Tired Pony - The Place We Ran From 2010

The liner notes to Tired Pony’s first album read like a “who’s who” of indie rock royalty, listing credits from the band’s core lineup -- including Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody, R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, producer/musician Jacknife Lee, and Belle & Sebastian's Richard Colburn -- and the hip guest list, which features cameos by the likes of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. Yet despite the full roster, The Place We Ran From sounds more like a Lightbody solo album than a collaborative project. Buck’s presence is barely felt, his guitar parts robbed of their trademark jangle and confined to anonymous Everyman riffs, and Jacknife Lee keeps the production fairly simple, a move that fails to spice up the album’s watered-down Americana. As the frontman of Snow Patrol, Lightbody usually restricts himself to simple melodies, which take on a greater significance when repeated over and over atop the band’s pounding, straightforward stadium rock. Tired Pony’s music is much more threadbare, though, and Lightbody doesn’t offer anything new to fill the void, sticking instead to a small handful of cyclical intervals that rarely sound inspired. On tracks like “Point Me At Lost Islands,” where weather metaphors share equal space with acoustic guitars and fiddle solos, the group manages to shake out the doldrums and hit a genuine stride. But the rest of the album doesn’t flow so well, and The Place We Ran From winds up amounting to far less than the sum of its parts. AMG.

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Royal Trux - Cats And Dogs 1993

From the noisy demise of underground kingpins Pussy Galore came two interesting bands. The first was Jon Spencer's blues deconstruction unit, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion; the second was Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema's dissonant junkie nightmare known as Royal Trux. Interestingly, both bands started out as avant-noise combos playing little that resembled traditional rock & roll. That doesn't mean the music they made was bad; it was rather a little difficult to figure out when they were really into it or simply pulling your chain. What's amazing is that after a protracted period of making harsh, nearly inaccessible records, both bands, by the mid-'90s, were making records that sounded like '70s rock, only with gobs more attitude and noise.

Early Royal Trux records (two self-titled records and Twin Infinitives) are, to say the least, extreme. Herrema and Hagerty play mostly beat-to-hell, thrift-store guitars, howl over the noise, and let a crappy little drum machine keep a beat. Both were raging junkies, and running the risk of turning this into a tabloid piece, the music sounds it. It's messy, self-indulgent, and on-the-nod, but's it's also jarring, exciting, and full of potential. Both Herrema and Hagerty "play" like they couldn't care less about what they were doing (and they probably couldn't), but there's a spark here -- maybe an accidental one, but a spark that makes these messy chunks of distortion more interesting than your average underground rant, although it's not what you'd call friendly, inviting music. Most wouldn't even consider it music.

Although their drug problems escalated (in a fit of Miles Davis-inspired bravado, Herrema and Hagerty allegedly spent a recording advance by their label, Drag City, on smack, only to ask the impoverished indie label for more money to make the record), they eventually got sober around the time of Cats and Dogs, their most lucid recording for Drag City. Now employing three other musicians and sounding like an honest-to-God rock band, Royal Trux was making music that sounded grimy and raunchy, the way the Stones did in the mid-'70s. It was an amazing and unexpected turnaround, but well worth the wait. After exhibiting a little stability, Royal Trux were gobbled up by Virgin as part of the post-Nirvana/Pearl Jam alternative rock signing frenzy. While purists were hissing sellout (as they always do), Royal Trux hooked up with Neil Young-producer David Briggs and cut Thank You, a great, greasy glob of lo-fi rock fueled by cigarettes and junk food. Hagerty's guitar playing still gleefully wandered into noiseland, but he was just as likely to cough up a '70s hard rock riff or two. Herrema actually sang, but her voice still hadn't improved much beyond a one-octave cat-growl. Sweet Sixteen followed in 1997, after which Virgin dropped the group and released tapes of 1998's Accelerator to the duo's previous label, Drag City. Veterans of Disorder followed a year later, and in mid-2000 Royal Trux returned with Pound for Pound. After a tumultuous second half of that year, which included family illness and the cancellation of most of their tour dates, Royal Trux disbanded. However, Hagerty released several solo albums and Herrema reformed the band as RTX with two other musicians and released The Transmaniacon in fall 2004. AMG.

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Fishbone - Truth And Soul 1988

By 1988, alternative/college rock was becoming a recognizable force in the mainstream. Several bands were big enough to play arenas, and many even earned gold and platinum albums. The tide was clearly changing for such previously misunderstood bands such as Fishbone. Their second full-length release Truth and Soul was issued that year, and remains one of the band's (and the '80s) very best. On past albums, Fishbone's sound was a melting pot of ska, punk, and funk. This time, hard rock has been added to the mix -- especially evident in guitarist Kendall Jones' six-string work, with often-spectacular results. Also, the songwriting has improved tremendously and has become much more focused here. The party anthem "Bonin' in the Boneyard" is one of the band's finest (with superhuman bass work by Norwood Fisher), as is the ska-based "Ma and Pa," and a cover of Curtis Mayfield's early-'70s hit "Freddie's Dead." Also featured are several musically varied tracks that deal with the same topic: racism, past and present ("Deep Inside," "One Day," "Subliminal Fascism," "Slow Bus Movin'," "Ghetto Soundwave"). Truth and Soul remains Fishbone's most consistent album. AMG.

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Animal Collective - Here Comes the Indian 2003

Informed in equal parts by acid-fried psychosis, crop-circle field recordings, and an elephants-on-the-loose circus thrash aesthetic, Animal Collective's fourth full-length album rests roughly at the meeting point between psychedelic, noise, and folk music. Here Comes the Indian begins gently enough with "Native Belle," a moody set piece that belies the album's clatter with 12 minutes of constrained rhythmic builds, drones, and squeaks. Things quickly explode with the searing "Hey Light," a lightning bolt of electrocuted brass and human wails that sends the album careening into psychoactive delirium. Since everything that follows -- from the shrieking brattle of "Two Sails on a Sound" to the enchanted tribal vocal exercises of "Slippi" to the slow-building celebratory scuttle of "Too Soon" -- feels similarly crazed, drug-induced, and apparitional, Here Comes the Indian makes for particularly lucid listening. Brash, crass, and texturally magnificent, this is well worth seeking out. AMG.

