Ferrite Love Connection - Dissensus Cassette Swap

Danny L's tape  

I must say I was chuffed to receive a really eclectic tape (despite taking the one-genre route for my own compilation) that still hangs together and provides a narrative of sorts. I’m glad to say Danny L pulled it off here. Luckily I happen to be a big fan, if not an obsessive collector of Blues, Reggae, Psyche-punk and folk so this tape really hit the spot and gave me what I wanted. I did fret about all this when deciding on what to do for my own tape. Usually when making a comp. for someone you’ll know a fair bit about the recipient’s tastes beforehand but this Dissensus Tape Swap thing was a bit more of a shot in the dark. There’s also something wickedly self-serving about making a mixtape that can backfire badly if you’re not careful. Ooh the pressure…
I'm not much of a writer, so I decided to pad this review out a little with a few relevant youtube links. Hopefully this hasn't violated the code of the Dissensus tape swap and Danny won't be too offended...

The first side serves as a nice illustration of the various and varied permutations of Rhythm n Blues music: Ska, rock n roll, rockabilly twang, urban sleaze-rock and garage psyche.
The tape kicks off with ‘Blue Monday’ by Louisiana bluesman Smiley Lewis, then into the laid back “Jack and Jill Shuffle” by the splendidly named Theophilus Beckford. This latter track’s offbeat piano skank is a clear precursor to Ska, and The Mellow Larks’ ’Time to pray’ is a great example of the Gospel influence in Reggae, long before the Rastafarian faith dominated the Island’s musical ethos.
It can be easy to underestimate the fundamental influence American Rhythm and Blues music has had on Jamaican music after the wild sonic innovations of Dub and Dancehall, but this is the stuff that rocked Jamaican sound systems for years until the island forged its own distinct sound. So it was nice to hear this stuff juxtaposed. Tracks like The Gaylads’ ‘Lady with the red dress on’, Andre Williams’ ’Pearl time’ and The Marathons’ ‘Peanut Butter’ all share a certain raw energy and sense of playfulness.

Hasil Adkins’ She Said was the only song on the tape I was really familiar with, and it’s a long-term favourite of mine. More wild and deranged than anything else at the time, and that’s saying a lot for Rockabilly. The Cramps knocked out a rockin’ version of this too and the rest of Side 1 is dedicated to the sort of scuzz rock that would have floated their boat.
There’s more demented rock n roll from a very strange sounding man named Homer Edison: a cautionary tale about the perils of that most foolish of teenage automobile-related kicks, the ‘Chickie Run’, illustrated nicely by this classic film clip:

Trouble is James Dean made it look cool didn’t he?

The moody twang of Duane Eddy‘s, ‘Stalkin’ is next. I’ve always loved this sort of guitar sound, drenched in reverb and tremelo, yet still crisp and cutting, sending a shiver down the spine. The production and arrangement on Duane Eddy’s records was superbly loud and crisp, the sax sound on here is almost obscene in its raunchiness. There, I’ve said it…sometimes I love a bit of raunchy sax! Ahem…
Arnand Schuabroeck ups the sleazometer next with the charmingly titled ‘Ratfucker’, sounding uncannily like Lou Reed. Its a compelling slice of New York trash-rock if a little off-putting in its nastiness. Armand sounds like a truly unpleasant man, but I enjoyed it nonetheless in the same way that I enjoy listening to Johnny Rotten singing ’Bodies’, or any number of gangster rappers and grime MCs digging in the dirt. Its perhaps slightly too beholden to Lou Reed to be truly great though.
Side one ends with a sequence of ’Nuggets’ style psyche-punk tunes, all in thrall to The Rolling Stones and The Who at their most amped up. The Misunderstood must have deafened themselves in the studio recording ‘Children of the Sun,’ so loud and raucous are the guitars and drums. Love it!
Morgen’s ‘Welcome to the Void’ and Colosseum‘s ‘The Kettle‘ (famously sampled by Norman cook) are no less hard rocking. This strand of Hard-psych is probably much more Rock than it is punk really, the sort of stuff that lead to Black Sabbath rather than The Stooges I reckon. Anyway, I couldn’t resist cranking these up to get the full effect, and they make a great end to side one.

So solid so far, but things started to get really interesting for me on Side 2. I was on much less familiar ground here. After another decent psych-rock track from Factory , came the spooky theme tune to the 70s Sci-fi TV series, The Tomorrow People. A long way before my time, but it’s the sort of thing I would have liked as a kid, and it’s a brilliantly evocative slice of Radiophonic uncanniness.

