T.REX - Electric Warrior (1971) (Japan Release 1994) Flac

The album that essentially kick-started the U.K. glam rock craze, Electric Warrior completes T. Rex's transformation from hippie folk-rockers into flamboyant avatars of trashy rock & roll. There are a few vestiges of those early days remaining in the acoustic-driven ballads, but Electric Warrior spends most of its time in a swinging, hip-shaking groove powered by Marc Bolan's warm electric guitar. The music recalls not just the catchy simplicity of early rock & roll, but also the implicit sexuality -- except that here, Bolan gleefully hauls it to the surface, singing out loud what was once only communicated through the shimmying beat. He takes obvious delight in turning teenage bubblegum rock into campy sleaze, not to mention filling it with pseudo-psychedelic hippie poetry.

In fact, Bolan sounds just as obsessed with the heavens as he does with sex, whether he's singing about spiritual mysticism or begging a flying saucer to take him away. It's all done with the same theatrical flair, but Tony Visconti's spacious, echoing production makes it surprisingly convincing. Still, the real reason Electric Warrior stands the test of time so well -- despite its intended disposability -- is that it revels so freely in its own absurdity and willful lack of substance. Not taking himself at all seriously, Bolan is free to pursue whatever silly wordplay, cosmic fantasies, or non sequitur imagery he feels like; his abandonment of any pretense to art becomes, ironically, a statement in itself. Bolan's lack of pomposity, back-to-basics songwriting, and elaborate theatrics went on to influence everything from hard rock to punk to new wave. But in the end, it's that sense of playfulness, combined with a raft of irresistible hooks, that keeps Electric Warrior such an infectious, invigorating listen today.

Have fun
               Frank    Flac
                                    

Folk Rock by Susan Christie - Paint a Lady (1969) Flac

The material on this album, heard by few until it was issued on CD in the early 21st century, might have been built up as a little weirder than it is by some of the collectors who've raved about it. While it's not the most uplifting stuff in the world, much of it is haunting but not all that out-there pop-folk. Susan Christie's fairly strong, strident vocals and moody melodies, occasionally embellished by strings, aren't the most uncommercial mixture that could have been concocted, though apparently they were too uncommercial to find release when they were originally recorded. What is unusual -- and what sets it most apart from some singers she might bear the vaguest of resemblance to at times, like Melanie, Tim Buckley, Sandy Denny, and Bobbie Gentry -- are the unexpectedly forceful distorted guitars, near-hard rock organ, and angular rhythms and mild dissonance used in some of the arrangements.

In addition, for an eight-song, half-hour album, it's certainly unpredictable in the wide territory it covers -- "No One Can Hear You Cry," unlike anything else on the record, is close to sounding like a fine lost Dionne Warwick outtake, though even that gets set aside from the usual Bacharach/David production by the insertion of off-the-wall exotic tinkles of descending instrumental glissandos. If that's not odd enough in this company, there's also a cut, "When Love Comes," that's not too far off early Marianne Faithfull at her best. In contrast, "Yesterday, Where's My Mind?" is freaky at the outset, with its pummeling, tumbling drum breaks, creepy organ, and trippy ominous whisper-to-a-scream recitation, but even that track settles back into a relatively conventional song after three minutes. "For the Love of a Soldier" is another standout, managing to mix affecting antiwar folk-rock with a funky hard rock chorus quite effectively. Though Christie's not quite a major talent based on these relics, this is nicely dreamy and varied folk-rock for the most part that shows a lot of sadly unfulfilled potential, and if it's more downbeat than the norm for the genre, it's hardly gloomy.


This is a fine album with some unusual sounds for a ''folk album'. To me it's not really a pure folk album because there are a lot other influences who gives the album a very good sound. Give it a try, it's really worth it.
Cheers
           Frank  Flac
 

Canadian Power Pop: Moe Berg - Summer's Over (1997) mp3

If you don't know the name Moe Berg you will know for sure the band The Pursuit Of Happiness. Moe Berg was the singer, guitarist and songwriter of TPOH. This album by Moe Berg from 1997 is a very interesting sounding album and i like it very much. If you don't know you should give it a try.

