CD
reviews & live reviews
I’d
allowed these two pages to languish in the dead zone up till
now as everything contained therein is so last century, a bit
like the word ‘therein’. We’ve not released a CD since I’ve
forgotten when and now the format is virtually deceased and
nobody’s bothered reviewing the band playing live since – well,
you can check the dates for yourself. All the crucial and not
so crucial links have passed their due-by date and I’ve lost
a couple of reviews as a result, but there’s still some useful
and encouraging words to lift the spirits.
THe most recent CDs are at the top and you can access the various
releases from the links above.
You can also access the live reviews page via the links above.
Breathing
Space As Well
..Soul
Man is the best
piece of music I have heard for years to be honest, and that
is not because of the subject matter. There is just something
about the way Soul Man was arranged and presented…to
me, almost perfect combo of voices, instruments, and lyrics.
From the first time I heard Soul Man, I have been trying
to describe the sound. All I can say is that the live sound
is really BIG, it is full, it was very tight…while my
opinion does not count, I’d like to see an entire album with
the same lineup and all original numbers, and maybe some new
ones to make the best use of the lineup.
Brian
Lewis Los
Traxx Records 20.6.12
Breathing
Space Too
Last
year, Mike Rudd made the promise that in lieu of a
full length CD, Spectrum would release a number of EPs of new
material under the collective title of ‘Breathing
Space’. The first volume was good but perhaps a little
too smooth and if not exactly humourless, the wit was a bit
obvious in a double entendre kind of way.
Now, with ‘Breathing Space Too’, the quirkiness
in words and music makes a welcome return, mixed with the brooding
kind of lyrics Rudd has been known for, especially on the final
track Meanstreak. While no direct comparisons can be
made with their classic ‘Milesago’ album,
there is thankfully still something essentially Spectrum-like
about this EP.
While all seven tracks are new recordings, some of the material
dates back to the Eighties, such as the amusingly bizarre Sensible
Shoes and the post-modernism of Silicon Valley.
The opening track Xavier Rudd Is Not My Son
is far more recent, and has the trademark harmonica work and
wry personal observations – it could be a modern Spectrum standard,
I suspect.
The line-up of Rudd, Bill Putt, Daryl Roberts and Peter “Robbo”
Robertson has been around for several years now, which would
explain the excellence of the playing and the way it easily
gels together. A few guests flesh out the sound a bit, including
Jimmy Sloggett’s jazzy sax on Hotels Motels,
and the cover art is as clever as one would expect from Ian
McCausland, who has done a lot of work for the band over the
years.
After all this time, it’s nice to know Spectrum is still
around and recording. This EP gives plenty of reason to suspect
their race is far from run, and it will be interesting to see
what direction the next Breathing Space instalment
takes.
Michael
Hunter
– db magazine Issue #475
Read Ed Nimmervoll’s blurb in JB Hi Fi’s MAG, or for another
perspective, try The Dwarf
Breathing
Space + Breathing Space Too
Having
just received Breathing Space Too, the second
in a planned four-part EP series from Spectrum, I suddenly relised
I didn’t review the first one, Breathing Space. So
let’s round up part one and two in one hit.
Prophetically, Breathing Space opens with a spacey
groove ‘Second Coming’. Indeed, as most will know, Spectrum’s
original incarnation was only around for about four years into
the early ’70s. With Peter Robertson and Daryl Roberts joining
Mike Rudd and Bill Putt, the band is back, gigging and recording
and sounding great.
Breathing Space offers sixc original compositions,
though as Rudd admits none of them are brand new, just that
‘none of them have been given the opportunity to breathe in
the creative environment of the studio.’ And though it’s a mixed
bag of music, somehow that Putt/Rudd combined personality shines
through it all. Even when they’re doing their best Santana tribute
(with more than a little assistance from Tim Gaze) on ‘I Play
My Guiitar’. Gaze also contributes to the ethereal tribute to
Paul Hester, ‘Star Crazy’.*
Breathing Space Too immediately sees a little more of that Spectrum
humour creeping back in with trhe opening track ‘Xavier Rudd
Is Not My Son’, a story about a couple telling Mike Rudd that
they love his son’s music after a gig. The seven tracks on this
second EP are all Rudd compositions, ranging from the light-hearted
country feel of ‘Xavier Rudd…’ to the oddly ’80s pop sounds
of ‘Hotels, Motels’ (it reminded me of Mondo Rock for some reason),
to the floaty psych rock of ‘Hot, Hot Day’, to the reverb, surf
guitar of ‘Silicon Valley’, with a strong focus on vocals throughout.
Both EPs are adorned by fantastic artwork from Ian McCausland
who was resoponsible for Spectrum’s Milesago album.
*I don’t think so..
