Gemini - I Am The Universe (1987)

With ABBA returning from a 40 year hiatus with a new album, their name is everywhere at the moment, and this blog is no exception. After releasing their masterpiece 'The Visitors' in 1981, followed by the singles 'The Day Before You Came' and 'Under Attack', the band broke up in 1982, and both Agnetha Faltskog and Frida Lyngstag launched solo careers. But what happened to Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus? Well, they carried on making music, but in a much more low-key manner, taking established brother and sister duo The Glenmarks under their wing and writing and producing two albums with them. Karin and Anders Glenmark, together with their aunt and uncle, had been recording since 1972 and had released four albums before Anders left for a solo career. There was already a connection to ABBA, as Anders had provided backing vocals on Faltskog's 1975 solo album, as well as playing guitar on Lyngstag's 'Ensams' from the same year, and so when Bjorn and Benny were looking for a pair of vocalists to replace the girls, the Glenmarks were the obvious choice. After contributing backing vocals to the soundtrack album of Bjorn and Benny's collaboration with Tim Rice on their 'Chess' musical, they were encouraged to change their name to Gemini, and they signed to the Polar label and started recording at the Polar studio in Stockholm, using many of the musicians who'd played on ABBA's albums. Their first single was the unreleased ABBA composition 'Just Like That', and it was promoted in the UK with a live appearance on The Terry Wogan show in 1986, but ABBA were considered a bit passe by then, and even a high profile appearance on British TV couldn't launch the group to an apathetic UK audience. They were reasonably successful in their native Sweden, however, and so a second album 'Geminism' appeared in 1987, and as with the first one, the songs were a mix of Andersson/Ulvaeus originals and songs written by Anders Glenmark and Ingela Forsman, and while Anders' songs were perfectly acceptable pop fare, the quality of Bjorn and Benny's easily eclipsed them, and so it is those songs that we really want to hear. As it happens, if we extract the Andersson/Ulvaeus songs from both records we end up with a great 46-minute album, played on and produced by Bjorn and Benny, and therefore being the nearest thing to new ABBA music in the mid-to-late 80's that we'll ever get to hear.

Track listing

01 T.L.C.
02 Slowly
03 Too Much Love Is Wasted
04 Mio My Mio
05 Slow Emotion
06 Just Like That
07 Ghost Town
08 I Am The Universe
09 Have Mercy
10 I'm A Bitch When I See Red
11 Another You, Another Me
12 Nearly There

Joe Satriani - ...and on guitar (2020)

Joseph Satriani was born in Westbury on 15 July 15 1956 and raised in Carle Place, and he started playing guitar at 14, after being inspired by hearing of the death of Jimi Hendrix, and later taking lessons from jazz musicians Lennie Tristano and Billy Bauer. He enrolled in Five Towns College and also began teaching guitar, taking his first notable student in Steve Vai, a musician who would soon be credited with "stunt guitar" on Frank Zappa records. Satriani headed out to Berkeley, California in 1978, supporting himself through teaching, and beginning to gig with local bands, and over the next few years he racked up what would prove to be an impressive roster of pupils, including Kirk Hammett (who would join Metallica), jazz fusion guitarist Charlie Hunter, Larry LaLonde (later of Primus), Kevin Cadogan (who joined Third Eye Blind), and David Bryson (Counting Crows). During this period he started to be noticed as a musician himself, landing his first notable steady gig in The Squares, and then joining the Greg Kihn Band in 1986, just as the hits started to dry up for the power popper. Satriani has said that as Kihn was desperate for a replacement guitarist, he was paid far too much money, and he used that, along with his credit cards, to finance his full-length debut album 'Not Of This Earth', released on the Relativity label in 1986. At the same time, his student Steve Vai was hired by David Lee Roth, pushing him into the national spotlight, and Vai often tipped his hat to his old guitar tutor. This helped set the stage for the 1987 release of 'Surfing With The Alien', which received rave reviews from guitar publications, and it rocketed Satriani to mainstream stardom almost overnight, eventually being certified platinum, which was an almost unheard-of feat for an instrumental album. 

As a result of this notoriety, he was offered the chance to play with Mick Jagger on his solo tour of Japan in 1988, which he readily accepted, and he was also asked to guest on 'Blue Öyster Cult's latest recording. The following year saw the release of his next album 'Flying In A Blue Dream', which included a couple of cuts where he sang lead vocals, possibly at the request of his label, but it did help propel the album into the upper reaches of the charts. Before he started work on his next album, he played on four tracks with Alice Cooper, and appeared with Spinal Tap on the 'Break Like The Wind' album. 1992's 'The Extremist' was his highest-ever chart position on Billboard, and a year later he joined Deep Purple, taking over the lead guitar slot from the absent Ritchie Blackmore on a Japanese tour, after which he was offered a full-time position, but he turned it down and the gig went to Steve Morse. The next big event in his career arrived in 1996 when he teamed up with Steve Vai and Eric Johnson for G3, a tour designed to showcase the three guitar virtuosos, and it was captured on the 1997 live CD/DVD set 'G3: Live In Concert'. More solo albums followed, with 2003/2004 being particularly productive, not only for him personally, but he also guested on tracks from the reformed Yardbirds, Stanley Clarke, and Jordan Rudess. Satriani's next project was the supergroup Chickenfoot, with ex-Van Halen rockers Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, plus Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, and they released their self-titled debut in 2009, while at the same time he was keeping his solo career afloat with 'Black Swans And Wormhole Wizards' appearing in 2010. A year later Chickenfoot released their second album 'Chickenfoot III', while an overview of his work was issued as 'The Complete Studio Recordings' box set in 2014, followed by yet another new release with 'Shockwave Supernova' in 2015. A couple times a year Satriani joined other artists in the studio to add his blistering guitar runs to songs by artists such as Frost*, Don Felder, Todd Rundgren, and just last year on the latest release by Ayreon. This collection shows the huge variety of artists that have benefited from Satriani's fiery guitar-work over the years, and if you aren't already a fan then I hope in inspires you to check out his many solo releases.  

