The Move - Shazam - Full album

1 Hello Susie
2 Beautiful Daughter 
3 Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited  
4 Fields of People 
5 Don't Make My Baby Blue 
6 The Last Thing on My Mind

Very few Americans have ever heard of The Move unless they found themselves bored enough to dig deep into the liner notes for one of the Electric Light Orchestra’s commercial successes and learned that Jeff Lynne and drummer Bev Bevan were ex-members. Lynne was a johnny-come-lately, however, and did not appear on Shazam, a forgotten masterwork originally designed to properly introduce this long-popular-in-the-mother-country British band to the colonies, courtesy of A&M Records.
Things didn’t work out as planned. A&M was out of its league when it came to promoting rock bands (the “A” stands for Herb Alpert, for chrissake), and arranged a comically disastrous tour that required the band the lug their stuff around the USA in a U-Haul trailer. Creative and personal tensions between band members didn’t make things any easier. When the rubble had cleared, however, what survived was Shazam, one of the most fascinating rock recordings ever made.
The album has been buried for years, and I only vaguely remember hearing parts of it while growing up. I rediscovered it accidentally while browsing through iTunes and tracked down an extraordinarily expensive import CD version for my collection. I fell in love with it on the first listen, knocked out by Bevan’s drumming, the sheer diversity captured in a mere six songs, the intense riffs, the gorgeous harmonies and the great good fun captured in random street interviews and band chatter.
The album explodes with the no-bullshit guitar and pounding drums of “Hello, Suzie,” the story of a ditzy British teenybopper featuring an introduction that almost forces you out of your seat. Roy Wood growls out the lead vocal with good humor and strong support in the form of a thrilling backdrop of harmonies that come together with a huge exclamation point at the end of the bridge. I keep praying that somewhere out there a band will cover this sucker and use it as an opening number for a gig, as I’d love to see this done live with the same great energy as the original.
After a short interview with some native Brits, Carl Wayne steps to the microphone for the lovely and bouncy string piece, “Beautiful Daughter,” delivered in a perfect combination of romantic sincerity tempered by a touch of tongue-in-cheek and supported by the energetic strings that would later characterize early ELO recordings.
Then... a door creaks... footsteps...the door closes... and we hear a diffident voice narrating the story of how he would up going off his HEAD! The band explodes with heavy bass, drums, the works! This is “Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited,” a high-power remake of one of their earlier songs, and a delightfully wacky remake it is. The heaviness fades into acoustic guitar playing Bach, no less, and ends with an over-the-edge falsetto picking up the tune and eventually blending into layers of perfectly executed harmonies.
Next comes the delightfully free-flowing “Fields of People,” spiced with chit-chat with passers-by, plenty of laughter, more gorgeous harmonies and one of the great drum rolls in history. Bev Bevan knocks me out on every song, and whenever I hear ELO today, I generally tune out the band and ride out the song with Bev. The song is an unusual combination of great fun and well-executed shifts that make for an entirely engaging listening experience.
The Move then go heavy-bluesy with their cover of “Don’t Make My Baby Blue,” which gives Carl Wayne a great opportunity to apply his naturally melodic voice to something with more oomph. The tone of the guitar anticipates the heavier sound common in 70’s rock, and the bass and drums provide an unusually strong bottom for a Move song (pre-Shazam Move tended towards baroque pop). Despite the variation from the norm, this is a strong performance that makes you wish The Move had gotten their shit together and explored the new possibilities suggested by this piece. Alas, they opted for a rebuild, and their follow-up album, Looking On, is a godawful mess (though I have always been rather fond of the song “Brontosaurus”).
Shazam ends with a long and again heavy cover of Tom Paxton’s classic, “The Last Thing on My Mind.” The Move’s version is nothing like the mildly pleasant folk original, with big guitars and pounding rhythms leading the way. Wayne does a superb job with the vocals and Roy Wood’s harmonies are dead-on, providing a beautifully sweet wrap to end this most unusual album.  From: https://altrockchick.com/2012/05/02/classic-music-reviews-shazam-by-the-move/

Mitsoura - Pala Late

Six years after the self-titled debut of the band around Hungarian singer Mitsu, Mitsoura deliver their second album. Was it worth the wait? Indeed it was. As it turns out the intriguing mix of traditional lyrics and music with modern arrangements that was already present on their debut was only a preview of what the new album has in store. Connecting original Roma lyrics from Hungary, Romania, Serbia and even Egypt with modern (electronic) music seems nice on paper but, as we have seen in the past, can turn out completely wrong. Not so with Mitsoura who display the ability to create a whole new musical genre on their own. You will recognise influences from Nordic groups like Mari Boine and Värtinna, gypsy brass band music but also modern electronic music that we hear from artists like Mercan Dede or Transglobal Underground. Even fans of Lisa Gerard and Dead Can Dance will find strands back. The sum of all this is not a copy but a highly original musical approach. Of course the typical voice of Mitsu is the centre point but the contribution of Andras Monori (a.o. bansuri, sax and sitar), Peter Szalai (percussion) and Miklos Lukacz (cymbals) is substantial. To top it off the modern twist comes from the programming of Mark Moldvai. ‘Dura Dura Dura’ is a diverse musical journey around Eastern Europe. From the epic titletrack to the hotblooded ‘Tutti Frutti’, from the stomping ‘Kelushka’ to the powerballad ‘Ederlezi’, from the raga influenced ‘Pala late’ to the introvert closing track ‘Le shavore’.  From: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/mitsoura/dura-dura-dura/ 

