All Hail the “King of the Beats”: Mantronix Anthology Released
Here’s an overlooked treat released last week: a double-disc compilation honoring influential hip-hop/dance duo Mantronix.
In the mid-1980s, as the New York rap scene blossomed and all sorts of rhythms were seeping into pop music, fewer dance acts were more exciting than Mantronix. Comprised of DJ/producer Kurtis Mantronik (nee el-Khaleel) and rapper MC Tee, Mantronix won club kids over with their sample-ready electronic sounds, combining processed beats, synthesized bass and turntable scratches to create something that sounded like the logical sonic progression from “Planet Rock” by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force or Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five’s “The Message.”
After the success of Billboard dance hit “Fresh is the Word” and the release of independent album Mantronix: The Album in 1985 (featuring tracks sampled or referenced by the likes of Beck and The Beastie Boys), Mantronix began to produce for other acts on their Sleeping Bag Records label before signing to Capitol in 1987 in one of the first seven-figure deals for a hip-hop act. MC Tee left the group for the Air Force in 1988, and Mantronik added rappers Bryce Wilson and DJ D. (and later singer Jade Trini in DJ D.’s place). Later singles like “Got to Have Your Love” were U.K. hits, but Mantronik left the music business for a long spell in 1991.
Traffic Entertainment Group, who expanded Mantronix: The Album in 2008 with a bonus disc of vintage mixes and edits, now presents King of the Beats 1985-1988, an overview of the band’s Sleeping Bag years, featuring 12″ mixes and album cuts from The Album and follow-up Music Madness (1986) as well as rare Mantronix productions for Just-Ice and T La Rock.
King of the Beats is out now and yours to order after the jump.
High Moon Rising: Reissues Coming Soon From Gene Clark and Arthur Lee’s Love
Some of you with long-term memories might recall our happily breaking the news about High Moon Records back in May 2011. The New York-based independent label had recently held a release party to announce reissues of Love’s 1973 unreleased album Black Beauty and Gene Clark’s 1977 Two Sides to Every Story. Both inaugural titles were slated to arrive on June 7. Well, June came and went, as did 2011, with no sign of either of these much-anticipated releases.
So we’re happy to relate the news shared last month by High Moon’s owners George Wallace and J.D. Martignon. As of December 9, High Moon was “finalizing the artwork for both releases on LP and CD” and offered new hints as to the talented names working on the albums. Both albums were remastered by multi-Grammy Award nominee Dan Hersch; the lacquers were mastered and cut by Doug Sax, a name likely familiar to all collectors of audiophile vinyl. The same care is being put into the albums’ booklets. The essay for Black Beauty was written by Ben Edmonds (Rolling Stone, Mojo), and Edmonds’ notes will be joined by over fifty never-before-seen pictures of Arthur Lee and the band during the sessions, taken by Herbert Worthington (Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours). As for Clark’s Two Sides, his biographer John Einarson has provided the new essay. High Moon will include more never-seen photography, this time by Ed Caraeef from the original album photo session.
Both discs will be packaged in hardbound eco-books for the CDs, while the 180-gram LPs will be housed in tip-on jackets with full-color, 11″x 11″ magazine-style inserts. For much more on High Moon Records, including track listings and discographical info for these two albums, hit the jump for the salient details! Read the rest of this entry »
Review: “Golden Gate Groove: The Sound of Philadelphia, Live in San Francisco 1973″
No love, no peace, no shoes on my feet…no home, just a shack where I sleep…
In the fall of 1971, Philadelphia International Records launched its long-playing series with Billy Paul’s Going East, and the title opus in which the velvet-voiced crooner spins a slow-burning yarn of slavery. It was hardly Top 40 fare (Paul would have to wait till producers/songwriters/label entrepreneurs Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff gifted him “Me and Mrs. Jones” the following year) but signaled the dramatic experimentation with which the label would define TSOP, or “The Sound of Philadelphia.” Socially conscious, even spiritual lyrics would rest comfortably on a jazz-influenced bed of orchestral splendor, as smooth as it was funky. With the very next PIR album, the label would start a nearly-unbroken string of music that’s as classic today as it was relevant, then: Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes’ self-titled debut (“If You Don’t Know Me By Now”), The O’Jays’ Back Stabbers (“Back Stabbers,” “Love Train”), 360 Degrees of Billy Paul (“Me and Mrs. Jones”).