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dEUS - Worst Case Scenario 1994

About the only thing wrong with dEUS' full-length debut is that the band put its best foot forward right at the start with the great "Suds & Soda." A tense, energetic rip with Klaas Janzoons' violin the final touch that sends everything over the top, it has all the wired energy of early-'90s rock, but with its own arty edge. The only thing quite like it might have been PJ Harvey's early efforts, but with more feedback throughout the mix and a fine organ break. From that great start, the five-piece spent its time exploring its own interesting rock zone, referencing back to classic rock influences and jazz pioneers as much as any of its many frazzled contemporaries. It's a bit facile to say that if Tom Waits were a young guy in 1992 he might have formed this band, but there's something agreeably impassioned and rough about Worst Case Scenario which calls to mind Waits' own avant- garage jazz efforts in the mid-'80s. Having songs that sample Frank Zappa ("Little Umbrellas," surfacing in the slow burn of the title track) and Don Cherry gives an idea of both the members' backgrounds, and the desire to see what to do with them rather than simply be reverential. Tom Barman's singing hits both loud, full-bodied shrieks, and low-and-slow as needed, while the band in general strike a great balance between straight-ahead performance and subtle studio trickery, especially courtesy of percussionist Julle De Borgher, playing everything from drums to "gas heating." When the quintet turns in a sassy, snarling performance, as on "Morticiachair," it's not too hard to see them as European cousins of Girls Against Boys or even Rocket From the Crypt. Alternately, for songs like the "Right as Rain," dEUS become the best late-night, last-drink band out there, while the building crunch of "Hotellounge" finds them able to combine the two extremes just so. AMG.

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Sun Ra Arkestra - Mayan Temples 1990

One of the finest Sun Ra recordings from his final years, this effort is particularly recommended due to the many Ra keyboard solos and John Gilmore features, the latter of which include a tenor showcase on "Opus In Springtime." Trumpeters Michael Ray and Ahmed Abdullah, altoist Marshall Allen and singer June Tyson also have their spots, and the repertoire consists of ten Ra originals (including a remake of "El Is the Sound of Joy") and three standard ballads. Overall, this is a fine all-around studio set. Recommended. AMG.

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The Dream Syndicate - Medicine Show 1984

In 1982, the Dream Syndicate seemed to come out of nowhere (actually Davis, CA, but close enough) to become the most talked about band in underground rock with their debut album The Days of Wine and Roses, recorded for the tiny but prestigious Ruby Records label when the group was all of nine months old. After waves of positive press, A&M Records signed the Dream Syndicate and they went into the studio with producer Sandy Pearlman, who spent five months in the studio guiding the band through their second LP. Given their sudden rise to success, the Dream Syndicate probably would have dealt with a certain amount of critical backlash no matter how their sophomore effort turned out, but Medicine Show was greeted with openly hostile reviews, largely because it sounded practically nothing like the album that sent tongues wagging two years earlier. Where The Days of Wine and Roses was a raw but passionate fusion of Highway 61-era Bob Dylan and the Velvet Underground at their most primal, Medicine Show sounded big and polished, but also dusty and weathered, with the terse, nose-thumbing lyrics of the debut replaced with dark, complex narratives full of bad luck and bad blood backed with booming drums and roaring guitars that were significantly more rockist than what Steve Wynn and Karl Precoda brought to their earlier recordings. Viewed in the context of Wynn's career, Medicine Show marks the spot where the lyrical themes and musical approach of his later work would first come into focus, but it still doesn't bear much resemblance to what the Dream Syndicate would create on their subsequent albums in its grand, doomy tone and obsessive but curiously unobtrusive production style. Medicine Show isn't a grand failure as its initial detractors claimed, but it isn't the triumph some revisionist fans imagine it to be, either; there are a few great songs scattered throughout (especially "Merrittville" and "Armed with an Empty Gun"), and once it works its way in, the 8:48 of "John Coltrane Stereo Blues" is as potent a guitar workout as anything this band would ever release. But in most respects, this finds Wynn and his bandmates reaching for something they couldn't quite grasp, and Tom Zvoncheck's keyboards, for all their drama, never really find their way into the music. Lots of bands let loose with a major-label budget for the first time have made lavish records that didn't quite work, but unlike most of them, Medicine Show doesn't sound like a grandiose waste of money. Instead, it's a widescreen guitar spectacle with the soul of a Jim Thompson. AMG.

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Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Message 1982

DJ Grandmaster Flash and his group the Furious Five were hip-hop's greatest innovators, transcending the genre's party-music origins to explore the full scope of its lyrical and sonic horizons. Flash was born Joseph Saddler in Barbados on January 1, 1958; he began spinning records as teen growing up in the Bronx, performing live at area dances and block parties. By age 19, while attending technical school courses in electronics during the day, he was also spinning on the local disco circuit; over time, he developed a series of groundbreaking techniques including "cutting" (moving between tracks exactly on the beat), "back-spinning" (manually turning records to repeat brief snippets of sound), and "phasing" (manipulating turntable speeds) -- in short, creating the basic vocabulary which DJs continue to follow even today.

Flash did not begin collaborating with rappers until around 1977, first teaming with the legendary Kurtis Blow. He then began working with the Furious Five -- rappers Melle Mel (Melvin Glover), Cowboy (Keith Wiggins), Kid Creole (Nathaniel Glover), Mr. Ness aka Scorpio (Eddie Morris), and Rahiem (Guy Williams); the group quickly became legendary throughout New York City, attracting notice not only for Flash's unrivalled skills as a DJ but also for the Five's masterful rapping, most notable for their signature trading and blending of lyrics. Despite their local popularity, they did not record until after the Sugarhill Gang's smash "Rapper's Delight" proved the existence of a market for hip-hop releases; after releasing "We Rap More Mellow" as the Younger Generation, Flash and the Five recorded "Superappin'" for the Enjoy label owned by R&B legend Bobby Robinson. They then switched to Sugar Hill, owned by Sylvia Robinson (no relation), after she promised them an opportunity to rap over a current DJ favorite, "Get Up and Dance" by Freedom (the idea had probably been originally conceived by Crash Crew for their single "High Powered Rap").

