Mondo Cane, No. 2 complements its best-selling predecessor by shifting from surf to soil. The Ondioline takes center stage driving the melody, while Les Spann replaces Kenny Burrell on guitar. (Enough Ondioline and Kenny Burrell starts to be missed.) As fine as anything else by Winding or Ogerman in the mod idiom, Winding's original "Simian Theme" is worth the price of admission alone. Ogerman's "Python" weirdly sets a serpentine buzz and blues guitar against horns churning away in the background. Some tunes such as "Theme From Nowhere" combine an overt rock beat with a spacey electronic chorus of sorts. Les Baxter's "Blue Star" is a nice inclusion, particularly since, as the liners claim, Creed Taylor's formula was to push the melody, melody, melody. The eerie space theme, very appropriate for Ondioline, would have made an excellent alternate choice for this album. Is the sequel better than the original? Yes, if you prefer originality in composition and arrangement as well as plenty of Ondioline. No, if you want surf, standards, and Kenny Burrell. (by Tony Wilds, http://www.allmusic.com/)


Tracks:
01. Mondo Cane #2
02. Simian Theme
03. Till
04. Python
05. The Mouldau
06. Now and Forever   
07. Portrait of My Love
08. Warm
09. The Gospel Truth... Read more »

Please Mr. Postman is the 1961 debut LP from Motown girl group The Marvelettes. The focal track is the number-one hit single, "Please Mr. Postman", which was the album's only hit. It notably features a cover version of "I Want a Guy", which was the debut single for fellow Motown girl group The Supremes the same year. Other songs on the album include "Oh I Apologize", produced by Smokey Robinson, who would produce much of the group's later material, and "Angel". Both songs were early leads for Wanda Young who would later take Gladys Horton's place as the group's main lead singer.

Please Mr. Postman received mainly negative reviews as it was believed to have been "too rushed" so that the focal track's success could be capitalized. All of the tracks from the album can be found on the Hip-O Select deluxe compilation CD Forever: The Complete Motown Albums.



Despite early success, many feel The Marvelettes never achieved their full potential at Motown. Some, like Gladys Horton, the founder of the group, blame Motown's lack of proper promotion and forcing the other Motown girl groups to take a back seat to their label mates, The Supremes. However, the group is... Read more »

Along with AMON DUUL II's "Phallus Dei", "Monster Movie" is the cornerstone of German "kraut-rock" scene and a fundamental work defining its sound and aesthetics. Recorded in 1969 it is still today an amazing piece of music. This is done by the original CAN line-up featuring Malcolm Mooney as vocalist and this is his only full-length album contribution. "Father Cannot Yell" and "Outside My Door" sound almost like "proto- punk" with mocking and spitting Mooney shouts and "dirty" guitar chords by Michael Karoli. Apart from VELVET UNDERGROUND, not many bands dared to question rock conventions during the peak of the "hippie era". Therefore, some prog purists may see this album as being too basic, rough and musically underdeveloped to their taste. But don't forget - such thing as "prog rock" did not exist in this period yet. "Mary Mary So Contrary" shows that even in this early period CAN were able to produce a melodic and quite catchy tune, which did not reach top lists probably only because of the geographic constraints. The psychedelic mega-jam "You Doo Right" shares company with AMON DUUL II's "Phallus Dei" and VELVET UNDERGROUND's "Sister Ray" - a noisy experimental hodge-podge that clocks over 20 minutes. It is a wonderful example showcasing Mooney's capability to use his smoke-ragged voice as a rhythm instr... Read more »

Contrary to what the exploitative title might have you believe, this was not recorded during a Beatles tour (though Jackie DeShannon was an opening act on their 1964 North American tour), or even a live album. Instead, it was something of a grab bag of a dozen tracks that had already been released on Liberty singles between 1962 and 1964. For all its scattered origins, however, it was a pretty good compilation of her early-'60s work, though it was neither definitive nor the very best dozen tracks she did during this period. The best stuff is extremely good, however, starting with her original versions of "Needles and Pins" and "When You Walk in the Room," both of which anticipated some of the elements that would make up folk-rock in the mid-'60s, and both of which were covered for much bigger hits by the Searchers. There's also some fine girl group-influenced pop/rock that she co-wrote with the young Randy Newman ("She Don't Understand Him Like I Do," "Hold Your Head High"), Jack Nitzsche (the very Phil Spector-esque "Should I Cry"), and Sharon Sheeley ("You Won't Forget Me"), as well as a good song Newman wrote alone, "Did He Call Today, Mama." Some of the other tracks, such as the covers of Buddy Holly's "Oh, Boy" and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," come off as filler in this company, but overall i... Read more »

27 years have been passed from the death of Billy Fury. Billy died at 28th January, 1983. Here is his first studio album.

In the early days of British rock & roll, there were dozens of contenders for stardom: Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard, and Marty Wilde were among the players who rose to the challenge for at least a few years. Billy Fury, by contrast, was the real article from day one, and never really surrendered the title. He was also the most prodigiously talented of his generation of British rock 'n roll singers, a songwriter of considerable ability, and a decent actor as well.