Each one of those artists and songs can be heard on a remarkable time capsule that’s newly arrived from Legacy Recordings and Philadelphia International. Golden Gate Groove: The Sound of Philadelphia, Live in San Francisco 1973 (88691906232, 2012) is somewhat paradoxical, capturing a 1973 night in the City by the Bay introducing the brightest stars from the City of Brotherly Love. But in any setting, boy, can these Mothers (and Fathers, Sisters, and Brothers) play! It’s the first (but hopefully not the last) volley from Legacy in the 40th anniversary celebration of Philadelphia International Records.
Recorded on July 27, 1973, the concert was held at CBS Records’ company convention inside the plush environs of the Fairmont Hotel. Previous performers at the convention included Bruce Springsteen and Engelbert Humperdinck. Joe Tarsia, the owner of Philly’s hallowed Sigma Sound Studios and the concert’s engineer, recalls in the liner notes that the event was attended by everyone on the CBS roster from Perry Como to Edgar Winter. (What a sight that must have been!) And nearly everyone associated with the success of Philadelphia International was up there, on that stage. Vocalists included Melvin and the Blue Notes featuring Teddy Pendergrass, The Three Degrees, Billy Paul, and the O’Jays. The MFSB Orchestra that evening counted among its 35 members two-thirds of the city’s “Mighty Three,” Leon Huff and Thom Bell on piano and organ, respectively. Huff and Bell were joined by a duo of Philly’s finest arrangers, Norman Harris and Bobby Eli (guitars), plus Earl Young (drums), Ronnie Baker (bass), Lenny Pakula (piano/keyboards), Jack Faith (saxophone), Vince Montana (vibes) and other notables. Bobby Martin and Richard Rome, two more arrangers with key contributions to the Philadelphia sound, took turns conducting.
Gamble and Huff considered the evening a crucial one to secure ongoing promotion at CBS Records for their fledgling label despite its already-proven hitmaking ability. That urgency is evident in the performances. (Thom Bell was the third partner in Gamble and Huff’s publishing company, and a frequent face at the label despite his outside productions for The Stylistics, The Spinners, Ronnie Dyson, New York City, Johnny Mathis and so many others.) Hit the jump to meet the evening’s emcee, the one and only Mr. Don Cornelius! Read the rest of this entry »
The Hills of Yesterday: Henry Mancini, Charles Strouse Offer “Molly Maguires” Scores
A victim of the blacklist, director Martin Ritt (The Front, The Great White Hope and Norma Rae) felt passionately about using film to explore relevant social issues. So it would have been no surprise that he was taken with the story of the Molly Maguires, the Irish-American coal miners who formed a secret society (some might say, of terrorists) to fight their oppressive employers in 19th century Pennsylvania. Ritt enlisted an all-star cast including Sean Connery (still in his James Bond period) and Richard Harris for his 1970 Paramount Pictures epic. Initially signed to write the score was Charles Strouse, the theatrical composer of Bye Bye Birdie, Golden Boy and It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman (and later, Annie). On the silver screen, Strouse had recently made a splash with Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and William Friedkin’s The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968), so he seemed a reasonable choice to score Ritt’s film. Reportedly, though, Strouse’s score didn’t sit well with test audiences, so Ritt turned to a more experienced film composer who could also turn out superlative work in a short period of time: Henry Mancini.
Mancini had a busy slate in 1970, also scoring Vittorio De Sica’s Sunflower and Blake Edwards’ Darling Lili, but he, of course, rose to the occasion. He chose to employ unusual instrumentation including pennywhistle, ocarina, button accordion and Irish harp to color his rich melodies. He even supplied a stirring song, “The Hills of Yesterday,” well-known to Scott Walker’s fans. In 1992, producer Bruce Kimmel was instrumental in bringing Mancini’s Molly Maguires score to compact disc, supported by an enthusiastic Mancini. The Bay Cities edition of the score (BCD-2039) has been out-of-print for years, commanding high prices on the secondhand market. Fast forward twenty years, and Kimmel now heads Kritzerland, a label dedicated to reissuing classic soundtracks and original cast albums. How better to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the original Molly Maguires CD than with a reissue? And what could make this reissue even more special the second time around? How about the world premiere release of the rejected score by Charles Strouse as a supplement to the Mancini score?
