Thursday, May 3, 2007

Nightmares at Toby's Shop comp CD


Toytown Records presents 23 songs of "Obscure Psychedelic, Popsyke, and Progressive Pop 45s 68-73". Definitely lives up to the "Obscure" part, I only recognized 2 names and one of them-Kid Rock is not the American Bad-Ass. Lots of Euro oddities. Definitely on the poppy, produced, and orchestrated side of the street. Lots of strings and horns. Although this statement is probably sacrilege to the the uber nerds who own these records, it is pretty much in line with the Nuggets 2 Euro box.
It opens strong with a fucked up French dude's proggy to rocky pop. Soft Pillow get blessed with a Robin and Barry Gibb composition "Gilbert Green". Spectrum drop a wicked groove on "Music soothes the savage Beast" which is super orchestrated but features a fuzz guitar blast from none other than Jimmy Page!. For me this comp picks up speed here and finishes strong. Is the lyric "Can you hold on to love/Til I come" a sly double entendre? Seems more appropriate for an Alice Cooper song than they Davey Jones/Monkees sounding Witch Way, but either way that's what they're singing about on "Hold on to Love"
Nick Garrie's "Close Your Eyes" was a catchy one. Light Reflections drop the dark and brooding "Eyes Blue Eyes". Kiss Inc drop a rocker with "Kids are crying" Lally Stott gets a little funky on "Henry James"-funny guitar sound. Kid Rock keeps in going with the funky rocking "Doctor Rock" kinda Sweet'ish with some crazy extra percussion that makes the track. Paging DJ Shadow, you better get cracking on grabbing a copy of the Papoose "Marie Song" which opens with a slow drum break and keeps a trippy vibe going.
Good liner notes and photos of the 45 covers, help to give you the fantasy that you could track them down -good luck figuring out the "mystery track" that ends the comp. The liner notes tipped me off to the Sweet Floral Albion site which is a webzine that is fully focused on this style of music. check it It is pretty funny to pick up a comp and then realize there is a whole scene built around this sub-genre.
I don't know why I love comps like this so much, I barely have time to listen to the Small Faces, Donovan, or other more popular bands of the era that did this sound, but I manage to find time to check out these super obscuro nuggets.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi there!
Just got this CD and I am very curious what the title and artist of the Mystery track is. You already find that out?

Aidan, The Netherlands