C O S M I K D E B R I S S E P T E M B E R , 1 9 9 7 - I S S U E # 2 8 ____________________________________________________________________________ - The Specialists - DJ Johnson.................Editor Shaun Dale.................Associate Editor Wayne Burke................HTML coLeSLaw...................Graphic Artist Lauren Marshall............Administrative Assistant Louise Johnson.............Administrative Assistant Sarah Sterley..............Research Assistant - The Cosmik Writers - Jeff Apter, Ann Arbor, coLeSLAw, Robert Cummings, Shaun Dale, Phil Dirt, DJ Johnson, Steven Leith, Steve Marshall, Rusty Pipes, Paul Remington, John Sekerka and David Walley. ____________________________________________________________________________ SOUND CLIPS IN THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF COSMIK DEBRIS There are 3 clips for the Hypnomen interview, two for the Del Amitri article, and two for the Chuck Prophet interview, which is part of Tape Hiss. In the review section, there are clips for the following: The Bluerags Connie Francis Jimi Hendrix Hildegard Of Bingen The Hypnomen (Same 3 clips as in the interview) Jackyl Rickie Lee Jones (2 clips) Korngold Krenek Edwin McCain Mozart Willie Nelson Pollo Del Mar Prokofiev (2 clips) Eddi Reader Tenderloin u-Ziq V/A: Good Time Jazz Story And don't forget to listen to Audible Debris, our hour-long "radio" program that is updated weekly. You'll hear a mix of music that is every bit as eclectic as Cosmik Debris itself. All through October, we'll be mixing in Halloween music in preparation for our Halloween Thingy, a special 2 hour program that will run from October 27th until September 1st. We'll have everything from scary surreal Sabbath to silly spooky Spike. Jones, that is. So whether you play it for your Halloween party or you play it while hiding from trick or treater's in your dark, dank condo, just be sure to play it. The Halloween Thingy. Be there. ___________________________________________________________________________ T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S BEWARE THE HYPNOMEN: From Helsinki, Finland comes this powerhouse instro band with a sound that melds explosive garage with surreal surf. DEL AMITRI: Jeff Apter hangs out with Justin Curry and even snoops through his record collection. TAPE HISS INTERVIEWS - CHUCK PROPHET / PELL MELL: A ormer Green On Red rocker Chuck Prophet, and a 1992 interview with instro band Pell Mell from John Sekerka's Tape Hiss archives. PHIL OCHS, AMERICAN: Shaun Dale's look back at a great talent, and an examination of Rhino's new 3-CD retrospective. CONTEMPORARY JAZZ - The News Ain't ALL Bad: Some of it ain't jazz, but some of it ain't bad, either. Shaun Dale attempts to sort out the confusion. NUSRAT FATEH ALI KAHN - 1947-1997: Music suffers a terrible loss. REVIEWS!: Another alluring assortment of aluminum and vinyl. CLASSIC EXAMPLE: (By Robert Cummings.) Our brand new column that offers a helping hand for those of you who know you LIKE classical music, but don't know where to start in pursuit of education and a worthwhile CD collection. BETWEEN ZERO & ONE: (By Steven Leith.) Feeling like a pawn? Being kept in line by the powers that be -- the powers that don't want YOU to be? If you have the gumption to shed the chains, the Net might just be the key to that lock. PHIL'S GARAGE: (By Phil Dirt.) With apologies to Don McLean, Phil traces events to the day the melody died. WALLEY AT WITZEND: (By David Walley.) Man vs. technology? An age old battle with a newly drawn front line. As the war rages on in the computer age, David tries to decide between a white flag and The Bomb. CLOSET PHILOSOPHY: (By Rusty Pipes.) Cosmik Debris' master of philosophy and meditation takes in the beginning of the NFL season! Honest! CONTACT US: A listing of Cosmik Debris' writers, techie and admin types, including e-mail addresses and homepage URL's. ____________________________________________________________________________ BEWARE THE HYPNOMEN: Talkin' Instro-Noir with Pekka Laine Interviewed by DJ Johnson The music slides forth from the speakers like so much mud, nearly lost in a chaotic reverb space, as if the band is a hundred feet away down an ancient stone corridor. I find myself floating toward the source without regard to the danger inherent in the sound. The sudden clarity of a guitar solo tears me from my autopilot condition, and it is then that I realize the sounds have surrounded me and pulled me into the dark and foreboding world of The Hypnomen. This is no dream. This is simply the result of donning headphones and turning on the blacklight as the new ten-incher, We Three Hypnomen, spins seductively on. Though a thousand bands have tried to create mystique with their music or their actions, few have truly succeeded. On the massive scale, Led Zeppelin, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and Black Sabbath come to mind, all creators of surreal soundscapes and wild imagery. Among indie bands, few have come close to the shadowy alternate universe created by Helsinki, Finland's Hypnomen. As they re-define "power trio," The Hypnomen--Pekka Laine (guitar, organ), Esa Kuloniemi (guitar, bass), and Juha Litmanen (drums)--share a surprisingly straight-forward philosophy about, and approach to, their music. Their collective influences, both musical and celluloid, mesh perfectly to create a dangerous sound that can only be defined as instro-noir. Elements that are completely foreign to the garage and surf genres frequently pop up in the middle of a Hypnomen track, but always through their unique filter that can make soul mysterious and exotica foreboding. Pekka Laine is a humble cat. He's quick to tell people that, of the three Hypnomen, he has the least skill as a player. When asked about a particularly hot guitar part he played, he says "thank you, but you know, Esa is one of the best guitarists in Finland," or "yes, but with Juha playing such a great beat, that part just came naturally." When his creative musical ideas are probed and analyzed, he seems genuinely surprised that anyone noticed, let alone took the time to try to figure out where the ideas came from. However, once the conversation turns to subjects like the band's sound, the atmosphere they create on their records, or music in general, Pekka has plenty to say. * * * Cosmik: A friend and I were just arguing about your music. He says you're a surf band, and I say you're an instrumental punk band, even though I've called you guys "mid-fi surf" before, so I can understand that confusion. Labels suck, but they exist. What do you think your music is? Pekka: We think of our music as instrumental rock'n'roll, primitive mood-music. Surf is definitely one element, but only one among others. Cosmik: If I listen to Jon and the Nightriders, or The Fathoms, I visualize people riding killer waves on longboards, but when I hear The Hypnomen, I picture monsters loose on helpless cities or alien spacecraft zipping along. What kind of inspirations do you take for your tunes? What do YOU visualize? Pekka: It varies a lot. It's often cinematic, weird surrealistic stuff, or western images or film noir-style ideas. Generally speaking, it tends to be a bit dark and twisted, but with humorous elements always lurking somewhere. Cosmik: Over here in the United States, people equate instrumental music from Helsinki, Finland with Laika and the Cosmonauts. You're from the same city, but your music couldn't be any farther removed from what the Cosmonauts play. Are there any other bands there that are in your category? Bands that are a natural double-bill with The Hypnomen? Pekka: Not really. There are bands that I like, such as Flamin' Sideburns, Larry and The Lefthanded, The Ultra Bimboos, etcetera. These you could describe as garage bands. Husky and the Sandmen are a quite decent surf band. Laika and the Cosmonauts rules this town as far as we're concerned. The perfect and most natural double-bill for us? It happened this June on Friday the 13th. We opened up for Link Wray, who is without any doubt our biggest influence. He is way above there in our book. This was probably our biggest thrill thus far. We met our maker! We've also played regular rock festivals this Summer alongside Finnish alt-indie acts and it has worked out fine. Personally, I prefer garage oriented bands. Cosmik: How do you define "garage oriented bands?" Or I guess the better way to say it is "which style of garage band do you get into?" Pekka: In Finland there never was a real garage revival scene like in the States or Sweden. Most of these bands I mentioned have a strong punkish homemade flavour. They're not retro-garage at all, but they use garage style songs, fuzztone, Farfisa, etcetera. Flamin' Sideburns rock especially hard, for my money. A bit like The Nomads, but less hard rock more rock'n'roll with a Pacific Northwest-via-Finland flavour. I like all kinds of garage-based styles, be it totally retro like Fortune & Maltese or some wacko hybrid of different elements like Oblivions, Jon Spencer and all the aftermath of the late great Gories. I wish there were more bands of this sort in Finland. We are certainly doing our best to bring the prehistoric-stone-age-straight-from-the-zoo element to Finnish pop music. Cosmik: Who does what in the band? Pekka: Esa Kuloniemi plays bass and guitar and organ. Live, he plays most bass parts. And we do stuff with two guitars and drums also. Juha Litmanen plays drums. I play mostly guitar, and a few bass and organ parts, also. I play most of my bass parts on a baritone guitar. Esa's wife, Aija, who is an excellent musician, plays some organ parts on our records, and also sometimes on live shows. She plays behind the mixer board so nobody can tell where the organ sound is coming from. Our secret weapon. Cosmik: Does she ever get sick of hiding and want to get some spotlight? Pekka: No. She has so many other things to do, so this is only something she occasionally participates in. She's helping us out on special occasions to make them really special. Cosmik: Do you ever try to do your own keyboard parts live? Pekka: On CD I did those organ things as overdubs. I can't play organ at all. It's totally two-finger Neanderthal stuff! Live, I play guitar 80 or 90 percent of the set. We don't try to do everything exactly like on the record. Cosmik: Yeah, but isn't "two-fingered Neanderthal stuff" exactly what rock and roll is all about? Pekka: I guess so. But some elementary knowledge about basics doesn't hurt either. After finishing the CD we've done a couple of recordings with the Farfisa, on both of which Esa's wife, Aija, handles the organ parts. It's much better because she can really do it and add a lot more to the overall sound. "Sound of The Silencer" [7 incher on Gas Records] features her playing. Cosmik: Tell us a little more about your bandmates. What do they bring to the dance, in terms of sounds and styles? Pekka: It's totally a group effort. A happy threesome! Our secret weapon is this: I play most of the lead parts and I'm easily the worst player in the band! Not kidding. This will keep all the unnecessary virtuoso-stuff away. We concentrate one hundred percent on the song writing and the ensemble playing and overall sound. I don't look at our stuff as "lead guitar music," although there's guitar lead on almost every tune. More like The Raymen or The Who circa 1965-66. You know, concentrated power. I've been playing with Juha for over ten years. He's a really good and versatile drummer, big fan of Sandy Nelson and New Orleans groove kings like Earl Palmer and Charles "Hungry" Williams, plus all the old blues, jazz and rock'n'roll people. He swings all the way. He brings the soulful rock'n'roll backdrop to our sound. Esa is one of the most respected guys on the Finnish roots-rock'n'roll scene. Has been for over ten years. Fantastic guitar player, both sophisticated and ultra raw. A real master of tone and style. And dig this: he plays mostly bass in The Hypnomen. Why? Because he likes it and it sounds good. He playes the most outrageous Hypnomen guitar parts also, like on "Medication-a-go-go". Totally demented. He's a bit older so he can bring a certain authenticity to the mix, because he's experienced the shit we rave about like The Monkees and The Who first time around. Song writing aside, I'd say we all contribute thirty three and one third percent to the mix, and our live shows especially illustrate that. Cosmik: What is a typical Hypnomen show like? Pekka: It's high energy, rockin' sinister fun! We start off with more surf style material to get the crowd warmed up. We just try to play as hard and intense as we can, no intermissions, no "hello, hope you're having a great time" kind of babble. Just straight ahead, full speed, no breaks action. It's pretty raw, I'd say. Mostly original tunes. Some covers, like "Casbah," "I'm Branded," and "Please Please Me." Cosmik: Wait, wait... "Please Please Me?" I can't begin to imagine what a Hypnomen treatment of that tune would sound like. Have you recorded that song? Pekka: No, we haven't. I wish we came up with the idea. But Link Wray got there first. His version is to be found in the "Missing Links" series on Norton. We modelled our version after his, but it's a great live number. People dig it, but they always look a little puzzled too. They can't often make the right connection for some reason. We get a lot of comments on that number like "Wow, I really like the way you guys do "Love Me Do!" I guess it sounds a bit absurd as an instrumental. Cosmik: The version on Missing Links, though, is about as faithful to the original as an instrumental can be, isn't it? I can't picture Hypnomen doing Merseybeat pop. Pekka: Yes, but Link's version rocks! And we like that Mersey beat a lot. The Kaisers is a big favorite of ours. We just take this stuff and smash it against the wall. It's the fun music for us. Cosmik: Do the people at your shows generally get off on tunes like that, I mean besides the dorks who think it's "Love Me Do?" Pekka: It's a guaranteed crowd pleaser. So is "Casbah." People recognize that Arabian flavor and they go "SURF!" That's cool with us. We do a punky version of "The 2000 Pound Bee," by The Ventures, with two guitars and drums, and that usually gets them going too. Cosmik: What is the typical Hypnomen FAN like? Pekka: Beats me. We get a pretty mixed audience at our club dates. Some 50s style rock'n'roll fans, mod types, regular geeks, punks and a few guitar players with serious looks on their faces. Cosmik: Do you see a lot of the guitar players in the crowd watching your fingers, trying to cop a few riffs? Pekka: Not so much that. But more like getting questions about our gear after the shows. And quite a few comments on the sounds we're getting that can't come from anybody but guitar players. You know like "Man, I dig your tremolo!" That's the kind or groupies we get. But also the circles are quite small so a lot of our friends that play in bands check us out, and vice versa, of course. Cosmik: Your sound is extremely mysterious and intriguing. Not quite lo-fi, but not crystal clear sounding, either. Lots of reverb space. Are you able to get that space around the whole band playing live? Pekka: Not really. But we look at live shows from a different angle. There's more emphasis on the raw, meaty side of our sound. So the sound isn't as loaded with reverb as on record. Guitar tones, however, are totally soaking wet. We trip out on the stage also, but in a more spontaneous, primitive kind of way. Cosmik: Part of the mysterioso thing is a certain heaviness in the sound, a dark and