CD & VINYL REVIEW ROUND-UP #11

This week, in issue 11, I offer you eight recent releases for review, splitting the content  between vinyl and CDs

ON CD

GLENN HUGHES

Title: The Official Bootleg Box Set Volume Three: 1995-2010

Label: Purple Box

Presented as a clamshell box with suitably distressed, make-shift, slightly edgy and ‘street’ box art, the contents feature six CDs of musical ditties plus a fold-out booklet sheet that serves as a poster on one side and a tracklist/catalogue on the flip.

The CDs themselves reveal a rather disparate spread of concerts. What I mean by that is, you see the title of the box set and you immediately imagine an even spread of concerts ranging over that time period to rest gently upon 2010 after an exhausting build up. 

Not so. In fact, what you have here is Hughes showing us how darned busy he was in 1995. Then he apparently collapsed into bed in time for Christmas of 1995 and didn’t wake up, Sleeping Beauty-like, until 2008 whereupon he dived back into gigging, spreading that energy to 2010. Whereupon he rested once more, in god-like fashion presumably, and saw that it was good.

Specifically, CD1 and CD2 features a 1995 show to support his then latest album Feel plus the previous year’s From Now On… at the Wulfrun Hall in Wolverhampton on 17 November 1995. They include solo offerings such as Big Time and The Liar plus Trapeze songs Coast To Coast and Way Back To The Bone.

The following day, supposedly full of energy and life, Hughes was back but this time in the LA2 in London, with a similar list of songs from his solo years, Trapeze and Deep Purple.

Esquires in Bedford on 3 May 2008 occupies CD4 that includes a similar mix plus a rare airing of his debut solo single I Found A Woman and The Moody Blues’ Nights In White Satin.

The final two discs feature a show recorded at the Spring & Airbrake, Belfast on 9 October 2010 (CD5 & CD6).

Offering great value plus lots of high-energy performances and fair master quality, this is a valuable archive document on the Glenn Hughes career.

MARY COUGHLAN

Title: Life Stories

Label: Hail Mary 

Galway in Ireland saw the birth of our Mary in in 1956. And then it went downhill from there, really. Drugs and alcohol didn’t help and the lady found herself in a mental hospital. Then she tootled off to London and checked into a hippy squat at 19 years of age. Waitressing here, sweeping streets there.

She turned to singing after meeting, of all people, Dutch music legend Erik Visser. Visser had spent the 60s and 70s playing in psychedelic rock and rock bands then moved to Ireland, hooked up with indigenous musicians, married an Irish lady and started a family.

Visser also remained musically active in Ireland and after meeting Coughlan he co-wrote, arranged and produced her 1985 debut album Tired and Emotional which was, it has to be said, a roaring success. It went platinum in 1986. Visser’s collaboration with Mary Coughlan resulted in 8 albums: Under the Influence (1987), Sentimental Killer (1992), Love for Sale (1993), Live in Galway (1995), After the Fall (1997) and The House of Ill Repute (2008).

This new album has been beautifully mastered and bathes in a delicate wash of space and air that tracks reverb from the vocal all the way down to cymbal taps. In bass terms, there’s an organic confidence here and a tonal balance that book ends the sound nicely with the resonance piano. 

I’ve heard Coughlan’s voice described as “smoky” but it isn’t. It really isn’t That’s a lazy label. Instead, Coughlan has a voice chiselled by years of experiences. It emerges through a brain filter of memories. What you’re hearing here is a series of conclusions. That is, she’s settled into a way of living. I may have this horribly wrong I know, but Coughlan sounds like she’s come to terms with herself and she’s done. And from that position, she’s now telling her story. From that point onwards. So her lyrics are delivered with great weight and a knowledge of what goes on out there. 

Her music is full of lazy, slurring swing combined with blues/folk lullabies as well as an irreverence of independence. Her voice is heavy with time.

BILL WYMAN

Title: Blues Odyssey

Label: Edsel

This CD box set is backwards in terms of how it emerged and where it came from. That is, this was a TV and DVD-based project. The CDs and the music within, emerged from that. As Wyman himself said, “When I first began my Blues Odyssey project I concentrated on making a television series that would introduce people to the blues. This soon expanded to include a book and it seemed only natural to produce this CD to accompany both the book and the television shows.”

So it comes as no surprise then that the DVD itself has been included inside the clamshell box set, along with two CDs packed with a compilation of blues songs and artists and a glossy booklet detailing the same. 

