Borrowing its name from Jacques Tricatel, a character portrayed by Louis de Funès in the 1976 movie "L'aile ou la cuisse" (The Wing and the Thigh) - this, in turn, ispired by Jacques Borel, father of the "Restoroute" restaurant chain - French label Tricatel was founded in 1996 by musician and producer Bertrand Burgalat.
Since its creation, the label has been focused on releasing music of a futuristic lounge, refined pop, downtempo easy-listening and retro-chic nature. Proudly independent, Tricatel payed homage to labels like The Compact Organisation and él Records, that have been a source of inspiration for Burgalat.
During the years the label has released music by April March, Eggstone, Count Indigo, The High Llamas, Etienne Charry and many other artists, including veteran composer André Popp, actress Valérie Lemercier, writers Michel Houellebecq and Jonathan Coe, and - of course - its founder and gran maestroBetrand Burgalat.
The label had an high profile in France and many of its releases received huge critical acclaims both there and abroad, sadly this was not matched by commercial success and sales. Coupled with distribution problems, Tricatel was forced to slow down its release schedule after a few years of frenetic activity.
Symphony, Alain Berbier and Patrice Casali "Lego-people" style
In 1999 Tricatel launched a succulent initiative in the form a vinyl-only series aptly named "Tricatel 25cm Club". Initially, these 10" releases were only available by post and had to be ordered directly from the label, but sometimes later they also received a wider distribution through independent music stores.
Most of these records were pressed on clear vinyl; probably published in a limited edition, it is unclear how many copies of each release exist... The third issue in this series was "M. Parvulesco" by Symphony.
Well, there's not much I can write about Symphony, the Internet offers only the most basic information about them: they are (...or were...) a duo from Toulouse, France, formed by Alain Berbier and Patrice Casali.
In addition to the "M. Parvulesco" 10" vinyl published in 2000, they released a CD album entitled "Do Not Kiss" and a CD-single, "Un Tapez Deux", in 2002. All of their output was released by Tricatel.
No picture of the band is available - if we exclude the poor rendering you can see above - and biographic details are nowhere to be found except this short statement: "Everyone of us can remember of what he was doing on 9/11. Alain and Patrice from Symphony do not. Fortunately the C.I.A. didn't find us yet, please keep in touch."
The last update on their MySpace page dates back to 2009: maybe the Agency found them at last...
The "M. Parvulesco" vinyl EP contains the following tracks:
01. M. Parvulesco (3:04)
02. Un Tapez Deux (3:37)
03. Boat On the River (7:07)
All tracks were remastered from the original 10" vinyl in June 2013 and are available in FLAC lossless format, along with scans of the original item.
Please have a look at the comments for the download links.
Here's a short review of "M. Parvulesco", the original page is available here.
«Whilst both the title track and "Un Tapez Deux" are both pleasant down tempo ditties, it's "Boat On the River" that stands out from the three on this vinyl. This is probably one of the finest pieces of chillout music that I have in my collection. It features wonderful strings, deep male spoken lyrics in French and, towards the end of the track, some really weird squiggle fx sounds that only make sense at 6 a.m. in the morning - a masterpiece!»
The following credits appear on the back cover of "M. Parvulesco":
Symphony: instruments and machines
Bertrand Burgalat: bass on "Un Tapez Deux" and "Boat On the River"
Peter von Poehl: additional guitar on "Un Tapez Deux" and "Boat On the River"
Produced by Symphony, "Un Tapez Deux" produced by Symphony and Bertrand Burgalat.
"M. Parvulesco" and "Boat On the River" recorded and mixed by Patrice Casati and Alain Barbier at Symphony Studio (Toulouse).
"Un Tapez Deux" recorded and mixed by Patrice Casati and Alain Barbier at Tricatel Studio (Paris).
Artwork: Manel
Mastering: Translab
These two videos offer a preview of the remastered EP, enjoy "M. Parvulesco" and "Boat On the River"!
More information about Tricatel and Symphony is available here:
If you have any other useful information about Tricatel and Symphony - especially corrections and improvements to this post - or if you spot any dead links, please get in touch with me at stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!
«Geneviève Waite, an underground star on the Paris, London, Los Angeles and New York circuit has travelled with the speed of light since leaving her native South Africa at eighteen. She played the title role in the movie "Joanna" and since then has turned down movies to travel and have fun with friends like John Phillips, Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol. At last this elusive star has been in one place long enough to record an album of her "unfamiliar sounds" and as everyone always suspected, it's incredible. Geneviève and John collaborated on most of the songs and the result as you will hear is a happy one for music lovers everywhere. So here she is: "As hard to capture as a new thought the jiving, thriving, Miss Geneviève Waite." LET THE 70‘s BEGIN...»
[From the original liner notes of "Romance Is On the Rise"]
Geneviève Waite is a former actress, singer and model born 13 February 1948 in Cape Town, South Africa. She started out in her native Country and worked in Britain before coming to the U.S. in the early '70s.
