LP 045: Francois De Roubaix - Les Plus Belles Musiques De... Volume 3 (Barclay, 1979)

Side 1
01 Mort D'Un Guide
02 Mauvaise Nouvelle On Ne Part Plus
03 Militerreurs
04 "Cefou" S'Que J'T'Aime
05 Pat-Benj
06 Luna Parking

Side 2
07 La Frite Equatoriale
08 Charo
09 La Fete Des Deux Avions
10 Les Marchancres
11 Nervous Breakdown
12 Les Industricheurs Font Des Enfants

The French film score composer Francois De Roubaix died on 22 November 1975 at the age of 36.

It is appropriate that the 34th anniversary of his death can be marked by sharing this wonderful posthumous compilation.

While volumes 1 and 2 in the series showcase the more well-known works, volume 3 is a different beast. Some of the tracks were recorded for the movie L'Antarctique (but never used) while a number of others were made for various shorts.

Mort D'Un Guide starts off the album on a slow-burning synth trip that unravels after five glorious minutes.
Mauvaise Nouvelle On Ne Part Plus is marvellous; an atmospheric rollercoaster of jagged electronic experimentation while the intense Militerreurs pulls you in with a delightful melody.
Luna Parking has been described by the Diggers' Digest as "crazy electronic jerk". Spot on. Great disembodied vocal too.

Check out Pat-Benj for atmospheric and menacing piano jazz. A real late evening vibe to this one. It sounds like it was recorded in an open-air studio and has the same flavour as John Martyn's Small Hours.

Flip the record over to be assaulted by La Frite Equatoriale. It starts with that "aqua drum" sound and a lovely flute before the keyboards kick in. Nifty percussive work here as well.

Charo is just gorgeous. Minimal synth waves that are truly spine-tingling. Then the centerpiece - La Fete Des Deux Avions - with its tinkling refrain gradually building the tension into a superb piece of lush ambient soundscaping.

The sparse Les Marchancres allows the listener a brief breather before plunging into a series of melancholy chord stabs. Then we come to Nervous Breakdown with its icy piano work - another experimental track that pays off with repeated listens.

The LP closes with the childlike and melodic Les Industricheurs Font Des Enfants. A brief track that works as a kind of coda to what has come before. Ideal for the closing credits of mid 1970s French thriller.

Comments and feedback are welcome.

Les Plus Belles Musiques De... Volume 3

LP 044: Various Other Artists - The World Of Heavy Hits (Decca, 1972)

Side 1
01 Living Lovin' Maid
02 Alright Now
03 Tomorrow Night
04 Bad Moon Rising
05 He's Gonna Step On You Again
06 Black Night

Side 2
07 Brown Sugar
08 Paranoid
09 Devil's Answer
10 Born On The Bayou
11 Strange Kind Of Woman
12 Whole Lotta Love

This is a real curio. Back in the golden era (1965 - 1975) Decca's World Of... series was everywhere. Various artist compilations and single artist primers were the mainstays.

The World Of Heavy Hits is different though. A group of unknown and uncredited session men plough their way through contemporary hard rock tunes of the day - including numbers from Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Creedence Clearwater Revival to name a few.

In practically every case they manage to pull it off.

High points - He's Gonna Step On You Again with sludgey tribal drumming and a naggingly addictive bassline. Sorry about the unavoidable little skip.
Whole Lotta Love gives the original a run for its money while Black Night is lean and mean.

The pair of CCR tracks are nicely played too. The swamp rock certainly doesn't lose anything in translation. A bumpy but fun ride.

Comments and feedback are welcome.

The World Of Heavy Hits

LP 043: Henry Mancini - The Cop Show Themes (RCA, 1976)

Side 1
01 Mystery Movie Theme
02 The Streets Of San Francisco
03 Bumper's Theme
04 Medley: Kojak / S.W.A.T.

Side 2
05 Baretta's Theme
06 The Rockford Files
07 Hawaii Five-O
08 Police Woman

The shortest one so far - The Cop Show Themes clocks in at a mere 25 minutes without a second being wasted.

The Mystery Movie Theme immediately brings me back to watching 1970s TVMs late at night with my Dad [ABC Movie Of The Week-type stuff] - even though the theme belonged to a totally separate and unrelated NBC series. The one with the guy carrying the torch. Spooky!

