REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Month: November 2020 (Page 1 of 2)

GREG MATHIESON PROJECT – Baked Potato Super Live

So the Discogs randomizer pops up this rarely played gem. Recorded over 3 nights at the Baked Potato in December 1981.

So who is Greg Mathieson I hear you ask?! Well, he is an LA producer and jazz keyboardist. The thing of interest here is the participation of Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro of Toto. If you like your music loose, and with titles that don’t mean a whole bunch accept to just name the song while some awesome soloing takes place, then you may have just found your Nirvana.

Luke is on fire on tracks like Bomp Me, with the fantastic groove machine Porcaro laying down an amazing groove on Time Around, where again Luke just slays with some killer guitar. Side 2 starts off with a funky keyboard heavy track I Don’t Know, then Luke kicks in some very tasty clean jazz grooves. The rhythm section of Porcaro and Pops Popwell are top notch and lay the foundation for some great music. This is one of those shows where you wish you were there. You can hear the joy that the band are having inter playing with each other. Anyhoo, the album closes out with the excellent The Spud Shuffle and finishes – what is a great record.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

GENESIS – Foxtrot

It’s amazing to look at the release date of 1972 and think where did all the time go? I can vividly remember listening to this way back when through the mists of time and thinking “wow what an amazing album”, and it still is. When you consider all the great albums that have come since, it still holds up well. I guess good songs will always be good songs.

Kicking things off with what is one of my favourite Genesis songs, Watcher of the Skies and followed by Time Table, Get Em Out By Friday, and closing the side with Cam-Utility and the Coastliners – you think no way can Side 2 be any better?! Then you turn over and the complete side is the classic Suppers Ready.

Any other band would call this the peak of creativity but Genesis went on to record The Lamb. Man they were great around this period – a completely different beast that came along much later. Gabriel’s lyrics and imagery are on a different level to all around him at the time. It’s hard to believe but Phil Collins never sang a note as a vocalist at this point sticking to being the drummer. This is a wonderful record, and is still held in high regard in Prog circles to this day. Many bands have tried to emulate and copy their style (Marillion- Script for a Jesters Tear) but none have surpassed what early Genesis created. In fact, it can be argued that a whole movement sprung up because of this period of Genesis. This and Nursery Crime are still go to records for me.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

MANFRED MANN’S EARTH BAND – The Roaring Silence

It’s not often that someone records a Springsteen song and blows The Boss out of the park. Yet that’s exactly what happens with Blinded By The Light. The Earth Band’s version went to Number 1 all over the world and outsold Mann’s earlier sixties releases. MMEB released three great albums together, Nightingales and Bombers, Solar Fire, and this, each one as good as each other but the Roaring Silence had the killer single.

After a killer opening 1,2 of Blinded and Sailing the Dolphin Through, Side 1 closes out with instrumental Waiter There’s a Yawn in My Ear, which showcases what a great keyboard player Mann is. Side 2 starts with The Road to Babylon which I think was the follow up single to Blinded, and while it’s a great song, it doesn’t have that touch of greatness as Blinded. The album closes out with Questions, another great song and what finishes what could be the last great Prog album of the 70’s. Great vocal from Chris Thompson throughout and complimented with tasty guitar by Dave Flett, and a young Chris Slade on drums who would later go on to fill the drum stool for AC/DC.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

JEAN MICHEL JARRE – Oxygene

I remember this being a bit of a ground breaking album at the time as I think the single Oxygene Part 4 was the first number one single in the UK that was all electronic. Basically this album is all one piece of music that is split into six parts. It’s way ahead of its time as the ambient movement was in its infancy at the time, and would reference this album album as a big influence. I’ve always loved this album since I first bought in ’77 as it is a very relaxing record. Sure it does sound dated compared to what electronic music is around today, but Jarre is doing some great soundscapes before it became fashionable. Sure there were bands like Tangerine Dream that were doing experimental electronic music at the time, but Jarre made it palatable for the masses – hence the success of the single which went to number 1 in the singles charts across Europe.

6/10 from The Grooveman.

« Older posts