That record, 1980's "Freedom," the group's Sugar Hill debut, reached the Top 20 on national R&B charts on its way to selling over 50,000 copies; its follow-up, "Birthday Party," was also a hit. 1981's "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" was the group's first truly landmark recording, introducing Flash's "cutting" techniques to create a stunning sound collage from snippets of songs by Chic, Blondie, and Queen. Flash and the Five's next effort, 1982's "The Message," was even more revelatory -- for the first time, hip-hop became a vehicle not merely for bragging and boasting but for trenchant social commentary, with Melle Mel delivering a blistering rap detailing the grim realities of life in the ghetto. The record was a major critical hit, and it was an enormous step in solidifying rap as an important and enduring form of musical expression.

Following 1983's anti-cocaine polemic "White Lines," relations between Flash and Melle Mel turned ugly, and the rapper soon left the group, forming a new unit also dubbed the Furious Five. After a series of Grandmaster Flash solo albums including 1985's They Said It Couldn't Be Done, 1986's The Source, and 1987's Da Bop Boom Bang, he reformed the original Furious Five lineup for a charity concert at Madison Square Garden; soon after, the reconstituted group recorded a new LP, 1988's On the Strength, which earned a lukewarm reception from fans and critics alike. Another reunion followed in 1994, when Flash and the Five joined a rap package tour also including Kurtis Blow and Run-D.M.C. A year later, Flash and Melle Mel also appeared on Duran Duran's cover of "White Lines." Except for a few compilations during the late '90s, Flash was relatively quiet until 2002, when a pair of mix albums appeared: The Official Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on Strut and Essential Mix: Classic Edition on ffrr.

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five merged the Afrocentric consciousness expressed by such early rappers as Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets with b-boy production to create "The Message," an all-time rap anthem. It was the focal point of this LP, which also included "It's Nasty" and "Scorpio," two other strong cuts that might have been winners on their own. Unfortunately, rather than a starting point, this album proved to be their ultimate peak. AMG.

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Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician 1987

The aural equivalent of a nightmarish acid trip and arguably the band's best album (or worst, depending on your point of view), Locust Abortion Technician tops the psychedelic, artsy sonic experimentation of Rembrandt Pussyhorse while keeping one foot planted firmly in the gutter. The record veers from heavy Sabbath sludge (even parodying that band on "Sweat Loaf") to grungy noise rock to progressive guitar and tape effects to almost folky numbers in one big, gloriously schizophrenic mess. Gibby Haynes debuts his "Gibbytronix" vocal effects unit here as well. AMG.

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Richard Thompson - Dream Attic 2010

Richard Thompson has been making good to brilliant albums since Fairport Convention cut their debut in 1967, but anyone who knows his music well can tell you he's also a masterful live performer whose music takes on a greater sense of color and relief whenever he performs in front of an audience. Having released a number of limited-run live discs through his website, Thompson seems to be keenly aware his fans like hearing his live work documented for the ages, and with Dream Attic he's moved to the next logical step of recording an album of new material in concert. Dream Attic documents a run of seven shows Thompson played on the West Coast in February 2010; he and his band played a thirteen song set of new songs each evening, along with a second set of fan favorites not included on this disc. Since this album was pieced together from a number of different concerts, it doesn't always capture the ebb and flow of one single show, and while some songs end with hearty applause, others are sliced off before the fans can start cheering, which makes for disorienting listening, sometimes reminding the listener this is a live album and sometimes easing away from it. But Thompson and his band clearly feed off the energy and enthusiasm of a live audience, and Dream Attic captures them sounding capable, confident, and eager to show the crowd what they can do. The recording strategy works best on the songs where the band rocks out (like the anti-Wall Street screed "The Money Shuffle," the plea for survival in "Haul Me Up" or the modern-day murder ballad "Sidney Wells"), while a few of the quieter numbers sound like they might have fared better within the intimate confines of the studio, such as "Among The Gorse, Among The Grey" and "A Brother Slips Away" (though the satiric "Burning Man" and the haunting "Crimescene" work very well indeed). Nevertheless, Thompson's vocals and guitar work are superb throughout, with his soloing near the top of his game, and his band (Pete Zorn on guitar and sax, Joel Zifkin on violin and mandolin, Taras Prodaniuk on bass and Michael Jerome on drums) are tight and intuitive, knowing what to make of the songs and giving their leader all the muscle and smarts he needs. Like most live albums, Dream Attic is more about the playing than the material, which is a bit different from the way a new Richard Thompson set works, but when it captures a band this good playing with this authority, that's hardly anything to fret about. AMG.

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New York Rock Ensemble - Roll Over 1972

An apocryphal tale says Juilliard Music Conservatory-trained musicians Michael Kamen, Marty Fulterman, and Dorian Rudnytsky decided in the late '60s in New York that they could make bigger bucks as rock stars than as classical musicians. The results of this legendary experiment were inconclusive. Forming the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble, they broke with tradition on their first two albums -- 1968's self-titled debut and Faithful Friends the next year -- by using classical music instruments in rock songs and using rock instruments on classical pieces. This fusion, daring at the time, impressed legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein so much that he invited the group to appear at one of his Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. For their third Atco release, Reflections, they collaborated with Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis, best known for scoring music for the movie Never on Sunday. Rhythm guitarist Brian Corrigan departed after the third album, and pedal steel guitar player Hank Devito joined. The band then shortened its name to New York Rock Ensemble and switched to Columbia. Released in 1971, Roll Over was their most overtly rock album to date and their biggest seller, although they fell well short of Led Zeppelin on the Billboard charts. The band dispersed after Freedomburger, although Rudnytsky, Fulterman, and Corrigan had one final shot with Flattering Foe.... Devito surfaced years later as a stalwart player in the bands of Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash. Only Kamen fulfilled the original trio's objective of successfully melding classical and pop music to make big bucks. After being music director for David Bowie's Diamond Dogs tour, he went on to a thriving career scoring films. After his score for Brazil gained him wide exposure, he hit the mother lode composing music for the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon series. In 1991, Kamen earned an Academy Award nomination for "(Everything I Do) I Do it for You," the Bryan Adams monster international pop smash hit from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Kamen has also worked with Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, Liona Boyd, Sting, Rod Stewart, Metallica, Kate Bush, Belinda Carlisle, the Chieftains, the Cranberries, Roger Daltrey, Eurythmics, John Mellencamp, Jim Croce, and many others.
After three daring, experimental albums, this was the band's biggest seller. Considering the original trio's lofty ambitions to meld classical and popular music, their fourth release is solid but unexceptional rock whose standout track "Fields of Joy appeared on an excellent Columbia sampler called Different Strokes that helped to expose the band to a wider audience. AMG.