The Temptations - I Know I'm Losing You

In this dramatic offering from The Temptations, David Ruffin gives voice to an anguished man who's losing his girl to someone else. Motown hitmakers Eddie Holland, of the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team, and Norman Whitfield wrote the tune, along with guitarist Cornelius Grant, whose searing guitar hook opens the track. 
According to Temptations founder Otis Williams, Holland's lyrics often tapped into a female sensibility that translated into hits. "We knew that women love to hear guys pleading, begging, confessing, and basically admitting they'd made mistakes," he wrote in his 1988 autobiography, Temptations. "After all, it works so well in real life."
Whitfield took up the mantle as The Temptations' primary songwriter and producer from Smokey Robinson after "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" - another co-write with Eddie Holland - hit big earlier in 1966.
The Temptations had a lock on the R&B chart for 16 weeks in 1966 with four consecutive singles reaching the apex, the last being "(I Know) I'm Losing You," which held the top spot for two weeks starting on Christmas Eve. The lead single from the group's fifth studio album, The Temptations With A Lot O' Soul, it also reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Motown rock band Rare Earth recorded a 10-minute version for their 1970 album, Ecology. Also produced by Whitfield, the funky psychedelic-rock cover was edited for a single release and peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 - one spot higher than The Temptations' original. Another Whitfield act, The Undisputed Truth, recorded a psychedelic-funk rendition for their 1975 album, Cosmic Truth. 
Rod Stewart recorded this for his breakthrough Every Picture Tells A Story album in 1971. Stewart told Rolling Stone that he and David Ruffin later became friends when both of their bands played in Detroit.  "Ruffin would come to every show and we'd sing '(I Know) I'm Losing You,'" he recalled in a 2004 essay for the magazine. "His voice was so powerful - like a foghorn on the Queen Mary. He was so loud."  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-temptations/i-know-im-losing-you

Old Blood - Glowplug

Old Blood’s music has been called a number of things recently. As the band blend Doom, Psych, Stoner with a creepy Psychedelic Acid effect. Their S/T debut album is one I’ve been looking forward to for the past few months. Now it’s finally here. Fans of Black Sabbath, Pentagram and Uncle Acid will find much to enjoy here. The band’s main strength has to be their lead vocalist – Feathers – as she can sure hold a note to give Old Blood such a soulful groove.
Opening track Wolves is a creepy occult based number with twinges of murky blues rock that firmly remains in the Psychedelic Doom world. The lyrics have quite a playful vibe as they match the sultry tones coming from Feathers. If you’re here for the riffs then Old Blood have that area covered. As the music contains a heavy amount of different styles with an acid-style Fuzz based quality.
Second track Glowplug runs for an epic eight minutes as the band start to broaden their musical horizons. Classic Doom based noises are mixed with a more modern day Occult based sound. The band takes their time in creating a psychedelic Uncle Acid style atmosphere. Though they still create their own sound. Feathers vocals are a mixture of hollow earthly blues sounds and the heavier occult doom vibes when the band play a heavier kind of Doom/Stoner Metal.  From: https://outlawsofthesun.blogspot.com/2016/08/old-blood-st-album-review.html

Myrth - Don't Pity The Man

Myrth’s 1969 self titled album is their only release. This killer album is a something of a beloved if little known release from this Phoenix, Arizona band. It’s somewhat in the vein of brassy jazz rock bands such as Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears. Myrth also have different sides to their musical personality too which make this a standout. No sour notes here. My favorites are the sunny and melodic pieces “Gotta Find A Way”, “He Don’t Know” and “We Got To Stand Together”, along with the deeply funky “Myrtholate” and the more psychedelic soul cousin to it in “Mythadrine”, not to mention the more abstract psychedelia of “Shed My Skin”.  From: https://www.facebook.com/groups/359479891287024/posts/1558552544713080/ 

Meer - Something In The Water

I adore Meer. There’s something very warming about listening to them, for all that they lean melancholy rather than saccharine. Best described as symphonic/progressive pop and/or rock, their music is lushly textured, drenched in strings, and emotive, often reaching for a soaring crescendo. Meer’s previous album Playing House narrowly missed the top spot in my 2021 list. In hindsight, it should probably have taken it.
The good news is they haven’t broken anything that made Playing House great. I mentioned in my TYMHM piece that Meer has a sound: a sparse melody on piano or guitar, some strings join, a fragile vocal line, and a build of all of those up to a great big soaring payoff. That’s still present and correct in Wheels Within Wheels, and it even opens with a brief string motif that’s a deliberate callback to the previous record before setting off in its own direction. The even better news is that the writing outshines Playing House. Nearly every song is a banger. The big, catchy vocal lines are really big. “Golden Circle,” “To What End” and more are super satisfying to sing along to. They play with the instrumentation and writing a bit more. There’s more of a dalliance with rock, with more distorted guitar, a spot of slide guitar here and there, and solos on “Chains of Changes” and “Today Tonight Tomorrow.” Closing track “This Is the End” goes actively post-rock, with heavier instrumentation, an unsettling key, and a more complex, extended song structure.
Meer is an ensemble, not just a band, and the (very many) musicians here are great. They succeed by combining all the moving parts with a sense of orchestration that would make most symphonic metal bands blush. They’re confident across the whole range of styles they touch, from sparse to bombastic. Still, Wheels Within Wheels is never too busy, allowing listeners to pick out the details. There’s a bass bit I love on “Something in the Water,” some pretty viola on “Take Me to the River,” or the piano on “Today Tonight Tomorrow.” Yes, I’m writing for a metal website, but I really enjoy some songs being more rock and guitar-forward (“Golden Circle,” among others). I’m inclined towards having opinions on vocalists and often feel slightly bad about not having space to say as much about, say, Åsa Ree on violin. But Meer’s two vocalists and lyricists, brother/sister duo Knut and Johanne Nesdal1 are brilliant. They carry the emotional heart of the music, trading lead vocal roles and duets, from the tender and fragile to the big, belted choruses.  From: https://www.angrymetalguy.com/meer-wheels-within-wheels-review/ 