As an actress she is best remembered for her starring role in "Joanna", a 1968 movie by Michael Sarne about a fanciful country girl that goes to London to follow a fashion design course and becomes the lover of the black owner of a night club... A true snapshot of the late '60s Swinging London! Sadly enough, Geneviève was declared persona non grata in South Africa after making this film because of her love scenes with black actor Calvin Lockhart.
On 31 January 1972 she married singer-songwriter John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas. During the '70s the couple spent most of their marriage strung out on drugs and went through several detoxifications before finally divorcing in 1985 after giving birth to two children...
In 1973 the couple moved to New York City and Phillips started building a quirky album of breathy, neo-hipster torch songs around Geneviève's unusual voice, a sort of Betty Boop meets Marilyn Monroe mixture.
When the album was completed, Warner Brothers showed interest in distributing it but balked at Phillips's insistence that it be released on his own label, Paramour Records. Meanwhile, the couple also worked on an ill-fated musical entitled "Man On the Moon"; due to her commitment to that show, Geneviève's had to pass on the opportunity to star opposite David Bowie in "The Man Who Fell To Earth"...
With four songs co-wrote by Geneviève herself, and showcasing a cover-picture by Richard Avedon, "Romance Is On the Rise" was finally released in July 1974. The original vinyl has been out of print for ages... In 2004 the album was re-released on CD with four extra tracks, just to become a rarity whose price on the second-hand market is increasing by the minute.
Here's the whole story of "Romance Is On the Rise" as reported by Jeffrey Greenberga in the booklet that comes with the CD version of the album. It includes a long excerpt from Johh Phillips' autobiography, "Papa John", published in 1986 by Doubleday & Company:
«In 1978, British disc jockey Paul Gambaccini published a book, "Rock Critics' Choice, The Top 200 Albums", listing a ranking of the 200 "greatest rock albums of all time". The list was based on a 1977 survey of approximately 50 rock critics, reviewers and disc jockeys. Appearing at Number 98 on the list was "Romance Is On the Rise" by Geneviève Waite, which had been released a few years earlier, in 1974.
Reading the list now, the name Geneviève Waite sticks out like a sore thumb, situated as it is amidst the names of the artists you'd expect to find on such a list: The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin, The Who and so on. "Romance Is On the Rise" is today probably one of the least known and least heard titles on the list, having become a true cult classic and rare collectors' item.
American movie poster for "Joanna", 1968
Geneviève Waite was born in South Africa in 1948. She grew up in Cape Town, and studied science and psychology at Johannesburg University. After making one film in South Africa, she moved to London and took some modeling jobs.
In London, she auditioned for screenwriter and director Michael Sarne, who cast her in the title role of his 1968 film, "Joanna". The film was banned in South Africa because Geneviève took a black lover in the film, but the controversy turned it into a major London hit.
Geneviève became interested in the lead role of Sarne's next film, "Myra Breckinridge", but the part ultimately went to Raquel Welch. However, through Sarne's friendship with John Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas (whom Sarne hired to write some musical numbers for "Myra Breckinridge"), John and Geneviève were introduced in 1969, and began what turned out to be a long and tumultuous relationship. John paid tribute to Geneviève in his song "Lady Genevieve" from the final LP by The Mamas and The Papas, "People Like Us", released in 1971.
Geneviève and John were married in 1972 at a Chinese restaurant in downtown L.A., with their guests including Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and Michelle Phillips, Mick and Bianca Jagger, Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty, and California Lieutenant Governor Jerry Brown.
John and Geneviève had two children together, a son, Tamerlane, and a daughter, the actress/model/singer-songwriter, Bijou Lilly. Geneviève and John moved from Los Angeles to New York around the end of 1973 and began work on her solo LP.
Geneviève Waite on Vogue, November 1970, original picture by Richard Avedon
The following excerpt from John Phillips' 1986 autobiography, "Papa John", provides his first-hand account of the making of "Romance Is On the Rise":
«Once in New York, our luck seemed to improve with the change of scenery and fresh contacts. We met an aggressive young businessman named Dan Broder at a party. He had just closed a lucrative deal, had some capital, and was looking to invest in a record industry venture. I mentioned to him my interest in going into the studio with Gen and recording a solo LP with her.
Through Broder, who seemed to be about thirty at the time, we met with a commercial lawyer named Bob Tucker and he helped set up a deal in which Broder would finance the LP for my own label, Paramour Records. Gen was thrilled.
We moved around the Upper East Side, living briefly in a townhouse owned by the dancer Edward Villella on East 68th Street, then in an apartment owned by the actor Richard Benjamin in the 70's. By spring, we settled into the unusually narrow Stanford White townhouse on East 77th that was owned by a member of the Rockefeller family at the time. We worked nonstop on the sessions.
Geneviève Waite on Vogue, December 1970, original picture by Richard Avedon
Broder soon learned it didn't take much to kiss $100,000 goodbye in the record business. At $175 or so per hour at Mediasound, it was costing $400 or $500 just for Gen and me to settle a fight over vocal or instrumental arrangements. Relations with Broder rapidly deteriorated as he saw the budget soar. On some sessions we had twenty-five musicians for a string orchestra fill.
