Hawkwind - Motorway City

Released during Hawkwind's 'controversial' 80's period (consisting of much more electronic experimentation and less chugging riffs), this little single here contains two amazing tracks which are full live staples of our long running heroes. Motorway City and a live updated Master Of The Universe. During this time, Hawkwind were also taking in more metal influences, and writing... GASP... conventional songs, but it's still Hawkwind through and through. Previously, I've reviewed their hit single, Silver Machine, and  professed my extensive love for Hawkwind's brand of space rock. So it's interesting to see how this holds up to that genre defining classic.

A crystalline appegiated synth, staccato guitar and a Hew Loyd Langdon guitar solo take us into this funky groove of Motorway City, which lasts for the verses, and Dave Brock's unmissable singing. The breaks between verses/chorus have more smooth guitar work and we get some nice powerchords during the chorus. This isn't like the old full and heavy Hawkwind, it's much more musical and sounds like it could have been a big hit if done by a more commercial band. We get anthemic choruses, decently accessible keyboard chords and a lovely rhythm going on. It's very danceable, yet still very spaced out. The band is insanely tight, and I think this might be around the time that they started using click tracks, as it's very spot on with the timing. We get another silky spacey guitar break over an extended jam and then the track fades to silence, due to the time constraints. All in all, this is a great track, solid playing and a cool groove.

The flip side, Master Of The Universe, takes the legendary Hawkwind track, and updates it for a more contemporary time, ironically making it sound so much more dated than earlier versions. It starts with some classic Hawkwind riffage, which melts into Master Of The Universe' trademark riff, however this time, it is punctuated by a keyboard jangle at the end of each line. Brock's vocals lack the insane punch of Nik Turner's from previous versions, yet still carry the absurdist lines. Langdon plays a very very awesome guitar solo over the vamping powerchords, also worth pointing out here the frantic thrash-like drumming going on. Now, back to that solo, it's more conventional rock than 70's Hawkwind, but ultimately fits in with this track well. Ending with a roaring crowd, we realise that this is a live track, yet the quality is still amazing.

As with anything Hawkwind, I would recommend getting hold of this single. Two great versions of two great songs. Masters Of The Universe is suitably heavy and Motorway City is pure class.

Procal Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale

A Whiter Shade Of Pale (now referred to as AWSOP for lazyness reasons) is one of those songs where, it's hard to appreciate how important it was. It's widely regarded as changing almost everything during the sixties because of it's unique sound and musicality. Kick starting prog rock, and becomming a main inspiration for the UK's style of psychedelic music. It's questionable authorship and claims of plagiarism has been in the news the past few years, (but then, the track's always known to be based on Bach anyways) have kinda sullied it's reputation a bit lately, but it's a cracking tune. Let's check it out!

Side A is quite obviously AWSOP, the sublime organ riff takes us into a dreamlike state, and Brooker's voice comes in with the defining opening line "We skip the lights fandango" and carries on singing throughout. The first verse jumps in with a more sweeping Organ playing, and we get the intro melody as well. There are also guitars and stuff as well in the background, but (rare for a rock group) they let the organ take centre stage and get mixed down a bit. An RnB style Bach track is such a weird thing, especially one about a very poe-faced relationship. The track fades out before letting the instrumentalists get carried away. It is a very enjoyable song, and obviously a very important one, but however, it has not aged as well as some sixties tracks have. It's a problem with being ahead of the crowd, it's so easy to become dated unless you're a genius like Frank Zappa or Dave Brock.

For our second side, Side B if you will, we have Lime Street Blues, a more straightforward sixties rocking track. Bouncy beat and melody, trivial lyrics. It's a great fun track to counterbalance the sombre mood of AWSOP, but it does lack the former track's individualistic spark. The neat instrumental bridges show off the band members' fine musical abilities, and show them as solid players, a nice blues boogie. The organ playing during the chorus is neat in the Strawberry Alarm Clock kinda way. Typical sixties.

So, we get two tracks here, one of pop music's all time classics, and a fun little Rock'n'roll number. I'd say that it's a great 7" single and the two tracks play off each other excellently with their contrasting moods. Opposite faces of a coin indeed. This kinda thing really shows what my generation is missing out on when it comes to what a single is, and can be. They're damn fools. It's a great single!