Little Feat - Easy To Slip

An early Little Feat song, "Easy To Slip" was written by the band's guitarist/singer Lowell George and his frequent writing collaborator Martin Kibbee. Kibbee had the original idea, then played it for George, who added the guitar part. It's one of those upbeat-sounding songs with lyrics that reveal dread and despair, with Lowell George singing about the good things that have slipped away, leaving him alone in a world gone cold. According to Kibbee, he wrote the song after his wife left him, which inspired the lyric.
Little Feat was angling for a hit with this song, keeping it lively with a compact production by Ted Templeman, who produced the Doobie Brothers album Toulouse Street that same year - 1972. "Easy To Slip" was issued as a single from Little Feat's second album, Sailin' Shoes. They won over critics with their self-titled 1971 debut album, especially with the song "Willin'," but it didn't translate to much radio play or sales. Sailin' Shoes faced a similar fate when "Easy To Slip" failed to chart. Their label, Warner Bros., stuck with the band and did reap some rewards down the road when their 1978 live album, Waiting For Columbus, went Platinum, but Little Feat never grew the huge audience many expected and remain one of those hidden gems in a pile of '70s rock. Group leader Lowell George is a tragic figure: Drug use and poor lifestyle choices led to a heart attack in 1979 that killed him at age 34. The band returned to action in 1987, with keyboard player Bill Payne remaining the only constant member. 
The song's writers, Martin Kibbee and Lowell George, started their own publishing company around this time called Naked Snake Music because they had lost the rights to their earlier songs. Pre-Little Feat, Kibbee and George were in a band together called The Factory.
Martin Kibbee was often credited, including on this song, as Fred Martin. This meant that the writing credit would go to "George/Martin." George Martin was the producer for The Beatles and this was their way to pay tribute to him.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/little-feat/easy-to-slip

MediaBanda - Dr. Vertical

MediaBanda's name is in homage to the memory of Jaime Vivanco. This was the name of the first group where he began playing keyboards with Willy Valenzuela (drummer) and Cristian Crisosto (flute & reeds) between 1979 and 1981. In 1984 , together with Arlette Jequier (vocals), Jorge Campos (bass) and Jaime Vasquez (woodwinds), they formed Fulano, a rock-jazz, fusion, avant-garde/rock in opposition chilean group. The band went on to play for eighteen years (1985- 2003).
MediaBanda has an intent of continuity, renewal, and a link between two generations of musicians. Those who lived the years without democracy, and those who don't have that burden in their memories. The result is a solid proposal, fruit of the union of experience and young ideas
The group develops a multi-style tendency, going from chromatic cumbias to rumbas, passing through jazz, pop, atonal music, reggae, instrumental music and rock. This versatility is possible due to the musical studies of its members. 
The lyrics situate the band in the national reality with a critic and constructive perspective, they are definitely not the kind of "boy meets girl" songs. They are stories related to our reality as a nation, as citizens of a merging, dichotomic, adolescent & bipolar country. The issues of our society are portrayed in the theme's names ("Chilean Wiken Again", the "Peligrosos Disfrazados"(Dangerous in Disguise), the "Jale, Copete y Pucho"(Coke, Booze & Smokes), adding irony and humour to a music full of difficult passages and changing atmospheres.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2350

The Mighty Orchid King - Clouds

Would you like to talk a bit about your background? What bands were members part of before and how did it all collide to start The Mighty Orchid King?

We’ve often described ourselves as a collective and the cast of musicians from one record to the next tends to change quite a lot. On this album we had the original trio of Jonny (vocals, drums & guitar) Martin (guitar & vocals) and Pete (trumpet & vocals). We all went to school together and back then we just jammed for about 5 years without ever making any songs. Also on this record we have Marcelo on bass and sax who has a “cinematic-rock” band called The Vone, Michael on guitar who has a “cow-fi” project called Symbol Soup, and Ian who plays cello and is in a band called Vipera. Will is our in-house engineer/wizard and also played some keys and sang some BVs on the record.

How would you present some of the main influences? What in particular influenced you by certain artists?

A few years ago we decided to perform The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ medley live to mark the 50th anniversary of the record. It was joyous bringing that psychedelic symphony to life and we got such a thrill out of sharing our vocal duties and trying to really jump into the crazy characters on those songs. That certainly felt like the seeds for what we ended up creating on our new record. We wanted to make something that jumps around a lot but is cohesive and segued.
More recent examples like King Gizzard’s ‘I’m In Your Mind Fuzz’ and ‘Nonagon Infinity’ were touchstones too as well as any live performance by White Denim (although we’ve long given up on coming close to their virtuosity!) We’ve been listening to a lot of Yes and are very drawn to the grand symphonic scale of their work. The Beach Boys are a constant influence from a vocal perspective but I think the sketch-like nature of some of the album was a specific nod to the ‘SMiLE’ record.
There were also bands / voices we tried to emulate on specific moments of the record to try and match the vibe of a character. We listened to a lot of The Doors throughout the composition of the record, and loved the idea of Reynard The Fox being voiced by either Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop or Mark Lanegan.

