A little more than a year ago, when Paul Carrack released his first country album, the record’s very title – "The Country Side Of Paul Carrack: Volume 1" – suggested he won’t stop there, and it was only a matter of time before another collection of pieces the English singer had cut in Tennessee was out. And now “The Country Side Of Paul Carrack: Volume 2” is ready to hit the shelves.
It’s a paradox, yet there are cult albums that every collector knows about – or, rather, became aware of some quarter-century after such platters were first released – and ORANG-UTAN‘s self-titled longplay is one of those records. Still, there’s a weird story behind this British band’s sole offering, because the heavy-psych ensemble called themselves HUNTER, and when the quintet endeavored to lay down eight cuts at London’s De Lane Lea Studios in 1970, in a single session, they hoped to hit the big time; instead, their producers absconded with the tapes to the States and issued what turned out as “Orang-Utan” there without telling the musicians.
When veteran musicians record their classic material anew, it often feels like a lame attempt to cover their inability to come up with fresh cuts, yet Iain Matthews has never shied away from admitting that the “Valley Hi” album he issued back in 1973 lacked the style the singer envisioned. Perhaps, the artist formerly known as Ian was taken in the wrong direction by producer Mike Nesmith or simply didn’t want to dictate his will to players, but the idea to approach the platter from a different sonic angle seemed to sit well with Matthews – and he eventually went for it.
Those who thought LOVE became a thing of the past when Arthur Lee passed away two decades ago don’t seem to really know the American band’s history and aren’t aware that one of the ensemble’s founding members, Johnny Echols, is very much active and has been leading his own version of the legendary collective for some time now. There’s no studio recordings from them yet – apart from two songs laid down for an aborted 2005 longplay and making a rare 2019 single – but a concert document is ready to be out on CD on October 16th.
Most famous for acting as an associate producer of several Stevie Wonder’s classic albums, “Innervisions” arguably the best of those, Robert Margouleff‘s claims to fame are quite many. The American master of sonics also worked with Richie Havens and Randy Newman, THE DOOBIE BROTHERS and THE ISLEY BROTHERS among other artists, more often than not providing, together with Malcolm Cecil, innovative synthesizers programming. As a result, the Grammy Award-winning engineer has a lot of tales to tell – and he has spun these story into a book now.