Martin
Jones – Rhythms Aug. 2009
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Breathing
Space
Here‘s
a band I never
ever expected to hear from. Spectrum was one of those quintessential
Australian acts from the late ’60s to mid ’70s who had a decent
following and a range of radio hits to boot. Now some three
decades on they re-emerge from the wilderness and back onto
the scene. Unfortunately, a lot’s changed in the music industry
since Spectrum had a number one hit with ‘Ill Be Gone’
(a gem of a tune), and it‘s fair to say it hasn’t been
kind to them in the time since. ‘Breathing Space’ is their
new EP but to be blunt, it sounds like a middle-aged act, whose
having one last crack before the pension cheques kick in. The
music is of the variety of those modern, upmarket venues, where
food is the number one priority, music merely an afterthought.
I don’t want to be too harsh here, partly because this band
served the Australian music scene well and helped it to flourish,
and also because I love their hit song, but music is music and
I’m a music reviewer. I can’t call this a mid-life crisis because,
well they’re too old for it but I can call it average, and that’s
exactly what it is. It sounds dated, is uneventful, uninspired
and just plain dull. They might find favour with the over 55’s
but to the rest of the music buying public, I can’t see them
ever being more than a band which had one or two big hits and
now sound nothing more than a bad lounge cover act. Steer clear!
Mark
Rasmussen – Mediasearch 2008
Breathing
Space is
the new release from contemporarily unknown, historic heroes,
Spectrum. Mike Rudd’s latest release sees him continue with
his crew to make possibly his least ambitious release to date.
This 28 minute EP eases itself upon you with the bluesy riffs
of opener
Second Coming. The song shifts about with
its repetitive licks and uninspiring melody in an attempt to
create a 6 minute jam session. It not a bad song, but it’s not
a good one. It’s this unfortunate mantra that becomes universal
of this ultimately disappointing release.
The mid section is cluttered with outdated guitar solos, unimaginative
lyrics and bosanova beats that quite honestly feel more like
they would belong as the inoffensive soundtrack to Sims, or
a 90’s Microsoft program. I’m being too harsh, but this is just
because of the amount of potential that this music had to begin
with. You realise just how disappointing this release is once
you come across the closing track
Star Crazy. Dedicated
to the memory of Paul Rester,
Star Crazy is without
a doubt the cream of the crop. It is a great song that invites
sensations only felt from the most successful of 80’s driven
prog bands. Reminiscant of Genesis at their best, with perhaps
some early Bowie quirk;
Breathing Space is an regrettable
place for this song to live.
For an EP, Breathing Space is far, far too diffused. Are they
a blues band? Are they a progressive 80’s band? Are they a Latin
band?! Who knows. All I know is that they are better than this.
thomas
24.4.08
And
here’s a reminder from Wayne Reid that not all the
crits were bad..
Hey Mike,
The two CDs arrived today. I picked them up from my PO Box on
the way to work. We don’t have any programs on Fridays, so no
oldies. I was hosting a Camera Club for Seniors, but not expecting
anyone til 10am… so, I had my first listen this morning at
work. I felt like ringing all the Camera Club attendees &
telling them the meeting was off, so I could get right back
to listening to more. I sound a bit like a groupie, don’t I?
Just have to say, though: THANKS. I don’t know why or how, you
keep doing it…but we are so grateful that you do!!!
So far I haven’t played Milesago, though I am hanging
out to. I have just kept on playing the EP. It is SO good that
you have finally put some of those songs together on CD. Having
heard them many times, live, I was a little bit apprehensive.
You know, they might not come across as I remembered them. Sometimes
when you hear new songs live several times before hearing them
on record, you can get used to a certain something about them,
but then on record, it’s just not captured. Well, you bloody
well nailed them all! Just great! If the future EPs are anything
like Breathing Space, you won’t be able to get away
with a later Best Of…they will ALL have to go on a double
or triple set!
Wayne
Reid 11.4.08
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Milesago
Anyone
under 40 reading this, and coincidentally wondering why their
stash of herbal medication suddenly seems a little short, it’s
OK, your parents just need a small attitude adjustment in order
to listen to Spectrum’s Milesago properly..
Milesago followed the band’s big hit, I’ll Be Gone,
and the accompanying Spectrum Part One album by a little
under twelve months, but both the earlier album and this one
were a long way from the pop classic-ness of I’ll Be Gone.
Chief architects of the band, Mike Rudd & Bill Putt were
rarely less than gleefully experimental, often travelling well
beyond the boundaries of experimentia, so Milesago
isn’t always easy – music from the edge rarely is – but mostly
it’s very rewarding listening, particularly if you’re able to
put your head into the same space its creatorrs were inhabiting
at the time, (see opening paragraph).
The radio-friendly opener, But That’s Alright, held
enough echoes of I’ll Be Gone to get the punters through
the gate, but these crafty old rock wizards then embark on two
discs worth of early Frank Zappa crossed with early British
psychedelia – albeit with a slight Australian naivety: Loves
My Bag, What The World Needs Is A New Pair Of Socks, Mama, Did
Jesus Wear Makeup? plus the four-part mini-epic The
Sideways Saga (comprising The Question, The Answer,
Do The Crab and Everybody’s Walking Sideways).
weird, wacky, brilliant musicianship, (especially Lee Neale’s
keyboard work), and so 1971 you can almost taste it.
