Nucleus - 1988 - Old Heartland

Nucleus

1988

Old Heartland

01. Northumbrian Sketches :

- a. Open Country (10:40)

- b. Interiors (9:48)

- c. Disjunctive Boogie (5:44)

- d. Spirit of Place (6:51)

02. Full Fathom Five (5:26)

03. Old Heartland (7:19)

04. Things Past (6:49)

- Ian Carr / trumpet, flugelhorn, Yamaha custom trumpet (1), producer

- Phil Todd / soprano sax, bass clarinet

- Mark Wood / electric & acoustic guitars (2,3)

- Geoff Castle / Fender Rhodes & Yamaha electric pianos, synthesizers (2-4)

- Dill Katz / bass (2-4)

- John Marshall / drums (2-4)

With:

- Kreisler String Orchestra / violins, violas, celli & double bass (1)

- Steve Berry / double bass (1.b)

- Mo Foster / Fender bass (1.c)

With the final landing of the Nucleus project in the mis_80's, Ian Carr finally took care of a few envies he'd thought about a while back, but never got around to before. Indeed, Old Heartland was only the second album under his own name proper (no link with Nucleus) after 1971's Belladonna, but if his first try was much in the group's soundscapes, OH steps away from it. The album is broken down in two parts, the Third Stream suite and the shorter tracks on the flipside, which still features some Nucleus pillars like Geoff Castle and John Marshall and has Colosseum's Hiseman engineering it on the Abbey Road studios.

The sidelong Northumbrian Sketches suite features a philharmonic orchestra (the 17- musicians Kreisler String Orchestra) lead by Michael Thomas, for which its commission dated from late 86, but it was finally committed to studio in the summer of 88 and released the following year. Yes, we're definitely within the definition of the Third Stream realm, but to me, outside a few sax and trumpet and electric bass (Disjunctive Boogie movement) interventions, we're more in the classical realm than in the jazz one. And to be honest, Ian is a better jazz composer than a classical one, but let's also give him a break: it was his (almost) first shot at it as well. Apparently, this was his second shot, as he'd been commissioned by the German WDR radio broadcast for a work (still un-published on Cd, I believe) of the same genre.

On the flipside, the 5-mins Full Fathom Five opens on some acoustic guitar (courtesy of bassist Katz), before veering slow ECM-type of uneventful soundscape, if it wasn't for Ian's muffled trumpet. While the 7-mins title track is also a soft-sounding fusion ala ECM, it does resemble some of the later Nucleus tracks and is clearly my fave from the album. As for the closing Things Past, it is pretty well in the same realm as its two sisters.

Unlike his 71's Belladonna album, Ian Carr's second solo album is really sounding like a non- Nucleus thing, but if the Ian presence is instantly recognisable it clearly has the Carr paw on the flipside. Now the BGO 2on2 reissue links it with a late 70's Nucleus album is somewhat a mistake, because I'd have coupled it with his first solo album, but then again, there were probably chronology issues in the reissues program.

Jeff Beck - 1980 - Live at Sapporo Green Dome

Jeff Beck

1980

Live at Sapporo Green Dome

Empress Valley Supreme Disc EVSD-333/334

101. Star Cycle

102. El Becko

103. Too Much To Loose

104. The Pump

105. Cause We've Ended As Lovers

106. Space Boogie

107. The Final Peace

108. Led Boots

201. Freeway Jam

202. Diamond Dust

203. Scatterbrain

204. Blue Wind

Sapporo Green Dome, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan – December 14th, 1980

Jeff Beck: Guitar

Mo Foster: Bass

Tony Hymas: Keyboards

Simon Phillips: Drums

Jeff Beck’s show in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan was the eighth out of eleven dates in Japan (8th Day Of Rocupation ’80?) and, since his previous visits in 1973 and 1978 missed Sapporo, it was his first show in the northern city.

The audience tape in circulation for the show is very good to borderline excellent. It is able to capture very many details that are normally lost in other audience recordings. On the negative side, there are very faint traces of distortion in the high frequencies. The tape cuts in during the opening of “Star Cycle” (apparently the person recording the show taped taped over it), a small cut before “Led Boots” and the encores “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat / You Never Know” and “Going Down” are missing.

Going Down (Aphrodite Studio APH-91004-1/2) is another well known title containing this show. Released in 1991, in addition to Sapporo it also included “Going Down” from the December 4th Budokan show and a studio recording of “Rock And Roll Jelly” featuring Stanley Clarke and Carmine Appice on drums.

Of all the shows in Japan, this is perhaps the most laid back and mellow. Not only is the audience polite and quite while listening to the music, they offer scant applause between the numbers. Beck himself, who is normally quite laconic, is even more so during the show only offering short introductions to Mo Foster after “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers” and Tony Hymas after “Led Boots.”