We plodded on and finished the tracks. I was happy to get back into the studio, where I often spent the night toying around with sounds and mixes. We got a great sound from the band Elephant's Memory. Elephant's Memory was John Lennon's backing group on his 1972 LP "Sometime In New York City", but Phillips is wrong that Elephant's Memory is the band on Geneviève's album. However, Ken Asher, Rick Marotta and David Spinozza, who do contribute to Geneviève's album, perform on John Lennon's 1973 album "Mind Games", as part of the Plastic U.F.Ono Band.]
The songs showcased Gen's unique vocal sound - a breathy, delicate whisper that recalled Marilyn Monroe. I wanted to have the album distributed by a major label and for a while Mo Ostin, the president of Warner Bros., sounded interested. But Warners wouldn't let me release it on a Paramour specialty label.
Gen begged and pleaded with me, but I wouldn't give in and the label took a pass. I had pulled a power play and lost. Gen was crushed that I was so stubborn and had turned my demand for my own label into the deal-breaker with a major label.
Geneviève Waite and John Phillips
We had to make the rounds until we ended up settling for a distribution deal with the old bandleader Enoch Light and his little known Project 3 Records. This didn't exactly knock us out. Here we had music geared to the booming mid-seventies market of urban hipsters - the dressy, upscale, campy, gay, bi-, and straight lounge lizards of the disco revolution - and the man responsible for tapping that market was last heard on "I Want To Be Happy Cha Cha" in 1958 and the follow-up a year later, "With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming", which carried Enoch Light and the Light Brigade to number ninety-nine on the pop charts.
But we spared no expense to put together a classy album and drew, it seemed, enough publicity to make it succeed. We made the scene on the party circuit all around town. Our names were always popping up in the gossip columns. Laura [John's daughter, actress and singer Laura Mackenzie Phillips, from his first marriage] came into town after wrapping her next film, "Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins", in Arizona and ended up with her picture as an up-and-comer in one of the very first issues of People. Michelle [John's second wife, actress and singer Michelle Phillips] spent some time in New York with us and we all went out together. We worked on the demos in the studio and discussed doing her solo album. We fell in with the Warhol crowd at his Factory in Union Square, and people like Peter Beard, Paul Morrissey, Mick, Bianca, and Dick Cavett were crossing our path as we did Manhattan by night after the sessions.
In May, Michelle, Gen and I showed up as a trio at one of those "everybody's somebody" screening parties for Andy Warhol's "Frankenstein" at an Upper East Side cinema. Morrissey directed the film. The guest list mixed names like Kennedy, Lawford, Buckley, Yasmin Khan, Holly Woodlawn, Elliott Gould, Diane and Egon von Furstenberg, Andy Warhol and Monique Van Vooren, who starred in the 3-D horror spoof.
Geneviève Waite and John Phillips
There were four hundred people on hand and the New York Times reporter covering the event managed to spot us and ask me facetiously how I dared bring both a current and an ex- wife. "How do I dare not bring both of my wifes", I told her. A picture of me with my two dates made its way into People as well. It felt good to be back in the public eye and to be busy on a couple of new projects.
Gen and I also worked out a cabaret act and performed it many times over several months at Reno Sweeney's in the Village. We even went out and did it in the Hamptons one summer weekend and stayed at Lenny's place [Friend and business partner Len Holzer, the title character of the CD bonus track, "Mr. Blue"].
Lenny saw past the slick veneer, the witty repartee, and the
clever tunes and felt we were faking it. He knew I dreaded feeling so
exposed out there onstage. Audiences ate the show up, but close friends
who had known me in the sixties couldn't help but see that the spark was
gone.
Geneviève Waite and John Phillips
Like the album, we did the cabaret act to attract attention to Gen's unique and theatrical vocal style and improve our chances with backers. The gags were fast-paced and sardonic, in a mid-seventies Burns and Allen vein. "This is my wife and I love her", I'd say. "Yes," Gen would reply with her eyes bugging satirically, "I eat right, I keep fit, and I shoot Geritol every day." We did some of the album tunes and created others for the act.
One night director Nicolas Roeg came down to hear the show and afterward he told me he wanted to test Gen for a female lead in "The Man Who Fell To Earth", a movie he was about to shoot in London with David Bowie. I told him that Gen would be tied up with the Broadway show for months and unavailable. He didn't want to hear that, so we ended up in a shoving match and knocked over some tables and glasses. He left and got Candy Clark for the part. [John ended up creating the soundtrack for "The Man Who Fell To Earth", which includes "Love Is Coming Back".]
The cover of the "Romance Is On the Rise" album showed Gen from behind, bending over and looking back in silk shorts and shirt and glass shoes. It was shot by Richard Avedon, who had been our neighbor when we first came to New York and lived in Richard Benjamin's apartment. Gen and Paula Prentiss had become friends during "Move". Avedon's place was adjacent and he was good enough to shoot the cover for no fee.