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Basil Mannenberg Coetzee's Sabenza - Sabenza 1987

Born in Cape Town's notorious District Six, Basil Coetzee worked his way up to recognition as a key player with Dollar Brand (later to become Abdullah Ibrahim), with Mannenberg (named after the district to which Coetzee's family was forcibly removed by the government), and becoming internationally known following its 1974 appearance. The South African music scene underwent a drastic collapse in the mid-'70s, unfortunately, with many top performers forced into exile or jailed. Coetzee remained in South Africa, but was unable to sustain himself through his music, eventually taking a job in a shoe factory to support himself and his family. As the political climate changed, he became active once again, playing at United Democratic Front concerts and rallies, formed the band Sabenza in 1986, and co-founded a Cape Town music school. Two albums followed, with the 1988 Sabenza followed by Monwabisi, both allowing his rough, thick style to take center stage. When Abdullah Ibrahim returned to South Africa, Coetzee returned to work with him in both live ensembles and in the studio. His early 1998 death followed a long struggle with cancer.
After making his reputation as a sax player in Abdullah Ibrahhim's (Dollar Brand) band, he mixes Zulu, sax jive, and American jazz influences in a style he calls "cape jazz." AMG.

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George Clinton - Computer Games 1982

Following the dissolution of his Parliament-Funkadelic empire, which collapsed in 1980-1981 after a creative and commercial downturn, George Clinton re-emerged in 1982 on Capitol Records as a solo artist. Computer Games, his solo debut, is actually only solo in its billing, however, as the album features several of the core P-Funk musicians with whom Clinton had collaborated in years past, most notably Bootsy Collins, Gary Shider, Fred Wesley, and Walter "Junie" Morrison. All the same, Clinton is clearly in the spotlight throughout Computer Games, and his vocal performances are as wacky and charming as ever, especially on the album's two hit singles, "Atomic Dog" and "Loopzilla." From a musical standpoint, there's a heavy emphasis here on synthesizers and drum machines, considerably more so than on any previous P-Funk effort. This was partly because of the times, for it was the early '80s, after all, but also partly because of the smaller stable of musicians on hand. Whatever the reason, Computer Games marks a sharp break from Clinton's past in many ways, and though it was a tremendously successful rebirth, with "Atomic Dog" topping the R&B chart and eventually becoming immortalized by hip-hop postmodernists, in an unfortunate twist of fate this debut effort also ended up marking the zenith of his solo career, as he would progressively stumble creatively in subsequent years. AMG.

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Julie Tippetts - Sunset Glow 1975

After leaving Brian Auger's band and becoming the musical and life partner of pianist/composer Keith Tippett, Julie Tippetts issued Sunset Glow, her first solo recording, in 1974 on the Polydor label. After her soul, pop, and R&B beginnings, Tippetts redeveloped her voice, taking it and her music in a different direction. She began to extend its reach in improvisation, breath control, and uncommon phrasing. She is one of the most compelling and original singers in recorded music's history. Sunset Glow is a curious recording, one that walks the razor's edge of composition and improvisation. Fans of Robert Wyatt's earlier solo records, Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard and Rock Bottom, will appreciate its strange song structures, varying dynamics, and knockout lineup -- Tippetts sings, plays piano, acoustic guitar, and percussion, and she is backed by a host of luminaries from the Canterbury Scene: Brian Godding, guitars; Keith Tippett, piano, harmonium; Mark Charig, cornet, tenor horn; Elton Dean, alto saxophone; Nick Evans, trombone; Brian Belshaw, bass; Harry Miller, bass; as well as African drum master Louis Moholo.

The set begins innocently enough with "Mind of a Child," a fairly straight-ahead Baroque pop song with a lilting piano line accompanying Tippetts' plaintive singing. But even here, with the channel-shifting production and suspended chords, Keith Tippett's harmonium providing a baseboard for everything, and the slightly off-kilter horns winding in and out of the backdrop, this is anything but a pop song. From here on it's almost anything goes, as "Oceans and Sky" brings jazz, free improv, prog rock, and blues to bear in a dynamite soaring wail of a tune that was virtually unlike anything else at the time. She pierces the sky with her improvising, opening her voice up with the heaviness and swallowing it whole. Many have criticized the simple lyric lines Tippetts wrote for these songs, but this is philistinism; her lyrics fit these melodies better than anything else could. They adorn simply, speak plainly, and offer the heart of the matter in each case. In that sense, they are truly poetic. If the production styles sound rooted in the '70s, it's all for the better. It's hard to imagine anyone making a record like this today -- because this is a singular achievement in any era. The set ends with "Behind the Eyes (For a Friend, R)," which listeners can safely assume is about Robert Wyatt, whose accident took place a bit before the album was recorded. Its stark, simple, shimmering glissando piano walks a simple line under the moaning, imploring, almost chant-like voice of Tippetts. It's a moving track that closes as fine a debut as one is likely to hear. AMG.

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Oasis - Definitely Maybe 1994

Definitely Maybe manages to encapsulate much of the best of British rock & roll -- from the Beatles to the Stone Roses -- in the space of 11 songs. Oasis' sound is louder and more guitar-oriented than any British band since the Sex Pistols, and the band is blessed with the excellent songwriting of Noel Gallagher. Gallagher writes perfect pop songs, offering a platform for his brother Liam's brash, snarling vocals. Not only does the band have melodies, but they have the capability to work a groove with more dexterity than most post-punk groups. But what makes Definitely Maybe so intoxicating is that it already resembles a greatest-hits album. From the swirling rush of "Rock 'n' Roll Star," through the sinewy "Shakermaker," to the heartbreaking "Live Forever," each song sounds like an instant classic. AMG.

