Various Artists - Rarities Row Vol. 4 (2026)

It's time for another dip into the vaults of Mike Solof, for volume 4 of his 'Rarities Row'.

It's been spotted that Mike sent two copies of the Tori Amos track and omitted the Jon Anderson one, so that's now been corrected, and anyone who has already grabbed this can download it again. 

 Track listing and info:

01 Underground (Demo)
Ben Folds - Fifty Five Vault

Fifty-Five Vault is a Ben Folds compilation album featuring 56 tracks, mostly 
unreleased live recordings and demos. It was released jointly with 'The Best 
Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective' as a digital-only album available via Folds' 
website. 

02 Wild West End (Demo)
Dire Straits - Originally published as The Honky Tonk Demos 2x7" Single 

Demos for Dire Straits' first album. Taken from the original silver pressed bootleg 
'Early demos' of demos for Dire Straits first album. On the 24 July 1977, Dire Straits recorded the now famous demo tapes of five songs: 'Wild West End', 'Sultans Of Swing', 'Down To The Waterline', 'Sacred Loving' (written by David Knopfler, never released afterwards) and 'Water Of Love'. In what was probably October 1977, they recorded 'Southbound Again', 'In The Gallery' and 'Six Blade Knife' for BBC Radio London. Finally, on the 9th of November 1977, demo tapes were made of 'Setting Me Up', 'Eastbound Train' and 'Real Girl'. Many of these songs reflected Mark's experiences in Newcastle, Leeds and London, and were to be 
featured on the first Dire Straits album the following year. The recordings on the
CD feature most of these demo songs, and a version of 'Setting Me Up' that is really different from the version that was later released on the first album. 

03 Girls just want to have fun (Demo)
Cyndi Lauper 1983

Robert Hazard never became a household name in the United States, but for a 
period there in the early 1980s, he was one of the biggest singers in all of 
Philadelphia. He sold 50,000 copies of his 1981 EP, 'Escalator Of Love', JUST IN 
PENNSYLVANIA ALONE. However, he never really broke out nationwide, although some 
guys that he was friends with did, with the band The Hooters having a moment there in the mid-1980s with their hit song 'And We Danced', and with a spot at Live Aid in the U.S. side concert of Live Aid (which was held, of course, in Philadelphia). The Hooters were formed by Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian, who met at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1970s. One of their classmates, who was in an early band with them, Baby Grand, was Rick Chertoff. Chertoff later became a record executive at Columbia Records where he signed The Hooters, but he also brought Hyman and Bazilian on board to work on the debut album of a young pop 
singer named Cyndi Lauper in 1983. Hyman co-wrote “Time After Time,” but Chertoff looked to Hazard for the main track off of the album. Hazard had recorded a tune called 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' in 1979, but never released it as a single, see here. Chertoff was a fan of the song at the time and when he was putting together songs for Lauper, he remembered the song and approached Hazard about it. 

Hazard recalled in 1986, “He knew about ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ for years. He always told me what a great song he thought it was. When he met Cyndi, it was a match made in heaven.” However, there was an early conflict when Lauper wanted a song-writing credit (and thus a cut of the publishing rights). Hazard recalled how he quickly shut that down, “I said, ‘Don’t do the song.’ It didn’t matter to me. She was an unknown.” Once that was settled, Hazard worked out the lyrics with Lauper, “I changed all the lyrics over the phone with her. Originally, it was from the guy’s point of view. We had to make a lot of gender changes. She took the first verse and second verse and switched them. Why, I have no idea. Melodically, it’s exactly the same.” He then complimented how Chertoff reworked the song, “It was straight rock ‘n’ roll. Rick Chertoff produced it and made it an ’80s kind of song, put in a lot of electronics. I love what he did with it.” 'Girls Just Want To Have Fun', of course, was a smash and became Lauper’s defining song for years.

04 The Way (Demo 2)
Ariana Grande - Yours Truly Sessions

'The Way' is a song by American singer Ariana Grande featuring American rapper Mac Miller. It was released on March 26, 2013 by Republic Records as the lead single from Grande's 2013 debut studio album, 'Yours Truly'. In January 2013, she met with producer Harmony Samuels, at which point he presented her with a demo of the song that featured the vocals of co-writer 
Jordin Sparks, whom the song was originally intended. The beat he had created for the single, samples Brenda Russell's 'A Little Bit of Love' either directly or indirectly, via Big Pun's 'Still Not A Player'. Grande immediately connected with the sound and asked Mac Miller to feature on the song with her, to which he responded, "Sounds like a hit to me". The song was recorded that same month, and caught the attention of Republic Records VP Charlie Walk when he heard it being played from Republic co-founder Monte Lipman's office. "It was 8:00 one night, and I heard a song coming from Monte's office through my wall. He called me down and I played a video, a DIY of Ariana Grande. We heard the song and I immediately made the 
decision to set it up and put the song out. 'The Way' received positive reviews from music critics for its 2000's R&B sound and Grande's vocals, which drew comparisons to those of 
Mariah Carey. The song became Grande's breakthrough hit and peaked at number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100, earning both Grande and Miller their first top-ten song on the chart. 

05 One (Demo Newly Remastered)
Metallica - 1987 And Justice For All… Super Deluxe Box Set and Limited gatefold 

 
'One' is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica, and released as the third and final single from the band's fourth studio album, '...And Justice For All' from 1988. Written by band members James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, the song portrays a World War I soldier who is severely wounded - arms, legs and jaw blown off by a landmine, blind, deaf, and unable to speak or move - begging God to take his life. In the music video, attempting to communicate with the hospital staff he jolts in his bed, spelling SOS in Morse code. 'One' was written in November 1987 by Metallica's principal composers Hetfield and Ulrich, who recalled “I had been fiddling around with that B-G modulation for a long time. The idea for the opening 
came from a Venom song called 'Buried Alive'. The kick drum machine-gun part near the end wasn't written with the war lyrics in mind, it just came out that way. We started that album with 
Mike Clink as producer. He didn't work out so well, so we got Flemming to come over and save our asses.”

06 River (with French Horn ending) Blue Sessions
Joni Mitchell - 1971 Joni Archives Volume 4 and Joni at 50 Demos and Outtakes

'River' is a song by Canadian singer songwriter Joni Mitchell, from her 1971 album 'Blue'. Written on piano, it has become a standard for artists in many music styles, and has become popular as Christmas music. Although never released as a single, 'River' holds second place among Mitchell's songs most recorded by other artists. In 2021, it was ranked at No. 247 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time". James Taylor, who knows the song better than just about anybody aside from Mitchell, said in a 2006 interview with The Post that “I don’t know why it’s suddenly getting picked up as a Christmas song. But some things just become identified as seasonal songs, and this is now one of them.” At the time, Taylor had just released 'James Taylor At Christmas', which included “River” — a song he’d first heard decades earlier, when Mitchell played it at her home in Los Angeles in 1970, shortly after it was written. “Most Christmas songs are light and shallow, but ‘River’ is a sad song,” Taylor told The Post. “It starts with a description of a commercially produced version of Christmas in Los Angeles, then juxtaposes it with this frozen river, which says, ‘Christmas here is bringing me down.’ It only mentions Christmas in the first verse. Then it’s, ‘Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on’ - wanting to fall into this landscape that she remembers. It’s such a beautiful thing, to turn away from the commercial mayhem that Christmas becomes and just breathe in some pine needles. It’s a really blue song.” 

