"From Beginning To End..." by THE END [Produced by Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones] – Including Their Debut and Only Album "Introspection" from November 1969 on Decca Records in Stereo along with Earlier Tracks from 1964 through to 1969 and 1970 alongside Singles, Outtakes from Their Unreleased 1969 Second Album and more – featuring Dave Brown, Nicky Graham, Colin Griffin, Terry Taylor, Hugh Attwooll and John Horton with guests Nicky Hopkins, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts and Ian Stewart of The Rolling Stones, Chris Spedding, Ken Leeman and Jim Henderson (December 2015 UK Edsel 4CD Clamshell Box Set – Phil Kinrade Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...In My Dreamworld..."

So many could-have been/should-have been artists and bands litter the 60ts and 70ts. Championed by none other than The Rolling Stones' Bassist Bill Wyman (arguably at the height of their fame with "Let It Bleed") and as evidenced by this superbly assembled 4CD vaults-trawl – the five fiercely hairy men of THE END would have had legitimate cause to be more pissed than most at Joe Public's lack of take up.

This British Psych/Rock group had experienced players who stretched back to 1964 (including a half decent vocalist) and a Rolling Stone producing their album alongside legendary Audio Engineer Glyn Johns (the Production values are excellent). But more importantly - they had tunes to match the talent. But as always, bad timing, clumsy decisions and the sheer pace of change when 1968 quickly became 1969 - THE END did indeed live up to their name and their lone LP arrived a year too late and looking well past its December 1969 end-of-decade sell-by-date (they would eventually morph into Tucky Buzzard – see my review for "The Complete Tucky Buzzard" from July 2016, a 5CD Box Set also on Edsel).

Which is where "From Beginning To End..." featuring input from the band and Bill Wyman, comes a lollygagging in. Here are the retrospective introspective details...

UK released 4 December 2015 - "From Beginning To End..." by THE END on Edsel EDSB 4028 (Barcode 740155402839) is a 4CD 61-Track Clamshell Box Set covering 1964 to 1970 and plays out as follows:

CD1 "In The Beginning: 1964-1967" (44:40 minutes):

1. I Can't Get Any Joy

2. Hey Little Girl

3. I Want You Around

4. I Can't Believe It

5. Lost Without You

6. Baby Stay Like You Are

7. It Won't Be Long

8. She Believed Me

9. I Got Wise

10. You're So Right

11. You Better Believe It Baby

12. Please Do Something

13. Why

14. Yo-Yo

15. Searching For My Baby

16. Daddy Loves Baby

17. We've Got it Made (July 1967 Mix)

18. Shades Of Orange (November 1967 Mix)

NOTES:

Tracks 1 and 2 are the A&B-sides of a 22 October 1965 UK 45-single on Philips BF 1444

Tracks 11 and 12 are the A&B-sides of a January 1967 SPANISH 45-single on Sonoplay SN 20.002

Tracks 13 and 14 are the A&B-sides of a March 1967 SPANISH 45-single on Sonoplay SN 20.014

Tracks 3 and 4 recorded 18 November 1964, unissued until 1996

Tracks 5 to 10 recorded March and April 1965, unissued until 1996

Tracks 15, 16, 17 and 18 recorded August 1965, autumn 1967 (Tracks 15 and 16) and November 1967 - unissued until 1996 on the "In The Beginning...The End" UK LP on Tenth Planet TP025 (1000 copies only)

Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones plays tabla on "Shades Of Orange" 

CD2 "Introspection: 1968-1969" (40:16 minutes):