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Elton Dean's Ninesense - Happy Daze 1977

British saxophonist Elton Dean was one of the key figures in British free jazz for decades. Closely affiliated with the Canterbury scene, Dean -- born in Nottingham on October 28, 1945 -- had a résumé far more varied and than that tag would describe. Dean began his professional career with Long John Baldry's Bluesology in 1967 -- the pianist in that band was Reginald Dwight, who found later stardom under the Elton John stage name formed by combining the "Elton" from Elton Dean and "John" from Long John Baldry. Dean left Baldry's outfit and helped to form the Keith Tippett sextet. They recorded two albums for the Vertigo label between 1967 and 1969.

In 1969, Dean left the group to join Soft Machine. The lineup of Dean, Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper, and Mike Ratledge is now legendary as Dean played on the band's finest recording, Third. Dean left the band in 1972 after the recording of Fifth. Dean's résumé after Soft Machine was a frenzied blur of activity. While in the band he took part in the Centipede project, and after leaving he joined the Brotherhood of Breath in 1973, the Carla Bley Band in 1977, and Keith Tippett's Ark from 1978-1979. He also formed Soft Heap in 1978 and became a member of the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra in 1982. The 1990s saw Dean move through an astonishing number of projects, as he collaborated with everyone from Paul Rutherford and Annie Whitehead to Roswell Rudd, Marcio Mattos, and Keith Tippett's big band.

As the 2000s began, Dean continued recording and touring, showcasing his highly idiosyncratic yet ingenious method of composition and complexly staggered harmonic and polytonal improvisational inventions. His vast number of unreleased recordings were also parceled out to various labels for release, adding to an already abundant archive. Although Dean had departed Soft Machine back in 1972 to pursue freer jazz contexts for his improvisational abilities, over the years he continued to perform and record with bands featuring other musicians from the Softs orbit, including Soft Works with bassist Hopper, drummer John Marshall, and guitarist Allan Holdsworth (heard on 2003's Abracadabra) and Soft Machine Legacy with guitarist John Etheridge replacing Holdsworth (heard on 2006's Soft Machine Legacy). Despite ill health, Dean had been planning to take part in a February 2006 tour with Soft Machine Legacy; however, he died on the eighth of that month at the age of 60, leaving behind a catalog of pioneering work in British jazz-rock, avant-garde jazz, free jazz, and creative improvisation spanning over 35 years. AMG.

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Paul McCartney - Pipes of Peace 1993

Perhaps it isn't surprising that McCartney's grip on the pop charts started to slip with Pipes of Peace, since it was released after his 40th birthday -- and most rockers do not mature particularly gracefully. Although it's rather fascinating that the album didn't reach the Top Ten, despite a blockbuster duet with Michael Jackson in "Say Say Say," Pipes of Peace bewilders in other ways, particularly in its allusions to Tug of War. It often seems as if this album was constructed as a deliberate mirror image of its predecessor; it is also produced by George Martin, also contains two duets with an African-American superstar (Jackson here, Stevie Wonder there), also acknowledges an old bandmate (a Lennon tribute there, a Ringo cameo here), and even contains "Tug of Peace," a deliberate answer song to its predecessor. If only it were nearly as adventurous as Tug of War! Instead of dabbling in all his myriad musical personas, McCartney settles back into a soft rock groove, tempered somewhat by a desire to be contemporary (which means a heavy reliance on drum machines and synthesizers). Instead of sounding modern, McCartney winds up sounding like an aging rocker desperately trying to keep up with the time, but that in turn means that Pipes of Peace can often reveal what the early '80s were like for aging rockers -- he does embrace technology, but he winds up with immaculate productions that are decidedly of their time. Still, at its best, Pipes of Peace is ingratiating soft rock. In particular, the first side is close to irresistible, with the title track being a mid-tempo mini-epic, "Say Say Say" being fine pop-funk, "So Bad" being so sickly sweet that it's alluring, "The Man" being an effervescent Jackson duet, and "The Other Me" scoring with its square dance beats and winning McCartney vocal. Not enough to add up to a latter-day triumph from McCartney, but it still contains better songs than its blockbuster mid-'70s counterparts, and even if it's a little lightweight, it has more flair in its craft and more style in its sound than other McCartney albums, which is enough to make it a minor musical success, despite its disappointing chart performance. AMG.

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Marilyn Manson - Portrait Of An American Family 1994

Coming up screaming from the depths of Florida -- there being no scarier state in the union -- Marilyn Manson cannily positioned themselves as a goth-industrial hybrid on their debut album, Portrait of an American Family. At this stage in their evolution, Marilyn Manson was clearly a band, not just the project of Brian Warner, aka Mr. Manson, who would later simply adopt his band's name as his own. Also, horror-show schlock was a bigger factor than it would be later on, when he wanted to be the Antichrist Superstar for the world at large. In other words, it's Manson at his silliest, singing about "My Monkey" and "Snake Eyes and Sissies." Beneath all the camp shock, there are signs of Warner's unerring eye for genuine outrage and musical talent, particularly on the trio of "Cake and Sodomy," "Lunchbox," and "Dope Hat." But even a few years on from its 1994 release, Portrait of an American Family began to sound a little dated, especially since its Nine Inch Nails-meets-W.A.S.P.-meets-Alice Cooper formula was fully realized on Manson's follow-up album, Antichrist Superstar. Here, it's in sketch form, and by the end of the album it's clear that Warner, Manson, whatever you want to call him, needs a full canvas to truly wreak havoc. AMG.

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Mark Hollis - Mark Hollis 1998

The frontman of the influential new wave-era band Talk Talk, singer/songwriter Mark Hollis finally mounted his long-awaited solo career during the late '90s. The younger brother of Ed Hollis, a disc jockey and producer who went on to manage bands such as Eddie & the Hot Rods, Hollis originally planned to become a child psychologist but in 1975 left university to relocate to London, eventually forming a band called the Reaction. In 1977, the Reaction recorded a demo for Island Records; among the tracks was a Hollis original titled "Talk Talk" that later surfaced on the Beggars Banquet punk compilation Streets. After just one single, 1978's "I Can't Resist," the Reaction disbanded, and through his brother, Hollis was first introduced to musicians Paul Webb, Lee Harris, and Simon Brenner, with whom he formed Talk Talk in 1981, soon signing to the EMI label.