Milesago has just been re-issued by Aztec Music, in
a remastered 2CD, deluxe foldout package, with extensive liner
notes, bonus tracks, plus complete, original Ian McCausland
artwork.
Kim Porter
– Forte Magazine 10.4.08
Spectrum
was among Australia’s most sought after live bands
in the early 1970s led by singer and guitarist Mike Rudd, but
they were no slouches in the recording studio as well.
Their second full-length album,
Milesago, s
Anyone
under 40 reading this, and coincidentally wondering
why their stash of
herbal medication suddenly seems
a little short, it’s OK, your parents just need a small attitude
adjustment in order to listen to Spectrum’s
Milesago
properly..
Milesago followed the band’s big hit,
I’ll Be Gone,
and the accompanying
Spectrum Part One album by a little
under twelve months, but both the earlier album and this one
were a long way from the pop classic-ness of
I’ll Be Gone.
Chief architects of the band, Mike Rudd & Bill Putt were
rarely less than gleefully experimental, often travelling well
beyond the boundaries of experimentia, so
Milesago
isn’t always easy – music from the edge rarely is – but mostly
it’s very rewarding listening, particularly if you’re able to
put your head into the same space its creatorrs were inhabiting
at the time, (see opening paragraph).
The radio-friendly opener,
But That’s Alright, held
enough echoes of
I’ll Be Gone to get the punters through
the gate, but these crafty old rock wizards then embark on two
discs worth of early Frank Zappa crossed with early British
psychedelia – albeit with a slight Australian naivety:
Loves
My Bag, What The World Needs Is A New Pair Of Socks, Mama, Did
Jesus Wear Makeup? plus the four-part mini-epic
The
Sideways Saga (comprising
The Question, The Answer,
Do The Crab and
Everybody’s Walking Sideways).
Weird, wacky, brilliant musicianship, (especially Lee Neale’s
keyboard work)
, and
so 1971 you can almost
taste it.
Milesago has just been re-issuetands as one of Australia’s
seminal rock’n’ roll albums. It is atmospheric and
full of psychedelic dalliances made possible in the post
Sgt
Peppers world.
Most importantly, the sounds of this re-released and re-mastered
Aztec project are still fresh, playful and exploratory pieces
of music. Wacky cover art and cheeky play on words of Spectrum,
which famously surface in tracks like
Mama, Did Jesus Wear
Makeup? and
What the World Needs Is A New Pair Of Socks.
Spectrum famously named their disco alter egos the Indelibe
Murtceps (Spectrum in reverse).
Two bonus tracks on disc one, from the Sunbury Pop Festival,
serve as a time capsule and explains their powerful live legacy.
The impromptu jam in
I’ll Be Gone is tantamount to
the pulsating rhythm of Iggy Pops
Lust for Life.
The cover art and loving recreation make this a must for fans
of progressive rock and music fans generally.
Barry
Kennedy – Whittlesea Leader 20.5.08
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Spectrum
Part One
Right
now, somewhere in Australia,
someone is listening to a radio station playing Spectrum’s I’ll
Be Gone. It is one of the universal truths you’ll find
if you drive long enough through the Australian countryside.
It was released in 1971 and has become something of an anthem
for the Australian babyboomers – witness a couple of thousand
of ’em singing the song back to the band at the Long Way to
the Top concert in 2002 – and the duo at core of this band,
Mike Rudd and Bill Putt, count as two of the diehards of Australian
rock, continuing to tour and perform to this day.
Spectrum may have penned a classic radio hit but they also represent
the pioneers carving a path away from pretty-boy pop into psychedelia
and progressive (read: extended instrumental solos) rock; long-haired
hippies expanding their horizons, developing their musicianship
and protesting the Vietnam War, turning on wide-eyed audiences
to sounds and lyrics far removed from the standard boy-meets-girl,
baby-baby music they’d grown up with.
I’ll Be Gone may indeed turn up somewhere on your radio
every five minutes or so, but you’ll not find many (or any)
of the rest of this album anywhere else. You get 12 tracks and
a 24 page booklet of notes and interviews by acclaimed historian
Ian Macfarlane and superb reproductions of gig posters from
the era in case you weren’t born at the time. Aurally, you get
three versions of I’ll Be Gone – the Australian and
German singles as well as the original demo that was cut of
the song; a far more countrified stroll, sans signature harmonica
riff.
But what of the songs you haven’t heard from this band?