Geneviève Waite on stage, unknown date and location
We spared no expense to make the artwork. The shot we used perfectly conveyed Gen's desire for a forties glamour-queen pinup look. Marsia Trinder designed the outfit for $700. Gen's glass shoes cost $400. The hearts in the picture cost $300. Newsweek and other major publications ran the sexy shot when the album came out in July.
There was enough PR and industry buzz, we hoped, for a sleeper hit. We got Gen's other friend from "Move", Elliott Gould, to be the ‘host' of a $5,000 bash at Le Club, at which we performed some of the album cuts.
The album barely sold ten thousand copies. It was so poorly distributed that record stores were calling us to find out where they could buy it. Harvey Goldberg, the album's young and talented engineer, personally delivered copies to DJs who were playing cuts at gay and straight discos. Broder at one point explored getting a 1-800 number to help sell it through a late-night TV ad campaign. The decision to walk away from Warners and go with a small distributor proved to be catastrophic. It killed any chances Gen's LP had of making it.
If we had scaled the records from rooftops in half a dozen major cities, we'd have had more effective distribution. Despite the first-class art, the support of all our friends, despite the publicity, class packaging, and some generous reviews in the music press, Romance immediately joined the Wolf King album in the $4 cult-record bins of America. [...referring to John's first solo album, "The Wolf King of LA".]»
Geneviève Waite, Michelle Phillips and John Phillips at Mama Cass Elliot funeral, July 31st 1974
"Romance Is On the Rise" shows off clearly the formidable producing, arranging and songwriting skills of John Phillips, best known for his work with The Mamas and The Papas.
The songs and bonus tracks on the album originate from a variety of sources, including a shelved solo album John cut for Columbia Records in 1972 with the Jazz Passengers, and an off-Broadway musical John and Geneviève created set in outer space, originally titled "Space" (it was renamed "Man On the Moon" before its opening when Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey, the avant-garde director of the Warhol films "Flesh", "Trash" and "Heat", took over production from Len Holzer; more information about this project are available here).
Holzer is the subject of the bonus track, "Mr. Blue". He was a real estate tycoon who produced the film "Gimme Shelter" with The Rolling Stones. John met Holzer through Geneviève and the Warhol crowd when Holzer was married to Baby Jane Holzer, one of Andy Warhol's main stars at the time. An alternate version of "Mr. Blue" can be heard on John's solo album "Pay Pack & Follow", produced by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, with Keith on guitar, Ron Wood on bass and Mick and Keith and Michelle and Mackenzie Phillips on backing vocals. (John Phillips, as a solo act, was the first signing to Rolling Stones Records in 1976, but what was supposed to have been the follow-up to his first solo album "Wolf King of LA" was shelved and not released until 2001).
The obvious infiuence of the Warhol crowd on John and Geneviève in 1974 surfaces again in the bonus track, "Femme Fatale", Geneviève's take on the Velvet Underground classic. The bonus tracks "Pink Gin and Lime" and "Saying Goodbye" were also penned by John, and these are the first recordings of the songs ever released.»
Geneviève Waite and John Phillips with their kids Tamerlane and Bijou in the early 80s
"Romance Is On the Rise" contains the following tracks:
01. Love Is Coming Back (2:27)
02. Transient Friends (2:47)
03. Times of Love (2:26)
04. Trashy Rumors (2:09)
05. Slumming On Park Avenue (2:32)
06. Biting My Nails (2:45)
07. Danny (3:04)
08. White Cadillac (2:58)
09. American Man On the Moon (2:27)
10. Girls (4:12)
Four additional tracks were included as a bonus on the 2004 CD reissue:
11. Mr. Blue (3:25)
12. Pink Gin and Lime (3:18)
13. Femme Fatale (3:22)
14. Saying Goodbye (4:19)
All tracks were remastered in June 2013 and are available in FLAC lossless format or high-quality 320 Kbps MP3 files. Both formats include complete printable artwork as PDF files. Please have a look at the comments for the download links.
Here's the credits list of "Romance Is On the Rise":
Produced by John Phillips.
All songs composed by John Phillips, except "Slumming On Park Avenue" composed by Irving Berlin and "Femme Fatale" composed by Lou Reed.
Lyrics for "Love Is Coming Back", "Biting My Nails", "White Cadillac" and "Danny" by John Phillips with Geneviève Waite.
Lead Guitar: David Spinozza, courtesy of A&M Records; John Tropea
Acoustic Guitar: John Phillips courtesy of Columbia Records; "Dr." Eric Hord
Bass: Russell George; Andy Muson
Piano: Ken Asher
Drums: Rick Marotta
Orchestral Arrangements: John Phillips, David Spinozza and Ken Asher
Recording Engineer: Harvey Goldberg
Assistant Engineers: Bob Clearmountain, Alec Head and Godfrey Diamond
Mixing: John Phillips and Harvey Goldberg
Recording Location: Media Sound, New York
Mastering: Al Brown, A&R Recording, Inc., New York
Organization: Wendy Stark and Michael Mclean
Analog to digital transfer s from original source masters: Steve Rosenthal and Matt Boynton, The Blue Room, New York
Bonus tracks mixing from original multitrack tapes: Steve Rosenthal, assisted by Matt Boynton, The Magic Shop, New York
Mastering: Matt Boynton
Photographed by: Richard Avedon
Designed by: Ruth Ansel
Tinted by: Bob Bishop
Makeup and Hair Styled by: Ara Gallant
Fashions by: Marsia Trinder
Special thanks to Dan Broder.
