Kevin Robertson - Why/D.C.B.A-25 (Ltd. 7")

 

 

The Byrds and Jefferson Airplane get a modern makeover on a new Fruits de Mer 7"

Seasons come and go, fashions and tastes change, but some things remain constantly awesome. A well-poured pint of Guinness, log fires in autumn, and quality time with good friends are all things guaranteed to lift my spirits. Other perennial touchstones for me include the music of the Byrds and new vinyl records. They're both things that I seek out whenever I'm in need of a mood-lifting boost. A joy then to hear this forthcoming 7" by Kevin  Robertson on the Fruits de Mer label, which features his take on The Byrds' song 'Why' as one of it's double A-sides. Kevin is the frontman of Aberdeen psych band The Vapour Trails but is flying solo on this vinyl release. His version of 'Why' is respectful to the original's tempo and feel and comes with wonderfully ripping psychedelic guitar breaks. Nice! I wonder of David Crosby has heard it yet. I'd like to think so.

The '60s revisited theme continues on the record's flip side with a cover Jefferson Airplane's 'D.C.B.A-25', a song about LCD no less. Now I'm not one to condone drug-taking, or indeed to condemn it. Whatever gets you through the night is alright by me, just make sure you stay safe folks! I have to confess that I'm not familiar with the original version, but Kevin's has plenty of 12-string jangle, harmony vocals, and hits the hotspot of slightly trippy folk-rock. And if you fancy having a go at the song yourself, the title gives away its chord sequence. How helpful is that! All in all this is set to be one of autumn's best 7" discs. The label has plenty more goodies on the way too, check out their upcoming releases via the links below.

Click here for Kevin Robertson on Twitter

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The Superstars - Metamorphosis + Finale (Ltd. 7")

Prog's not dead! Keyboard-led heavy sounds at 33rpm.

Whatever your favoured format, recorded sound is a beautiful thing. Thanks to that technological advancement we have access to, for all eternity, great political speeches, hisorical news bulletins, along with the recorded works of The Beatles, Emerson Lake and Palmer, The Sex Pistols, and Pinky & Perky. It's a vast library and like the universe itself continues to expand.

One small but very welcome addition to the sonic archives is this forthcoming 7" single on the Fruits de Mer label. The Superstars are an Italian band, currently working on their debut LP which is set for release next year. Judging by this taster 7" single it will be one to look out for. 'Metamorphosis' is included here in studio form and (on the B-side) as a live version. Fans of '70 prog-rock will find this very much up their street - keyboard-led and with an emphasis that leans more on rock than it does on prog. Heavy Hammond, virtuoso guitars, and a propulsive rhythym section combine to take you on an almost six minute journey complete topped with an intriguing spoken words addressing destruction and creation.

'Finale' has more of a synthy space rock feel to it, somewhat more experimental with textures and sounds and showcases a different side to the band that will no doubt be further explored on next year's debut LP. Recorded sound - ever-expanding and endlessly evolving. Keep listening folks!

'Metamorphosis' is on sale from the Fruits de Mer website from November 9th.

Click here for Fruits de Mer Records.

 

 

Jack Ellister – When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease/Supernaut (Ltd. 7”)

Double A-sided 7” covering songs by Roy Harper and Black Sabbath!

Odd juxtapositions, you just gotta love 'em! Whether it's a Public Enemy/Anthrax collaboration, 'Long, Long, Long' following 'Helter Skelter' on The Beatles' White Album, or even Mel Smith and Kim Wilde putting out a Christmas single, sometimes putting incongruous ideas, genres or artists together can yield surprising results. This new 7” by Jack Ellister is a case in point. On one side you have a lovingly heartfelt piano-backed reading of Roy Harper's most famous song. Flip the record over and there's a version of a Black Sabbath album track ('Supernaut' from Black Sabbath IV). While the Harper track is suitably sentimental and elegiac, the Sabbath cut is a space-race inspired heavy-riffing juggernaut, featuring distorted bass guitar, lead synth lines and clattering drums played by Jack's brother Tomasz. Somehow in an inexplicable way the pairing works. For me, being the sentimental type, the Harper cover edges out as favourite but I'd encourage you to have a listen and pick your own winner.

Oh one more thing before I sign off - there's an lovely back-story to the recordings on this single as told by Jack on the press release which I feel is worth including here...

"The grand piano used on 'Cricketer' belonged to my grand father in Torun, Poland.
In 1990/1991 my father took me and Tomasz to Poland to get it over to Germany. We had to smuggle it out because it was forbidden to transport instruments across the border, as they might be valuable collectible items or state property. We did it in two turns using an old Mercedes 9-seater. On the first trip we took the inner metal works and mechanics out and hid them under lots of other stuff. On the second journey a month later we got the wooden frame, which appeared like a sort of cheap big wardrobe when not inspected properly. Luckily the wooden outer parts fit into the lift in Stuttgart and didn't need to be carried up the stairs to our flat on the 6th floor where we lived in at that time. It was great to have it around and we used it a lot on early recordings.
 

My brother Tomasz was then made to play classical music on that thing for about seven years, and he recorded me playing 'Cricketer' in the living room in Stuttgart (not the same flat) just before it went back to Poland for good, together with my parents.

'Supernaut' is one of those Sabbath tracks that doesn't seem to belong to their obvious classics, but for me it somehow earned itself a special place in their canon. Tomasz sent me the drums recorded in his cellar studio/rehearsal space and I added all the rest at home."

