Album Reviews

Date: 1973
Release: Warner Brothers
Cover Art: view / download
Buy the Album

For many years, I was haunted by a sound. I instinctively knew what it was, how it felt in my heart, but I had no idea what musician or band had created it and I never seemed to stumble across it, on oldies radio or otherwise. It was a melancholy, slightly kitschy yet soulful sound, rooted deep in the corners of my oldest memories from my Seventies childhood. It was the sound of Seventies street soul; big afros, good vibes, summer nights and making out on the first date. I never thought I’d hear that sweet, sentimental groove again, but it’s all there on Tower of Power’s self-titled 1973 release.

Read more »

Date: 1974
Release: UBIQUITY
Cover Art: view / download
Buy the Album

Ubiquity Records has once again unearthed an unbelievably obscure funk recording that spins with genius quality from beginning to end. The Turner Brothers were no slick big-studio come on, some ’74 pre-disco pseudo-funksters decked out in full blaxploitation regalia and grinning for the cameras. They were the real deal, straight out of the Deep South, serving up a fat sound drenched in the heavy grease accumulated through years of playing dive bars and barbecue joints on the legendary Chitlins Circuit. Act 1 was put out on the band’s own label and was a huge regional success, helping them to secure tours with the likes of Rufus Thomas, The Chi-Lites, The Ohio Players, and other hard hitters. Here was a tight and experienced bunch of players brimming with talent and soul power. The band comes on strong, kicking the album off with the hypnotic rhythms of “Running In The Rain.”

Read more »

Date: 1969
Release: BLUE THUMB
Cover Art: view / download
Buy the Album

Tyrannosaurus Rex was an acid-dropping British duo fronted by the immortal Marc Bolan during his pre-glam folkie/hippie stage. When it came to making catchy little psychedelic-pop tunes, Tyrannosaurus Rex was a monster. In late 1960s, Bolan and percussionist Steve Peregrine Took enjoyed a small but fanatic following amongst London’s flower children and its underground press. The acoustic Bolan of Tyrannosaurus Rex was a handsome hippie poster child, not the glittering androgynous teenage dream that rocked T.Rex to the top in the early ’70s. Glam-rock fans of T.Rex beware, Tyrannosaurus Rex is an entirely different animal. No more ferocious than a butterfly, Unicorn is a finely crafted album of incredibly unique songs made under the influence of LSD.

Read more »

Date: 1971
Release: Gordy #GS-959
Cover Art: view / download
Buy the Album

The late Norman Whitfield‘s creative juices flowed like the Mississippi River on The Undisputed Truth’s sophomore album. The original group consisting of ex Pep and Ohio Player, Joe Harris, and ex Delicates‘ Billie Rae Calvin and Brenda Joyce. While Whitfield and his partner Barrett Strong didn’t write any new material for the album; (all songs were previously released by other Motown artists) new arrangements made the cuts totally unlike previous renditions.

Motown’s sales department couldn’t have been happy campers trying to find the follow-up to the group’s smash “Smiling Faces Sometimes” to release as a single because it’s not to be found on this collection.  The best song-and arguably one of Whitfield’s finest productions- “You Make Your Own Heaven And Hell (Right Here On Earth)” got the honor. Slicing some minutes does not a single make. Besides, it had been on the Temptations’ Psychedelic Shack album the year before and b-sided their number one smash “Just My Imagination” earlier in the year (1971).

Read more »

Date: November, 1968
Release: Warner Brothers WS-1768
Cover Art: view / download
Buy the Album

When Astral Weeks was released in 1969, very few people got it. When I bought the record from a friend 13 years ago, I didn’t really get it either. In fact I wanted my money back. My friend promised that the album would grow on me if I’d just give it a few more spins. By the third listen, Astral Weeks had completely overwhelmed me with its raw emotional beauty. It has since ingrained itself deeply into my musical identity.

There really isn’t anything else quite like Astral Weeks — it was unprecedented when it came out and nothing has compared to it since. Even Van Morrison, for all his creative powers, never topped this early peak (although 1974′s Veedon Fleece comes close). Nothing written on Astral Weeks can ever truly capture its essence — the music speaks for itself. That said, writing about the album feels like one of the hardest things I could possibly do. Rather than try to rally my best adjectives and sing the album’s praises, I will avoid the standard drivel and, as Van sings, “venture in the slipstream.”