The following clips offer a preview of the remastered album; here's some of my favourite tracks: "Times of Love", "White Cadillac", "American Man On the Moon" and "Mr. Blue", enjoy!
More information about Geneviève Waite and John Phillips is available here:
If you have any other useful information about Geneviève Waite and "Romance Is On the Rise" - especially corrections and improvements to this post - or if you spot any dead links, just get in touch with me at stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!
«...the "Wall of Sound" Adam Best created may well prove to be the most significant musical event of the '70s...»
[from the liner notes of "Wall of Sound"]
...well, that is - of course - an overstatement, an hyperbole used to create a strong impression in the people flipping through the vinyls stacked in record shops in those glorious days during the early '70s... But it's undeniable that the mysterious Adam Best - or anyone who has chosen to hide behind that name for some unknown reason - has crafted a little groovy record that can still make a good impression more than forty years later.
So, who was Adam Best? According to Mista Tibbz, «...there is strong suspicions of his relations to Music De Wolfe sound libraries due the similarity in certain library records and this one, but nothing is proved...».
Some people discussing in an Internet forum - here - link Adam Best to Barry Stoller, a composer of Library Music who is better known for the theme he created for "Match of the Day", the popular BBC's football television programme. It seems that Meatball's "Atomic Butterly" features a backing track identical to one of those contained on "Wall of Sound" with different solos over the top... Uhm, I would be quite curious to listen to that record...
Anyway, the only certainty I can offer is that the album liner notes mention veteran composer and director Harold Geller's involvement in the making of the record. Then we have the fact that the original six compositions on "Wall of Sound" - the other six are covers of famous tunes - are signed by Hugh Cortley and a certain Supran. Well, I guess I should write five originals and seven covers since one of the originals seems to be a plagiarism... More on this if you continue to read below.
I wasn't able to find anything relevant about Supran, but Cortley is often associated with Musi Silvio, another Library Music composer. Their tune entitled "Export" (...available here...) is very similar to the material contained on "Wall of Sound"; it is included on the album "New Generation" credited to The Laurence Stephen Orchestra...
Here's a complete transcription of the original liner notes that appear on the back cover of "Wall of Sound":
«Once in a while a person or group of people comes along with a style of music which surpasses anything done before. They are usually self-centred ruthless people - they don't get results unless they are - who know to the letter what they want, and nothing is allowed to stand in their way. Such a man is Adam Best. 24 year old Adam Best studied electronics at college, and music at the Royal Academy. He has been playing guitar, bass and drums on the pop scene for a number of years, but it was not until 14 months ago that he gave up playing in public to concentrate full-time on his own project. He was aided by one Harold Geller, one of London's most successful music directors and publishers, who recognised that his ideas were valid, and encouraged him to begin work on the new sound. Electronic music is not in itself new. People have been making musical sounds with electronics for years, but the great majority of it can hardly be called music, for it lacks - for want of a better word - soul. For the first time a musician entered the field, with the knowledge of electronics and the knowledge and ability of musician. The sound he has manufactured successfully fills the gap between vocal and instrumental music, based on the solid rhythm foundation played by Adam, augmented by section work by electronics. Just over a year ago Adam began work in a North London coal cellar to build by hand the machines he needed to complete his work. The things he required were not commercially manufactured so everything had to be designed and constructed by him. What little spare time was available was spent in discotheques up and down the country listening and learning from the types of music that were popular. The idea was to provide music that was danceable, and at the same time made pleasant listening. This was achieved by many hours of sessions between Harold Geller and Adam Best and many long involved telephone calls at all odd hours of the day and night when one would think of an idea which would immediately have to be put down in sound. They both laughingly refer to their nocturnal sound effects with neighbours thinking that a crime has been committed when they hear the weird noises emanating from their various houses in the still of the night. However, on reflection, they both feel that it was all very worthwhile. How well he succeeded can be gauged from the reactions of Philips Records. On hearing the first tracks played to them by Adam and Harold Geller, they immediately asked that they were given the opportunity to release all forthcoming material. The first complete Album "Wall of Sound" was presented to them in January, and was immediately scheduled for rush-release. Adam's dream had at last proved worthwhile. The first album is just the beginning for Adam; the sound can only get better. There are no limits on the medium, it is as much or as little as he chooses to make it, and the "Wall of Sound" Adam Best created may well prove to be the most significant musical event of the '70s.»
