The Cream - Cream On Top (Polydor - 2855-002)

The Cream which was made up of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker had a short life span of only 2 years. However, the band released 4 albums during that time with numerous concerts along the way. 3 of these albums can easily be categorized as legendary regarding the British Blues Explosion of that era. Also this band crafted the status of Eric Clapton in the blues scene as well.

The general structure of the albums from this era are mainly extremely cozy. They are not undertaken with strict systematic behaviors. The main sense was originality and trying to show off their skills. It is very evident in the John Mayall albums as well as Alexis Korner's albums also even though less in the latter. Same feeling is there in The Cream's albums. More than normal legnthed solos are all over the place with modifications in the tracks covered. It was more like an experimenting period for all artists and for the listeners. They had a music in their hands which had already developed immensely in USA and they wanted to create their own version through trial and error. As of today, we can safely say that all these experiments have resulted in a successful sub genre of British Blues which paved way for many many artists.

This album has 4 tracks on it, hence you can now officially understand what I mea by lengthy solos. The album is not a short one, the vinyl is not 10 inch, just the tracks are long enough. I also reviewed the "Live Cream" album before and the feeling is not much different apart from the crowd noise which is absent in the background. The tracks "Badge" and "Toad" can really explain this in an easy way. The solos of Eric Clapton are stunning to say the least. On both songs, Ginger Baker also gives a shot at solos. They start as a little straight forward, but on both he somehow finds his rhythm later on to create beauties. Just on the solo in "Toad" he loses his grip once around the middle part of his minimum 8-9 minutes solo, but gets control fast enough. Jack Bruce somehow stayed out of the lime light for solos which maybe was the signal of their breakup. It's not easy to endure the ego of a master talent like Clapton anyway.

I also have to add that even though I didn't review it, I also own the bands first album "Fresh Cream" and all three have really developed and matured since that album. This is by far their most accomplished album albeit really lengthy solos. Did I mentioned the solos on the album :) If you find a decent copy of this album, do not hesitate.

To buy this album:

@ Ebay
@ Discogs

Pierre Henry - La Noire À Soixante / Granulométrie (Philips - 836 892 DSY)

Pierre Henry is a French composer who is widely known as one of the two godfathers of Musique Concrete. The other one is Pierre Schaeffer. Musique Concrete is based on acousmatic sound ideology which is listenin to a sound without knowing/seeing the source. Of course this is too much of a blurry explanation. The sources of sounds in Musique Concrete are mainly electronic sounds and samples, tape recordings. There are not any human or instrumental sounds in it (Minor exceptions may occur). However, later on Ilhan Mimaroglu combined poems with Musique Concrete. Musique Concrete lies within the general genre of Electroacoustic Music.

Both of the works were on this LP have been recorded between 1960 and 1962 while there has been a delay in releasing the record. I don't know why this delay occured, but it has been released by Philips under their prestigious series Prospective 21e Siecle. This series have been home to very important Musique Concrete and Contemporary Classical Music with Pierre Henry and Iannis Xenakis taking most of the applause.

Henry's work "La Noire A Soixante" is a little different than most of the other Musique Concrete works I've listened until now. The main point is silence is an important aspect of the piece with samples flowing under irregular cycles with changing frequencies and timbres. There is also a tape recording played backwards which is used a lot in this style of music.

The B side is "La Noire À Soixante + Granulométrie" which is essentially the A side being re-recorded while superimposing "Granulometrie" into it. The voice being heard (As I said minor exceptions) is François Dufrêne and the piece is about the experiments on his voice. Due to a more detailed structure on this re-recorded version, silences are more scarce with constant samples flowing around. Even though the A side version suits my minimalistic tastes more, the B side is more fulfilling the notion of Musique Concrete.

To buy this record:

@ Discogs
@ Ebay

Terry Riley - In C (CBS - MS 7178)

There are such compositions in the 20th Century which created a butterfly effect that their legendary positions have totally surpassed their beauty or intellect. "In C" is one of those compositions and we can see the similar structural compositions still today, not only in contemporary classical music, but Electronic Music, Rock and even Jazz.

Terry Riley is more of a technician or a structuralist (I may have created the word) rather than a composer. In this case, he shares the same fate like his contemporary Karlheinz Stockhausen. Of course Riley has crucial compositions which we are listening still today, but his main strength lies elsewhere. This is also quite interesting since he started his musical career as a pianist and later a soprano saxophonist. He is quite a master in both as well.