sometimes almost frightening heaviness that really comes out in songs like "Zipgun" and "Back In The Cage." Is there some heavy metal in your backgrounds, or at least metal influences? For instance, I don't hear a single Sabbath riff in your music, but some of it makes me feel the same chills. Pekka: We don't have any metal in our backgrounds, that's for sure. But you're not the first one pointing to that direction. So what gives? My theory for this is that it comes from the spontaneous nature in which we write and play. We take a tune, play it as it comes, twist it around, and have fun with it without holding anything back. A lot of instro bands seem to be really concerned with the style and the sound they are playing with and they often sound as if they were holding something back. This might produce great and stylish music, but we don't operate normally like this. We just let it loose and watch what happens. That's the punk influence in our thing, which some people connect with metal. We didn't mean it that way, but if that's where the music takes you, enjoy the ride. Cosmik: What do you listen to when you're just listening for kicks? Pekka: We are pretty serious music addicts, so this a tough one. We all have backgrounds in playing blues and R&B, and we will always dig that stuff. R.L. Burnside and T-Model Ford kick butt. Link Wray and good instrumental stuff is always refreshing. Popular music from 1930s to 60s and 70s is our main scope of interest. Rockabilly, Joe Meek, The Ventures, garage-punk, 60s pop, The Byrds, ska, rock steady, doo wop, Sun Ra, be bop, Sinatra, jazz, Rocket from The Crypt, Honky Tonk music, Swamp pop, Oblivions, Estrus Records, Crypt Records, sleazy listening... You get the picture. It's bad. And getting worse every day. Cosmik: Man, that's a cool list. When you say "sleazy listening," what do you mean? Cocktail swank? Pekka: Yes. Sort of. Las Vegas Grind, Jungle Exotica, instrumental R&B, funky "almost-but-not-quite" jazz. Stuff like that. Cosmik: Some of your music sounds like there might be shreds of exotica in the forethought before it got blasted with attitude. Pekka: Absolutely. This newly found interest in easy listening and exotica is a great thing. A lot of good stuff is coming to daylight. I've been into the "legit" mainstream side of lounge--Louis Prima, Sinatra, Martin, jazz--for a long time. But exotica and Esquivel stuff is a later find. Definitely inspiring music. Some exotica influences are apparent, like the cha-cha percussion loop in "Bamboola" on Supersonico, some just pop up when we write melodies and themes. There are quite a few Hypnomen tunes that you could define as some sort of unholy mix of punkish rock'n'roll and exotic mood music. Cosmik: Man, you sure listen to a wide range of music. I always want to know what influences go into someone's music, but in this case, knowing you've got Sinatra and The Byrds going through your head at times, what I really want to know is how you keep some influences out. Is it ever hard to focus and keep it within certain parameters? Pekka: Very important question. How much room do you allow yourself to have? We are pretty freewheeling on this one. And not too analytical. We tend to cross a lot of stylistical boundaries that shouldn't necessarily be crossed. We goof around and end up sounding moronic. We might start with a little ditty and go "hey, let's do this sort of Booker T. style." But somewhere on the narrow path to hipness we take an obvious wrong turn and the whole thing will sound more like Blue Cheer or Captain Beefheart in the end. So what do you do? Usually we just say "fuck it, this is fun. We'll keep it." But we NEVER mix influences in order to sound clever: "let's put a little Cole Porter on this punk go-go thing." Never. It's got to be natural. But if it works, why the hell not do it? Even though it's not mentioned in the black bible of surf. We've tried out quite a few songs that are less than apparent for an instro band: Sir Douglas Quintet, Bobby Fuller pop songs, The Who... As a fan and listener I understand strict instro-surf traditionalism totally, but it's not our thing as a band. Cosmik: I think it's interesting, considering your affection for Link Wray, that you mentioned the Fat Possum label blues guys, R.L. Burnside and T. Model Ford. That's some raw blues, and Link, of course, made his name on raw sounds. What attracts you to those sounds? Pekka: Ok, now we're talking some of the best music in history. These guys are the very essence of rock'n'roll, blues or whatever you want to call it. Burnside and T-Model rock on the level of Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy. The best of them. And Link is in the same category. He's the embodiment of the mystery of rock'n'roll, the great American, primitive and mind-altering power: a guy picks up a guitar, plugs it in, hits a chord through a crummy little amp... and it can change your life. This sounds stupid and naive, but it's the truth. I believe it has happened to everybody at some time. You hear the right sound, something clicks and you see the light: "Yes, NOW I know!" By the way, I find it somewhat puzzling that a lot of people in surf circuits seem to find the blues as the ultimate boring uncool kind of music. Maybe it's because of the guitar noodling-white-hippie-Clapton-crap overdose in the media. But you should never judge a musical style on the basis of its degenerate latter day disciples. Don't judge rockabilly by listening to Stray Cats, but by Elvis Presley's version of "Mystery Train" or by "One Hand Loose" by Charlie Feathers. Don't judge surf by Dick Dale's Tribal Gathering albums, but by Fender IV's "Mar Gaya" or by Johnny Barakat's rendition of "The Wedge." Drink your music straight with no chaser. Cosmik: Good advice. And don't judge garage rock by just any old band making records. Go back and listen to Link Wray. Did you get to hang out with Link when you gigged with him? Pekka: Yes we did. It was the biggest thrill ever. His tour manager told him we are huge fans of his and introduced us to him. Link told us he wouldn't be able to catch our opening set later that night and then asked us if we could play a private set for him after our soundcheck. Fucking A! We played for him for 15-20 minutes and he was all excited. He hollered and cheered when we kicked into "I'm Branded." His crappy Dutch back up band, who looked like a bunch of heavy metal roadies in their sleeveless denim shirts, sat there with their mouths open. Link's hearing isn't that great, so he yelled at them "they are playing MY SONG!" He laughed his heart out when he realized we had an organ player hiding behind the mixer. "You guys are really sneaky!" We told him he's the reason we started this whole damn thing and he looked to be genuinely flattered. He's probably the most charismatic person I've ever met. It's impossible to even describe how we felt about this whole thing. Later that evening he was in great mood, raving after our set: "let's have a jam session, two bass players, two drum kits and two guitars!" We were like "...are you sure?" Esa joined him during his encores and they played a couple of Jimmy Reed numbers together. Cool ending to an amazing night. Cosmik: How do you top that? Pekka: You tell me! Cosmik: Pretty cool. I want to ask you about certain tunes on the Supersonico album. Your bass tone on "Psycho From Ipanema" just blew me away. Pure bass, smooth as glass. How did you record it? I've got a 50 cent bet down that says Esa went direct to the board. Pekka: Esa played a 1955 precision bass through a vintage VOX bass head and 15" cabinet and also directly to the board. The is a combination of those two sources. Cosmik: The Killer Riff award has to go to the A flat-A-B-C break in "Brainwasher." That's incredibly powerful. Who came up with that? Pekka: C'est moi. Cosmik: Then you go straight from that punk-surf explosion to something with a country blues influence ("Panorama Red") without losing the trademark Hypnomen vibe. Now how the hell do you manage that one? Pekka: Don't know. It's not something we analyze on a rational level. Pieces just tend to fall to their places if you put your soul into it when you do it. And it's basically us playing from one song to another with the same gear, same fingers and same seriously limited personalities. Cosmik: Thanks for reminding me... What about gear? This stuff doesn't sound like Strats or Jags. Pekka: Yummy yummy!! Gear question! OK. First the drums: 1958 Gretch, silver sparkle, Zildjan and Paiste Cymbals mostly vintage. My main guitar is a jazzmaster reissue... boring but good. I use 1958 Supro Dual Tone as a backup. My reverb is custom made by a friend. It's basically a Fender reverb build inside a 1950's Radio. Cool as hell. Same guy built my baritone guitar, which is shaped like a long-horn Dan [EdNote: Refers to the Longhorn Danelectro bass], but otherwise it's pretty Hot-Rod: no spare parts. It's cool for both twang and bass mayhem. My amp is a 1968 Fender Super Reverb. Live, I use two vintage Super Reverbs. Esa's main hypno axe is something else: a 1960's Hofner twin-neck guitar/bass. Great--I repeat-GREAT--instrument! He uses a Supro Dualtone a lot, 1960 Strat occasionally, 1968 Silvertone Solid Body for low open tuning, swamp grind and National Airline for a totally perfect Santo Farina-style slide sound. Silvertones and Supros have great one-of-a-kind sounds we really like. A Supro amp is on top of my want list right after a vintage Jazzmaster. On the records, we used Hofner Beatle bass and 1955 Fender Precision. Esa's amp of choice is a monster, loud as fuck 1959 Fender Twin. Cosmik: It sounds like you're using heavy strings. Pekka: The usual 11 to 49 or 12 to 52, depending on the guitar. Cosmik: Let me see if I can force an age-old controversy on you. You've made a handful of 7-inch EP's, and you've made a CD. Aside from the obvious commercial advantages of the CD format, which do you prefer? For your band, and as a fan of other bands. Pekka: Definitely vinyl. For pop music in general, the 45 is the greatest format. Best sound, looks and greatest vibes. It's so perfect: couple of songs, no filler, just the damn thing. And albums, too, of course. It works on several levels: First the music and then the beautiful object - the record, the sleeve art, the mere idea of a great record. CD is merely a handy container for music. It's good from a collector's point of view. "You can have all the outtakes too." Gee, that's great... It's pragmatic, but totally devoid of any emotional value as an object. But we're totally realistic about this. We live in the 90's and CD is the format. But not because it's a supreme format by any objective standards. We definitely get a kick if we get anything released on vinyl. Cosmik: Do you know of a band from Norway called The Basement Brats? Pekka: I've read about them in several fanzines, including Cosmik Debris. Cosmik: One of our first interviews was with Ole Olsen, who was their singer at the time. I remember him saying that they had the distinction of being the last band to have a record pressed on vinyl in Norway, and that they packed up the machinery right after the run and sent it to a national museum, like some martyr of the digital revolution. Has there ever been any worry about that happening in Finland, or are there too many bands wanting to release vinyl? Pekka: To my knowledge all the pressing plants have closed down. It's a disgrace, like so many other things are nowadays. Most bands press their vinyl in places like the Czech Republic. It's the cheapest way. But the best place I know is a Swedish plant called Eldorado. They made our latest 45 and 10". Both rock, as far as pressing goes. Cosmik: What kind of press do you get at home? Pekka: They've only noticed us recently. It's been really positive thus far. Comparisons with Laika and the guys we could expect, so it doesn't bother us. But it's totally unnecessary. However, the average rock journalist has apparent difficulties figuring us out. But they don't know shit about nothing anyway. Cosmik: I'm living proof of that. "We think they're really loud, and anyways not nearly as cool as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince." (Laughs) Give us an example. What's the most baffling thing that's been written about The Hypnomen thus far? Pekka: Nothing spectacularly stupid. Just the common ignorance of pop-critics raised on too much Morrissey and Michael Stipe. Usually, they don't know squat about instrumental music, which you can expect. The real problem is that they don't always listen. In our neck of the woods, the instrumental music has been traditionally linked with The Shadows. Later on critics have added Laika and Quentin Tarantino to their set of concepts to describe instros. Now we are often described with those terms: "this is the kind of cool mixture of Shadows and Laika & The Cosmonauts that Quentin Tarantino might really DIG!" They like it but don't get it. We are totally mad Laika fans, but those comparisons are unsound. Cosmik: I see Laika's music as intensely psychotic but happy. I see your music, generally speaking, as darker and more foreboding, something like instro noir. Pekka: Good description. But we try hard not to be pompous or pathetic about our sound. It's dark and serious, and yet humorous stuff. At least the way we look at it. Cosmik: I saw a Swedish interview in which you talked about something called the Massa show. What exactly is that? Pekka: Weirdest fucking thing we've ever been part of. It's a freaky quiz show on Swedish cable TV. One of the producers of the show had bought our 45s and he had really dug them a lot. So he contacted us and asked us to be the house band for the spring '97 season. On the previous season they had a popular Swedish metal band, Entombed, playing on the set. They're like Sabbath on steroids, really fucking dark and depressing but funny as hell, too. So they figured the way to go after that is to get a Finnish bunch of musical wackos. We taped 17 episodes one week in January in Stockholm. The show has Swedish pop and TV celebrities as guests, and it's quite cheesy, but fun. We played live like a regular TV band, but only our own kind of stuff. If somebody gave a right answer to a question we would crank out some noise in the background. Before the commercials we would do a little "Hava Nagilah" or "Casbah" or whatever. "Back In The Cage" became the theme of the show. It was great fun. Totally absurd. Cosmik: Are you still involved in that? Pekka: Nope. Our season in the cable tv sun is gone for the moment. Wonder what they are doing next season? Probably hire a Russian band. Cosmik: Has that done a lot for your popularity in Sweden? Pekka: I don't know, really. Probably has done something. It's hard to say. We're planning to play there more in the future because it's a great country. Stockholm especially. The most important thing about this whole operation was that we met a lot great people over there, made good friends and we've been working with a bunch of folks ever since. We got our website because of that and our EP/mini-album is a direct result of these connections we made while filming Massa. Cosmik: Speaking of the EP, can you give us a quick overview of the record and tell us what we can expect? Pekka: As we are doing this interview, the records are on their way to Finland. I must say I'm really excited. We recorded and mixed six songs for this record during one weekend in March. We were in better shape as a band than during the Supersonico sessions, I think. It's the same stuff, but more intense. Couple