The Streets Of San Francisco never sounded better with the funk being turned up to eleven and serious blowin' energy being burned.

"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time' intoned later seasons of Baretta. No lyrics here but the solemn warning is eerily evoked in a sparse arrangement of this groovy theme.

The Kojak / S.W.A.T. medley is pretty shimmering in its disco-like synth breakdowns while a decent if somewhat laidback take on The Rockford Files leads us nicely into a dramatic Hawaii Five-O.

Finally we come to the big one - Police Woman.
What a break! Sampled by Outkast, RZA and Jurassic 5 to name but a few, this is one ill tune and a worthy closer.

So good, you'll want to hit play all over again.

Comments and feedback are welcome.

The Cop Show Themes

LP 042: Leo Muller - Right On! Soul Hits (Stereo Gold Award, 1972)

Side 1
01 You Said A Bad Word
02 You're The Man (Part 1)
03 Walkin' In The Rain With The One I Love
04 Cyclone Blues
05 Funk Factory

Side 2
06 Woman's Gotta Have It
07 There It Is (Part 1)
08 Outa Space
09 Two-Hour Night Rider
10 First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Another jewel in the Stereo Gold Award crown. Leo Muller and his merry band of session men cover eight soul hits of the day in a fiery fashion with a pair of original number thrown in for good measure.

Joe Tex's You Said A Bad Word wouldn't be out of place in a Tarantino film. Funky drumming, soaring vocals and a baaaad attitude make for a blinding start.

Marvin Gaye's You're The Man is a faithful take and one which preserves the street narrative and urban vibe of the original.

My favourite is probably track 3 - a super version of Barry White's Walkin' In The Rain. A solemn female spoken vocal with sublime backing singers. And wow - that telephone call.

"Baby I'm home. I got something to tell you".

Cyclone Blues is a brooding homemade instrumental while Wilson Pickett's Funk Factory brings the first side to a workmanlike and gritty close.

Woman's Gotta Have It is an uplifting and soulful cover that's quite faithful to Bobby Womack's version. The Godfather is cloned on There It Is - a remarkably authentic slice of jerky funk.
The best instrumentation must go to Outa Space which outfunks Billy Preston and ups the wah-wah quotient to maximum grooviness.

The second self-penned track, Two-Hour Night Rider, adds a bluesy downbeat tinge which prepares us for a emotional conclusion - a naked, austere and powerful rendition of First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

So there you have it. Who would have thought a 37 year old cheap and hastily recorded soul covers album could sound so good?

Comments and feedback are welcome.

Right On! Soul Hits

LP 041: David Moses Group - Golden Trumpet (Saga, 1968)

Side 1
01 Quite Fast
02 Ride The Night
03 You'd Better Watch Out
04 Like A Smile
05 Don't Tell Amelia

Side 2
06 Say It's All Right
07 Laughter In The Night
08 The Sound Of Love
09 Loving To Spare
10 Blue Frug

The Saga label means a number of things to me.
1) Recycled vinyl
2) Musical extremes - amazing or dire
3) Imaginative roster spread very wide

Golden Trumpet emerged in 1968 and lasts for 31 minutes.
Listening to it is like being locked in a sweaty swinging London cavern with the house band playing a meaty form of organ-driven r'n'b with brass to the max.

Quite Fast starts proceedings off with some wonderful scat singing over melodic acoustic bass.
You'd Better Watch Out is a deranged piece of agitated keyboard and trumpet goodness.

Don't Tell Amelia is wonderfully out of tune but sung from the heart. Man.
Say It's All Right starts with a wild yell but when the brass instrumentation kicks in, it gets kinda plaintive.

Loving To Spare has got regret and uncertainty in spades while the upbeat Blue Krug brings the LP to a swinging and chaotic conclusion. "Come on everybody! We want everybody to have lots of fun!".

And that we do.

Comments and feedback are welcome.

Golden Trumpet

LP 040: The Boston - Hair Dance Selections (Cornet Special, 1969)

Side 1
01 Hair
02 Good Morning Starshine
03 Be-In
04 What A Piece Of Work Is Man
05 I Got Life
06 3500

Side 2
07 Aquarius
08 Walking In Space
09 Air
10 Frank Mills
11 Manchester, England
12 Let The Sunshine In

Another day, another Hair LP.