"Wall of Sound" contains the following tracks:
01. Wall of Sound (5:21)
02. I Can't Go On Without You (2:09)
03. I Guess I'll Always Love You (2:46)
04. Twenty Five Miles (3:09)
05. Lana's Past (2:32)
06. Gimme, Gimme Good Lovin' (1:57)
07. I'm a Man (3:06)
08. Walk Away Renée (2:39)
09. High In Grass (3:21)
10. When You're Young and In Love (2:33)
11. You Shouldn't Say (2:36)
12. Spread Out (3:02)
All tracks were remastered from the original vinyl in May 2013 and are available in FLAC lossless format or high-quality 320 Kbps MP3 files. Both formats include complete printable artwork as PDF files. Please have a look at the comments for the download links.
So, let's explore this Funky / Easy Listening little gem... The album opens with the title track; clocking at over five minutes, "Wall of Sound" is the longest number and probably the coolest original composition too: sustained by forceful guitars and a raw rhythm section, keyboards (...Hammonds? Moogs?) are the undisputed leaders here, as on the rest of the record.
"I Can't Go On Without You" is another original composition, a short Easy Listening number with a more polished sound. It is followed by "I Guess I'll Always Love You", a cover of a 1966 Motown hit by The Isley Brothers which was also recorded by The Supremes. The Isleys' version was reissued in the U.K. in 1969 and became a hit there, hence probably the inclusion on this early 1970 album.
In 1968 "Twenty Five Miles" was a huge hit for Edwin Starr, who co-wrote the song along with Johnny Bristol and Harvey Fuqua. This instrumental version begins with a short break and keeps in line with the hectic nature of the original uptempo beat; one of the best tracks on the album.
"Lana's Past" is another original mellow tune written by the Cortley / Supran team that remains in an Easy Listening territory which doesn't add much to the album's recipe... Side One finishes with "Gimme, Gimme Good Lovin'", a cover of a 1969 hit by Crazy Elephant, a short-lived American Bubblegum Pop band.
Side Two opens with a great cover of "I'm a Man", a 1967 Hammond organ-driven Blues Rock single by The Spencer Davis Group written by Steve Winwood and Jimmy Miller. This song was sampled by DJ Format on his album "Music For the Mature B-Boy" in 2003. It is followed by the cover of another tune taken from the immense Motown catalogue: originally made popular by The Left Banke in 1966, "Walk Away Renée" became a hit for the Four Tops in 1968.
"High In Grass" is a track signed by Cortley / Supran which sound very similar - if not a plain plagiarism - to "Cold Sweat" by James Brown... "When You're Young and In Love" was written by Van McCoy and brought to success by Ruby & The Romantics in 1964, and later also by The Marvelettes in 1967; during the '70s it was covered by many other artists.
"You Shouldn't Say"
is another high-quality original composition; I'm quite sure that its
breakbeat has been sampled and used by someone during the '90s, probably
Beck or Imani Coppola, I will investigate and update the post at a later date if I'm successfull.
The
album ends with "Spread Out", an average track which doesn't affect the album as a whole: a nice combination of Funk / Soul and Easy Listening with some real standouts!
The only available picture of the mysterious Adam Best...
The following videos offer a preview of the remastered album: enjoy "Wall of Sound", "Twenty Five Miles", "I'm a Man" and "You Shouldn't Say"!
A few more information about "Wall of Sound" and related people is available here:
If you have any other useful information about Adam Best and "Wall of Sound" - especially corrections and improvements to this post - or if you spot any dead links, please get in touch with me at stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!
I've always loved you, I never told no-one
I think about you, everyday till the set of sun
And at night, when I'm alone again
I cry, I cry
I can't get next to you, I don't really try
That's way I wrote this song, that's why I cry
I'll send it to you, you could play it in your box
I cry, I cry
I don't really feel like a man, I'm feelin' low
Man on the keyboard, I'm gonna play my organ solo
[from the lyrics of "Cry"]
As the story goes, Mark Ramos-Nishita first came into the fold when some girl ran her car into the entrance gate of the G-Spot, an incredible '70s-type pad that the Beastie Boys rented in 1989 during the recording of "Paul's Boutique". The Dust Brothers were working on the album and asked Mark to fix the front gate. Mark was given an address and he went there.
He fixed the gate and after the job was done, he didn't see anybody around and wondered how he was going to get paid. Adam Horowitz (one of the Beasties, a.k.a. Ad-Rock) drove into the scene and paid Mark for his carpentry. Then Adam invited Mark to a party the Beastie Boys held that night.
The Beastie Boys were planning to build a studio, they needed a carpenter for that job and Mark helped building their G-Son Studios in Los Angeles. Mark also played keyboards, so he was a dual purpose member of the group.
Nishita's Fender Rhodes funkiness redefined the Beasties' sound into more Jazz-Funk-influenced grooves on "Check Your Head" and "Ill Communication", along with the new percussionist Eric Bobo. Completed by the original Beastie Boys, Michael Diamond on drums, Adam Yauch on bass and Adam Horowitz on guitar, they were a true groove machine.