With their 1982 debut The Party's Over, Talk Talk emerged as an archetype of new wave ideals, but with each successive record their sound grew more atmospheric and complex, moving further away from conventional pop structure. Records like 1986's The Colour of Spring and 1988's brilliant Spirit of Eden increasingly represented the vision of Hollis and producer Tim Friese-Green, who together steered away from the electronic pop of Talk Talk's early work toward a more organic, often acoustic sound textured by elements of jazz and ambient music. Despite lavish critical praise, relations with EMI disintegrated; personality conflicts within Talk Talk's ranks were growing as well, and after completing 1991's Laughing Stock, the group was essentially finished. Hollis then disappeared from sight for the next seven years; finally, in early 1998, he issued a self-titled solo album, a beautiful continuation of the final Talk Talk records. However, Hollis then retired from music and has not issued any recordings since. Achingly gorgeous and hauntingly stark, Mark Hollis' self-titled debut picks up where he left off with Talk Talk's Laughing Stock seven years earlier, re-emerging at the nexus point where jazz, ambient, and folk music collide. It's quite possibly the most quiet and intimate record ever made, each song cut to the bone for maximum emotional impact and every note carrying enormous meaning. Hollis paints his music in fine, exquisite strokes, with an uncanny mastery of atmosphere that's frequently devastating. And if anything, his singularly resonant voice has grown even more plaintive with the passage of time, which -- combined with the understated artistry and minimalist beauty of tracks like "The Colour of Spring" and "Watershed" -- makes Mark Hollis a truly unique and indelible listening experience. His obvious understanding of the power of silence aside, one prays he doesn't again wait for the seven-year itch to strike before returning. AMG.

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Blur - ParkLife 1994

Modern Life Is Rubbish established Blur as the heir to the archly British pop of the Kinks, the Small Faces, and the Jam, but its follow-up, Parklife, revealed the depth of that transformation. Relying more heavily on Ray Davies' seriocomic social commentary, as well as new wave, Parklife runs through the entire history of post-British Invasion Britpop in the course of 16 songs, touching on psychedelia, synth pop, disco, punk, and music hall along the way. Damon Albarn intended these songs to form a sketch of British life in the mid-'90s, and it's startling how close he came to his goal; not only did the bouncy, disco-fied "Girls & Boys" and singalong chant "Parklife" become anthems in the U.K., but they inaugurated a new era of Britpop and lad culture, where British youth celebrated their country and traditions. The legions of jangly, melodic bands that followed in the wake of Parklife revealed how much more complex Blur's vision was. Not only was their music precisely detailed -- sound effects and brilliant guitar lines pop up all over the record -- but the melodies elegantly interweaved with the chords, as in the graceful, heartbreaking "Badhead." Surprisingly, Albarn, for all of his cold, dispassionate wit, demonstrates compassion that gives these songs three dimensions, as on the pathos-laden "End of a Century," the melancholy Walker Brothers tribute "To the End," and the swirling, epic closer, "This Is a Low." For all of its celebration of tradition, Parklife is a thoroughly modern record in that it bends genres and is self-referential (the mod anthem of the title track is voiced by none other than Phil Daniels, the star of Quadrophenia). And, by tying the past and the present together, Blur articulated the mid-'90s zeitgeist and produced an epoch-defining record. AMG.

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Third Ear Band - Alchemy 1970

Although they were loosely affiliated with the British progressive rock scene of the late '60s and early '70s, Third Ear Band was in some ways more of an experimental ensemble performing contemporary compositional work. For one thing, they didn't use electric instruments, or even guitars, instead employing violin, viola, oboe, cello, and hand percussion. More important, they didn't play conventional rock "songs." They featured extended instrumental pieces that often built up from a drone, or hypnotic pattern, to a dense, raga-like crescendo, somewhat in the manner of some of Terry Riley's work. Their "progressive rock" tag probably arose because they recorded for Harvest Records, Britain's leading art rock label, which was home to Pink Floyd, Kevin Ayers, Pete Brown, Edgar Broughton, and many other progressive acts.

The group was founded by drummer Glen Sweeney, who had roots in Britain's free jazz scene, and had played with an avant-garde ensemble, the Sun Trolley. Sweeney described Third Ear's music as "electric acid raga," although the electricity was shut off shortly after they formed, when their electronic equipment was stolen. Sweeney simply molded Third Ear into an acoustic ensemble, with the addition of oboe, violin/viola, and cello. The personnel (with the exception of Sweeney) would rotate over the next few years; their early albums were produced by Andrew King, who had helped manage Pink Floyd in their early days.

Commercial success, or even widespread underground success, was never in the offing for Third Ear Band, and one gets the feeling that was not ever a consideration. Their albums were too somber and experimental for the rock audience, and in the U.S., they are still only known to a very few. Their biggest coup was getting commissioned to score and perform the soundtrack to Roman Polanski's film version of Macbeth (issued on record as Music From Macbeth). The original incarnation of Third Ear Band disbanded in the early '70s. Surprisingly, they re-formed in the late '80s, and released a few albums that boasted sounds and ambitions that were similar to those found in their early work.
Started in 1968 by percussionist Glen Sweeney and reedist Paul Minns, Third Ear Band was formed from the ashes of a previous Sweeney project, the psych band Hydrogen Juke Box. While generally overlooked in the history of British and improvised music, Third Ear Band developed a distinctive and aesthetically important sound -- equal parts Indian, psychedelic, and minimalist -- dubbed "electric-acid-raga" by Sweeney. Alchemy, their first release, is a wonderful record. With shorter tracks than found on later albums, Third Ear Band here makes excursions into improvised chamber music. In the opener, "Mosaic," which is at seven minutes one of the longest cuts, guitar meets recorder and violin in a disharmonic free jazz summit that fades away before building into a trancy mini-crescendo. On "Stone Circle," recorder lines interweave over an unadorned drum's repetitive rhythm. At times the recorder lines are so fluid and unnatural they sound like they're being played backwards -- which indeed they just might be. Generally the remainder of the tracks run the course between half-structured improv and droning chaos. Comparisons could be drawn to Soft Machine or the Dream Syndicate, but neither quite has the sense of "collective first" nor the repetitive insistence of Third Ear Band. The songs, to quote Sweeney again, are "alike or unlike as trees." For those even vaguely interested in the history of innovative music, Alchemy is worth hunting down.   AMG.