Track listing   

Disc One
01 Love And Rock And Roll (from 'Love And Rock And Roll' by Greg Kihn 1986)
02 Montery (from 'Aquamarine' by Danny Gottlieb 1987)
03 The Siege And Investiture Of Baron Von Frankenstein's Castle At Weisseria 

                                                                                (from 'Imaginos' by Blue Öyster Cult 1988)
04 Flow My Tears (from 'Radio Free Albemuth' by Stuart Hamm 1988)
05 Burning Our Bed (from 'Hey Stoopid' by Alice Cooper 1991)
06 Break Like the Wind (from 'Break Like The Wind' by Spinal Tap 1992) 
07 Ellipsis (from 'All Sides Now' by Pat Martino 1997)
08 Labios De Fuego (from 'Soy' by Alejandra Guzmán 2001)
09 Train Kept A Rollin' (from 'Birdland' by The Yardbirds 2003)

Disc Two
01 Hair (from '1,2, To The Bass' by Stanley Clarke 2003)
02 Screaming Head (from 'Rhythm Of Time' by Jordan Rudess 2004)
03 Hang Me Out To Dry (from 'Gillan's Inn' by Ian Gillan 2006)
04 River Of Longing (from 'Collection' by Jason Becker 2008)
05 Nail Grinder (from 'Clean' by Martone 2008)
06 Hold On To The Vision (from the soundtrack of the 1986 film 'No Retreat No Surrender' 2010)
07 Falling Awake (from 'What Lies Beneath' by Tarja 2010)
08 Gaia Tribe (from 'Elemental Journey' by Sonny Landreth 2012)

Disc Three
01 Closer To The Sun (from 'Falling Satellites' by Frost* 2016)
02 This Is Not A Drill (from 'White Knight' by Todd Rundgren 2017)
03 The Healer (from 'Borrego' by Marco Minnemann 2017)
04 When Did Men Rock (from 'Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing)' by Derek Smalls 2018)
05 Power Drunk Majesty (Part II) (from 'Volume II: Power Drunk Majesty' by 

                                                                                                              Metal Allegiance 2018)

06 Rock You (from 'American Rock 'n' Roll' by Don Felder 2019)
07 Tears From A Glass Eye (from 'Old Lions Still Roar' by Phil Campbell 2019)
08 Get Out! Now! (from 'Transitus' bu Ayreon' 2020)

Madeon - Celine (2017)

Hugo Pierre Leclercq is better known by his stage name Madeon, and is a French musician, DJ, record producer, singer and songwriter from Nantes, currently based in Los Angeles. He started composing music at the age of 11 under the names of Daemon and Wayne Mont until 2010, when he began producing house music under his current name, Madeon. He went on to remix tracks by other electronic artists the following year, but it was a 2011 Youtube clip that propelled him to widespread public attention, with his recording of 'Pop Culture', where he performed a mash-up of 39 different popular songs in real-time using a Novation Launchpad. It received six millions of hits in its first few days of release, and paved the way for the release of his debut single 'Icarus', and his first EP 'The City' in 2012. He toured with Lady Gaga as an opening act during her Born This Way Ball, and later worked on three tracks from her 'Artpop' album. The 'Technicolor' single was released in 2013, and the following year he made an old track called 'Cut The Kid' available for a free download on his website. In September 2014, Leclercq released 'Imperium' as the lead single from his debut studio album, which was followed by more singles in the form of 'You're On', 'Pay No Mind', and 'Home', and the parent album came out on 10 March 2015. In August 2016, the new gameplay trailer of EA Sports' FIFA 17 was released, featuring Madeon's remix of 'Song 2' by Blur, and in November 2017 he announced that he would be releasing his next project in 2018. However, in reality he'd been hit by writers block, and he wasn't happy with the music he was putting out, so on 12 December 2017 he recorded some music 'made out of anger', taping six tracks of dark and disturbing electronica in just 24 hours. Years later the pieces were pressed up as a 6 track EP, in a limited run of 200 vinyl copies, and you can feel the anger in them, and ultimately his state of mind whilst writing them. In 2019 Leclercq announced that he would be releasing a new song in May, and 'All My Friends' appeared in stores on clear 7" vinyl, followed in November by the release of the 'Good Faith' album. Leclercq later revealed that it was based on his relationship to joy and his mental health, showing that his dark period in 2017 was now over, and that it actually helped to shape 'Good Faith'. Having been a fan of harsh electronics such as Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle for many years, it's the dark stuff that I'm drawn to, so this EP is right up my street. 