Have fun
              Frank   mp3@320

T.Rex - The Slider (Repertoire 2000) 1972

Buoyed by two U.K. number one singles in "Telegram Sam" and "Metal Guru," The Slider became T. Rex's most popular record on both sides of the Atlantic, despite the fact that it produced no hits in the U.S. The Slider essentially replicates all the virtues of Electric Warrior, crammed with effortless hooks and trashy fun. All of Bolan's signatures are here -- mystical folk-tinged ballads, overt sexual come-ons crooned over sleazy, bopping boogies, loopy nonsense poetry, and a mastery of the three-minute pop song form. The main difference is that the trippy mix of Electric Warrior is replaced by a fuller, more immediate-sounding production. Bolan's guitar has a harder bite, the backing choruses are more up-front, and the arrangements are thicker-sounding, even introducing a string section on some cuts (both ballads and rockers).

Even with the beefier production, T. Rex still doesn't sound nearly as heavy as many of the bands it influenced (and even a few of its glam contemporaries), but that's partly intentional -- Bolan's love of a good groove takes precedence over fast tempos or high-volume crunch. Lyrically, Bolan's flair for the sublimely ridiculous is fully intact, but he has way too much style for The Slider to sound truly stupid, especially given the playful, knowing wink in his delivery. It's nearly impossible not to get caught up in the irresistible rush of melodies and cheery good times.

Even if it treads largely the same ground as Electric Warrior, The Slider is flawlessly executed, and every bit the classic that its predecessor is.(allmusic.com)

I don't know why T.Rex only impressed the little girls at the beginning of the seventies in the US and can't hit the charts but maybe one british invasion was enough for the US back then. On the old continent Marc Bolan was a real superstar for nearly five years before his fame began to fade. Not really to fade but the times of punk had begun and another sound ruled the charts.
Since the first days of glam i was a big fan and be it still today. My first single ever was ''Ride a white swan''. However, hope you will like it
Enjoy
         Frank  Flac  Limited till 2017-03-26

Lannie Flowers - Same Old Story (2008) Flac

Wow! 36 tunes in 40 minutes!?!? Not even The Ramones live show can match this! Lannie Flowers is a Texan popster, honing his skills ever since the late ’70s, fronting his own band The Pengwins, and working with the likes of Jim Dickinson and Rick Derringer, and now he comes up with what might be considered for a contemporary, and utterly original overview of whatever been happening on the (power) pop scene throughout the last four and a half decades.
The tracks flow into each other, sometimes even without you being able to notice it happen, with only one of them lasting over 2 minutes (most of them barely exceeding 1!!!), with an overload of hooks, tackling everything from mid’60s beat (with the B-bands and Zombies being referred to the most), through early ‘70s melodic crunch (Raspberries, Big Star) or late ‘70s/early’80s new wave (Elvis Costello, Squeeze), to ‘90s Britpop.
Days before I first listened to this, I was having a short chat about The Pretty Things with Lannie, and even though “the concept” as such wasn’t mentioned by none of us, S.F.Sorrow seems to be an obvious influence on how this whole thing is conceived.(2009 preview popdiggers.com)

36 tunes in 40 minutes? That made me curious, but if Lannie Flowers released a new album i was always curious and couldn't await the release. But that was a thing i never heard in Lannie Flowers albums........The album is wonderful. Great power pop full of melodies sweet as candy. Often on the album you don't notice the changes to the next song. It all is one big piece of music. Of sweet sweet music. If you like power pop you will love this album. Guaranteed.
Enjoy it,
              Frank   New Link
                                   Limited time till 2017-08-31