From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2022/12/the-mighty-orchid-king-interview-new-album-mycelium-music-volume-i-pinedemonium-awakes.html

Mary Jane - Wherever She Goes

Mary Jane hail from Southampton. The summer of 1995 saw both the release of the debut EP on 7" and the recording of the first album Hazy Days. Having secured deals in Germany the band spent their first 10 years better known on the European market rather than the UK. November 2010 and Talking Elephant released Eve and later a collection of their past music in the form of Brigits Daughter. Since then they have played more and more at festivals across the UK and Europe and are set for many festivals in 2014 playing music from Solstice. Lead singer Jo Quinn evokes memories of Annie Haslam of Renaissance as her soprano soars high on rocking original songs that often have a slightly medieval feel.  From: https://www.ebay.com/itm/236058606749 

Bad Company - Do Right By Your Woman / Silver, Blue & Gold / Run With The Pack

It could be said that the story of Bad Company began with a bang – the neck-snapping sound of those titanic drums coming in on Can’t Get Enough signalling the start of a band that sprang, fully formed, like a greyhound out of a trap. In reality the band’s origins were far from simple. “Oh, that’s a good question,” Ralphs says now, speaking from his home in Henley in the run-up to Mott’s own recent reformation. “I was unhappy in Mott, but I don’t think I would have just left without something else to do, no.”
And what of vocalist Paul Rodgers? After his short-lived foray with Peace, Free reconvened. But Rodgers became wrung out by the experience of trying to hold the band together with a guitarist, Paul Kossoff, whose drug problems would lead to his death. In fact, Rodgers had been planning a solo album before Ralphs happened to play him a demo of a song called Can’t Get Enough that he’d written for Mott, but which vocalist Ian Hunter had rejected on the – understandable – grounds that he couldn’t sing it. Rodgers is still incredulous at the memory. “I said: ‘Well, you give it to me and I’ll do it’.” Even then, Ralphs says, “we weren’t really planning on having a band, we were just talking about recording some songs together. Then Simon [Kirke] turned up and started playing and that was it.”
Free drummer Kirke was another victim of the post-Kossoff fall-out. “It was a huge release when Free broke up,” he says now. With Kirke at one point even having to show Koss the chords to All Right Now before a gig at the Albert Hall because the guitarist was so damaged by downers he could no longer recall his own band’s greatest hit, Bad Company was “enough already. Let’s have some fun.”
Speaking from his home in Connecticut, Kirke recalls how “you couldn’t have been further away from Paul Kossoff than Mick Ralphs. I wasn’t interested in any more geniuses. Mick drank – of course he drank, he was from Hereford! – but he was great fun. And he brought Rodgers out of his shell. By the end of Free, Paul had his back to the audience, he didn’t want to know. Then Ralphs came along with his Max Wall impressions and the whole thing changed – and for the better. Paul really blossomed with Mick.”
Built on the ruins of Free, what Ralphs is less ready to admit today is that the beginning of Bad Company also spelled the end of Mott The Hoople. Ariel Bender and then Mick Ronson joined the band on guitar; ‘Ronno’ teamed up with Ian Hunter; the Hunterless band continued as plain ol’ Mott… it was never quite the same.
A surprisingly self-effacing chap in person, with a nicely lilting West Country accent, Ralphs insists: “I would never have dumped them in it.” He likens his early meetings with Rodgers as “like being married [to Mott] and having a bit on the side”. Not because it was a secret, he says, but because he couldn’t wait to leave Mott. “I told Paul: ‘We’ve got to finish off this album [Mott] and then we’ve got to do this American tour that was already planned’. Paul said: ‘That’s fair enough. I’ll wait for you to get back’.”
For Ralphs, the music of Mott, the incoming kings of glam rock, had become too stylised. “I wanted something more bluesy, more simplistic, more earthy” – phrases that would sum up Bad Company to a tee. The antidote to the glitter overkill that Mott – along with their mentor, David Bowie – now personified, Bad Company would be the defiantly unprogressive rockers who played it straight down the line, their music influenced more by blues and soul than by passing trends.
Other pieces of the jigsaw “just fell into place”. Beginning with the band’s name. “I already had the song Bad Company,” Rodgers explains, chatting down the line from his lakeside Canadian home. “And I thought it would be kind of a first for the band to have its own song theme.” When he phoned Ralphs and suggested Bad Company as the band’s name, “he dropped the phone! We both said: ‘That’s it!’. Names are so important. They’re really the war flag under which you fly.”
The title was inspired by the 1972 American Civil War movie Bad Company about two young men who escape the draft by becoming outlaws – an allegory for a generation of hippies then in fear of being drafted to Vietnam – which was billed as the first ‘acid western’.
“The record company felt it was a dangerous name – too over-the-top. I explained it wasn’t about being as evil as we can or anything of that nature. I meant it in terms of the early settlers; the real, gritty toughness of it… It was really the law of survival, and that’s the kind of essence of that song. But there was a tender side, too, an emotional side. Those people would look at the wonders of the land they were in, and be moved by it. So you could open out musically.”
Or they would once they had a bass player. Enter former The Boz People singer and, later, novice King Crimson bassist, Raymond ‘Boz’ Burrell. “He was playing a fretless bass, but I doubt if he’d been playing it more than a year,” Kirke chuckles. “Robert Fripp had just shown him the basics. But he came in and he looked great; good-looking guy, beard, fringe jacket. Mick said: ‘We’re gonna do Little Miss Fortune, it starts in G…’. Boz said: ‘Just give me the key, I’ll figure it out’. And he played it bloody well! We said: ‘Do you want the job?’ He said: ‘Yeah, all right’.”
Band name and musical direction sorted, next on their ‘to do’ list was get a manager and a record deal. As chance would have it they got both of those in one, over-large package called Peter Grant, the Led Zeppelin manager then overseeing the launch of Zeppelin’s own record label, Swan Song. Rodgers was encouraged to phone Grant by former Free tour manager Clive Coulson, who was now working for Zeppelin. Like Kirke, Rodgers does an amusingly accurate impersonation of Grant’s famously nasal voice.
“He said: ‘Yes, I know about you. I’m interested.’ I explained it wasn’t just me, it was a band, and he went: ‘Hmm, I see…’.” Grant agreed to go along to the Surrey village hall where they were rehearsing. Kirke tells the story of the band waiting all afternoon for him to show up. Then, just as they’d given up hope, he strolled in. “We were so pleased. We said: ‘Hello, Mr Grant. Welcome. We’ll run through the set’. He said: ‘Don’t bother, I’ve heard it’. He said: ‘I knew you’d probably be a bit nervous so I just stayed out of the way’. He’d been sitting in the Porsche, having a ciggie, listening through the wall. That was the first inkling we had that this guy was something special. Because he had quite a reputation, and we were nervous. He said: ‘I think you’re great. Would you like to be on Swan Song?’.”
The rest, as they say, is history – though not always as it’s been written over the years. As Kirke acknowledges, the received wisdom now is that “we had Peter Grant and Led Zeppelin behind us; we couldn’t fail”. Things are never that easy, though, as any of the other half-dozen acts signed to Swan Song over the next two years – not one of whom enjoyed the level of success Bad Company did – would doubtless testify.  From: https://www.loudersound.com/features/bad-company-the-bad-old-days