Kritzerland’s The Molly Maguiresfeatures the entire Mancini score, as recorded by the great composer, in newly mixed sound from the original master tapes. It’s easy to see the importance of music to the film, which begins with a wordless, nearly 15-minute sequence set to the score. Several cues omitted from the original soundtrack album make their first appearance here, and five bonus tracks have been appended: three unique album versions and two film versions. Charles Strouse’s complete score, opposite in style and approach to Mancini’s, is also making its premiere in any form. Producer Bruce Kimmel explains in the liner notes, “Sometimes a score just isn’t working for the film, even though the music itself might be excellent. And that’s what happened here – Strouse’s score just wasn’t working with the film.” The new Molly Maguires is limited to 1,500 copies and is due the second week of March, but pre-orders from the label usually arrive an average of four weeks early.
But’s that not all. Kritzerland is also delivering a two-for-one soundtrack by Albert Glasser. Invasion USA and Tormented! are just two of the hundred-plus B-movies scored by Glasser, and both feature appropriately wild scores. (Just check out the artwork, below!) Adventures of Superman buffs should note that Invasion USA boasts performances by both Lois Lanes, Noel Neill and Phyllis Coates! Kritzerland has remastered these never-before-available soundtracks from the late composer’s personal tapes, and the sparkling result will be released alongside The Molly Maguires. Hit the jump for Kritzerland’s full press release on the Glasser duo, plus track listings and pre-order links for both titles! Read the rest of this entry »
Vintage, Retro Mixes Shine on U.K. Philadelphia International Box Set
Now’s as good a time as any to get into the sweet sounds and lush arrangements of Philadelphia soul in the 1970s. 2011 marked the 40th anniversary of legendary writer/producers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff’s creation of a label that set the groundwork for some of the best soul and R&B sounds of the decade, and this year’s seeing a lot of excellent catalogue projects honoring that legacy.
We’ve already told you about Legacy’s Golden Gate Groove: The Sound of Philadelphia Live in San Francisco 1973 (keep an eye out for a review from Joe!), and there are more great titles in store in the coming months as well. One of them is a stellar four-disc box set that combines the great arrangements of Philly soul with the ace mixing techniques of Tom Moulton.
Moulton, the father of the modern-day remix, is about as far from a stranger to Philadelphia International as you can get. In 1977, he mixed classic sides by The O’Jays, The Three Degrees, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes and MFSB for the double album Philadelphia Classics. Over time, he was commissioned for a variety of other projects for the label, some of which never saw the light of day past a few rarer promo records or obscure compilations.
With the release of Philadelphia International Classics: The Tom Moulton Remixes, Harmless Records – a subsidiary of the U.K.’s Demon Music Group – has compiled all eight cuts from Philadelphia Classics and combined them with not only seven rare or unreleased vintage mixes, but another 15 extended versions commissioned just for this set. The Intruders, The Trammps, Billy Paul, Lou Rawls, Teddy Pendergrass – those are just a few of the artists ripe for rediscovery on this set. In addition to the four separately packaged discs, the box will also feature 16 pages of newly-written liner notes by acclaimed British music journalist Lloyd Bradley and rare photos of Moulton at work in Sigma Sound Studios, birthplace for countless classics of the label.
The box will be out February 27 in the U.K., and it can be yours to pre-order (for a rather stellar price, given the worth of the music) at Amazon after the jump.
Thank You M.C. 1969: Michael Chapman’s Folk-Rock Classic “Rainmaker” Arrives From Light in the Attic
When the distinct green Harvest Records logo is remembered today, it’s often for Pink Floyd or early Electric Light Orchestra. But the label, created to stake a claim in the burgeoning rock market, boasted a deep, diverse roster, all the better to compete with other “alternative” labels like Decca’s Deram or Philips’ Vertigo. One of the artists who found early success on Harvest was Michael Chapman, a former art and photography instructor. Chapman’s greatest achievement was arguably 1970’s Fully Qualified Survivor, on which the troubadour was backed by Mick Ronson on guitars and Elton John’s arranger du jour, Paul Buckmaster, supplying the string orchestrations. But Chapman was so fully qualified because Survivor was actually the third in a rich series of albums that both defined and transcended the British folk-rock ethos of the period.