1. Dreamworld [Side 1]

2. Under The Rainbow

3. Shades Of Orange [Album Version]

4. Bromley Common [Vocals by George Kenset]

5. Cardboard Watch

6. Introspection (Pt. 1)

7. What Does It Feel Like [Side 2]

8. Linen Draper [Vocals by George Kenset]

9. Don't Take Me

10. Loving, Sacred Loving [Album Version]

11. She Said Yeah

12. Jacobs Bladder

13. Introspection (Pt. 2)

Tracks 1 to 13 are their debut and lone album "Introspection" - released August 1969 in the USA on London PS 560 (Stereo only) and November 1969 in the UK on Decca LK-R 5015 (Mono) and Decca SLK-R 5015 (Stereo) - the STEREO MIX is used for this CD. GUESTS: George Kensit does the Voice on the spoken-word tracks "Bromley Common", "Linen Draper" and "Jacob's Bladder", Nicky Hopkins plays Harpsichord on "Loving, Sacred Loving", Ken Leeman plays Saxophone on "She Said Yeah", Jim Henderson adds Harmony Vocals to "She Said Yeah" and Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones plays Tabla on "Shades Of Orange" 

BONUS TRACKS:

14. Shades Of Orange (Mono Single Version)

15. Loving, Sacred Loving (Mono Single Version)

Tracks 14 and 15 are the A&B-sides of a 8 March 1968 UK 45-single on Decca F 22750

Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones plays Tabla on "Shades Of Orange" 

CD3 "Retrospection: 1968-1969" (52:54 minutes):

1. Loving, Sacred Loving (February 1968 Remix)

2. Building Up A Dream

3. Little Annie

4. Morning Dew

5. Tears Will Be The Only Answer

6. Today Tomorrow

7. Lady Under The Lamp

8. Black Is Black [Side 2]

9. Mister Man

10. Call Me

11. Shades Of Orange (June 1968 Remix)

12. Mirror

13. We've Got It Made (Mellotron Mix)

14. Bypass The By-Pass

Tracks 1 to 14 first issued 1997 on the UK LP "Retrospection" on Tenth Planet TP033 - Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones plays Tabla on "Shades Of Orange"

BONUS TRACKS:

15. Mister Man (Instrumental Version)

16. The Fly

17. Sometimes I Wish I Were Dead

18. Stones In My Banana

CD4 "The Last Word: 1969-1970" (37:37 minutes):

1. Son Of Lightning

2. Second Glance

3. Mistress Bean

4. For Eleanor

5. So Free

6. North Thames Gas Board

7. Do Right Woman Do Right Man

8. Turn On Waterstone

9. Smartypants

10. My Friend

Tracks 1 to 10 (excluding Track 9 which is exclusive to this box) are the UK LP "The Last Word" issued 2000 on Tenth Planet TP047. Chris Spedding plays Guitar on "Mistress Bean" while Ian Stewart (of Rolling Stones fame) plays Piano on "North Thames Gas Board".

As you can see from the photos provided, the four singular card sleeves inside the glossy clamshell box look cool and mimc those vinyl-only Tenth Planet reissue compilation LPs of 1996 (Disc 1), 1997 (Disc 3) and 1999 (Disc 4) whilst the 32-page colour booklet provides a feast of period photos, trade adverts, foreign picture sleeves and of course photos of our five heroes looking suitably psyched. DAVID WELLS of Grapefruit Records fame penned the detailed and affectionate liner notes with contributions from band-members and Wyman of the Stones. The track-by-track annotation is superb, recording dates, release dates, personnel etc. It's a great job done as you can imagine. PHIL KINRADE - long-standing Audio Engineer for Edsel - did the Mastering at Alchemy and although you could argue that they really should included the British Mono variant of the "Introspection" LP on Disc 2 - the STEREO Mix is kicking - so all is good.

It opens with a very Hollies Pop 45 in the shape of "I Can't Get Any Joy" but its fairly dismissible stuff. Of the unreleased stuff "It Won't Be Long" could easily be a Monkees outtake but far edgier is "I Got Wise" and the baby-I-want-ya Kinks-dense riffage of "You Better Believe It Baby" (albeit that the first is a bit rough around the recording perimeters). The very Georgie Fame-beat vibe to "Why" (produced by Wyman) and its "Yo Yo" B-side had the chart chops for sure as had Wyman's writing contribution to the band "Shades Of Orange" which ends a patchy CD1 on a high.

