Booker T. Jones - The Road From Memphis

60's legend, aided by some famous pals, in fine return to form.

Back in the 60's when soul music rivalled The Beatles in terms of world and chart domination, two record labels both had very convincing claims to rule the soul roost, each boasting an in-house recording studio and house band. The first of these was Berry Gordy's Motown, a production line set-up with a string of solo vocalists and vocal groups, smoothly groomed for pop stardom, their music aimed at both a black and white audience. The hidden, faceless, in-house studio band became known as The Funk Brothers.

Deep down south in Memphis, Stax Records put together an altogether grittier soulful groove. During the time of the civil rights movement, the label staff along with the in-house studio band were progressively mixed race. The house band at Stax was Booker T. And The MG's, led by organist Booker T. Jones. The MG's line-up was completed by bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn, guitarist Steve Cropper, and drummer par excellence Alan Jackson Jr. (Who died in tragic circumstances in 1975). Together this super tight unit provided the backing on literally hundreds of soul tracks for singers such as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, The Staple Singers, and Johnnie Taylor. On top of this the group also managed to find the time to make hit records of their own, perhaps the best known of which is the classic “Green Onions”. 

Click over the jump for more on The Road To Memphis.

Thee Attacks - That's Mister Attack To You

Gettin' feisty with Denmark's latest contenders for the garage rock crown.

If you want that authentic 60's beat and garage sound there's a couple of places in Europe you could go, the best choice by far being Liam Watson's Toe Rag Studios. That's where Denmark's gutsy retro-rockers Thee Attacks chose to record their debut album. And for those who care about these things (and you should) it's in punch-packing mono.

The band's sound unashamedly harks back to the early to mid 1960's proto-mod and Brit group R & B. Think pills, think sharp dressed youths, think ripped-speaker rawness. Think live bands at Liverpool's Cavern or Hamburg's Star Club or Kaiserkeller. The closest comparison musically would be The Who or more specifically The Detours or The High Numbers. With no room for introspection and highfaluting concepts, this is music for letting off steam to, music for dancing all night to, music that's stripped back to basics, no sloppy jamming, or extraneous polishing, just tight up-tempo songs played with energy and ruck inducing attitude. It's refreshingly unpretentious and well executed.

The band will be back on UK shores for some live dates early next year, until then this LP will do nicely.

Click here for Thee Attacks' website.

DC Fontana - Pentagram Man

DC Fontana return with a brand new maxi EP (or mini LP?) New songs, new singer, new sounds!

A little over a year ago I had the reviewed DC Fontana's previous release La Contessa, an accomplished, kitschy take on freakbeat, ye-ye, and R&B-tinged '60s pop. As fine as that LP was, it was still something of a revelation to hear

the latest offering. Gone is the foreign language pop, along with vocalists Karla Milton and Kicca Andriollo. In their place comes new vocalist Louise Turner, and five new songs that show the band in fresh light. They can still knock out great catchy pop tunes but there's also some pleasingly diverse tangents as the band flirt with folk, jazz, prog and even ambient, experimental music. A shorter record than La Contessa it may be, but it packs as big a punch.

The new recordings are topped and tailed by two versions of the title track Pentagram Man, firstly featuring new vocalist Louise Turner, latterly with vocals from ex-Sorrows vocalist Don Fardon. Whichever version you choose it's an irresistible piece of music beginning with sampled dialogue I'm guessing is Aleister Crowley before the music kicks in – heavy organ, biting lead guitar, rolling baggy beat with nifty bass lines holding it all together. With the chorus' chord sequence borrowed from Sympathy For The Devil, the Fontanas still have a foot in the retro camp but they've steered away from total homage towards something that's more their own.

It's this new found confidence that's all over the EP. Following song DevilAngel is a pop soul classic, the band re-inventing Spector's wall-of-sound over a Tamla beat. What Would It Take? Sees them venture into finger-picked acoustic loveliness, though there's still room for sonic invention – listen closely and you'll hear some backwards guitars, an accordian, along with a Bryter Layter style flute solo.

Keyboardist Scott Riley takes over the lead vocal duties on Satisfied (Part One) for a more bluesy, jazzy vibe. There's more of a band feel to this song, at times sparsely backed they feel their way through it letting the song's own dynamic push the playing as it progresses. It's easy to see why this is a live favourite. It's on the next track where the biggest sonic leaps have been made. Sighed DC is a lengthy experimental sound collage that wouldn't have been out of place on Screamadelica. Dubby, trippy, ambient and atmospheric. Perfect for watching the sunrise after having stayed up all night. It would be nice to think DC Fontana might explore their experimental side more in the future if the results are as good as this.

All tracks are produced by long time Julian Cope associate, Donald Ross Skinner. (Bizarrely I once gave him and the group Prolapse a lift to a gig in Bristol but that's a story I'll save for another time.) As always the band have made a great film to accompany their music, do yourself a favour and click over the jump to check it out.

Click here for DC Fontana's website.

Vinny Peculiar - Other People Like Me

Early 70's inspired observational and skewed Britpop from suburban Manchester. Crack open the Watneys Party Seven!

Alan Wilkes AKA Vinny Peculiar is in a nostalgic mood. For his latest studio album, the Salford maverick is taking a wry and wistful look back to the era of art infused glam-rock. With references to Bowie, Alice Cooper, Page Three Stunnas, Wigan Casino and Mott The Hoople throughout it's part celebration of those times, but one which is tempered by the confessional and painful adolescent regrets retold in the lyrics. The effect is like a more melancholy Jarvis Cocker. Stories of stealing Cream Eggs from the Post Office, signing on, and dodgy haircuts abound.