For her part, Mitchell told NPR in 2014 that the song is about “taking personal responsibility for the failure of a relationship. And my generation - you know, the ‘Me Generation’ - is known to be a Peter Pan, narcissistic generation, right?” she said. “So it’s really that aspect of our inability - you know, ‘I’m selfish and I’m sad.’ Right? “People think that’s confessional, but I’d say, in my generation, you think that that’s a unique personal statement? You know what I mean? It’s like, no wonder there’s so many covers of it!” Taylor, who performed “River” in front of Mitchell last month at a tribute concert to celebrate her 75th birthday, said the song is most likely autobiographical, given that “it starts with a girl from Canada watching them try to make Christmas on La Brea in Los Angeles.” But he told The Post in 2006 that he’d never actually discussed the meaning with Mitchell, with whom he was romantically involved in the early 1970s. “Do I want to know who she made cry, who she made say goodbye? Well, I haven’t asked her that question,” Taylor said. “That’s the only mystery in it: Who was it whose heart she broke?” With a laugh, he added: “There were a lot of us.”

Watch Behind The Song Episode 32: Joni Mitchell "River" here

08 Beth (Acoustic)
Kiss - Destroyer 1980 Super Deluxe Box Set

With the 45th anniversary super deluxe edition box set of KISS' historic 'Destroyer' album coming in November, the band has served up one of the many rarities that are included with the set by way of an acoustic mix of their hit ballad, 'Beth'. The track features lead vocals by drummer Peter Criss, who worked with producer Bob Ezrin on the song-writing component and, for the first time ever, fans can hear a different version of 'Beth', led by an acoustic guitar amid a host of familiar elements. The biggest difference here is that the sweeping, cinematic 
orchestration has been removed, letting the piano melodies occupy most of the space with some gentle acoustic strumming throughout. "For the new acoustic mix of 'Beth,' the original recorded acoustic guitar track was taken from the analog multitracks and has now been fully restored and mixed with the original piano, vocal and synthesizer tracks, adding a fresh yet familiar feel to this iconic recording". 'Beth' was originally released as the B-side to 'Detroit Rock City' in July 1976, but after radio DJs began flipping over the single to play the 
Peter Criss-sung ballad, the track was released on its own and became a Top 10 hit. None of the Kiss members, besides Criss, perform on the original version of the song, which features Criss backed by producer Bob Ezrin on piano, Dick Wagner on acoustic guitar and the New York Philharmonic orchestra.

09 Soldier In The Rain (live)
England Dan & John Ford Coley - Live In The Studio 1979

'Dowdy Ferry Road' is the fifth studio album by the pop rock duo England Dan & John Ford Coley. The album's single 'It's Sad To Belong' was a moderate pop hit and a #1 smash on the 
Adult Contemporary chart. A second hit from the LP, 'Gone Too Far', reached #23 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

10 The Friends Of Mr. Cairo (live)
Jon Anderson - (WNEW FM Broadcast The Convention Hall Asbury Park NJ 6th August 1982)

Jon and Vangelis made (more or less) four complete albums together, and this is arguably the standout. The title track is a marvellous love-letter to old Hollywood movies (most specifically, The Maltese Falcon) which nobody else could have written. Besides the wonderful voice-overs, Vangelis winds the music from mysterious thriller to out-and-out nostalgia, and Jon's vocals go right along with him. From the dramatic to the personal, and yet not so personal that the listener cannot go along. A mini-movie for the ears, and then the quiet reflection that follows.

11 Leather (Demo)
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes Demos

Tori Amos approached Atlantic Records in December 1990 with a 10-track demo tape. She recalled "Many of these songs are different from the released versions. Some are longer, some are mixed differently, many have different lyrics. Little did I know that ladies that work in the other entertainment industry would listen and dance to 'Leather' it around their poles. And people stop me all the time. Even very recently I was getting wine not far from here, and somebody said, “I teach pole dancing classes to your music, and 'Leather' was one of those songs". So I think there was a side to me that was trying to - in the shedding - to also really 
collect my shadow portions. And I would go visit them and take these sides that I had judged. And one side that had been very crucified was the sexual side that did not yet understand erotic spirituality, did not know how to bring this into being. Very far away - years away from this. Little did she know when she was writing 'Leather' that we would be years and years away from knowing how to integrate that.

12 Everybody’s World (live)
The Grays - 1993 Live Radio gig pre first (and only album)

The Grays were a short-lived rock band comprising singer/songwriters/multi-instrumentalists 
Jon Brion, Jason Falkner, Buddy Judge, and Dan McCarroll. They released only one album, the out-of-print but highly regarded 'Ro Sham Bo' in 1994 on Sony/Epic Records. The intention of the band was to be a democratic collective of musicians, rather than a hierarchical group with a leader and backing musicians. This was due in part to the group's dissatisfaction with being in a band - particularly Falkner who had just come out of a tumultuous period with the band Jellyfish. The band members would often swap instruments depending on the need of the individual song and would contribute to each other's songs. Despite glowing reviews from critics, 'Ro Sham Bo' was a commercial disappointment and was the only album released by the band. The album would later go out of print. In retrospect, Falkner reflects that the band was not truly a democratic collective as he felt he was the true leader of the group. This was due in part to the fact that the album's producer, Jack Joseph Puig, admitted to enjoying 
Falkner's tracks the most, giving him one more song than the others on the album. This created animosity amongst the members, specifically Brion, who was the first to leave the group. This coupled with the band's lack of commercial success led to their breakup shortly thereafter.

13 Tubular Bells Part One - Demo
Mike Oldfield - (Rough First Mix) (Original Demo Part One)

Tubular Bells is the debut studio album by the British musician Mike Oldfield, released on 25 May 1973 as the first album on Virgin Records. It comprises two mostly instrumental tracks. Oldfield, who was 19 years old when it was recorded, played almost all the instruments. In his 
flat in Tottenham in north London, Oldfield recorded demos of four tracks he had been composing in his head for some years, using the tape recorder, his guitar and bass, some toy percussion instruments, and a  Farfisa organ borrowed from  the Whole World keyboardist 

David Bedford. The demos had a longer piece he had provisionally titled 'Opus One'. Oldfield was inspired to write a long instrumental after hearing 'Septober Energy', the 1971 album by Centipede, He was also influenced by classical music, and by 'A Rainbow In Curved Air', the 1969 album by the experimental composer Terry Riley, on which Riley played all the instruments himself and used tape loops and overdubs to build up a long, repetitive piece of 
music. Late in 1971, Oldfield joined the band of Arthur Louis, who were recording demos at the Manor Studio. The studio was being constructed in the former squash court of an old manor house in Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire, which had recently been bought by the young entrepreneur Richard Branson and which was being turned into a residential recording facility run by his music production team of Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth. 

