A 3-CD, four-hour celebration of the post-Brumbeat late ‘60s/early ‘70s rock scene in the West Midlands. Tracing the evolution and development of that scene as local musicians embarked on an epic journey that embraced mod pop, psychedelia, blues, progressive rock, glam-rock and heavy metal, inspired by the emergence of chief catalysts The Move.
The second of Ace's three volumes documenting the Goldwax's label complete run of singles enters what most connoisseurs would consider to be its prime period, with all of the tracks having first been issued in 1966 and 1967. In particular, this era found Goldwax's most prominent artist, James Carr, releasing some of his most heralded songs, including "Pouring Water on a Drowning Man" and "The Dark End of the Street." It's no surprise that Carr is the most heavily represented member of Goldwax's roster on this two-CD compilation, as he's responsible for ten of its 54 tracks.
This five-CD box set collects all five of the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time series recordings: Time Out, Time Further Out, Countdown: Time in Outer Space, Time Changes, and Time In, with bonus material attached to three of the discs. Of this quintet of recordings, the latter three have never been available on CD in the United States. Recorded between 1959 and 1965, each of these titles has a distinct relationship to "time travel" in the context of jazz. Brubeck, Paul Desmond, and company were consciously trying to extend the time-space continuum in jazz, and erase the boundaries of imposed four/four signatures in the idiom…
For many, the name Fred Neil will be familiar only as that belonging to the songwriter of the modern classic "Everybody's Talkin'," or perhaps "Candyman," "The Dolphins," or "Other Side of This Life," songs that Roy Orbison, Tim Buckley, and the Jefferson Airplane, respectively, recorded. However, Neil's influence extends much farther. John Sebastian, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Bob Dylan all claimed him as an influence, since he blended traditional and contemporary folk, blues, rock, gospel, Indian, and pop influences into a distinctive, idiosyncratic style. His music was not only influential, it was quite rich on its own terms and some of the best music of its era.
Simon & Garfunkel's first masterpiece, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme was also the first album on which the duo, in tandem with engineer Roy Halee, exerted total control from beginning to end, right down to the mixing, and it is an achievement akin to the Beatles' Revolver or the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album, and just as personal and pointed as either of those records at their respective bests…