Light in the Attic delivered Fully Qualified Survivor last year, and has now turned its attention to remastering and expanding Rainmaker, Chapman’s 1969 debut for Harvest. (1971′s Window would fall in between those albums.) Like that more famous sibling, Rainmaker blends psychedelic, folk and rock influences into a potent brew that’s uniquely Chapman and again features a stellar line-up of supporting artists. The album was overseen by another Elton John collaborator, Gus Dudgeon, the producer behind John’s remarkable series of seventies classics as well as David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” single. Dudgeon would go on to produce Survivor for Chapman. The singer, songwriter and guitarist was joined by drummer Aynsley Dunbar, perhaps best known for his association with Frank Zappa, and a host of other musicians including Clem Clempson (Humble Pie), Alex Dmochowski (Retaliation), Norman Haines (Locomotive), Danny Thompson (Pentangle) and Rick Kemp (Steeleye Span).
Hit the jump for more on Rainmaker, including the full track listing and order links! Read the rest of this entry »
Chicago Reissues Return From Friday Music, “Hot Streets” Kicks Off Campaign
On 1971’s Chicago III, one of the band’s passionate anthems went, “I just want to be free…” But it took until 1978 for the band to be truly free, and that year’s Hot Streets was an album of firsts. The freedom largely came as a result of the group having severed its ties with longtime producer/manager James William Guercio; hence, Hot Streets was Chicago’s first album in many years not recorded at Guercio’s famed Caribou Ranch. It was also the first to lack a number in its title and first to feature a band portrait on the cover. Tragically, however, it was the first album without founding guitarist Terry Kath, who died earlier in the year of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Hot Streets (the band’s twelfth album, for those of you keeping count, and also a No. 12 LP on the Hot 100) brought producer Phil Ramone and guitarist Donnie Dacus into the Chicago fold; both only lasted for a couple of albums but made strong impressions. Rhino Records reissued Hot Streets in 2003 as part of its Chicago “expanded and remastered” program; that series ended abruptly in the U.S. after Chicago 17, although Rhino’s Japanese arm continued with 18, 19 and 21. (The American remasters of 16 and 17 erroneously included alternate versions of some original album tracks, and these were corrected on the 2010 Japanese pressings of those two titles.)
Now, Friday Music has announced its own Chicago reissue campaign by arrangement with Rhino, and that series is kicking off with the return of (the now out-of-print) Hot Streets. According to the label’s Facebook page, it’s due in stores on March 27. Hit the jump for more details, including the track listing and discographical annotation! Read the rest of this entry »
Keep Feeling Fascination: Human League’s “Dare” Gets Expanded
“You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when I met you…” As patently false as the subject matter behind The Human League’s hypnotic “Don’t You Want Me” is, it was a massive, out-of-nowhere smash for a band that came out of a troubling state of flux with a renewed energy unlike few others. The fruits of that period, the 1981 album Dare, is coming back into U.K. stores this spring as a deluxe title with a host of non-LP goodies over two discs.
The Human League started out as an avant-garde all-male group anchored around Martyn Ware, Craig Marsh, Philip Adrian Wright and Phil Oakey. Their first single, 1978′s “Being Boiled” was a surprise Top 10 U.K. hit, but subsequent works did not find the same audience. Amid weakening support from the band’s label Virgin Records and clashes over the band’s sonic direction, the band broke apart, with Ware and Marsh forming Heaven 17 and Oakey and Wright left to do something – anything – for the League’s winter 1980 tour of Europe.
Against all odds, the duo recruited synth player Ian Burden to flesh out the group’s live sound and found Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall, a pair of untrained best friends spending a night out at the Crazy Daisy Nightclub in Sheffield, to provide vocals for the group. (Sulley and Catherall, both teenagers, needed parental permission to embark on the tour.) Despite the skepticism of initial reviews, things worked out well enough for the quintet to continue as a band in the studio; first single “Boys and Girls” was a moderate success; upon moving to a new studio (away from recording sessions by Heaven 17) and adding guitarist Jo Callis of The Rezillos to the lineup, the first single from those sessions, “Love Action (I Believe in Love)” was a Top 10 hit.