Oldfield was shy and socially awkward, but struck up a friendship with the producers after they heard his guitar playing. Oldfield asked Newman to listen to his demos, but they were in his Tottenham flat, so one of Louis' roadies drove Oldfield to London and back to retrieve them. Newman and Heyworth made a copy of the demos onto 4-track tape, and promised Oldfield that they would speak to Branson and his business partner Simon Draper about them. After the album was released, Newman said he preferred the demo versions: "They were complete melodies in themselves – with intros and fade-outs or ends. I liked them very much and was a little nonplussed when Mike strung them all together." Oldfield spent much of 1972 working with his old bandmates from the Whole World on their solo projects while trying to find a record label interested in his demos. Oldfield approached labels including EMI and CBS, but each rejected him, believing the piece was unmarketable without vocals. Increasingly frustrated and short of money, Oldfield heard that the Soviet Union paid musicians to give  public performances, and was at the point of looking through the telephone directory for the phone number of the Soviet embassy when Draper called him with an invitation to dinner with Branson on Branson's houseboat moored in London. 

Branson told Oldfield that he liked the demos, and wanted Oldfield to spend a week at the Manor recording 'Opus One'. 'Tubular Bells' was recorded on an Ampex 2-inch 16-track tape recorder with the Dolby noise-reduction system, which was the Manor's main recording equipment at the time. Oldfield had Virgin hire instruments including guitars, keyboards and percussion instruments, and has recounted differing stories over the years regarding the inclusion of the tubular bells; in 2001 he suggested that they were among the instruments he asked Branson to hire, but in 2013, he said that he saw them among the instruments being removed from the studios after John Cale had finished recording there, and asked for them to be left behind. Oldfield, Newman, and Heyworth spent their evenings drinking in a pub, after which they returned to the Manor and recorded through the night. Heyworth recalled several disasters, including one instance where half a day's work was accidentally erased. Final mixing was an involved process, with the faders operated by Oldfield, Newman, Heyworth, and two others simultaneously. 

They followed detailed tracking charts and the process was restarted if one person made even a slight mistake. Heyworth recalled difficulty in cutting the album due to vinyl's limited dynamic range, and insisted on heavy vinyl normally used for classical records. Oldfield played the majority of the instruments as a series of overdubs, which was an uncommon recording technique at the time. In total, 274 overdubs were made and an estimated two thousand "punch-ins", although Newman said "it was really only 70 or 80" in total. Despite various guitars being listed on the album sleeve, such as "speed guitars", "fuzz guitars" and "guitars sounding like bagpipes", the only electric guitar used on the album was a 1966 blonde Fender Telecaster which used to belong to Marc Bolan and to which Oldfield had added an extra Bill Lawrence pickup. The guitars were recorded via direct injection to the mixing desk. To create the "speed guitar" and "mandolin-like guitar" named in the sleeve notes, the tape was recorded at half speed. An actual mandolin was used only for the ending of 'Part Two'. Oldfield also used a custom effects unit, the Glorfindel box, to create the "fuzz guitars" and "bagpipe guitars" distortion. In 2011, Oldfield's Telecaster was sold for £6,500, and the money was donated to the mental health charity  SANE. 

According to the engineer Phil Newell, the bass guitar used on the album was one of his Fender Telecaster Basses. Oldfield recorded side one, known as 'Opus One' at the time, during his one allotted week at the Manor in November 1972. He was particularly interested in 

starting the piece with a repeating riff, and devised the opening piano sequence after experimenting with an idea for several minutes on Bedford's Farfisa organ. He wanted a slight variation on its 16/8 time signature by dropping the sixteenth beat, and chose the key of A minor as it was easy to play. Oldfield recorded the opening riff on a Steinway grand piano, but struggled to perform in time. Heyworth solved the problem by placing a microphone next to a 
metronome in another room and feeding it into Oldfield's headphones. The short honky-tonk piano section was included as a tribute to Oldfield's grandmother, who had played the  instrument in pubs before World War II. The staff and workers at the Manor made up the "nasal choir" that accompanies it. Oldfield had difficulty in producing a sound from the tubular bells, as he wanted a loud note from them but both the standard leather-covered and bare metal hammers did not produce the volume that he wanted. 

In the end, Newman obtained a heavier claw hammer and Oldfield used it to produce the desired sound intensity but cracked the bells in the process. The track closes with a segment featuring comedic rocker Vivian Stanshall, formerly of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, introducing each instrument being  played one by one. The idea originated when the band were due to use the Manor after Oldfield, and had arrived while he was still recording. Oldfield had liked the way Stanshall introduced the instruments one at a time on the Bonzos' song 'The Intro And The Outro' on 1967's Gorilla', and told Newman that he would like Stanshall to do the same. Newman agreed, but had to persuade the shy Oldfield to ask him if he would carry out the request. Stanshall readily agreed to the idea and is credited on the liner notes as "Master of Ceremonies", but Newman recalled that the job proved to be more difficult than anticipated, as Stanshall forgot the names of the instruments and introduced them at the wrong points. Oldfield wrote a list of the instruments in order, indicating where he should introduce them. The way in which he said "plus... tubular bells" inspired Oldfield to use it as the album's title.

Tangerine Dream - Boiler Room (2018)

On 1 August 2018 Tangerine Dream opened the Dekmantel Festival in Holland, playing the Boiler Room, and showcasing their timeless synth work with a mix of classic sounds and newer material from the post-Edgar Froese line-up of Thorsten Quaeschning, Hoshiko Yamane, and Paul Frick. While it's debateable whether the band can still be called Tangerine Dream following Froese's death in 2015, the remainder of the group continued on as TD despite there being no original members left, with the longest serving member, Thorsten Queaschning, only joining in 2005. However, it's the music that counts, and if you want to hear some of their best pieces in a live setting then this gig has them in spades. Many consider their opening gig a standout performance of the festival, despite the presence of many underground stars, and their set successfully blended their foundational "Berlin School" sound with modern electronic sensibilities, appealing across the generations. This is a superb recording of a great concert, ending with a 30-minute improvisation which I've titled 'Boiler Room Music', and it needs to be heard by any fans of the band. 

