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Let me start by saying these things:
1) All Music Guide gave this album 2 out of 5 stars, but didn’t describe it in a review.
2) It sells on ebay for about $15-20, pretty decent but something of this genre could go a bit higher - closer to $40-50.
3) AudiophileUSA.com says this: “Beautiful 1972 Gatefold sleeve . A Hard To Find LP With An Excellent Blending Of Heavy African Rhythms And San Francisco Psych With A Good Measure Of Fuzz Lead Guitar.”
4) I like both African and funk music, so an unheard Afro-funk early 70s LP sounded pretty sweet to me. So instead of selling it, I snatched it up, something Justin and I do as part of our “compensation” for owning Cousins and doing the job.
When I first listened to this album, I started out on side 2 by chance. And this is why I didn’t get past much of the rest of the album. The first song on side 2, titled Gone With Yesterday, is frickin’ awesome. A definite future mix-tape centerpiece, a song blended of afro-beat, reggae, folk, and 70s soul. Has a haunting guitar in the background which sounds Indian or Egyptian that just keeps improvising and then cuts to a solo after the first vocal verse. And then keeps going until you’re totally feelin’ it. The music is strangely happy and positive although the vocals say, “Yesterday, you gave me happiness, happiness, that’s all I need, to get me happy, but Today, my happiness is gone, with yesterday, with yesterday, ohhh everything, with yesterday.” And then the next song continues this mood theme and goes off into a terrific all instrumental afro-funk jazzy jam (Hippies, you’d like this).
And the rest of side two is just kick-ass. I can’t go wrong if I’m deciding what to throw on and I choose this side. I can listen to a fantastic single and then jam the rest of the way through the record, djembes and everything. Psychedelic Afro-funk! Which is so good and I go to flip the record, but, strangely, side 1 is dissapointing. Because I expect it to be better than side 2, cuz it’s side 1 of this awesome record.
But it’s more subdued, less exciting, and the first song completely stops the pulse of the record so far (if listened to from side 2 first). It’s like an introduction to who they are, with a lame slow drum intro and then some music to kind of show us what we’re about to hear. And then the songs sound choppy and mixed up. They can’t decide if they want to make more songs like, Yesterday, or jam out like they do so well. The first two songs with vocals suck, and then they start jamming for a song, which sounds sweet. And then the next song goes to a half jam/half Yesterday, which sucks again. And the last song of side 1 is a chant, and kinda sucks too.
So I think if this album was contructed better and the actual concept was re-evaluated the album would be a classic in 70s Afro-funk. As it stands, side 2 is so good that the album is definitely still worth checking out.
jsREVIEW:
“These previously unissued sounds from the drag strip represent a selection of the finest recoding ever done on those fantastic machines which emanate from the back yards and garages all over the country. Perhaps the builders of these machines are never put to so severe a test (or at least, so concentrated a test) as they are on this record. For here, the results of their tuning and designing are clearly and openly heard, without the benefit of a flashy pain job, or a snazzy crash helmet festooned with red, white and blue foxtails— or anything else that might distract attention.
That most of these builders and designers are successful is obvious in listening; and the ones who fail to do so, we hope, in good spirits and share our laughter at the peculiar sounds made by their goofs.
At any rate, here are the unabridged noises of a fantastic collection of automotive machinery. They deserve some careful listening.”
— From the back of the LP jacket, Riverside Records 5517.
There’s no date on this album, though my guess (based on the rest of the dates for the Riverside label) is that it came out in the late ’50s, when hot-rodding was a growing concern. The album promises “Hot new sounds from the drag strip,” and that’s what it delivers, in beautiful hi-fi mono.
In its most literal sense, this is a “noise” album. There are no songs there, no real intended sounds as such. Nothing that can really be recognized as intended as music. This was, first and foremost, an epistle to America as low media, a record for kids and gearheads to listen to as they dreamed of their own hotrods. The liner notes make it seem like there’s some way for me to tell which of these are the gallant and which the gufus based on the tunings, but I grew up too late for that. This is essentially sounds of machines.
There are three types of noise albums, and I tend to think of this as the third. The first would be those albums that sometimes get called “noise rock.” Merzbow or Nurse With Wound or Throbbing Gristle. They tend to have discrete tracks and show the evidence of being listened to as music, even when they attack the traditional signposts of music. Sounds are often layered and distorted in unnatural ways in the first type of noise album.
For the second type, there’s the sound effects put out for commercial and educational use. Think those blings and boings of a radio ad, or the Wilhelm scream. I could see an argument being made to place Rods ‘N Rails in with these, as it would be handy if I ever had to convince someone that I was at a drag strip over the phone. But for the most part, the engines rev for too long and there isn’t necessarily a good cut point between the cars. Certainly, this would be a pain to cue from.
The third type is the field recording. This isn’t that either, strictly, but it falls closer than any of the other categories. Like a birdsong guide for the freeways of the late ’50s, it reminds me more of sleeping in my grandmother’s house on First Ave., North Riverside, Il., than anything else. The surge then disintigration of cars passing a single mic, then dopplering out, is strangely soothing. It’s a lullaby imagined by Depero.
A beautiful burst of nostolgia for futures past, Rods ‘N Rails is worth listening to both as a document and as an album.
-js
SOLD OUT
jsREVIEW:
In 1980, Jamaica was a hot musical touchstone. From Police to Clash, Joe Jackson to 10cc, even Robert Palmer, the 2/2 skank and “ska” guitar noise seemed to reach everywhere. Even Detroit, apparently.
Black Market’s debut album, Air Freight, could be just another genre exercise (they do cover “No Woman No Cry,”) if not for the phenomonally deep bass and sharp rhythmic chops of Black Market.
Larry Duncan, who wrote the songs, sings and plays guitar, apparently spent time in the late ’70s in a small fishing village called Negril in Jamaica, falling in love with the sound of the island, and his tunes are sharp and mercifully lacking the insulting patois that too many of his contemporaries felt was necessary when singing reggae. Tracks like “Rescue You” and “Bossman” legitimately feel like they’re his voice, not some aping.
But really, the standout here is Nolan Mendenhall’s phenomenal bass work, recalling Robbie Shakespear’s easy mastery. Full and rich in a way that only vinyl can provide, this album cries out for dubplate treatment (and if it exists, Cousins’ll be the place to find it). And since producers Jim Dudek and Marc Beznos know how to space out the instruments, this would be killer sampling material for beatmakers.
A surprisingly good album that’s more fun than most of the accepted reggae canon, Air Freight is heavy low beauty.
-js