Track listing

01 Heir
02 Homicide
03 Turbomegafast
04 Celine
05 Pomme
06 Absolu

Al Stewart - Merry Monks (1988)

After the release of 'Modern Times' in 1975, Al Stewart's contract with CBS Records expired, and he signed to RCA Records for the world outside North America, and with Arista in the US. His first album for the new label, 'Year Of The Cat', turned out to be his breakthrough record, and the change in style paved the way for his future releases, with Stewart commenting when he'd finished recording that he thought "If this isn't a hit, then I can't make a hit. We finally got the formula exactly right." He followed 'Year Of The Cat' with 'Time Passages' in 1978, and both albums reached the top ten in the US, with 'Year Of The Cat' peaking at No. 5 and 'Time Passages' at No. 10, and with both albums producing a number of hit singles in the US. In 1980 he released '24 Carrots', and the following year saw his first live album 'Live/Indian Summer', with both featuring backing by Peter White's band Shot In The Dark. Despite '24 Carrots' producing a No. 24 US single with 'Midnight Rocks', it actually sold less well than its two immediate predecessors, so Stewart was dropped by Arista, and his popularity declined. Despite his lower profile and waning commercial success, he continued to tour the world, record albums, and maintained a loyal fanbase, and his next album was the highly political 'Russians And Americans' in 1984, followed after a four-year gap by the upbeat pop-oriented 'Last Days Of The Century' on the small DRO/Enigma labels in 1988. As with his previous recording sessions, extra tracks were left off the finished albums and later turned up on expanded re-issues, although some were still kept hidden, eventually appearing on the 1996 fan-made bootleg 'Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time'. For this second volume of Stewart rarities I've collected the unreleased songs from 1976 to 1988, including an unused demo of the title song for the 1982 Robin Williams film 'The World According To Garp', and two 1988 co-writes with Tori Amos in 'Ten Cents' and 'Dreaming'.   

Track listing

01 Belsize Blues (previously unreleased 1976)
02 The Ringing of Bells (previously unreleased 1980) 
03 Tonton Macoute (previously unreleased 1980)  
04 The World According To Garp (previously unreleased 1982) 
05 Candy Came Back (previously unreleased 1984) 
06 In Red Square (previously unreleased 1984)
07 How Does It Happen (previously unreleased 1984) 
08 Merry Monks (previously unreleased 1988) 
09 Ten Cents (previously unreleased 1988) 
10 Dreaming (previously unreleased 1988) 

Thanks to Private Beach for the suggestion of more volumes of Stewart rarities.

The Vibrators - We Vibrate (1978)

I've had this set ready to go for a couple if years now, but it was a small sidebar in the new issue of Record Collector which told me that now was the time to post it. Apparently, The Vibrators are ripe for the collector's market, with copies of their early records going for big bucks, so this post shows exactly how they got there. The Vibrators were founded by Ian 'Knox' Carnochan, bassist Pat Collier, guitarist John Ellis, and drummer John 'Eddie' Edwards in 1976, and first came to public notice at the 100 Club when they backed Chris Spedding. On Spedding's recommendation, Mickie Most signed them to his RAK Records label, and he produced their first single 'We Vibrate', which was released in 1976, with the band also backing Spedding on his single 'Pogo Dancing, which was issued the same year. They quickly became favourites with John Peel, and recorded sessions for him in October 1976, June 1977, and February 1978, but although they were one of the pioneering punk bands, headlining London's Roxy Club in 1977, some people wrote them off as being bandwagon-jumpers, as their sound was more pop-punk than the The Damned or The Clash, and it was mentioned more than once that Knox was too old to be a punk at 32. The band signed to Epic Records in early 1977, and their debut album 'Pure Mania' reached the top 50 of the UK Albums Chart, another stick to beat them with by the true-blue punks. Their follow-up album 'V2' narrowly missed the UK top 30, although 'Automatic Lover', taken from the album, was their only single to reach the UK top 40. A lack of further chart activity, and with only one UK top 40 single to their credit, saw The Vibrators join the list of indie one-hit wonders, alongside The Flying Lizards, Jilted John, 999, The Radio Stars, and The Rich Kids, and so they quietly broke up in 1980. Following the break-up John Ellis recorded with Peter Gabriel, as well as recording and touring frequently with Peter Hammill, then subsequently The Stranglers, who he eventually joined full-time in the 1990's. Pat Collier went on to work closely with the Soft Boys, producing their seminal album 'Underwater Moonlight', before he decided to get the old gang back together, putting out a call to fellow original members Ellis, Knox, and Edwards, and the reformed band released the 'Guilty' album in 1982. This collection of early singles and demos clearly shows their influences, with some of them sounding way more pub-rock than punk, and confirming that the 'too old for punk' insults had some truth in them, but it's still a great collection of raucous rock from these under-rated pioneers of punk.    