Track listing

01 Monolight
02 Betrayal ('Sorcerer' Theme)
03 Dolphin Dance
04 Love On A Real Train 
05 It Is Time To Leave When Everyone Is Dancing
06 Yellowstone Park
07 Mirage Of Reality
08 Cloudburst Flight
09 Kiew Mission
10 Tangram Part I
11 Horizon Part II
12 Horizon Part IV
13 Stratosfear
14 Boiler Room Music

The Flies - No Flies On Us (1968)

The Rebs formed in the early 1960's, and was made up of Robin Hunt on lead vocals, Ian Baldwin on bass, Brian Gill on lead guitar, John Da Costa on rhythm guitar and  keyboards, and Peter Dunton on drums. In 1966 the band recorded a British Invasion-exploitation album on RCA Records under the name of the In-Sect, titled 'Introducing The In-Sect Direct from London', with all but one of the tracks being cover versions of contemporary pop hits. Later in the year the band changed their name to No Flies on Us and auditioned for Decca Records, by presenting demos of a couple of songs, a cover of Paul Revere and the Raiders' '(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone' and their own 'Just Won't Do'. Decca negotiated a record deal with the band, on the agreement that they would shorten their name to The Flies. In October 1966 the band re-recorded a psychedelic pop-oriented cover of '(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone', along with the new composition 'Talk to Me' for their debut single, and the record became a regional hit, peaking at number 11 on the Wonderful Radio London Fab 40 charts. With a substantial following circulating around them, the group was picked up as the opening live act for popular English bands such as the Move, the Who, and the Moody Blues, and in addition they held a prominent slot alongside The Jimi Hendrix Experience at the popular club, the Roundhouse, in February 1967. The Flies became notorious for their sometimes outrageous stage acts, particularly their April 1967 appearance at the 14-Hour Technicolor Dream psychedelic festival, where the group arranged for hundreds of bags of flour to explode and consequently cover the unsuspecting audience. A follow-up single in mid-1967 included the heavy rocker 'House Of Love' and the pop standard 'It Had To Be You', which was so unlike their other acid-laced garage rockers that it drew comparisons to The New Vaudeville Band. At the same time, Hunt was working on a solo project called Alexander Bell, and issued the single 'Alexander Bell Believes', which featured guest musician Jimmy Page. The Flies recorded one final single in 1968, with 'The Magic Train' appearing on RCA Records, but it went largely unnoticed, and although the group was beginning to experiment with an ethereal organ-driven sound, they had disbanded by the end of the year. By 1968 the band had recorded an album's worth of music, spread over their three singles and various demos, and so by collecting them all together, along with the b-side to the Alexander Bell single and the one self-composed track from the In-Sect album, we can hear an approximation of what a 1968 debut album from the band could have sounded like.    

Track listing

01 The Magic Train
02 House Of Love
03 Talk To Me
04 Turning Back The Page
05 A Hymn With Love
06 (I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone
07 Gently As You Feel
08 The Dancer
09 There Ain't No Woman
10 Where
11 Just Won't Do
12 Winter Afternoon
13 Sincerely Yours

JJ72 - Alabaster Ocean (2002)

 JJ72 was formed in 1996 by lead singer and songwriter Mark Greaney and drummer Fergal Matthews, while studying at Belvedere College, and the name JJ72 derives from a window at the College made from 72 jam jars. After auditioning several bassists they recruited their schoolmate Garvin Smith in 1996, but after a few early gigs Smith left, and Greaney and Matthews once again set about auditions for a new bassist. Before the could recruit a new member of the band, Greaney and Matthews entered the studio as a duo in 1997 to record their first demo, which they sent to local record companies and media, but with little response. In 1998 they started university courses, but shortly after starting they decided to concentrate on the band, and after a concert at Behan's pub in Dublin, backed by a string quartet, and an appearance on local television, they recruited Hilary Woods, who Greaney had known for several years, to play bass, despite having only picked up the instrument recently. In 999 they recorded a second demo and targeted the UK, playing several gigs there and getting a write-up in Select, which led to interest from the Dublin-based Sony sub-label Lakota Records, who signed the band in mid-1999. Debut single 'October Swimmer' was released in November that year, and was named 'Single of the Week' by BBC Radio 1 DJ Mark Radcliffe. They were given support slots with The Dandy Warhols and My Vitriol, and the band had their first hit with 'Long Way South' in May 2000, which peaked at number 68 in the UK Charts. They released their eponymously titled debut album in Summer 2000, and it was a critical and commercial success, selling in excess of 500,000 copies in the band's native Ireland and in the UK, where it reached number 16 on the UK Albums Chart. 

Five singles were released from the record, and 'Oxygen' gave the band their first top 30 single in the UK, leading them to perform on Top of the Pops. After touring with Coldplay and Embrace, they set out on their own headline tour in 2001, and then supported Muse on a tour of Europe. The band's second album 'I To Sky' followed in October 2002, containing the singles 'Formulae' and 'Always And Forever', and it reached the Top 5 of the Irish album charts and the Top 20 of the UK Albums Chart. In February 2003, Woods left the band, and Greaney and Matthews recruited Canadian-born bassist Sarah Fox as her replacement. The band played sporadic shows throughout 2003, and began recording new material with producer Ken Thomas in August that year, for a release expected in January 2004, but by December it was reported that recording for the band's third album had been completed at Parkgate Studios, and a Spring 2005 release was tentatively announced. A download and 7"-only single 'She's Gone' was released in 2005, followed by second single, 'Coming Home' in August, but an ongoing dispute with their record labels Lakota Records/Sony held up the release of the album, and after an October 2005 release date failed to materialise the album was abandoned. On 22 June 2006, JJ72 issued a press release announcing they were to split up after 10 years together, citing their struggle with their record label as their main reason for the split. During their decade together JJ72 produced some fine music, with much of it being hidden away on the flips of their singles, and this collection gathers it all together to remind ourselves what an under-rated band they were.  

Track listing

01 Gherkin (b-side of 'October Swimmer' 1999)
02 Fresh Water (b-side of 'Snow' 2000)
03 Earthly Delights (b-side of 'Long Way South' 2000)
04 Desertion (b-side of 'Oxygen' 2000)
05 Astoria (b-side of 'Oxygen' 2000)
06 It's A Sin (b-side of 'Algeria' 2000)
07 Guidance (b-side of 'October Swimmer' re-issue 2000)
08 Black Eyed Dog (b-side of 'October Swimmer' re-issue 2000)
09 Blood Tests (b-side of 'October Swimmer' re-issue 2000)
10 Wounded (b-side of 'Snow' re-issue 2001)
11 Dream'd In A Dream (b-side of 'Formulae' 2002)
12 Alabaster Ocean (b-side of 'Formulae' 2002)
13 Higher Than Gods (b-side of 'Formulae' 2002)
14 Dog (demo) (b-side of 'Always And Forever' 2002)
15 Wicked Game (b-side of 'Always And Forever' 2002)