Click over the jump for more on Other People Like Me.

The Witch And The Robot - Fear Of Mountains Part I

First part of high concept rock opus from Cumbrian freak-folk misfits, and a good excuse to visit the Lake District.

The Witch And The Robot is an apt name for a band whose music is two parts pagan freak folkery and one part electronic krautrock. Much like their friends and fellow Cumbrians British Sea Power, doing things differently is their modus operandi.

So what we have is a loose concept album featuring songs based on characters who all have connections with the Lake District, some fictional, some factual. Parts two and three will no doubt follow in due course. Despite such localism, it's an album which by sheer force of its passion and uniqueness should have wider appeal and contains many inspired moments.

Click over the jump for more on Fear Of Mountains Part I.

The Amazing - Gentle Stream

Rightfully boastful name, beautiful album. Laurel Canyon spirit re-locates to Scandinavia.

Picture the scene – Laurel Canyon, 1969, the sun's hazy heat shimmers the air, heavy with reefer smoke. A few half dressed kids chase dogs round the legs of rock royalty as they work out the extended coda to their latest mid-tempo gentle folk rock opus. The guitar lines spiralling and intertwining, relaxed yet exploratory. The drums and bass pushing in all the right places. It's all too beautiful, man.

That's the image that comes to mind while listening to Gentle Stream, the title track of the second full length album from Sweden's psychedelic folk rock collective The Amazing. Though that's not the full picture, there's more. The song is lent an icy European coating courtesy of lead singer and songwriter Christoffer Gunrup. It's a bit like a modern day take on Wooden Ships, played by Crosby, Stills Nash & Nico, albeit a male Nico.

Click over the jump for more on Gentle Stream.

The Waterboys - An Appointment With Mr. Yeats

Mike Scott & co return with a collection of WB Yeats' poems set to music. And it works too!

If anyone's qualified to turn such mystic and romantic poems into songs it's Mike Scott. It's not the first time he's set a Yeats poem to music; “The Stolen Child” was for my money at least, the stand out track on the 1988 Fisherman's Blues album. This time round there's a full album of such material, with titles including “A Full Moon In March”, “The Lake Isle Of Innisfree” and “An Irish Airman Forsees His Death”.

Click over the jump for more on An Appointment With Mr. Yeats.

Charles Packy Axton - Late Late Party 1965-67

Mighty Memphis soul. Forgotten sax hero's first and long overdue anthology.

You may not have heard of Charles Packy Axton, though things could, and should have been so different. Born into the all conquering soul dynasty of Memphis based Stax Records, (Packy's mother Estelle Axton and his uncle Jim Stewart were the label founders), he was perfectly placed and talented enough to have capitalised on his advantageous position. Packy took up the saxophone at a young age and formed The Royal Spades, with Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn, both later to have greater success as members of Booker T & The MG's, the legendary Stax house band. The Royal Spades became The Mar-Keys. Axton's partying was to eventually cause a split with the band along with a career damaging rift with Stax Records.

Axton continued to record though and had a national hit with 1965's “Hole In The Wall”, credited to The Packers is basically Booker T. And The MG's in all but name, featuring Axton, Cropper, Booker T, and drummer Al Jackson. Only bassist Dunn is missing from the line-up. It's at the heart of this new compilation which features seventeen mainly instrumental tracks.

Click over the jump for more on Late Late Party 1965-67.

Orchestra Of Spheres - Nonagonic Now

Time to go global for pick 'n' mix purveyors of afro-tribal beats, electronic dance, Mali blues, funk, & psych.

Cosmic, infectious, hypnotic, playful and fun. Just some of the words that spring to mind while listening to the debut album from Orchestra Of Spheres. As part of the Frederick Street Sound And Light Exploration Society in Wellington, New Zealand (see link below), the band are well placed to make music that is not tied down by genre restrictions or audience expectations. Part Fela Kuti, part Can, part George Clinton, with hints of psych and avant jazz.

Album opener Hypercube is a fantastic statement of intent, a call to arms for like-minded souls to fly their freak fly high, polyrhythmic drums fighting with call and response chanted vocals, possibly in a made up language. There Is No No follows with desert drone guitar and gamelan giving way to hyperactive bingo-caller vocals. There's even a Celtic folk influence to be detected on Spontaneous Symmetry, its twangy guitar lines courtesy of a biscuit tin guitar. As the album progresses the pychedelic and free jazz elements come to the fore as on the trippy Hypershere and Eternal C Of Darkness, basically Nina Simone meets Delia Derbyshire on the set of The Magic Roundabout.

They come across as a band that takes having fun seriously, as demonstrated by their stage costumes which are as bizarre as their home-made instruments. Mind-expanding and with no comedown.

Click here for Orchestra Of Spheres on Bandcamp.

Spindrift - Classic Soundtracks

Dust down your ponchos! Time for some spoof spaghetti western soundtracks with a dose of heavy west coast psych.

Somehow the music you hear in your childhood stays with you all your life, so if you spent your early years glued to the TV showing Sergio Leone spaghetti western re-runs, those wonderful soundtracks by the likes of Ennio Morricone are going to have an effect on the music you make as an adult. And so it is with Kirpatrick Thomas, front man with Los Angeles band Spindrift, self-proclaimed leaders of the neo-cosmic cowboy revolution.

So what we have here is a concept album of sorts, songs and instrumental pieces taken from movie soundtracks that don't (though possibly should) exist. The song titles are evocative in themselves; “Japexico (Flute Theme From Treasure Of The Black Jaguar)”, “Legend Of The Widower Colby Wallace”, “Showdown (From The Legend Of God's Gun)” and so on. 

Click over the jump for more on Classic Soundtracks.