He was born Ronald Wycherley, in Liverpool. A sickly child, he experienced his first bout of rheumatic fever at age six, the beginning of chronic health problems that would take his life before age 45. At 11, he started music lessons, taking up the piano, and he got his first guitar at age 14. By 1955, the skiffle boom had begun in England and Wycherley was leading his own local group, while earning money working on a tugboat and then as a stevedore. By 1958, Wycherley was playing locally and had won a talent competition, and was writing his own songs.

Wycherley was discovered by impressario Larry Parnes on October 1, 1958, in a story that quickly assumed the status of legend among the British youth ... Read more »

"Orange and blue" is a collection of tracks recorded by Nirvana in their early, Island Label days, but not released at that time. The reason many of the tracks failed to gain inclusion on the band's "Simon Simopath" or "All of us" albums is that the record company rejected them as being too deviant from the band's recognised style. In 1996, principal band members Alex Spyropoulos and Patrick Campbell-Lyons got together to revive the songs. Some of the tracks appear to be in their original demo form, while others such as the opening title track (with its drug related theme) have been substantially reworked for this album. Thus, while this might technically be deemed a compilation album, it contains new material.

Most of the songs here have a much more upbeat orientation, leading the record company to suggest to the band that they "Leave this to Spooky Tooth and stick to your chamber music". Tracks such as "Stone in the water" recall the psychedelic roots of the band, while others like "As long as I can see you" and "Lost in space" have clear BEATLES influences. The latter, which includes the phasing which made the band famous on "Rainbow chaser", tells a bizarre tale of an astronaut stranded in space for 10 years with a cactus, a female ant, and a spider. The advice from mission control is "Don't forget... Read more »

The Beautiful 'To Markos III' was originally slated for release on Island records but label boss Chris Blackwell wanted a singles band not an Island version of the Moody Blues and gave Patrick Campbell- Lyons & George Spyropoulos free reign to take their tape elsewhere. This they duly did, writing the caustic 'Christopher Lucifer' in barbed tribute to Mr Blackwell along the way. Funding for the as yet nameless project came in the form of financial aid from Spyrppoulos's uncle Markos III and a deal was put together with the US based Metromedia label.

Metromedia promptly went bust creating a genuine Nirvana collectors item on the spot.

The album is full of some of the most lush and beautiful songs that the duo ever wrote and it seems criminal that it never received the backing it deserved so do your CD collection a favour and dive in to the delights of Marko III (ironically re-released on Island) and bath in the glow of gems like 'The World Is Cold Without You', 'I Talk to My Room', 'Tres, Tres Bien' and the standout 'Black Flower'. (http://www.progarchives.com/)

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Nirvana's third and final album for Island (sometimes titled Dedicated to Markos III in discographies) was extremely rare in its first 1969 LP issue, the U.K. release limited to a... Read more »

The well-known rock critic (in France that is) Hervé Picart made this album under the artist name Ose, helped by his mentors Richard Pinhas and Francois Auger. Understandably, the result is sophisticated electronic music, which was more accessible than Heldon (probably due to additional influences from Tangerine Dream). Picart should have made more albums of this pulsating and slowly developing music. In my opinion this is in the same class as Pinhas's best solo album Iceland. ("Asbjørnsen - Scented Gardens Of The Mind", http://sgm.paullee.ru/sgm-fr.htm)

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Heldon moved into 1978 in good stead, Pinhas taking some time off to become involved in sessions with fellow Parisian Herve Picart's "OSE", recording an LP for EGG Records ("The Most Progressive Music Experience") which took place in June. The result was entitled "Adonia", and has to do with goings on in an earth colony on a distant planet. Picart's (Synthesizers, Keyboards, Guitars) compositions are in the French progressive tradition, but that not withstanding, the presence of Pinhas (Synthesizers. Sequencers, Guitar) and Francois Auger (Drums) assure that this is a Heldon LP, despite Picart's composition of this suite.

"Approche Sur A" kicks off the LP with a drone in A major, over which synt... Read more »

The Pink Mice is a German band of the early 70's clearly Symphonic and often accused of being clones of ELP, something that is not accurate, they were close to being clones of TRIUMVIRAT (Triumvirat is also known as The Rat, so the connection between Mice and Rat is easy to understand) in other words they were almost clones of a so called clone of ELP.

Some people may ask how they could follow TRIUMVIRAT if THE PINK MICE released their debut album in 1971 and The Rat in 1972, the reason is simple, TRIUMVIRAT was formed in 1969 and was already popular in Germany plus they had a lot of radio airplay with a 45 RPM released in January 1971 containing the songs "Dancers Delight" and "Timothy"..

But THE PINK MICE history gets more peculiar, their original lineup consisted of The keyboardist Peter Hetch, Peter Gesslein (Guitar & Vocals), Dieter Horns (Bass & Vocals) and the drummer Joachim Rietenbach is the exact same lineup of an already popular Hard Prog band called LUCIFER'S FRIEND but without the British vocalist John Lawton, seems that the members of LUCIFER'S FRIEND wanted to go for the Symphonic sounds with exclusively German members instead of the aggressive rock music created with Lawton as a member.

Their albums are clearly influenced by Classical Music and they don't hide this... Read more »