of pretty good tunes, our best ones yet, I believe. And our most idiotic thing, also. It's called "We Three Hypnomen," and it started out as a pretty decent garage-romp, but it turned into a monster. We are going to hear a lot more "how much and what sort of metal do have inside your heads?" It's so bad we named it as our theme song. And Link Wray is saying a few words on the record, on a pagan gospel tune called "Satan Took My Lung." I think you will like this a lot if you liked the CD. Cosmik: Have you ever seen Man Or Astro-Man live? Pekka: Never. Closest they got to my neighborhood is Denmark. And that's pretty far away. Cosmik: Ever thought of doing a split EP with them? Seems like a natural. Pekka: Why not? We are pretty far from their status, however. And we are earthlings, too. Cosmik: What do you like to do when you're not playing? Pekka: The usual. We're all pretty busy doing all kinds of stuff in order to survive. We're pretty square people off stage: we work, we don't do drugs, we drink moderately, and I've got two kids and a Japanese car. But seriously speaking, we listen to a lot of music, watch films--even TV--read stuff, etcetera etcetera. Esa and I are both Radio DJs, also. And we all play with other bands, too. Cosmik: I may never get to Finland, so maybe you can tell me what life's like there. Pekka: Cold in the winter, nice in the summer, clean, safe, it can get pretty boring. Really expensive, down to earth, not flaky at all, pretty straight forward and traditional yet liberal and tolerant by Hollywood standards. It's quite good. Scandinavia with a slight eastern flavour. Cosmik: Do you have big plans for The Hypnomen, or are you just happy to go where it goes? Pekka: When we started out our only plan was to make music we like and to get it released. But ever since the beginning things have worked out better than expected. So we are going just where ever this thing takes us. But, at least musically speaking, we are really ambitious and excited about this band. I hope we can excite a few innocent bystanders on the way, too. * * * BE SURE TO ENTER THE CONTEST! You could win a copy of Supersonico, the brand new CD by The Hypnomen. Just drop an e-mail to moonbaby@serv.net with your name, the e-mail address where you'd like to be notified if you win, and some kind of indication that it's The Hypnomen CD you're trying to win. (Because we sometimes have people entering contests we ran like... months ago. Can you imagine?!) Good luck! ____________________________________________________________________________ DEL AMITRI: Regular Guys, Irregular Jobs By Jeff Apter Onstage in a muggy midtown New York nightclub, Del Amitri mainman Justin Currie, with his close-skulled crop and leather duds, could be mistaken for Bono. But whereas Bono maintains an ice-cool distance, Currie is a man of the people. At one point, fielding a request from a yelling fan, he confesses "I'm only pandering to you, 'cause I can't hear a thing you're saying," as he, hirsute stringman Iain Harvie and their current band-for-hire plied their trademark good-guy grins, pop smarts and animated riffing. The Dels' set is punctuated by a brief unplugged sidetrack that somehow ends in a "New York New York" singalong (which wasn't going to harm their public image in the city that never sleeps). A few days on, when I catch up with a chatty, straight-talking Currie in a Chapel Hill hotel room, he explains his "give-'em-what-they-want" strategy. "I'm not very big on this artistic integrity thing; when I go and see a band I want to hear songs I know. We try and do the same. I also try to do a geographically appropriate song at every gig. We'd done 'New York, New York' and 'Streets of Philadelphia,' but in Boston we ran out of ideas. Maybe we should have done the theme from Cheers." And Currie would be right at home in the bar where everybody knows your name, if our conversation, and Del Amitri's fifth long-player, is any indication. "Some Other Sucker's Parade" is a typical hand-on-the-heart affair, earnest and tuneful and pretension-free, swinging from the sweet mid-period Beatles vibe of "Mother Nature's Writing" and "Make It Always Be Too Late" to the cantankerous putdown of "High Times" and the southern rock stomp of "Funny Way To Win." With Breeders' producer Mark Freegard at the controls, the album was recorded in a blinding flash (eight weeks start to finish) in Lincolnshire, England. "We just came off the road, wrote a bunch of songs, went into the studio and recorded them as quickly as we could," Currie explains, simply. As their principal tunesmith, Currie adds a playful, self-deprecating twist to tracks such as "Lucky Guy" and "What I Think She Sees," as he wonders aloud why "the one girl I want / she wants that one bit of geography I lack." He advises me, though, not to confuse the singer with the song. "I'm pretty happy, actually. You know, I've always warned people against making judgments about writer's personalities from their songs," he points out. "I've encountered people who write the most negative lyrics and they're the sweetest people. I've been in relationships with women where they've heard my songs before they meet me and I found that really intimidating." So while he might play down the autobiographical content of his songs, relationships are a recurring theme on Sucker's Parade, as Currie ponders life at the uncool end of the bar. And with "Not Where It's At" - where the drollness of Squeeze meets the Byrds' classic jangle - Currie had a master plan. "I wanted to write a song that would be like an anthem for Del Amitri, for people who weren't cool but were pretty intelligent. Yet I ended up writing a tongue-in-cheek love song." Currie agrees that his frankness belies the standard perception of a pop star. "I think it comes from being fundamentally honest, which I guess has a lot to do with my upbringing in Scotland. In the great show business scheme of things you're supposed to lie about yourself, but there's no benefit in that; I refuse to." "But you certainly wouldn't be a singer in a band if you didn't want to be famous in some way," a typically straightforward Currie adds. "Yet I like to see myself more as a regular guy with an irregular job." Above and beyond ego and showbiz and public perceptions, however, Justin Currie is a pop fan. I asked him to conduct a tour of his album collection, stopping at the key letters. He quickly warmed to the task. "'B' is big - Captain Beefheart, Bolan, Beatles, 'Surf's Up' - the only Beach Boys' album I like. 'D' for Dr Feelgood and Dylan, 'P' for Public Image and a couple of Police albums. 'R' for the Ramones." "I also have a section for records that I have never gotten around to taking back, or haven't heard since I was about 13. I have an album by someone called Annette Peacock. I still have absolutely no idea who she is or why I bought it," he added, with a mystified chuckle. (C) Jeff Apter 1997 ____________________________________________________________________________ THE TAPE HISS INTERVIEWS By John Sekerka [The following interviews are transcribed from John Sekerka's radio show, Tape Hiss, which runs on CHUO FM in Ottawa, Canada. Each month, Cosmik Debris will present a pair of Tape Hiss interviews. This month, we're proud to present an interview with Chuck Prophet, formerly of Green On Red, and from the Tape Hiss vaults, a 1992 interview with the tragically under-heard instrumental band, Pell Mell.] - - - - - - - - - - - - - C H U C K P R O P H E T Green On Red were one of the ground breaking pioneers of cow punk, the thing that's all the rage nowadays with bands like Sun Volt and Wilco. A band born a decade too early, they managed to lay down some criminally overlooked albums. Guitarist Chuck Prophet has emerged from the ashes with a nice collection of solo recordings, culminating in this year's earthy "Homemade Blood". From a San Francisco studio , Chuck talked about the old days, the new days, LSD trips, suburbia and dealing with the dictatorial producer, Steve Berlin. We also had an argument over a classic album. JOHN: What're you working on? CHUCK: I'm just putzing around. I have to go to the studio and pay people to hang out with me. My lifestyle: friends and making records are all intertwined. JOHN: Are you a musician seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day? CHUCK: Yeah, but I don't take it to bed. It could change any day. I could be down on Montgomery Street at six in the morning trying to sell flowers. I've thought about it. JOHN: Let's get to it: I quite like your new record, Homemade Blood. Compared to Brother Aldo, which was a more gentle, countrified album, it sounds like you just wanted to rock out. CHUCK: Oh sure, sure. I was less interested in the process of making a record. I just wanted to get five people together, keep it simple, kicking the songs around, and trying to stick 'em to tape with as little fuss as possible. You can hear people talking to each other on the record. The last record I made was with Steve Berlin [Los Lobos], and it was a bit involved. He couldn't resist the temptation to put his fingerprints on anything and everything. He was running around with a flashlight, looking at what he could tweak. I just got a little tired of the process, you know? I like to ride. I like to get up and do something creative every day, and I wanted this record to be more of a live situation. Not that there wasn't a lot of blood on the floor after I beat up the songs. JOHN: I hear ya. It sounds like you got a little dirty. The press likes to pigeonhole you with a Rolling Stones sound, but what I hear is a bit of Tom Petty and The Replacements. Do labels offend you? CHUCK: Naw, I also bear a resemblance to Tom Petty. I blame my parents. I don't mind. The Stones, The Replacements - they're just taking traditional stuff that's laying around and turning it sideways. And that's pretty much what I've always done. JOHN: Do you know when you've nicked a riff, or does it sometimes come to you later? CHUCK: Ah, I just ignore it and hope it goes away. I heard Keith Richards once held up an album for two months cuz he thought it [the nick] was gonna come to him. I used to pole vault over those mouse turds, but now I just walk through 'em. I don't care. By the time you beat up a song, take it through changes, if it's still living and breathing by the time you stick it to tape, usually it'll just go away. The initial riff or whatever it was that sparked the place in the back of your mind that made you think of sitting in the car with your Mom listening to Glenn Campell. They just go. It's something in the subconscious editing process. JOHN: How often do you write songs? Do they come to you, or do you tinker in the studio until something evolves? CHUCK: I collect stuff, and every once in a while I'm lucky enough to get up in the morning and pull one out from the roots. Sometimes I gotta drag someone along. I do a lot of co-writing. Other times, I've written out of necessity, but those are never that good. JOHN: Is there a difference making music in L.A. [Gun Club] and making music in San Francisco? CHUCK: There's music in the air in L.A., and I grew up in a time where music was coming from every car. It was everywhere. I took that for granted. I dunno if you get that everywhere. Living in San Francisco now - there's an artistic thing in the air here that's left over. It's kinda cool. I don't think they would have put up with The Grateful Dead in L.A. Some people say music's all about geography - Jim Dickinson says the reason that the grooves are so sticky and greasy in Memphis is because the air just hangs heavier, all that humidity. There might be some truth to all that stuff. JOHN: Dickinson produced Green On Red didn't he? CHUCK: Yeah, he's the guru of voodoo. I've seen him do so many things that were invisible, just by being in the room. He's a real presence. We did a live recording together in '94 which was bootlegged and is now on a French label. JOHN: What label is that? CHUCK: Last Call. It's run by a fella who used to run New Rose, which was famous for putting out records by people who were dead, half dead, on the way up or on the way down. JOHN: A great label. What is the official status of Green on Red anyway? CHUCK: I dunno. We broke up every six months. We like to say that we went on strike. We're still entertaining offers. JOHN: So you keep in touch with Danny Stuart? CHUCK: Yeah, I talk to him occasionally. He might leave a cryptic message on my machine recommending some conspiracy book or another. JOHN: Can you reveal who wrote what in Green On Red? CHUCK: Most of the time Danny carried away the writing. I might bring in something, a riff with words attached and we would run with it. Sometimes I'd bring in something that was completely finished. JOHN: So this lyrical side of you is a new thing? CHUCK: Naw, I've always written songs. You know writing with Danny was great. He's fearless. He'd put a lot of things in songs that normally wouldn't be in songs. He had a song about a guy with an enormous foot who made his living traveling in a minstrel show. JOHN: I'm a big fan of Green On Red, especially "The Killer Inside Me" record. CHUCK: Well you're the only person who liked that record. We thought that it was just miserable. JOHN: I've read that. Why do you think it miserable? CHUCK: Well it was miserable making it. We thought that we were so bad-ass, so reactionary, and Danny had so much anti-establishment rhetoric. When we tried to make a record that actually rocked, we couldn't rock to save our lives. I don't know what it was. We were trying to make a ZZ Top record or something. It was like the Kingston Trio trying to jam with Robert Palmer. It just didn't work. It was really bombastic, cold and overblown, and underneath it all were these tired, lackluster performances. JOHN: But I love that record! CHUCK: Maybe that's what makes it exciting, but I don't wanna listen to it. JOHN: Really? The lead off track, "Clarksville," is a total killer. CHUCK: Yeah? Maybe we should stop apologizing and start a rumour that it's a masterpiece.... [pause] ...That record is a MASTERPIECE! JOHN: Now you've got it. Were you guys fighting in the studio at the time? CHUCK: Nobody cared enough to get that upset. We cut way too much stuff. Half of it had a sense of humour, it was kinda playful, and the other half was pretty bombastic. There were two records in there, and they were fighting each other. JOHN: You know the CD version also has the No Free Lunch EP on it, so there are THREE records fighting it out! CHUCK: There's also an Australian bootleg which we authorized, that has all the outtakes. So if you're such a sucker for punishment... JOHN: Why go from Green On Red to solo work? CHUCK: Well, I kept writing and playing outta necessity, outta habit. Luckily there was this bar called The Albion at the end of my street, and we could take it over on Friday and Saturday nights. These songs just appeared, and I thought I should get 'em outta my head and on tape. I thought I was outta the music business. I was twenty-four years old, and I figured I got my shot. I was naive, thinking that cassette would be publishing demos. The tape got into the hands of some dude in England who decided it would make a record, and that's what Brother Aldo was. JOHN: Green On Red was always more popular with the British press. Is that still the case? CHUCK: I suppose. We just spent more time over there cuz we got signed to a British label in '86 or something. They only see so far in front of their faces, so we ended up on the cover of Melody Maker and Sounds. By the