The DVD includes interviews with the likes of B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Mick Fleetwood, Mike Love, Albert Lee and also related figures like Rosetta Patton – Charley’s daughter – and Big Bill Morganfield (the son of Muddy Waters).

The CDs are packed with legendary figures too but the 46 tracks included in total here don’t just feature the more generally well known names. There’s Bumble Bee Slim’s Ramblin’ With That Woman, Casey Bill Weldon’s W.P.A. Blues and ‘Cow Cow’ Davenport’s Railroad Blues. 

The accompanying booklet does a good job in squeezing as much essential information into the limited page count as possible. For example, let’s take Mr Davenport here and we find that he was the first piano blues player to achieve a breakthrough “in his own right”, accompanying Dora Carr back in 1924, it was then that he called himself Charles. It was only later when the train-infused song, Cow Cow Blues gave him his nickname. 

As you might expect, dynamic reach on a lot of these tracks is limited along with a bright edge to the presentation. Saying that though, Edsel has done a fine job to round off the aggressive nature of much of this work to present a fine archival line up. 

PINK FAIRIES AND FRIENDS

Titles: Chinese Cowboys/Dr. Crow/Pick Up The Phone America!

Label: Floating World

Last year, the Floating World label reissued three albums from the band that were originally released on Universal. This 3CD collection appears in a jewel case (and the use of the multi-hinged case variant is slowly becoming a rare occurrence nowadays, it has to be said). 

The record label has worked with Fairies’ guitarist Andy Colquhoun (ex-Warsaw Pakt and Tanz Der Youth) who joined the Fairies for their pleasantly monikered 1987 album Kill ‘Em And Eat ‘Em.  

Actually, it’s Colquhoun who is the focus of this release. The entire set revolves around the man. This is why the ‘and Friends’ part of the title exists. The Fairies, in fact, are only a part of this box set story. Andy Colquhoun and Friends would have been a more honest, though possibly less saleable, title.

This compilation of three albums includes the live recording Pink Fairies – Chinese Cowboys that was taken from two dates on their 1987 tour. The first from Leeds and the other at Long Marston Speedway. The sound is typically bright and thin in the lower frequencies. A good quality bootleg, you might say, full of high-energy rock.

Next in line and similar in musical style is Dr. Crow by the Pink Fairies’ forerunner The Deviants featuring Mick Farren and Andy Colquhoun. That’s not all the dudes in this band, though. Witness the talents of Blodwyn Pig’s Jack Lancaster and Phil Taylor from Motorhead plus members of Wayne Kramer’s band. The sound is edgy with rather clinical mids and jabbing bass.

And finally Andy Colquhoun’s later solo outing Pick Up The Phone America which features some fine solo lead guitar work and has a slightly new wave crunch. Sound is slightly more open around the soundstage but also retains the clinical approach. 

Check out the included glossy booklet, penned by Alan Robinson who does his usual fine job on providing a blend of information and entertainment. 

THE PATHETX

Title: 1981

Label: Third Man

A Detroit punk band, The Pathetx were a five-piece bundle of energy consisting of Mark Leavitt on vocals, Greg Kutcher on lead guitar who was joined by Tom McHenry on rhythm (joining after being discovered at a local community college) and Mick Goldwater on bass (aka Filthy McNasty who tried out for the band at a local music store). Drums were handled by the late Ted Meek (or ‘Iggy Moon’, found via a locals listings service of the Detroit News).

So then. You’ve got a punk cum hardcore band. And they stand there. And they play Climb Every Mountain from the Sound of Music? Oh yes. And let’s not forget It’s Fun to be Clean by the Human Beinz. Neither of which are on this Third Man LP release. A sad fact but ’tis so. 

In fact, if you take a look at Discogs, you won’t find much else. Well, anything else. This is the first release by the band and spans a whopping great 18 minutes. And sixteen seconds. Seconds really count on an eighteen minute album.

So, you have to ask, why? Because a multi-track tape recording was made at the Reel Sound Studio, late 1981. Which was the promptly lost. Band manager Steve Shaw did have a master in his possession for over three decades. Which is why, after more than 38 years, this LP has hit the shelves.

The label call this music “fast and unhinged” and I wouldn’t disagree. There’s a distinct classic three-chord, late-70s punk attitude and presentation here with the uncontrolled, controlled vocals ranging across the scale backed by a wall of guitar sound.

This is an album crammed with energy so that 18 minutes or so will seem like a lot longer, to be frank. The guys pack in about 48 hours worth of energy and passion into this brief time. 