Read more »

Date: 1974
Release: POLYDOR
Cover Art: view / download
Buy the Album

Veedon Fleece is a deeply personal album that marked Morrison’s return to the stream of consciousness and raw soul power of 1968′s Astral Weeks. It was recorded around the time of his divorce from Janet Planet, the same woman to whom he had dedicated the passionate love songs of 1971′s “Tupelo Honey.” This album is emotionally wrenching, a powerful statement on love gone bad. The melancholy mood of Veedon Fleece compels the listener to enter the singer’s world of heartbreak. Though occasionally verging on the depressing, there is such immediacy and honesty in the music that you can’t help but feel alive after a listen. Spare and subtle moments abound, such as “Fair Play,” “Streets of Arklow,” and “Country Fair.”

Read more »

Date: 2009
Release: STRUT
Cover Art: view / download
Buy the Album

Of all the conversations I had with my then-fiancé, the most important one in my mind involved Christmas. We were raised in two different faiths, though neither of us are particularly religious as adults. But I had to be sure. Religion I can get by without, but the tradition of dead trees in the house and songs about reindeer–that’s important.

“Sure,” he said, “we can have a Hanukkah bush.”

“You’re not getting it. It’s a Christmas tree,” I replied. “And the music, I have to listen to the music.”

Fortunately my powers of persuasion are strong, and so every year we get our tree from the Boy Scouts up the street and put on the Vince Guaraldi or the Bing Crosby or the Frank Sinatra Christmas records until we can’t take it anymore. Last year’s discovery of the Ramsey Lewis Trio’s Christmas album infused some fresh music, but the cheese-ridden holiday selection remains appalling. No, I do NOT want to hear Andrea Bocelli or Christina Aguilera sing holiday classics. And don’t get me started on the “Very Special Christmas” series.

Read more »

Date: 2001
Release: Rounder #617665
Cover Art: view / download
Buy the Album

For almost four years I lived in an endless summer. I inhabited a tiny room in a ramshackle beach house built on pier pilings right on the sand in Malibu, California. "This is not a dream!" I reminded myself daily. Every weekend was spent in the warm surf, beach combing, or reclining with friends on my balcony overlooking the vast Pacific. Without fail, I’d drag out my hefty stereo speakers, douse myself in sunscreen, crack open a magazine or book, and put on some music. It didn’t take me long to realize that I had become a barely tolerated DJ to my neighbors. I guess they weren’t fans of the Buzzcocks and the Clash. My spinning habits were politely adjusted to include a more beach friendly cross section of my CD collection. The soulful Jamaican sounds of the Studio One label became an essential component of languid Saturdays basking in the grateful smiles of my friends and neighbors. I had found my weekend theme music. If I had all the money in the world to commission somebody to create the most perfect music for lounging seaside in the hot sun, they would be hard-pressed to come up with anything that could rival the classic recorded output of Studio One

Read more »

Date: 2001(release)
Release: Strut #013
Cover Art: view / download
Buy the Album

Today I went back to the Amoeba Music store in Hollywood and gushed my gratitude to Lance the clerk for strongly recommending that I pick up a copy of Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of 1970s Funky Lagos. He smiled knowingly and gestured towards the sky: it just so happened that it was this very album that was blasting out from the speakers above. I gave him his props, then turned to survey the store. The African music section was thronged with the curious, ears ablaze, their eyes eagerly searching out the source of these throbbing grooves. The eternal music pusher, I handed a stranger this gem-packed two-disc anthology of funky Nigerian music from the 1970s, and pointed upwards. “Is THIS what they’re playing?” he asked excitedly, studying the eye-catching cover photo of an African funkster posing proudly in knee-high white platform boots. I nodded gravely. “Wow,” was all he could say. As I left the store, I noticed that only a few copies of Nigeria 70 remained on the shelves. Los Angeles record buyers are full of surprises.

Read more »

Date: 1999
Release: COMET RECORDS 009
Cover Art: view / download
Buy the Album

The Funk goes native on this heavy back-to-Africa collection of rare Afro-grooves from around the globe. Ouelele is an eclectic mixture of African and African-derived music from 12 different artists who deliver some of the heaviest rhythms known to man. Nothing hits harder than the hardcore Afrobeat of Smahila & The S.B’s epic “African Movement,” a 19-minute Fela Kuti derived groove that keeps you spellbound with its endless energy. Soul-jazz meets South Africa in Letta M’Bulu’s swinging cover of Hugh Masekela’s “What’s Wrong With Groovin’.” All the intensity of free-jazz is channeled into the percussion heavy groove of Philip Cohran & The African Heritage Ensemble’s “Unity,” a tribal-funk jam built around a hypnotically droning violin line and a wall of drums.

Read more »