It’s not the harmonica that gets you with these tracks – it’s
that swirling organ over the plodding bass and wandering guitar
lines that makes you want to paint murals on your panelvan and
head off to a hippie music festival; opening with the Ross Wilson-penned
Make Your Stash, we get an idea of the – ahem – culture
these guys were working within. The 12 minute instrumental Fiddling
Fool is classic psychedelic freak-out music, but it’s the
appearance of songs such as the two-part Launching Place,
written while waiting for the rain to clear from a doomed music
festival up the Warburton Highway east of Melbourne and its
‘psycho-psychedelic’ part 2 remake, and the uber-rare You
Just Can’t Win, (of which only two or three copies exist
on the original 7 inch acetate) which make this album lots of
fun to listen to.
Kick the kids out of the house, light a fragrant candle, turn
it up loud, go barefoot and sit cross-legged on the floor to
properly enjoy this album.
Jarrod
Watt 29.8.07 ABC
Ballarat
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No
Thinking
– Spectrum Plays The Blues
Mike
Rudd and Bill Putt
were the foundation of Spectrum in the late ’60s and early ’70s,
and they resurrected the concept in the ’90s for a gig on the
ABC TV show ‘Hessie’s Shed’ with ex-Crowded House drummer, Paul
Hester. After settling on current kit-man Peter ‘Robbo’ Robertson,
Spectrum recorded the 1999 album ‘Spill’. Guest artists included
Men At Work’s Colin Hay and that harmonica maestro Chris Wilson.
“The initial impetus was so that we could use it as a demo
for playing at blues festivals, because we’re kind (of) limited
playing at Mike Rudd and Bill Putt festivals.”
Since, like many of those ’60s bands, the basis of their sound
was the blues, Mike and Bill decided to revisit some of the
classics. The majority of tracks on the latest release are also
blues standards or blues interpretations of well known songs,
with a couple of originals to top off a tasteful album.
Once again there is a gang of guests on ‘No Thinking’, including
Mondo Rock frontman, Ross Wilson. He first got together with
Mike shortly after the demise of Mike’s NZ band, The Chants.
From 1967 to 1971 they played together first in the Party Machine
and later the experimental Sons of The Vegetal Mother. Ross
is backing vocalist on the rhythm n’ blues track ‘Good Morning
Little School Girl’.
‘Spoonful’ and ‘I Ain’t Superstitious’ are two of the standout
classics. In the intro to the live recording of Willie Dixon’s
‘Spoonful’, Mike tells the audience how back in the ’60s nearly
every band in Melbourne was doing extended versions of the song
when he first arrived from NewZealand.
There is a rollicking version of ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, made famous
by a bloke called Elvis Presley, while ‘She’s A Woman’ takes
a Beatles song and gives it a solid black an’ bluesin’. The
Gershwin show tune, ‘On Broadway’ is also given the treatment.
Guest musicians on accordion and banjo, along with the toe-tapping
snare drum and sweet slide-guitar transform ‘She’s A Woman’
and ‘Hey Good Lookin’ into a zydeco and rockabilly feel
respectfully.
Sweet as treacIe vocal harmonies and some lovely piano from
Mal Logan mesh well together on the very laid-back ‘Summertime’.
This pair of self-confessed old hippies first got together on
August 15, 1969, and while Spectrum may be best known for the
1971 hit ‘I’ll Be Gone’, I reckon it will be a long, long time
before these blokes will be gone!
Peter
Dawson – Macedon Ranges Guardian 2.7.04
I
remember scouring record stores in Melbourne
in the ’70s trying to pick up a copy of’ ’60s album
Warts
Up Your Nose by The Indelible Murtceps.
Of course, The Murtceps was the commercial incarnation of the
seminal Australian band Spectrum, and there’s probably not an
Oz Rock compilation that doesn’t feature the classic
I’ll
Be Gone.
After all this time Spectrum is still going strong, although
now under the moniker of Spectrum Plays The Blues.
This year sees the release of the band’s latest album
No
Thinking, which features a swag of classic blues tracks
given the full treatment by Rudd, Putt and Robertson.
There’s really only one thing I can say about this album – get
it!
It’s a ripper and deserves as much exposure as is possible.
The live tracks at the end are a real highlight but there’s
not a weak song, performance or moment on the album.
It transported me back to the ’70s one more time – if you’re
old enough to remember that era, then do yourself a favour.
Tony
Francis – The Warrnambool Standard 22.7.04
Returning
to the recording studio
five years after its highly successful
Spill album,
the rejuvenated Spectrum trio comes up with a varied smorgasbord
of blues, pop and jazz on the CD
No Thinking – presumably
referring to the style of music they enjoy creating. Mike Rudd
and BiIl Putt must be joined at the hip – they’ve been playing
togelher since Spectrum’s original 1969 incarnation and through
multiple group changes. Drummer Peter “Robbo” Robertson,
a later arrival, came aboard for
Spill. Blues standards
again feature, including Sonny Boy Williamson’s
Good Morning
Little Schoolgirl and a Willie Dixon double,
I Ain’t
Superstitious and
Spoonful. But the mix of songs
has been expanded, embracing rock favourites such as Marvin
Gaye’s
I Heard it Through the Grapevine and Elvis’s
Heartbreak Hotel, plus the Hank Williams country classic,
Hey, Good Lookin’. The Beatles’
She’s a Woman
is one of the album’s best tracks (enhanced by Daryl Roberts’
accordion and Peter Somerville on banjo), along with an atmospheric,
jazzy rendition of
Summertime, featuring vocals by
Rudd and Enza Pantano.