Sly And The Family Stone - Stand!

This ain't no disco chic, this is when funk got serious, this shit's dangerous. This is Sly And The Family Stone. Stand! was the family Stone's last albums of their 'psychedelic period', before they went into a much harsher, grittier, urban sound, and for a band as influential as Sly And The Family Stone, this album manages to stand tall as a masterwork. This also saw the band fracture, with drugs, ego and personality clashes, as well as their adoption by various black nationalist groups(something Sly didn't like at all) and the sense of hopelessness prevalent in early 70's black culture after a turbulent end to the sixties, Stand! was their last cry for optimism. But, does Stand! stand up as an album worthy of such importance? Let's find out!

A drumroll kicks off the title track, Stand!, a song that picks up a soul groove with an optimistic sound, and an amazing chorus of 'STAND! STAND! OOOOH!'. It's a call to stand up for your life, stand up for what's right. Lyrically, it's straight forward but pretty poetic in it's simplicity, and Sly's singing goes perfectly with his music. The track only gets funkier, branching into P-Funk style (P-Funk was heavily influenced by these dudes) and then fades out into track number two, Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey. Protesting against the racial discrimination from both sides (Sly And The Family Stone were a massive multi-racial band) over a heavy dirty beat, like Hendrix from the back alleys. There's a badass instrumental break and this dark funky dirty beat just continues, highlighting the band's future direction. The beat allows some psyche weirdness to kick in, an organic liquidic sound, a collage of singing and sounds, before that dirty chorus is reprised. "Don't call me Nigger, Whitey! Don't call me Whitey, Nigger!" I'm sensing something Beefheartian in this track, from Sly's menacing voice, to various elements in the rhythm and the heavy harmonica solo. Abba Zabba. With such an extended instrumental groove, it's in the fucking zone in this nasty way that the likes of James Brown could never achieve. It's dangerous music.

I Want To Take You Higher is a total psychedelic funk-rock track of epic proportions, and was a massive hit. The groove is totally where it's at and the guitar oozes charisma in a way that's Hendrix-y, but also of it's own. To be honest, this song is as pure funk as you'll ever get. Optimistic, hopeful, and damn right where it's at. It shows a band that's so tight and working so well, the drum beat keeps up with such a pace and the duelling male/female vocals carry such character. It's impossible to feel down when listening to this track! Somebody's Watching You is the title of the fourth track, more traditional soul like, a traditional groove with a horn section over the top. It's groovy and a neat quieter downside after the loudness of the previous tracks. It's got a nice instrumental break, but generally doesn't carry it's weight as much as other tracks. It's a good singalong though. The next track asks you to Sing A Simple Song, and a great guitar lick and female vocals kick off another great track, a neat dirty groove, a simplistic chorus carried up by amazing singing, and a wailing funkster. This brings all different elements together from awesome vocal harmonies, Arthur Brown style wailing singing, talking, great dirty vocals and a call and response approach to the verses, over an amazing James Brown beat and groove, and a great funk-meets-ska horn section in the middle eight. It's a very busy song despite it's misleading title, over a repetitive beat. It works great.

