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Here we meet up with the Muffins four years before their masterly Manna/Mirage debut. We have been there before, on the other mid 70s Muffins compilation “Chronometers” with which this shares several tracks – although the versions presented here seem a bit rougher and with more of a live feel.

The Canterbury jazz vibe is strong in these early recordings. And the humour is so disarmingly awkward it indeed manages to become a satisfyingly American counterpart to the Monty Pythonesque originals it seeks to emulate.
Maybe due to the fact that much of this release was originally designed as a reel-to-reel album, titled “Agar Squid,” it actually works as one. It isn’t as top heavy as the already mentioned “Chronometer” compilation, and although it might not quite live up to the quality of that release, the tracks are very nicely sequenced. For example, if you manage to endure the opening track, you can almost feel your soul lift as that is followed by the soothing “Brix.”

The fact that that the Muffins were already this incredibly close in the 1974-76 time frame to what their Canterbury counterparts were doing speaks volumes. There is synchronicity at play here, not just influence.
Still, you can not help but smile when you hear a track like “English” with its spoken “It’s time for tea” pronounced in such a distinct American accent that you are immediately convinced these guys never had afternoon tea.

All in all, an incredibly satisfying listen and one of the key reissues of 2017. Although I have never heard the original tape releases, there were two more in the same series, and they are also planned for CD reissue. Let us hope that they will be as great as this one!

http://www.mannamirage.com/secret-signals/

Compared to some of the references I have peppered this short text with already, the focus here is clearly on the straightforward pop side of things. Experiments, silly interludes, concept suites, and even radiophonic sounds of the kind served up on the latest (but I sincerely hope not last!) Dr Cosmo’s Tabe Lab release “Super Chrome Class” are conspicuously absent.

“The Radiophonic Tuck Shop” was originally a Chuck Berry tribute song done by Joe together with Nic Denholm, but it seems that now the time has come to take the pop confectionery approach a step further.
Indeed, the melodies on offer here are straight from silly pop heaven. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

http://shop.lastnightfromglasgow.com/product/radiophonic-tuckshop-running-commentary-ep

Konstpop med substans. Ett absolut måste i skivsamlingen.

The Blood Rush Hour – Who Folds First
https://play.spotify.com/album/1lN9ocm58pbrradyV2EL50

Tara Clerkin – Hello
https://stolenbodyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/hello

H. Hawkline – I Romanticise
https://soundcloud.com/h-hawkline/sets/i-romanticize

Magic Bus – Phillip the Egg
https://magicbus2.bandcamp.com/album/phillip-the-egg

Wyatt Moss-Wellington – The Kinder We
https://wyattmosswellington.bandcamp.com/album/the-kinder-we

The Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra – Hero’s Journey
https://mysteryfaxmachineorchestra.wordpress.com/#!/page/1

Schnauser – Irritant
https://schnauser.bandcamp.com/album/irritant

Orval Carlos Sibelius – Ordre Et Progres
http://shop.bornbadrecords.net/album/ordre-et-progres

Shugo Tokumaru -Toss
https://shugotokumarumusic.bandcamp.com/album/toss

So great British pop it is, scrambled perhaps, and distorted. But on the other hand if it weren’t, well then it would neither be great nor particularly British, would it?

With the inclusion of a sax player, the band is now a five-piece – and it certainly means Schnauser can prog out more in the instrumental passages. While I don’t mind that at all, the highlight for me is the songwriting – which is really all over the place while simultaneously sounding uniquely focused. Compared to earlier records, I hear a bit more of the sweet groove from Duncan’s wonderful wonderful Lord Gammonshire solo album. Meanwhile, Alan Strawbridge’s sense for a twisted melody is blissfully intact.

Another highlight are the voices. Spoken, double tracked, pressed to high pitch through the vocal cords, or just plainly sung vocals – they are all a great pleasure to listen to.

Instant classic – or another lost one? You decide. Gotta go, the phone has taken over my stereo and is ringing loudly!

“The Hero’s Journey” – just like previous album “Master Flea” – is dramatised seemingly like a soundtrack to an imagined musical. The subject matter is Joseph Campbells hero monomyth, that is, the underlying template for all hero adventure stories.
Consequently, there is an abundance of far away places, magic, love, goddesses, beasts and adversaries to play around with in lyrics like “You need nine heads at least / to topple the beast / and get the lion’s share”. Perfect fodder for a musical narrative.