The surprise packet,
I Know There Was Another Man There,
is Rudd and Putt’s ruefully humorous take on their music business
experiences.
Mike Daly –
The Saturday Age 7.8.04
Mike
Rudd’s voice is the Spectrum brand.
‘Someday I’ll have money’ he sang, hopefully,
in 1971, and every Australian knows the words that follow and
the gentle nasal intonation that delivered them. Sadly, for
Mike and his generation, that ‘someday’ never came.
But his enthusiasm for making music that was awkward to market
– funny shaped pegs for which they have yet to manufacture holes
– never dimmed.
He and long-time colleagues Bill Putt and Peter Robertson are
at it again on
No Thinking. Is it the blues? Yes and
no. The standards –
Spoonful, I Ain’t Superstitious
– are honest enough as is the amiable bluesy treatment on
Hey,
Good Lookin’, Heartbreak Hotel and
On Broadway.
What makes
No Thinking irresistible is the charmingly
rearranged
She’s A Woman and Mississppi-speed
Summertime
Pete
Best Sunday Herald Sun Inside Entertainment 20.6.04
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SPILL
– Spectrum
plays the Blues
With
their uncluttered approach,
spacious instrumentation and innate sense of rhythm, the blues
is perfectly suited to fall under the spell of these two veterans.
But this is no ordinary blues album.
It should come as no surprise that Rudd and Putt would be able
to come up with such a quality release – talent will always
come out in the end. But here is an album that will drag in
the long-time nostalgia buffs, the curious and, most importantly,
the die-hard blues fans.
Brian Wise – Rhythms – March ’99
Those
living treasures
of Australian music, Mike Rudd and Bill Putt, are never less
than interesting and are more often compelling … not copying
or amplifying, simply giving their readings of the classics.
And what readings. The first and last are simply brilliant and
would be the high points, but for Rudd’s beautiful
Manuela
or the pair’s
Lowdown Summer Blues. Putt dictates the
pace with his big bass sound, while Rudd is sublime whether
it be his vocals, his guitar work or his harp playing. A couple
of guests – Chris Wilson and Colin Hay – serve only to highlight
Rudd’s extra gifts.
Lee Howard – Sunday Herald Sun – March 7th ’99
Listening
to Spill, from
vocalist/guitarist Mike Rudd, bassist/guitarist Bill Putt and
friends in another revived group known as Spectrum Plays The
Blues, I was reminded of a much-loved blues compilation LP I
have from the mid-’60s. Like so many of their contemporaries,
Rudd and Putt have played together in various incarnations for
around 30 years and from their early days explored rhythm and
blues. So here they are returning to the source and doing a
damn fine job, from feisty covers of standards such as Big Joe
Williams’
Baby Please Don’t Go, Robert Johnson’s
Crossroads
and a couple of Willie Dixon staples, to some blues accented
originals.
Rudd and Putt’s affection for the music is palpable and they
wisely resist the temptation to force vintage wine into new
bottles. Instead, there’s a plethora of acoustic and electric
riffs, with nice slide from Bill Putt, Mike Rudd’s powerful
vocals and mouth harp (Chris Wilson also blows up a storm on
Howlin’ Wolf‘s
Sittin’ On Top of the World),
plus drummer Peter “Robbo” Robertson, Mal Logan’s
keyboards and Putt’s bass. Vocalist Colin Hay chips in on three
tracks, including a superb, wordless accompaniment to Rudd’s
instrumental,
Manuela.
If you liked their last CD,
Living On A Volcano, you’ll
find this even more enjoyable, precisely because they have avoided
repetition. Both CDs should be available in records stores specialising
in roots music
They close with the classic
Louie Louie, a killer version,
thanks to its instrumental understatement. With pros like these,
less is always much more!
Mike Daly – The Age Green Guide – April 8th ’99
Three
Decades ago Spectrum
rocked the charts with
I’ll Be Gone. The sounds they
produced in these early days were in a class of their own and
remain fresh and unique. If you’re not familiar with this side
of Spectrum, imagine Jefferson Airplane/Starship with a bit
more chunk, or Lou Reed with a Folky edge. If I had to put a
tag on their early music, I’d call it Power – Rockin’ / Folky
– Blues, with a dash of Psychedelia.