Monkey House - The Future Is Almost Gone - The Best Of Monkey House (2025)

Monkey House formed in 1992, performing songs that Don Breithaupt had written that seemed too jazzy or different for other bands to cover, with a major influence of his being Steely Dan. The band makes melodic pop with a sophisticated, jazzy twist, some with horn arrangements. Their debut album 'Welcome To The Club' was released in 1992 on the Aquarius label, and it included a cover of a song written by Donald Fagen of Steely Dan called 'Lazy Nina", which was covered by Greg Phillinganes in 1984, but never recorded by Fagen himself. Their second album 'True Winter', appeared on the Marigold label in 1998, and found Breithaupt collaborating with Little Feat's Richie Hayward and David Blamires of the Pat Metheny Group. The project fell mostly dormant during the 2000's, with a 2005 compilation, 'Big Money: Singles Remasters Rarities 1992-2005', serving as their lone release of the decade. In the meantime, Breithaupt continued to work as a songwriter, session man, and with his brother, fellow songwriter Jeff. When Breithaupt revived Monkey House in 2012, it was with plenty of vigour and energy as he and bandmates Pat Kilbride (bass) and Mark Kelso (drums) enlisted a full horn section and a colorful cast of guests including Rik Emmett (Triumph), Drew Zingg (Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs), and Michael Leonhart (Steely Dan) to help out on their third album. Titled 'Headquarters', it was their first outing for Universal Music Group's Alma Records imprint, and Monkey House began to work more steadily, earning a more widespread international following with subsequent releases like 2016's 'Left' and 2019's 'Friday'. The title of 'Left' was a reference to the fact that Breithaupt packed up and moved from Toronto to the west coast, or "left coast", arriving in the Los Angeles area by February 2013. The album debuted at number 9 on the iTunes U.S. Jazz chart, number 2 on the iTunes Canada jazz chart, and peaked at Number 24 on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart, despite it really being a pop music album. In 2022, the band marked their 30th Anniversary with the release of 'Remember The Audio', and , it featured contributions by trumpeter Randy Brecker and others. Monkey House returned in May 2025 with 'Crashbox', featuring the single 'Someplace On Madison', which marked the group's last album with Zingg, who died in April, 2025, at age 68. If you don't know the band but have a fondness for the work of Steely Dan then it is definitely worth checking out this sampler of some of their best material.  

Shortly after posting this album I received an email from Don Breithaupt thanking me for taking the time to put this together, and bringing his band to the attention of a wider audience. He is currently writing the next Monkey House album right now.   

Track listing

01 North (from 'True Winter' 1999) 
02 10,000 Hours (from 'Friday' 2019)
03 Where's Mantis Evar (from 'Headquarters' 2011)
04 Good To Live (from 'Left' 2016)
05 Remember The Audio (from 'Remember The Audio' 2022)
06 Road Movie (from 'True Winter' 1999)
07 Welcome To The Rest Of The World (from 'Friday' 2019)
08 The Future Is Almost Gone (from 'Remember The Audio' 2022)
09 Someplace On Madison (from 'Crashbox' 2025)
10 It's Already Dark In New York' (from 'Left' 2016)
11 Island Off The Coast Of America (from 'Friday' 2019)
12 New York Owes You Nothing (from 'Remember The Audio' 2022)
13 Faith In The Middle (from 'Headquarters' 2011)
14 North (Reprise) (from 'True Winter' 1999) 

Cotton Mather - Thee Early Sermons (2016)

As mentioned in the previous post from Cotton Mather, the band started out as an experimental duo consisting of guitarist Robert Harrison and cellist Nat Shelton, and with the addition of friends Owen and Wendy they recorded a number of their compositions, and compiled them onto a cassette in 1990. They called this tape 'Thee Early Sermons', carrying on the preaching theme of their 17th Century namesake, and they also self-released three of the songs on a single-sided cassette EP. Other out-takes and rarities have since surfaced, when Harrison released the 'Buffalo Nickels (Rarities And Shoebox Classics)' compilation in 2019, but only a couple of tracks from 'Thee Early Sermons' were included, so here is the full cassette album, plus a few choice singles, b-sides and out-takes to make up the running time. If anything, this collection just shows that the superb song-writing was in place from the very beginning, as none of the tracks from 'Thee Early Sermons' does the band any disservice.   

Track listing

01 Railroad Days (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
02 Acteon And Diana (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
03 Pedestrian (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
04 Pill Box Hat Made Of Love (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
05 Coat Of Many Colors (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
06 Bull In A Data Closet (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
07 Cycle Down (from 'Thee Early Sermons' cassette 1990)
08 Asterisk Man (from the 'Cotton Is King' promo version 1994)
09 Flying (from the Badfinger tribute album 'Come And Get It' 1996)
10 Heaven's Helping (b-side of '40 Watt Solution' 2001)
11 Little Star ('The Big Picture' out-take 2001)
12 I'll Be Gone (7" single 2012)
13 Animal Show (b-side of 'I'll Be Gone')
14 Call Me The Witch ('Death Of The Cool' out-take 2016)
15 Fading ('Death Of The Cool' out-take 2016)
16 Girl Friday ('Death Of The Cool' out-take 2016)

Ween - The Popular Stylings Of Ween (2007)

Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo met in a junior high school typing class in 1984, and despite not really liking each other they sat next to each other in typing class and both realized we were into music. The decided to form a band and called themselves Ween, which was a made-up word by combining the words wuss and penis. Their earliest home recordings were drug-fuelled and free-spirited, and deliberately designed to be obnoxious. From 1984 until 1994, Ween's live line-up consisted of Freeman on lead vocals and occasional rhythm guitar, Melchiondo on lead guitar and backing vocals, and a Digital Audio Tape (DAT) machine providing the pre-recorded backing tracks. They self-released several cassettes in the late eighties including 'Mrs. Slack' (1984), 'Erica Peterson's Flaming Crib Death' (1986), 'The Crucial Squeegie Lip' (1987), 'Axis: Bold as Boognish' (1988), and 'Prime 5' (1988). In the late 80's, Dave Ayers, working in A&R for Minneapolis-based record label Twin/Tone, went to see a live performance by alt-rock band Skunk, whose friends Ween were opening for them, and Ayers signed Ween to Twin/Tone that night, and would soon become the band's manager. Ween's debut album for Twin/Tone, 'GodWeenSatan: The Oneness', was released on in November 1990, and consisted of 26 tracks that were written during their first six years, and can be thought of as a "best of" this era. 