Track six is Everyday People, a soul track, with a more subdued Sly Stone, a great piano-driven repeating groove, backing vocals tacking the lead. Sly is far more soulful here yet still manages to carry his usual energy. This is a far more commercial track, again like the title track, calling for a more open and enjoyable society. It's the shortest of the tracks but still great. Guitar and drums lead into Sex Machine, a slow groove draws us in, bringing forward the staple funk staccato guitars. A very organic liquid harmonica plaing through an early vocoder returns once again, creating a surreal atmosphere. This is an extended jam over a great beat leading to such a funky guitar solo, more groovier than Hendrix could reach, similar to that of Eddie hazel from Funkadelic. I am a massive massive fan of jam tracks, so this just works fantastically for me, a nice walking beat, a funk solo what's not to like? It's so easy to see why Miles Davis took this as his inspiration for his jaw-droppingly amazing Tribute to Jack Johnson and On The Corner albums. Needless to say, this one track seems to resonate so much amongst prettymuch every instrumental funk-influenced track made afterwards, even European bands such as Can and Brainticket. Sly's bizarre sound kicks back in over the amazing guitar and then the bass takes over as the lead, something quite rare, and then a heavily distorted guitar powers and screams through the music a great dirty sound, before returning to the main rythm now accompanied with a saxaphone solo and a heavier drum beat/solo that just rolls along amazingly, almost tribal, slowing down train-like. This track lets every player shine. Aparently the band where making fun of each other during the recording, resulting in them ending the track with laughter. It's great when a band has fun while playing. The album finishes with You Can Make It If You Try, returning to the album's starting style of upbeat optimistic P-Funk-esque funk. Interlocking vocals, ace instrumentation and a great fun playfulness of the melodies. This is a fun track indeed. Again it's hard to feel down when this great groove is playing. It goes into an instrumental break carrying on with the groove, and letting the soul-chorus singers get the feeling going. The album fades to silence. Ended with some backwards speaking.

Stand! truely is an album that not only lives up to it's reputation, but totally surpasses it, as a landmark of popular music and easily one of the must have albums of all time. I love funk, and I love jams, so this just makes me so happy. The group's later sounds became dirtier and minimalist compared to this orgasmic display of sheer over-the-top creativity, but are still great. You really do have to buy this album at the earliest opportunity!

Public Image Ltd - Disappointed

So, before I start, today I went record shopping in Camden and got me eight LPs(including David Bowie's 'Low' which I hesitate to review because it's just read like me sucking him off. Amazing album) and two CDs, a productive day. And when I arrived home, I had a nice little single for me...

Now, we all know who PIL are, so let's just get the quick rundown... after The Sex Pistols, John Lydon decided to take inspiration from his prog/psyche heroes and delved into a more experimental approach to music, snatching various styles techniques and textures from electronica to jazz to dub. We call this kind of music Post-Punk. Where Sex Pistols were overly simplistic, crass and confrontational, Public Image Ltd (or PIL for short) made interesting music, more introverted and deeper. Lydon's trademark vocals took on a new identity and power, with THE Miles Davis even likening them to his horn playing (perhaps the best compliment anybody could ever give?).

Track number A is Disappointed, and it is very of it's period, 1989. Imagine Lydon doing Stone Roses, and you get the picture. It's a straight forward pop rock song structure with simplistic verses and a chorus asking 'What are friends for?'. We have melodic yet bland guitar breaks, and a jangly backing rhythm. Lydon's Voice is reaching a nearly operatic style here, and wouldn't be out of place in a heavy metal situation. After the second chorus, it reaches a small instrumental break, keeping the ironic feel good rocker vibe going, man, this track really does predict all the trends to emerge in 90's pop rock. Lyrically it's very negative and spiteful, yet it combines this with upbeat backing music, making it an odd listen.

For our second side, we get Same Old Story, which kicks off with a metal guitar groove, and is much more musically menacing. It needs to be louder though, y'know. Lydon's vocals do break through the mix, but when we get to the chorus, it becomes your kinda usual rocky fare. For some reason, I am reminded of The Residents, in how the music is played with and arranged. Ultimately, it's quite a good song, and I think you have to take it's standard chorus as part of the point. We're treated to a menacing guitar solo, but like on the previous track, it's nothing special. It's a good song but nothing special, nothing like their earlier eighties work.

If you like PIL, then you'll like this. It's nothing special, just two good songs. If you're a more pop-y person, this might be a good way to introduce you to them. That's all really.

Ultravox - Vienna

Ultravox, fronted by Midge Ure are a new wave pop group fronted by Midge Ure (one of the key men behind Live Aid) who managed to combine an experimental and interesting take on electronic music with proper solid pop sensibilities. Their classic 1981 hit, Vienna, helped secure the future of electro-pop.