Michael Head And The Strands - The Magical World Of The Strands (1997) 2015 Flac

Michael Head, former frontman of the Pale Fountains and current co-leader along with his brother John -- who is also a Strand -- of Brit pop outfit Shack, turns in a stellar chamber pop performance with Magical World of the Strands. Head, who is no stranger to either classy, baroque pop or neo-psychedelia, has composed an album of gorgeously illustrated songs that are lushly orchestrated by a standard rock quartet augmented by a flutist (Leslie Roberts) and a string quartet. The result is an album that, while little known, is a classic, a masterpiece of modern chamber pop. Released in 1997, this disc walks the line between the deep, darkly expressionistic chamber work of the Tindersticks and the airy, classically augmented breeze-laden pop of Nick Drake à la Five Leaves Left -- long before the millennial obsession with the latter's work was revived due to a Volkswagen commercial. The disc's first two tracks, "Queen Matilda" and "Something Like You," are striking in their seductive, velvety tenderness. The ghost of Drake is everywhere, floating in and hovering above the strings. In the refrain to "Something Like You," one can even hear his voice in Head's phrasing. The difference, however, is in how Head composes lyrics: he's more economical; he merely illustrates the essence of what he's communicating--be it image or emotion--and leaves the listener to fill in the blanks. The other huge influence on Head and the Strands is Pentangle, with slippery modal folk and rock.

This music could have been recorded in the early '70s, but what it conveys is timeless. What reverberates through this album on every track is musical savvy. It's in the lyrical reverie of "X Hits the Spot," with jangling guitars and subtle backbeat. "It's Harvest Time," recalls Dave Cousins and Strawbs with open, ringing 12 strings, and piping, echoplexed flute. The electric-acoustic guitar tradeoff between Michael and James in "Fontilan," contains a melancholic theme inside a spacious mix colored by swelling strings. Throughout this gem showcases compositional class and an aesthetic sensibility at once artful yet completely accessible to anyone with an interest in well-written, -played, -produced, and -sung pop. (allmusic.com)

A wonderful album full of soft psychedelia. Great!
Enjoy!
          Frank  Flac  Limited till March, 25th, 2017

The Deep Six - The Deep Six 1966 (2003 Rev-Ola) Flac

From Southern California, this obscure five-man, one-woman pop-folk-rock group issued a self-titled album on Liberty in 1966. From the sounds of things (and the look of the group on the cover), they were a pop-oriented folk group hastily adapting to the folk-rock craze, with their white bread folk roots showing far more strongly than any newfound rock sensibilities. In this sense, as well as the all-over-the-place repertoire of the LP, they recalled the We Five, although they weren't as good and there was a glossier Los Angeles sheen to the production. The harmonies and their bent toward bittersweet melodies also bore some similarities to the Mamas & the Papas and the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, though they weren't even remotely the same league as the Mamas & the Papas and not nearly as rock-oriented as the Peanut Butter Conspiracy. Their best song, the original "Rising Sun," had an uncharacteristically gutsy fuzz guitar line, played as if the guitarist was afraid of burning fingers if the tone was sustained too long, and saw some regional airplay.

The Deep Six started out as a San Diego folk trio, evolving into a bigger folk-rockish band after they became the house band for the La Mesa folk club the Land of Oden, co-owned by their co-manager, Ken Mansfield. "Rising Sun," according to the liner notes to the expanded Rev-Ola CD reissue of Deep Six, included a young Jim Messina on guitar, and made number three in Los Angeles, where the group based themselves for part of their short career. Much of the music on their records (which, in addition to the LP, included a few non-LP singles) was played by top Hollywood session musicians, including Glen Campbell, Carol Kaye, Mike Deasy, Al Casey, Larry Knechtel, Ray Pohlman, and Barney Kessel; David Gates contributed some arranging. Neither the album nor the follow-up singles to "Rising Sun" sold well, and the group disbanded shortly afterward, with Barry Kane (who had been in the New Christy Minstrels and a duo with Barry McGuire) joining the lineup as the replacement for original member Dave Gray near the end.