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Maria Rita - Segundo 2005

Maria Rita took the MPB world by storm in 2003 with her debut album, winning all kinds of awards and crossing over abroad in light of her mammoth success. The beautiful and beautiful-sounding young lady is the daughter of one of Brazil's most (if not the most) legendary vocalists, the late Elis Regina, and if that alone weren't enough to make her a star in waiting, her father is César Camargo Mariano, one of the country's top arrangers, producers, and pianists, and her namesake is Rita Lee, yet another MPB legend. Add to that a close musical partnership with Milton Nascimento, who penned "A Festa," the opening track of her debut album, and you can see why the MPB world was eagerly awaiting her recording debut.

Born September 19, 1977, in São Paulo, Rita began singing professionally at age 24. Her debut album, Maria Rita, released domestically in late 2003 and internationally in 2004, spawned two big hits, the aforementioned "A Festa" and "Cara Valente." On the heels of the album's blockbuster success -- both critical and commercial -- Rita released a similarly self-titled DVD that captures her 2004 live performance at Bourbon Street in São Paulo. Among the awards won by Rita in 2004 were Latin Grammys for Best New Artist and Best MPB Album. Rita's second album, Segundo (2005), was even more popular than her first (selling over 700,000 copies in Brazil alone), if not as critically acclaimed. A live DVD, Segundo ao Vivo, followed in 2006. Rita's third album, Samba Meu (2007), was a change of style: a collection of acoustic sambas.
Segundo is the second album by Maria Rita, following up on her enormously successful debut album from 2003. Rita undoubtedly is a very talented singer with a great voice. She proved it on her first album and proves it again on Segundo. But after all the huge expectations built up by large sections of the media before this release, you can't help but find it something of an anticlimax. Not that Segundo is a bad album, because it isn't. But it isn't all that great either, especially compared to the work of many other, much less famous Brazilian artists and singers. Dominated by a rather sparse, slightly jazzy MPB sound, Segundo sounds very similar to the previous album, though there is actually less stylistic variation between the songs this time around. However, a couple of tracks stand out from the rest due to their quality. "Caminho das Águas" is a very cute, nice, and gentle piano ballad. The excellent "Mal Intento," sung in Spanish, was written by the famous Uruguayan composer Jorge Drexler. Rita's version of O Rappa's "Minha Alma" also functions very well indeed. Segundo is a tasteful, fine, and classy album, but far from the masterpiece many people would have it be.   AMG.

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Spirit - The Family That Plays Together 1968

On this, the second Spirit album, the group put all of the elements together that made them the legendary (and underrated) band that they were. Jazz, rock & roll, and even classical elements combined to create one of the cleanest, most tasteful syntheses of its day. The group had also improved measurably from their fine debut album, especially in the area of vocals. The album's hit single, "I Got a Line on You," boasts especially strong harmonies as well as one of the greatest rock riffs of the period. The first side of this record is a wonderful and seamless suite, and taken in its entirety, one of the greatest sides on Los Angeles rock. The CD reissue also boasts some excellent bonus tracks. "So Little to Say" is one of Jay Ferguson's finest compositions ever, and the jazz-inspired instrumentals such as "Fog" and "Space Chile" showcase pianist John Locke as one of the most inspired and lyrical players in the rock idiom to date. All in all, a classic album and a true landmark. AMG.

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Jo-Ann Kelly - Jo-Ann Kelly 1969

The rock era saw a few white female singers, like Janis Joplin, show they could sing the blues. But one who could outshine them all -- Jo Ann Kelly -- seemed to slip through the cracks, mostly because she favored the acoustic, Delta style rather than rocking out with a heavy band behind her. But with a huge voice, and a strong guitar style influenced by Memphis Minnie and Charley Patton, she was the queen. Born January 5, 1944, Kelly and her older brother Dave were both taken by the blues, and born at the right time to take advantage of a young British blues scene in the early '60s. By 1964 she was playing in clubs, including the Star in Croydon, and had made her first limited-edition record with future Groundhogs guitarist Tony McPhee. She expanded to play folk and blues clubs all over Britain, generally solo, but occasionally with other artists, bringing together artists like Bessie Smith and Sister Rosetta Tharpe into her own music. After the first National Blues Federation Convention in 1968 her career seemed ready to take flight. She began playing the more lucrative college circuit, followed by her well-received debut album in 1969. At the second National Blues Convention, she jammed with Canned Heat, who invited her to join them on a permanent basis. She declined, not wanting to be a part of a band -- and made the same decision when Johnny Winter offered to help her. Throughout the '70s, Kelly continued to work and record solo, while also gigging for fun in bands run by friends, outfits like Tramp and Chilli Willi -- essentially pub rock, as the scene was called, and in 1979 she helped found the Blues Band, along with brother Dave, and original Fleetwood Mac bassist Bob Brunning. The band backed her on an ambitious show she staged during the early '80s, Ladies and the Blues, in which she paid tribute to her female heros. In 1988, Kelly began to suffer pain. A brain tumor was diagnosed and removed, and she seemed to have recovered, even touring again in 1990 with her brother before collapsing and dying on October 21. Posthumously, she's become a revered blues figure, one who helped clear the path for artists like Bonnie Raitt and Rory Block. But more than a figurehead, her recorded material -- and unreleased sides have appeared often since her death -- show that Kelly truly was a remarkable blueswoman.  AMG.

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Alejandro Escovedo - Gravity 1992

While Alejandro Escovedo had shown plenty of versatility over the first 15 years of his career in music -- playing with early punk ravers the Nuns, prescient alt-country upstarts Rank and File, and roots rock firebrands the True Believers, among many others -- it wasn't until the Believers took shape that he began to display his formidable gifts as a songwriter, and with his first solo album, Gravity, Escovedo belatedly made it clear that he possessed one of the strongest and most distinctive lyrical voices of his generation. Opening with "Paradise," a haunting first-person narrative of a man about to be hanged, Gravity is a strikingly accomplished set of songs that deal with love ("Broken Bottle," "Five Hearts Breaking"), death ("She Doesn't Live Here Anymore"), and loss ("The Last to Know," the title song) in deeply personal terms, and Escovedo tells his stories with a talent for finely woven detail that would be the envy of a first-rate novelist. And the diversity of Escovedo's years of musical experience shows in the album's arrangements, which range from quiet, contemplative pieces structured around cello and piano ("Broken Bottle," "She Doesn't Live Here Anymore") to full-on, amped-up barrelhouse rock & roll ("Oxford," "One More Time"); Turner Stephen Bruton's clean, unobtrusive production gets all the details on tape with admirable clarity. Not every songwriter has the luxury of spending a decade and a half on the sidelines honing his craft before making a solo bow, but even with that advantage, there are few people who have the talent and vision to create an album as strong and moving as Gravity; to call it an "auspicious debut" is to risk understatement. AMG.