time we were done over there, we were too tired to work back here. JOHN: That was a great time for cow punk, back in L.A. with you, The Gun Club, The Dream Syndicate, X .... Was that a close knit community? CHUCK: We crossed paths, though we never shared a house or anything. JOHN: Do you carry a guitar with you at all times? CHUCK: Naw, not really. A friend of mine is like that though. He was doing sixty days in county jail, so he made a guitar outta cardboard to keep him company. JOHN: How would he play it? CHUCK: He just moved his hands, knowing how it would sound. I'm thinking of making one - my neighbours would love it. JOHN: Do you get written up and fawned over by guitar magazines? CHUCK: Yeah, I get the obligatory piece with every record. JOHN: How do you find that almost geeky worship? Is that a bit embarrassing? CHUCK: It's kinda fun, cuz the rest of pop culture has become too intellectual. It's great to talk about Russian guitar pedals for a change. JOHN: For all the guitar geeks out there, could you outline your latest gizmo? CHUCK: Well, I'm really into this thing called an envelope follower. It plays whatever you're playing an octave lower, and if you hit it harder - it's touch sensitive - it bubbles like lava up an octave. It's really painful. JOHN: Painful to hear or to play? CHUCK: Painful for everybody in the room - when it explodes. It's really cool. JOHN: Let's get back to the new record. On the very catchy "Ooh Wee," you mention being strung out on ritalin and colour TV at nine years old. CHUCK: Wasn't everybody? JOHN: Damn right. Growing up in L.A. in the early seventies must have been pretty wild. CHUCK: I was lucky enough to have an older sister who got into a lot of trouble. JOHN: Were all your experiences second hand then, or did you find trouble yourself? CHUCK: We don't have that kinda time. JOHN: We don't? You must have one story you can sneak in here. CHUCK: I was arrested and thrown in jail, peaking on two hits of LSD. But the story itself is kinda boring unless you were there. There is a moral, though: you gotta fix those parking brakes and things, else you get pulled over. JOHN: Listening to "Homemade Blood" I get a feeling that you write about mid-America - some might call it suburban white trash - not condescendingly, more as an observation of the lifestyle. CHUCK: The last couple of records were influenced by my immediate surroundings. Certain events led me back to living with my folks in the suburbs. There's a photographer, Bill Owens, who took pictures of suburbia developments in the seventies. I saw his pictures in a museum and I got into that. And when I got back home everything had changed. The Dairy Queen was gone. I found myself bumping into ghosts, and some ended up in my songs. ..tape hiss [check out chuck's web site for access to his recordings, bootlegs and all] P E L L M E L L Pell Mell is a rock'n'roll oddity: a quintet that lives apart, on the outer reaches of America, and plays guitar driven, instrumental music. They record sporadically, but always with great results. After years doing time on the SST label, better known as a pioneering punk outlet for Black Flag, The Minutemen and The Meat Puppets, Pell Mell have been scooped up by Geffen. Their last indie album, "Flow" is one of the best records released within the last decade. It remained criminally ignored in most circles until someone at Microsoft convinced the head honchos to use a track for one of their fancy commercials. Soon thereafter Geffen came calling. The following interview took place back in '92 just after the release of "Flow," and before the band's fortunes changed. I managed to hunt down David Spalding and Robert Beerman, who along with Greg Freeman and current super producer and Pigeonhead member Steve Fisk, make up the quartet, for a chaotic phoner. The two voices and thought patterns proved indistinguishable, so their alternating and amalgamated answers are prefaced simply by "Pell Mell." John: Did you collectively decide at the beginning to be an instrumental band? Pell Mell: Back around 1980 when we formed the band in Portland, Oregon, we auditioned singers but never found any we liked. As soon as lyrics were put to the music it proved very distracting; like an abstract painting being interrupted by a figure. So we thought, "well hell let's just play the music." And we haven't looked back. John: Your music is very lyrical. In a lot of instrumentals ya keep waiting for the vocal to kick in, but I don't find that with Pell Mell. Pell Mell: Thanks. That's exactly what we're all about. It's tough to make an instrumental sound more than a backing track. John: How do you write songs? Pell Mell: It's different for each song. Sometimes it comes out of jams, other times we have a pretty clear structure of what we want the song to do. Then everyone re-interprets it and adds their own parts. We work mostly by tape since we're all over the country it's kinda hard for us to jam. John: Is there some center point where you congregate, or is it all done by correspondence? Pell Mell: Once in a while we get together to jam and everyone already knows the structure. It's strange when we get in a room, count out a song that we've never played together and it's there. That eliminates a lot of down time and personal strife. John: Then I guess you don't have that Yoko Ono thing happening. Pell Mell: Nope. John: What exactly is Pell Mell - it's not a take off on cigarettes is it? Pell Mell: Naw, it's a word. It means every which way at once, like "the guy ran pell mell down the street." It's an adverb we randomly picked out of the dictionary. It's the old story: we had a show coming up and we needed a name. The cigarettes are Pall Mall, but the candy version was put out in our honour. Mr. Topps of the Topps bubblegum company is a big fan. John: Every time I spin your music folks think they know it but when I tell them it's Pell Mell they say, "WHAT?" Pell Mell: That means you have to be playing it more. John: Gimme a brief history of the band. Pell Mell: We started out in Portland, appeared on a Trap Sampler compilation which Greg Sage of the Vipers put out. Then we released an EP and seemed to reach our local limits playing Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. So we moved to San Francisco in '84. John: So you managed to avoid the record company crush in Seattle? Pell Mell: Yeah. We were together for another two years and that's when we recorded most of the material that's on the "Bumper Crop" album - they were actually demos that we were shopping around. We came close with several doomed record companies: Enigma, Rough Trade. We got frustrated. San Francisco is a tough city to break in, and that's where we lost two members and two more joined. Greg (Freeman) was in The Call and I (Dave Spalding) was their guitar roadie. The Call had one big MTV hit. John: Speaking of which, do you guys put out videos? Pell Mell: In a word... no. We're pretty low maintenance - an audio phenomena - being so far apart it's almost impossible to record let alone think about putting together a video. John: Maybe you could replicate the splicing techniques used in "Ebony and Ivory" where Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney were actually on different Continents for the shoot. Pell Mell: Oh yeah, the part where they're on the keyboard. We could be walkin' on a guitar neck or a map of the U.S.. Yeah, that's good. John: The big craze in instrumental music these days seems to be more of a kooky, surf oriented sound - you seem to be more serious in your work. Have you ever had a pining to do some crazy surf tunes? Pell Mell: We used to do "Baby Elephant Walk" and the MTV theme. We were definitely influenced by surf in the early days. It was a good way to bring people to gigs. We weren't so mysterious cuz we sounded a bit like the Ventures. But the problem is that you can get pigeonholed, so we drifted away from that. John: Did you grow up listening to the Ventures and hoping... hoping...? Pell Mell: Naw, it was always Duane Eddy with us - he had that twangy sound. He also had a lot of slow, sad songs. John: Have you ever thought of doing, or been approached to do, a soundtrack? Pell Mell: We've thought about it, but we haven't been approached. We think we'd be good at it. It's funny cuz a lot of reviews suggested a movie be made to go along with the songs, but those are just powerless reviewers. John: Maybe a modern day Fantasia. Is there anything new coming down the pipes? Pell Mell: We do have some material, but the great thing about our situation is that we don't pin any hopes on it - we just record for fun when we have enough material to warrant it. We're pretty particular, as I think everyone should be. We don't have to tour, or support anything. ...gotta keep that radical detachment. John: Are live gigs infrequent? Pell Mell: We used to play live all the time, and there's a possibility to do so again, but the logistics are overwhelming cuz we're all so spread apart. Actually we were invited to tour with the Breeders, but we couldn't manage it. John: So there's good response within the industry? Pell Mell: Yeah. it's amazing. For a band that's not exactly together and doesn't have a singer, we're doing well. We got nice little blurbs in NME and Rolling Stone, of all places. We thought we'd get one or two mentions in a friend's fanzine. John: Well your last wish has just come true. I'd like to take this interview and play it overtop of "Flow", and make it the official Pell Mell vocal album. Pell Mell: Great, you could put it all on one channel like a Beatles' album, bootleg it and sell a copy to each member of the band, and maybe their immediate families. ...hey wait a minute, I thought we were lyrical enough. See there ya go, you're just like the rest: "when're you guys gonna get serious, ...when're you gonna add singing, ...when're you gonna become a real group?" ..Tape hiss ___________________________________________________________________________ PHIL OCHS, AMERICAN: A Review And Appreciation by Shaun Dale (PHIL OCHS: Farewells & Fantasies [Rhino]) It's been over 20 years since Phil Ochs' death in 1976 at 35. Six posthumous releases over the following twenty years - "best of" collections and live performances - kept the music and the legend alive. Now we have "Farewells & Fantasies," a three disc retrospective bound into a 97 page book. This collection is both definitive and overdue. In part because he continued to express his well developed social conscience both in his music and his daily life until its tragically abrupt end, Ochs has been too often maligned as a singing tabloid. His topical songs, which stand with the very best of the breed, are given some due, while his more reflective personal music is generally underrated. There are ample examples of each among the 53 tracks gathered here and they give evidence of the seminal role Ochs played not only in the topical folk scene, but in the development of the field of the singer/songwriter as a force in American popular music. Take, for instance, the previously unreleased "Morning," captured from a WBAI-FM broadcast in 1966. This song will quickly give lie to any notion that Ochs turned to song as personal reflection only as a play for commercial success after the demand for his topical material had diminished. On the other hand, the very last time I saw Phil was at a Nixon impeachment rally in 1974. His political commitment - and his knack for topical creativity - was evident in his anti-Nixon adaptation of "Here's To The State of Mississippi." His appreciation for the tradition from which he sprang was evident in the heartbreaking rendition of "Last Night I Dreamed The Strangest Dream" that he performed on that occasion. The first disc of this collection, largely drawn from his first three albums with the addition of a couple unreleased gems, is overwhelmingly topical. "Topical" is too easy a tag for these songs, though. They could be as specific and pointed as "Too Many Martyrs," Phil's hymn to Medgar Evers, or as poetic and expansive as the classic "There But For Fortune." They could be as funny as "Draft Dodger Rag" or as angry as "Here's To The State Of Mississippi." Disc One also contains Phil's musical adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells" and Alfred Noyes' "The Highwayman." In his hands, these poetic chestnuts take on the air of Child ballads. There was simply no other artist who could produce such consistently strong topical content and mix it up with skillful adaptations and personal statements with the power of "When I'm Gone," one of my personal favorites. The second disc offers more in a topical vein, but also begins to show more of Phil Ochs' increasing efforts to share in song more of himself than his politics. The topical material, featuring songs like "I Ain't Marching Anymore" and "There Anybody Here?" is among his best, extending, for the most part, beyond the immediacy of some of his earlier songs and into more universal themes. Several cuts from the 1966 album "Phil Ochs In Concert" display Phil's ironic humor, particularly poignant alongside the serious subjects and vivid imagery of songs like "Santo Domingo." Phil Ochs' only musical comment on the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, where he was both a respected organizer and a featured performer, is the haunting "William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park And Escapes Unscathed." When you've heard this song, you'll know that Phil didn't escape so cleanly. For him, everything that came before was washed away in the streets of Chicago. Everything that would come after would be shaped by the experience. "Changes," the last cut included from the three albums Phil released on Elektra, appears here, out of historical sequence but in perfect symbolic sequence. Nothing about Phil Ochs' career would ever be the same. The loss of John Kennedy had inspired him to write "Crucifixion," one of his finest efforts. The combined impact of the losses of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the police riots in Chicago, the election of Richard Nixon and the continued prosecution of the war in Vietnam would inspire retreat from direct musical engagement. His songs became increasingly introspective, presented on A&M in settings increasingly complex. His personal activity would remain politically engaged, appearing at benefits, organizing rallies, traveling the world in search of movements in need of a troubadour. With his music, though, he was convinced that he needed to make a more direct connection with the working class. That would only be found by moving away from topical folk, and playing more personal music in styles drawn from the early country and rock artists that had inspired him as a younger man. Disc 2 closes with two cuts from his 1969 album "Rehearsals For Retirement." The album was noteworthy for containing his most ambitious musical statements to date and for its cover, which featured a headstone chronicling the death of Phil Ochs at Chicago in 1968. Along with "The Doll House," the disc closes on the 13 minute "When In Rome," an epic description of a failed revolution. Disc 3 opens with "Pretty Smart On My Part," described as "Phil doing Elvis doing Buddy Holly doing Bo Diddley doing the Everly Brothers..." That about covers it. It's a country rock look at Phil's take on the growing public madness in the United States. The disc continues with an assortment of live rarities, some of the finest songs from his five A&M albums and another unreleased treasure from 1966. There are wonderful songs