After Deep Six, Ken Mansfield went on to work for Capitol Records and served as the first U.S. manager of Apple Records. Bassist Dann Lottermoser joined Stone Country, which did one album for RCA, and included noted country-rock singe/-songwriter Steve Young. The Deep Six album was reissued on CD, with all five of their non-LP songs added as bonus tracks, by Rev-Ola in 2003.(allmusic.com)
Enjoy
         Frank  Flac  Limited time! March, 25th, 2017

The Hooters - Hooterization (A Retrospective (1996) Flac

Hooterization is a single-disc collection featuring all seven of the Hooters' charting singles, plus neglected album tracks and other obscurities. Since the bulk of the Hooters' best material -- "And We Danced," "Day by Day," "All You Zombies," and "Where Do the Children Go" -- is on their Nervous Night debut album, Hooterization is useful only for those collectors and listeners who want a compilation for the sake of having a compilation. Hooterization is too long and filled with too many bland tracks to make a consistently entertaining listen, which is not the case of Nervous Night, since it is shorter and contains all the hits.

Certainly, Hooterization does a fine job of selecting the highlights from One Way Home and Zig Zag, but most casual fans will be satisfied with Nervous Night.(allmusic.com)

I can't agre with the review of allmusic. First ''Nervous Night'' don't contains all the charting hits of the band. Second is that on the collection here are some very interesting songs that are not on Nervous Night and are in my opinion no fillers. I have a lot of music and a lot of collections. Sure here are no ''obscure, deep from the vault, never released songs'' on it but good pop songs, an interesting live version of Lucy in the sky with diamonds and a live version of ''Time after time'' which is written originally by Hooters members. All in all a very good collection of the Hooters best work. If you like the Folk Pop/Pop Folk of the Hooters, here they are.
Have fun
               Frank  Flac   Limited Time March, 25, 2017

The Marbles - The Marbles 1970 (2003 Repertoire) mp3

The Marbles are well known to serious Bee Gees fans for covering a number of Bee Gees compositions, as well as being produced by Barry Gibb. Those expecting a sort of Bee Gees Jr., however, will be sorely disappointed by the Marbles' sole, eponymous album, even if five of the 12 tracks were penned by the Brothers Gibb. It's a far more blustery, orchestral brand of pop/rock than the relatively tender one mastered by the Bee Gees in the late '60s, even when they're doing some songs the Bee Gees themselves recorded back then (like "I Can't See Nobody" and "To Love Somebody").

Most blustery of all is Graham Bonnet's overbearing voice, which sounds a bit like a cross between Tom Jones and the Righteous Brothers, painting mental pictures of some tuxedoed guy sweating it out on the northern England cabaret circuit, his bulging neck muscles turning red with the effort. The pop and soul covers -- including "A House Is Not a Home," "Storybook Children," and "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" -- are rendered schmaltzy by both the vocals and arrangements.

The Marbles' few attempts at their own songwriting (numbering only three) are better though not great, convincingly emulating the bittersweet aspects of the early Bee Gees, though sometimes with even more ornate orchestration than the Bee Gees employed. It's of most interest to Bee Gees fans, though, for the inclusion of three Brothers Gibb compositions the Bee Gees didn't record at the time on their own records: "Only One Woman" (a number five British hit), "The Walls Fell Down," and "By the Light of a Burning Candle." They're characteristic of the Bee Gees' late-'60s style, but given such a bombastic treatment that you can't help wishing that the Bee Gees had done them instead. The 2003 CD reissue on Repertoire adds six bonus tracks, including mono single versions of four tracks from the LP and two 1969 B-sides.

