The Fat Angel Sings

The latest issue of Record Collector, due out this Thursday, if you were there in the early 70s at the various free festivals and West London happenings that made up the period’s countercultural ‘freak scene’. And if you weren’t, hopefully this month’s cover story will bring it alive. Props to writer Sarah Gregory for tracking down some of the survivors/major players and getting them to retell/relive the tale. Elsewhere, Danny Baker explains why he’s decided to auction off his record collection, Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain reveals the names of his most loathed 80s acts, we meet ‘ambient metal’ progenitors Earth and the reliably engaging Elbow, introduce the ‘discodelic’ (it says here) Say She She and ‘American Clash’ Red Rockers, recall the moment Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Muddy Waters brought the blues to a Manchester railway station, and review Nico, Bowie and the Manics among many others. A nod’s as good as a Twink, or something.

“Da Capo” was Arthur Lee and LOVE’s second album, ( Released November’66 ) out of three made with his core group of L.A. musicians. The album was followed and overshadowed by the rock masterpiece “Forever Changes,” but the songs here are streaked with brilliance and innovation. Many musicians’ minds were blown by its collage of sounds and crazy quilt of influences, the material clearly ahead of its time.

“Da Capo” is, in a sense, a more adventurous album than “Forever Changes.” In any case, these tracks are among the finest recordings of Love as musicians. (Key parts of “Forever Changes” were played by hired hands.)

The band had expanded to seven players, upgraded its drummer, added woodwinds and, of all things, integrated a harpsichord. The first side of “Da Capo” is a lovely experiment in fusing sounds from rock, Latin rhythms, jazz and classical. Lee and company succeed at this without pandering, producing some of their best songs. The second side of “Da Capo,” alas, is dedicated entirely to the notorious jam “Revelation,” which has done great damage to the otherwise brilliant album’s reputation.

Some of the highlights: “Seven & Seven Is” could be the most explosive 2 1/2 minutes in ’60s rock. When rocks fans think of Love, they usually conjure up “Forever Changes,” “My Little Red Book” and this frantic yet somehow cohesive piece. The rage of drums, bass and guitar gives way to the sound of an atomic bomb explosion.

“Orange Skies,” from the band’s terrific second songwriter Brian MacLean, brings us the delightfully trippy lyric “Orange skies, carnivals and cotton candy and you.” Touches of samba with Tijay Cantrelli’s flute as the lead instrument. “Que Vida!” continues the theme, with a B3 organ streaming below the surface.

“She Comes in Colors” is Love’s version of a power ballad. A flute drifts over the love song, sung with precision by Lee. About 20 seconds in, the song shifts from an easy tempo to barely restrained rock. The harpsichord returns midway though. “My love she comes in colors,” Lee sings over and over. “You can tell her from the clothes she wears.” The care and precision in the production foreshadow “Forever Changes.” Keith Richards said “She Comes in Colors” inspired the Stones’ “She’s a Rainbow.”

Robin Trower, once an essential element of Procol Harum for 5 albums, eventually split from that band to go solo after a failed attempt in another band. Formed in 1973, Robin Trower released “Twice Removed From Yesterday“. But it was his “Bridge Of Sighs” album that hit the gold standard when it released in 1974. The album didn’t yield a hit single but more than half the album ended up being popular staples of the great FM Radio experience of the day. 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of “Bridge of Sighs“, and so…

On May 17th, Chrysalis will help celebrate that 50th Anniversary of “Bridge of Sighs” with a brand new Stereo Mix and Remaster of the album, and coupling it with outtakes and rarities never heard before, and a CD of a live US show in its entirety from the period. Additionally, a Blu-ray will be packed into the box with 5.1 Surround Mix, Atmos mix, and a collection of outtakes, and instrumental tracks.

Procol Harum’s Robin Trower released his second solo album, “Bridge of Sighs”, in 1974 to critical and commercial acclaim. The album features Trower on guitar with James Dewar (bass, vocals) and Reg Isidore (drums). Robin’s former bandmate Matthew Fisher produces with former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick taking on control room duties.

The 3CD+blu-ray set features both a remastered version of the original mix of the album (CD 1), a brand new 2024 stereo remix of “Bridge of Sighs” which contains longer versions of the songs, since it was discovered during the remixing process that they had been edited back in the day, most likely to ensure the album fitted comfortably on vinyl. For example, ‘In This Place’ is 4.29 on the original album but 6.17 on the stereo remix, while ‘Little Bit of Sympathy’ is also almost two minutes longer. Every track is different in this way. Added to CD 2 is a very generous selection of outtakes and rarities, all previously unreleased, including rehearsals, early versions and the like.

