KLAUS SCHULZE - IRLICHT @ 50

Released in August of 1972, the debut solo album from Klaus Schulze, Irrlicht, is marking half a century on the planet this month. The album's complete title is: Irrlicht: Quadrophonische Symphonie für Orchester und E-Maschinen (German: "Will-o'-the-wisp: Quadraphonic Symphony for Orchestra and Electronic Machines"). Though Schulze may be known as a synthesizer master, there are actually none used on this album. The sounds all originate from a manipulated recording of an orchestra rehearsal and tonalities extracted from a broken and modified electronic organ.

The initial conceptions for the album arose while Schulze was still part of Tangerine Dream, but he came into conflict over the direction of the project with Edgar Froese and, failing to resolve their issues, Schultze left the band to work on it as a solo effort. Because he was still under contract with Krautrock label Ohr due to his association with Tangerine Dream, the label insisted that his solo recordings were covered under that contract and they released the album. This was actually not a problem for Schulze as the experimental nature of the recordings would have been a hard sell if he’d had to shop them around to other labels, so the fact that the record came out at all was to his benefit.

Stylistically, the music combines elements of Musique concrète with electronic drones in a manner which was a precursor to what would eventually become ambient music. It is alien and austere and evocative of science fiction vistas and atmospheres.

MICHAEL NESMITH - AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMIN'

 

Released in August of 1972, Michael Nesmith’s fifth post-Monkees solo album is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month. It was an album built on a whim, but it became one of Nesmith’s most nuanced and eloquent statements.

After three LPs with his “First National Band” and one with his restructured “Second National Band”, Nesmith was band-less when it came time for his next album, save for his stalwart pedal steel guitar master, Orville "Red" Rhodes. Red was the constant at Mike’s side throughout all the incarnations of the National Band and would remain so until his untimely passing in the mid 1990s.

With RCA Records breathing down Nesmith’s neck looking for some “hits”, Mike was feeling the weight, but he wasn’t about to try slapping together another band. Instead, he had the inspiration to go in another direction altogether. For this next record, he’d keep it simple with just Red on the steel guitar and himself on vocals and acoustic guitar. And by gosh, that’s just what they did for the whole album. In deference to RCA’s pleading for hits, he duly titled the album “And the Hits Just Keep on Comin’”, in a typically ironic, tongue-in-cheek move born from the frustration of lackluster sales which were the fate of his previous solo albums.

Sadly, at the time of its release, it continued the trend of being ignored in the charts and by the record buying public, but it would not go without eventual vindication. In the years that have followed its release, it has steadily gained stature within his solo canon as one of his most heartfelt, elegant and haunting releases. Its simplicity and restraint serve to highlight the beauty of the songwriting and Rhodes’ steel guitar dreaminess lifts it all into the heavens of sublime perfection. What began as a move of desperation resulted in an artistic triumph. Listening to it against the backdrop of the modern world, it has a timelessness that makes it one of Nesmith’s most important works.

ELVIS COSTELLO - MY AIM IS TRUE @ 45

 

Marking 45 years on the shelves today is the debut album from Elvis Costello, My Aim Is True, which was released by Stiff Records in the UK on July 22nd, 1977. Though it was recorded before his band, The Attractions, were assembled, and the production is a bit on the brittle side, it is still considered one of the strongest debuts to come from the late ‘70s punk/new-wave movement.

Before he was Elvis Costello, he was Declan Patrick MacManus and he’d been slugging around the clubs of Liverpool and London trying to get his career off the ground since 1970. By the time his demo tape caught the attention of Stiff founders, Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera, he was performing under the name of D.P. Costello, a name chosen to honor his great-grandmother. He was also paying his bills by working a day job as a data entry clerk for Elizabeth Arden.

Though Costello was the first artist to sign to the newly minted record label, he did not release its first title. Robinson & Riviera felt they needed to work on his image to get him into a position which would leverage the burgeoning punk scene that was taking the country by storm. Costello’s performances were considered lackluster and without a sense of edginess or anger and he basically looked like a mild mannered computer geek. To remedy this, they decided to exaggerate his appearance and got him some heavy Buddy Holly style glasses, tight blazers and turned up strove-pipe jeans. The transformation was completed with the D.P. dropped and replaced by “Elvis”, a move most considered insane given its connection to the legendary Presley. But Costello was into it and the method of the madness would prove itself sound as it gave record buyers pause when encountering him in the record bins.

When it came to putting together a band for the album, Costello had no money to support musicians, so the label recruited a San Francisco country-rock band named Clover who’d managed to gain something of cult following in the UK and had moved there to take advantage. They were based in Headley Grange, where Costello would travel for rehearsals before coming back to London to record. While the band were competent and Costello would later praise them for their skills, creatively, they didn’t always see eye to eye and, ultimately, their association with Costello would end after the sessions for the LP were completed. They were not credited on the album either due to contractual disputes with another label. Interestingly, the lead singer for Clover at that time was none other than “The News” future front-man, Huey Lewis, who didn’t take part in the LP sessions, taking a vacation while the rest of the band worked on the album. Besides the creative frictions, Clover didn’t fit in with the “punk” aesthetic the label were courting, looking like American West Coast hippies, so they were replaced by what would become The Attractions before Costello began performing in support of the album and its singles.

