These guys were the classic blue-eyed soul club band, fitting in the same bill as others that made the circuit in the mid sixties. Think of the first singles of the Alan Bown Set, Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers or Zoot Money's Big Roll Band, although they may not sound as tight and professional as their most well known cousins.
The material released by the Stormsville Shakers is a mixed bag: blue-eyed soul, mersey beat, pop with horns Los Bravos' style, the dull track oriented to the charts, a ghostly ballad in French and even a couple of R&B/freakbeat/soul stompers (Gettin' Ready & Number One) that sound really amazing and totally caught my ear.
When they changed their name and became "Circus", the band went a bit more pop in the same vein as The Love Affair. Surprisingly, here the best material are the unreleased tracks, which sound more psych and innovative following the path opened by The Who and others, with good guitars, interesting song-writing and some unexpected sounds (a flute!). These last tracks could perfectly fit in a Rubble-style popsike comp.
If you are a fan of the Brit club blue-eyed soul sound of '65 & '66, this album is a recommended purchase. But if you are looking for something outstanding and memorable, then you may keep looking somewhere else. The Stormsville Shakers were a good band, but they didn't record any piece of musical history. BTW, the sound quality is rather good, but don't expect a sublime listening experience: it seems as if the original masters were lost or not in the best shape.(amazon customer review)
This is a fine pop collection with recordings of the Stormsville Shakers, Phillip Goodhand-Tait, and the renamed Stormsville Shakers then called ''Circus'' in '67. I love this sound and the compilation have a lot of ear candy.
Enjoy
SB1 Flac p1 & Flac p2 mp3@320
Hi and thanks for some excellent music.. however I have encountered some problems with your files ( both mp3 and flac ) after downloading and extracting the album some of the files can´t be played or burnt,,, they seem empty in spite of naming name and size correctly.. on this album only about ten of the files can be played.. is there any unknown codec involved? I have tried several players and burning devices with same result.. Greetings Stuffy from Sweden
ReplyDeleteHello Stuffy, i have tried this file myself again and i have no issues. I always use dbpoweramp for my own rips and if i tag files new that i got myself from the internet i use ''mp3tagv284''. It was once that a Flac file (Tuneful Trolley) won't work for burning but after go back with the flac to wv file all was fine to me. I use ''Winamp'' for audio listening and like i said dbpoweramp for ripping. I will try other players, too but like i said i have no probs. Sorry that i can't help :-(
DeleteHope you will get fix it. In case you can fix it please let me know how you have done.
All the best to you
Frank
Thanks for your help, Frank..I managed to burn the CD on another computer and burner.. strange problem.. it´s probably Putin´s fault! ;-)
DeleteHello Stuffy, fine that you managed the problems. Sometimes i ask myself if it's a windows os thing. Don't know if things like your example happen that often on different operation systems. However have a nice day
DeleteFrank