But The Human League really went into the stratosphere with a track that Oakey initially hated. The fictional tale of a musical Svengali whose protegée decides to move on from him professionally and romantically was so disliked by Oakey, he dumped it onto the end of the Dare LP. But “Don’t You Want Me” was the band’s first and only chart-topper for Christmas of 1981 and became a major hit across the globe.
The deluxe edition of Dare features the 2002 remaster of the original album and various, newly-remastered 12″ remixes and instrumentals on the first disc. The bonus disc, meanwhile, collects nearly all of the material on stopgap album Fascination!, which featured a handful of just as successful non-LP singles in “Mirror Man” and “(Keep Feeling) Fascination.”
Don’t you want this, baby? If so, March 26 is the day to get it. Hit the jump to check a pre-order link and track annotations.
New Blues Traveler Compilation Includes Unreleased Material, Hopefully Avoids Giving Fans the Runaround
Get out your big hats and harmonicas – Blues Traveler is releasing a new career-spanning compilation with a host of unreleased material to accompany their favorite singles.
Ah, the ’90s jam band revival. One of the more intriguing concepts to come out of the post-grunge explosion era, where it seemed every major label was trying something new to see if it would stick with audiences. The demand for quirky live acts gave popular culture stalwarts like the Dave Matthews Band and Phish as well as bands like The Spin Doctors, who enjoyed massive (if brief) success with Pocket Full of Kryptonite in 1991.
This craze gave somewhat less brief but equally and improbably meteoric rise to Blues Traveler – ironically, a band who’d made friends with The Spin Doctors and the Dave Matthews Band before coming up in the music business – in the mid-’90s. The Princeton-based group, initially comprised of John Popper (vocals/harmonica), Chan Kinchla (guitar), Bobby Sheehan (bass) and Brendan Hill (drums), were staples of the New York club scene when A&M signed them in 1990. Their hardcore touring ethic, perhaps best exemplified by the H.O.R.D.E. Festival they founded through the decade, was what initially drew in fans (including David Letterman, who’s featured the band more times on his Late Show than any other) – but it was the release of 1994′s Four and singles “Run-Around” and “Hook” that earned them mainstream attention. Their songs were catchy thanks to Popper’s distinctive, rapid-fire delivery, free-associative lyrics and howling harmonica playing, and “Run-Around” even won a Grammy.
The band faced some setbacks in the late ’90s and early 2000s with the accidental overdose and death of bassist Sheehan, Popper’s struggles with obesity and being dropped by A&M Records. But the band, now a five-piece with bassist Tad Kinchla (Chan’s brother) and keyboardist Ben Wilson, continues to tour and record, releasing their latest album, North Hollywood Shootout, in 2008. As they get ready to tour another summer and finish up a forthcoming studio album, the band has partnered with their old label to release 25, a double-disc set pairing up the hits with a bonus disc of B-sides and rarities spanning their entire career, almost all of which are making their debut on CD.
The package comes out March 6 and can be ordered after the jump, which is of course where you’ll also find a track list.
The Story of US: Shout! Factory Starts Series for ’80s Music Fest
Following a pair of DVD releases, Shout! Factory has announced the release of two performances on CD from the famous US Festival in California.
Spearheaded by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak, the US Festival intended to be a celebration of technology and culture, with a temporary stage and open-air venue paid for by Wozniak himself just for the purposes of the festival. (Initially called the Glen Helen Pavilion, the San Manuel Amphitheater, where the festival was held, remains the largest of its kind in the country.) For two blisteringly hot weekends – Labor Day of 1982 and Memorial Day of 1983, performers including The Ramones, The Police, The Cars, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac, INXS, The Clash, Van Halen, U2 and David Bowie would take the stage.
Despite the historical value of the performances, which captured many up-and-coming New Wave bands and traditional rock acts toward their peak, the festival was a failure, with at two reported deaths at the 1983 festival and Wozniak and promoters losing some $24 million. Setbacks aside, the performances remain a worthy footnote in rock history, and Shout! Factory aims to memorialize these moments, first through DVD and now on CD.
Performances by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings at the 1983 festival’s “Country Day” – held a week after the festival proper – were both released on DVD last November, and now they’re being released on CD on February 28. Both sets capture two country veterans at their peaks, with solid set lists from each performer (and guest appearances from Jennings on Willie’s set).
Hit the jump to check them out!