There’s insect related balladry next of course with ‘Lacewing’ by Chrysalis (according to the you tube blurb here Spider Barbour, the author of this song is now “a naturalist devoted to the lives of moths and butterflies.” funnily enough….). The flutes (or mellotron?) give this song a similar sort of vibe to ‘The Fool on the hill’. The melody is very pretty but it’s a terribly miserable song ; ‘Oh how I dread to go on…’. The next choice doesn’t let up on the misery either: Julie Felix’s version of Bert Jansch’s ‘Needle of Death’.
'Harrowing’ would be a lazy description of a song like ’Needle of Death’. While I quite like this song and Julie Felix’s cover version, I’m probably more conditioned to prefer the Lou Reed approach to this subject matter which seems much less simplistic and immediate than the sad eyed misery ballads of the folkies (I’m thinking of Neil Young’s “Needle and the damage done’ here. Always one of my least favourite Young songs). For those early sixties folk singers the loss of innocence is always mired in regret, rarely accompanied by euphoria and release. They can get a little wearing as a result and I’d probably reach for the fast forward button say, seven times out of ten when it gets to this track. Same goes for Lacewing I’m afraid…

You’ll be glad to hear that I cheered up immensely when I heard the next track; Annette Peacock’s ‘I’m the one’. The centrepiece of the tape for me, I was genuinely stunned when I heard it. After an ominous intro of mournful horns and free jazz drums, a sort of strange electronic cyber-chirrup suddenly enters and the song begins. Its difficult to describe but what followed put me in mind of some of the most far out and groovy music of the late 60s/early 70s: Sly Stone, Miles Davis, even The Beatles of ‘I Want You’ and ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun‘. Heavy, moody music, sweaty with desire. That weird electronic skronk that lifts the track into the realms of the truly strange turns out to be Annette’s (stunning) voice fed through an early synthesiser. Wow…

The next three songs on the tape are all taken from musicals.  Haunting jazz with Jean Pace's 'Afro Blue' (here is John Coltrane’s version of it) and Mary Lou Williamson’s ‘The Devil is a Woman with a Red Dress on’, with its fantastically complex vocal arrangements. I’m feeling it…

An all time Children’s classic next with Inchworm, taken from the film Hans Christian Anderson. It’s beautifully sung and arranged, and educational too!
. . Funnily enough it turns out that John Coltrane also featured this song in his sets for years, and would have played it along with tunes like ‘Afro Blue’ and his classic version of ‘My Favourite things’. So there you go…

Some obscure 60s jangle-folk from Judy Henske comes next. ‘Charity’ is a pretty good song, lifted by a rousing chorus, picking up the pace a bit.
The selection takes a rather more bizarre turn with the English poet John Betjemen reading his own ‘Licorice fields at Pontefract’ over a sort of soft-psych backing track. It’s a little daft and whimsical for my tastes but it at least prompted me to read up a bit on John Betjemen, who I’ll admit I knew next to nothing about until now. Interesting chap…

Next, another familiar melody in an unfamiliar context with Paul Mauriat’s sitar-driven, orchestral version of the Supremes’ classic ‘You keep me hanging on’. Like the Tomorrow People theme, the arrangement features these great tremulous melody lines that seem to be a blur of horns, strings and human voices all singing in unison, in an echo chamber. At least that’s what it sounds like to me. Who knows?
(a completely irrelevant aside, but check out this video of the original in which at around 1.24 mins Diana Ross is momentarily possessed by the Devil! This really freaked me out… )

Fresh’s ‘Borstal Theme’ starts with a narration from an authentic sounding young Borstal tough before a big OTT rock opera piece of silliness kicks in. To be honest I’ve always disliked rock opera’s like Tommy or the Pretty Things’ S.F. Sorrow and this is definitely along those lines. (Apparently the ’Fresh out of Borstal’ concept album was inspired by a conversation with Pete Townsend).

By now I’m wanting to hear something more soulful and rootsy after all this weirdness so I’m happy that the tape ends with a couple of fine reggae selections, book ending the tape nicely. Glenn Miller (no, not that one…) is also known for making American style Soul records like this,
but this tape’s selection, 'Dungeon' is a lovely piece of rocksteady with those fantastic backing harmonies in the style of The Heptones.

Then the tape runs out halfway through the final, unlisted reggae number. I press eject and turn it over…