From the first track of
Spill, I realised I was in
for some Great Blues. By track number two, I believed that Spectrum
can play the Blues as good as anyone. By my third listen, I
was of the opinion that this album stands tall alongside greats,
like Eric Clapton’s
From The Cradle, B.B. King’s
Blues On The Bayou, and Bob Dylan’s
Time
Out Of Mind…
(no
longer available)
Al Smith 10.10.2000
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Living
On A Volcano –
Mike Rudd & Bill Putt
Mike
Brady rang recently to
enthuse about a CD he had just produced for Mike Rudd and Bill
Putt. I’m used to enthusiasm from producers and musicians,
but after listening to Living On A Volcano, I’d
have to say Mike underplayed his hand, if anything. It’s
a captivating album from a musical duo who have been part of
the local musical scene since Spectrum in the late ‘60s.
The 14 tracks are so gently melodic that they worm their way
into your consciousness gradually, rather than leaping out at
you. But their sense of musicianship and enjoyment are qualities
no amount of high-budget corporate promotion can buy.
Rudd, whose vocals have a definite McCartney-ish feel, began
this project a decade ago, teasing out melodies on a synthesizer
keyboard while wife Helen Rudd wrote the lyrics. The majestically
moustachioed Putt added acoustic guitar chords, but the journey
to the present disc has been traumatic, involving a scrapped
first album and, a year ago, Helen’s serious illness.
The final product, with vocal help from Enza Pantano, is highly
recommended to anyone who loves adult pop music. It ranges from
the gentle catchy title ballad and its dreamy siblings, Having
A Wonderful Time and Dancing At Midnight, to the
lovely, ambient instrumental Indian Summer, on acoustic
guitar, keyboard and harmonica – my favourite track.
The album has been issued independently in a limited pressing,
but I’m told it’s available in good record stores.
I’d be surprised if a major company doesn’t pick
the album up soon.
Mike Daly The Age Green Guide 8.2.96
A
captivating album from a musical duo
who have been part of the Australian scene since Spectrum in
the mid-‘60s. The 14 tracks could actually be described
AC/Ambient for their gentle melodicism that laps rather (than)
leaps into the listener’s consciousness. It works as background;
it works as foreground. From the gentle samba of the title track
to the lovely ambience of the instrumental
Indian Summer,
the songs defy the odds of not being abler to be pigeonholed
into any category to emerge as beautifully commercial.
The Music Network 27.2.96
Living
On A Volcano is
a mature, deceptively simple collection of songs that belong
together, sharing a thematic unity and stylistic cohesion that
seduces the listener into keeping laser to disc.
The songs seem to share a weary optimism while an undercurrent
of menace or brooding hints at some kind of unease. Explorations
of relationships, the tensions and ironies inherent, and song
structure that is almost song classicist – think Brian
Wilson, the Paul McCartney of
Yesterday – sews
the whole thing together. Helen’s lyrics explore the tender
aspects of the above, while Mike’s tend to a resignation
to the arbitrary nature of these things.
The important thing is that they are placed within musical settings
that are entirely appropriate, the mood of the music reflecting
the sense of the lyric. This is sophisticated music played with
affection and attention to detail, finely crafted adult pop
music.
Steve Hoy – Rhythms Feb. 1996
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Ariel
circa 1973 – Mike Rudd, Bill Putt, Nigel Macara, John Mills and
Tim Gaze
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbAriel
circa 1973 – Mibudd, Bill Putt, Nigel Macara, John Mills and Tim
Gaze
A
Strange Fantastic Dream –
Ariel
The
music was fantastic.
Mike Rudd was strange. Still is. Who else could have written
Confessions of a Psychopathic Cowpoke?
“I like to mess around with strangers,”
drawls Rudd, “Strangers bein’ the way they are.” What
happens to Rudd’s strangers is unpublishable.
Ariel was to explore Rudd’s progressive rock ambitions and this
was their extraordinary first step.
Tim Gaze was on board with Rudd’s mate Bill Putt in perhaps
their most powerful combination. At the same time Led Zeppelin
chanced their arm with reggae (D’yer Maker), Ariel
showed precisely how it is done with the exuberant Jamaican
Farewell.
Gaze’s explosive riff and Rudd’s seldom examined lyrics
set up a great rock moment.
Pete Best – Sunday Herald Sun Sept. 2002
A
Strange Fantastic Dream
and Rock & Roll Scars – Ariel
Music-lovers
looking to update vinyl
copies of their favourite albums with CD re-releases can eventually
obtain even the most obscure international titles via countless
overseas catalogues or the Net.
Due to the longtime negligence of some Australian record companies,
many local albums- particularly those recorded during the ’60S
and ’70s when gifted writers arid performers were creating innovative
ground-breaking music – are impossible to obtain. One of many
unique talents to experience the frustration of this neglect
of our record history is Mike Rudd.
None of the fine Spectrum/Murtceps albums released by EMI records
between 1971 and 1973 are available in their original form.