Aux Couleurs Du Moyen Age - Ut Queant Laxis

For nearly 25 years, the group "Aux Couleurs du Moyen Age" has been touring medieval France. In the early days of this "honorable" company, music was just one of the assets of their dynamic and festive performances, which combined fanfares, revisited ancient songs, folk dances, juggling, fables, and chivalrous combat… However, it was the musical aspect of these performances that quickly attracted public attention, and from the very first year, their success was phenomenal. The group was invited to the biggest festivals and events in France, such as the 800th anniversary of Chartres Cathedral, the "Jeanne Hachette" festivities in Bayeux, the Grand Fauconnier festival in Cordes-sur-Ciel, the Remparts festival in Dinan, the Roi de l'Oiseau festival in Le Puy-en-Velay, Provins, a French casino, and many more. From 1996-1997 onwards, various groups of young musicians followed in their footsteps: this marked the beginning of the renaissance of medieval festivals in France. Today, without nostalgia or a backward-looking approach, the group "Aux Couleurs du Moyen Age" is primarily dedicated to music from the 12th to the 16th centuries, while also drawing on traditional repertoires closer to our time (Sephardic romances, Breton hymns, dance tunes from Europe and the Mediterranean basin). The large number of ancient instruments used for each concert program, thus offering a variety of unique soundscapes, the fervor and freedom of expression with which the artists invest themselves in their interpretations of the music, songs, and dances, and finally, the costumes, a true touch of deliberate artistry, make each "Couleurs" concert a captivating musical and poetic journey.  Translated from: https://www.couleurs-moyen-age.com/ 

King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man / I Talk To The Wind / The Court Of The Crimson King

21st Century Schizoid Man

In the Court of the Crimson King starts with a terrifying introduction for those unfamiliar with King Crimson’s musicality or progressive rock. In fact, it’s a punch in the gut. Obviously, nothing on this album came from a creative vacuum—the influence of Sgt. Pepper’s on this track is notable. The band members made it clear — King Crimson wouldn’t have existed without The Beatles. The dissonance and sound collages, for example, are strikingly similar to ‘A Day In The Life.’ I think the most incredible thing about this song is the polyrhythmic sections. It’s quite difficult for musicians to execute this as well as it’s done on this track. ‘A Love Supreme’ (1965) by John Coltrane was also a starting point when it comes to harmonic exploration, which evidently influenced many bands during this period.
What I find particularly fascinating and unmatched is how classical music was utilized. In this track, for example, chromaticism and dissonance are clear influences from contemporary musicians such as Edgard Varèse and Bartók (I intend to write an article about Bartók later on). Greg Lake and Robert Fripp are self-proclaimed fans of the genre, and they incorporated classical music into their later works.
The parameters of progressive rock were established right at the beginning of this album. It was evident — the polyrhythms and dissonance became defining criteria for what was to come, along with elements of jazz fusion and classical music. 21st Century Schizoid Man is, in my view, a great summary of progressive rock.
However, an album of this magnitude brought influence beyond progressive rock. I often ask myself if industrial music would exist without In The Court of The Crimson King, for example. When I listen to Nine Inch Nails, the muffled and distorted vocals clearly remind me of this track. Other tracks outside of prog that I could mention include War Pigs (Black Sabbath, 1970) and Bleak (Opeth, 2001). There is much debate over what truly defined progressive metal — and while the album Red solidified this, I believe the ideas were already laid out in this track.

