Nick Garrie

There's a new album from Nick Garrie coming out and that's something to celebrate. Before we get onto the new one we need to put things in context and talk a little about the past.In the final year of the sixties and in the final year of his teens, Nick Garrie made an album that should be regarded as one of the great classic albums of the decade: 'The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas'. The fact that it is not more widely known or more universally recognised as one of the classics of the era is not down to the quality of the product but rather to a series of unfortunate events (that's another story).

Occasionally, a work of art falls into your hands with such a bizarre backstory, you just have to run with it. The implausible origins of Nick Garrie’s folk-pop album “The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas” require just such a leap of faith. The Englishman recorded his masterpiece in France at the tender age of nineteen. The year was 1968 and Garrie felt ill at ease with the lavish arrangements accompanying his songs (beautiful as they may sound to our ears today). Worse still, the label owner committed suicide and the record virtually disappeared without trace – until it resurfaced in 2005. Our own release now includes numerous bonus tracks, rare photograph and extensive liner notes.

Here at Elefant we are fervent believers in poetic justice. It couldn’t be any other way. We have the clear example of Nick Garrie and the well-deserved second youth his incredible “The Nightmare Of J.B. Stanislas” experienced. We believe that “Uma Tarde Na Fruteira” deserves the same thing, and we are going to celebrate the 15th anniversary of its release to reclaim it with a new Deluxe Edition that includes 6 additional tracks. Because the figure of the songwriter and creator, Flávio Basso (aka Júpiter Maça, or Woody Apple, or as he signed his first international album with Elefant Records, Jupiter Apple), requires revisiting 7 years after his death, at just 47 years old.

This massive set brings together all six of the Circus Days collections, and taken as a whole like this, it’s about as much British late-'60s psych-pop as anyone outside of an insane asylum could possibly handle. One wonders what these musicians were putting in their tea. Opening with Clover's “Ice Cream Man” (the lyrics begin “Riding down the road like a giant toad in rubber boots” and then unravel from there), this set is part flower power, part circus clown act, and part tongue-in-cheek put-on (one hopes).

Cock Sparrer formed in 1972 in the East End of London. Although they never enjoyed much commercial success, they are considered one of the most influential street-punk bands. Their style was influenced by pub rock, glam rock and raw 1960s beat music as delivered by bands like the Small Faces and The Who.

"Call on Me" is the 3rd album by the R&B singer Evelyn "Champagne" King, released on RCA Records in 1980. It was produced by Theodore Life and George Tindley. The album peaked at #58 on the R&B albums chart. It also reached #124 on the Billboard 200. It produced the single "Let's Get Funky Tonight". In addition to the eight songs that appeared on the original 1980 LP, the expanded edition of "Call on Me" offers five bonus tracks: the 12” version of “Let’s Get Funky Tonight” and four rarities from the ultra-obscure "Sweet Delight" LP.