The band released their second full-length album, 'The Pod', in 1991 on the Shimmy-Disc label, which was recorded on a four-track cassette recorder from January to October 1990. The album borrows its title from the Solebury Township, Pennsylvania apartment in which it was recorded. The duo's use of drum machines, pitch-shifted guitars/vocals and drug-laced humour became a trademark part of their sound, while the cover of 'The Pod' was a parody of the cover of the 1975 Leonard Cohen album, The Best of Leonard Cohen, but with the head of Chris "Mean Ween" Williams (who played bass on the Pod track 'Alone') in place of Cohen's. Following the release of 'The Pod', Ween embarked on their first extensive U.S. tour, as well as a week-long U.K. tour that included a recording with John Peel in the BBC studio. In 1992 Ween signed with Elektra Records and released their major label debut 'Pure Guava' in November. This included their highest charting single, 'Push Th' Little Daisies', which gained them media and MTV attention, as the video was a highlighted target on MTV's Beavis and Butt-Head. Following the release of 'Pure Guava', Ween began to expand their live and studio line-up, providing both a crisper production sound in the studio and an easier live setup. Claude Coleman Jr. officially joined the band as drummer in March 1994, while Ween's long-time producer Andrew Weiss picked up the bass duties. 

The Weiss-produced 'Chocolate And Cheese' was released in 1994, featuring tracks influenced by '70s pop/rock and soul, such as 'Voodoo Lady', which also appeared on the 'Road Trip' and 'Dude, Where's My Car?' soundtracks. In 1995 Ween turned to Nashville studio musicians and producer Ben Vaughn for the November recording of '12 Golden Country Greats', which was released the following year, and which contained only ten tracks. There are two theories regarding the title of the album; that it refers to the dozen veteran musicians, known as The Shit Creek Boys, who played on the album, or that the band did record twelve songs during the sessions for the album, but chose not to use 'I Got No Darkside' and 'So Long, Jerry', but kept the album title. The nautically themed album 'The Mollusk' followed in 1997, and was another eclectic set showing Ween's penchant for satire, deconstruction, and pastiche, including 1960s Brit-pop, sea shanties, Broadway show tunes, and especially progressive rock. Following the release of 'The Mollusk', Ween contributed two songs to two different Trey Parker/Matt Stone projects, with 'Love' appearing in the film 'Orgazmo' in September 1997, and 'The Rainbow', as well as Freeman and Melchiondo themselves, featuring in a season 2 episode of South Park, titled 'Chef Aid', in October 1998. Their final soundtrack project of 1998 was contributing 'Beacon Light' to 'The X-Files: The Album', which was also released as a split single with Foo Fighters. 

Ween's sixth studio album, 2000's 'White Pepper', was the band's final studio release for Elektra, and was a pop-themed, Lennon-McCartney–inspired album, which produced two singles: 'Even If You Don't' and 'Stay Forever'. 'White Pepper' is the only Ween album that I own, and I can't even remember why I bought it, as all I knew about the band was that they made lo-fi music about sex, drugs and bodily functions, although they toned this down for their 1983 John Peel session. Having recently heard that session again, I wondered if they'd recorded any more songs that were more mainstream pop-orientated, and it turns out that they did slip the odd pop song onto their albums now and then. This collection is therefore Ween's 'pop' album, including two tracks from the Peel session - 'What Deaner What Talkin' About' and 'Buckingham Green' - as well as the '12 Golden Country Greats' reject 'So Long, Jerry', which is a heartfelt tribute to the recently departed Jerry Garcia. If you don't already know the band and find that you like this album, then do be warned that most of their other stuff can be something of an acquired taste.  

Track listing

01 What Deaner Was Talkin' About
02 Even If You Don't
03 Tried And True
04 So Long, Jerry
05 The Argus
06 Buckingham Green
07 A Tear For Eddie
08 Chocolate Town
09 It's Gonna Be (Alright)
10 Beacon Light
11 Don't Want It
12 If You Could Save Yourself (You'd Save Us All)
13 Slow Down Boy

The Beat - What's Your Best Thing? (1982)

The Beat were formed in Birmingham, England, in 1978, by Dave Wakeling on vocals and guitar, Ranking Roger on vocals, Andy Cox on guitar, David Steele on bass, Everett Morton on drums. and Saxa a.k.a. Lionel Augustus Martin on saxophone. Ranking Roger added a Jamaican vocal flavour to the band's sound with his toasting style, and veteran Jamaican saxophonist Saxa had played with Prince Buster, Laurel Aitken, and Desmond Dekker in the first wave of ska. He joined The Beat to record their first single, a cover of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' 'Tears Of A Clown', which was released on The Specials' Two Tone label in 1979. The single went Top Ten in the U.K., leading to a deal with Arista to distribute their own Go Feet label, and their debut album. 1980's 'I Just Can't Stop It' went gold in the UK on the strength of the single 'Mirror In The Bathroom', alongside the band's ferocious performances and clever blend of personal and political lyrics. After a disappointing sophomore effort with 1981's 'Wha'ppen?', the band came roaring back with 1982's 'Special Beat Service', a more pop-oriented set that gave them a wider U.S. audience thanks to MTV's embrace of the singles 'I Confess' and 'Save It For Later'. Although the band's main fan base was in the UK, they were also popular in Australia, partly due to exposure on the radio station Triple J and the TV show 'Countdown'. They also had a sizable following in the US and Canada, where the band were known as The English Beat for legal reasons, to avoid confusion with the American power-pop band The Beat. 

They toured the world with well-known artists including David Bowie, the Clash, the Police, the Pretenders, R.E.M., the Specials and Talking Heads, and during their early career, the band were associated with Birmingham-based cartoonist Hunt Emerson, who designed their 'Beat Girl' icon and painted the mural that was used on the cover of 'Wha'ppen?'. The band split at the end of 1983, and after the break-up Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger went on to form General Public, who had a couple of hit singles in the US and Canada, including 'Tenderness', while Andy Cox and David Steele formed Fine Young Cannibals with vocalist Roland Gift from the ska band Akrylykz. Ranking Roger also briefly joined Mick Jones' post-Clash band Big Audio Dynamite, as they already had a connection after Roger was asked to toast on 'Rock The Casbah' from The Clash's aborted album 'Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg' in 1981. The Beat didn't leave behind a huge amount of rare cuts, as they tended to record previously released material on their radio sessions, although one exception was when they recorded two new tracks for a Kid Jensen session in 1982. They also performed a cover of Laurel Aitken's 'Pussy Price' in their live sets, and one of their gigs was captured on the German TV show 'Rockpalast'. As I bought the original albums when they were released here in the UK, I was missing a number of their non-album singles, so this compilation includes everything that was not on the original UK releases of their three long-players.