I Talk To The Wind

At the end of the first track, the anxiety and guttural despair are muffled by a melancholic and hopeless sound. I Talk to the Wind is sad, and filled with morbidity. “The wind does not hear” gives us the idea that death might be the best solution for a soul troubled by pain. The comfort of eternal rest is not a fatalistic idea, but rather beautiful and comforting for the character embedded in the album. Here, I find it interesting to highlight something. Being a fan of medieval music, I see a very clear influence here. The medieval revival was already evident in the music and fashion of the late ’60s, but here it is represented in a distinct, more complex way. The harmony is quite modal, not strictly following the chord patterns of Western music. Here, the influence of folk and classical music is clearly evoked.
Lamento di Tristano (Minno Amor, Cantiga 29) by the 14th-century musician Carlos Magraner reminds me of this track. La harpe de mélodie by Jacob de Senleches also clearly comes to mind. As a fan of the medieval revival music of the ’70s, I believe this track was an essential influence on later works by bands like Steeleye Span, Midwinter, Forest, and Spirogyra, which evidently became a significant influence on post-rock and shoegaze, for instance.

The Court Of The Crimson King

The Tyger (1794), by William Blake, questions the duality of divinity. How could God, so perfect in His mercy, create the Lamb of God — and, on the other hand, create evil? How can something so perfect also create something so destructive? After all, what is His true nature?
The Court of The Crimson King is Peter Sinfield’s great masterpiece. Here, we witness the grand farewell of the work. Indeed, the entire piece is steeped in theology and mysticism, somberly and gloomily, contrasting with the mysticism bathed in positivity that emerged in the ’60s. The album’s farewell, marked by this track, also unintentionally marks the farewell of the hippie generation. The poetry, characterized by a medieval aesthetic but with deep roots in Romantic literature, is implicitly filled with layers of criticism and anguish about a period full of wars and conflicts, especially the Vietnam War and the Cold War. “One soft morning windows cry, the wise men share a joke” made that quite evident.

The keeper of the city keys
Put shutters on the dreams
I wait outside the pilgrim’s door
With insufficient schemes
The black queen chants the funeral march
The cracked brass bells will ring
To summon back the fire witch

“I wait outside the pilgrim’s door with insufficient schemes” is, like Blake’s poetry, a question about the very nature of the divine. If Blake’s work questions His morality, in this track the lyrical voice questions the very nature of its salvation. What must we bargain for?
 Relayer (Yes, 1974) and Turn of the Century (Yes, 1977) are examples that I believe continue Sinfield’s magnificent work, combining baroque poetry and protest within the musicality of progressive rock. King Crimson made it possible for young writers, not afraid of embellishment and exaggeration, the liberty to speak and replicate their passion through rock music.

From: https://rocknheavy.net/in-the-court-of-the-crimson-king-a-historical-analysis-0bbe3f59f78a

Vanishing Twin - Pensiero Magico - 2021 Concert Film

 Vanishing Twin - Pensiero Magico - 2021 Concert Film - Part 1

 

 Vanishing Twin - Pensiero Magico - 2021 Concert Film - Part 2

 

This is a concert film and live album from one of my very favorite bands, psychedelic pop legends Vanishing Twin. It’s excellent as a watch or a listen with the theatrics and the raw musicianship both being top notch. The version of the band documented here consist of the incredible rhythm section of Valentina and Zongamin aka V/Z, one of the most psychedelic songwriters and talented vocalists in the business Cathy Lucas, and the synth experimentalist Phil MFU (who has since departed the group.)
This film, musically and visually, is one of the finest live sessions of the 2020s. The prodigious band is costume clad and filmed in black and white. The direction accents the otherworldly songs and doubles down on the feeling of mystery and possibility contained in the music. The songwriting and the instrumental virtuosity are given equal attention across the set. It’s a performance with a real musical and psychic weight to it that highlights the way cinematic and experimental kinds of music can perfectly soundtrack the inherently strange and epic experience of being a conscious living being.  From: https://thelastpsychedelic.blog/2025/09/08/vanishing-twin-pensiero-magico-live-2020/

 

The Animals - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood / We Gotta Get Out Of This Place

 The Animals - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

 

 The Animals - We Gotta Get Out Of This Place

 

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood was written by Horace Ott, Bennie Benjamin and Sol Marcus. Benjamin and Marcus were a songwriting team that had been working together since the '40s; their compositions include "Lonely Man" by Elvis Presley and "Fabulous Character" by Sarah Vaughan. Ott is an arranger who worked on tracks for Nat King Cole and Aretha Franklin, and later gave life to most of the Village People's material - you can thank him for those horn lines on "Y.M.C.A."
Ott started writing the song after getting in a heated argument with Gloria Caldwell, whom he had recently married. Sitting down at the piano, he expressed in song how he was well intentioned, but misunderstood by his wife - a sentiment many married men could relate to.
Gloria Caldwell is listed on the credit instead of Ott because of contractual issues. She learned to understand him: the couple stayed together.
Nina Simone was the first to record this song, releasing an orchestrated, downtempo rendition on her 1964 album Broadway-Blues-Ballads that nicked the US chart at #131. The best-known version is by The Animals, who reworked it into a rock song. Eric Burdon recalled in Rolling Stone magazine, "It was never considered pop material, but it somehow got passed on to us and we fell in love with it immediately."
In our 2010 interview with Eric Burdon, he said: "I've really been misunderstood. By my mom, my dad, school teachers, a couple of the women that I married. I've been misunderstood all of my life."
In 2013, Eric Burdon recorded a new version of this song with Jenny Lewis for the HBO TV series True Blood. "When I was asked to record a new version of 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' for the new season with Jenny Lewis, I had to bite," Burdon said of recording the song for the vampire drama.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-animals/dont-let-me-be-misunderstood