Track listing

01 Say Mama (demo 1976)
02 We Vibrate (single 1976)
03 Pogo Dancing (single by Chris Spedding & The Vibrators 1976)
04 The Pose (b-side of 'Pogo Dancing')
05 Young Lust (demo 1976)
06 He's A Psycho (demo 1977)
07 I Can See It In Your Eyes (demo 1976)
08 Stitch You Up (demo 1977)
09 Frontline Europe (demo 1977)
10 City Of Mirrors (demo 1977)
11 Still Not Over You (demo 1977)  
12 Dong (demo 1977)
13 I Loved Her (demo 1977)
15 Eye Witness (demo 1977)
16 Judy Says (Knock You In The Head) (single 1978)

Kylie Minogue - Always And Forever (2001)

In 1997 Kylie Minogue released her sixth studio album 'Impossible Princess', representing a drastic change in her musical direction, incorporating elements of electronica and alternative music. The British public was unimpressed, viewing it as a trend-chasing attempt, and failed to identify with her new intimate image as "IndieKylie", with the backlash resulting in 'Impossible Princess' having little impact on British record charts, and ultimately resulting in her leaving Deconstruction Records after a six-year relationship. Following the split, Minogue took a break from recording music to focus on her acting career, although she did perform Duran Duran's 'The Reflex' on the tribute compilation 'Undone: The Songs Of Duran Duran' in 1999, and she also collaborated with the Pet Shop Boys on a duet entitled 'In Denial' on their 1999 studio album 'Nightlife'. This prompted the band's label Parlophone to sign Minogue in June 1999, and in an early meeting with the label to discuss which direction she intended to pursue, she decided to return to her pop roots, as she realised that this was the kind of music that people wanted from her. Her team approached PWL owner Pete Waterman to be involved in the project, as the pair had worked together earlier in her career, but the collaboration did not happen. Instead she felt that working with different producers would help the album have a diverse feel, and so she recorded the songs in Sydney, London, and finally Los Angeles, where she put the final touches to the album. Former Take That member Robbie Williams contributed three songs with his songwriting partner Guy Chambers, 'Loveboat', 'Your Disco Needs You', and 'Kids', with Minogue sharing the songwriting credit on the first two, and she found Williams to be her ideal male counterpart based on their similar musical output. 'Spinning Around' was released as the lead single from the 'Light Years' album in June 2000, with two previously unreleased tracks on the flip, the alternative dance number 'Cover Me With Kisses' and the acoustic 'Paper Dolls'. The second single was 'On A Night Like This', and once again it had a new track on the b-side, being the ballad 'Ocean Blue', whereas the next release was the duet with Williams, with 'Kids' having four original tracks by Williams on the b-side, and Minogue only appearing on the A-side. The fourth single 'Please Stay' was the final release from 'Light Years' in the UK, and was backed by two exclusive b-sides, being a cover of 'Santa Baby' (omitted from this post as it didn't really fit with the other tracks) and the previously unreleased 'Good Life'. One last single was released just in Australia and Germany, and fans who bought 'Your Disco Needs You' were treated to specially commissioned re-mixes of the A-side plus album track 'Password'. 'Light Years' received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics, and in retrospect is generally considered to be one of Minogue's strongest releases, and so a companion record of b-sides, film soundtrack work, collaborations, and the theme to the UK soap/drama 'Night And Day' should be equally strong, and it turns out to be just that, so enjoy some rare Kylie at her poptastic best. 

Track listing

01 Cover Me With Kisses (b-side of 'Spinning Around' 2000)
02 Paper Dolls (b-side of 'Spinning Around' 2000)
03 Ocean Blue (b-side of 'On A Night Like This' 2000)
04 Physical (bonus track on Australian edition of 'Light Years')
05 The Reflex (with Ben Lee, from 'UnDone', the Duran Duran tribute album 1999)
06 Good Life (b-side of 'Please Stay' 2000)
07 Always And Forever (theme to the TV series 'Night And Day' 2001)
08 I Feel Love (Donna Summer cover)
09 Bury Me Deep In Love (with Jimmy Little, from 'Corroboration', the Australian comp. 2001)
10 The Real Thing (from the soundtrack of the film 'Sample People' 2000)
11 G-House Project (from 'When Young Terrorists Chase The Sun' by Gerling 2001)

Jan Akkerman - ...and on guitar (2001)

I've already covered Jan Akkeran's early years in my 'Minstrel' post, which took him up to the solo albums that he released in 1972 and 1973, so this collection of guest appearances follows on nicely from that one, as it starts in the early 70's and includes his collaborations with fellow musicians over the next 30 years. His solo career actually dated from 1968, though his attempt at a solo album, later titled 'Guitar For Sale', and which contained his covers of numbers such as 'What'd I Say', 'Ode to Billy Joe', and 'Green Onions', was so primitive by the standards of the time that it was deemed unreleasable until Akkerman started topping reader surveys as best rock guitarist in the mid-'70s. Although it's unlikely that it would have been heard much in the UK, you can hear his early prowess on 'The Morning After The Third' by Hans Dulfer & Ritmo Natural from 1970, which came out two years before his first real solo album, 1972's 'Profile'. The music on that album was actually recorded in 1969, while he was still a member of Brainbox, and so it wasn't util 1974's 'Tabernakel' that the music reflected his interests at the time, which included the lute. Having finally acquired a medieval lute of his own, he taught himself to play it, and the results comprise more than half of the album, with authentic medieval music mixed with originals composed in a medieval style. After leaving Focus in 1976, Akkerman began releasing a stream of solo albums, beginning with the concept offering 'Eli', and this also gave him more time to offer his services as a guitarist for hire, mostly appearing on records by fellow Dutch artists such as The Tielman Brothers, The Joachim Kuhn Band, Mark Nauseef, and André Hazes. His own albums frequently embraced classical, jazz, and blues, and much of his work during the 1980's wasn't released officially outside of Holland, but in 1990 he issued the album 'The Noise Of Art' in the US on Miles Copeland's I.R.S label, and this revitalized him in terms of releases, becoming more active than he had been in over a decade, although this caused the guest appearances to slow down as a consequence. When he did show up on someone else's album his guitar-work was as fluid and emotive as ever - just listen to him on Ange's 'Autour D'Un Cadavre Exquis' from 2001. Akkerman's first two albums of the new century, 'Jazzah!' in 2000 and 'I'm In The Mood' in 2002, were self-released, but gained much acclaim from critics and the public alike, and 2003's 'C.U. On Coast To Coast' even earned him a place in the Dutch charts. He continues to record and release albums to this day, and I mentioned 2019's 'Close Beauty' in the last post, so enjoy this celebration of his contribution to Dutch music over the years, both as a solo artist, with his bands, and with these collaborations with his fellow countrymen. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 The Morning After The Third (from 'The Morning After The Third' by Hans Dulfer 

