Manfred Mann - "Soul of Mann (Instrumentals)" Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Reissue (Umbrella)

This past year I have been going through an ongoing appreciation for the band Manfred Mann.  Both Paul Jones and Mike D'Abo years.  During the Paul Jones era and in between the two lead singers, the band recorded a series of instrumentals as b-sides and album cuts.  What I find fascinating about the group is that they are jazz players playing pop as well as blues or rhythm n' blues, but I get their very essence is jazz.   Manfred Mann recorded pop music, but it is the tension between the commercial music and their jazz leanings, which gives them an intensity.

"Soul of Mann" is a fantastic compilation of their instrumentals, which are mostly based on pop songs.  Done with excellent jazz arrangements, as well as some originals and their take on jazz artists/composers as Milt Jackson and Nat Adderley.   The album is very "Mod" orientated, and the cool here is essential.   The album fits very much into Milt Jackson world as well as the Mod planet of The Who, The Small Faces, and Graham Bond Organization.  

David Bowie ' "Spying Through A Keyhole" 4 × Vinyl, 7", Mono, 2019 (Parlophone)

A good season for the Bowie lunatic.  Parlophone and the Bowie estate has been releasing a series of demos, that is from the late 1960s.  All are fascinating.   "Spying Through A Keyhole" is part of a two-volume boxset of 7" singles.  Elaborate packaging, perhaps a tad too much of a design project, still the music inside is way more than worthwhile.   This boxset is four 7" singles (9 tracks), and it's total Kenneth Pitt era Bowie.  Before he went Anthony Newley, he had a folk fixation that eventually turned into British Music Hall aesthetic, but at this time, and demo quality, a quiet look into the Bowie psyche.  The famous song here is "Space Oddity," and we get two versions, one just an excerpt, and the other is a more full arranged with the assistance of guitar and voice John "Hutch Hutchinson.   Who I think plays a bigger part in the other Bowie 'demos,' but more of that in another blog post.

The obscure songs here are "Mother Grey," "Love All Around," and "Angel Angel Grubby Face."  Not as great as the other undiscovered Bowie material, but still interesting to hear how strong his sense of aesthetic and vision was at the time.  The other obscure number, and it's excellent is "Goodbye Threepenny Joe."   A great melody, lyric, and I don't know why he didn't re-do this song on a future release.  For me, this is the tune that is worth the whole package.  If you are a Bowie lunatic, you must have this package, but there are better demo albums out there by David, and I will be writing about them shortly.

V.A. - "The Freakbeat Scene" 2 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation, 2019 (Decca)

I'm a firm believer in book publishers as well as record labels.  If the label has some history or vision, I will buy that record.  Decca, which is enormous, always been of some interest to me.  Especially anything released in the 1960s and British.   Decca this year and the previous 12 months have been releasing these compilations focusing on the Mod and Psychedelic British 45 rpm singles, that if one tries to trace down would be very expensive and time-consuming.  So, the Decca compilations are very good and overall excellent for the pocketbook.  "The Freakbeat Scene is 25 songs by various bands, that mostly failed in getting that hit.  This is a collection of songs that didn't even get close to getting airplay in the UK, or on the charts.

Still, genius is in the details, and there is a lot of brilliant series of moments on this double-album.  Some are so-so, but that only adds to the excitement when you hear an incredible song.  Freakbeat by definition is the crazy part of The Who when their guitar goes all feedback, Keith Moon is slashing at the drum cymbals, and distorted bass.  On the other hand, The Who is not on this compilation, but we do have The Small Faces, who are always magnificent.  Beyond that, everyone here is very obscure.   Which is not to say that their recording deserves a wider (and wilder) audience, but fate is sometimes someone asleep at the wheel or the entrance to success.

The genius track here is by a band called The Fairytale, and it's "Run & Hide."  A very ugly song lyric about a girl who is 'bad' and the male singer sounds psychotic, still a remarkable record.  I have their other three songs in other collections and formats since they only released two 45 rpm singles.  Then they disappeared.   In fact, most of the bands here disappeared, but there were some successes in later life, for instance, Chris Squire and Peter Banks who were members of Yes, but here they're The Syn.  And although there is no clue to the future sound of Yes, still an excellent record. Even a young Marc Bolan has a song here, but one would not recognize the Bolan vocal, until the chorus where you can hear that vibrato in his voice.

The mystery track here is by Shel Naylor, which one suspects is Dave Davies of the Kinks, with Jimmy Page on guitar.  Naylor himself is a phantom.  In fact, this album is full of ghosts and spirits.  "Come on Back" by Paul & Ritchie & The Cryin' Shames is a Joe Meek production.  So that's always good.   It's excellent that Decca, such a mega-label, still had the nerve to release somewhat weird records.

King Crimson - "THRAK" CD, Album, 1995 (Virgin)

I have entered into the forbidden.  For the past year or so, I  have been listening to King Crimson, a band that I once avoided due that I couldn't stand the word "Prog."   Prejudice is an ugly thing to have in one's life, but in my fashion, I slowly started listening to the first five King Crimson albums and realized that I enjoy the music due to the intensity of the band's playing, but also their compositional streak.  In a way, it reminds me of Duke Ellington, not in style, but the fact that Robert Fripp has firm control of the band, but yet allows each musician to participate in the overall sound of the project on hand. "THRAK" is the only album I have that features guitarist and lyricist Adrian Belew in the King Crimson line up.

"THRAK" is a right name for this album, because that is what it sounds like.  It's a tense, textural record with incredible percussion flourishes, but also the intensity of the guitars riffing against each other, but with the overall approach of Fripp's soundscaping, that in a sense is the foundation of this work.   Of the King Crimson albums I own and listened to, "THRAK" is by far the heaviest due to the force of the instrumentals and some of the vocal works.  As usual, I think the weak link to King Crimson is the lyrics.  Whatever it is by Belew or others, it seems to be second thought compared to the sound of the music.   

Moreover, it's the sound of the recording and arrangements that give it a full sonic plate.   The beauty of Fripp and company is that they do look back, but always go forward.  The unique line up of a double trio or having two percussionists (Pat Mastelotto & Bill Bruford), two bassists (Tony Levin & Trey Gunn), two guitarists (Fripp & Belew), is that it's not a mess, but again, like an Ellington big band, it fits the entire motif of the big sound.