We Gotta Get Out Of This Place was written by the husband and wife songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Mann had just signed a record deal and recorded this song himself, but his version was pulled when The Animals released the song. Mann and Weil were very productive in the mid-'60s, as they made the transition from writing fluffy pop songs like "Blame It On The Bossa Nova" to songs with more of a message, which appealed to rock bands like The Animals.
The Animals producer Mickie Most heard this song and had the band record it. He was looking for American material as he was trying to break the band in the States, and had a call out to the New York City songwriters in the Brill Building and 1650 Broadway looking for songs.
Animals lead singer Eric Burdon came in #57 in a Rolling Stone poll to find the greatest singers of all time. On this song, he delivers an anger and energy that was an influence on later punk bands. In our 2010 interview with Eric Burdon, he said: "I've always viewed myself as a punk. The Animals could have evolved that way. We had the energy and the anger, but we didn't stick together. When the punk scene became commercial, I was all for the politics of the movement, but the music didn't really stand up and ultimately, it was self destructive."
There are two entirely different recordings of this song by The Animals. The US single version is an alternate take, shipped to MGM, The Animals' American record label, by mistake. Nevertheless, this is a far superior version of the song. Unfortunately, it's this version that's played by almost all Oldies radio stations today. 
Adrian Cronauer (the movie Good Morning Vietnam was based on his life) mentioned on a special Independence Day show on Sirius Satellite Radio that this was the most requested song on Armed Forces Radio when he was in Vietnam. 
At the 2012 SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, Bruce Springsteen talked about this song when he gave the keynote speech. After reciting the lyrics, he said, "That's every song I've ever written." Bruce was referring to his penchant for writing songs about getting away in search for something better in life.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-animals/we-gotta-get-out-of-this-place

 

 

Sneaker Pimps - Post Modern Sleaze

In the 1991 movie Thelma & Louise, two women from Arkansas who escape their humdrum routines by going on a road trip where they leave a trail of destruction before driving off a cliff. The film touched a nerve with many women who felt constrained by their everyday lives and unsatisfied with their partners. Many of these women set out on road trips of their own in what some in the mental health community labelled "Thelma & Louise Complex." 
Sneaker Pimps, a trip-hop act from England, were quite amused when they read about this in a newspaper, and wrote "Post Modern Sleaze" in response.
According to Sneaker Pimps guitarist Chris Corner, this song was inspired by his sister, Deb. "She's a post-modem sleaze - an odd person - pretty f--ked-up," he told Vox in 1997. "Love her though I do, I think she's psychologically unstable."
The video was directed by Howard Greenhalgh, who also did Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" and System of a Down's "Question!" Sneaker Pimps lead singer Kelli Dayton dons a wig to portray a woman from the South in the Thelma & Louise style. "It's an indictment of the American road movie and the power it has in glamorising problems and suggesting that everyone should be on a quest for self-discovery," Pimps keyboard player Liam Howe said.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/sneaker-pimps/post-modern-sleaze

Sweet Pill - Dog Song

In less than five years, Sweet Pill has gone from a local band playing rowdy hometown shows all over Philadelphia to a five-piece touring across North America. What started as a college project for guitarist Jayce Williams (the band’s lone New Jerseyan) and frontwoman Zayna Youssef has expanded into a fully formed band that’s already garnering recognition from artists like Hayley Williams and La Dispute. 
Williams and Youssef say it was when they rounded out their lineup and added Sean McCall on guitar, Ryan Cullen on bass, and Chris Kearney on drums that they really became what people know as Sweet Pill. Together, Sweet Pill is crafting a love letter to the Philly music scene and its community through their music — which is exactly what they aim to share with the rest of the world, show by show. 
In May 2022, the band released their first LP Where the Heart Is, a 10-track record full of emo anthems that fuse hardcore with pop sensibilities. Their title track takes math rock elements and blends them with strong melodic hardcore guitar riffs and punchy lyrics — confidently introducing the band to the world through their freshman effort. 
You don’t have to look any further than the album’s cover art to see the impact Philly has had on the group. “The painter [who did the album art] was my neighbor in South Philly. During quarantine when I used to hang out on my roof, he would be out there on this roof painting,” Williams says. “I would play my guitar and he’d always tell me I should write a record. I was like, ‘I did,’ and sent it to him.”
Little did Williams know: His next-door neighbor was artist Kerry Dunn, a successful portraitist whose award-winning work has been exhibited across the country for over three decades. Through neighborly camaraderie and a shared love of art and music, Sweet Pill and Dunn collaborated to create a portrait for Where the Heart Is that has been captivating prospective listeners since the album’s release. 
“The album art helped a lot with people randomly listening to us,” Youssef says of the eye-catching image of her own likeness. After fans were reeled in by the art, they found that Sweet Pill’s music speaks for itself, and kept coming back for more. “All it took was somebody to share it with somebody.”  From: https://www.altpress.com/sweet-pill-where-the-heart-is-interview/ 