On Disc 2 you're immediately hit with the swirling "Dreamworld", the "Introspection" album's opening tune and along with the poppy (and excellent) "Under The Rainbow" - you have to think that in December 1969 this was old hat already - so very 1967 and 1968. At least the audio is superb. The three George Kenset talking track interludes feature a 'sleeping it off' man bemoaning British Bobbies and their heavy-handed tactics in dealing with a hobo. Groovy tunes like "Cardboard Watch" and the fantastic fuzzed-up guitar hip-shaker "Introspection Pt. 1" are so 1967 Small Faces - it's frightening - and in a good way.  Side 2's "What Does It Feel Like?" (Yesterday I was a child) and the funky licks of "Don't Take Me" (you make fiction better) are excellent - but my fave is "Loving, Sacred Loving" - Nicky Hopkins' Harpsichord and their wickedly good vocal arrangements all enhancing a supremely musical tune. The whole shebang comes to another geetar ending with 'Pt. 2' of "Introspection" - the Jeff Beck-type axe-playing allowed to solo and you're left wondering why this album wasn't issued in 1968 where it would have caused a stir and not a yawn in December 1969? Disc 3 and 4 simply offer more of the same...

The band THE END is a forgotten musical footnote in British Pop History - but that Decca debut album (especially in sexy Stereo) should not be. Think Afghan Coats, think Small Faces and Kinks, think great Harmonies and clever mid-tune changes – in order words revisit these hep cats of old and think again...

PS: The entire Box Set is available on iTunes for under a fiver.

"Spectromorphic Iridescence: The Complete Ffolly" by RAINBOW FFOLLY - featuring their May 1968 UK Debut Album "Sallies Fforth" on Parlophone Records in Both Mono and Stereo, Period Rarities and Their 2016 "Ffollow Up" Album (February 2019 UK Grapefruit Records 3CD Clamshell Box Set – Simon Murphy Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Ffollow Up..."

You have to love the sheer hutzpah of England's Grapefruit Records – I had to do a spellcheck on Spectromorphic Iridescence, let alone rack my brains on whether or not I actually remember 'Rainbow Ffolly' in my advanced dotage (hard to remember anything at 62). Turns out, these reissue madmen want me to hear a whole lotta Rainbow, and in the best moments, I can now hear why...

Born out of the burgeoning Psych musical explosion consuming 1967 and beyond - Buckinghamshire's Force Four were in a studio recording song appetisers when they realised they needed a hipper identity and so became RAINBOW FFOLLY. Slinging their demo album at the behemoth that was all things Electrical and Musical Industries - EMI's label imprint Parlophone (home of The Beatles) figured why not - "Peppers" and "Magical Mystery Tour" had blown the world open the year prior – so had the Floyd with "Pipers" and people raved about the Pretties and their curate's egg "SF Sorrow" (even if it didn't shift copies by the crate-load like the Fabs did).

And so in May 1968 (and the whole LP apparently still in all but demo form), our heroes get their one Beach Boys-sounding platter of the period "Sallies Fforth" to appear in Blighty in Mono and Stereo – all sexy pants in its appropriately far out sleeve. But despite favourable press reviews about original material and great ideas ("Drive My Car" is their own and not a Beatles cover), the public felt they had other things to do on the King's Road.

Flash-forward to 2016 and remaining members of the 60ts band put together a 'belated' second LP cleverly called "Ffollow Up" on their own Footprints Vinyl label (500 copies only) that featured similar drawn artwork to their much prized and expensive 60ts original LP (at times in the last few years, "Sallies Fforth" has reached four figures on auction sites). Always ones to do something wildly un-commercial and naughtily over-the-top, Grapefruit Records of the UK (part of Cherry Red) decided in 2019 to damn the lysergic mushrooms and clump the whole shebang into one place along with a wad of rare and previously unreleased accompaniments. So my pimply iridescent lava-lamp types - let's board the p-p-p-purple bus and multi-coloured sailing ship to yesteryear...