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Brian Auger & The Trinity & Julie Driscoll - Open 1967

Brian Auger was raised in London, where he took up the keyboards as a child and began to hear jazz by way of the American Armed Forces Network and an older brother's record collection. By his teens, he was playing piano in clubs, and by 1962 he had formed the Brian Auger Trio with bass player Rick Laird and drummer Phil Knorra. In 1964, he won first place in the categories of "New Star" and "Jazz Piano" in a reader's poll in the Melody Maker music paper, but the same year he abandoned jazz for a more R&B-oriented approach and expanded his group to include John McLaughlin (guitar) and Glen Hughes (baritone saxophone) as the Brian Auger Trinity. This group split up at the end of 1964, and Auger moved over to Hammond B-3 organ, teaming with bass player Rick Brown and drummer Mickey Waller. After a few singles, he recorded his first LP on a session organized to spotlight blues singer Sonny Boy Williamson that featured his group, saxophonists Joe Harriott and Alan Skidmore, and guitarist Jimmy Page; it was Don't Send Me No Flowers, released in 1968.

By mid-1965, Auger's band had grown to include guitarist Vic Briggs and vocalists Long John Baldry, Rod Stewart, and Julie Driscoll, and was renamed Steampacket. More a loosely organized musical revue than a group, Steampacket lasted a year before Stewart and Baldry left and the band split. Auger retained Driscoll and brought in bass player Dave Ambrose and drummer Clive Thacker to form a unit that was billed as Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity. Their first album, Open, was released in 1967 on Marmalade Records (owned by Auger's manager, Giorgio Gomelsky), but they didn't attract attention on record until the release of their single, "This Wheel's on Fire," (music and lyrics by Bob Dylan and Rick Danko) in the spring of 1968, which preceded the appearance of the song on the Band's Music from Big Pink album. The disc hit the top five in the U.K., after which Open belatedly reached the British charts. Auger and the Trinity recorded the instrumental album Definitely What! (1968) without Driscoll, then brought her back for the double-LP, Streetnoise (1968), which reached the U.S. charts on Atco Records shortly after a singles compilation, Jools & Brian, gave them their American debut on Capitol in 1969. Driscoll quit during a U.S. tour, but the Trinity stayed together long enough to record Befour (1970), which charted in the U.S. on RCA Records, before disbanding in July 1970.

Auger put together a new band to play less commercial jazz-rock and facetiously called it the Oblivion Express, since he didn't think it would last; instead, it became his perennial band name. The initial unit was a quartet filled out by guitarist Jim Mullen, bass player Barry Dean, and drummer Robbie McIntosh. Their initial LP, Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, was released in 1971, followed later the same year by A Better Land, but their first U.S. chart LP was Second Wind in June 1972, the album that marked the debut of singer Alex Ligertwood with the band. Personnel changes occurred frequently, but the Oblivion Express continued to figure in the U.S. charts consistently over the next several years with Closer to It! (August 1973), Straight Ahead (March 1974), Live Oblivion, Vol. 1 (December 1974), Reinforcements (October 1975), and Live Oblivion, Vol. 2 (March 1976). Meanwhile, Auger had moved to the U.S. in 1975, eventually settling in the San Francisco Bay area. In the face of declining sales, he switched to Warner Bros. Records for Happiness Heartaches, which charted in February 1977. Encore, released in April 1978, was a live reunion with Julie Tippetts (née Driscoll) that marked the end of Auger's association with major record labels, after which he dissolved the Oblivion Express and recorded less often. In 1990, he teamed up with former Animals singer Eric Burdon, and the two toured together during the next four years, releasing Access All Areas together in 1993. In 1995, Auger put together a new Oblivion Express. As of 2000, the lineup consisted of his daughter, Savannah, on vocals, Chris Clermont on guitar, Dan Lutz on bass, and his son Karma on drums. This group issued the album Voices of Other Times on Miramar Records one week before Auger's 61st birthday.
Sixties pop diva-turned-avant jazz singer Julie Driscoll was born June 8, 1947 in London. As a teen she oversaw the Yardbirds' fan club, and it was the group's manager and producer Giorgio Gomelsky who encouraged her to begin a performing career of her own. In 1963 she issued her debut pop single "Take Me by the Hand," two years later joining the short-lived R&B combo Steampacket alongside Rod Stewart, Long John Baldry and organist Brian Auger. After Steampacket dissolved, Driscoll signed on with the Brian Auger Trinity, scoring a Top Five UK hit in 1968 with their rendition of Bob Dylan's "This Wheel's on Fire." Dubbed "The Face" by the British music press, Driscoll's striking looks and coolly sophisticated vocals earned her flavor of the month status, and she soon left Auger for a solo career. Her debut solo album 1969 heralded a significant shift away from pop, however, enlisting members of the Soft Machine and Blossom Toes to pursue a progressive jazz direction. Also contributing to the record was pianist Keith Tippett, whose avant garde ensembles Centipede and Ovary Lodge Driscoll soon joined. She and Tippett were later married, and she took her new husband's name, also recording as Julie Tippetts. With her 1974 solo masterpiece Sunset Glow, she further explored improvisational vocal techniques in settings ranging from folk to free jazz. Two years later, Tippett joined with Maggie Nicols, Phil Minton and Brian Ely to form the experimental vocal quartet Voice, and in 1978 also collaborated with Nicols on the duo album Sweet and s'Ours. A decade later, she and Keith released Couple in Spirit, and in 1991 Tippett teamed with over a dozen instrumentalists from Britain and the former Soviet Georgia in the Mujician/Georgian Ensemble. The following year, she re-recorded "This Wheel's on Fire" as the theme to the smash BBC comedy Absolutely Fabulous. AMG.

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