After the success of the Beastie Boys albums, Mark decided to release the old tracks he had been playng long before he met them. The tunes on his debut EP "Performing Chicken" released in 1994, which are the subject of this post and were also included in his first full-lenght release entitled "Mark's Keyboard Repair" the next year, are just what he's been doing for a long time.
Money Mark has created a style and a sound of his own; his music may sound a bit weird or amateurish at first, but after a couple of listenings one gets sucked into his funky grooves and simple hooks.
The secret of Mark Ramos-Nishita's unique sound lies behind the warm heart of his analog synthesizers and keyboards. Among his organ grooves Mark also includes guitars, bass, flutes, even kazoo and other unusual stuff. The basic drumlines in his music seem to come out straight from a cheap Casio keyboard, but definitely with more feeling and life in it. Mark's lyrics aren't complicated or tricky, just plain and direct.
Mark has a special relationship with his keyboards. The following quotes are excerpted from an interview by Miguel D'Souza published in The Sidney Morning Herald, January 5th 1996:
«It's some thing I can fix on my own, that's what I feel most comfortable about. I have little relationships with my keyboards; these digital keyboards, I can't have any relationship with them. I look at them and, if they could look at me, they'd stare and go, "ha ha ha, there's nothing you can do, you can't alter me at all." I just recently bought a new car; it was the first new car I'd bought and when I opened up the hood and looked at the engine I thought I could never fix this! I can't even get to the spark plugs, I'd need special tools, oscilloscopes, all these other things to tune it up. I have this old '63 Chevy. When I look in there, I just... I get happy. I can fix it, I can see all the parts, I can see how this motor works and I can really see what's wrong when I open it up. It's the same with my analogue synths, if it is malfunctioning, there really isn't much that can go wrong, there's only a few parts that can go wrong. If you're talking about an IC or a chip you're at the mercy of some manufacturer, who you have to buy the chip from and then there's really no satisfaction in fixing it, all you've done is change a chip. It's hard for me to deal with this new-world, this new technology. Well, when I learn about a keyboard and I learn how it's made I have an idea of what it's going to sound like. I know, for example, that a Hammond organ is going to sound great, because of what's going on in there: there's a motor turning, the metal wheels are spinning and these electrons are flying and these pickups are picking them up... I take an idea like that and I... I get my motor drill and plug it in and stick it next to the pickups and it makes a sound. It has to do with having a little knowledge. I'm not going to buy a keyboard because it looks nice or it's the thing to buy, the trend. Some of these things look like little monsters, but if I know how it's made, I can look at it and say, "hey, this thing is going to be great." I have the idea that a musician should be a technician. It helps to know what's going on with the instruments, it helps the musician create new things, to know what's really going on in there and then you mix that in with some emotions and then when you make things they are really full because they have the best of both worlds, you know - left brain, right brain. A little bit of technical knowledge could lead to something where you can say, "Hey, if I cluster these kinds of notes together because I know that if I do these frequencies will bump into one another and create this other thing." Science is not usually connected with emotion, except maybe Einstein connected it. I just love to study keyboards and I do try to get some technique, I try to keep a balance between the technical thing and the musical thing as well. A person who is just strictly a musician may not have the same kind of sensitivity towards the keyboards they're playing, maybe they see the notes as just notes, the sounds are a secondary thing. They're rather more interested in the harmonic structure than how the tones are happening; but I try to consider the whole thing.»
"Performing Chicken" contains the following tracks:
01. Sunday, Gardena Blvd. (2:31)
02. Insects Are All Around Us (2:21)
03. Three Movements For the Wind: Theme For the Innocent Hostage (1:08)
04. Three Movements For the Wind: Poets Walk (1:00)
05. Three Movements For the Wind: Spooky (1:08)
06. Cry (2:21)
07. Pretty Pain (3:11)
08. No Fighting (1:28)
09. Ba Ba Ba Boom (1:35)
10. Have Clav Will Travel (1:23)
11. Don't Miss the Boat (2:31)
01.07.2013 Update: sorry guys, the big bosses of the Music Industry have knocked on my door and kindly asked to remove the audio files related to this post, download links are not available anymore...
Money Mark's music conveys a profound optimism and a sense of joy. This time instead of babbling about the eleven short pieces of "Performing Chicken", I prefer to offer you a short writing by Mark himself that I found on the Internet and saved to my computer some fifteen years ago. I can't remember the original source, I googled for it but it seems that it is not available online anymore, so I'm particularly proud to bring you...
