Author Archives: Real Gone

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Climb Aboard My Roundabout!: The British Toytown Pop Sound 1967-1974

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What is “Toytown Pop”? The label, coined by fans and collectors, refers to the more mundane and child-friendly aspects of the psychedelic era and psych pop movements. It is chiefly concerned with everyday life, shops, buses, swings in the park, and has an obsession with being home in time for tea. In terms of lyrical concerns and overall concepts, you’d be hard pressed to find anything more…1967.

For those who aren’t regular visitors down the rabbit holes of cult 60s pop, The Beatles’ ‘Penny Lane’ is a good example of this musical niche with its busy narrative driven by people and casual observations, and to a lesser extent, the optimistic tone and bounce of ‘Good Day Sunshine’ could also fit the remit. Obviously, due to licencing agreements and costs – as usual – you won’t find The Fab Four anywhere on ‘Climb Aboard My Roundabout’, but Grapefruit Records has unearthed a whole world of other treats to ensure that this three disc set is a very comprehensive journey through Toytown, and is never less than interesting.

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RUBY THE HATCHET – Fear Is A Cruel Master

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Ruby The Hatchet made their first inroads into a recording career with the self-released ‘Ouroboros’ in 2012. Aside from the occasional one line hook, the DIY recording captured the raw talents of a brilliant stoner rock/deep psych band. With riffs heavily indebted to Kyuss’ majorly influential bottom end noise and Black Sabbath’s doomy origins, the band immediately had a strong musical root, but in vocalist Jillian Taylor it was clear they had something very special. Taylor’s clear and strong delivery always gave the music a melodic edge that other doomy bands didn’t always have. Even at such an early stage, her clean, crying style often lent the material a brilliantly haunting feel that would be hard to beat.

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REAL GONE GOES OUT: Abdoujaparov – Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate, Kent 21/10/2022

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Following the pandemic lockdown, gigs have been very much back on the table throughout 2022, but for some people, there still seems to be an unease about returning to the fold and sweating it out with others in very close proximity. That might account for tonight’s Abdoujaparov show feeling a little…undersold. It might also be down to the fact that bandleader Leslie George Carter doesn’t always seem keen to trade off his Carter USM past, often preferring to let this band attract people on their own merits, and relying on fan knowledge to attract a crowd. You’d think between the presence of an indie/punk legend and it not being a school night, Ramsgate Music Hall would be packed, but whatever happens, those who’ve come out tonight know they’re in for a great time.

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GRAND – Grand

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A new band for 2022, Grand was formed by session vocalist Mattias Olafsson with the desire to pay tribute to the big, shiny sounds of 80s melodic rock. Enlisting drummer Anton Martinez Matz and Wigelius guitarist Jakob Svensson, he quickly set to work on making his musical dream a reality. Having Svensson on board from the early stages would obviously be a major boon, since Wigelius were one of those bands, along with Work of Art, who just managed to pitch an 80s AOR sound pretty much perfectly, decades after most of the world stopped craving the sounds of Survivor and Robert Tepper for their biggest musical thrills. Having worked wonders with his own band, there was every chance that his guitar tones and musical talents would be a key ingredient within Olafsson’s musical vision.

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Tangerine Dream: Bootleg Box Set Vol. 2 to be reissued in November

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Tangerine Dream completists will be well aware of how hard it is to collect everything. Between the re-recorded works, various compilations with minor differences, bounteous live recordings and box sets, their legacy of work literally spans well over a hundred titles.

There’s some good news for the keen collector: On November 25th 2022, Cherry Red Records will be reissuing ‘The Bootleg Box Set, Volume 2’ via their Esoteric Recordings imprint. Not to be confused with “The Official Bootleg Series” (also in the hands of Cherry Red), the original “Bootleg Box Set” releases were issued by Castle Music back in the 00’s and soon became hard to find. The second volume, in particular, was a very short run and over the years has become incredibly sought after, occasionally fetching three figure sums on the rare instances it came up for sale on eBay.

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