here - "Chords Of Fame," "Crucifixion," "Pleasures Of The Harbor," "Jim Dean Of Indiana," and "Outside Of a Small Circle Of Friends," the last of which gave Phil his closest shot at a top 40 hit until the FCC raised objections to his understandable notion that "...smoking marijuana is more fun than drinking beer..." Meanwhile, Phil Ochs' life was in increasing turmoil. Phil would enter the studio to produce his last album of original music, the ironically titled "Greatest Hits: 50 Phil Ochs Fans Can't Be Wrong," in 1970. Recorded with Van Dyke Parks in the producer's chair and an all star band that included Clarence White, Ry Cooder, Tom Scott and James Burton, he laid down the songs that he thought would finally break through to the working class and bring him a measure of elusive commercial success. While the audience of 1970 was less than enthusiastic, today Phil's ability to write and perform authentic Country and Western music like "Chords Of Fame" and "Gas Station Women" is striking. One can imagine him appearing today on the Nashville Network as an icon of a country music revival he just missed. There's no reason to believe that when he wrote his ode to writer's block, "No More Songs," that he knew that there would in fact be no more Phil Ochs songs. Phil Ochs' life would be played out playing reprises of his previous compositions and covers he admired. He would release one more live album, "Gunfight At Carnegie Hall," but A&M restricted its distribution to Canada. Meanwhile, he was descending into a personal hell, seemingly revisiting the manic-depression that had afflicted his father and bouts of paranoid schizophrenia that led to his living on the streets of New York with an assumed persona. There were international travels in search of new movements and a new muse. There were infrequent appearances at venues like the Troubadour in L.A. By 1976 he was living with his sister Sonny, occupying himself playing cards with his nephews and sinking deeper in despair. In April of 1976, Phil Ochs, who had been rehearsing for retirement since 1968, took his own life. The facts of that life are chronicled in the book which houses these discs. Phil's daughter Meegan provides an inspirational forward, along with a biography by Mark Kemp, track by track song notes from Ben Edmonds and copious illustrations from the Michael Ochs Archives, the massive pop chronicle maintained by Phil's younger brother. Altogether, this is a monumental tribute to a phenomenal man. Whatever the source or result of Phil Ochs' decline, his accomplishments and influence are undeniable and unmistakable. It is extraordinary to find in one man the ability to make you laugh, cry, pound your fists in rage and raise your voice in exaltation all in the space of a few songs. Phil Ochs had that ability. I can think of no other who did. At the same time, he had the courage and integrity required to shine a light into some of the darkest corners of our society, and the determination to set his shoulder to the wheel and push for peace and justice. "There's no place in this world where I'll belong," he once wrote, "and I won't know the right from the wrong, and you won't find me singing my song when I'm gone, so I guess I'll have to sing it while I'm here." Phil Ochs was right about many things in his life. He was wrong about that. You'll find him singing his songs, 53 of them, on this collection. And it belongs on your bookshelf and in your CD player. Track List: Disc One: What's That I Hear * The Bells * Morning * Bound For Glory * The Highwayman * Power And The Glory * That's What I Want To Hear * Links On The Chain * Love Me, I'm A Liberal * Too Many Martyrs * In The Heat Of The Summer * Here's To The State Of Mississippi * I'm Going To Say It Now * One More Parade * Draft Dodger Rag * I Ain't Marching Anymore * We Seek No Wider War * Ringing Of Revolution * When I'm Gone * Song Of My Returning * There But For Fortune Disc Two: The War Is Over * I Ain't Marching Anymore (electric) * White Boots Marching In A Yellow Land * Is There Anybody Here? * Santo Domingo * Song Of A Soldier * Cops Of The World * Bracero * Canons of Christianity * I Kill Therefore I Am * The Confession * William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park And Escapes Unscathed * A Toast To Those Who Are Gone * Changes * The Doll House * When In Rome Disc Three: Pretty Smart On My Part * The World Began In Eden And Ended In Los Angeles * Tape From California * Chords Of Fame * Gas Station Women * Miranda * Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends * Cross My Heart * Flower Lady * The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns * Pleasures Of The Harbor * Jim Dean Of Indiana * Rehearsals For Retirement * Doesn't Lenny Live Here Anymore * No More Songs * Crucifixion ___________________________________________________________________________ CONTEMPORARY JAZZ: The News Ain't ALL bad By Shaun Dale "Hey, Shaun, you're into jazz," my smiling colleague said, "you should hear this new radio station." Figuring that a commercial jazz station was a venture worthy of support, I tuned in the signal he supplied. "Welcome to your Smooth Jazz station," the nice announcer man said. Over the airwaves came the aural equivelant of Seconal in the form of a soprano saxophone wielded by that G person. Smooth? Yes. Jazz? No. Such was my introduction a few years back to the world of "smooth" or "contemporary" jazz. Of course, the idea of jazz players taking a more pop oriented path to commercial success isn't new. Notable players - including Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Stan Getz and many more - have turned to pop or R&B sounds looking for a payday that their more creative efforts never produced. In other cases, players from other genres have played some credible jazz in an effort to show that they had chops that extended beyond their chart successes. There are also subsets of jazz, such as fusion, in which jazz players and players from other musical worlds have produced music which, though genuinely jazz, reflects the beat, instrumentation or other elements of pop, R&B, funk and rock. So what's the difference between those well established jumps across the restrictions of musical genres and the new contemporary jazz trend? I recently gathered up a dozen discs on or aimed at the contemporary jazz charts in an effort to find an answer. I found several. And I found some very credible music in the process. One of the most obvious differences is the existence of the contemporary jazz charts themselves. In times past, a George Benson might take a shot at the pop charts looking for a boost in the royalty envelope, or a Jeff Beck might look for a bit of newfound artistic credibility with a fusion shot at the jazz charts. Today, a new generation of artists has never considered either pop or mainstream jazz as a musical home. They aim straight at the charts supported by the "smooth jazz" radio format. Another difference is the path to the music undertaken by the players. Rather than grinding out a career on the road, one smokey club after another, building a rep that will pre-sell the relative handful of discs that spells success in the traditional jazz market, the new smoothies are likely to come from the studio, honing first call chops behind acts of every stripe, or from the academy. Among the players on the stack of contemporary jazz discs I waded through to research this piece you'll find degrees from the University of Miami (Hiram Bullock), the San Francisco Conservatory (George Duke), the Berklee College of Music (Eric Marienthal, Walter Beasly), San Francisco State (Duke's MFA in Composition), and Rutgers (Pete Belasco). Sounds more like a faculty tea at the Alumni Club than a jam session at Birdland. There are, of course, some representatives of the old school of crossover on the scene. George Duke, Joe Sample and Earl Klugh, for example, have undeniable and long established jazz chops. Of the dozen discs at hand, five found a home on my jazz shelves, and this trio produced three of them. (Others were filed with R&B or as instrumental pop.) So what is this music? Who's making it and what exactly are they making? Since the genre has been defined for so many ears by the sounds of the best-selling output of Kenny G, I started out with four releases from saxophonists. The soprano sax is a fully legitimate element of jazz instrumentation - Trane established that once and for all years back - and alto and tenor have been among the dominant leads in jazz for over half a century. The sound of the saxophone has been bent and bled, stretched and swung, in the effort to take jazz to ever higher horizons. So what has happened to it in the hands of Walter Beasley, Paul Taylor, Boney James and Eric Marienthal? Walter Beasley's Shanachie release "Tonight We Love", is simply not a jazz album. Beasley, and instructor at Berklee, may be able to play jazz. Here he clearly chooses not to. What he has chosen to do is to produce an album of well played instrumental pop music, highlighted by covers of well known R&B standards. Some of those covers are unfortunate, since they will inevitably be compared to the infinitely more soulful originals. Note to Prof. Beasley - there is absolutely no point in putting on Al Green's mantle by covering "Let's Stay Together" if you're going to bleach all the sweat out of it first. Still, this is a first class makeout album. A glowing fireplace, a bottle of wine and the presence of the object of your affections may be the neccessary elements for a genuine appreciation of this disc. Paul Taylor's "Pleasure Seeker" (Countdown Records) takes a half step closer to funkiness than Beasley's effort, and to his credit Taylor had a hand in composing each of the tracks here. He doubles on soprano and alto horns, backed by electric keys and programmed drums. And there, I think, lies part of the problem. Drum programmers in the hip hop and electronica worlds seem to have mastered the art of getting a reasonable resemblence to funk out of their machinery. Drum programmers in the contemporary jazz world haven't. Without funk, jazz music has got to swing, and programmed drums don't swing. Not to my ears. Again, the music is well played mid tempo pop. And I still haven't heard any jazz. "Sweet Thing," Boney James' latest Warner chart topper, is dominated by James' tenor, with a couple tracks featuring the ubiquitous soprano sax. With a vocal assist from Al Jarreau on "I Still Dream," the music is sweet, indeed. Sweetly played, sweetly sung and sweetly mid-tempo throughout. But, as trombonist Steve Turre recently said when describing the contemporary jazz scene, "...it don't swing, and it ain't funky." And it ain't jazz, either. (Which I might have guessed when I saw the credit line for "additional programming...") So, three pitches, three balls. I don't want to go overboard here. There's not a sour note on any of these three discs, and there is some genuinely creative arranging and skillful playing on every one of them. What there isn't is any music that fits into any legitimate description of jazz. Growing up immersed in my father's taste for bop and West Coast cool sounds and taking my own path through hard bop and fusion, I have a fairly wide definition of jazz. Any genre that can contain Louis Armstrong and Ornette Coleman is a big musical tent. There are certain elements that should be present, though. Some jazz, especially on the avant garde scene, doesn't swing, and sometimes the blues roots of the music are buried deep enough to be considered absent. But without one or both of those elements, jazz must be, in my view, music grounded in improvisational performance. Which is why Eric Marienthal's "Easy Street" (ie records) is the first one in the stack to move off the instrumental pop stack and onto my jazz shelf. Marienthal certainly reflects an affection for R&B on the disc, and even shows touches of hip hop on tracks like "New Jack Saturday," but this moves past the R&B and pop categories by virtue of the improvisational feel that Marienthal imparts, with an able assist from producer Lee Ritenour. Ritenour, who was playing "contemporary jazz" when there was no "contemporary jazz," is a producer and player who understands where the jazz half of the equation comes from, and gives the talent of Eric Marienthal room to express itself. Ritenour shows up again as the driving force behind "A Twist Of Jobim," a multi-artist tribute to the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim. The bossa nova has been a vital element of the jazz repetiore since Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz popularized it with the American jazz audience a quarter of a century ago, and it's a perfect sound for the smooth jazz audience. With players like Marienthal, Ritenour, Dave Grusin, Herbie Hancock and the Yellowjackets on hand, the jazz manages to dominate the smooth, which just comes with the compositional territory. With singers like Oleta Adams, El DeBarge and Al Jarreau aboard, count on accessibility that makes this one a genuine crossover hit. But put it on the jazz shelf. Ritenour is joined on the list by a pair of other guitarists, Earl Klugh and Hiram Bullock. Klugh, whose credits include time with Yusef Lateef, George Benson and Return To Forever, delivers up enough instrumental mastery on "The Journey" (Warner Bros.) to merit space on anyone's jazz shelf. He certainly made it to mine. Displaying the improvisational dexterity that has made him the premier acoustic guitarist on today's jazz circuit, I only wish that he might have varied the tempo along with the wide range of rhythms he employs on these cuts. Hiram Bullock calls "Carrasco" (Fantasy) his "Spanish" album, referring to the range of Latin rhythms he uses on this, his eight solo effort since 1983. Best known for his TV studio work (he's been a member of Letterman's Late Night Band, the Saturday Night Live house band and served as musical director of David Sanborn's Night Music unit), Bullock can play most anything. Here he plays Latin tinged R&B, mostly. At least, the disc earned a spot on my R&B shelf. It will doubtless earn a spot on the contemporary jazz charts, and may well cross over to the R&B and pop charts. It deserves to. Keyboardist/composer/producer George Duke has racked up a long list of accomplishments since his early fusion trio featuring Jean-Luc Ponty. Along the way he served two terms with Frank Zappa and played with Cannonball Adderly, Billy Cobham and Stanley Clarke, as well as producing everyone from Miles Davis to Deniece Williams. "Is Love Enough" (Warner Bros.) is Duke's 30th solo album and delivers everything from authentic funk ("Kinda Low") to classic fusion ("Back In The Day"). He earns a slot on the jazz shelf in the process. Another keyboardist with extensive credits, primarily as an A-list session player, is Philippe Saisse, who contributes "NeXT Voyage" (Verve Forecast) to the mix. Saisse has an impressive command of the studio and a range of instruments from acoustic piano thru a range of electronic keyboards and percussion. The sound drifts in the direction of New Age sounds, despite the earnest efforts of DJ B-Wiz to funk things up. Give the DJ an A for effort. Give the disc a spot on the instrumental pop shelf. Joe Sample, for years the driving force behind the Crusaders, co-produced "Sample This" with George Duke. He uses the space to update a collection of songs he originally recorded with the Crusaders and as a solo artist. The material, drawn from 1970 to 1982, is variously bluesy and funky. Sample's performances show