On the positive side, this is another stellar performance from the guitarist, who would take a long holiday from live performance several days after. He’s attempting to interject some improvisations into the material not heard in other performances starting with some unusual melodies in “Star Cycle.”

The stand out track of the evening occurs near the beginning with a mind altering performance of “Too Much To Lose,” an instrumental from the new album There & Back. Jan Hammer wrote and recorded the tune (with vocals) on the Jan Hammer Group’s 1977 album Melodies. But Beck’s interpretation, with the schizophrenic guitar over the funky bassline, is a substantial improvement. So much so that Hammer would re-record it as an instrumental in 1989 for Snapshots (with Beck, David Gilmour and Ringo Starr).

The latter half of the show is quite intense with a long version of “Freeway Jam.” The keyboards are given a workout for “Diamond Dust,” and “Scatterbrain” reaches over twenty minutes with a surprisingly subtle drum solo which sounds excellent in this detailed recording.

It’s a shame the rest of the show is absent because it is overall an excellent show, startling for its subtly.

Live At Sapporo Green Dome was released in 2005 packaged in a two-disc fatboy jewel case. Empress Valley include an excellent mini reproduction of the tour programme for sale at the venue. It’s a nice touch from back when the label were still innovators in mastering, presentation and packing. This is the definitive version of Sapporo until another tape surfaces with the missing encores.

Ice - 2005 - Ice Man

Ice

2005

Ice Man

01. Ice Man
02. Whisper Her Name
03. Anniversary (Of Love)
04. So Many Times
05. Walk On The Water
06. Time’s Fading Fast
07. Day Tripper
08. Ice Man
09. Wide Blue Yonder Boy
10. Open The Door To Your Heart
11. Like A Woman
12. Skyline
13.Wait
14. Monday
15. Tell Me
16. Silver Lady
17. Burning, Burning
18. Two Hearts
19. Little Girl In Wonderland

Backing Vocals – Linda Hoyle (tracks: 7 to 10)
Bass Guitar – Mo Foster (tracks: 7 to 10)
Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals – John Carter
Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – Kris Johnson (tracks: 11 to 16)
Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – Steve Turner
Organ [Hammond], Piano – Lynton Naiff
Vocals – Glyn James

This CD compilation represents the total recorded output of the cult 60s rock group ICE.
Tracks 7 to 19 are labelled as bonus tracks, despite the absence of a release that omits them.

In 1967 and 1968, Ice were a much–touted but slightly mysterious recording band, constantly on the radio (including the famous John Peel show with Jimi Hendrix and Traffic), but seldom seen on television and never live.

‘Walk On the Water’ was the controversial track (disguised as ‘Walk Under Water’ for Radio One purposes) that was intended to be their second single and was eventually sidelined in favour of ‘Ice Man’.

RECORD COLLECTOR lists their two singles ‘Anniversary (Of Love)’ from 1967 and ‘Ice Man’ from 1968 in their Rare Record Guide and apart from the singles and their ‘b’ sides all of the tracks featured on this CD have never before been released.

Lynton Naiff, Grant Serpell, Mo Foster and Linda Hoyle all later joined up as AFFINITY but that as they say is another story

This CD represents the group’s entire recorded output of the cult 60’s rock group ICE.

I was pleasantly surprised to see such an extensive offering of tunes from the band which recorded the oft-comped "Ice Man," available here in both studio and live form. The "blued eyed soul" approach, to me, always produced the best stylings of the beat/freakbeat/mod era. This approach is evident in several places here, for example, their cover of Darrell Banks "Open the Door to Your Heart" (incorrectly classified by the BBC announcer as "an original."). But, how can 13 of 19 tracks on any full-length CD be BONUS tracks? Most of these songs are one-off live recordings or demos, and the quality of what is laid down here is much too good for these songs not to have had full studio treatment. 

This 19 song disc leads with those four songs, including the title track; sprinkled with swirling organ bursts, clever guitar figures, and choir-inspired vocal harmonies, the style exemplifies the psychedelic pop of the period. The compilation adds an unissued single: The driving R&B number "Walk On Water" contrasts with the Zombies-style ballad "Time's Fading Fast."

The second half of the disc showcases the songwriting collaboration between session guitarist Kris Johnson and lyricist/manager Chris Simpson. Unlike the full-band recordings, these demos find singer Glyn James primarily accompanied by guitar, bass, and backing vocals. This allows James to project a more reflective mood on songs that foreshadow the singer-songwriter era.

Ice Man closes with three Simpson-Johnson compositions performed at Sussex University by Russell's Clump, a group connected to the Ice family tree. Glyn James' liner notes give context to this delightfully obscure bit of British music.