Page 6
THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1975
Overlooked promo albums miss garbage can
By JOHN VANORE
My last review was supposed to
have been last week. But then I
looked around my room and noticed
that I had nearly a dozen promo
albums that record companies sent
us. Sol decided to do a series of cap
sule reviews for this mostly over
looked material.
Lots of the promos are throw
aways — things that won’t sell very
much on their own, so the record
companies send
them out for a
little free publi
city. Some of
them are pretty
decent, though.
Granted, I
wouldn’t pay cur
rent record
prices for them,
but that’s usually due to their lim
ited appeal.
'Vi.
i cr
GENESIS
Take Genesis, for example. Atco
sent us what I believe is that band’s
third album, “The Lamb Lies Down
on Broadway.” It’s a double in the
rock opera genre about a Puerto
Rican kid named Rael on the streets
of New York, and it relates a series
of adventures, real or imagined,
that he undergoes.
The album is very strong on key
boards, and, to a lesser extent, on
guitars. The vocals are well-done
throughout, although the lyrics
tend to get jumbled a bit. All in all,
it’s a pretty good set.
TANGERINE DREAM
Virgin Records, a subsidiary of
Atco, submitted “Rubycon,” the
latest offering from Tangerine
Dream, a keyboard band coming in
a wave of German bands collect
ively referred to as Krautrock. Ed
gar Froese, the band’s leader and
driving force, diverges occasionally
on guitar, and, once in a while
someone smacks a gong, but other
wise it’s all keyboards.
Here’s a listing of the keyboard
instruments they play on this
album:organ, piano, mellotron,
electric piano, double moog syn
thesizer, synthi A, vcs 3 synthi, and
ARP 2600.
The album is divided into “Ruby-
con Part I” and “Rubycon Part II,”
which are sides one and two re
spectively.
“Rubycon,” thus, is a fitting
, culmination of their current musical
evolution. At times the music may
sound like anything from the
Transylvania Philharmonic to the
sound track for “Star Trek” or “The
Twilight Zone.” But it never stops
being good or interesting.
Their greatest accomplishment,
however, is to show what electronic
music can sound like, thus allaying
fears of immensely complex noise.
It makes the synthesizer far more
palatable as an instrument in its own
right rather than being relegated to
a backseat role as an amusing gim
mick.
Tangerine Dream is without a
doubt on the rise as an important
band, and as forerunners in the
electronic field, taking second to
Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
“Rubycon” is an equally impressive
album, and a fine showcase for the
band’s diversified talents. If you like
keyboards, it’s definitely worth
looking into.
AMON DUUL II
Amon Duul II is another German
group, albeit somewhat more con
ventional. Maybe that’s where their
mistake lies. After I got done listen
ing to “Hijack,” their latest release,
my first impression was that Duul
should have been spelled Dull. It’s
probably the most boring album
I’ve heard in a long time. The songs
all basically sound alike, and it’s my
understanding that even Amon
Duul fans can’t tell the difference
between one of their albums and
the next.
I suppose I could sum it up like
this — the instrumentals are pathet
ically unimaginative and the singing
is flat in every sense of the word. In
short, this is one band to avoid.
GOLLIWOGS
The last offering in the rock
category is a collection dating back
to 1964, when Creedence Clear
water Revival was called the Golli
wogs, of all things. The album,
“Pre-Creedence,” is truly a gem in
that it represents the roots of a
group in a way that we very rarely
see or hear. The fourteen short cuts
(no song is longer than 2:49) are the
A and B sides of seven singles re
leased in the winter of 1964-65.
Usually an artist’s early works
bear a good deal of resemblance to
his accomplishments in his heyday,
but this is an exception ... in
spades. The numbers are all Golli
wogs originals, but they have abso
lutely nothing in common with
“Bad Moon Risin’ ” or “Down on
the Bayou.”
— there is a lot of Beach Boys,
Beatles, and Four Seasons (sans
Frankie Valli) influence. I even
picked up some riffs that sounded
like they were borrowed from the
Stones.
Only on “porterville,” one of the
last cuts, does a trace of later Creed
ence come through. It’s evident in
John Fogerty’s vocals and lead
guitar, and it doesn’t seem to be a
very far cry from the days of “Suzie
Q.”
HEARTWOOD
Now we move to the softer stuff
Heartwood is a group which hails
from North Carolina, and they pur
port to play in a soft, mellow,
pseudo-country style. In actuality,
they come across on “Nothin’
Fancy” sounding like a watered-
down combination of the Eagles and
the Grateful Dead. They describe
themselves as a musical comprom
ise between the harder Led Zeppe
lin extreme and Seals and Croft,
who are diametrically opposed to
the Zep in style. They’re right on
that count, but still their music is
nothing spectacular.
GUILLORY
Isaac Guillory, on his debut al
bum simply titled “Isaac Guillory,”
treats us to some very pleasant mu
sic indeed. On “St. Peter,” the first
cut, he tends to style his singing
after James Taylor. The instru
mentals, which he handles for the
most part, are original and much
better. After that opener, however,
he develops his own identity in an
acoustic/folk style.
Guillory is an accomplished mu
sician, and gives a fine accounting
for himself here, especially on
guitar. He’ll probably be moving
very soon from the depths of ob
scurity to achieve status on a level
with his abilities.
MIKE GREENE BAND
“Pale, Pale Moon” is another de
but album, this time by the Mike
Greene Band. The head honcho,
Greene, has organized a Traffic-
style band very strong on wood
winds. This is the nice, mellow
stuff. They also manage to be dy
namic and forceful in their own
way; the title track, an instru
mental, is a fine example. Greene,
on saxes, switches back and forth
with guitarist David Michael to
keep the sound fresh and crisp.
Probably my biggest gripe is thal
the vocals get cluttered pretty often
— Greene is trying to say too much
in too little space, and the ruslifi:
lyrics detract from the musiti
beauty.
Offhand, I’d say that Greenti
next album will be worth loolaif
into, after he and his band smooll
out the kinks in their music.
Well, this is it for the sew
After floating around with the Nan
in the West Pacific for six week
I’ll resume sending in columns(o:
the summer edition of the paper
Until then, happy listening, a«l
Gig ’em!
S FT HUBEI
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On the contrary, these songs are
all perfect for a new band circa 1964