                                                                                                                 & Ritmo Natural 1970)
02 The Sky Has Called Us Out To Dance (from 'Scarecrow's Journey' by Robin Lent 1971)
03 Get Out Of My Fridge (from 'Two Sides Of Peter Banks' by Peter Banks 1973) 
04 Be-Bop-A-Lula (from 'Rock And Roll, Our First Love' by The Tielman Brothers 1976)
05 Orange Drive (from 'Sunshower' by Joachim Kuhn Band 1978) 
06 Don't Want Nobody (from 'J.D. Drews' by J.D. Drews 1980) 
07 Doctor Marathon Parts I & II (from 'Personal Note' by Mark Nauseef 1982)
08 Volgens Mij Ben Ik Getrouwd (from 'Dit Is Wat Ik Wil' by André Hazes 1989) 

Disc Two
01 Atlantis (from 'Atlantis: Bilder Från En Ö' by Björn J:son Lindh 1983)
02 I Lose Again (from 'The Talisman' by Forcefield 1988)
03 Stealth (from 'Guitar Speak II' by Various Artists 1990) 
04 Blij En Bang  (from 'Mijn Hart Slaapt Nooit' by Henny Vrienten 1991)
05 Soul Detective (from 'Soul Detective' by Bernard Oattes 1995)
06 Autour D'Un Cadavre Exquis (from 'Culinaire Lingus' by Ange 2001)

Opal - Early Recordings Vol. 2 - (1991)

I'm a big fan of the Paisley Underground genre of the early 80's, as you might have gathered by my posts from The Dream Syndicate, but there were others bands that were just as good, most notably The Rain Parade, Green On Red, The Three O'Clock, and even The Bangles, and in this case Clay Allison. Clay Allison was an offshoot band composed of David Roback and Will Glenn of The Rain Parade, Kendra Smith of The Dream Syndicate, Sylvia Juncosa of The Leaving Trains, and Keith Mitchell of Monitor, and they released one single before changing their name to Opal and releasing some of their old recordings on the 1984 'Fell From The Sun' and 1985 'Northern Line' EPs. In 1987 they issued their only album 'Happy Nightmare Baby', but Smith left the group during the Happy Nightmare tour after a show in Providence, Rhode Island, and so Roback continued with vocalist Hope Sandoval, playing shows as Opal and planning an album to be titled 'Ghost Highway'. In 1989 they decided on a name change and became Mazzy Star, and 'Ghost Highway' was presumably released as their debut album 'She Hangs Brightly' in 1990. In 1989 the 'Early Recordings' album was released, collecting some songs from their EPs, a couple of Clay Allison tracks and some previously unreleased recordings. It showed what a great band they were, and what a shame it was that they didn't stay together longer. As further proof of this, here's a second volume of early recordings, mixing some songs from a 1984 promo sampler by Clay Allison with some great unheard tracks by an early Opal. Kendra Smith released a number of solo singles, EPs, and one album before retiring to the woods of northern California, and David Roback died in Los Angeles on February 24 2020 from metastatic cancer, at the age of just 61. 

Track listing

01 My Canyon Memory
02 Sisters Of Mercy
03 Sailing Boats
04 Vespers
05 Lisa's Funeral
06 This Town
07 Freight Train
08 Wintertime
09 Little Bit Of Rain
10 What You've Done
11 Cherry Jam
12 Indian Summer

Teena Marie - Black Rain (2002)

In 1976 singer Tina Marie (born Mary Christine Brockert) gained an introduction to Motown Records staff producer Hal Davis, which led to an audition for a film about orphans that was being developed by Motown, and although the project was shelved, label boss Berry Gordy was impressed enough by her singing to sign her as a solo act. She recorded unreleased material with a number of different producers over the next few years, before being spotted by label-mate Rick James, who was immediately impressed with her sound, and worked with her on her debut album 'Wild And Peaceful', which was issued under her new name of Teena Marie in 1979. Her second album followed in 1980, and 'Lady T' was produced by Richard Rudolph (the widower of R&B singer Minnie Riperton), as she'd asked Berry Gordy to contact Rudolph as Rick James was unavailable. She released her third album the same year, and 'Irons In The Fire' was written and produced mostly by Teena Marie herself, an achievement considered rare at the time for a female artist. She continued her success with Motown in 1981, with the release of 'It Must Be Magic', but in 1982 she got into a heated legal battle with Motown Records over her contract, and there were disagreements about releasing her new material. The lawsuit resulted in "The Brockert Initiative", which made it illegal for a record company to keep an artist under contract without releasing new material for that artist. In such instances, artists are able to sign and release their music with another label instead of being held back by an un-supportive one. She subsequently signed a worldwide deal with Epic Records, releasing the concept album 'Robbery', followed in 1984 by her biggest-selling album 'Starchild', and more albums were issued over the next few years. 