UK released 1 February 2019 – "Spectromorphic Iridescence: The Complete Ffolly" by RAINBOW FFOLLY on Grapefruit Records WCRSEGBOX052 (Barcode 5013929185203) is a 3CD Clamshell Box Set of Remasters that plays out as follows:

CD1 "Sallies Fforth (Stereo)" – May 1968 UK Debut LP on Parlophone PCS 7050 in STEREO (52:18 minutes):

1. She's Alright [Side 1]

2. I'm So Happy

3. Montgolfier '67

4. Drive My Car

5. Goodbye

6. Hey You

7. Sun Sing

8. Sun And Sand

9. Labour Exchange

10. They'm

11. No

12. Sighing Game

13. Come On Go

BONUS TRACKS:

14. Drive My Car (Single Mix)

15. Go Girl

Tracks 14 and 15 are their debut UK 45 from May 1968 on Parlophone R 5701

16. Sun Sing (Early Demo)

17. Come On Go (Early Demo)

18. The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill (Studio Demo)

Tracks 16 and 17 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED Studio Demos recorded May 1967 as FORCE FOUR

Track 18 is a PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED Studio Demo recorded circa December 1968 as RAINBOW FFOLLY

CD2 "Sallies Fforth (Mono)" – May 1968 UK Debut LP on Parlophone PMC 7050 in MONO (75:23 minutes):

Tracks 1 to 13 as per the LP on CD1

BONUS TRACKS:

14. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 1

15. Sunshine Of Your Love 16. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 2

17. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds 18. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 3

19. Gimme Little Sign 20. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 4

21. I Can't Let Maggie Go 22. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 5

23. Sabrosa 24. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 6

25. The Bells Of Rhymney 26. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 7

27. Bonita 28. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 8

29. I Can Hear The Grass Grow 30. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 9

31. Something Else 32. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 10

33. Hold Me Tight 34. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 11

35. I'm So Happy (Part) 36. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 12

37. She's Alright 38. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 13

Tracks 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25 and 27 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED Home Demos recorded 1968

Tracks 29, 31, 33, 35, and 37 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED BBC Radio Broadcasts recorded December 1968

Tracks 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36 and 38 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED Hospital Jingles recorded late 1967 and early 1968 

CD3: "Ffollow Up" - July 2016 UK LP on Footprints Vinyl Records FV 16002 (58:34 minutes):

1. Single Cell Amoeba

2. Postcard

3. My Love Has Gone

4. White Swan

5. Cars

6. Sky Angels

7. Noah

8. Slow Down Zone

9. Countdown

10. Shoes

11. Is It Over?

12. Wot Do They Know?

13. Crazy Woman

14. All We Have Left

15. Parcel of Pigs

16. Nonesuch Sweetness

17. Tour De Fforce

18. Bathers Of The Lost Ark

Tracks 1 to 11 and 17 and 18 are the 2016 LP

Tracks 3, 6 and 10 were Subsequently Remixed 

Tracks 12 to 16 are Extras and PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

RAINBOW FFOLLY was:

JOHN DUNSTERVILLE - Lead Guitar and Vocals

RICHARD DUNSTERVILLE - Rhythm Guitar and Vocals

ROGER NEWELL - Bass and Vocals

STEWART OSBORN - Drums and Percussion

The 20-page booklet inside the clamshell box set features new liner notes from Grapefruit's DAVID WELLS, period photos, London Evening News cuttings from October 1968, seven-inch single demo and French picture sleeve for their "Drive My Car" 45, live photos, gig posters from 1968 where they shared stages with artists as diverse as The Skatalites, Keef Hartley and Edwin Starr and an uppercoming bunch of Glam Rockers called The Sweet. It is informative and affectionate and the mastering is care of long-time Audio Engineer associate SIMON MURPHY over at Another Planet. The audio is a mixed bag - the STEREO variant superb (I prefer it over the Mono) but those Dave Cash Show and seven Previously Unreleased home demos on Disc 2 betray a lo-fi recording process. Then I dare say, if you're buying a Box Set like this, you know to take the rough with the smooth when it comes to 60ts fidelity...