Tally Hall - Good Day

Good Day was one of the first songs written for Tally Hall, With it Being written and finalized around March of 2003 and originally appeared on the Party Boobytrap EP, released in April of 2003. This version opens with a loud cough and clapping, and features original drummer Steve Gallagher on drums. The whole EP was recorded in Joe Hawley's attic bedroom using a digital camcorder, with tracks being edited together using Final Cut Pro. Even in this original recording, the final few seconds feature the opening guitar riff from the song Greener, implying the 2 songs were always meant to transition one into the other.
In 2005, "Good Day" was re-recorded for Tally Hall's first studio album: Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, this time with replacement drummer Ross Federman on drums, and with new orchestration. When remixed and partially re-recorded for Atlantic Records in 2007, quite a couple changes were made, such as: more vocals on the intro, the "I thought you knew I knew" section was completely re-recorded, and more backing vocals were recorded for the "Let us sing" section.
The music video for "Good Day" was filmed over a period of 4 months in 2006, and later burned to DVD for filming of the TV segments over that September. Tally Hall seemingly asked people around Michigan to film their TVs for the video, as a Reddit user on r/tallyhall would show a scene featuring a picture of a University of Michigan band "Groove" on a wall. Tally Hall would later post outtakes from the filming on tallyhall.com. Most of the members would also change their profile pictures to scenes from the video, Ross using the weight loss ad, Zubin using the Bob Ross parody, Andrew using the Blue's Clues parody, and Rob using their Party Boobytrap rap video segment.
When asked about it by calenderlive.com, Rob stated: "We're doing it guerrilla-style, we shot part of it at Michigan Stadium.... I think the grounds crew thought we were important because of our ties."
During the filming of one scene at their local rotary park, Joe Hawley and Zubin Sedghi were robbed of most of their equipment and were left injured. This event was referenced in "Rotary Park", a song by both Joe and Zubin on Joe's album called Joe Hawley Joe Hawley.  From: https://wiki.hiddeninthesand.com/Good_Day_(song)

Rufus & Chaka Khan - You Got The Love - The Midnight Special 1974

Rufus was an American funk band from Chicago, Illinois best known for launching the career of lead singer Chaka Khan. They had several hits throughout their career, including "Tell Me Something Good," "Sweet Thing," and "Ain't Nobody." In 1967, The American Breed Gary Luizo, Al Ciner, Charles (Chuck) Colbert and Lee Graziano had a top ten hit with the classic rock single, "Bend Me, Shape Me". After much success, Ciner, Colbert and Graziano (without Luizo who pursued a successful production career) created a new group, adding Kevin Murphy on keyboards and Vern Pilder from the bar band Circus. They re-emerged in 1969 under the name Smoke. In 1970, female vocalist Paulette McWilliams and vocalist James Stella were added and the group's name changed again to Ask Rufus. Willie Weeks would replace Vern Pilder. In 1971, the band signed a contract with Epic Records recording an album that wasn't released. Willie Weeks was replaced by Dennis Belfield. In early 1972 Epic dropped their contract and James Stella was replaced by keyboardist and vocalist Ron Stockert. Former Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler drummer Andre Fischer, replaced Lee Graziano. Colbert and Fischer approached and recruited the eighteen-year-old vocalist Chaka Khan (née Yvette Stevens) at a south-side club called the "Pumpkin Room" where she sang with a local Chicago group called Lock and Chain led by drummer Scotty Harris. With that change and Paulette McWilliams pursuing her solo career, the group simply became Rufus with its main focus on Stockert, while Khan became its official second lead vocalist. In 1972 the group contacted friend and newly-hired ABC Dunhill A&R executive Bob Monaco and flew him to Chicago to watch the group perform for consideration to be one of his first signings. Monaco returned to Los Angeles, convinced the label to give him a demo budget and then quickly returned to Chicago where the group recorded eleven songs in two days at Marty Feldman's Paragon Studios. After taking the demo tapes back to ABC Dunhill the group was immediately asked to sign a long term recording contract. Khan, who at eighteen was still a minor, had to have her mother participate. The singer had just married Hassan Khan, who was a bassist of a former band that she fronted. The group then drove to Los Angeles and recorded their first "Rufus" album at Quantum Recording Studios in Torrance, California. That album was released in 1973. While the songs "Whoever's Thrilling You (Is Killing Me)" and "Feel Good" (both songs led by Khan) brought the group some attention from R&B radio stations, the album itself had minimal sales and the Stockert-led "Slip & Slide" failed to catch major attention from pop radio. The group quickly re-entered the same studio to record their follow-up album Rags to Rufus that included the Stevie Wonder song "Tell Me Something Good," Ray Parker Jr's and Khan's "You Got The Love" and Dennis Belfield's "In Love We Grow," and "Smokin' Room." Stockert, Ciner and Belfield would leave the group shortly after the album was completed. Los Angeles-based keyboardist Nate Morgan replaced Stockert. Additionally, Tony Maiden and bassist Bobby Watson, also from Los Angeles, were recruited by drummer Andre Fischer and asked to join the group. Maiden's, Watson's and Morgan's addition to Rufus added a unique sound to the group, bringing a stronger funk and jazz influence to compliment Chaka's now emerging powerful lead vocals.  From: https://www.jango.com/music/Rufus+featuring+Chaka+Khan+/_full_bio 

Surly Gates - Under Your Tongue

The Paisley Underground comes home to roost on the first full-length from Surly Gates. Like that long-gone Cali conclave, Lay Low spotlights squarely on the songs, letting acid-fried colored gels give the tracks their strange sheen. Fronting traditional rock tropes and creamy harmonies, “Wicked Lover” and “Under Your Tongue” rely equally on melody and muscle, while “Catatonia” and the title track spin winsome pop skeins. “Growl” enters enigmatic ballad territory, slowly unfolding its journey into mystery. Singing guitarists Jonathan Lennartz and Rusty Boyer field most of the heavy work, but it’s organist James Webber pulling the tracks into a parallel dimension. Ghosts of trips past.  From: https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/texas-platters-11766869/