When I interviewed Martin some years ago he had a 9 to 5 office job, and I can imagine him whiling away the endlessly empty office hours in front of staplers, fax machines and other office paraphernalia as fictive musicals play out in his mind’s eye. In this sense, “Master Of Two Worlds” might be a key track on the album:

“I’m the master of the fax machine
I’ve mastered keeping my desk clean
I can multitask and mostly get things right
And despite the photo copier
I copy something poppier
It’s a flyer for my gig on Wednesday night”

Just like the music, the production is also exactly what you could expect from the band name: expansive, flamboyant, even luxurious. If the Rutles sound like the Beatles, the MFMO sound like ELO; that is, first rate and classy also in those parts where it is intentionally tasteless. If you get my drift.
How on earth Martin manages to pull that through is beyond me, because, as far as I know, MFMO recordings are made on a budget that even cut out the shoestrings for cost reasons.

This album is a bit of a miracle, really. I have no idea where Martin and his mysteriously faxy friends find all the energy, or how they muster up all the silliness and sincerity needed for the herculean task of completing such an ambitious project.
One must be both foolhardy and brave to even attempt such a thing, and in that sense, I am starting to think of Martin White as one of my archetypal musical heroes in the monomythical sense. A master of two worlds, indeed!

http://www.martylog.com/mfmo/index.htm

But – importantly – this is not a covers album and the original compositions effortlessly hold their own ground. You just need to hear the fabulously bittersweet and instantly memorable intro song “My Girl Midge” to understand that what we have here is pure pop class.

The vocal interplay between main bandit Duglas T Stewart and new songstress Chloe Philip brilliantly appeals to your heart as well as your brain. And Stu Kidd (of Dr. Cosmo’s Tape Lab and The Wellgreen fame, not to mention Euros Childs and many others) adds a playful stability to the rhythm section, apart from also being main musical collaborator to Duglas on this project.

You can’t hide your love [to BMX Bandits] forever. You need this album this summer.

Then you listen once again.
And again.

Now, you are starting to recognise some turns and twists. You begin to appreciate the careful yet rather abrupt sequencing of songs. You are starting to hum melodies. You are even smiling wryly at the two sorely needed intermissions the band have thoughtfully included.

At one point you catch yourself by starting over from the beginning directly after a straight listen. Not very practical to do with this 16-song, 51 minute humdinger. But by now you don’t care, because you have come to accept this as one of those rare albums.

This is not a “Countdown to Ecstasy” by Steely Dan; not a “How Dare You” by 10CC; not a “Swoon” by Prefab Sprout; and not an “On Land And In the Sea” by Cardiacs. It can’t be, because then it wouldn’t be the genre-bending pop album that it is – and that all those are.

Although this is already The Blood Rush Hour’s third amazing album, I have little clue as to who the people behind the band moniker are, except that they seem to be spread out across Wales and the US. But the group is clearly the brainchild of Robert DeStefano, who has written all the songs (except for one co-write with Dan Lavery). He has produced the album and is the main lead singer on the majority of the songs.
And in my world, he is also a bona-fide superstar. Mr. DeStefano, if you read this, you are truly my hero.

So, who folds first? Are you up to the challenge?

http://www.nicolarecords.co.uk/who-folds-first-2/

“In Colour” var tänkt att bli uppföljaren till den ganska väl mottagna “Dog Eared Moonlight” på Andy Partridge’s Ape-etikett. Men istället rann allt ut i sanden. Robert White berättade för mig för något år sedan att killen som drev skivbolaget bokstavligen var apjobbig och att det hela mynnade ut i en lång rad missade chanser som gjorde att mjölken sinade och honungen definitivt tog slut.
Men nu är det bara att ladda ner och njuta. På “In Colour” har White fullföljt den alltmer västkustinfluerade riktningen från tidigare plattor, nått varvet runt och landat i ett samspelt Beatles/Byrds-bandsound som inte är helt väsensskilt från exempelvis Teenage Fanclub.

Kostar inget för den som inte vill – missa inte!

Magic Bus of course never did that, but instead they have wrapped themselves in an English countryside time bubble all of their own. This is retrogressive rock, but when it is this good and unassuming, one can only have praise.

Although the instrumentation is primarily electric, the sound is strikingly organic. Unfortunately. the simple reason may be hard rehearsal practice to make up for lack of funds to spend more than nine days in the recording studio. But the result is nevertheless the sound of a real band playing, not a studio spinning on empty.

Tempos shift but not in a muscular way. Although individual instruments beg you for attention – organ, mellotron, flute, guitars that play solos, and drums that play melody in that old Canterbury way – the focus here is clearly on the whole rather than the individual.
Magic Bus very much feel like a hippie collective and they play magical, mystical music. The album unashamedly starts out with the rather epic “Mystical Mountain” and there is even a subsection name to the track title, “(i) Twelve Kings”.

But don’t worry, this stuff does not get lost in pretentious crap. These guys know what they want and how to get there. Their music will put you in sync with the universe. That is, if you just have the courage to let it.