Unfortunately Rudd suffered a similar fate with his next band
Ariel: their first two albums, both released in 1973 by EMI,
were eventually made redundant. However, due to the tenacity
of Rudd and his management, master tapes were eventually located
of A Strange Fantastic Dream and its follow-up Rock & Roll
Scars, both available on Rare Vision, the label of Rudd and
longtime collaborator Bill Putt. The uncompromising, adventurous
songwriting that was so admired in Rudd’s Spectrum material
caused a furore when the first Ariel album hit record stores.
Three tracks were immediately banned from radio play, the Spectrum-ish
‘Chicken Shit (I Need a Fix of Chicken Shit), a country-styled
‘Confessions of a Psychopathic Cowpoke’ (a story of mayhem and
necrophilia), and ‘Miracle Man’ written by guitarist Tim Gaze
(ex-Tamam Shud and Kahvas Jute) that apparently offended some
members of the medical profession.
Gaze was one of two musicians (drummer Nigel Macara was the
other) recruited by Rudd to join himself and former Spectrum
members Putt (bass guitar) and keyboard player John Mills in
a line-up that would hopefully achieve the international success
that eluded his former band. The album’s first single, a rare
Rudd collaboration (he completed Gaze’s original idea) was the
riffy, rocking ‘Jamaican Farewell’, winner of the pre-ARIA FACB
Award for Single of the Year and Rudd’s biggest hit since ‘I’ll
Be Gone’.
The solid rhythm provided by Putt and Macara, plus Mills’ array
of keyboards including the newly acquired Mini-Moog, were used
to great effect on ‘Garden of the Frenzied Cortinas’, the album’s
longest and most Spectrum-like track. The interplay between
Rudd’s fingerstyle electric guitar and Gaze’s blazing lead,
in addition to Rudd’s innovative arrangements and quirky lyrics,
made for an innovative, accessible album that made the national
Top 10 and garnered praise from legendary English DJ John Peel.
His endorsement resulted in EMI arranging for the band to record
their next album at Abbey Road Studios in London. Only problem
was, the band had broken up!
Gaze, Macara and Mills were out, leaving Rudd and Putt to pick
up the pieces, which they promptly did, hiring ex-Dingoes drummer
John Lee and guitarist Harvey James (ex- Mississippi) for Ariel,
Mk ll.
Buoyed by their pending trip to the UK, the four musicians convened
in Sydney to record ‘The”Jellabad Mutant’, Rudd’s projected
science-fiction concept album, in preparation for the demos
to be polished at Abbey Road prior to the album’s release.
What release? EMI Australia rejected the demos as ‘unsuitable’
on the eve of Ariel’s arrival in London.
So here they were, booked into Abbey Road (oh yeah, EMI had
also slashed their budget, giving them one week to record and
one more to mix) with nothing new to record and with a band
that was barely months old.
As he had done many times before and would continue to do throughout
his 40-year career, Rudd rose to the occasion delivering the
vibrant ‘Rock & Roll Scars’, made up of re-recorded versions
of Spectrum and early Ariel material with three new songs he’d
somehow had time to write.
Blessed with an exceptional lead guitarist in James, Rudd arranged
many of the songs to accommodate his first keyboardless band.
‘Keep on Dancing’ (a Top 20 single in Australia), ‘Rock &
Roll Scars’, ‘Real Meanie’ and ‘Men in Grey Raincoats’ are brilliantly
conceived guitar, bass and drums rock’n’roll, full of diving
rhythms, enthusiastic vocals and fiery guitar solos.
Of the older songs, Spectrum’s ‘I’ll Be Gone’, with its Tommy
Steele meets the Goons intro, ‘Launching Place Part ll’ (Part
I was ‘I’ll Be Gone’ B side), ‘We Are Indelible’ and ‘What the
World Needs (Is a New Pair of Sox)’ fit comfortably into their
new guise.
What a treat to be able to revisit these two essential albums,
re-mastered with additional sleeve notes from Ariel’s original
producer Peter Dawkins.
Also available is the long lost ‘Jellabad Mutant’ album recently
released on Rare Vision.
Billy
Pinnell – Rhythms magazine March 2004
The
Jellabad Mutant –
Ariel
The
cover of the fresh issue of Jellabad.
That’s Oliver Leonard in the starring role, about to unleash
wild mutant mayhem with his white Strat! He also provided some
spaced-out artwork for the CD release
As part of an on-going series of compact disc reissues of seminal
Rudd/Putt-related albums, comes The Jellabad Mutant,
which was never officially released before now. Lovingly remastered
from the 1974 Peter Dawkins-produced demos, recorded at EMI
Sydney; the integrity and sound quality of these rudimentary
tapes has been brilliantly captured for the digital medium by
Martin Pullan of Edensound in Melbourne. Martin also worked
sonic wonders for the previous two Ariel CD reissues, A
Strange Fantastic Dream and Rock & Roll Scars.
