The Cherry Red label has an amazing track record of current and reissue releases across a wide range of genres, and recently there have been quite a number which would be of interest to prog fans.
Producers: Producers – 5 CD box set
If you’re not familiar with Producers as a band name, you will be when you hear the line up: Trevor Horn (Yes, The Buggles), Lol Creme (10CC, Godley & Creme), Chris Braide (Downes Braide Association), Stephen Lipson (best known for his production work) and Ash Soan (Rick Wakeman and lots of studio work). The band came together around 2004, in part as a “pub band” and a focus for Horn to play live while dealing with a tragic situation in his personal life. Initially doing occasional shows playing famous songs they had been associated with, they ended up starting to write and record mainly in 2007/2008 and arrived at a virtually finished album. Over the next 2 years various pieces of work continued on the album, but the next significant milestone was that in 2010, Braide decided to relocate to the US, which shifted the band’s dynamics. When the album was eventually released in 2012, it had been reshaped with some new vocalists added, to cover the potential absence of Braide should be band play live.
This reissue has provided an opportunity to do a number of things. Firstly the 2023 mix of the album is a roll back to the 2007/08 version. As you’d expect from this line up, it’s a brilliantly crafted set of pop / prog songs, filled with hooks, great playing and musical detail. The opener Freeway is very 1980s Yes like, with Braide’s strong vocal supported by Horn and Crème’s harmonies. Your Life is a beautiful ballad sung by Horn, and the single, at the time, Barking Up The Right Tree is an acoustic led pop tune sung by Crème. Watching You Out There has a Tears For Fears vibe, and the closing You And I is a 6 minute closer with a darker more dramatic vibe. It’s an album where no one song fully reflects the variety of what’s contained within, and so it’s a great musical journey to play from start to finish.
So how does a band who made one album end up with a 5 CD box set??? Well given that the album took around 5 years to produce, there was a wide variety of ideas, songs and alternative approaches which didn’t end up on the final version. As a fan of the original album, and someone who assumed (til now correctly!) that one album was all there would be, it’s brilliant to hear this stuff which is in no way “cutting room floor scraps”. CD 2 is full of some extended and alternate versions of the familiar tracks. CD 3 is the 2012 released version of the album and CD 4 is a bit of a treasure trove for me as it contains 7 never before heard Producers tracks! Broadway is a brilliant instrumental, while Come On Elektra is great pop song with an interesting arrangement. Home is a Beatles-y ballad sung by Braide while Music For Bel Air is a Horn-led acoustic track. Finally CD 5 is an instrumental version of the 2023 remix of the album, which is a very worthy addition to the set, given the amount of musical intricacy that it involves.
As a big fan of the original album I’m delighted this is out. I would say if you’re a fan of Trevor Horn, Downes Braide Association or proggy pop such as Tears For Fears this is one to check out.
