Ben Watt

NORTH MARINE DRIVE

BOTH CHERRY RED

In 1982, Thorn and Watt were Hull University students, both signed to the southern indie Cherry Red though, amazingly, they hadn’t met. That year, Watt recorded North Marine Drive for

THE MOD GENERATION

THE SKINHEAD GENERATION

THE NORTHERN SOUL GENERATION

THE SOUL BOY GENERATION

THE MOD REVIVAL GENERATION

THE RARE GROOVE GENERATION

THE ACID JAZZ GENERATION

ALL CASTLE

It’s difficult to picture the youth of 2003 mustering up the audacity to walk the streets dressed like Edwardian gents with sculpted duck’s arse hair-dos dripping with pomade while tottering on soles as thick as tractor tyres. Today, kids play ‘beat-em-ups’ on X-Boxes. Back then, they rumbled for real. So we’d like to believe anyway.

There will always be something richly romantic about the benchmark youth cults?the teds, the mods, the northern soul boys. On the surface all hemlines and haircuts, there was still plenty of musical passion behind the elitist fashions as demonstrated on these eight accompanying compilations to the S.O.U.L. TV documentary series. Nearly all exemplify young English white kids’ love affair with black music, be it the Skinheads’ appropriation of Jamaican ska, the northern soul crowd’s debt to East Coast R&B, the ’70s soul boy and rare groove sets’ shift towards funk and finishing with the ’80s acid jazz gang’s reinvention of Blue Note and hip hop as a man-made genre unto itself. Like aural dictionary definitions, these discs do a grand job of marking out each generation’s stylistic boundaries, aided by series producer Eddie Piller’s instructive sleeve notes.

Personal preference will, of course, be dictated by one’s own gang allegiance, though it’s hard not to recommend the excellent Mod CD or even its somewhat farcical sequel showcased on 1979’s Mod Revival (Secret Affair’s ridiculous “Time For Action” included). But nothing really tops The Teddy Boy Generation. Its opening hat-trick of Vince Taylor (the original “Brand New Cadillac”, even better than The Clash’s cover), Hank Mizell (“Jungle Rock”) and Johnny Burnette is simply unbeatable. Who needs the New Rock Revolution when the old one sounds this good?

Turning the post-’70s Love albums Out Here and False Start into a slimline disc is an exercise that will only appeal to the most completist Arthur Lee devotee, although liner note snaps of hard-to-find singles are a teaser. This Love Mk III arrived with the premise that the musicians couldn’t stand recreating Forever Changes et al, hardly likely to endear them to anyone now. Even so, the funky blues cul-de-sac isn’t the only direction. “Willow Willow”, “I Still Wonder” and “Stand Out” are archetypal sweet Lee moments; the Hendrix collaboration, “The Everlasting First”, recorded at London’s Olympic Studios, is no great shakes.

Beyond My Bloody Valentine, much of the silvery dreampop of the early ’90s has aged badly:hamstrung by insensitive productions; superseded by electronic solipsists. A pleasure, then, to discover how well Kitchens Of Distinction stand up. Julian Swales’ multi-dimensional guitar washes are still transporting, but it’s their zeal, humanity and surging tunes which really shine through in 2003. That, and the fact current New York darlings Interpol often sound like a KOD tribute band. Shame, though, that openly gay singers like Patrick Fitzgerald remain scarce in the covertly homophobic world of indie rock.

GRATEFUL DEAD

ANTHEM OF THE SUN

AOXOMOXOA

LIVE/DEAD

WORKINGMAN’S DEAD

AMERICAN BEAUTY

GRATEFUL DEAD [LIVE]

EUROPE ’72

HISTORY OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD VOL 1 (BEAR’S CHOICE)

ALL RHINO

When Jerry Garcia died in a drug treatment facility in California on August 9, 1995, most people assumed the Grateful Dead’s “long, strange trip” was surely over. Without Garcia, it was argued, the heart and soul of the Dead had passed away.

That wasn’t the entire case. The huge body of live and studio work they’d left behind had been an on-the-road legacy; now it became their salvation. All of these albums were available in the 2001 ‘coffin box set’, which retailed at around the

Dipping into the rarities bag, this 14-track compilation of soul and funk duets is designed to appeal to hardcore collectors rather than the general audience. Some of the tracks indeed are so rare that they have been transferred to disc from vinyl complete with obtrusive surface noise. Relative sound levels are likewise very roughly calculated. Among the participants are James Brown and Marva Whitney, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Ray Charles and Lillian Ford, and, amazingly, Peters and Lee. Strictly for specialists only.