AVERAGE WHITE BAND

Title: Feel No Fret

Label: Demon

This is an interesting album but maybe not for the reason you expect. Why? Because it represented their decline after many years of success at the Atlantic label. For the first eight or so albums, despite a hiccup here and there, the band persisted in producing quality music. 

One of the very few white bands of the time that produced quality funk, well-received by all too, funk that seemingly had absolutely nothing to do with their Scottish roots. Music that seemed at odds with the same, in fact. 

Alan Gorrie on bass and vocals teamed with with guitarists Hamish Stuart and Onnie McIntyre plus the sax of Malcolm Duncan, Roger Ball on keys and sax and drummer Robbie McIntosh 

Once the Arif Mardin-produced instrumental Pick Up the Pieces hit the public, the band was secured in place and received many plaudits and success.

Another Top 10 hit followed in 1975 via the title track from the album, Cut the Cake, amongst other well received singles with their final Top 40 hit being the single, Queen of My Soul.

And then this one appeared in 1979. It wasn’t well received by the public, at least compared to earlier releases and failed to gain the then usual gold or better sales status. 

If was also the first album that wasn’t produced by the genius of Arif Mardin. This self-produced outing is good, don’t get me wrong. There’s plenty to like here. The issue is that the band play within themselves. They ‘make do’. They’re comfortable. They’re in a rut. For some fans, of course, that ‘rut’ will be enough.

This reissue is rather nice from the UK audiophile outfit, Demon. Presented in a gatefold sleeve, the vinyl has been pressed upon clear wax.

BLUE ÖYSTER CULT

Title: Fire of the Unknown Origin

Label: Music on Vinyl

Ahh, rock bands an umlauts, eh? Someone could write a book on that phenomenon alone.

You could call this LP release a turning point. A girding of the loins. An album where the band woke up from their reverie, pulled themselves together, raised their socks to acceptable levels, dug deep into the bucket of creativity, pulled out a finger, made…well you get the idea. 

This one was released in 1981. Before its release, fans had clamped their eyes and ears on two earlier releases of contrasting quality. In 1979, Mirrors produced chin scratching and lots of “Hmmm.” while Cultosaurus Erectus (1980) certainly had its fans but the catcalls could still be heard. 

This release seemed to lift the group back on its pedestal. 

Maybe the producer Sandy Pearlman, Richard Meltzer, and Patti Smith who all penned lyrics, helped to strengthen the bedrock of the LP while science-fiction writer Michael Moorcock also assisted.

You could say that the core songwriting quality was the reason this LP found success. Tracks like Heavy Metal: The Black and the Silver, Burning For You (which became a Top 40 hit) and the wonderfully named Joan Crawford were just some of the highlights.

The keyboard work was also magnificent while the back-up guitars added strength and a sense of forward motion to the entire album.

The LP featuring Eric Bloom (vocals), Albert Bouchard (drums), Joe Bouchard (bass), Allen Lanier (keys), Buck Dharma (Guitar) remains a little cracker and should be sought out by both fans and those looking to investigate BOC’s work.

This well mastered release appears on a fetching blue vinyl with a paper insert showing sleeve art of other BOC releases plus credit information.

AVISHAI COHEN

Title: Big Vicious

Label: ECM

“All the way from Israel…!” Isn’t that the sort of thing they say when introduding an artist on stage? Well Cohen is certainly that and this is his fourth outing for the German label. The band he offers for your entertainment here is actually one that had its roots in 2013 because they met back then in Israel. So I’m talking about Uzi Ramirez on guitar and Yonatan Albalak on electric bass. There are drummers. Plural. They are Aviv Cohen and Ziv Ravitz. Ravitz also dabbles in sampling. 

The music here is nicely accessible but don’t let that term put you off if you’re looking for complex, supremely played and arranged jazz. There’s that too. What Cohen does here is to combine both complexity and skill and forge that lot into a palatable dish. Hence, even music fans who don’t normally like jazz will find something of interest here. 

The rhythmic nature of a track like Teardrop means that it’s easy for the ear to become lost in the sweep and the ambience of the arrangement. The purity of the Cohen trumpet flies across the soundstage with effortless ease, extends the range in musical and also dynamic terms while minor chords add emotion and richness to the story.

Honey Fountain is almost two tracks in one where the backing band noodle away in a gentle jazz rock reverie while Cohen hovers over them all in a trumpet-powered drone, flying smoothly over the music, observing rather than interfering. The band seemingly proceeding on their own course while Cohen almost makes notes about the progress below. 

Thus, as ever with any ECM release, this is a jazz album but not one you will expect and the music is all the better for it.