augustus 30, 2022

Mother’s Finest - Mother Factor (LP) (1978) - €4,99

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Fourth album from the multi-facet Mother’s Finest, but it’s a fairly different beast altogether. Indeed Mother Factor sees the funk-disco dimension of the band get the lion’s share of the album, and the hard-rock direction almost reduced to nil. 
Apparently the addition of another Afro-American definitely tipped the musical balance of the group towards the dance thing. Indeed, seeing the front (ala Sheer Heart Attack) and back cover photos, we get the full vision of black sense of street fashion with the pop-star twist, while the two white dudes appear only as “faire-valoir”. 
Well if you’re into this funk disco thing (or more into the disco-funk, in this case), MF might be just your thing, but if you enjoyed the hard-driving rock with a slight southern twist, you’d better stay clear of this dud, dude!

They pretty much dumped any rock influence on this one, sticking to funk and soul balladry. Obviously they do much better with the harder-edged funk stuff, with “Can’t Fight the Feeling” and “Don’t Want to Come Back” the clear highlights. 
While nothing with the assertive vocals of Baby Jean can be truly awful, the ballads are otherwise quite bland and try the listener’s patience. An obvious attempt at gunning for hit singles and airplay, it just came across as a second-rate Rufus clone and predictably tanked. Pretty much any of their other albums is a better choice. 

I’m not sure exactly when the band’s commercial fortunes took a nosedive, but I take it, that it’s around this album’s release or their next one, because they certainly lost a substantial amount of the rock-loving audience, while the increase of the soul-funk audience didn’t substantially increase to compensate. In either case, stand warned not to expect something close to their previous albums.


Side A
A1.  Can’t Fight The Feeling - 3:59
A2.  Tell Me - 3:14
A3.  Watch My Stylin’ - 3:56
A4.  Love Changes - 4:50

Side B
B1.  Don’t Wanna Come Back - 4:15
B2.  Give It Up - 4:49
B3.  Mr. Goodbar - 3:53
B4.  I Can’t Believe - 4:42
B5.  More And More - 3:00


Companies, etc.

Credits

Notes
Release:  1978
Format:  LP
Genre:  Funk rock
Label:  Epic Records
Catalog#  EPC 83011

Vinyl:  VG
Cover:  VG

Prijs: €4,99

augustus 28, 2022

Blue Rondo - Bees Knees & Chickens Elbows (LP) (1984) - €4,99

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Blue Rondo à la Turk was an early 1980s British musical ensemble, whose music featured elements of salsa, pop and cool jazz. 
 The group placed two songs on the UK Singles Chart (1981's "Me and Mr. Sanchez", and 1982's "Klactoveesedstein"), but is perhaps better known in retrospect for launching the careers of several players who went on to form the sophisticated jazz/Latin/samba/pop group Matt Bianco. 

Blue Rondo à la Turk was a floating collective of jazz and salsa oriented musicians, created by singer/lyricist Chris Sullivan, whose stated goal for the band was "to bring back show biz". 
In the band’s first interview, Sullivan said of their sound: “Call it Latin American jazz with funk and African leanings – plus a few others because all of us have adventurous musical tastes.” Sullivan co-wrote most of the band's original material; he also painted the distinctive cubist art that adorned most of the band's releases. 

Bees Knees and Chickens Elbows boasts fantastic cover art, a great opening instrumental track, Samba No Pé and, well, some other tracks. Smoking Dynamite is the second-strongest song here, with suggestions of the earlier tarry chaos.

Too much of what remains falls into that best forgotten 1980s groove of cool-jazzy-poppy-nothing-much.

That dancing dazzler of an opening track leads straight to Manifesto, an unremarkable burst of 1980s pop – a song that sets the mood for an album that hasn’t aged well.

Fans of the ‘a la Turk’ version of Chris Sullivan’s band still report feeling disappointed by this second (and last) album. To this listener, who can’t recall buying the album (and we have two copies in our collection) the excitement raised by the opening instrumental slowly fades away.


Side A
A1.  Samba No Pé - 6:59
A2.  Slipping Into Daylight - 5:18
A3.  Manifesto - 3:55
A4.  Masked Moods - 4:46

Side B
B1.  Smoking Dynamite - 5:13
B2 . And Then The Rain Came - 5:14
B3.  Hot Corner - 4:33
B4.  Are You Satisfied - 6:36


Companies, etc.

Credits

Notes
Release:  1984
Format:  LP
Genre:  Latin Jazz, Jazz-Funk
Label:  Virgin Records
Catalog#  206 419-320

Vinyl:  VG+
Cover:  VG+

Prijs: €4,99

augustus 14, 2022

Time Bandits - Can’t Wait For Another World (LP) (1987) - €7,99

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Time Bandits is een electro-disco-funk-band van Nederlandse bodem, onder leiding van frontman Alides Hidding. 
De band was succesvol in eigen land maar ook in Frankrijk, Portugal en de Verenigde Staten. 
De bezetting van Time Bandits maakte door de jaren heen een sterke wisseling door.
Eind 1986 begint Hidding met het schrijven van nieuwe nummers voor een album.
Aan het begin van 1987 is Hidding's nieuwe materiaal af maar de overige bandleden kunnen zich daar niet mee verenigen. Hidding besluit op zoek te gaan naar een nieuwe band. 
Gitarist Hugo de Bruin, die de groep al eerder bijstond, drummer Jean Monsou (ex-Secret Sounds), bassist Michel de Groot en toetsenist Loek Coenraad gaan de samenwerking met Hidding aan. 
In februari 1987 vertrekt de zanger/componist weer naar Amerika om met Dan Hartman voor Time Bandits aan nieuw materiaal te werken. 
In juli 1987 verschijnt daarvan het eerste resultaat, de single "We'll Be Dancing", dat echter blijft hangen in de tipparade. In oktober verschijnt het in commercieel opzicht teleurstellende "Wildfire" en ook het album "Can't Wait For Another World" levert eveneens niet de verwachte erkenning op. 
Daarna besluit Alides Hidding achter Time Bandits een punt te zetten en verhuist naar Los Angeles, Verenigde Staten. 
Hij legt zich toe op het schrijven van nummers voor anderen, waaronder Jennifer Rush, Helen Schneider, Trini Lopez en The Nylons in samenwerking met andere componisten als Dan Hartman, Charlie Mitnight en Dwayne Hitchings. 


Side A
A1.  Wildfire - 3:46
A2.  We’ll Be Dancing - 4:02
A3.  Pasadena Dreamworld - 4:16
A4 . True Love - 4:07
A5.  Earthlings - 5:50

Side B
B1.  Every Heartbeat - 4:11
B2.  Can’t Wait For Another World - 4:05
B3.  Sail - 5:17
B4.  Wherever We Go - 4:25
B5.  You’re Not At Home - 2:05


Companies, etc.

Credits

Notes
Release: 1987
Format:  LP
Genre:  Dance pop
Label:  CBS Records
Catalog#  450878 1

Vinyl:  Goed
Cover:  Lichte Gebruikerssporen

Prijs: €7,99