Track listing

01 Tears Of A Clown (single 1979)
02 Ranking Full Stop (b-side of 'Tears Of A Clown)
03 Stand Down Margaret (Dub) (b-side of 'Best Friend' 1980)
04 Too Nice To Talk To (single 1980)
05 Psychedelic Rockers (b-side of 'Too Nice To Talk To')
06 Pussy Price (live on the German TV show 'Rockpalast' 1980)
07 Hit It (single 1981) 
08 Which Side Of The Bed...? (b-side of 'Hit It')
09 Rock The Casbah feat. Ranking Roger (from 'Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg' by The Clash 1981)
10 What's Your Best Thing? (b-side of 'Save It For Later' 1982)
11 March Of The Swivelheads (b-side of 'Jeanette' 1982)
12 Night And Day (Kid Jensen session 1982)
13 It Makes Me Rock (Kid Jensen session 1982)
14 Cool Entertainer (b-side of 'Pato & Roger (Ago Talk)' 1982)

John's Children - Orgasm (1970)

When I first discovered the MVSEP app, which could split out stems from music audio, and even remove crowd noise from a live recording, one of the first albums that I wanted to run through it was 'Orgasm' by John's Children. The story of this album is fairly well-known, and is one of the many gimmicks instigated by legendary manager Simon Napier-Bell. After witnessing the band live, and commenting that they were positively the worst group that he'd ever seen, he nevertheless offered to manage them, changing their name in the process from The Silence to John's Children. A group of session musicians then went into the studio and recorded John's Children's first single, 'The Love I Thought I'd Found' b/w 'Strange Affair', which was released in 1966. The original title of the A-side was 'Smashed Blocked', but a name change was necessitated at home because it was deemed offensive. For some reason the single found a receptive audience in Florida and California, where it was released under its original title, and so in 1967, John’s Children released their second single, 'Just What You Want – Just What You’ll Get' b/w 'But You’re Mine', which was also recorded by session musicians, and which features a guitar solo by Jeff Beck on the flip. This single fared better than its predecessor, and after the cancellation of a third single, 'Not The Sort Of Girl (You’d Like To Take To Bed)', their American label, White Whale Records, requested a full-length album. Napier-Bell presented them with 'Orgasm', which kicks off with the shrill screams of young female fans, and after someone pleads with the audience to stop screaming, the band launch into 'Killer Ben', which only elicits louder screaming. 

The album was, in fact, recorded in a studio, and the audience screams were borrowed from the soundtrack to The Beatles' 'A Hard Day’s Night'. Napier-Bell's idea was to present a live album to show the US just how popular the band were in the UK, but he over-did the addition of the fake crowd, and most of the music is buried under a cacophony of noise. Somehow the Daughters of the American Revolution, a patriotic US women's group, heard about the planned release of the record, and objected to its title, delaying its release until 1970. My first attempt at removing the crowd noise was not a success, as it was so deeply embedded into the music, but by splitting out the original stems, some of the crowd was left behind, and so I could then piece it back together and actually hear what the songs sounded like. Having now heard the best versions that we'll find of the music of John's Children, I can only agree with Napier-Bell's original assessment of them, as this is a very ordinary album, with nothing really original on display, and the vocals do let it down. The best tracks were remakes of some of the songs that they released as singles, and the original recordings do show them in a much better light, and so I would say that the 'Strange Affair' album that I posted a while ago is a much better representation of the group. There is one one really interesting song on here, however, and that is 'Let Me Know', which is The Clash's 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' recorded 15 years before they wrote it.      

Track listing

01 Killer Ben
02 Jagged Time Lapse
03 Smashed Blocked
04 You're A Nothing
05 Not The Sort Of Girl
06 Cold On Me
07 Leave Me Alone
08 Let Me Know
09 Just What You Want
10 Why Do You Lie

Having listened to my 'Strange Affair' post while editing this one, I realised how out of place 'Hippy Gumbo' sounded, being Marc Bolan's only lead vocal on the album, and so as it was long enough to stand some editing I've decided to remove that song from the track listing. If you've already downloaded it then do the same and see what you think. 

Rell - Long Time Coming (2005)

When his debut album for Roc-A-Fella Records, 'The Remedy', was cancelled, Wilbur Gerrell Gaddis, better known as Rell, renegotiated terms with label boss Jay-Z and started retooling the album for a future release on the label. However, when this too was later cancelled, he scrapped the work that he had done, and in 2004 started working on a new project, to be called 'Long Time Coming'. With a scheduled release date of May 2006, the buzz single 'Real Love' was released, but before long disagreements about lack of promotion from the label ended up with Rell's second album also being shelved, resulting in him leaving Roc-A-Fella Records. If you tried 'The Remedy' from the previous post and were intrigued enough to want to hear more, then here are the best the tracks that he recorded for his second abandoned album, which I've trimmed down from a rather unwieldy 70 minutes to a more concise 48-minute version of the unreleased 'Long Time Coming'.

Track listing

01 Back from Hiatus 
02 Don't Take It Away 
03 Real Love (Part 2) (feat. Kanye West & Consequence)
04 Saturday Love (duet with Nicole Wray)
05 Tear It Down
06 What's It All For... 
07 The Bizness
08 Real Love (Part 1) 
09 Last Ride
10 One Night (feat. Geda K. the Co-D)
11 Let Me Show U (feat. Nicole Wray)
12 U Ain't Let Me Down Yet 
13 Somehow, Someway
14 No Better Love (Remix) (feat. Young Gunz)

Cotton Mather - Homefront Cameo - The Best Of Cotton Mather (2017)

Cotton Mather, named after the 17th century Puritan preacher and author, started as an experimental art rock collaboration between guitarist Robert Harrison and cellist Nat Shelton, but they soon shifted away from avant-garde music towards a more traditional rock sound, particularly after Shelton moved from Austin in 1991. With Harrison on guitar and vocals, Whit Williams on guitar, Matt Hovis on bass, and Greg Thibeaux on drums, the group recorded some of their songs and self-released them as 'The Crafty Flower Arranger' album in 1992, before signing to the short-lived ELM Records label, who released their second album, 'Cotton Is King', in 1994. After the commercial failure of that album, Hovis and Thibeaux left the group, and Harrison and Williams, occasionally aided by bassist George Reiff and drummers Dana Myzer and Darin Murphy, began writing and recording what would become their third album. 'Kontiki' was recorded primarily on 4-track cassette and ADAT, and included elements of found sound and psychedelic experimentation, and while the bulk of the album was recorded piece-by-piece via overdubbing, Harrison refers to the three tracks recorded by the live band to be "the spine of the record", showcasing their rock and roll sound. Nashville musician Brad Jones helped to mix and compile the album, and while unsuccessful upon release in America in 1997, it was reissued in 1999 in the UK on the Rainbow Quartz label, and championed by Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis, among others.