Side A first, Vienna. a ghostly note, an echoed kick and Ure sings, sombre and moody. The melody is haunting, dancing in the back ground. Then an organ and piano come in with the chorus 'it means nothing to me...' bringing the bassline with it, and a neat piano melody. The second verse with more synth effects and piano plonks. I love the chorus of this track, it really stands out as powerful and cinematic, different from the coldness that electronica was associated with. We get a neat instrumental section, repeating the rythm and then speeding up with violin sounds in a faux-orchestrial style. Again, very cinematic, heading for a conclusion, the chorus. It splashes out with some cymbal crashes and a slow grind to end. It's a great song, enjoyable and musically interesting. Plus the textures of those synths just melt the ears.

The B side is called Passionate Reply. Can it live up to the first track? We get a funky Kraftwerk style beat comming in, beefed up with some guitar. Ure does his best Phil Oakey style singing here. This track kics up a steady beat, doesn't change up much but again the use of synth textures keeps it pretty fresh. Repetative can be good afterall. We are treated to a nice instrumental break which sounds like an 80's pop version of Frippatronics. A neat soundscaping made of distorted and merged tones, just with more distortion here. The track begins to speed up as we approach the end. All in all it's quite good, but it's no Vienna.

So then, we have one amazing song and one good song. All in all, a single worth picking up. It's good music.

Mort Garson - Electronic Hair Pieces

Mort Garson is perhaps one of the most influencial unknowns in twentieth century music, his experimental electronic music, made in the sixties, was lightyears beyond what anybody else could dream of. With a string of albums such as the Wozard Of Iz, Signs Of The Zodiac and Black mass, Garson created space age worlds of never before heard sounds. Proper electronic music, proper surreal worlds. This album is a take on the infamous musical, Hair, rendered in an amazingly futuristic and yet somewhat haunting way by Garson's genius. (NOTE: I have not seen the musical, so imagery I use to describe is inspired solely by the music on this record)

A springy aquatic rythm brings us into the first track, Aquarious, verses out of tune and violin like until the chorus plonks in, recognisable and layered of electronic sounds. The music keeps it sounding wet, dripping and the chorus has this kkinda epic majesty to it. It's amazingly done with all analogue electronics. No singing here, just pure space age music. Track two is Frank Mills, a gentle walking kinda music, echoed chords replace soft guitar strums, and a plonky keyboard forms the main melody, resembling an old Sega Master System game's music. It's very sweet and very short. We then get into Be In (Hare Krishna) via a pulsating rythm and a harsh sounding electronic lead, a distorted keyboard. The music pulsates further with percussion taking in, it all loops around the central melody with extra pianos to give texture, then suddenly it gets loud. Violent and fun, the synthyness comes up, the pulsating rythm becomes stronger, and the lead becomes more frivolous and we get treated to some fun pre-Hawkwind spacey wooshes. It's sounding very much like BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, I guess because of the same gear being used. The famous song Good Morning Starshine enters witha Super mario brothers style bassline, a space age keyboard souond plays us the melody, extra texture comes in and we hear the famous 'moog cat' sound. This track keeps a good pace and is nice and gentle after the psychedelic trip of the previous number. Garson manages to bring a nice optimistic sound to what could be harsh electronics a-la Kraftwerk, but this is the polar opposite.  Side 1 ends with Three-Five-Zero-Zero, starting with harsh electronics and wooshes in a very very Radiophonic style, we then get a lovely plonky rythm and beat comming along, and a melody which sounds like it's played flat, but could just be the patch used for it. It's haunting indeed, contrasting the previous song. At moments it's melancholic, at others it marches along. Harsh sounds and whooshes take over ontop of the beat, creating a total headfuck. Kinda an ideal end for the first half of a truely unique trip.