The album was recorded during a series of six four hour sessions booked from late 1976 through the beginning of 1977 with the band often cutting the bed tracks live and in one take. Costello continued to work his data entry day job during the sessions, but would call in sick when he needed to rehearse with the band. The songs for the album were written by Costello over the course of a couple of weeks. The album was produced by Nick Lowe, who also contributed musically to the album on bass and some backing vocals. The LP was recorded at Pathway Studios, which Costello described as a “phone booth” due to its cramped size. It must have been a pretty basic facility because the album does suffer slightly from underproduction and shrill sound, especially compared to the crisp, full bite of This Years Model the next year.

Despite weak production, the quality of Costello’s songs and the energy of his performances won over critics, though the fans took a little longer to catch on. The death of Elvis Presley in August of that year, less than a month after the release of Costello’s album, gave sales an unexpected boost and suddenly record buyers were getting converted to the spindly bespectacled troubadour with anger issues. That name change started to pay off with the record buying public getting curious about this fellow with the audacity to use that sacred name!

Personally, it’s not my favorite of his early albums, those being This Year’s Model and Armed Forces, but it does have a clutch of really great songs, especially the back half of the record and the bonus single of Watching the Detectives, which was not originally on the album, but came as a single that was later included in reissues. It still showcases Costello’s raw power at it’s beginning and many continue to appreciate and praise it as one of his best albums. It certainly made a great statement for the times as an important young artist first making his mark on the world.

HAWKWIND - QUARK STRANGENESS AND CHARM - @ 45

 

Marking 45 years in orbit, Hawkwind’s seventh studio album, Quark Strangeness and Charm, was released on June 17th, 1977. Coming in at a time when the UK was besieged by the punk revolution, it saw the group tightening its sound into a more concise attack while struggling to keep the cohesion of the group following a number of upheavals in personnel.

In terms of the group’s lineup, the biggest change was that this was their first album without co-founder Nik Turner. His departure was followed by drummer Allan Powell, while bassist Paul Rudolph was dumped from the band in the middle of recording the album. All these changes put the focus on Robert Calvert as the groups primary front-man, who stepped up to the plate in fine style, offering a distinctive voice for the group backed by inventive lyrics with a deft sense of humor. In fact, according to some critics, he upstaged the band with the quality of his work. But that’s a bit unfair as guitarist Dave Brock kept his riffs tight and economical in a manner that was appropriate for the times and Simon House offered up some fine violin parts. The rhythm section may have been a little disjointed as the replacement bass player had to overdub his parts, replacing the recordings Rudolph had laid down for the bed tracks with the new drummer. As such, the linking between the drums and bass may not have been as aligned as it could have been if they’d been able to record together.

Despite all the upheaval, the album was well received both critically and commercially and still holds up as a notable entry in the group’s canon. I find it sticks to its melodic hooks with a firm grip while steering clear of the jam band meandering which defined some of their previous works. For “space rock”, the "trips" feel to the point and solidly conceived. As an updated and slightly stripped down version of the band’s sound, I think it works exceptionally well and has stood the test of time, musically.

ROXY MUSIC - ROXY MUSIC @ 50

 

Released on June 16th, 1972, the eponymous debut LP by Roxy Music is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary today. It’s an album that managed to bring the worlds of art-rock and glam together by combining the group’s eccentric musical approach with their extravagant fashion sense. That fusion would end up providing fodder for near future movements like punk, new wave and new romantics within the following decade after the album’s release. Each scene would have reason to reference Roxy Music as source material with bands like Japan and Duran Duran taking their cues from this progenitor and pushing those genetic building blocks to new heights.

Formed in 1970, Roxy Music went through a lot of personnel shuffling before they stabilized into a cohesion which was able to record their first LP. Though they rehearsed the material for a few months beforehand, they had to power through the recording process in no more than a week with the studio time financed by the band’s management. The album was in the can and had it’s cover designed before they had even signed to a label, but Island Records stepped in to pick it up shortly after completion and it gained chart traction quickly after its release.

The band’s music incorporated a number of different styles, but tied them all together with a bravado and panache which was offset by the bizarre interjections of Eno’s synthesizer work and elements of free-jazz via Andy Mackay’s reed work and Phil Manzanera’s guitar experimentation. It was progressive in execution, but still held close to pop conventions of catchy hooks and melodies, making it weirdly accessible without sacrificing the eccentricities that made it distinctive. CREEM’s Robert Christgau said: "From the drag queen on the cover to the fop finery in the centerfold to the polished deformity of the music on the record, this celebrates the kind of artifice that could come to seem as unhealthy as the sheen on a piece of rotten meat. Right now, though, it's decorated with enough weird hooks to earn an A.”

DAVID BOWIE - THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS @ 50

Celebrating a half century since landing on the planet Earth, David Bowie’s breakthrough LP, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, was released 50 years ago today, on June 16th, 1972. Bowie’s fifth studio album would prove to be the one which finally broke through on the charts and launched his career into the stratosphere.