The Boston were a young beat combo hailing from a variety of different places - England, Ireland (yay! - Dublin and Dungarvan to be exact), Egypt and Sweden.

They play a energetic style of freakbeat best illustrated on I Got Life with its staccato wordplay and Walking In Space where Berkeley Wright drums with passionate naivety.

The take of Be-In is one of the more hypnotic versions out there. Out there being appropriate while 3500 gets a welcome airing - suitably dramatic with a psych edge.

The Swedish teenager Eva takes the vocals for Frank Mills and gives the song a more melancholy air than usual.

Overall, a most enjoyable entry in the Hair canon.

Comments and feedback are welcome.

Hair Dance Selections

Primer 003: Ray Davies, Part 3 1975 - 1977

Originally published in Frank's Apa zine, November 2009.
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Welcome to the third and final part of the Ray Davies primer.

We pick up the story in 1975.
Fresh from a successful venture into film themes, Ray’s next outing for Philips saw him repeat the trick (and up the ante) with the consistent and groovy Flashpoint.
It features a hard and fast take of The Man With The Golden Gun, two fiery Bruce Lee themes – Big Boss and Fist Of Fury and short sharp blasts of cop action like Kojak and Magnum Force. Airport ’75 is nicely ominous too.

Hits of Sinatra followed later that year and is pretty lacklustre aside from a rather muscular version of The Tender Trap. Most of these easy takes were derived from BBC sessions and don’t really have much to recommend them.

The next pair of albums were similarly disappointing with just three tracks worth compiling. Barbecue Party has a great sleeve but a rather staid vibe aside from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and a blisteringly percussive version of The Virginian.

Another Party followed – in medley style like James Last’s Non Stop Dancing series.
Only Misty / The Hustle saves it from oblivion in a pleasant early-disco style.

1976 saw the Button Down Brass up the ante considerably with two consistently great releases. Firedog came first and is one of the finest examples of a cop show theme LP.
Police Story sets the scene aggressively while Quiller, The Rockford Files and Columbo are melodic, atmospheric and faithful to the originals. Listen for the Universal end credit blast. The title track is nicely funked up too. A real scorcher!

Which appropriately leads to Funk In Hell. In-demand for some considerable time, this LP features vocals on a number of tracks – most prominently Superstition. Play this one loud.
Elsewhere Taboo and Shades Of Hades feature some cracking instrumental work while Santana’s Evil Ways and Black Magic Woman launch the album off to a thrillingly funky start.

Finally we come to Cops ‘N’ Robbers which emerged in 1977.
Confusingly Ray had already covered Michel Legrand’s track of the same name on 1974’s Themes From The Exorcist etc.
This time around the title track is one of his own creations and it’s a sparkling moog piece. The pick of the themes on this LP are Harry O, Charlie’s Angels (both lively) and a wistful, driving version of The Protectors.

Ray’s output since 1977 has been mostly orchestral and not to my tastes. However for the preceding ten years he put together a great run of albums with many memorable tunes and arrangements. Hope you enjoyed reading about it.

The tracks
01 The Man With The Golden Gun
02 Magnum Force
03 Fist Of Fury
04 Big Boss
05 Kojak
06 Airport ‘75
07 The Tender Trap
08 The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
09 The Virginian
10 Misty / The Hustle
11 Police Story
12 Firedog!
13 Quiller
14 Police Woman
15 The Rockford Files
16 Columbo
17 Black Magic Woman
18 Taboo
19 Shades Of Hades
20 Evil Ways
21 Superstition
22 Sneak Thief
23 Charlie’s Angels
24 Harry O
25 Cops And Robbers (R. Davies)
26 The Protectors

Source LPs
01 – 06 Flashpoint (1975, Philips)
07 Hits Of Sinatra (1975, BBC)
08 – 09 Barbecue Party (1975, DJM)
10 Another Party (1975, DJM)
11 – 16 Firedog! (1976, DJM)
17 – 21 Funk In Hell (1976, DJM)
22 – 26 Cops ‘N’ Robbers (1977, DJM)

Ray Davies, Part 3 1975 - 1977