Excepting three songs - "Sun And Sand", "No" and "Sighing Game" which were co-writes - the majority of the tunes were solely provided by the Lead Guitarist part of the Dunsterville brothers - John. "She's Alright" opens the English whimsical proceedings with a French voice lead-in followed by Beach Boys harmonies that sound like an outtake from "Pet Sounds" - I think that she's fine. Immediately followed by the dooby-dooby-do of "I'm So Happy" where the Rainbows sound like The Beatles meets Buddy Holly meets an embryonic 10cc - such is the fiendishly clever melodies cascading out of your speakers. Two tunes in and already you're thinking 'forgotten and overlooked masterpiece'. Yellow, blue and green - the finest colours ever seen in "Montgolfier '67" is brilliant and you really wish they had been given the benefit of a decent production by EMI (it's good but could have been so much more). Other winners include the pretty acoustic ballad "Goodbye" (your eyes betray the setting sun) while the fuzzed-up geetar of "Hey You" is mad Psych that feels like Jeff Beck having a stop-start whig-out on his Fender. By the time you get to "Labour Exchange" where our boys bemoan the English dole system and the very Byrds/Association vibe to "Sighing Game" - you're beginning to be very impressed indeed by the musical breaks in each tune - not just copyist but original and harmonious. I have to say I love the STEREO version of this, which brings out those fab and groovy harmony vocals more.

Fans are going to go after the cover-versions fest that is most of Disc 2 - very crude (but acceptable) versions of Cream's "Sunshine Of My Love" and The Beatles "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" (from "Peppers") and the White Album's whimsical "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill". Better is their 60ts R&B cover of Brenton Wood's wonderful "Gimme Little Sign" and The Move's "I Can Hear The Grass Grow". For sure most of the six and seven-second jingles will test your patience and its arguable they should have stayed in the can - but they can easily be forgotten when you hear their frantic Freakbeat cover of Eddie Cochran's "Something Else".

Amongst collectors with deep pockets and much love for the period and its genres - the core album of "Sallies "Fforth" commands big money for a reason (its so bloody good). So it’s cool to hear both variants of this unfairly forgotten LP (Mono and Stereo) be given a tasty brushing-up on this exemplary box set. For sure, the average listener will never need much of the rest, but I for one am a tad chuffed to see such a missed opportunity in 1968 be given its proper due all these decades later. 2019 followed up rather well really...

"Fields Of People: The Elektra and Atlantic Recordings 1968-1969" by ARS NOVA – Featuring Their Two US Albums, the Debut "Ars Nova" from April 1968 on Elektra Records and Their Second And Final Album "Sunshine & Shadows" from June 1969 on Atlantic Records – Both in Stereo (February 2020 UK Esoteric Recordings 2CD Compilation – Paschal Byrne Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With Over 310 Others Is Available In My

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites
CADENCE /CASCADE 

PROG ROCK, PSYCH, AVANT GARDE...
And Others Genres Thereabouts
Exceptional CD Remasters

Covering 1967 to 1977 - It Also Focuses On

Fusion Rock, Acid Folk, Art Rock and Underground 

Just Click Below To Purchase

Thousands of E-Pages - All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs

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"...Temporary Serenade..."

In August 2020 - few people know of, let alone care about, New York's student ensemble ARS NOVA (Latin for 'New Art'). Unfortunately, it was pretty much the same when they were a new band in the late Sixties.