The third CD offers live audio available in its entirety for the first time and newly remastered from the original tape transfers. The blu-ray includes a Dolby Atmos Mix (by Richard Whittaker), a 5.1 Mix, the remastered stereo version, the remixed stereo version, a slightly different selection of stereo outtakes (extra ones!), the live tracks in stereo and an exclusive instrumental stereo mix.

“Bridge of Sighs” will be released on 17 May 2024, via Chrysalis. 

Karl Wallinger Welsh-born musician and composer also played with the Waterboys and worked on Sinéad O’Connor’s debut album singer-songwriter who was best known for World Party, his almost-solo outfit, has died aged 66, it has been announced. Wallinger first came to prominence as the touring keyboard player in The Waterboys although his role grew by the time of 1985’s “This Is The Sea” and Mike Scott has acknowledged his significant contribution in terms of arrangements and his skills as a multi-instrumentalist (Wallinger also co-wrote opener ‘Don’t Bang The Drum’).

Born Karl Edmond de Vere Wallinger in Prestatyn, Wales in 1957, he began his musical career as a keyboard player with various bands, before a job in music publishing and a brief stint as the musical director of The Rocky Horror Show. In 1983, Wallinger joined the Waterboys and played on their first three albums as a multi-instrumentalist, including on the folk-rock band’s biggest hit, “The Whole of the Moon”.

Karl left during the This Is The Sea tour to pursue his own solo career (what would become World Party) and the first album “Private Revolution” was released in 1986. His first album release under the World Party name, was released in 1987.

The second single from that long-player, ‘Ship of Fools’ was a significant success, especially in America where, remarkably, it reached No 27 in the Billboard Hot 100. In the UK, the song underachieved, peaking frustratingly just short of the UK top 40 at No 42.

Neither ‘Put The Message in the Box’ or ‘Way Down Now’ – both superb pop songs – from World Party’s undoubted 1990 masterpiece “Goodbye Jumbo” were a hit, which seems unfathomable now, but Wallinger was probably just too far ahead of the curve with his fusion of sixties songwriting idealism and one-man-band recording techniques.

But “Goodbye Jumbo” is a truly wonderful album. Following him because of the Waterboys connection There was something special about World Party being quite good. Karl Wallinger could write brilliant tunes with great hooks and lyrics, but it was the sound and the production that made everything work so well. ‘Ain’t Gonna Come ‘Til I’m Ready’ is pure perfection; so many tiny sonic details placed, layered and mixed with precision and Karl sings beautifully with that Prince-like falsetto. He could build a song for days, weeks, months with that studio craftsmanship and then write an achingly simple tune like ‘Love Street’ or the piano ballad ‘Sweet Soul Dream’.

Almost a year later, Ensign (part of Chrysalis) issued ‘Thank You World’ as the third and final UK single but any hope that it might give the album a late boost was dashed by it’s failure.

In spring 1993, a couple of years after the “Goodbye Jumbo” campaign ended, World Party returned with their third album “Bang!” and, somewhat against the odds, it was a commercial success! This was all down to the first single, the brilliantly languid and lovely “Is It Like Today?“, which was a hit. ‘Is It Like Today?’ actually only got to No 19, World Party’s “Bang!” entered the UK album charts at No 2 and only “Automatic For The People”, R.E.M.’s follow-up to “Out Of Time“, denied them a number one album.

On reflection, the second single, the funk-rock of ‘Give It All Away’, was perhaps not the song to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining this hard won territory inside the actual pop charts and World Party were back to their old ways of peaking just outside the top 40. It was borderline criminal that the commercially catchy pop of ‘Sooner Or Later’ wasn’t the second single from “Bang!” and by the time the sunny ‘All I Gave’ was released, in the autumn of 1993, the moment was gone.

The wait for the next album, “Egyptology”, seemed very long at the time, but was actually only four years. ‘She’s The One’, which was famously a No 1 hit for Robbie Williams in 1999, features on “Egyptology”, but was only released as a promotional single and at the time with Chrysalis opting for ‘Beautiful Dream’ as the lead track from the album “Egyptology” had its moments, weighed down by solid, if not outstanding numbers.

What we now know as World Party’s last album, “Dumbing Up“, was released on Karl’s own imprint Seaview label in October 2000. One single, ‘Here Comes The Future’, was put out to little fanfare. Not long after this, in early 2001, Wallinger suffered an aneurysm that left him unable to speak and it took almost half a decade for him to be well enough to make a return, albeit only on stage. The next decade featured a series of sporadic tours, normally in America, although World Party did support Steely Dan in Australia in 2007. They played festivals, vineyards and the like and by all accounts had a very pleasant time of it!