During the 1990's, her classic R&B, soul, and funk records were either sampled by hip-hop artists or covered by R&B divas, and Teena Marie became regarded as something of a pioneer in helping to bring hip-hop to the mainstream by becoming one of the first artists of her time to rap on her single 'Square Biz'. In late 1994 she released the 'Passion Play' album on her independent label Sarai Records, after which she took a break from the music business to raise her daughter Alia Rose. During the late 1990's, she began working on a new album, to be called 'Black Rain', but she was unable to secure a major label deal for it, and she didn't want to put it out on her own Sarai label in light of the modest sales of 'Passion Play'. A number of songs were pretty much completed and put onto a promo CD, but this was soon bootlegged by fans, and so tracks such as 'The Mackin' Game', 'I'll Take The Pressure', 'Butterflies", and 'Blackberry Playa' were able to be heard by fans while she sought out a label to release it. Eventually she put the record on the back burner, and then, after a 10-year hiatus from the music industry, she resumed her musical career by signing with the Classics sub-label of the successful hip-hop label Cash Money Records, and releasing her eleventh album 'La Doña' in 2004. 'La Doña' used a number of songs that were originally recorded for 'Black Rain', with 'My Body's Hungry', 'Baby I'm Your Friend', 'The Mackin' Game', and 'Black Rain' itself appearing in re-recorded versions, and 'Ecstasy' was included on the follow-up album 'Sapphire' in 2006, but the other nine songs have remained officially unreleased, so you can now hear them here, including the lovely duet with Pretty Terry of the Polyester Players on 'Butterflies'. I think the cover is a particularly unflattering picture of the singer, but as I believe that it was intended to be the actual sleeve of the record I've used it for this post.  

Track listing

01 Intro - The Mackin' Game
02 I'll Take The Pressure
03 Baby I'm Your Friend
04 My Body's Hungry
05 Ecstasy
06 Fire
07 1999
08 Black Rain
09 Whatchu Got 4 Me
10 Butterflies
11 Spanish Harlem
12 Blackberry Playa
13 The Perfect Feeling
14 Rainbow

Ellery Bop - Imperial Way (1983)

Ellery Bop formed in early 1981 in Huyton, Merseyside, and consisted of Jamie Farrell on vocals and guitar, Mark Parry (later Thunderboots, Steppin’ Razor, Western Promise) on drums, Robbie Butcher on bass, and Kev Connolly on percussion, and they were joined for their 1982 single 'Ringing' by future Lightning Seeds frontman Ian Broudie on bass. They toured infrequently, supporting Killing Joke at one point, but they did record several sessions for the BBC with John Peel and Janice Long. A John Peel session was recorded live at the London I.C.A., and they claimed bands such as MC5, The Stooges, Ramones, Heartbreakers and The Clash as their influences. They released a clutch of fine singles in the early 80's, but were yet another of a myriad of bands from that period who split up without every recording an album, even though they had easily enough material for one. As they didn't do it themselves, then it's down to me to do it for them, so here is the album that they could have released around 1983 if they'd wanted to, although after a two year gap they did issue one last single 'Torn Apart' in 1985. This post is a sort of follow-up to the recent 'Liverpool Peel Sessions' album, as while putting that together I found that there were a number of bands of the era who actually released enough music for their own stand-alone post, and so this is the first of them.  

Track listing 

01 Hit The Moon (single 1981)
02 One True Way (b-side of 'Hit The Moon')
03 Sharp Star Rising (John Peel session 1981)
04 Ringing (single 1982)
05 Fight And Desire (b-side of 'Ringing')
06 We Deny (single 1982)
07 To Fall (b-side of 'We Deny')
08 51st State (John Peel session 1982)
09 Imperial Way (John Peel session 1982)
10 Guilt (John Peel session 1982)
11 Fire In Reflection (12" single 1983)
12 Blind (12" single 1983)
13 The Calling (12" single 1983)
14 Jihad (12" single 1983)
15 A Scream To Touch (John Peel session 1983)
16 Ourselves Alone (John Peel session 1983)
17 Twisted (John Peel session 1983)

XYZ - Telephone Secrets (1982)