"My year as a ball boy for the 1971-72 world champion Los Angeles Lakers" by Mark Ramos-Nishita
«My dad used to take me to basketball games because I wanted to be a basketball star. But who didn't? I mean, everybody did. I know Bob Mack did. I know Ricky Powell did. I know Adam Horowitz did. So when I was 12 years old, I wrote the Lakers a letter on my college-ruled paper - I was supposed to be doing my math homework - and I said: "To whom it may concern, I want to be a ball boy. How do I do that?" I really didn't think they'd respond me at all. But about a month later I got this card from Laker GM Pete Newell's secretary. So I bought some new Adidas Superstars and went to what was then called "The Fabulous Forum", or "The House That Jack Built" (as in former Laker owner / current Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke). I walked right through The Forum Club into Pete Newell's office, and Sam Winston was there! You know, the famous tire guy? He was good buddies with Jerry West. Then they gave me a ball boy uniform, which was like Lakers' own warm-ups. Next came the long walk down a hallway that led right into the locker room. I don't know how I'm gonna write this - sorry Mom - but what I saw next was Laker forward Jim MacMillan taping his penis to his thigh with some white adhesive tape. Seriously! I don't think he did this all the time, I think he just had a groin injury. And other players were taping other shits. Like Gail Goodrich was taping up his weak knees. That was my first impression of the locker room, but basically they were just getting ready to play the Phoenix Suns. I watched while the pros soaped their socks so they didn't get blisters; take two pair of socks, put one on, get a fresh bar of ivory soap, rub it all over the bottom of the first sock, then put the other sock over it and the soap will act like oil between the two socks asd thus prevent blisters. They had a way to tie their shoes, too, called "Russian Bow Tie", which never came loose. At this point I was acting really nonchalant because like any big fan I felt really close to the team already. So there I was, hangin' in the locker room, trying to act cool, watching all the guys crack jokes and talk shit. Incidentally, even then I noticed that one of the only players who was not dicking around but acting more serious was Pat Riley. Things didn't seem as glamorous back in the locker as they did out on the court, either...
...Eventually I was introduced to the head ball boy, who debriefed me on my duties. We went out on the court with the players for warm ups, and the first thing I noticed was that even though the baskets looked kind of big, the players were fucking huge! Anyway, I was supposed to hand out towels, and my mop was my best friend because I always had to be ready to wipe the sweat up off the court. Of all the players, probably Wilt Chamberlain sweated the most, but it was always sweaty under the hoop. If someone fell, then that was like a big mess. So during that first game against the Suns, I was wiping up some sweat near the free throw line while all the players were down at the other end of the court. I thought I had enough time, but suddenly the Suns' hairy-backed big man, Neil Walk, stole the ball from somebody like Mel Counts and came barreling down the court. By the time I looked up he was right on my ass and I had to make a head-first dive for the baseline to get out of his way. Then I heard the whistle. I was interfering with the game or something. Of course I had always dreamed of someday seeing some NBA action, but this was definitely not what I had in mind. I was pretty embarassed and turned red. You would too if 17,505 people were looking at you. I was afraid to even look up because I thought the ref called a foul on me or something. Even so, I actually did make it into the NBA - which is more than Bob Mack, Ricky Powell or Adam Horowitz can say! In the end, I only worked six or seven home games that year, probably because of that interference call. Who knows? Maybe Pete Newell got wind of it. Nevertheless, despite some embarassing moments, it's still one of my fondest memories...
Money Mark as pictured by Phil Knott, promotional shot for the album "Push the Button" (1998)
...By far the biggest highlight of my experience was witnessing the classic rivalry between Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who played for Milwaukee then. Just being able to see those two go at it inside was something else. It was the first time I ever saw anyone block Kareem's hook shot, and I was right there, watching Chamberlain do it! He was the first and only guy to challenge the shot that would later be known as the allegedly unblockable "Sky Hook". Of course, I wouldn't be telling the truth if I didn't admit that it got kind of boring after a while, just sitting there under the basket, wiping up sweat. But the plusses definitely outweighed the minuses. It was the Lakers' greatest season (in fact the best season of any team in NBA history), and I was part of it. I also got to eat before the games at the M&M cafe near The Forum, where players like Harold "Happy" Hairston ate soul food (and where, to this day, Magic often munches). I got to meet Laker announcer Chick Hearn, definitely, who by the way still looks exactly the same. I also became buddies with one player, the great Connie Hawkins, though he never knew my name. Plus, it was just cool being on the court during the game. This was before all the frills. No cheerleaders, no band, no TV timeouts, no Cable TV. Finally, the players were cooler then, and security wasn't as tight around them. There was a lot of partyin' going on after each game, especially in The Forum Club bar. You could see movie stars in there like Billy Barty. You could see Wilt smoking cigarettes. But you never saw Jerry West. In other words, it was dope, both then and now. Back then, it gave me a sense of identity which was cool to have at school and stuff. Something that other kids couldn't
front on and that I could prove. And nowadays, it's just cool to go to the games, look at the new ball boys and remember how it was. Something that I can take with me.»
Here's a few videos courtesy of YouTube, including a 1995 audio interview, a recent live rendition of "Insects Are All Around Us", a 2004 Moog-based improvisation with Woody Jackson and a complete Beastie BoysMTV special / live performance broadcasted in 1992, enjoy!
A few more information about Money Mark is available here:
If you have any other useful information about Money Mark and "Performing Chicken" - especially corrections and improvements to this post - or if you spot any dead links, please get in touch with me at stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!
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