Bowie had been slogging away in relative obscurity since the mid 1960s, releasing his first album in 1967 and gradually navigating his career towards a position which would ultimately set him apart from his peers. He’d do so by creating a distinctive character which transcended the mundane boundaries of mere pop stardom and cast him in the role of a mythological alien-savior. While his previous incarnations had tried to exploit his “freak” potential, the idea of creating a fictional alter-ego was the key to putting him in a context which maximized his eccentricity while making it more palatable by virtue of its other-worldliness.

Before Ziggy, he blurred the lines of gender on his previous effort, Hunky Dory, where he lounged in his long hair and gown like Lauren Bacall or Greta Garbo. That sort of gender-bending ultimately had limited appeal and the album flopped on the charts despite good reviews. Part of the problem was that it was recorded with new label RCA when they’d already got wind that he was planning a major image overhaul, so the label stalled on their promotion in anticipation of his transformation. Hunky Dory & Ziggy are musically extremely closely linked. The songs were all written at the same time, the musicians are mostly the same on both albums and they were recorded nearly consecutively with only a brief gap between them. But by the time Ziggy was ready to release, the label were finally ready to commit to Bowie’s new concept and appearance and they were prepared to promoting him with some vim and vigor.

Even though Hunky Dory and Ziggy were closely aligned musically, Ziggy had something else going on that wasn’t developed on the previous record. It was this conception of an alien being coming to Earth in an attempting to save it as the planet was facing an apocalyptic near future, only to become corrupted by fame. This worked to envelop the project in a coherent narrative. This was further reinforced by the look and sound of the band, which took the glam-rock glitz of Marc Bolan and cast it as extraterrestrial chic. The character of Ziggy Stardust also borrowed from Bowie’s American friends and inspirations, Iggy Pop & Lou Reed. He managed to fuse elements of all of them and more into his characterization and it worked brilliantly to help shroud Bowie with a stature and mystique that effectively made him seem like a superstar even before the fans had picked up on his presence.

Once the album hit the shops, it wasn’t long before it started to gain momentum with its traction largely increased once the band made a pivotal appearance on BBC’s Top of the Pops. It was one of those historic moments when any kid with a TV and latent aspirations of rock stardom was gonna find a fire lit in their soul once they saw Bowie confidently strutting his stuff in front of the camera. One can imagine little Sid Vicious, Peter Murphy, Gary Numan, Bono and dozens of other future stars glued to their sets and feeling the switch get flipped that would propel them into the careers they’d have in a few short years thanks to having seen the Starman on their TV.

Since its release, it’s become recognized as one of Bowie’s most influential and significant works. Not only did it set him up for future success, it retroactively pulled a lot of his back catalogue out of obscurity, foisting albums like Hunky Dory and singles like Space Oddity into hit status as well. And while a lesser artist would’ve become trapped in the Ziggy persona, Bowie quickly transitioned to other characters in order to establish his chameleon like nature as a trademark, setting fan expectations to be prepared for his wild and frequent shifts. In many respects, it remains his most iconic work and a starting point for many when beginning the journey of exploring his career.

Personally, his success at this stage also came at a cost and signaled the beginning of his own private decline into drug abuse, something he’d ultimately have to overcome within a few years, but fortunately for him and his fans, he managed to pull out of that spiral. In a way, he lived the life of Ziggy maybe a bit too closely, so it makes sense he’d want to change out of that wardrobe and try on another suit quick enough.

THE RED KRAYOLA - THE PARABLE OF ARABLE LAND @ 55

 

Released in June of 1967, the debut LP from Texan trio, The Red Krayola (initially spelt, “Crayola”), The Parable of Arable Land, turns 55 years old this month. At the time of its release, it was labeled a “psychedelic” album, but hindsight has revealed that it was more of a progenitor of experimental musical styles which would surface nearly a decade later. There are various aspects of the album which more closely resembling “new wave” and “industrial” music from the late 1970s than fuzzed out wah-wah psyche-rock from the late ‘60s.

The album is idiosyncratically structured around alternating between two primary recording sessions. The principal songs for the album were recorded by the core band members on April 10th. This session featured Mayo Thompson on guitar, Steve Cunningham on bass and Rick Barthelme on drums. Roky Erickson of 13th Floor Elevators plays organ throughout as well. Six songs resulted from these sessions and they form the musical framework of the album. They are strung together by a series of impromptu “freak out” jams by "The Familiar Ugly”, which was a conglomerate of up to 50 friends of the band who were recorded doing free-form improvising on April Fool’s day prior to the principal song sessions. The band essentially instructed the “Family” to do whatever they wanted and adhere to no formal structure. The resultant hours of cacophonous chaos were then edited into introductions and bridges before and between the proper “songs”.

The end results of this fusion of relative “order” and “chaos” produced one of the most original and radical pop music albums to come from the late 1960s. As previously stated, it operated in an arena that may have been somewhat kin to psychedelia, but had so much more visionary significance in terms of predicting future directions in avant-garde music. To say it was ahead of its time is an understatement and it stands next to Silver Apples in terms of forecasting the course of modern music in the decade to come.