In December 1980 Yes bassist Chris Squire met Jimmy Page by chance at a party, and the idea of forming a group together was mooted, to be called XYZ, which was short for eX-Yes-Zeppelin. Squire brought along drummer Alan White, and they also recruited former Greenslade keyboard player and vocalist Dave Lawson. Squire was the main writer for the group, and Page believed the band needed a strong vocalist, so sought out his old pal Robert Plant, and although he did attend one rehearsal on 28 February 1981, he decided not to join the group, citing his dislike for the complexity of the music, and because he was still deeply hurt by the recent death of his long-time friend and band-mate John Bonham. Without a firm commitment from Plant, and with contractual issues on who should manage the group (Peter Grant or Brian Lane), the project was shelved, but not before four demo recordings had been made with Squire on vocals. With XYZ's future in limbo, Squire and White recorded a Christmas single called 'Run With The Fox' in October 1981, and they then asked guitarist Trevor Rabin to join them and form the band Cinema, along with old Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye. Rabin initially attempted to rework the XYZ material along with his solo songs for the new group, and they recorded a few demos, but they then decided to invite Jon Anderson into the group, and Cinema evolved into a new line-up of Yes. The demos produced from the Cinema sessions included 'Make It Easy' and 'It's Over', with lead vocals by Rabin, and an early version of 'It Can Happen' featuring Squire on vocals, which have since appeared on Yes re-issues, but they also recorded a 20-minute instrumental called 'Time', and another unreleased track entitled 'Carry On'. In 1983 the new Yes line-up released the '90125' album, which included the introduction from 'Time' as an instrumental called 'Cinema', as a tribute to the aborted band. Other XYZ and Cinema songs turned up later, with one instrumental being reworked to become part of 'Mind Drive' on the 1997 Yes album 'Keys To Ascension', while 'Can You See' became 'Can You Imagine' on 2001's 'Magnification'. Part of another XYZ instrumental was used as the intro to The Firm's 'Fortune Hunter', which was fair as Squire has mentioned that Page brought the riff to the band anyway. This album collects together all of the above-mentioned tracks except 'Time', which has never surfaced, and as the whole thing started with that chance meeting by Squire and Page, I'm counting it as a lost XYZ album, as Squire and White are constant members throughout the recordings.  

Track listing

01 Can You See (Page, Squire, White, Lawson)
02 Mind Drive (Page, Squire, White, Lawson)
03 Telephone Secrets (Page, Squire, White, Lawson)
04 Fortune Hunter (Page, Squire, White, Lawson)
05 Run With The Fox (Squire, White)
06 It Can Happen (Squire, White, Rabin, Kaye)
07 Make It Easy (Squire, White, Rabin, Kaye)
08 It's Over (Squire, White, Rabin, Kaye)
09 Carry On (Squire, White, Rabin, Kaye)

Derek Trucks - ...and on guitar (2010)

Derek Trucks was born on 8 June 1979 in Jacksonville, Florida, and he bought his first guitar at a yard sale for $5 at age nine, becoming a child prodigy and playing his first paid performance at age 11. He began playing the guitar using a slide because it allowed the young guitarist to play despite his small hands, and by his 13th birthday he'd played alongside Buddy Guy and toured with Thunderhawk. Trucks formed The Derek Trucks Band in 1994, and by his 20th birthday he'd played with such artists as Bob Dylan, Joe Walsh, and Stephen Stills. In 1999 he toured as a member of Phil Lesh & Friends, and after performing with The Allman Brothers Band for several years as a guest musician, he became a formal member in 1999, now playing alongside his uncle, drummer Butch Trucks. In 2006 Trucks began a studio collaboration with JJ Cale and Eric Clapton called The Road To Escondido and performed with three bands in 17 different countries that year. Trucks and his wife, Susan Tedeschi, combined their bands to form the Soul Stew Revival in 2007 and performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in June 2008, putting his own band on hiatus, and in 2010 they officially dissolved. Trucks formed the Tedeschi Trucks Band with his wife, and in 2014 he announced that he and fellow guitarist Warren Haynes planned to leave the Allman Brothers Band at the end of the year, prompting the Allmans to announce their retirement. Trucks credits guitarist Duane Allman and bluesman Elmore James as the two slide guitarists who influenced his early style, but has since been inspired by John Lee Hooker, Ali Akbar Khan, Howlin' Wolf, and Albert King, among many others. His music is rooted in blues and rock, embracing jam band, Southern rock, and jazz, playing an eclectic blend of blues, soul, jazz, rock, and qawwali music (a genre of music from Pakistan and western India). While still a member of the Allmans, he started to appear as a guest player on various rock, blues and jazz albums from fellow musicians, and a selection of them appear here, showing why he's twice graced the Rolling Stone's list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Track listing

Disc One
01 Wanted Man (from 'Storm Warning' by Tinsley Ellis 1994) 
02 I Gotta Girl She Lives Up On The Hill (from 'CeDell Davis' by CeDell Davis 1994) 
03 That's All Right (from 'Come On In This House' by Junior Wells 1996) 
04 Neighbour, Neighbour (from 'Searching For Simplicity' by Gregg Allman 1997)
05 Why Are People Like That (from 'Secrets Of The Heart' by Bobby Charles 1998)
06 Soulshine (from 'With A Little Help From Our Friends' by Gov't Mule 1999)
07 Row Jimmy (from 'Laughing Water' by Jazz Is Dead 1999)
08 Kerouac (from 'The Flower And The Knife' by Kevin Kinney 2000)
09 Ganja (from 'Croakin' At Toad's' by Frogwings 2000)

