Tangsir Tight Spot (1974)

After greatly increasing their visibility with Skin Tight, the Ohio Players became even more visible with Fire - an unpredictable masterpiece that boasted such explosive horn-driven funk jewels as "Smoke" and the wildly addictive title song. The Players were always best known for their hard-edged funk, but in fact, there was much more to their legacy. "I Want to Be Free," the almost innocent "Together," and the remorseful "It's All Over" demonstrate that their ballads and slower material could be first-rate soul treasures. The influence of gospel imagery and the black church experience had asserted itself on Skin Tight's "Is Anybody Gonna Be Saved," and does so once again on the intense "What the Hell" and the hit "Runnin' From the Devil." Without question, Fire was one of the Ohio Players' greatest triumphs - both commercially and artistically.

This Atlanta concert wasn't issued in recorded form for two decades. Archival releases of this sort tend to be for collectors only, but this is a cut above the standard. The sound is very good, the band is pretty tight, and Freddie King solos with fire and sings with conviction, sticking mostly to covers of warhorses like "Dust My Broom," "Key to the Highway," and "Sweet Home Chicago." It's a better deal, in fact, than his studio albums for Shelter in the early '70s, boasting a no-frills small-combo approach that is far more suitable. As a neat bonus, it also contains two solo acoustic performances recorded at a Dallas radio station in the 1970s.

This album is one of the reasons that Idris Muhammad is regarded as the drumming king of groove. Featuring the arrangements and keyboards of Bob James, the saxophone punch of Grover Washington, Jr., guitarist Joe Beck, trumpeter Randy Brecker, percussionist Ralph MacDonald, and the knife-edge slick production of Creed Taylor, this 1974 issue is a burning piece of deep, jazzy soul and grooved-out bliss…

Gram Parsons - GP (1973). GP is American singer-songwriter Gram Parsons' debut solo album. Working with a crack band of L.A. and Nashville's finest (including James Burton on guitar, Ronnie Tutt on drums, Byron Berline on fiddle, and Glen D. Hardin on piano), he drew from them a sound that merged breezy confidence with deeply felt Southern soul, and he in turn pulled off some of his most subtle and finely detailed vocal performances; "She" and "A Song for You," in particular, are masterful examples of passion finding balance with understatement. Parsons also discovered that rare artist with whom he can be said to have genuinely collaborated (rather than played beside), Emmylou Harris; Gram and Harris' spot-on harmonies and exchanged verses on "We'll Sweep out the Ashes in the Morning" and "That's All It Took" are achingly beautiful and instantly established her as one country music's most gifted vocalists…

Given all the overt literary references of Selling England by the Pound, along with their taste for epic suites such as "Supper's Ready," it was only a matter of time before Genesis attempted a full-fledged concept album, and 1974's The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was a massive rock opera: the winding, wielding story of a Puerto Rican hustler name Rael making his way in New York City. Peter Gabriel made some tentative moves toward developing this story into a movie with William Friedkin but it never took off, perhaps it's just as well; even with the lengthy libretto included with the album, the story never makes sense. But just because the story is rather impenetrable doesn't mean that the album is as well, because it is a forceful, imaginative piece of work that showcases the original Genesis lineup at a peak…

Long Hair proudly presents one of the most sought after German albums of the early seventies, now for the first time officially re-released on CD: Tortilla Flat's 'Für Ein 3/4 Stündchen', originally recorded in winter 1974 and released as a private pressing. The instrumental album is very flute and electric piano driven, with very exciting guitar playing accompanied by rocking drumming with slightly jazzy influences and nimble bass lines, very tight! Many mention Supersister as a comparison, Kraan's first album, Brainstorm or Mel Collins' Circus (Crack In The Cosmic Egg), but all this is not really true. In fact the music is very unique, not typical Krautrock, but psychedelic, complex but very tuneful, with slight jazzrock influences and a little bit of British Canterbury sound…

Esperanto had a sound that was uniquely theirs. With violinist Raymond Vincent there are hints of American prog-rockers, Kansas but Vincent's violin playing is in more of a classical European vein than that of Kansas.
Shorrock, Yates, Slater, and Dudoit gave a glimpse of what was to come later when Shorrock would join Mississippi with Graeham Goble and Beeb Birtles and morph into Little River Band. Their vocal harmonies are tight and contribute to the uniqueness of Esperanto's sound. Another preview of Little River Band would come in the form of Statue of Liberty which Glenn would re-record with LRB on their debut album. The Esperanto version comes across a bit more bombastic and over the top than the somewhat more stripped down LRB version that would be recorded three years later…