The recording of the band's fourth album began in 1998, with Brad Jones producing, but when 'Kontiki' was reissued in England and became a success, and with the sessions for 'The Big Picture' almost done, Harrison held off on releasing it, and instead the group recorded the EP 'Hotel Baltimore', which consisted of a re-recording of 'Lost My Motto' from 'Cotton Is King', three outtakes from 'Kontiki', and three new songs. This was intended to consolidate the success of 'Kontiki', and introduce new fans to fresh material before the release of their next full-length studio album, and the David Fridmann-produced 'The Big Picture' was released by Rainbow Quartz in October 2001. However, the release of the album was not a success, and numerous personal setbacks and issues with the label caused the band to go on hiatus in 2003. After this, the various members went on to pursue their own projects, with Reiff remaining active in the music scene as a performer and producer, working with Chris Robinson, Court Yard Hounds, Dixie Chicks, Jakob Dylan, and Bruce Robison, among others, while Josh Gravelin went on to work with Ian Moore, Alejandro Escovedo, Guy Forsyth, Sparkwood, and Beaver Nelson. 

Whit Williams and Dana Myzer joined Ron Flynt as the group Stockton, who released an album in 2007, and Harrison founded The Star Apple Kingdom in 2007, a name under which he categorizes all of his work as a producer and artist, and the first release on the label was the eponymous debut by Future Clouds And Radar, released in 2007, which was essentially a Robert Harrison solo project. During Cotton Mather's hiatus, the group still retained a degree of success, as 'Lily Dreams On' from 'Kontiki' appeared on the soundtrack of the television show 'Veronica Mars', and 'Lost My Motto' from 'Hotel Baltimore' was included on Steven Van Zandt's compilation 'The Coolest Songs In The World', and as the reputation of 'Kontiki' began to grow in underground music circles, Harrison organized an expanded reissue of the album in 2011. 'Kontiki Deluxe Edition' was released in the spring of 2012 and featured a bonus CD of outtakes from the album's sessions. The group played several live shows in 2012, and also released a 7" single containing two tracks recorded during the sessions for 'The Big Picture', which had not been previously released, featuring Ian McLagan on organ. 

The reunited group played several shows in support of the 'Kontiki' reissue, and although the shows were meant to be one-off performances, the group eventually began performing and recording again as a functioning band, but as by this time, Myzer and Gravelin were no longer readily available, the line-up generally centered around Harrison, Williams, Reiff, and Murphy. In 2016, 'Death Of The Cool' was released on the Star Apple Kingdom label, and it was met with much critical acclaim, so three more songs from the project, featuring singer Nicole Atkins, were released as a single at the end of the year. 2017 saw two more releases from the project: the full-length album 'Wild Kingdom', and the six-song 'Young Life' EP. Long-time bassist and producer George Reiff fell ill toward the end of 2016, during the compilation and release of these albums and EPs, and died from lung cancer in May 2017. During 2018, the group did not release any new material. but did attempt to raise money for a new record through PledgeMusic, although they fell short of their goal, and so the project was abandoned. Harrison later stated that he took most of the year off to recuperate from the loss of Reiff, and other changes in his personal life, and to date no new music has appeared from the band. For anyone who has not yet discovered Cotton Mather, then this collection will show what a criminally under-rated band they were, and with the out-takes and rarities that I found while compiling this album, rest assured that there will be more to come from them. 

Track listing

01 Camp Hill Rail Operator (from 'Kontiki' 1997)
02 Girl With A Blue Guitar (from 'Wild Kingdom' 2017)
03 Lily Dreams On (from 'Kontiki' 1997)
04 Eleanor Plunge (from the 'Young Life' EP 2017
05 40 Watt Solution (from 'THe Big Picture' 2001)
06 The Middle Of Nowhere (from 'Death Of The Cool' 2016)
07 Better Than A Hit (from 'Wild Kingdom' 2017)
08 Vegetable Row (from 'Kontiki' 1997)
09 Queen Of Swords (from 'Death Of The Cool' 2016)
10 Payday (from 'Cotton Is King' 1994)
11 Ship Shape (from 'The Crafty Flower Arranger' 1992)
12 Homefront Cameo (from 'Kontiki' 1997)
13 Dutch Light (from the 'Young Life' EP 2017
14 The Book Of Too Late Changes (from 'Death Of The Cool' 2016)

Rapid Eye Movement - Paradoxical Sleep (1980)

Rapid Eye Movement was put together in 1980 by Jakko Jakszyk, Dave Stewart, Rick Biddulph, and Pip Pyle, following the demise of Jakszyk's previous band 64 Spoons. Jakszyk had been in various groups since around 1975, at which time he was leading an eccentric jazz-rock band called Soon After. His self-confessed "dictatorial tendencies" reduced a bigger line-up to a trio of "two screaming lead guitars and a trumpet", but despite this the band reached the finals of the 1975 Melody Maker National Rock/Folk competition, finishing third. When Soon After split up, Jakszyk toured with "a strange little band" which supported Camel, Stackridge, and Judas Priest, then briefly joined a Tring-based group called Synthesis which played progressive rock in the Canterbury-scene vein. His first significant band was the afore-mentioned 64 Spoons, which he joined as guitarist and lead singer in 1976, co-writing much of the band's material. Between 1976 and 1980, 64 Spoons wrote and performed a blend of pop, progressive rock, jazz, and comedy, typified by their single 'Ladies Don't Have Willies', and boosted by an exuberant and funny live show, they proved popular with audiences. However, despite this acclaim from the public, they failed to gain an effective record deal or media breakthrough, and they split up in 1980, with their only album, 'Landing On A Rat Column', eventually being released in 1992, many years after it was recorded. 

64 Spoons' work did, however, lead to friendships with several of the musicians who had inspired the band, notably keyboard player Dave Stewart, and following the split of 64 Spoons, Jakszyk joined Stewart, Rick Biddulph, and Pip Pyle in the band Rapid Eye Movement, with Jakszyk contributing several songs to the band's repertoire, as well as co-writing material with Stewart. Between August 1980 and June 1981 Rapid Eye Movement toured Spain, France, and the UK and recorded some material, but they split up due to Stewart's desire to concentrate on studio work, most notably his successful collaborations with Colin Blunstone and Barbara Gaskin. Although Rapid Eye Movement never released a studio album during their short lifetime, some of their gigs were recorded, and so we do have a record of the original material composed by Jakszyk and Stewart. The live recordings are very good audio quality, and so I've taken the best tracks from their French concert from October 1980, removed the crowd noise and boosted the vocals where they were too low in the mix, kept the running order fairly true to the gig, and added a cover. We now have a debut "studio" album from this obscure Canterbury-influenced band, performing original material that has otherwise yet to see the light of day. 

Track listing

01 One More Time
02 Hat Of Truth
03 Seven Sisters

04 Foetal Fandango
05 Matching Green
06 Dear Clare
07 Bismark City
08 One More Time (Reprise)

Many thanks yo geofmcm for bringing this band to my attention, and also for supplying the live recordings that make up this album. 

Soulseek update - Good News

It looks like I've finally got my head around Port Forwarding, and according to Soulseek the listening port in now open. Can anyone who has been having trouble accessing my albums over the past few months give it a try now, and let me know in the comments if you can now see the aiwe albums again. 

Fingers crossed. 

pj