There are also a couple of bonus tracks – a “Mutant
Medley” taken from a live-to-air Double J broadcast from
May 1976 as well as both sides of a 1975 single produced by
respected musician-producer Rod Coe and originally released
on EMI’s “progressive” Harvest imprint. These
two latter tracks – “I’ll Take You High”
and “I Can’t Say What I Mean” – while
not being part of the Jellabad story proper, represent the only
officially-released recordings of the classic, uber-hot five-piece
Ariel, and display the “3-guitar attack” that Mike
and Bill enthuse about in our interview. It’s perhaps
a measure of EMI’s cavalier treatment of the band by this
stage that master tapes of these two songs could not be located
for the reissue! At Mike’s request, your humble writer
was able to supply his vinyl copy of the single. But after Pullan
waved his magic wand over them, the listener would never know
that these tracks were sourced from a crackly 45!
The Jellabad suite itself – vaguely inspired by the Christmas
’73 coming of Kahoutek’s comet, with a tincture
of The Day Of The Triffids for good measure – concerns
the arrival in a refrigerated capsule at the fictitious Victorian
town of Jellabad, of an abstractly-drawn mutant figure who seeks
to become part of the human race. Shades of Superman and similar
pop-sci-fi tales, but in Rudd’s deft compositional hands,
this story’s different.
The mutant gets adopted by an elderly, childless couple, assumes
humanoid form and sets about implementing its sinister plans.
Without giving too much of the labyrinthine plot away, the mutant
eventually does away with his adoptive parents, but not before
entering the brain-space of a hapless down-at-heel musician
(by plying him with a “pot of tea”).
The opera’s theme is compellingly drawn by Rudd’s
typically perverse lyrics – by turns oblique, poignant,
sad, outright hilarious and sometimes endearingly puerile (witness
“The Hospital”). Supported by some fine ensemble
playing that alternately rocks (“The Train”, “Neo-existentialist
Greens/Medicine Man/The Letter”), waxes gentle (“Cinematic
Sandwiches”) and just plain swings like a mutha (my favourite,
“The Funeral”); it seems ludicrously criminal in
retrospect that this body of work was rejected by the then-powers-that-be.
Mike Rudd laments in the liner notes to the Mutant CD:
It’s interesting to speculate what might have happened
had we been allowed to proceed with the Mutant with an intact
budget (EMI slashed the budget for Rock & Roll Scars adding
to the pressure) and with time to reflect and be creative with
the raw material you hear in the demos. I regret I didn’t
go into bat for it at the time. We had a fabulous opportunity
with the best technical assistance any band could have wanted.
But I didn’t sell the dream, even to myself.
Lament ye no longer, punters, for now we have the opportunity
to hear what might have been, and it’s as worthy as anything
in the Ariel canon. Seek it out and “use your imagination”!
©
2003 Paul Culnane for Foffle Zine
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Chants
R&B – Live ’66: The Stage Door Tapes
I’m
defying my own policy here and
reviewing this from an advance cassette, but hopefully it’ll
exist on vinyl by the time you read this, ‘cos you gotta HEAR
this for yourselves. It’s is one of the WILDEST, most exciting
LIVE albums I’ve ever heard – like Kick Out the Jams, James
Brown Live at The Apollo and Five Live Yardbirds rolled into
one big, sweaty ball of pure Punk R&B ENERGY. OK, OK, I’m
not trying to make a case that this here LP is as SEMINAL as
any of those esteemed pieces; just that on one hot, muggy night
in October 1966 at The Stage Door in Christchurch, New Zealand,
a group called Chants R&B tapped into that same power source
and by some miracle it was captured undiluted on tape.
Some of this material was already released on the Stage Door
Witchdoctors album of a couple of years back, but most of these
16 tracks appear for the first time (and a couple of the live
tracks from Witchdoctors aren’t on here). The sound quality
is crude, but NOT cruddy, muddy or bloody awful, in fact it
probably sounds a lot like it sounded if you were there that
night: LOUD, raw and slightly unbalanced.
Their versions of songs like the “Land of 1000 Dances,”
“1’ll Go Crazy” and “Hold On, I’m Coming”
are hotwired to crazed extremes, full of screaming, fighting,
shouting vocals with instruments wailing and colliding in all
directions without ever losing that vital groove.
Like hungry cannibals they savage the Graham Bond Organization’s
“Train Time” and the Poets’ “That’s the Way It’s
Got To Be,” and their searing treatment of “Don’t
Bring Me Down” is the greatest Pretty Things cover version
I’ve ever heard. They even manage to turn the Four Tops’ “Baby
I Need Your Loving” into a tribal death stomp.
When bassist Martin Correr (sic) ripped into the superfast intro
to the Artwoods’ “I Feel Good” I swore for a second
it was the Damned’s “Neat Neat Neat” if that gives
you any idea of what I’m trying to communicate here in my overamped,
inarticulate way.
You probably can’t afford to buy everything that gets a positive
review in Ugly Things, but make sure you beg, borrow or steal
enough loot to bag THIS beauty, y’hear?
(MS)
Ugly Things
Tony
3)