Disc Two
01 Mud Bug (from 'Project Z' by Project Z 2001)
02 I'm Gonna Move Away From Here (from 'Wait For Me' by Susan Tedeschi 2002)
03 Pineapple Heart (from 'Little Worlds' by Bela Fleck 2003)
04 How Ya Livin' (from 'The Calling' by The Aquarium Rescue Unit 2003)
05 You Da Mann (from 'Coast To Coast' by Maximum Grooves 2004)
06 Osiris (from 'Timeless' by Jeff Sipe 2004)
07 She Makes Me Want To Sing (from 'The Best Kept Secret'  by Jerry Douglas 2005)
08 Missing Person (from 'The Road To Escondido' by J.J. Cale & Eric Clapton 2006)
09 Johnny Coolman (from 'Light Your Life' by Toots & The Maytalls 2007)

Disc Three
01 Tibidi Waka (from 'Guiding Star' by Vusi Mahlasela 2007)
02 Skin Deep (from 'Skin Deep' by Buddy Guy 2008)

03 I Want The Truth (from 'Sidewalk Caesars' by Scrapomatic 2008)

04 Brother Ray (from 'Here And Gone' by David Sanborn 2008)
05 Lifeboat Serenade  (from 'Lifeboat' by Jimmy Herring 2008)

06 New Star (from 'The Works' by Jonatha Brooke 2008) 
07 Slapback Blues (from 'Guitars' by McCoy Tyner 2008) 
08 Struttin' My Stuff (from 'The Blues Rolls On' by Elvin Bishop 2008)
09 Space Captain (from 'The Imagine Project' by Herbie Hancock 2010)
10 Manoovas (from 'Tribal' by Dr. John And The Lower 911 2010)

The Spice Girls - Five Of These Girls (1999)

The Spice Girls formed in 1994 after auditions held by managers Bob and Chris Herbert, who wanted to create a girl group to compete with the British boy bands popular at the time. The first audition ended up with 600 applicants, who were whittled down to a final 12, consisting of Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm,  Melanie Laccohee, Lianne Morgan, Suzanne Tinker, Michelle Stephenson, Justine Berry, Geri Halliwell, Victoria Unthank and several others. After singing solo and dancing in groups of four, Victoria, Melanie B, Michelle, Lianne and Geri were told that they were chosen as being part of the band. A week after

finishing the second auditions, the girls were told to come in for a recall, and it was announced that Lianne Morgan was being dropped as she looked older than the rest, and she was replaced with Melanie Chisholm. They spent spring and summer rehearsing, and under the name of Touch they recorded demos of three songs: 'We're Gonna Make It Happen', 'Take Me Away' and 'I Want You, I Need You', some of which can still be seen on Youtube. During a two-week summer break, Michelle left due to personal commitments, so a replacement needed to be found, and Touch's vocal coach Pepi Lemer remembered two girls that he'd trained in the auditions. Abigail Kis was called in first and sang a soul song to the management, which ended in her being selected two days later, but in the end she had to turn down the offer due to personal commitments, as well as being considered too young. In July they called in Emma Bunton for a week's trial, and she bonded straight away with the other girls, so the Spice Girls were complete. Following their name change they were given their nicknames - Melanie Brown (Mel B, to differentiate her from the other Melanie in the group) was Scary Spice, Melanie Chisholm (Mel C), was Sporty Spice, Emma Bunton was Baby Spice, Geri Halliwell was Ginger Spice, and Victoria Beckham was Posh Spice. 

The girls were signed to Virgin Records, releasing their debut single 'Wannabe' in 1996, which reached number one in the charts in 37 countries, while their debut album 'Spice' was released the same year and sold more than 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. Over the next four years they released a string of hit singles, and two more albums, 'Spiceworld' in 1997 and 'Forever' in 2000, following Halliwell's departure in 1998 due to exhaustion and creative differences. Their first few singles included songs on the flips which were not taken from their album, which was quite unusual at the time for a pop group, and the girls also recorded a number of songs for their 'Forever' album which were left off the record. If you take those rare b-sides and out-takes, and add the song they recorded for a Pepsi single, their contribution to Elton John and Tim Rice's stageshow 'Aida', and Mel C's demo for a possible addition to the third album, then you have enough music for a great stand-alone album. One final highlight is the track 'W.O.M.A.N.', which was recorded for the 'Forever' album, but was cut because it didn't fit with the new R&B feel of the rest of the songs. The studio take has never surfaced, but it was performed live during the Christmas In Spiceworld Tour in December 1999, and an enterprising fan has taken a live recording of it, cleaned it up and added overdubs, and has made it sound just like the missing studio recording. I can't say I'm the biggest Spice Girls fan, but I appreciate the hard work that they put into their music, and some of these early songs are just as good as their singles, so overall I'm pleasantly surprised at just how good this sounds.  

Track listing

01 Bumper To Bumper (b-side of 'Wannabe' 1996)
02 One Of These Girls (b-side of '2 Become 1' 1996)
03 Take Me Home (b-side of 'Say You'll Be There 1996)
04 Outer Space Girls (b-side of 'Too Much' 1997)
05 Walk of Life (b-side of 'Too Much' 1997)
06 Baby Come Round (b-side of 'Mama' 1997)
07 Give You Want You Want (If Lovin' Is On Your Mind) (out-take 1999)
08 Step To Me (Pepsi advert 1997)
09 Can't Stay Tonight (demo 1999)
10 W.O.M.A.N. (out-take 1999)
11 My Strongest Suit (from the soundtrack to the stage show 'Aida' 1999)
12 A Day In Your Life (out-take 1999)
13 Pain Proof (out-take 1999)