the improvisational range that kept the Crusaders on top of the commercial jazz scene long after they stopped calling themselves the Jazz Crusaders and took their own shot at chart success by incorporating elements of R&B. There's an undeniable R&B sensibility at play on some of these cuts, as well, but this one makes it to the jazz shelf just the same. Pete Belasco displays considerable talent on keyboards, sax and flute on his debut release, "Get It Together" (Verve Forecast). Described by the label as "jazz tinged pop," I hear it as a pop tinged soul album. Belasco's solid playing and impressive vocal range - he can deliver a Mose Allison flavored blues vocal next to a Marvin Gaye styled upper register soul moan - put him solidly on the R&B shelf. Well, maybe not so solidly. This one will be off the shelf and into the player quite a bit. "What I originally set out to do," says trumpeter Chris Botti "...was to make an instrumental pop record." Which is exactly what he did do. Botti, whose best known gig was with Paul Simon - a great place to learn about pop music - credits Brit poppers like Peter Gabriel and Roxy Music as the influences for his sound on "Midnight Without You" (Verve Forecast). The influences are undeniable and the category, instrumental pop, is exactly where this one belongs. The Contemporary Jazz chart is where it's ended up, though. Which brings up the question, what difference does it make. Of these dozen discs, all aimed toward the "contemporary jazz" market, five should pass muster by any definition of jazz, save that of the hardcore purist. Two more are solid R&B offerings. The other five are pop music, pure and simple. Fine pop music, for the most part, but pop music just the same. So what does it mean when they show up on charts and radio stations that lay claim to the name of jazz? As critic Francis Davis pointed out in an Atlantic Monthly piece last year, "People who have nver really listened to jazz want it to go on sounding the way they've been led to believe it should..." If you've been led to believe that what Boney James or Chris Botti is doing is jazz, you may never know what jazz actually is. Whatever the merits of their music may be, it has the potential to rob the listener of the opportunity to gain a genuine appreciation for the form. The other downside of marketing pop as jazz is the impact it has on jazz artists themselves. As Steve Turre points out, marketing instrumental pop players as jazz players means yeilding prized slots on jazz festival and jazz club stages to players who aren't doing jazz at all. There are few enough venues for jazz artists. It is a loss to artist and listener alike when someone like, say, Paul Taylor, snags a spot on a bill that could have exposed an audience to Turre's Sanctified Shell band, and given the jazz band a well deserved and far too scarce payday. The Contemporary Jazz charts can't be overlooked. There's some fine jazz music to be found there. We'll all be better off, though, when the programmers start to label the pop and R&B they're marketing as jazz correctly. The music will stand on its merits and find its market without diluting the jazz scene and crippling the careers of the men and women who commit to performing America's most original art form. ____________________________________________________________________________ NUSRAT FATEH ALI KAHN: 1947-1997 By Rusty Pipes The Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan passed away last month. He was perhaps the world's foremost qawwal. Starting at a very young age he learned the art of qawwali, a demanding Sufi form of spiritual singing with lyrics in Urdu. His talent lay in the fact that his pitch was always dead on, even in this extended improvisational style. His concerts could last three to five hours and he often took a half hour of singing before he really got inspired. Westerners got to know Khan only after he had already recorded some 100 albums, and had sold millions of copies. Usually his own work was quite simple, with him singing and improvising on the lyrics of a Sufi poem with tabla, harmonium and other traditional instruments as accompaniment. The first Western recording Khan appeared on was the track "Passion," the title cut for Peter Gabriel's 1989 soundtrack to Martin Scorcese's The Last Temptation of Christ. After that he recorded many collaborations with Michael Brook for Gabriel's Real World label, including last year's "Nightsong." Michael Brooks found ways of putting Khan's work into a shorter non-traditional context and once said that they ran out of tape so often that they would have Nusrat sing over a tape loop to capture a long improvisation. These works had the label "ethno-ambient" invented for them because they were so unique, a hybrid of modern Western approaches and instruments, but driven by the ancient devotional qawwali singing. The sound alone impressed deeply, evoking images of the mullahs calling the faithful to prayer. Massive Attack once sampled one of these pieces, "Mus Mus," for a dance mix. Khan said in an interview that he didn't like the sampling because the original meaning of the poetry was lost. Khan's singing received more attention two years ago when Dave Robbins chose Nusrat for parts of the Dead Man Walking soundtrack, making the unlikely pairing with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam on lyrics but also bringing him together with Ry Cooder and others. The sublime music that ensued was the emotional centerpiece in the film's final scene. The height of his exposure came last year to viewers of the VH1 Honors Concert where he was joined by Gabriel, Michael Stipe and many others. Though Khan modified traditional styles quite a lot to participate in these collaborations, his deep spirituality always shone through. One of his lyrics from Dead Man Walking translates to "if we have come to this world, you should love each other, without love it is nothing." He will be missed, but his work will always be with us, calling us to our better selves. ============================================================================ [[[[[[[[ [[[[[[ [[ [[ [[[[[ [[[[[[ [[ [[ [[[[[[ [[ [[ [ [[ [[ [ [ [[ [ [[ [[ [[[[[[[[ [[[[[[ [[ [[ [ [[[[[[ [[ [ [[ [[[[[ [[ [[ [ [[[ [ [ [[[ [[[ [[ [[ [[ [[[[[[ [ [[[[[ [[[[[[ [[ [[ [[[[[[ ============================================================================ ARIA: Favorite Opera Arias. Eugenia Zukerman, Flute; Allan Vogel, Oboe; Dennis Helmich, Piano. [DDD] 73:17 (DELOS DE 3209) Reviewed by Robert Cummings Unlike most reviews, this one ends up as a rather cut and dried affair. The performances are excellent, beyond reasonable reproach; the sound provided by Delos is vivid and sumptuous; and the copious notes are informative. The only question of concern for the potential buyer is whether the concept of the album will appeal. That is, do you like the idea of favorite opera arias played on flute? We've had opera without words, opera transcribed and elaborated on for piano (by Liszt and others), and we've even had opera incorporated into the score of many, sometimes lesser films. Why not, some might ask, have it on flute, then? And what better element of opera to capture than the aria? Actually, not all material on this disc is derived from arias, a good many being duets, with the oboe filling the role of the second voice here. The piano, of course, assumes the orchestral part throughout. The opening selection, in fact, is a duet, Dome epais, le jasmin, from Delibes' Lakme. The players convey its buoyant tranquillity with such an earnest lightness, you're apt to think the transcription as valid an enactment as the original operatic dressing itself. On Track 3 Zukerman and company gently and hypnotically serve up Belle Nuit, o nuit d'amour from Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman. The mood of this simple music is caught about as well as you could expect in any osmotic incarnation. O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi is also well played, but then I'm a sucker for this Puccini aria. To those not familiar with opera, you'll recognize the tune from the Tott's Champagne TV commercial that ran regularly a few years back. The following selection, Quando m'en vo' soletta from Puccini's La Boheme, is one I well remember from my childhood in the 1950's when my sister sang it at home many times. I never got sick of it. Here, it is rendered sweetly and lovingly, almost, ALMOST making you forget its extremely popular operatic origins. The disc is chock full of delights, with three selections from Mozart's Die Zauberflote and many from Puccini. Verdi is conspicuously absent, though. I'll surmise that Zukerman either is not a fan of the great Italian composer or feels his music adapts less well to her instrument. Whatever the case, the disc still contains enough gems to attract those interested in this kind of recital. Strongly recommended. FRED ASTAIRE: Fred Astaire At M-G-M (Rhino) Reviewed by Shaun Dale This could be a tribute to an all-star set of popular music composers - Cole Porter, Harry Warren, George Gershwin and Irving Berlin are among those on hand. Or it could be devoted to any of the co-stars that appear - a cast including Joan Crawford, George Murphy, Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Oscar Levant and Red Skelton. The songs themselves could be the feature - "Steppin' Out With My Baby," "Easter Parade," "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You," "All Of You" "A Couple Of Swells" and "That's Entertainment" are among the 39 tracks on this two CD set. But as notable as all those components might be, the spotlight shines on Fred Astaire, and he reflect the beam back to the lucky listener like a perfectly cut diamond shining in the Sun. While Astaire may not have been the most skillful performer on the M-G-M roster - a strong case could be made that Gene Kelley was a superior dancer, for instance, and Astaire's singing voice could be as reed thin as his lithe dancer's body - he was without doubt the most stylish. And an Astaire performance was all about style. His top hat, tails and walking stick became instantly recognizable icons of movie musicals, promising the viewer transport to a different and better world for a couple of hours, and delivering on the promise every time. He delivers here as well. Whether it's solo voice, a perfectly timed duet or the percussive roll of his tap shoes over the orchestra, every track carries an element of sophisticated joy that no other performer could surpass. The collaboration between Rhino and Turner Classic Movies has produced several outstanding packages so far. This one is of the first rank. Peppered with outtakes and extended versions, along with a full selection of Astaire classics, this one is essential for movie musical buffs and popular music fans in general. Track List: Disc One: Heigh-ho, The Gang's All Here * Please Don't Monkey With Broadway * I've Got My Eyes On You * Here's To The Girls * This Heart Of Mine * If Swing Goes, I Go Too * Yolanda * Steppin' Out With My Baby * It Only Happens When I Dance With You * A Couple Of Swells * Easter Parade * You'd Be Hard To Replace * Shoes With Wings On * A Weekend In The Country * They Can't Take That Away From Me * Manhattan Downbeat * Where Did You Get That Girl? * So Long, Oo-Long, How Long You Gonna Be Gone? * Nevertheless I'm In Love With You * Medley:My Sunny Tennessee/ Who's Sorry Now/So Long, Oo-Long/Thinking Of You/Three Little Words * Disc Two: Every Night At Seven * How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life * You're All The World To Me * I Left My Hat In Haiti * Bachelor Dinner Song * Oops! * Seeing's Believing * Baby Doll * I Wanna Be A Dancin' Man * By Myself * A Shine On Your Shoes * That's Entertainment * Got A Brand New Suit * Triplets * I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan * Paris Loves Lovers * All Of You * Fated To Be Mated * The Ritz Roll And Rock BARTOK: Bluebeard's Castle, Op. 11. Anne Sophie von Otter (Judith); John Tomlinson (Duke Bluebeard); Sandor Eles (Narrator); Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink. Recorded live, February 1996, Berlin. (EMI CLASSICS 7243 5 56162 27 [DDD] 62:56) Reviewed by Robert Cummings This is a rather lush take on Bartok's bloodcurdling opera that offers excellent singing and fine orchestral contributions. Anne Sophie von Otter may not possess the most ideal voice for this role (there should be a bit more sweetness and color here), but she certainly sings with splendid dramatic skills and with her usual vocal beauty, in the end winning you over convincingly. She is without doubt one of the most talented operatic and Lieder singers of the day, and I must confess to being one of the Swedish mezzo's many fans. John Tomlinson is an effective Bluebeard, even if he is a tad on the mellow side. Perhaps he is influenced by the less lurid approach taken here by Haitink, who seems to aim as much toward a humanitarian Bartok as toward that fellow with origins in Transylvania. Overall, EMI's new entry in this fairly crowded field succeeds mainly because of its consistency of approach and brilliant execution. The big moments, the Fifth (track 6) and Seventh Doors (track 8), come across powerfully and with great dramatic effect, even if you yearn for a bit more rawness and brutality in the orchestral playing. Haitink is quite adroit in his phrasing and shaping of the score, catching the work's mystery and sense of doom, its twisted beauty and ineluctable tragedy. He grips you, takes you on a grim tour of that diabolical castle, then lets you go, exhilarated, perversely satisfied from your unsettling encounter with madness and menace. But you also get the human side from his reading, the elements of emotion and (demented) love. As suggested above, there have been many Bluebeards over the years. But this one can surely challenge almost any. EMI offers vivid sound, good notes, and includes the full libretto in Hungarian and English. For fans of von Otter this one is a must; for Bartok fanciers, it's definitely worth a try. THE BEACH BOYS: Endless Summer/Spirit Of America (DCC Compact Classics) Reviewed by DJ Johnson If you know anyone who loves to trash-talk the concept of 24k gold compact discs, grab 'em, tie 'em up, slap some decent headphones on 'em and do a little A/B comparison between these discs and their Capitol counterparts. If that person still insists there is no difference, cut 'em loose. There's nothing more you can do once they're reduced to lying. An A/B comparison of almost any track will result in a clear win for the DCC release, as the presence, punch, clarity and tonal coloring are obviously superior. For a real thrill, do a comparison of "Don't Worry Baby," one of the greatest pop songs ever written and one of the finest production jobs, as well. To hear the clarity of the soul-melting harmony vocals on the gold disc is absolute heaven. Listen to the hand claps in the final minute of "Catch A Wave." On the Capitol disc, they sound like snaps. Firecrackers at a hundred paces. On the DCC disc, they sound like handclaps, a combination of snap AND thud. The same can be said of the tambourine in any number of songs. By God, somebody's actually HITTIN' them thangs! When Endless Summer was released in 1974, The Beach Boys had faded from public consciousness. This greatest hits album sparked a revival that continues, to some degree, to this day. In 1975, Capitol released Spirit Of America, and again the public ate it up. Though these tunes were generally not as well known as the songs on Endless Summer, most were high quality Wilson-craft. "Drive In," "Do You Remember," "Dance Dance Dance," "409," "When I Grow Up To Be A Man," and "Little Honda" are nearly as indispensable as the tracks on Endless Summer, and Bobby Troup's farewell to James Dean, "A Young Man Is Gone," is an a cappella masterpiece. In A/B tests, Spirit Of America (gold) kicks the crap out of its aluminum counterpart. The DCC crew has done its usual stellar job with both of these packages, leaving mono mixes mono, cleaning up murky sections and providing enhanced liner notes on high quality paper. A-plus all around. (DCC Compact Classics: 1-800-301-MUSIC) Track Lists: (Endless Summer): Surfin' USA * Surfer Girl * Catch A Wave * The Warmth Of The Sun * Surfin' Safari * Be True To Your School * Little Deuce Coupe * In My Room * Shut Down * Fun Fun Fun * I Get Around * Girls On The Beach * Wendy * Let Him Run Wild * Don't Worry Baby * California Girls * Girl Don't Tell Me * Help Me, Rhonda * You're So Good To Me * All Summer Long * Good Vibrations (Spirit Of America): Dance, Dance, Dance * Break Away * A Young Man Is Gone * 409 * The Little Girl I Once Knew * Spirit Of America * Little Honda * Hushabye * Hawaii * Drive-In * Good To My Baby * Tell Me Why * Do You Remember? * This Car Of Mine * Please Let Me Wonder * Why Do Fools Fall In Love * Custom Machine * Barbara Ann * Salt Lake City * Don't Back Down * When I Grow Up (To Be A Man) * Do You Wanna Dance? * Graduation Day * Darlin' * I Can Hear Music BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9. Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia and Chorus conducted by Bela Drahos. Hasmik Papian, Soprano; Ruxandra Donose, Mezzo-Soprano; Manfred Fink, Tenor; Claudio Otelli, Bass-Baritone. NAXOS 8.553478 [DDD] 64:55 Reviewed by Robert Cummings This is the capstone to Drahos's Beethoven Symphony cycle and, like his Fourth and Seventh Symphonies which I reviewed a few months back, it is an impressive effort all the way around. The Abaddo/Berlin Philharmonic on Sony was another recent Beethoven Ninth that I found generally successful, though not among the very best in a crowded field. This one from Naxos is at least as good as Abaddo's and may even challenge my previous favorites, the first Bernstein/DG and Harnoncourt/Teldec. The first movement is delivered with muscle and great energy. Try the big statement of the main theme in the development section, beginning at 7:54 (track one), where the Esterhazy ensemble renders the drama with a balance of power and sensitivity, of grandeur and urgency. By comparison Harnoncourt and Abaddo sound less febrile, almost suave, though still convincing in their own ways. Drahos may well deliver the most compelling first movement in any recent recording. Only Bernstein (from 1980), who is also powerful and dramatic here, may be marginally preferable. The second movement catches fire in much the same way, with Drahos deftly capturing the humor and rich contrapuntal detail. Some, however, might desire a greater lightness and flexibility in this scherzo, assessing it as a bit heavy-handed. It is true that his orchestra comes on like gangbusters, with potent fortes and crushing, but perhaps slightly stiff rhythms. In the end, though, the playing is undeniably exciting, and you're left breathless and exhilarated, waiting for the respite that follows in the Adagio. Drahos serves up a brisk Adagio that neither slights the lyricism nor shortchanges the mesmeric serenity. Still, some might prefer a backing off from the throttle a bit to allow the music to breathe and to sing. Personally, I think his tempos and phrasing work well. It is a recent trend to pace this movement (and the whole symphony, for that matter) more briskly than conductors from generations past. Compare, for example, these timings for both the Adagio and the entire work: Bernstein (DG)--17:49 71:04 Jochum (EMI)--16:29 67:45 Szell (Sony)--15:18 65:58 Abaddo (Sony)-- 14:01 66:00 Harnoncourt (Teldec)--13:34 66:44 Drahos (Naxos) --13:05 64:55 But these figures aren't the full story: the three deceased conductors, Bernstein, Jochum, and Szell eliminated a repeat in the scherzo, thereby shedding another two minutes or so from their totals. I could have swelled this chart to include many others, but the trend would pretty much hold true: fleetness and completeness are the order of the day in Beethoven. But Drahos is not just fleet, he imparts weight and muscle, qualities most evident in his reading of the finale. If his rhythms were a tad inflexible in the scherzo, he redeems himself by inducing the chorus to sing with an infectious, almost wild bounce where appropriate (try the passage beginning at 12:54); and otherwise he derives such committed singing from all parties, including the no-name quartet, you're apt to dismiss any criticism Verdi and others made of the vocal writing as hollow carping. In the end, Drahos is completely convincing, from movement to movement, note to note. I may still favor the Bernstein marginally, but the more I hear Harnoncourt, the more I'm likely to rank Drahos above him. I don't reach for Toscanini's Ninth, dated mono sound not being my cup of tea, even if the performance (from March/April 1952) is worth it. In sum, I would say Drahos can rival almost anyone, and with absolutely splendid sound and fine orchestral and vocal support, his is easily the best among the budget entries. You can't go wrong with this purchase. BIG BLUE HEARTS: Self titled (Geffen) Reviewed by Jeff Apter OK, so Chris Isaak could definitely talk to his legal people about this San Fransiscan quartet (quoting their name, their stylings, and their romantic/tragic disposition), but they still have class to spare. Led by the devastating vocal swoon of David Fisher and the crying six-string of Jamie Scott, Big Blue Hearts ponder the whys and wherefores of heartache: from the perky pop of 'Story Of My Life' through to the out-and-out sinister 'Dreaming Of A Woman' and the late-night desperation of 'Live Without Your Love' (all frontrunners if David Lynch ever decides to make a 'Wild At Heart II'). Spare and tuneful, 'Big Blue Hearts' also brings to mind the grandeur of Roy Orbison and the sweet harmonies of the Everly Bros. So they mightn't win awards for originality, but their twangy, sultry pop is stylish and heartfelt - and it's bound to make young female knees tremble. BLUE MOUNTAIN: Homegrown (Roadrunner) Reviewed by Jeff Apter There's no question that Blue Mountain are rootsy purists, right down to the dirt clinging to their boots and their outlaw tales, but that doesn't mean they're averse to the joys of cool, clear pop. If you didn't listen too closely to the bittersweet strum of 'It Ain't Easy To Love A Liar' - frustratingly close to the mark in matters of the heart - you'd swear the song climbed straight off the charts. But Blue Mountain are way too earthy and earnest to find a home on MTV: it's jeans, plaid shirts and gritty Americana all the way for this Mississippi trio. The driving, electric-jug-band surge of 'Bloody 98' or 'Black Dog' (listen up for some barking cameos) typifies their ragged, organic style, as mandolin, banjo and percussion shuffle along at a fair clip. And Cary Hudson's Dylanesque howl really hits home on the quietly desperate 'Pretty Please,' a late-night meditation with a 'Wild Horses' twang. Although this backporch trio rely more on aggression than amplification to get their point across, the wild-rocking 'Generic America' is an exception; this pissed-off call-to-arms puts the boot into a land where 'shopping malls and prison walls all look the same to me.' THE BLUE RAGS:Rag-N-Roll (Sub Pop) Reviewed by Shaun Dale Whoo hoo! The Blue Rags dig deep into the jug band repertoire to produce this recorded party on plastic. You won't find any jugs or kazoos in the mix, though. They stick to a straight lineup of piano, bass, drums and duo guitars for this set of swing, standards and, yes, blues and rags. Honky tonk piano, that is, and hot-licks guitars. "Be My Salty Dog" opens at a breakneck pace and the energy level is consistently high throughout. Nine of the 13 cuts weigh in under three minutes, but these boys pack a ton of music into the time allotted. This express run through the American pop landscape ends up with George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm," and by the time they get there, you'll know that for these guys the title is no boast - it's just a natural fact. Track List: Be My Salty Dog * First Time (One More Time Tonight) * Three Night's Experience * Bourgeois Blues * Sister Kate * Circus Song * Billy Goodbye * Dr. Jazz * Bootlegger Blues * Freight Train * When I Fall * Not Gonna Be Around Here * I Got Rhythm THE BOMB BASSETS: Take A Trip With... (Lookout) Reviewed by DJ Johnson There's no way to avoid having as much fun listening as they obviously had playing this stuff. A few years of working as a unit has shaped these former Sweet Baby and Mr. T Experience members into a great rock and roll band equally adept at three-chord power soakers ("Take A Trip") and well structured power pop ("Just Another Magic Moment," "All I Say Is 'Duh'"). The Bomb Bassets have made one hell of an album here. The originals are hot and memorable, and they even managed to strip Bruce Springsteen's "Girl Of My Dreams" down to a gut level rocker without losing the brilliant vocal harmony arrangement. (Yeah yeah, I know it was a "Bram Tchaikovsky song," but let's be honest. Even when The Bomb Bassets give the song the ride of its life, the hook is pure E-Street.) The cherry, however, is their cover of Swamp Dogg's funky 1970 classic, "Total Destruction To Your Mind," which The Bomb Bassets have now made their very own. This one's well worth whatever they're charging. PETER BROGGS: Rejoice (RAS) Reviewed by Shaun Dale Peter Broggs inaugurated the RAS label sixteen years ago with his album Rastafari Liveth. This new release reprises the title cut from that album and surrounds it with a blend of old Broggs favorites and new tracks that are destined to become classics in their own right. Add a trio of Bob Marley's most Jah conscious compositions ("Cornerstone," "Jah Almighty" and "Thank You Jah") and you have a fine collection of Jah praise and vital riddims. Backed by the Roots Radics band, with Dwight Pinkney (guitars) and Flabba Holt (bass & percussion) leading the way in a unit which is a solid peer of any reggae section you care to name, the songs roll by in a traditional mode. There's no instrumental or studio theatrics here to distract from Broggs' message of Jah love and world peace. Peter Broggs has come a long way from his roots in west Jamaican rasta poverty. His success in recording has made him a world renowned artist with a more comfortable life in the States. That success, though, owes much to the fact that he has never failed to remember where he started from or the bredren and sistren he came up with. He's also never failed to credit that success to Jah. "A true rastaman," he sings "is a righteous man." Peter Broggs is a true rastaman. And this is a righteous disc. Track List: Jah Voice Is Calling * Rejoice * Africa Is Waiting * Jah Almighty * Rastafari Liveth * World Peace Treaty * Jah Run Things * True Rastaman * Thank You Jah * Praise Jah * Survival * Cornerstone * International Farmer DANIEL CARTIER: Avenue A (Rocket/Polygram) Reviewed by Jeff Apter With Jeff Buckley having taken an unfortunate and way-too-early curtain call, the world is in need of a singer-songwriter with a big heart and an epic flair. Enter Daniel Cartier, direct from the New York subway (his debut was actually recorded in the Canal Street station). Cartier's second long-player is top-heavy with mini melodramas, given flight by his emphatic tenor and tempered by a slightly tainted romanticism. Recruiting producer Fred Maher - venerable New Yorker and Matthew Sweet sidekick - sends a clear signal as to what you should expect here: thoughtful, high-octane pop/rock, melody-heavy, wank-lite. Drawing on his own lost days (months, years) of substance overkill, Exeter native Cartier displays an astute eye for human frailties: "Stumbling Home," especially, takes an insider's look at the young and the wasted. Elsewhere, on a title track so autobiographical it reads like a page from his diary, Cartier recalls how 'all day long down in the subway / I was trying to get a message through.' Despite Avenue A's few bum notes - Cartier's vocal aerobics are an acquired taste, an industrial tinge cools some tracks - he manages to deliver his sanguine message loud and clear. CHOPIN: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 35; Impromptus 1-3; Fantasie-Impromptu No. 4 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 66; Berceuse in D-Flat; Op. 57; Barcarolle in F-Sharp, Op. 60; Nocturne in B, Op. 9, No. 3; Scherzo No. 3 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 39. Wilhelm Kempff, Piano. LONDON "The Classic Sound" 452 307-2 [ADD] 68:01 Reviewed by Robert Cummings The name of Wilhelm Kempff is not usually included in the company of the great Chopin pianists of the past and present. Artists such as Rubinstein, Argerich, Moravec, Ohlsson, Cliburn and others are far more likely to be mentioned as eminent interpreters of the great Polish composer's challenging music. Kempff, who died in 1991 in his ninety-sixth year, was usually associated with the composers of his own Germanic background. When he tackled Chopin he often generated a stir. This release is a reissue of performances from 1958 that will surely bolster his controversial reputation in this repertory, a reputation of an outsider, an individualist who chose to go his own way and eschew traditional approaches. His way with Chopin is often understated and fairly lean, though in the Sonata there are sufficient fireworks. Still, even here Kempff is relatively restrained and couldn't be further from the more sumptuous and high-calorie styles of interpretation. And he is certainly no perfectionist: mistakes abound, and you're apt to wonder that another pianist might have done retakes; but this was the 1950's when many older generation artists were still accustomed to the one-take recording process, though surely Kempff here, in the early stereo era, could have made a second or third cut. No doubt, when he was satisfied he had communicated the spirit, if not exactly the letter, of the score, he moved on to the next piece. His funeral march is certainly a highlight in the sonata: grim and chilling in the main theme and consoling yet appropriately icy in the alternate material, he captures the mood and emotions as well as almost any pianist I've heard. In the other pieces here Kempff is always interesting, always provocative. If his Barcarolle sounds a bit insensitive, it is not without a thought-provoking yield in its supplanting of elegance with playfulness, of rich-toned intimacy with curt classicism; and if his Fantasie-Impromptu strikes some as an indifferent run-through, his Berceuse, that follows, is quite effective and enlightening. A worthy reissue, then. But don't expect the expected from Kempff. Good notes, and the sound is a bit hissy and shrill, though eminently listenable. ORNETTE COLEMAN + JOACHIM KUHN: Colors (Harmolodic/Verve) Reviewed by Shaun Dale Two of the principal players from two generations of free jazz, it seems inevitable that Ornette Coleman and Joachim Kuhn would eventually hook up. Each has played in settings ranging from intimate to orchestral, yet each has particular talents that may be best expressed in a duo, as they are here. Within the confines of a duo, the structure and lyricism of free music