of the material coming out on 45s, but the sounds are familiar and the talents are big. The Universals get the 22-track set off to a great start with the anthemic 1970 joint “New Generation,” which is so great that it’s a shame their distribution was so bad – but we’ve got it now!
Eccentric Soul: Twinight’s Lunar Rotation (Numero)
Another great compilation from the Eccentric Soul series, this time drawing on such a treasure trove that two discs are needed to contain its bounty. Forty tracks of Chicago soul and funk from the Twinight label, including three previously unreleased items. As usual, it’s not only good listening but good reading, with a fascinating label history and a contextualization of the wonderful obscurities we hear. The hits of Syl Johnson (not included here – too well known!) funded a flow of 45 releases that missed the national charts in 1967-72 but sound great now. There are a few names you’ll recognize lurking here and there; for instance, Donny Hathaway’s playing on Josephine Taylor’s “I’ve Made Up My Mind.” There are a lot of styles heard here, not only soul and early funk but also a little blues, some harmony groups, and more. The many highlights include George McGregor’s “Temptation Is Too Hard to Fight” (love the guitar sound in the intro!), “Goin’ Man Huntin’” by Jo Ann Garrett, and the fuzzed-out “Soul Strokes” by Sidney Pinchback. This is a must-have for soul fans.
This two-CD set has a slight split personality between the two discs. On disc one, the influence of Brian Eno’s ambient music is especially strong; for instance, “Don’t Bother They’re Here” and “Dopamine Clouds over Craven Cottage” sound like outtakes from Music for Airports in their construction. Disc two, though certainly similar in mood, is more original, practically a sonic demonstration of the acoustic properties of attack and decay as sounds appear, swell, and diminish, with less minimalist repetition in favor of a slow parade of serenely caressed timbres. The duo of Brian McBride and Adam Wiltzie is augmented by a whopping eight additional instrumentalists (four string players, four horns) plus a children’s choir, along with four “contributors” presumably helping with the electronic manipulations. The result is mellow voluptuousness if you use these instrumentals as background music, but utterly engrossing if you pay attention.
D-I-Y Do It Yourself: The Rise of the Independent Music Industry After Punk (Soul Jazz)
This compilation starts with the prototypical DIY punk release, the Buzzcocks’ “Boredom,” then sprawls across a variety of styles while restricting itself to Great Britain and mostly staying inside the years 1977-82 (with one outlier, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry’s 1986 single “Paint Your Wagon”). The eclectic mix bounces around chronologically and stylistically, so the aggressive post-punk (nearly still punk) of the Fire Engines’ 1980 “Everything’s Roses” rubs up against the funk bass and cowbell of fellow Scots APB’s 1982 “All Your Life with Me.” These are famous bands, as are Kleenex (AKA Liliput), Swell Maps, Scritti Politti, Blurt, Glaxo Babies, and Throbbing Gristle, but of course Soul Jazz also mixes in many obscure delights, such as the Naffis, the Frantic Elevators (the first band of Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall, but very punk despite that), Artery, the Flys, the Last Gang, and more, every one worth hearing.
The headlong momentum of “The Well and the Lighthouse” will sound familiar, as will the ear-grabbingly straining, sincere singing of Win Butler, but there is much here that finds this already ambitious band becoming even more daring. Using pipe organ on “Intervention” and “My Body Is a Cage” epitomizes this band’s willingness to say the hell with indie-rock rules and grab for all the sonic splendor they can. And it’s not just that they’ve (probably) got a bigger production budget this time out; the songwriting’s better, more assured. Yes, better than Funeral, much better.
My favorite ‘70s reissue of the year so far. Read my rave review here.
Not only is this some of the best funk of the mid-’70s, and historically important as the root source of what in a few years would become the Washington D.C. Go-Go scene, it includes one of the most heavily sampled breakbeats around, from the instrumental “Ashley’s Roachclip.” Read my full review here.
I’ve been a huge Neil Young fan for decades (no pun intended), and his concert archive series makes me very happy. I extol the virtues of this installment here.
There are still plenty of pop hooks on the Shins’ third full-length, but James Mercer continues to mature as a songwriter and expand his production palette. Yes, as usual, we’re given an album of sad songs that jangle happily, but there are more sounds, more sonic variety (is that a banjo on “Australia”?), and more depth too. Read my review here.