Available at: https://www.cherryred.co.uk/producers-producers-5cd-box-set
DISC ONE
Original Album Mix
1 Freeway
2 Waiting For the Right Time
3 Your Life
4 Man On the Moon
5 Every Single Night in Jamaica
6 Stay Elaine
7 Barking Up the Right Tree
8 Garden Of Flowers
9 Watching You Out There
10 You And I
DISC TWO
Made In Basing Street
1 Your Life (Extended)
2 Garden Of Flowers (Alternative)
3 Seven
4 There’s Only So Much You Can Do
5 Freeway (Extended) (silence)
6 Two Tribes
BONUS TRACKS
7 Garden Of Flowers – Radio Edit
8 Garden Of Flowers – Radio Edit with Guitars
DISC THREE
Made In Basing Street
1 Freeway
2 Waiting For the Right Time
3 Your Life
4 Man On the Moon
5 Every Single Night in Jamaica
6 Stay Elaine
7 Barking Up the Right Tree
8 Garden Of Flowers
9 Watching You Out There
10 You And I
DISC FOUR
EXTRAS
1 Broadway
2 Come In Elektra
3 Give Us a Clue
4 Home
5 Looking For Love
6 Looking For Love
7 Music For Bel Air
8 Summer Rain
9 The Path of Shaky Arthur
10 There’s Only So Much You Can Do
11 You And I – Dada Mix
12 Your Life – End Intro Idea
DISC FIVE
INSTRUMENTALS
1 Freeway
2 Waiting For the Right Time
3 Your Life
4 Man On the Moon
5 Stay Elaine
6 Barking Up the Right Tree
7 Garden Of Flowers
8 Watching You Out There
9 You And I
Jade Warrior – Borne On The Solar Wind
Stepping back in time from the 2000s we return to the early 1970s for this 3 disc box set from British prog band Jade Warrior. They aren’t a band you hear spoken of in the same terms as Crimson or Genesis, and certainly they didn’t achieve the same success or longevity as either of those, yet they do play an interesting part in the development of prog rock in the UK. This box set contains their first three albums, Jade Warrior, Released and Last Autumn’s dream. If you set it in context that all three of these were released before such prog classics as Close to the Edge or Nursery Cryme, you’ll understand that Jade Warrior occupied quite a unique space. The self titled 1971 debut was made by Jon Field (flute, percussion), Tony Duhig (guitars), and Glyn Harvard (bass, vocals) – you’ll see from that listing that this isn’t a normal guitar/ bass/ drums/ keys group. What Jade Warrior did from the start was mix in ethnic and world music influences, and their music veers from slower meditative works. Opening track The Traveller has flute, and slowly strummed guitars accompanied by a tabla, while the next track opens with distorted guitar and flute very much sounding like Tull without a drummer!
By second album, Released, Allan Price (drums) and Dave Conners (saxes) had joined the line up. It immediately sounds more confident and punchy. Eyes On You has some fantastic guitar playing, ably supported by the rhythm section while 14 minute epic Barazinbar is an eclectic instrumental / jam – this is followed by a slower more stripped back ballad Yellow Eyes which shows the band can tap into that more sensitive side as well as the full blown rock out!
Album 3, Last Autumn’s Dream loses Conners and both the sounds and production take another large step forward. Dark River has the trademark acoustic guitar and flute before an African percussion work out kicks in (and remember this is 1972 when perhaps the greatest World Music ambassador was dressing up as a sunflower!). May Queen adds a funkier element to the music, with some experimental guitar playing on the jam out. What does stand out like a sore thumb on this album is The Demon Trucker. It’s like a track where the record label has asked the band for a hit single in the glam rock style popular at the time. So you shift from the ethereal and ethnic, to a cowbell lead stomper that begins “Everybody throw their hands up to the ceiling, get out on the floor and stamp your feet with feeling”. It’s probably just as well that the record buying public largely ignored this!
So if you’re interested in the folkier side of 1970s British prog, I’d definitely recommend this as a great collection, presented, as all these sets are, with great packaging and comprehensive sleeve notes.
Available at: Jade Warrior: Borne on the Solar Wind – The Vertigo Albums, 3CD Box Set
DISC ONE
Jade Warrior
1 The Traveller
2 A Prenormal Day at Brighton
3 Masai Morning
4 Windweaver
5 Dragonfly Day
6 Petunia
7 Telephone Girl
8 Psychiatric Sergeant
9 Slow Ride
10 Sundial Song
DISC TWO
Released
1 Three Horned Dragon King
2 Eyes On You
3 Bride of Summer
4 Water Curtain Cave
5 Minnamoto’s Dream
6 We Have Reason to Believe
7 Barazinbar
8 Yellow Eyes
DISC THREE
Last Autumn’s Dream
1 A Winter’s Tale
2 Snake
3 Dark River
4 Joanne
5 Obedience
6 Morning Hymn
7 May Queen
8 The Demon Trucker
9 Lady of the Lake
10 Borne on the Solar Wind
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