Thursday, February 16, 2012

Acid Jazz's E.P. Choice: Acid Re-flux!

Acid Jazz has done a series on vinyl 7" E.P.'s of U.K. 60's artists ranging from cool (The Richard Kent Style), passable (Steve Marriott & The Moments, The Muleskinners) to normally cool artists who have a heap of garbage unearthed and slung out in a cool sleeve with crappy tunes (Sharon Tandy, The Clique, The Fleur De Ly's). 

I find it odd that with a plethora of music available by a variety of artists Acid Jazz would pad out a CD of it's previous E.P. releases whilst mixing it with pure bullshit like the near contemporary sounding/pseudo disco by the likes of Maxine, The Fantastics or even Donnie Elbert's backing track for his out of key cover of "This Old Heart Of Mine". B-O-R-I-N-G. Only our "Anorak Thing" heroes The Richard Kent Style shine through with their contributions (all available from the label on iTunes and on their groovy 7" E.P. on the label): "I'm Out" and "Marching Off To War" (both sides of their third single, 1967's Columbia DB 8182) and the previously unreleased "You Can't Keep A Man Without Love".  The Muleskinners (featuring our hero Ian McLagan) provide their four tracks previously issued on the Acid Jazz E.P., nothing earth shaking I'm sad to say.  Sadly kids it all just goes downhill from there.  We get 4 scratchy, mediocre tracks from The Clique, who with two stellar mid 60's British r&b classic 45's under their belt, are certainly not aided by the release by any of these tracks.  Ditto for the three Fleur De Ly's tracks, only the rough "original" version of their take on The Who's "Circles" is remotely amusing for a play or two and a load of dead boring Sharon Tandy leftovers (including a pointlessly lifeless demo of her blistering track with The Fleur De Ly's "Daughter Of The Sun").  Steve Marriott and The Moments serve up their U.S. only 45, a bland cover of The Kinks "You Really Got Me" and the Chuck Berry aping "You'll Never Get Away From Me". For completists only!  Buyer beware!

2 comments:

Monkey said...

Well done Bill in an honest assessment. I had a quick listen to this the other week and whole heartedly agree. Not a cheap CD either.

Genghis Cohen said...

Bill. You should check out the "Rainy City Blues" lp, a comp of 60's bands all hailing from Manchester. The Measles, Factotums, Ivans Meads, Toggery Five, Powerhouse, etc. A far beter bet, IMO. You'll find it on ebay uk.