Miles Davis - "Ascender pour l'Échafaud" 3 × Vinyl, LP, 10", Album, Deluxe Edition, Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered (2018/1958 (Fontana)

According to my current bank statement, I'm broke, yet, I couldn't help myself purchasing this three-10" disk set of the Miles Davis' definition of perfection "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud."  The Louis Malle film is fantastic of course, but the soundtrack music is one of those series of perfect aural moments.  With incredible backing from French Jazz musicians Pierre Michelot, René Urtreger, Barney Wilen, and the great American drummer Kenny Clarke.   The mood is consistent, which has traces of sadness and reflection.  The ultimate 'Modal' sounding album, it reflects the sound of a moody sea or a sense of moisture on a Parisian pavement.  

I have at least four versions of this soundtrack album.  It is consistently reissued in various formats, but my favorite is the 10" record.   Last year, they released a 10" original version, but this package includes all the outtakes throughout three discs.  For the new listener, I would suggest this above package because it sounds phenomenal, and there is not a bad or wasted cut on this album, including the extra bonus cuts.   Economically you can find a more inexpensive version, but then again, why do you want a discount of vinyl greatness?  

The album works in the early morning as well as late in the evening.  It has a purity or a sense of place that is meditative, but not background music.  Choosing a favorite Miles album is almost pointless, due to his vast recorded history.  Although, on a very subjective level, this is my favorite Miles album.  It never fails in supplying me the food I need to move on, and although I don't feel it's a spiritual work, but perhaps more of a sexual experience.   Sensuality that is the forefront, and therefore the ultimate sound of lovemaking that enters the brain.  

The Herd - "Lookin Thru You" Vinyl, Album, U.S., 1968 (Fontana)

The Herd is a very typical band of their era, as well as unusual.   The truth is, the 1960s were an extraordinary decade when it came to a lot of things, but for me, the music defined its eccentricity, and there is nothing ordinary about The Herd, in that sense.   Peter Frampton, a pin-up rock god of the 1970s, was also the pin-up teen pop star of the late 1960s.  Still, I was surprised to hear The Herd, and hearing not only Frampton's voice, but also The Walker Brothers, a touch of Procol Harum, very early David Bowie, and a pinch of ska, with respect to its rhythms.  Baroque in style, but the closest thing I can also think of is Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich in its ridiculous manner of over-the-top pop.   They also share the songwriting talents of Alan Blaikley and Ken Howard, better to known to us record label readers as "Howard Blaikley."  I first discovered the duo through Joe Meeks' 1964 band The Honeycombs, who had the enormous hit "Have I The Right."

I know very little about the history of The Herd, except that all of them were teenagers when they were in the band.   They had three hit songs in England and Europe, and they made one album in the U.K. and this album, "Lookin' Thru You" is their only American release.  Basically a bastard version of their British album "Paradise Lost" and a load of other singles.   When I was a young boy in the 1960s, I remember having a mass paperback of the upcoming bands from the UK, and among many, The Herd was in that pile.   They stood out because of their photo.  Their perfect haircuts seduced me. It took almost 50 years until I purchase their album.  Time waits for no one.  Except hearing The Herd.  It doesn't take me back to my youth, or the love of their haircuts, but the fact that they made pop music that is insane and beautifully accurate for their time. Listening to it in 2018 I'm struck by the imaginative use of orchestration and horns.  And the voices are entirely from the Scott Walker method of attacking and embracing a melody.  

Without a doubt their masterpiece is "From The Underworld" is mythical as well as a teenage pop narrative.  It's fascinating that pop songwriters like Blaikley and Howard can slip in something magnificent in the lyrics and sell it as teenage angst.  That's the brilliance of pop, in the hands of crafty and brilliant songwriters.   The other classic is "Paradise Lost" which starts off as a stripper's theme song, and then goes into this dark classical mode, which is similar to "From The Underworld." The transition from one place to another is breathtakingly beautiful.  

Besides the two veteran songwriters, Frampton and Andy Bown co-wrote a lot of songs as well, which sounds a lot like The Small Faces.  Which ironically (or not) enough, Frampton went off with Steve Marriott to form Humble Pie.  The secret weapon in The Herd is their bassist who can sing like Scott Walker.  Gary Taylor also writes for The Herd as well, and his voice is just magnificent.  The Herd has a lot of strength, and why they didn't make it in a huge way is a mystery to me.  Sometimes the cards are not in favor of its players, and The Herd left us some incredible music.