Graham Bonnet shows here also what a great singer he is. The album is a mix of pop, soul, Bee Gees style and Righteous Brothers influences. It's like the reviewer describes the album. If you like this kind of music you are right here. To me it's a three stars out of five album.
Enjoy!
           Frank    mp3@320

Every Mother's Son - Come On Down The Complete MGM Recordings (2012) Flac

The typically nonsensical 1960s liner notes to this self-titled debut do mention that Dennis Larden and Larry Larden of Every Mother's Son were folk singers and met keyboardist Bruce Milner in Greenwich Village. But their Wes Farrell produced album has them looking more like a Monkees outtake than serious folkies, and their Farrell/Goldstein composed leadoff track, "Come and Take a Ride in My Boat," would hit the Top Ten in May of 1967, re-titled "Come on Down to My Boat." The two brothers certainly can sing, and they take the melody almost as far as Jay & The Americans did in 1964 with Farrell's "Come a Little Bit Closer." The focus of the big single is missing on the album, though, especially on "Allison Dozer," which sounds like a bad marriage between the Kinks' Kink Kontroversy and More of the Monkees -- with "Your Aunty Grizelda" beating up on "Till the End of the Day."

The one co-write by keyboardist Milner and Dennis Larden -- "Ain't No Use" -- is a nice slice of flower power on an album that simply doesn't know what it wants to be. Spanky & Our Gang could have covered "Come on Queenie," as could Tony Orlando & Dawn, but the musical experiments fail to identify with the red white and blue "all American boy" lettering on the front. Drummer Christopher Augustine seen reading Playboy Magazine on the back cover is more of an indication of image in turmoil. Had they stayed true to their folk/rock roots, the disc might have been a pleasant shocker to people picking up on it for the bright, sunshine pop hit single which starts things off.

The first song on Side Two, "Ain't It a Drag," sounds like Michael Nesmith & Company by way of Greenwich Village, but it totally fails to register the way "Come on Down to My Boat" does. The hit has bounce with a great keyboard intro and guitar hook that promises -- and delivers. The exuberant "make you happy in my little red boat" vibe is found only in the song that gave them a name. True one-hit wonders on a curious album of mild interest for '60s pop fans.

Different influences from musical pop styles who played a prominent role in the sixties you can hear in the work of Every Mother's son. To me they were a fine pop band and more than just a one hit wonder band. If you like it grab it and have fun.
Cheers
           Frank   New Link

Curt Boetcher - There's An Innocent Face 1972 (2002) Flac

A strange release from the much-loved producer and composer which sees him finding a place that mixes up varying degrees of soft rock, country-pop, and doo wop into a fine, if a bit uneven, listen. The best track on the album is "I Love You More Each Day," with its folk strumming and '70s melodic pop approach. Unsurprisingly, this song is one of the three tracks Boettcher is listed as actually having written on the album. To be sure, there is no shortage of the multi-layered harmonies Boettcher is renowned for. The strongest aspects of the record involve his distinctly sweet vocal approach and the thick harmonies. Other tracks, like "Such a Lady," focus on mid-tempo country-rock. Another track manages to briefly segue into Frankie Lymon's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love." Gary Usher is given an executive producer credit on the album and the musicianship is top-notch due to key studio players like Red Rhodes helping out. The adherence to country-rock and early-'70s AOR-type ballads might scare away some fans who know him mostly for his light psychedelia, but certainly for the diligent there are some fine songs to be found on this release.

To write the artist's name with only one ''T'' in Boetcher is no mistake, it is written on the cover in this way. This is really a very good Curt Boettcher album (i know i'm a big fan...) from 1972. It is not sixties pop psychedelia, but maybe this is one reason why you (and me) still better can see how good this guy really as a musician were. Great songs (three) by Boettcher and an great interpreter of an very american sounding album. Wufferton Frog is real funny.

A really good album but like i said(and the reviewer) this is no sixties Boettcher style.
Have fun
               Frank   Flac

NEW LINK! The Happenings - The Happenings('66) - Psycle('67) (2003 Rhino) Flac

Hello Friends, some people here asked for a new link for ''The Happenings - The Happenings ('66) & Psycle ('67) (2003Rhino) Flac''. I added a second link in the post here on the blog.
Enjoy
         Frank