Formed in the melting pot of 1967, the musically ambitious six-piece popped out two Blood, Sweat & Tears/Chicago-type albums that fused Psych with Sixties Rock, Blues, Jazz, Classical and even a wee bit of Latin-Spanish where principal players Wyatt Day and Jon Pierson had holidayed and absorbed local influences during a European summer of love (Spain and France). Ars Nova even opened for The Doors at the Fillmore East in March 1968 (albeit not every successfully) just before the release of their Elektra Records debut a month later. Typically, Esoteric Recordings of the UK doesn't care about our foolish indifference and has given these forgotten troubadours a fat digipak and a digital mouthwash.

"Fields Of People..." combines their two stereo albums - the "Ars Nova" debut from April 1968 on Elektra Records and its equally unheard-of follow-up "Sunshine And Shadows" from June 1969 on Atlantic Records - remastering both to splendid new heights and tickling our fusion appetites in the process. It may not be all genius and there is a non-album B-side missing that could easily have been included, but there is still enough to enjoy and rediscover (and it sounds the biz-schnizz). Here are the Enacte Pavans, Ibiza Ribbons and Temporary Serenades...

UK released 28 February 2020 - "Fields Of People: The Elektra And Atlantic Recordings 1968-1969" by ARS NOVA on Esoteric Recordings QECLEC22711 (Barcode 5013929481183) is a 2CD Remastered compilation that plays out as follows:

CD1 "Ars Nova" (34:38 minutes):

1. Pavan For My Lady (Fall, Winter, Summer and Spring) [Side 1]

2. General Clover Ends A War (Enacte: Le Messe Notre Dame (Guillaume de Machaut arr. Ars Nova) 

3. And How Am I To Know (Enacte: Dancer)

4. Album In Your Mind

5. Zarathustra

6. Fields Of People [Side 2]

7. Automatic Love

8. I Wrapped Her In Ribbons (After Ibiza)

9. Song To The City

10. March Of The Mad Duke's Circus

Tracks 1 to 10 are their debut album "Ars Nova" - released April 1968 in the USA on Elektra EKS-74020 in Stereo and June 1968 in the UK on Elektra EKL 4020 (Mono) and Elektra EKS 74020 (Stereo). Produced by PAUL A. ROTHCHILD - it didn't chart in either country. This CD uses the STEREO Mix.

For their debut ARS NOVA was:

JON PIERSON - Lead Vocal and Bass Trombone

WYATT DAY - Piano, Organ, Rhythm Guitar and Vocals

GIOVANNI PAPALIA - Lead Guitar

BILL FOLWELL - Trumpet, String Bass and Vocals

JONATHAN RASKIN - Bass Guitar and Vocals

MAURY BAKER - Percussion and Organ

CD2 "Sunshine & Shadows" (38:55 minutes):

1. Sunshine And Shadows [Side 1]

2. I Was Once

3. Temporary Serenade

4. She Promises Everything

5. Well, Well, Well

6. You Had Better Listen

7. Round Once Again [Side 2]

8. Walk On The Sand

9. Rubbish

10. Please Don't Go Now

Tracks 1 to 10 are their second and final studio album "Sunshine & Shadows" - released June 1969 in the USA on Atlantic SD 8221 (US Promo-Copies were Mono) and July 1969 in the UK on Atlantic 588 196 in Stereo. Produced by ARTHUR GORSON and ARS NOVA - it failed to chart in either country

For their second album ARS NOVA was:

SAM BROWN - Lead Guitar

WYATT DAY - Guitar and Vocals

JON PIERSON - Bass Trombone and Vocals

JIMMY OWENS - Trumpet

WARREN BERNHARDT - Keyboards

ART KOENING - Bass

JOE HUNT - Drums and Percussion 

The three-way foldout card digipak reproduces the 'life masks' artwork of the debut album on the inner flaps while both CDs are picture discs reflecting the respective 1968 and 1969 LPs. The 20-page booklet has the lyrics to the debut (not the second LP), artwork, a colour photo of the six-piece band and new liner notes from Esoteric's knowledgeable MARK POWELL (compiled and co-ordinated the release). Powell details their US beginnings in an Upper West Side of Manhattan college through to exploratory sojourns in Spain (Jon Pierson and Wyatt Day) followed by a return to New York for a hook-up with Maury Baker to absolve all those Psych/Latin/Rock influences. It even reproduces the Jon Borgzinner (Life Magazine) liner notes for the "Sunshine & Shadows" LP. It's very nice to look at (if not a little light on any new images) and explains how bad luck and management decisions saw the band loose any real chance of momentum (the second LP's material was almost a year old when it finally surfaced in June 1969, so already dated to some degree).