Picture the wooden shack stove and pull up a rocking chair for this splendid reissue of 1959’s disc, augmented with a different take on “I’m So Worried Baby” and a chilled-out “Unfriendly Woman”. Remarkably prescient blues sounds live here in the shape of Hooker classics like “Dimples”, “Crawlin’ King Snake” (as covered by The Doors) and the standard “Boogie Chillun”.

It’s a quiet storm of controlled chaos from the man who put the grits in the Grammies.

Putting the techno into technology, Mute’s electronic sub-label are releasing this meaty compilation of rarities and former 12-inch singles in both 16-track CD and 28-track MP3 format. But who gives a fuck where the sound comes from, the only valid test is: does it rock? And yes, it mostly does, from the sci-fi Tardis whooshes of Umek to the beatific glitch’n’glide of Luke Slater, and from SI Futures’ sublime Kraftwerk pastiche “Eurostar” to the glistening Moroderesque pulses of 1st Bass. Quality and diversity prevail, with old-guard names like Derrick May and Nitzer Ebb holding their own against younger acid kids. Akufen’s blistering remix of Cabaret Voltaire’s “Nag Nag Nag”, for example, still sounds like disco-punk musique concr

The first of two Beeb collections scheduled this year (Vol 2’s 1971-73 Peel Sessions follows), this two-CD set captures Canterbury’s finest pot-noodlers in transit from May Day psychedelia to anarchic otherworldliness. From a previously unreleased 1967 session with Kevin Ayers (including a “Clarence In Wonderland” dewier and jauntier than his 1970 Shooting At The Moon version) to 1971’s “Eamonn Andrews/All White”, the trip from acid skylarking to squawking freeform jazz remains a startlingly expressive, if at times awkward, vision. Robert Wyatt’s “Moon In June” is a standout.

Memphis power pop is such an ever-expanding genre that Big Star’s Alex Chilton, the godfather of the scene, must wish he’d taken out copyright. The Scruffs are one of several pre-Replacements acts who tapped into that antsy girls-on-my-mind mood and pursued the blend of melancholia with added rock’n’roll rush to a logical conclusion. Fronted by Stephen Burns, this second Scruffs album (recorded in 1978/9) contains band staples like “Go Faster”, “Alice, Please Don’t Go” and the post-Flamin’ Groovies blood-letting of “Treachery”. Burns still fronts a Scruffy outfit and is big in Japan and Scotland?natch. Definitely one for the gurls.

A major influence on Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix and many more, Elmore James died in 1963, just as young British and American players were customising his scything fury for the mass market. But this intensive three-CD set shows his visceral but good-humoured style was still red hot on his final recordings for entrepreneur Bobby Robinson. With his vibrato guitar and anguished vocal at a peak, James’ magisterial reach is thrilling and indomitable, defying anyone to take his crown.

Dan Treacy is revered by some as a paragon of scruffy, scuffed outsider pop art, a punky British answer to Arthur Lee or Skip Spence. The fact that these devotees are the kind of people who hail Edward Ball as a genius and covet Biff Bang Pow! seven-inches speaks volumes. Sure enough, here we have the odd flash or two of inspiration (notably “King And Country” and “How I Learned To Love… The Bomb”) stifled by a general air of disappointment and opportunities missed. While the na

Kelly was unique in being a British white female singer working solely in the blues. The antithesis of Janis Joplin, this straight-faced performer based her vocal and guitar styles on male blues singers like Son House. This 45-track double features Jo Ann with a slew of helpers, including Tony McPhee and Mick Fleetwood.

THINGS WE LIKE

HARMONY ROW

OUT OF THE STORM

HOW’S TRICKS

POLYDOR

Jack Bruce made his first appearance in the ferocious mid-’60s R&B quartet The Graham Bond Organisation, singing and playing bass and harmonica with a uniquely passionate attack matched by his rhythm section partner, drummer Ginger Baker. The band made two highly collectable albums before splitting. Bruce went on, via a brief sojourn with Manfred Mann, to form Cream with Baker and Eric Clapton. One of the prototype power trios, Cream were among the leading British acts of the late ’60s, their reputaion built primarily on their concert performances which consisted of 90 per cent improvisation off the top of fierce, bluesy songs. Their career, however, lasted barely three years before changes in the scene forced them to call a halt to operations.

