Rock My Soul: Cherry Red, Grapefruit Collect Early British Hard Rock On “I’m a Freak, Baby”

What do Deep Purple, The Move, Hawkwind, Fleetwood Mac and The Yardbirds all have in common?  Though each of those five bands carved out distinct musical identities, all incorporated elements of psychedelia in their early hard-rock explorations.  A new 3-CD box set from Cherry Red’s Grapefruit imprint offers an in-depth chronicle of the music that planted the seeds of progressive rock and metal.  I’m a Freak, Baby is, as per its subtitle, A Journey Through the British Heavy Psych and Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-1972.  As with the best journeys, it offers…

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Release Round-Up: Week of April 8

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Ronnie Spector, English Heart (Savoy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The one and only Ronnie Spector returns with an all-new studio album saluting her British Invasion friends. Expect Ronnie-ized renditions of the Jagger/Richards-written “I’d Much Rather Be with the Boys” (as “I’d Much Rather Be with the Girls”) as well as “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying,” “Tell Her No,” “Girl Don’t Come” and more!  Amazon has an exclusive CD/DVD edition as well as an exclusive autographed vinyl LP!  You can access…

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Grapefruit Collects Rare Psych-Pop From Pre-Deep Purple Episode Six, More on “Shapes and Shadows”

Musical renaissance man Les Reed is responsible for some of the most beloved pop tunes of all time – “It’s Not Unusual,” “There’s a Kind of Hush,” and “The Last Waltz” among them.  His songs have been recorded by Tom Jones, Elvis Presley, Shirley Bassey, Petula Clark and Bing Crosby.  Less well known is that Reed also founded a record label.  His Chapter One Records was formed in 1968 and lasted until 1973, releasing music by a diverse collection of artists including Episode Six (a proving ground for Deep Purple), Mark Wirtz,…

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Not Soon Forgotten: Deep Purple’s Overlooked “Purpendicular” Gets Reissue From Hear No Evil

There’s rarely a lull in activity for the catalogue of Deep Purple, one of the most enduring bands to emerge from the British hard and progressive rock scenes of the late 1960s.  Cherry Red’s Hear No Evil Records imprint has recently continued its reissue series for Deep Purple’s 1990s catalogue with an expanded edition of 1996’s Purpendicular [sic], chronologically following Slaves and Masters (1990) and The Battle Rages On… (1993). Hear No Evil’s raison d’être for this reissue is simple.  Malcolm Dome lays out the case in his new liner notes: “It’s…

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