Side two begins with a menacing rythm, punctuated by drowning arps and then the melody comes in in a rather weak whispy noise, background arpeggios come in and more textures make the sound thicker. The track melds into Land Of The Free, and it returns to the normal track. this is the famous song, Hair, but turned into a haunting futuristic world. Bleak and cynical. Track two, Easy To Be Heard, begines more lighthearted and exploratory, it has a sense of wonder and yearning adventure. A playful moog sound for the melody that stretches out to find itself, and is really enjoyable. A flute-like sound comes in, adding more to this adventerous sound, we're walking through woodlands or forests or across landscapes, hills and valleys. Track three askes the question, Where Do I Go? in a wonderful spacey playful tune, it sounds like it's kinda cold and isolated yet warm at the same time, it is very curious, the music reflects the puzzling question in it's title. It's a kinda meandering melody, but seems to stay rather safe, but some nice jazz hooks at points do keep it fresh. Yes, jazz hooks in electronica. The track fades out and we are left with just two more numbers, first is Walking In Space, A majestic WHOOSH followed by a pinky melody become the motif of this ditty. It then bounces and layers on reverbed and echoed sounds, a proper space age feel, before becomming a kinda jazzy number with a decent bassline, space jazz, but not in the Sun Ra variety. Whooshes again return to remind us we are in space, and the rythm changes once again, upbeat and active. Fun and playful. The album finishes off with Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures), starting with a nice beat and some slamming playing just with incredible weight behind the echoed notes. It sounds truely menacing and archaic at the same time, the gentler melody is haunting and melancholic, also almost detuned. Even the playful sections are ghostly. The beat becomes even more aquatic as the track continues, and the whole number fades away.

this album is still such a new and exciting sound, creating a full range of emotions and space age noises with electronic instruments. Mort Garson takes the hair music, and creates his oqen world with it, old hippy ideals become cynical and isolated in a futuristic soundscape. Garson was a true master of layering electronic sounds to create impossible music, and was lightyears ahead of his contemporaries in the field of electronica. This album truely deserves to belong in every home, a real MUST HAVE.

Kevin Ayers - Baby Come Home

Now then, Kevin Ayers is by far one of the best songwriters I could ever possibly recommend. His output throughout the seventies consists of many finely crafted songs, and a penchant for experimental music. A member of the legendary Soft Machine, Ayers eventually went solo, to much critical acclaim. In 2007, he released a much awaited album, The Unfairground, which is well worth picking up. These two finely crafted songs come from said album.

Baby Come Home serves as our A Side, a lovely duet from Kevin Ayers and Bridget St John (previously also guested on Shooting at the moon). A beautiful rural melody starts off, followed by Ayers' distinctive voice, beautiful and gentle and yearning. The chorus is aided by a neat little trumpet embeleshment. St John sings the second verse, a very gentle folky voice. The song then has a little instrumental break before returning to the chorus, sounding very genuine and sweet. The song ends.

For the B Side, we are treated with Walk On Water, another finely tuned in piece of audio pleasure. Either due to being on Vinyl or whatever, this sounds a different mix than the album version. Is this true? Let me know. A nice traditional Kevin Ayers strumming riff starts us off, his voice, more mature than the seventies, carries a nice weight which suits this song, it's very reflective and looking back at experiences.  The drums kick in a lovely instrumental part, nice melodies take over and it is truely beautiful. it ends with the gentle strumming fading out.

Both these songs are beautiful and show that Ayers still has much more to bring the world. Well written, well performed and well sung music, like you don't see that much. If you can pick this single up, please do. It's well worth it!

Iron Maiden - Women In Uniform

Like most nerdy/geeky teenagers, I was a massive Iron Maiden fan, having brought all of their albums (until around 2006/2007 when I stopped dead). What finally hit the nail on the head for me was after their fiftieth live album sounding exactly the same as their studio albums (all of their live albums do, thus negating the point of them). And After Rock In Rio, there's simply no need for any other versions of The Trooper. Iron Maiden though, really were a one-band revolution, combining the DIY punk ethos with galloping riffs, fast solos, complex song structures and operatic and aggressive vocals. Like Judas Priest and Black Sabbath before them, Maiden changed the musical landscape. Their early stuff with Paul Di'Anno is now often overlooked, the focus always on their Dickenson stuff. This is a fucking tragedy, as Di'Anno's punky rasp is what initially set Iron Maiden apart from the other NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) bands at the time, giving them a very sexual predatory edge. Their first two albums are easily amongst their best, it shows a band taking risks and experimenting to find their sound, Something they wouldn't do again until 1995's The X Factor, featuring Blaze Bailey on vocals.