Karl was always disinterested in reissues, What Karl did approve, in 2012, which now seems like an amazing gift, was the release of “Arkeology“, a 70-track anthology (“it isn’t a box set” he insisted). This 5CD set contains no studio album tracks which illustrates just how prolific Karl was, even if he seemed reluctant to actually release anything as old B-sides, live cuts and covers,

“Arkeology” included what were new recordings at the time, songs like ‘Everybody’s Falling in Love’ and ‘Photograph’ (finished in 2011). In November 2012, World Party played their first UK show in 12 years at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

The Waterboys lead singer, Mike Scott, paid tribute to Wallinger on Monday in a social media post on X, calling him “one of the finest musicians I’ve ever known”. He added: “Travel on well my old friend.”

Rest in Peace, Karl Wallinger. thanks to sde for the words

“It’s 33 and a third years since the seminal band Giant Sand and its country cousin The Band Of… Blacky Ranchette entered the studio to lay down their second albums. Yes. Both bands had recorded their second albums each. Two sides of the multi-faceted hyper-productive Howe Gelb. “I was turning 28,” he recalls, “and had been wanting to make and release albums since my early 20s, but only recently had figured out how. It was time to make up for lost time.”

Time was of the essence. That thin line between then and now has seen journeymen Giant Sand release 27-ish albums, their latest, ‘Recounting The Ballad Of The Thin Line Men’ turning the clock back to 1986’s ‘Ballad Of A Thin Line Man’, picking over the bones and making a whole new soup.

All these years on, the latest incarnation of Giant Sand: Howe Gelb (guitars, piano) Tommy Larkins (drums) and Thøger Lund (bass), have dusted off the old vinyl and re-imagined those heady days – they’ve polished these buried gems, reignited some truculent tirades and rekindled an ageless angst. The revamp re-orders the tracks, drops a couple and adds ‘Reptillian’, a previously lost song hailing from their album’s 25th anniversary re-issue, a tune that opens proceedings and basks in all its crinkly glory. There’s also two takes of ‘Tantamount’. The unique thing about Giant Sand’ is they make it all their own, they sound like no-one else. The songs remain the same, but somehow completely different. Howe: “We were a fine storm. The greatest storm in terms of tumultuous velocity and pelting bluster. It proved unstoppable… for a minute”.

Mitski has covered the Pete Seeger–popularized, Peter La Farge-written, environmentally-conscious folk song “Coyote, My Little Brother” for the Spotify Singles series, along with a stripped-back acoustic version of her own “Buffalo Replaced.” Mitski has covered the environmentally-conscious folk song “Coyote, My Little Brother” at least a couple times before, including at an acoustic NYC show and on BBC Radio 2 last fall, 

The stripped-back acoustic version of her own “Buffalo Replaced” taken from “The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We”, They were recorded in NYC with frequent collaborator/producer Patrick Hyland on acoustic guitar and Jeni Magaña on double bass, the same line-up she had at those acoustic shows 

Mitski’s cover of “Coyote, My Little Brother” original by Pete Seeger.

This week, Cola shared a new song, “Bitter Melon,” via a lyric video. The single is out now via Fire Talk and is available as a flexi disc (accompanied by a zine).

Cola consists of ex-Ought members Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy and Evan Cartwright (drummer with U.S. Girls and The Weather Station). Their debut album, “Deep In View”, was released in 2022.

Montreal band Cola are back with this laid back new single. Says frontman Tim Darcy: “

Darcy had this to say about the new song in a press release: “This one started with a demo brought in by Ben. The vocals and lyrics came naturally from the backlit, brooding atmosphere of the music. I wrote what was almost a piece of fiction (fleshed out in the accompanying zine we’ve released) where a person is up in the middle of the night studying ‘the gloss’—additional comments written in the margins of a book. In my mind the text was like the rind of a fruit surrounding something, maybe even written at an earlier point by the reader themselves. The motorik drums and chiming guitars are guided by the bass on this song, something not unusual for us but the bass really provides a compelling longform melody on this song. The track has the energy of a full moon or some kind of fertile dark / gaia-facing productive spirit to me.”

Cola, Out now on Fire Talk.

UK darkwave duo The KVB release their new album “Tremors” in April and new single “Overload” pairs pulsing synths, acoustic guitars and breathy vocals for an alluring, windswept, ’80s goth vibe.

Will be out April 5 via Invada Records. The band says this one has “expanded on previous album themes of dystopia, apocalypse and the human condition, but with a more pessimistic outlook and deeper distrust than before. It also touches on themes of loss, and the resistance, lament and acceptance of inevitable change,” all via their brand of new wave noir.

The new single from the album is “Overload,” which pairs pulsing synths, acoustic guitars and breathy vocals for an alluring, windswept, ’80s goth vibe. “Overload embodies the dystopian pop aesthetic of the album,” say The KVB. “It’s about the dilemmas of the creative process, being dependent on when inspiration strikes, never being content with your own creations and striving to make something new and better. Ultimately, it’s relinquishing fear of failure, and asserting the desire to create.”

‘Tremors’ released worldwide via Invada Records on 5th April 2024