can sometimes be more accessible than in larger ensembles. That is certainly the case in these eight Coleman compositions, recorded live at the Liepziger Jazztage in August of 1996. Coleman, of course, was on hand for the first wave of free jazz in the late 50s and has become one of its best known expositors. Kuhn first heard Coleman's early quartet work, such as "The Shape of Jazz to Come" and "Free Jazz," as a teenager. Now, some thirty years later, he has realized a longtime dream of playing beside and recording with the master. It's a masterful recording. Coleman's main axe, of course, is the alto sax, but he adds flourishes of trumpet and violin work as well. Kuhn's piano sets Coleman off wonderfully, providing a foundation that turns into a cloud that rains down an attack that forms a stream that enters an ocean of sound that pours from the bell of Ornette's horn. And so on. Those familiar with either or both of these players will naturally want this one. Newcomers to free music, or to these artists, would be well served to use this as a starting point. Track List: Faxing * House Of Stained Glass * Refills * Story Writing * Three Ways To One * Passion Cultures * Night Plans * Cyber Cyber THE CRAMPS: Big Beat From Badsville (Epitaph) Reviewed by Shaun Dale If you're blessed with the least bit of testosterone, the first thing you'll notice about the new Cramps release is that after two decades plus in the punk rock racket, Poison Ivy still looks as good as she wants in a pair of lace stockings and stilletos. If estrogen is your thing, turning the package over will reveal the slightly disturbing reality that Lux Interior looks almost as good in spike heels as you do. Open the box and you'll find 14 tracks of rockabilly madness Cramps style. Yeah! Ivy's guitar playing has never been better, Slim Chance and Harry Drumdini seemed to have reached rhythm section nirvana and Lux, well, he's a madman. I mean that in the nicest way, of course. The material covers the standard range of sex, sleaze and scary monsters. It was especially nice to get an update on the life and times of America's punk rock sweetheart, the immortal Sheena (she's in a goth gang these days) and if the Cramp Stomp isn't the next nationwide dance craze, well, there's just no justice. This disc is more fun than you deserve to have, unless you've been very good indeed. The audio equivalent of two desserts and no veggies for dinner, "Big Beat From Badsville" should be your very next musical aquisition. Track List: Cramp Stomp * God Monster * It Thing Hard-On * Like A Bad Girl Should * Sheena's In A Goth Gang * Queen Of Pain * Monkey With Your Tail * Devil Behind That Bush * Super Goo * Hypno Sex Ray * Burn She-Devil, Burn * Wet Nightmare * Badass Bug * Haulass Hyena DARLAHOOD: Big Fine Thing (Reprise) Reviewed by Shaun Dale This disc has been kicking around for nearly a year, producing the radio hit "Grow Your Own" and providing a base for the band's arduous van tour of the U.S. If you've missed hearing it, you've missed hearing the best New York City based band I've heard in twenty years. It's not too late to fix that problem. Darlahood is drummer Joe Magistro, bassist David Sellar and guitarist Luke Janklow. Janklow is a self described "promiscuous listener" and it shows in the range of sounds packed into the twelve songs here - a dense, rhythmic mix of metal, psychedelia, hard rock and a little of the old this and that. Janklow's guitar style is centered on a hard driving rhythmic style which is supported and surrounded by Magistro and Sellar, who help put the power back in "power trio." This may be the best power trio debut since an American lad joined up with a couple Brits in a band called the Experience. Not that Janklow's a flash guitarist - he's more interested in delivering the song than standing out. It's just that the songs are so damn good and his playing fits them so damn well that he can't help standing out. Well, actually, he does take his turn. "RSVP" is about eight minutes of wah-squack-scream-stomp-maximum R&R guitar assault on the senses. In other words, it's just about perfect. When it drops into the 12 string from another planet sound of "Hey Baby (Take Me With You)," well, you'll just have to hear it to appreciate it. Combine all of the above with batch of songs that reflect a sarcastic sense of humor that never descends into a cynical whine, and "Big Fine Thing" turns out to be the best album I missed last year. If you missed it too, don't let any more time slip away. Track List: Grow Your Own * 99% Bulletproof * Sister Dementia * Big Fine Thing * Runaway Clocks * Watch Your Mouth * Do Nature Boy * Not Again * New York City * I've Got Pictures * RSVP * Hey Baby (Take Me With You) AL DiMEOLA: This is Jazz 31 (Columbia / Legacy) Reviewed by Steve Marshall It was the mid-70's. The jazz scene was brimming with gifted young guitarists. Pat Metheny, Steve Morse and Lee Ritenour are just a sampling of the talent that was around. Al DiMeola began his career in 1974 as the guitarist for Return to Forever. After a brief two-year stint in the band, he embarked on a solo career. His solo records have touched on jazz, rock, and classical, as well as several other styles. After leaving Columbia in the early 80's, he began experimenting with the synclavier and seemed to steer away from the electric guitar. DiMeola's guitar prowess is presented here in a multitude of musical settings. From the articulate "Ritmo de la Noche" to the tropical "African Night" to the playful duet with Chick Corea, "Short Tales from the Black Forest" and the live version of "Cruisin'," highlights abound on the CD. Legacy has done a superb job with its This is Jazz series so far, and this disc doesn't disappoint. Aside from a few glaring omissions (where's "Elegant Gypsy"?), this is a great introduction to one of the world's finest guitarists. TRACK LIST: Race With Devil on Spanish Highway * Ritmo de la Noche * Short Tales of the Black Forest * Nena (live) * Fantasia Suite for Two Guitars * African Night * Cruisin' (live) * Spanish Eyes * Passion, Grace and Fire * Silent Story in Her Eyes * Sarabande From Violin Sonata in B Major THE ELECTRAS: Best of The Electras (Get Hip) (also featuring The Scotsmen & The Victors) Reviewed by Shaun Dale Side one of this Get Hip vinyl release is devoted to eight tracks recorded by The Electras for Minneapolis' Scotty Records in 1966-67. Aside from the Yardbirds' cover "I'm Not Talking", there are a couple original tracks and a handful of songs written by their producer, Warren Kendrick. This is great stuff, classic Brit Invasion-inspired garage rock. If these tracks had been recorded on either coast by a band with access to the major label A&R scouts of the day, you'd be hearing them on oldies stations across the nation to this day. Built around the guitar tag team of Bill and Earl Bulinski and the driving vocals of Tim Elfving, the band had a sound that will delight garage connoisseurs everywhere. Side two opens with a pair of Kendrick compositions by the Scotsmen, an apparent reference to the Scotty label. "Beer Bust Blues" is a novelty rocker and "Scotch Mist" a snatch of surf inspired instro. The Victors, who round out the album, are essentially the Scotsmen without Kendrick and with a new vocalist. They turn in a set of quality covers from several sources including the Young Rascals and the Yardbirds. An above average cover band, their facility with these tunes outshines the originals they produced under the Scotsmen tag. This may be Get Hip's strongest offering of mid-west garage rock so far, high praise considering the general quality of the material they've released from IGL Records and other sources. If it's not, I want to hear what's better, because I sure enjoyed this one. Track List: Side One: The Electras/Dirty Old Man * Soul Searchin' * This Week's Children * Action Woman * I'm Not Talkin' * Pregnant Pig * 'Bout My Love * Won't Take No For An Answer Side Two: The Scotsmen/Beer Bust Blues * Scotch Mist * The Victors/ Midnight Hour * I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore * One More Time * Mister You're A Better Man Than I * Little Girl FISH: Sunsets on Empire (Viceroy/Lightyear) Reviewed by Steve Marshall For those of you who think this is the new CD by Phish, it's not. Fish is the ex-lead singer/songwriter for Marillion. When Fish (whose real name is Derek Dick) left the band in 1987, Marillion replaced him with a new lead singer. To longtime fans, however, they were never the same. Fish was more willing to take chances and forged ahead musically, while Marillion evolved into little more than a Journey clone. On his newest CD, Sunsets on Empire, Fish teamed up with a new collaborator named Steve Wilson. Musically, the new album is a bit different than previous ones. The lyrics are more politically charged, yet they still manage to retain the cinematic imagery of his earlier work. Three of the songs--"The Perception of Johnny Punter," "Jungle Ride" and "What Colour is God?"--feature spoken word sections, which add to the depth and power of the material. Fish once said that if he were to leave the music business, he would probably write plays or film scripts. Sunsets on Empire is basically just that--a film script, with the musical score already in place. Highlights include the excellent "Johnny Punter," "Goldfish and Clowns," "Tara" (inspired by Fish's daughter), "Jungle Ride," and the first single "Brother 52" (also included as a video on the CD-ROM portion of the disc). Sunsets on Empire easily ranks along with Fish's best solo material, in some cases surpassing his previous works. BELA FLECK: Double Time (Rounder) Reviewed by Shaun Dale While Bela Fleck has made a lot of wonderful music since this 1984 collection was originally issued, I can think of at least 13 reasons you should slip into your local purveyor of aluminized product and snag the new CD version right about now. They are: Bela Fleck + Mark O'Connor, David Grisman, Tony Rice, Edgar Meyer, Mark Schatz, Jerry Douglas, Mike Marshall, John Hartford, Darol Anger, Pat Flynn, Ricky Skaggs and Sam Bush. These 13 duets (two with Marshall, one apiece for the rest) show at least that many facets of the shining jewel that Bela Fleck, the most creative 5-string banjo player on the scene then and now, is. This one really is too good to miss. Track List: Spunk (w/Mark O'Connor, fiddle) * Black Forest (w/David Grisman, mandolin) * Double Play (w/Tony Rice, guitar) * Lowdown (w/Edgar Meyer, bass) * The Bullfrog Shuffle (w/Mark Schatz, nylon string banjo) * Another Morning (Jerry Douglas, dobro) * Light Speed (w/Mike Marshall, octave mandolin) * Sweet Rolls (w/John Hartford, banjo) * Ladies & Gentleman (w/Darol Anger, cello) * Right As Rain (w/Pat Flynn, guitar) * Far Away (w/Mike Marshall, mandolin) * Ready To Go (w/Ricky Skaggs, fiddle) * The Fast Lane (Sam Bush, mandolin) T-MODEL FORD: Pee Wee Get My Gun (Fat Possum) Reviewed by Shaun Dale Ah. The Delta blues. The mean, low down, dirty Delta blues. Played by a gen-u-wine Delta bluesman. A mean, low down, dirty Delta bluesman. "I was a-sure-enough dangerous man," T-Model says of his younger days, misspent and spent in part on a Mississippi chain gang. He plays the blues like that to this day, at approximately 75 (T-Model is no more sure of his age than he is of the number of times he's gone to jail). Joined by Spam, his drummer/companion for nearly a decade, and by Frank Frost (keyboards) and Sam Carr (drums) on a pair of tracks, Ford is as basic a model as the motor car he's named for. A driving rhythm on the electric guitar is backed by the simplest drum kit - he'll only allow Spam the use of a snare and bass drum - and a voice that carries with it every mile he's plowed behind a mule, every day he spent on the chain gang, every hour he worked in the saw mill and every night he's spent pounding the blues in a Greenville, Mississippi juke joint. Fat Possum's Bruce Watson lured him into studios for most all the tracks except "Can't Be Touched," which T-Model recorded at home. You can put the man in the studio, though, but you can't take the field out of the man. The sound is as rough and pure as a Smithsonian field recording, no matter what environment it was recorded in. It's the nat'chul blues, nothing but, and all of that. "Nobody get's me down," T-Model sings, and while no one may *knock* him down, or *keep* him down, T-Model Ford, or at least T-Model's blues have been gotten down on disc. And you should get down to wherever you get such things and get them. Track List: Cut You Loose * T-Model Theme Song * Been A Long Time * Turkey And The Rabbit * Can't Be Touched * Nobody Gets Me Down * I'm Insane * Where You Been * Feels So Bad * Sugar Farm * Let Me In THE FOUR TOPS: Keepers Of The Castle - Their Best 1972-1978 (MCA) Reviewed by DJ Johnson At the end of 1971, The Four Tops bolted from Motown Records after 11 years as one of Berry Gordy's most successful acts. Their first album for ABC's Dunhill Records was Keeper Of The Castle. This collection borrows the title and a few tracks from that great R&B/soul record while covering the full span of their association with ABC. 1972 to 1978 was a successful period for The Four Tops, but this isn't the body of work you probably associate with the group. Their Motown output, mostly written and produced by the team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, was incredibly memorable and is still played daily on classic rock stations all over the world. It would be a shame to simply dismiss their post-Motown period, however, and this collection should convince you of that. "Ain't No Woman Like The One I've Got," "Are You Man Enough," "Save It For A Rainy Day," "Love Music," "Sweet Understanding," "One Chain Don't Make No Prisoner" and, to be honest, nearly everything else here could be held up as prime examples of 70s R&B. If you just have The Four Tops Anthology collection, you're only getting half of the story. CONNIE FRANCIS: Where The Boys Are (Rhino) Reviewed by John Sekerka The time is pre-fab four sixties, and music stars are being shuffled in front of the camera as Hollywood discovers a new audience: the teenager. While Frankie and Annette are kicking up sand on the beach, and Elvis is wooing puppy-eyed maidens with song, a stern, starchy, petite brunette college co-ed is cavorting in Fort Lauderdale. Hot on the heels of her tear-jerking smash 'Who's Sorry Now,' Connie Francis made a difficult transition to film, but her awkward and stoic performance seemed to capture the imagination of North American youth, as 300,000 of them descended upon Fort Lauderdale to live out their wildest dreams. 'Where the Boys Are' was a landmark smash, spawning countless sequels and imitations, but it clearly stands on it's own as Connie Francis' springboard. This collection of soundtrack material, spanning three other movies, showcases Francis' wallowing vocal in her trademark weepy ballad style, but also features some raucous uptempo numbers as well as steamy jazz pieces, - both sides in evidence on dramatically different takes of "Looking For Love," one a great rockin' doo-woppy version, the other a smoky nightclub take. This certainly is a historic timepiece that hearkens back to a very short era (the British invasion would see to that), but one that is worth searching out. As a treat the good folks at Rhino have included four bonus demo cuts featuring Francis backed only by a piano. On the beginning of "Let's Have a Party," Connie prods her piano player "pick it up Stan" - you can tell that the girl just wanted to rock, and it sounds oh so fr