The Graham Bond Organisation’s closeness to the British jazz club scene of the time was confirmed on Things We Like, recorded in 1968 but not released until 1970. Bruce’s first solo album after the break-up of Cream thus became 1969’s Songs For A Tailor. Here, his classical training?he’s a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, where he studied piano and cello?came into play with more exploratory songwriting and arranging. An outstanding album in its day, Songs For A Tailor turns up as fresh as ever among his batch of reissues, With this release, Bruce managed to combine his skilled musicianship with a direct approach assisted by the memorable surrealism of Pete Brown’s lyrics. The later albums, of which Harmony Row is the best, are harmonically ingenious but less immediately communicative and will appeal only to determined fans of the fiery Scot’s sometimes recherch

Lou Reed

NYC MAN

BMG

Compilations of the velvet underground and Lou Reed in solo guise are nothing new?Polydor’s ‘Coke Bottle’ set and sundry Reed hits packages can be found next to the original artefacts, but with interest in the current New York scene reaching epidemic proportions in Europe, it’s timely to receive these complementary discs.

The Velvet Underground’s rise from cult heroes to car advertisers with an outtake that jingles like a nursery rhyme?”I’m sticking with you, cos I’m made out of glue”?shouldn’t disguise their more serious intent. As Andy Warhol’s house band at the Factory and the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, the Velvets, with and without German chanteuse Nico, personified the cool, street-level stink of New York. They explored the leather-coated underbelly in “I’m Waiting For The Man” and “Venus In Furs” and made a late stab for radio-friendly acceptance with the classic Loaded album, which included “Sweet Jane” and “Rock And Roll”. This 18-cut single disc will do nothing to dissuade those who suspect Lou’s involvement was somewhat stronger than John Cale’s, but as a walk-in introduction it makes a great dinner party backdrop.

Lou’s much larger post-Velvets legacy is harder to cull. The double-CD NYC Man makes a decent fist of mixing the obvious with the esoteric?it even stays up to date thanks to a selection from The Raven. Potential buyers should note overlap in the Loaded department and may find themselves duplicating Transformer songs yet again. But anyone who missed out on New York, Magic And Loss or Set The Twilight Reeling (which provides the title cut) can buy a ticket and jump on that seamy subway.

HALBER MENSCH

FUENF AUF DER NACH OBEN OFFENEN RICHTERSKALA

HAUS DER LUGE

ALL POTOMAK

Fronting the German wing of industrial music, Blixa Bargeld’s Einst

Clarence White

TUFF & STRINGY (SESSIONS 1966-68)

BIG BEAT

Along with splinter duo Gene Parsons’ and Gib Guilbeau’s Louisiana Rain (aka Cajun Country), Nashville West’s semi-legendary 1967 live outing is as important a country-rock harbinger as anything by Gene, Gram or The Byrds (all regulars at NW gigs). Alongside Guilbeau and future Byrd Parsons, Wayne Moore and ace guitar picker-cum-Byrd Clarence White cooked up Bakersfield twang and semi-cajun R&B that redefined California’s musical map for ever.

Meanwhile, ex-Kentucky Colonel White’s collection of rarities, demos and outtakes is a fascinating glimpse of the great man’s development as solo artist and innately sympathetic sessioneer on the cusp of Byrdsdom, including his dry run for “Nashville West” from Dr Byrds And Mr Hyde: “Hong Kong Hillbilly”.

Still one of the best-kept secrets in US pop-rock history, The Raspberries, in the early ’70s, made an awesome ringing noise. There’s more energy here than is strictly decent, and surely only the fact singer Eric Carmen went on to mainstream success with MOR ballad “All By Myself” denied them the status granted Big Star, their nearest soundalikes. Plus their being decked out in white suits and touted as ‘the new Beatles’. No matter?Carmen sings like a hero, and three-minute riff-riots like “Go All The Way”, “Ecstasy” and “Tonight” are fresh, vibrant Who, Beach Boys and Byrds pastiches. Then, of course, there’s “Overnight Sensation”, deconstructing themselves and daring to have not one but two cheaply operatic false endings. Be blown away.