First up is Women In Uniform. A slow menacing march starts us up before jumping into fast paced metal. The verse sings over that slow beat, punching up with the very very punky active chorus, I think they really do like their women in uniform. we get a galloping march ending each segment with a harmonised little lick from our guitarists and then all melts into a nice fast section. During a very hyperactive reprise of the chorus, we get a solo being played underneith it, this goes on for like a minute before fading. This is a pretty decent track, nothing fantastic but is a damn good solid metal track.

The B Side, Invasion, is of a long tradition of Iron Maiden battle songs,  fast paced energetic tracks about previous wars, potential wars or fantasy wars. Steve Harris has a WW2 obsession (like most brits!). It jumps straight into the hyperactive riff, Di'Anno bouncing in his voice, then we get to this little break, which is fast yet stands out from the rest before returning to verse and guitar wailing solos. I'm sure someone will correct me, but sounds like Adrian Smith (EDIT: No, It wasn't). The track just carries on this fast pace, it's proper heavy metal of the Maiden variety.

All in all, this is hardely essential buying, but if you like a bit of loud rock, then you can go much more wrong. This is solid Maiden, which means it's a cut above most contemporaries.

Brooom!

Record Collecting Pointers

Whilst the bulk of my collection are CDs, the past year, I have become a quite dedicated record collector. Not collector in the 'OOH LOOK PRETTY VALUABLE' sense, but in the 'SOUNDS GROOVY' sense. So, if I get a picture disk, I'm listening to it. Monetary value is nothing compared to the experience of listening to music. Anyways, I have brought a sizable amount of records, and so think it'd be cool to post some pointers on here.

• Markets and Charity shops. These places are the goldmines, I've managed to pick up a load of decent LPs from these places. Captain Beefheart, Tangerine Dream, Human League, Yes, Mike Oldfield... it goes on and on. I managed to get Stravinski's Rites Of Spring for 50p. Well worth it. You can often find better deals in these places than in proper record shops due to the staff often not knowing how much something is worth.
• Check the vinyl! While I've never had to change my mind (generally it's all been excellent quality, as it lasts longer than tape and CD), I know to always pull the record out of it's sleeve and give it a glance, Small scratches can add a nice vintage popping sound to it, which can work well on your Rick Wakeman LPs, but bigger ones can totally ruin it. I've got a Zappa album which on one side skips like whole ten second sections in the songs. Luckily I have those tracks on CD, and only got the record due to being a Zappa completionist (it's a sampler), but still...
• Last minute eBay auctions. are the source of most of my records. You can often find something decent for 99p if you're able to keep an eye on it's last minutes. This is what I often do in my lunchbreaks at work. You can't argue with a 99p Sly and the family stone LP! Don't even focus on searching for specific stuff. Just search for 'Vinyl LP' and see what stuff is ending soon.
• Buy from sellers you TRUST! there are hundreds of record stores on eBay, start with just buying around, and then when you find some that you know have excellent quality, cheap delivery and so on, try and stick with them as your first port of call when browsing. The problem with ordering online is that sometimes the goods may not be as described (my 7" of Wuthering Heights has a giant crack down it), but generally, stores will have a reputation to uphold and will honestly grade the quality of their stock. Shakedown Records is a good seller to use on eBay.
  
• Don't pass up a bargain. If something seems abnormally cheap, don't wait around, BUY IT! Buy it before somebody else does. I've managed to get a vinyl copy of Zappa's 200 Motels for £12. That's around less than half of what the CD sells for! You just have to keep your eye on the ball, and remember, music collectors are opportunistic savages. We would sell our own parents for a shot at a mint sealed copy of Trout Mask Replica.

• Be weird. So many weird and exciting and experimental stuff has been released. This is your chance to pick up an absurd novelty record or get that BBC Sound Effects album you've heard about. Honestly, just go for whatever you can, whatever you think will be interesting. Explore. I brought a job lot of 80 singles, most of which I don't like, but some I love. It was fun to just go through, listening to each one and sorting them out and just immersing myself in the music. Explore the boundries of your musical taste and be weird.