Click here for Jack Ellister's website.

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Click here for Fruits de Mer Records.

Elfin Bow and Gary Lloyd – Who Knows Where The Time Goes (7")

LOVE this record! Late contender for single of the year!

Never a label to do things by the book, Fruits de Mer Records release this 7” single on the final day of the year. Quite fitting given the record's title track and the fact that the year has (for me anyway) flown by. I've written about Elfin Bow before. Her delightful debut album was self-released in 2017 and is well worth tracking down. Blessed with a beautiful voice and great songwriting skills, it turns out she's also a fine interpreter of other people's songs. For this version of Sandy Denny's 'Who Knows Where The Time Goes' she's collaborated with composer and producer Gary Lloyd and is backed by the Scottish Session Orchestra, an amazing ensemble of hand-picked principals from Scotland's top orchestras.

It makes my list as one of the finest 7” singles released this year. A sublime reading of a classic song. No surprises, no bells and whistles, simply a beautiful song, sympathetically performed and with a vocal and arrangement that gets right to the song's emotional core. The B-side is awesome too, a re-working of 'The Wisdom', a track from her eponymous debut album made all the more sumptuous by Gary Lloyd's orchestral arrangement. This single marks Elfin Bow's debut as a FdM artist though on it's strength I'm hoping there will be more records to come. Well done and thanks to all concerned.

Click here for Elfin Bow.

Click here for Fruits de Mer Records.

Green Seagull - Scarlet / They Just Don't Know (Ltd. 7")

(This review first appeared in issue #68 of Shindig! magazine.)

Mega Dodo 7”

As you'd expect from a band that bonded over a shared love of obscure '60s psych, Green Seagull's vinyl debut sounds like it's been beamed in from 1967, determined to warp modern day minds. 'Scarlet' sits on the darker side of baroque pop, documents the dream/nightmare knife-edge of obsessive love, and is packed with ideas, intricate instrumentation, tight harmonies and a neat melody.

Flip-side 'They Just Don't Know' could be an out-take from Forever Changes. Its opening guitar motif and odd time signature give way to a frantic flamenco rhythm, the music matching the apocalyptic theme, full of compositional quirks and false stops before the dramatic instrumental finale. Listen closely and there's as much a debt to the classical cannon as there is to The Left Banke and Love, courtesy of keyboardist Sarah Gonputh (Formerly of The Lysergics, New Electric Ride). A thrilling debut and a must-have piece of vinyl!

Popincourt et French Boutik Chantent The Jam (Ltd. 7”)

 Two of Weller's deep cuts get a Gallic makeover! All profits to benefit the Teenage Cancer Trust!

There's always excitement round our house when our good friends French Boutik feature on a new piece of plastic. This new 7” comes in a lovely gatefold sleeve, is a tribute to The Jam and all profits will be donated to a charity that benefits the Teenage Cancer Trust (see links below).

To make matters more interesting it's a split single with an act who are new to me but very much worth investigating. The very wonderful Popincourt, I've since discovered, has made a series of records that blend soul, mod, lounge and baroque into a sound that's all his own. On this disc he's covered 'Tonight At Noon' from The Jam's second LP This Is The Modern World. For all Weller's mod credentials even at that stage in his career were clues to his wider tastes. The song's title is pure '60s psych-pop, an element brought to the fore in this dreamy version. Organ, harpsichord and guitar jangle back the almost whispered vocal. A great re-imagining.

The French Boutik side of the single is a French language version of 'The Place I Love' which features on The Jam's classic All Mod Cons LP. It's a great jangle pop take, driven by a lovely sinewy bass line and intertwined boy/girl vocals. Mirroring the psych-pop vibe is some neat backwards guitar towards the latter half of the track. Like all of French Boutik's records this is worth tracking down and is all for a great cause. Get on it!

All profits from this 7” will be donated to Specialized Project which benefits The Teenage Cancer Trust. - www.specializedproject.co.uk

Click here for Copase Disques.

Click here for Popincourt.

Click here for French Boutik.

Kris Gietkowski - songs from the first LP by Egg

Polish muti-instrumentalist releases a bizarre but lovely labour of love!

I have to admit I'm not that familiar with the first LP by Egg, being still in nappies when it was released. My earliest musical memories coming a few years later and limited to the glam pop and tartan-clad boy bands prevalent on AM radio at the time. Anyway thanks to the powers of the Internet I've learnt that Egg were a three-piece prog band who signed to Decca in 1969 and released and eponymous debut LP a year later.

Fast forward 47 years and in a bizarre labour of love, Polish multi-instrumentalist Kris Gietkowski has decided to record a full length LP featuring most of the songs from Egg's first LP. Notice that that's most and not all, as the press release explains - “it's only 'most of' as one of the tracks would have taken him months to learn and he didn't fancy the ten second intro track on the original album.”

Reading that I knew I'd just love this LP, regardless of how it sounded. But anyway it sounds pretty good. A fully instumental album full of jazz-prog organ fugues, proto math-rock and quasi-classical passages in what I'm led to believe is a fairly faithful replica of the original LP. And it comes as a colour-in-colour vinyl LP, yellow in white to look like a poached egg. How can any self-respecting vinyl freak not dig that right!?!

Released as a colour-in-colour vinyl LP on April 17th. (300 copies only)

Click here for Fruits de Mer Records.