The 24-bit Remastered Audio comes courtesy of PASCHAL BYRNE at Audio Archiving and has been licensed from Rhino and feels huge even if their youthful enthusiasm for the material outweighs their technical capabilities of the day. To the music...

Anyone who bought the stunning "Forever Changing: The Golden Age of Elektra Records 1963-1970" Multiple -Disc Box Set on Rhino in 2006 will have liked the huge Sunshine Pop musicality of "Fields Of People" by ARS NOVA - the band's lone representation on that behemoth. Elektra saw its commerciality at the time too and issued "Fields Of People" as a cool 45 in both the USA and UK (the first of only two singles issued for them in Blighty). Elektra put another debut album track on the flipside - "March Of The Mad Duke's Circus". The A-side sang of the awakening times - strange new ideas of love – worlds beginning again – fields of positive people losing their seeds of hatred. The same clever musicality flows through "General Clover Ends A War" and there is a very definite Byrd’s guitar-jangle in "And How Am I To Know" - a finger to my lips ballad that cries out to be covered.

"Album In Your Mind" is a parody on worried parents (I went through the same thing at your age) that was probably hip in 1968 but feels terribly dated 50 years after the smug event. The instrumental "Zarathustra" is a Maury Baker composition that feels like a backing track in need of lyrics (in need of something). Over on Side 2 "Automatic Love" tells of computers where you pay only four dollars to find the right girl as trombones blast like a vaudeville nightmare. Best on that side is "I Wrapped Her In Ribbons" - a pretty melody that far outshines "Song To The City" and "March Of the Mad Duke's Circus" that end the album. Elektra UK tried a second 45 in the shape of "Pavan For My Lady" with the non-LP "Zoroaster" on the flipside in late October 1968 (Elektra EKSN 45029) but to no avail (it had been their first 45 in the USA in February 1968 on Elektra EK-45627). The problem with the debut is that you can 'feel' good ideas and clever melody structures trying to break through but their youth combined with perhaps a bit more time polishing the material would actually have produced a debut as good as say "Child Is Father To The Man" (B, S & T).

Despite a reinvigorated line-up that added Sam Brown on Lead Guitar and Warren Bernhardt on Keyboards - the second albums feels like songs from "Hair" - Trumpets and Trombones on stuff like "Temporary Serenade" - neither good nor bad. Wyatt Day provided the guts of the tunes except for three – two of them "Sunshine & Shadows" and "She Promises Everything" were co-written with Gail Collins who would become Gail Pappalardi, the wife of Felix Pappalardi of Mountain and Cream fame while number three "Temporary Serenade" was a co-write with songwriter Greg Copeland who would eventually have his debut album "Revenge Will Come Back" on Geffen Records produced by Jackson Browne as far ahead as 1982. "You Had Better Listen" is the only cover on the LP – a Jimmy Owens song – one-time trumpeter with Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band.

Atlantic pre-empted the second LP with a taster 45 in April 1969 - Atlantic 45-2625 combining the hungry title track "Sunshine & Shadows" on the A-side with Side 2's Wyatt Day song "Walk On The Sand" (and smell the sea) on the flip. At least there's some punch and life to "You Had Better Listen" but Side 2's "Round Once Again" is typical of the record - good but never really great.

For sure the music of Ars Nova is a very dated business indeed 52 years after the event (2020) - but lovers of late Sixties Rock will find enough to interest and the presentation/audio is top notch...