{"id":24825,"date":"2023-02-23T05:30:39","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T10:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24825"},"modified":"2023-11-20T03:09:24","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T08:09:24","slug":"hundred-word-reviews-february-2023-part-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/23\/hundred-word-reviews-february-2023-part-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundred Word Reviews, February 2023, Part Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the last few days I\u2019ve covered new releases; now it\u2019s time for quick looks at five reissue\/archival releases of note.<\/p>\n

\"\"APB \u2013 Something to Believe In<\/i><\/b>
\nI will admit that until very recently, I had never heard of \u2013 much less heard \u2013 APB. The Scottish band released its sole album, Something to Believe In<\/i>, in 1979. It has been out of print for some time and only recently received reissue treatment from Liberation Hall. That it wasn\u2019t a massive hit shall remain one of life\u2019s little mysteries. The group had it all: a kinetic sound that drew from punk, dance and funk; songs that were compact, direct and memorable, and a good look. But it wasn\u2019t to be. Listen now and enjoy, and wonder what might\u2019ve been.<\/p>\n

\"\"Janis Joplin and Jorma Kaukonen \u2013 The Legendary Typewriter Tape<\/i><\/b>
\nThis recording is indeed legendary; it circulated among collector for many year. Even I – -no major Janis Joplin fan at the time \u2013 had a cassette dub of it a quarter century ago. In 1964, neither Janis nor Jefferson Airplane\u2019s Jorma Kaukonene were anything like household names. Don\u2019t go in expecting the supercharged blooze of Big Brother, nor the high-flying psychedelia of the Airplane; this is folk, pure and simple. Folk, and of course\u2026 a typewriter. If you\u2019re wondering why, the liner notes \u2013 a brief paragraph or three from Kaukonen \u2013 won\u2019t shed a bit of light. Odd, that. Try Wikipedia.<\/p>\n

\"\"Current Rage \u2013 Seven Songs (40th Anniversary Edition)<\/i><\/b>
\nHey, I remember these guys! Way back in the early 1980s, the fairly small but vibrant local music scene of Atlanta and nearby Athens was filled with fascinating bands. You might have heard of some of \u2018em; R.E.M., Guadalcanal Diary, B-52\u2019s, Pylon, LMNOP, The Producers. And Current Rage: if oyu liked those other names, you\u2019ll dig this. Today they\u2019re considered post-punk; I don\u2019t recall the term in use back in the day. But now, some four decades later, this EP has been valiantly rescued from the past, and appended with a bunch of bonus tunes. It will take you back.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ex Norwegian \u2013 On the Sidelines: The Albums 2015-2017<\/i><\/b>
\nWhat I wrote above notwithstanding, be careful placing trust in Wikipedia. Somebody needs to update Ex Norwegian\u2019s bio, as it mentions nothing after 2014. But this fine (if overlooked) arty powerpop band led by Roger Houdaille released several albums post \u201814. These are the first three of those. They feature the now-ubiquitous and immensely talented Fernando Perdomo<\/a> in (I think) the years before he relocated out west. The three albums are remastered, remixed and appended with a total of 14 bonus tracks. If you like Jellyfish, some of that band\u2019s wonderful qualities can be found here as well. Worth hearing.<\/p>\n

\"\"Neuschwanstein + Sonja Kristina \u2013 Alice in Wonderland<\/i><\/b>
\nThis is a strange one. German band Neuschwanstein (named after the Bavarian castle that inspired Walt Disney) recorded an instrumental album called Alice in Wonderland<\/em> in 1976. It\u2019s an exemplar of that era\u2019s instrumental symphonic prog subgenre, and while it sank without a trace, it deserved better. So here we are decades later, and someone decided that having Curved Air\u2019s Sonja Kristina overdub narration would be a great idea. She\u2019s a fine artist, but hey: no<\/i>. Not needed. It\u2019s still good, so we should be thankful that the album is available at all, but it would\u2019ve been better left as-was.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last few days I\u2019ve covered new releases; now it\u2019s time for quick looks at five reissue\/archival releases of note. APB \u2013 Something to Believe In I will admit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,49,51,53,56,62,64,65],"tags":[5088,5085,5084,5082,5083,5086,1622,5087],"class_list":["post-24825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-folk","category-new-release","category-pop","category-post-punk","category-prog","category-rawk","category-reissue","category-review","tag-apb","tag-current-rage","tag-ex-norwegian","tag-janis-joplin","tag-jorma-kaulonen","tag-neuschwanstein","tag-omnivore-recordings","tag-sonja-kristina","cat-30-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-53-id","cat-56-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24825"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26518,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24825\/revisions\/26518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}