The structures in "In C" are layered and this layerizing is clearly the teachings of La Monte Young. Moreover, Riley created a duality of performance within this structure. The performers each have 53 figures to play with a chance to improvise. Also collectivity is crucial since they need to listen their fellow performers in order to interact. No two performances can be the same and the music itself comes out like a living organism.

This continuity feeling is very well established among most minimalist composers. It is quite easy to see in the cases of Steve Reich (Ie Sextet/Six Marimbas) and Philip Glass (Ie Akhnaten or Koyaanisqatsi Ost). Thus it can be said that one of the reasons for this style to gain a strong foothold in today's compositions and other music genres is this similarity to life and nature. Obviously, Minimalist producers have been the primary choice of music for the natural documentary producers.

"In C" is musically enlightening. It is a feast for the ear as well as all perceptive senses. While listening, you don't feel it as an almost 50 year old composition, but rather like a music which has been evident in many things one may have listened. The notes or the structure are not the only thing that matters for this composition, it is also what they have caused in later stages.

Jefferson Airplane - Crown Of Creation (RCA - LSP 4058)

Psychedelic Rock is one of those musical styles that is hard not to like. The versatility it enholds as well as the natural sounds has attracted many followers. And of course drugs. This was the end 60s and the beginning 70s where anything could happen anywhere. It was also the glowing days of Haight & Ashbury which was a truly monumental arena back in those days. Those were the good old days since when I went there last year, that flicker of light was not there anymore.

Jefferson Airplane is just not the mother of various Psychedelic Rock offshoots (Inc. Jefferson Starship), it is also one of the pioneers of the genre. Actually pioneer is a really questionable term. Jefferson Airplane is like the Kraftwerk of Electro Pop. They were not the first band to get into it, but rather they were the first band to generate widespread success. This is how they have eventually inspired the worldwide phenomenon of Psychedelic Rock which ultimately shook Turkey as well. Interestingly, approximately 12.000 miles away, the Psychedelic Rock artists of Turkey like Erkin Koray, Mogollar, Uc Hurel and others were to be also distinguished artists in this genre. Especially in the case of Erkin Koray, he is noted as one of the top artists of this music with ingredients he has combined from Anatolian Rock as well.

Regarding the album, it is the second step of Jefferson Airplane showing their move to a step further from Psychedelic Rock and mixing it with Blues Rock which was also extremely widespread those days. From the likes of Blues Rock artists like Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Peter Green and Eric Clapton, they added the essence of improvisation into their music and the guitar solos were reminding more of Blues rather than Psychedelic. On the other hand, there was one thing remaining, the vocals of Grace Slick and her astounding lyrics. The poetry in the lyrics as well her contralto vocals were to become one of the flagships of Psychedelic Rock and influenced many bands to follow the same road. It can also be said that due to their heavy touring with The Doors between 1967-1969 should have affected their music. There was also romance within this relationship as Jim got hooked into the beauty of Grace. "Ice Cream Phoenix" seems to be one of those tracks where this affection could have taken hold.

The album was the second most only being surpassed by the legendary "Surrealistic Pillow". It has moments where it reminds us of the sounds in "Surrealistic Pillow" like tracks "Lather" and "Greasy Heart". However, in reality it is the follow up of a change coming in which started with "After Bathing at Baxter's". This album is on a more cooler sound than the Rockier "After Bathing at Baxter's". The extra availability of Kaukonen's electric guitar was a bit of a too much change for the group therefore they seem to have taken a bit step back. Yet, in tracks like "Crown Of Creation", "If You Feel" and more effectively the album closing long track "The House At Pooneil Corners". In these tracks Kaukonen is left to stride along his guitar in the same sense that the British and American Electric Blues guitarists doing. It's fair to say that there is not a long, shredding guitar solo in any of these tracks while there are traces here and there which can add up to it.

These are albums which have opened the way to millions of possibilities for the upcoming generation. Of course this is a double edged sword. Thinking that this music opened up a possibility for Kaiser Chiefs is a damning thought. Yet somehow it is true. Anyway I'm sure Jefferson Airplane didn't have that in mind. Let alone the loose ends in the basket, it is pure pleasure to listen these albums which unfortunately were never really quite repeated afterwards, even Jefferson Starship couldn't do it, the offshoot after Jefferson Airplane disbanded.